time travel movie moon destroyed

Great Lunar Cataclysm

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The Great Lunar Cataclysm was a disaster that took place in the year 2037 of the 2002 Film Timeline . It devastated the Earth, leading to Humanity's degeneration into Eloi and Morlocks . (" The Time Machine ")

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As of 2037, Humanity had been mining from the moon for decades. Unfortunately, they had over-mined the moon by 2037, causing it to drift out of its orbit colliding with the earth's atmosphere, tearing the moon apart and sending debris crashing to Earth. The moon's destruction shifted the orbit between the moon and Earth, devastating the cities on the planet. Luckily, most of the moon stayed intact, while some remained in Earth's orbit, forming a ring around the planet.

It was one of the most devastating disasters in the history of planet Earth. Its cause was said to be the fault of demolition work within the lunar surface; preparing it for the future expansion of more subterranean homes. Unfortunately this shattered the moon, de-aligning its orbit. The combination of the demolition work and the power of the Earth's gravity caused the moon to shatter. This scene in the movie is portrayed as foreshadowing the eventual degeneration of the human race into the Eloi and Morlock.

Because of this cataclysmic event, the Earth would lie in ruins for thousands of years. Sand storms raged across the landscape, killing most of the earth's species while signs of human civilization - cities, buildings, vehicles, were buried. Time took it's toll on the land, where there was once luscious green, the sand wiped it away. However, the Earth began to heal itself about 100,000 years after the great cataclysm. Amazingly, the Earth became fertile once more; grasslands and forests re-appeared on each of the continents. By 400,000 A.D a new ice age had risen, with snowstorms and glaciers dominating the northern hemisphere. Eventually, the ice age decline after many centuries and the Earth became a tropical paradise. By 802,701 most of North America was covered in rain forest and the world had now fully recovered and Humanity had split into two subspecies, one returned to a primitive lifestyle while the other survived underground. As for the moon, it remained in ruin, but its remnants continued to orbit the Earth.

[Edit: In actual fact, the gravity of the moon would have a far greater impact on the fragments, than any gravity exerted by the earth, and so even if humans had managed to destroy the moon, breaking it into fragments, those fragments would have remained together, coalescing into what would functionally be a single object, once again. In other words, the moon may have exploded, but its gravity would have drawn all the moon-bits back together again, reforming itself into the moon once again. There simply aren't enough shearing forces acting on the moon to override the gravity of the moon itself, so the fragments will never disperse, as shown in the film.]

The extent of the damage to Earth from impacts from chunks of the moon is not known, but it buried the New York Public Library , with Vox 114 inside. (" The Time Machine ")

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‘In the Shadow of the Moon’ on Netflix: That Confusing Ending Explained

Where to Stream:

• In The Shadow Of The Moon (2019)

• Michael C. Hall

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Spoiler alert: Don’t read this post if you care about spoilers for In the Shadow of the Moon on Netflix. Hopefully, you knew that from the headline!

If paradoxical time-travel plots make your brain explode, stay far away from In the Shadow of the Moon , a new Netflix film from director and screenwriters Gregory Weidman and Geoff Tock.

In the Shadow of the Moon fits many genres: Sci-fi, thriller, murder mystery, police drama. Boyd Holbrook stars as Thomas Lockhart, who we meet as a young Philadelphia cop in 1988. Lockhart would like to stay home to take care of his pregnant wife (Rachel Keller) but duty calls, so he heads to a crime scene with his partner Maddox (Bokeem Woodbine). There they learn that a series of people have died simultaneously and mysteriously: by oozing blood out of their orifices. Lockhart’s brother-in-law and boss, Detective Holt ( Dexter ‘s Michael C. Hall ) is already on the case, though he fails to notice the puncture wounds on one of the victim’s neck.

The detectives identify a suspected serial killer: A young African-American woman played by  Last Man on Earth regular Cleopatra Coleman. Lockhart chases her into a subway station, she gets the better of him, and handcuffs him to a bench—but not before she congratulates him on his baby daughter and apologizes for killing his very-much-alive partner.  Unfortunately, before we can learn more, Lockhart accidentally kills her when he tases her and she falls into an oncoming train.

As the serial killer predicted, Lockhart’s daughter is born that night. His wife dies in childbirth. Then comes the first flash-forward of the film, nine years in the future to 1997, where Lockhart meets the serial killer, Rya, again. Then he meets her again in 2006. Then in 2015. By this point, he realizes he’s meeting a time traveler who appears in Philadelphia on the same day, every nine years. He becomes obsessed with her, loses his job, and abandons his duties as a father. He’s determined to kill her and undo do the events she’s set in motion, so he can have his life back. And if you think that’s complicated, that’s nothing compared to the In the Shadow of the Moon ending. Let’s break it down.

What is the In the Shadow of the Moon plot twist? What are the big In the Shadow of the Moon spoilers?

There are several twists in this film, but the biggest is that Rya, the serial killer that Lockhart is obsessed with, is actually his granddaughter. Rya-from-the-future reveals this to Lockhart in 2015, on the day that Rya-in-the-present is being born. Lockhart’s daughter was dating a black man this whole time, but he’s been too absent to be racist about it! Lockhart is overcome with grief with the realization that he killed his own granddaughter in 1988, but Rya assures him everything is going to be OK.

How does In the Shadow of the Moon end?

After Rya says goodbye to her grandfather on the beach, she explains via voiceover she has been traveling back in time to systemically murder key figures in a hate movement called the “Real America Movement,” in order to prevent a civil war that breaks out in 2024. As explained by one of Rya’s victims from 1988, she does this by stabbing people in the neck with a special gun that infects them with an unspecified, scientifically-engineered poison. At one point, another character explains Rya’s mission with a thought exercise.  “How would you erase the Civil War from happening? Would you kill Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Lincoln?” (That’s a weird thing to say, right? Personally, I would never consider killing Lincoln a good thing for the country!)

Rya never specifies the ideals on either side of the war, just that, in 2024 when she is 9 years old, “an ordinary man parked an ordinary truck full of explosives downtown and watched it explode. His attack was just the first. Eleven thousand people died the first morning. Millions more in the civil war that followed.” The final shot of the film shows that the previously-destroyed office building in 2024 has been restored, meaning that Rya achieved her goal.

How does the time travel work in In the Shadow of the Moon ? What does the moon have to do with any of this?

Great question, me, considering it’s the title of the film. According to a physicist (actor Rudi Dharmalingam) who exists for no reason other than to explain away plot holes, Rya can only time travel when the moon is in a certain position, because reasons. I’ll just transcribe the science mumbo-jumbo he spouts:

Both appearances of the murderer have happened during a specific lunar perigee, in this case, nine years apart. What you may know simply as a supermoon or blood moon are actually events of great scientific significance. When the lunar cycle reaches exactly the right point, its gravitational forces react with electromagnetic pockets and theoretically creates a kind of bridge to another place entirely.

And then no one brings up the moon again! It’s weird! But to sum it up: Every nine years, thanks to the moon and the unspecified technology developed by this physicist, Rya walks across this bridge to the past. Rya does mention later that “time travel is a one-way street,” so, unlike another Netflix time-travel movie See You Yesterday , there are no do-overs.

Does the In the Shadow of the Moon ending makes sense?

Sure, kind of. If you’re willing to swallow that 10-second explanation of moon-related time travel, when you watch the film knowing the twist (as I did), the pieces do come together. Less easy for me to swallow is the idea that by murdering some dozen people or so, Rya managed to prevent a national civil war. But that’s a philosophical and political debate for another time.

Watch In the Shadow of the Moon on Netflix

• Ending Explained

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12 Underrated Time Travel Movies You Need To See

Forget flux capacitors and sports almanacs. Where these underrated time travel movies are going, you don't need mainstream references. This year-hopping corner of cinema may be predominantly dominated by Marty and the Doc's souped-up DeLorean and emotionless machines sent back in time to kill us, but take a deeper look and you'll find a range of stories that take time travel to some pretty unexpected places.

If we were to have our way, this list wouldn't be quite as brief. After all, with the entire space-time continuum at their fingertips, you'd think filmmakers would've put a little more effort into mining time travel for the full mind-bending potential the genre contains. However, as it stands, truly left-field adventures can often seem few and far between.

That said, we're lucky to have a handful of movies that use time and space as a jumping-off point to tell tales that are wild, head-scratchingly complex, and sometimes, oddly chilling. Either way, they stay with you long after the credits roll and you've returned to your regular time zone. Set your watch, it's time to jump in...

If you're looking for a time travel movie that's guaranteed to fry your brain with the complexities of doubles, loops, and the dangers of dicing with time, "Primer" fits the bill perfectly . Written and directed by Shane Carruth, it follows two friends and would-be inventors who accidentally create a machine that messes with time. Before long, the duo figures out that their invention — which they name "the box" — can also send people back to the point at which it was initially turned on, effectively making it a time machine that they can use to create time loops.

However, what starts as two pals innocently playing around with science quickly devolves into a messy tangle when the duo decides to use their invention to make a quick buck on the stock market. Throw a couple of tricky human relationships into the mix, and these two inventors are soon walking a dangerous time tightrope of repetition and suspicion, requiring them to avoid their multiple doubles and try their best not to ruin their fragile and ever-changing realities.

In addition to writing, directing, producing, editing, and scoring "Primer," Carruth also stars as one of his film's time-obsessed inventors. His hard work paid off, too. The film bagged the Grand Jury Prize at 2004's Sundance Film Festival. "Primer" remains one of cinema's most underrated — and unashamedly complex — time travel movies, with its gritty, low-fi reality aesthetic adding to its long-lasting allure.

The Butterfly Effect

"You can't change who people are without destroying what they were," explains the trailer for "The Butterfly Effect." In essence, that line pretty much sums up this 2004 sci-fi thriller. In it, we meet Evan (Ashton Kutcher), a guy whose troubled childhood was plagued with mysterious blackouts that left him with amnesia. Cut to the present day, and he discovers that by re-reading his old journals, he can travel back in time to these periods, essentially giving him the chance to redo his past and write a new future for both himself and his friends.

However, as with most time travel stories, things are never that easy. As Evan starts to change key moments from his youth, his best intentions result in new realities back in his original timeline. From ending up in prison to becoming an amputee and eventually landing himself in a psychiatric ward with seemingly no hope of escape, the impact of Evan's time tampering soon start to catch up with him in dark and unexpected ways.

Directed by filmmaking duo Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, "The Butterfly Effect" has garnered a cult following and spawned two Kutcher-less direct-to-DVD sequels. By using journals instead of a physical machine for its chosen mode of time travel, the film sets itself apart as one of the more psychologically impactful installments of a genre that's filled with unforeseen repercussions.

A sinister figure with a face haphazardly wrapped in bloody bandages is more than enough to pique your interest in Nacho Vigalondo's ace indie, "Timecrimes." However, it's the film's simple-yet-devastating story that'll grab your attention and quickly have you hooked. Released in 2007, this Spanish language take on the genre does what all good time travel movies do best — ditch any scientific logic or unnecessary jargon and instead focus on telling a compelling story that's as nail-biting as it is mind-bending.

When it comes to this type of narrative, "Time Crimes" delivers. Things start simply enough when Héctor (Karra Elejalde) spies a naked woman in the woods behind his house and sets off into the foliage to investigate. After he's suddenly attacked by a bandaged stranger, he soon finds himself inside a mysterious laboratory, lured there with the promise of safety from his assailant. After being convinced to hide in one of the lab's machines, Héctor emerges seconds later to discover that he's traveled back in time a few hours, finding his past self where the audience finds Héctor at the start of the movie.

What follows is one disaster after the next, as our increasingly out-of-his-depth protagonist tries to set his timeline straight while making a series of mistakes, each more desperate than the last. With Vigalondo amping up the tension with each return journey and composer Eugenio Mira's terrific score lending some welcome horror movie vibes, "Timecrimes" is a trip worth taking.

Safety Not Guaranteed

Before director Colin Trevorrow was splicing dino genes in his two "Jurassic World" movies, he was busy splicing indie rom-coms with time travel in 2012's "Safety Not Guaranteed." Here, we follow Darius (Aubrey Plaza), a magazine intern tasked with the job of following up an intriguing classified ad from someone looking for a companion to help with a perilous mission into the past.

Together with her friend and fellow writer, Jeff (Jake Johnson), the pair set off to meet the supposed time traveler behind this curious call for assistance. Here, they meet Kenneth (Mark Duplass), a grocery store worker and potential time traveler who believes secret agents are watching his every move. As Kenneth begins to train Darius to accompany him on his mission to rescue a doomed old flame, the pair reveal elements of their tragic pasts, which could use a time-traveling do-over.

Charming and filled with mystery until its final minutes, Trevorrow's feature film debut is one of the few underrated time travel movies on this list that also works as a perfect date movie. What's more, the fact that the story's classified advert jumping-off point was based on a real-life event (albeit, a joke magazine notice sadly not posted by a real-life time traveler), makes "Safety Not Guaranteed" one of the rare time travel movies that has origins based firmly in reality.

Time Bandits

Ah, '80s cinema... the decade of big ideas, ambitious directors, and practical effects that were sometimes barely able to keep up. "Time Bandits" ticks all three of these boxes. Odds are, you have stumbled across it during lazy Sunday afternoons spent channel hopping, as its family-friendly use of the time travel genre sets it apart as one of the few movies on this list that audiences of all ages can enjoy.

With "Monty Python" animator Terry Gilliam at the helm, this story of a young boy who's swept away from his mundane family life and welcomed as the latest member of a group of time-traveling thieves feels at times like an unofficial "Python" picture. Cameos by fellow "Flying Circus" members John Cleese as a perpetually chipper Robin Hood and Michael Palin as an unfortunate lover who can't seem to catch a break add to this claim — but Gilliam makes sure not to linger on either of them long enough for it to really take hold.

Instead, he presents us with a film that feels more like a series of vignettes, each with a different star taking the lead (from Ian Holm and Shelley Duvall to Jim Broadbent and Sean Connery) and each linked by his ensemble cast of bandits. Meanwhile, the late David Warner delivers a dryly comic turn as Evil, the film's larger-than-life baddie who's hellbent on securing the all-important map that helps our heroes skip through time. Looking for a fun escape? This is the one.

Bill and Ted Face The Music

The Wyld Stallyns' first trip through the circuits of time established Bill S. Preston Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted "Theodore" Logan's (Keanu Reeves) status as giants of the genre in 1989's "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." However, after a journey to hell and back in the 1990 sequel "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey," their 2020 threequel returned the duo to their century-hopping roots.

Penned by series creators Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, this second sequel finds Bill and Ted facing their biggest challenge yet: parenthood and a mid-life slump. With the pair yet to fulfill their destiny by writing the song that unites the universe, they're tempted to give up and pack it all in when the future comes knocking. After a quick trip to 2720, the duo discovers they have less than 24 hours to write the song that saves humanity, and in true Bill and Ted fashion, they decide to simply travel to a future where they've already written it and steal it from themselves. Easy, right? Well, not so much.

While a heady dose of nostalgia undoubtedly powers most of "Bill and Ted Face The Music," the charming authenticity of Winter and Reeves' enduring real-life friendship helps successfully deliver the rarest of things: a satisfying trilogy closer. "Excellent Adventure" may rightfully get most of the praise, and "Bogus Journey" adds a darkly metal flavor to the mix, but it's "Face The Music" that wraps it all up with a satisfying — if long overdue — encore.

Men In Black 3

From one threequel to another, the third installment of the popular "Men in Black" franchise proves just how tricky it can be to stick the landing. In director Barry Sonnenfeld's final outing with Will Smith's Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K, these clandestine alien cops face their toughest foe yet — an alien fugitive with the ability to escape through time.

Played by "Flight of the Conchords" comedian Jemaine Clement, ruthless villain Boris the Animal has a score to settle with Agent K that takes him back to 1969 to kill a younger version of the stoic MIB suit, played by a pitch-perfect Josh Brolin. With Agent J hot on his tail and the future of the world at stake, the scene is set for an adventure through time that introduces audiences to a host of retro 1960s aliens, courtesy of make-up maestro Rick Baker.

However, creating the third installment of this hit space franchise wasn't without its issues. Time travel knots proved so tricky to untangle that Sonnenfeld reportedly started production without a finished script and was forced to shut down part way through shooting so some much-needed rewrites could be completed. "We knew starting the movie that we didn't have a finished second or third act," Sonnenfeld told Empire in 2012 . "Was it responsible? The answer is, if this movie does as well as I think it will, it was genius. If it's a total failure, then it was a really stupid idea."

Midnight in Paris

"Midnight in Paris" boasts that rare quality of whisking the viewer away on an unexpected journey through time while also making you want to visit its on-screen locations in the present day. Forget dystopian futures or increasingly tragic time loops, Woody Allen's love letter to the rain-soaked streets of Paris is as heartwarming as it is nostalgic and likely the only film on this list that could be described as cozy comfort viewing.

Owen Wilson stars as Gil, a successful screenwriter yearning for something more much to the dismay of his materialistic and increasingly disinterested fiancée Inez, played by Rachel McAdams. Yearning to escape the wealthy trappings of his current life and experience the quaint Paris of the roaring '20s instead, a late night stroll across the city's cobblestone streets sees him accidentally stumble back through time to his dream location.

Soon, his nightly visits to days gone by have him rubbing shoulders with a range of iconic faces from the era, including Tom Hiddleston's F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alison Pill's Zelda Fitzgerald, Corey Stoll's Ernest Hemingway, and wild surrealist Salvador Dalí played by Adrian Brody. However, as his trips increase in regularity, Gil soon learns the unexpected value of living in his own time zone. This is a time travel movie that champions the fleeting importance of staying right where you are and simply living in the moment.

Project Almanac

Found footage meets a cautionary tale about the perils of time tampering in "Project Almanac," the 2015 indie film from future "Power Rangers" director Dean Israelite. On the surface, this handheld sci-fi film has all the carefree energy you'd expect from a high school teen movie. However, much like Josh Trank's dark superhero found-footage film, "Chronicle," which arrived a few years earlier in 2012, the complexities posed by the film's primary predicament give "Project Almanac" a darker edge.

Israelite introduces us to David (Jonny Weston), a high schooler who alongside a few friends, discovers that his late father was working on a time machine before he died. Using a set of secret blueprints to complete his dad's work, David and his pals soon find themselves with the power of time travel in their young and irresponsible hands. It doesn't take long for them to play around with this new ability — first to have fun and later, to fix some life problems that'll realign their current timelines more favorably. No biggie, right?

Upon returning, the group discovers their actions in the past have had huge ramifications on their present, and by jumping back to fix things, they only end up making things worse. Buried under an influx of found-footage movies throughout the late noughties and early 2010s, the imperfect "Project Almanac" remains one of the more underrated indie takes on the genre.

Predestination

Written and directed by the Spierig Brothers, the duo behind 2009's ace vampire movie "Daybreakers," "Predestination" takes its sweet time unraveling its true mysteries. However, when all is revealed during the film's final moments, the overall ride makes this 2014 time-travel movie one of the genre's more complex and layered efforts. What's more, with Ethan Hawke and "Succession" break-out, Sarah Snook, as its leads, it's a film that's overdue a revisit.

Hawke stars as a nameless agent who's employed by a secret organization dedicated to tracking down the person behind a terrorist attack that destroyed a huge section of Manhattan back in 1975, killing thousands. By using a time travel device disguised as a simple violin case, our unknown protagonist manages to narrow his suspects down to a single person who he travels back in time to meet in a bar. However, while hearing the harrowing and lonely life story of his prime suspect, the agent discovers that he and the fugitive he's been chasing have more in common than he first thought.

Despite not getting bogged down in the practicalities of its time travel, "Predestination" still has a lot of exposition to power through before its real plot starts to emerge. However, stick with it, and you will be treated to one of the more unusual entries in this sometimes formulaic genre that relishes embracing ideas of predetermined fate and destiny alongside the sometimes futile attempts at trying to alter both.

Army of Darkness

With Sam Raimi's stone-cold cult favorite "Evil Dead II" receiving much of the focus and praise when it comes to all things deadites and boomsticks, it can be easy to overlook 1992's "Army of Darkness." In addition to rounding out the big-screen story of reluctant hero Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), it's also a tale that takes audiences back in time, following the closing moments of Raimi's 1987 sequel, which left its chainsaw-handed hero stuck in the Middle Ages.

After swapping his trusty chainsaw for a newfangled robotic hand and slaying a couple of deadites, Ash is quickly praised as a hero. Still, he's determined to return to his own time. To do this, he must find and use the power of the "Necronomicon Ex-Mortis," but when he flubs his big attempt at returning home, Ash accidentally unleashes the titular undead Army of Darkness, prolonging his stay.

After eventually defeating the deadite hoards, Ash does indeed return to his mundane life in the present day where he details his exploits to doubtful colleagues while stocking shelves at S-Mart. However, in the film's alternate original ending, he isn't so lucky. Raimi has Ash wake up a century too late and come face-to-face with a broken, war-torn future. Sadly, this post-apocalyptic climax was deemed too depressing by studio heads and was ultimately replaced with the supermarket ending seen in the theatrical cut.

Source Code

"What would you do if you knew you had less than eight minutes to live?" That's the question posed by Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhall), the man at the center of this time travel film with a difference. Awaking on a busy commuter train with no memory of how he got there, Stevens is further befuddled when he catches a glimpse of his reflection and discovers he has a brand new face.

As he tries to piece together what's happening, we quickly learn that Colter's train will fall victim to a terrorist attack that kills everyone onboard. When it does, he awakens in a mysterious cockpit and discovers he's plugged into a high-tech piece of government kit that injects his consciousness into the body of a commuter moments before the atrocity takes place. Through a series of trial and error visits to the last moments of this stranger's life, Colter must identify the fellow commuter behind the attack and prevent an even deadlier blast that's due to take place later that day.

Director Duncan Jones follows up his brilliant sci-fi movie "Moon" with a high-concept thriller that plays with the traditional rules of time travel to present a film that eventually explores alternate timelines. He may replace most of the low-fi feel that gave "Moon" its hand-made charm with slick visuals indicative of a much bigger budget, but "Source Code" provides enough new ideas to warrant a place on any list of underrated time travel movies.

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17 Underrated Sci-Fi Movies About Time Travel

Everyone and their mother knows about time travel movies like  Back to the Future  and  Avengers: Endgame , but what about the underrated time travel movies ? It's a sci-fi subgenre with plenty of room to maneuver; there have been virtually countless time travel movies since the dawn of filmmaking. Some films fare better than others - the less said about 2002's  The Time Machine , the better - but we're here to focus on some of the hidden gems and/or underrated films of the genre.

From low-budget gems like  Primer  and  Timecrimes  to big-budget blockbusters like  Men in Black 3  and  Deja Vu . From comedies to anime to the foreign arthouse, time travel keeps reliably cropping up. There's a lot of room to maneuver in this particular subgenre, so get ready to dive deep. Remember to vote up your favorite underrated films about time travel.

• New Line Cinema

Does it count as time travel if the only thing traveling back and forth in time are voices? The answer is an unquestionable yes, and though  Frequency  uses its time travel to tell a by-the-numbers murder mystery, that doesn't make it any less worthy. Buoyed by grounded performances from Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel,  Frequency  ends up being more than the sum of its parts. 

There's nothing wrong with a classic thriller, especially when there are time travel hijinks involved. And if you thought Quaid and Caviezel weren't enough, let's bring Andre Braugher and Noah Emmerich to the party. The fact that it was directed by Gregory Hoblit, a man responsible for two of the most underrated thrillers of the past 25 years ( Fracture  and  Primal Fear)  is just a bonus. If you're a fan of any of these Hollywood players or time travel in general, you should give  Frequency a look.

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• Buena Vista Pictures

Upon release in 2006,  Déjà Vu  was a minor hit for Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Denzel Washington. Critics were mixed on the film, and it has ended up as a footnote in the career of one of America's most celebrated actors. But  Déjà Vu  deserves better. Every film that comes out of Hollywood doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, and sometimes you're just in the mood for a competent, well-made drama. This one happens to be about a man who travels back in time to stop a domestic terrorist strike from decimating New Orleans.

If you keep your expectations at a reasonable level, there's a lot to admire about  Déjà Vu . With a cast that features Washington and a host of gifted performers like Val Kilmer, Paula Patton, and Bruce Greenwood as well as competent direction from Scott,  Déjà Vu  is the kind of big-budget filmmaking that has gone away in the wake of Hollywood's neverending hunt for the next blockbuster franchise. Besides, who doesn't like watching Denzel do his thing?

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Predestination

• Stage 6 Films

Based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 short story, "'—All You Zombies—'", 2014's  Predestination  struggled to make back its minuscule budget of $5 million at the box office upon release and that is a crying shame. Starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook,  Predestination  is a heady sci-fi thriller that's a bit hard to pin down. It's hard to sum up all of its twists and turns in the limited space here, but suffice it to say,  Predestination  is a hell of a trip.

This is a film that demands rewatching in order to decode what it's trying to say with its themes on gender and fate, and even then it can be difficult to decipher at times. But that's okay! The journey is fun enough to make it all work. As Richard Roeper said in his review , "As soon as the credits rolled on Predestination , I wanted to watch it again. It was even more of a mind-dance the second time around."

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Flight of the Navigator

• Buena Vista Distribution

It may be hard to imagine now, but there was a time not so long ago when the Walt Disney Company was floundering. Before Michael Eisner and Frank Wells came in to turn the company around in the mid-'80s, the House of Mouse was in serious financial straits and the creative side of the company wasn't faring much better. One of the first projects released during the duo's successful tenure was 1986's  Flight of the Navigator . This was a few years ahead of  The Little Mermaid  and  Honey, I Shrunk the Kids  setting the box office on fire to bring Disney back to the top, but that doesn't make  Navigator  any less worthy.

Flight of the Navigator  is more a story of accidental time travel due to time dilation more than anything else, as the 12-year-old protagonist travels to a planet 560 light years away, and back, causing him to age just over two hours in a span of eight years. He sets off on an adventure to return back to his own time, and family-friendly fun is had by all. To be frank, it's heady stuff for a kid's movie and the special effects were top-notch for the time. A remake has been rumored for years, but for now let's stick with the undeniable charm of the original, thank you very much.

• # 145 of 399 on The Best Movies Of The 1980s, Ranked
• # 78 of 178 on The Best Alien Movies Of All Time, Ranked
• # 194 of 278 on 'Old' Movies Every Young Person Needs To Watch In Their Lifetime

• Magnet Releasing

It's certainly very shocking that a film called  Timecrimes  has something to do with time travel. But let's just focus on that title for a second, here.  Timecrimes ? That is an awesome title for a movie! And  Timecrimes  itself is a saucy little low-budget thriller. The Spanish film tells the story of a man who becomes part of a time loop thanks to an experimental time travel machine. That's not all, as he also must stop his other selves (who exist in the same plane of existence thanks to the time travel) from continuing to exist.

It's a bit much to wrap your head around, but it all makes sense when you're watching it. Made for under $3 million,  Timecrimes  is an effective little thriller that you can't help but admire. And if that English-language remake ever actually gets off the ground, perhaps the original will find a bigger audience than it did upon release back in 2007.

• # 8 of 26 on The Best Horror Movies About Time Travel
• # 14 of 16 on The Most Underrated Sci-Fi Horror Movies Of The 2000s
• # 15 of 56 on The 50+ Best Time Loop Movies

The Final Countdown

• United Artists

A few years before the iconic '80s song was released,  The Final Countdown  hit theaters. The film is about a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier that travels through time to the day before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. It also stars two titans of cinema, Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen, as they ham it up in a B-movie blockbuster.  The Final Countdown  doesn't take itself too seriously and it doesn't expect its audience to, either. 

The real star of the show is the massive amounts of actual Navy aircraft aboard the real aircraft carrier the filmmakers got to use for the production. The USS Nimitz , which is astonishingly still in use to this very day, served as a shooting location for  The Final Countdown  and it is glorious to behold. There are more than a dozen genuine aircraft vehicles that appear in the film and it lends an authenticity that is hard to fabricate. Come for Douglas and Sheen, stay for some awesome Navy realism.

• # 42 of 64 on The Best Movies Of 1980
• # 13 of 19 on Pretty Good World War II Movies
• # 21 of 100 on The 100 Best Movies With Final in the Title

Primer , Shane Carruth's 2004 sci-fi debut made on an estimated budget of around $7,000 , was one of the first cult hits of the internet age. A cerebral tale of two men who accidentally discover time travel in a garage and subsequently try to exploit it to earn heaps of money, this micro-budget movie was less of a word-of-mouth success and more of a find-via-blog success. Still,  Primer  feels like an underseen classic in the age of endless streaming services.

Perhaps that has something to do with the density of both the plot and the dialogue.  Primer  doesn't try to hold your hand, and it makes no apologies for it. To do so would be a disservice to both the film and the audience. More about humankind's ethical dilemmas and less about the time travel itself,  Primer  is a movie that is both hard to explain and impossible to forget.

• # 237 of 252 on The 200+ Best Psychological Thrillers Of All Time
• # 4 of 69 on The Most Confusing Movies Ever Made
• # 87 of 99 on The Best Movies Of 2004, Ranked

Time After Time

• Warner Bros.

At a fundamental level, using time travel as a storytelling device lets the audience suspend disbelief a little bit more than they usually would. Case in point: 1979's  Time After Time . Based on the novel of the same name, this film follows famous British writer H.G. Wells - author of timeless novels like  The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds  - as he uses a time machine to pursue Jack the Ripper into the future of 1979 San Francisco. It sounds more like fantastical fan fiction than a Hollywood studio film, yet here we are.

Though this movie has largely been forgotten to time, it actually works! Obviously, the film isn't to be taken all that seriously, and that ends up working in its favor.  With charismatic leads as affable as Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen, it's easy to see why it succeeds. It's just delightful. And it's clear to see some people have fond memories of  Time After Time  as Kevin Williamson, of  Scream  and  Dawson's Creek  fame, brought a television version to screens in March 2017.

• # 121 of 178 on The Best Science Fiction Action Movies
• # 73 of 85 on Movies That Should Be Made Into Broadway Musicals, Ranked By Fans
• # 9 of 14 on 14 Times A Real Historical Figure Is A Character In An Extremely Fictional Movie

• Well Go USA

Some time travel films are light and breezy, meant to delight fans both young and old with capricious tales of science fiction.  Synchronic  is not one of these films. Unless stories about cancer and missing children are "light and breezy" to you. Alas,  Synchronic  remains a criminally underseen film from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (who are absolutely perfect choices to direct episodes of Disney+ MCU show  Moon Knight ). 

New Orleans paramedics Steve and Dennis, played by Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan, become embroiled in a weird mystery surrounding Dennis's missing daughter and a new drug that somehow causes its users to travel in time. Benson and Moorhead manage to keep everything dark and moody despite the odd premise of the film, and it ends up being a ride worth taking.

• # 148 of 167 on The 150+ Best Futuristic Dystopian Movies
• # 7 of 9 on The Best Time Travel Movies On Netflix To Watch
• # 56 of 74 on The 70+ Best New Orleans Movies

Time Bandits

• HandMade Films

If you're in the mood for a kooky sci-fi fantasy featuring an all-star cast,  Time Bandits  has you covered. Co-written and directed by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam,  Time Bandits  features Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Katherine Helmond, and Ian Holm in an adventure that could only be dreamed up by the man who brought you films like  Brazil  and  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus . Seriously, Time Bandits  is nothing if not a whole mess of fun.

Made for kids (and everyone who used to be kids) with vivid imaginations,  Time Bandits follows 11-year-old Kevin as he becomes embroiled in a loopy time travel escapade. You know what kind of film this is going to be when an armored knight on horseback comes billowing out of Kevin's closet. It is so much fun. And hopefully you like dark comedy, because the ending of  Time Bandits  has a grueling fate in store for Kevin's parents.

• # 209 of 399 on The Best Movies Of The 1980s, Ranked
• # 678 of 769 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
• # 21 of 75 on The Best Movies Of 1981

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

• Orion Pictures

Bill & Ted's Excellent Excellent Adventure  is the well-regarded original, while  Bill & Ted Face the Music  is the unexpected franchise revival. This means  Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey  is the unfortunate middle child too often dismissed as inferior. In many eyes, however,  Bogus Journey  is unfairly maligned by the movie-going masses. The screenplay may not be as tight as  Excellent Adventure  and it may lack the nostalgic punch of  Face the Music , but don't go sleeping on  Bogus Journey .

It's a juvenile comedy that also spoofs  The Seventh Seal -  what more could you possibly ask for? It has something for everyone, provided you go into a viewing with the right mindset. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are as game as they were in  Excellent Adventure,  but it's ultimately William Sadler who steals the show as Death incarnate. Roger Ebert put it best in his positive review , saying it is for "lovers of fantasy, whimsy, and fanciful special effects. This movie is light as a feather and thin as ice in spring, but what it does, it does very nicely."

• # 540 of 769 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
• # 372 of 705 on The All-Time Greatest Comedy Films
• # 85 of 164 on The Best Movie Sequels Ever Made

Men in Black 3

• Sony Pictures Releasing

Men in Black  will forever remain a '90s classic and, well, the less said about  Men in Black II , the better, but  Men in Black 3  has quickly become an underrated movie - even though it grossed a monstrous $624 million at the worldwide box office. The sci-fi threequel follows Will Smith's Agent J as he goes back in time to team up with Agent K's younger self to save the world from evil aliens. 

Josh Brolin is delightful as he does his best young Tommy Lee Jones impression as Agent K, and Jemaine Clement is just tons of fun as the villain, Boris the Animal. Is it a bit derivative of the first two? Yes, but sometimes you're just in the mood for some popcorn comfort food and  Men in Black 3  is certainly that. Besides, it's much better than 2019's soft reboot,  Men in Black: International .

• # 112 of 178 on The Best Alien Movies Of All Time, Ranked
• # 97 of 186 on The Greatest Comic Book Movies Of All Time
• # 360 of 635 on The 600+ Funniest Movies Of All Time

In the Shadow of the Moon

The problem with releasing a genre picture on Netflix is that they usually get lost in the shuffle. If it isn't something Netflix thinks it can market to a wide audience, it just sort of gets released with little-to-no fanfare. This certainly was the case with 2019's  In the Shadow of the Moon . From director Jim Mickle, known for little-seen critical darlings like  Cold in July  and  We Are What We Are , this sci-fi thriller is about a cop who tries to stop a serial killer who reappears every nine years to strike again.

We don't want to give the twist away as to how this involves time travel, because doing so kind of ruins the whole point of the film. If you've got a Netflix account, it's worth a watch and is just waiting there for you.  The Detroit News ' Adam Graham puts it best : "[W]hen you least expect it, In the Shadow of the Moon  delivers a powerful message about the roots of hate and the dangers it poses to society. Don't let this one stay in the shadows for long."

• # 135 of 168 on The 160+ Scariest Psychological Thrillers
• # 8 of 9 on The Best Time Travel Movies On Netflix To Watch
• # 98 of 335 on The Best Netflix Original Movies Ever

• Argos Films

What is there to say about  La Jetée ? From the fact that it is a 28-minute-long French film from 1962 almost entirely made up of still images, it's safe to assume all but the most fervent cinephiles haven't seen it. Of course, if you're game for its aesthetic, all there is a lot to love about  La Jetée.  And if you're a fan of  12 Monkeys , a film it directly inspired , then you're sure to have a good time.

The film follows a prisoner in post-apocalyptic Paris right after World War III as he is used as a test subject in a time travel experiment. Throughout the events of the film, the protagonist is sent both back in time before WWIII and way out into the future, where he meets a race of technologically advanced beings. Had it been shot traditionally, it isn't hard to see an alternate timeline in which  La Jetée  became one of the most popular foreign films of all time.

• # 67 of 97 on The Best French Movies That Are Absolute Masterpieces
• # 336 of 425 on The Greatest Movies in World Cinema History
• # 48 of 58 on The Best Surrealist Films

The History of Time Travel

• Pineywood Pictures

The History of Time Travel  is a 2014 movie written and directed by then-film student Ricky Kennedy. It's a mockumentary that tells the story of the men who created the world’s first time machine and the unintended ramifications it has on world events. If this were all the film was, there wouldn't be much more to talk about. But  The History of Time Travel has more up its sleeve than being a fake documentary about false events.

The brilliance of the film resides in its clever use of time travel ramifications. As the film goes on, subtle changes begin to appear on screen as more information about the time travelers' exploits is revealed. Of course, the people being interviewed don't realize these changes are happening to them because, why would they? We wouldn't be aware of changes to our past because they would just become our history (at least, in the universe of this film).  The History of Time Travel  is quite low-budget and it shows, but it is still a rollicking good time for anyone in the mood for a new take on time travel.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

• Kadokawa Herald Pictures

Time travel and anime seem like they were made for each other - though couching the time travel in a coming-of-age story for young adults is a bit of a twist on the formula that's easy to get behind. And with a title like  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time , you kind of know what you're getting yourself into. This film is your average young adult fare with a sci-fi twist, which totally works.

There's not much else to say about  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time  without giving the whole plot away. It's a film that was pretty much universally adored by critics and audiences alike as its infectious energy can't be denied. If you recall the plights of your teenage years with any sort of whimsy, jump into  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time . You'll be glad you did.

• # 300 of 454 on The 400+ Best Animated Kids Movies
• # 93 of 101 on The Best Movies Of 2006
• # 28 of 66 on The Greatest Animated Sci Fi Movies

Je t'aime, je t'aime

• Kino Classics

2001: A Space Odyssey  is often heralded as a film before its time - and rightly so - but there was another 1968 sci-fi film that dared to break the mold and challenge viewers to think outside the box. A supposed influence on Michel Gondry's landmark  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , Alain Resnais and Jacques Sternberg's  Je t'aime, je t'aime  is about a suicidal man who volunteers for an experiment that causes him to experience his past through a series of disjointed memories.

Je t'aime, je t'aime  is not a happy film. By the end, we discover that our protagonist has killed his terminally ill partner to ease her pain and he ends the film about to perish from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. We do not get to see whether he actually makes it or not, but that is beside the point.  Je t'aime, je t'aime  is a heady film about love, loss, and mental illness. It is both a relic of its time as well as highly forward-thinking in both its subject matter and its technique.

• Entertainment
• Time Travel
• Watchworthy

As they say in well-written scripts, "You mean... like time travel?" + also a few bizarre stories about real people who have claimed, despite every law of physics, they have traveled through time.

Suggestions

‘Time Trap’ and ‘In the Shadow of the Moon’ Add Fresh Twists to Time Travel

In the wake of H.G. Wells’ novel “The Time Machine,” which was originally published in 1895, fiction has been obsessed with the idea of time travel, especially as scientists have begun to explore its real-world possibilities . Fans of fiction likely grew up with time travel; we know all of the jokes and paradoxes, and we can categorize all the ways it works. As a result, it is surprising to consider that the concept, even combining the words “time” and “travel,” only seems to have entered the public consciousness in the closing years of the 19th century.

Beyond real-life experiments and countless fictitious hypotheticals, the trend of time travel is not stopping anytime soon. Case in point, Netflix recently recommended two low-budget time travel movies to me — “Time Trap” and “In the Shadow of the Moon” — both of which bring a fresh twist to the genre.

Directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster, “Time Trap” follows a group of five students searching for a missing professor in a series of caves where conquistadors once sought the Fountain of Youth. To the surprise of the group and the audience, the students find the Fountain, which initially took the form of a titular time trap and later as a well of water with miraculous abilities. However, in order to protect this magical spring, someone or something that predated the agricultural revolution created layers of time dilation.

One of the most evocative images in “Time Trap” is that of an Old West cowboy holding an oil lantern aloft with a revolver on his hip as he is frozen midstep like a fly in amber. Following him through a boundary in the air causes him to move in real time, and the world outside suddenly speeds up, causing years to pass in the span of seconds.

The principal point of interest in “Time Trap” is a narrative idea which calls to mind works of literature like “Rip Van Winkle” and its predecessors, some of which include the Ancient Greek story of Epimenides of Knossos and Irish, English and German folktales — tales in which people fall asleep, sometimes after interactions with mysterious “little people” and find themselves transported far into the future. Oftentimes, these are journeys of no return. Unlike the nostalgia of some time travel narratives that transport the protagonists into an unfamiliar and even threatening landscape where there once was familiarity, watching the world blur by at the speed of light is a claustrophobic and paralyzing feeling and produces a compelling race against the clock for the heroes of the film.

Furthermore, “Time Trap” also borrows from the tradition of H.G. Wells. Most time travel stories look to the past and present an opportunity to correct old wrongs or use the power of hindsight to create a brighter future. In the “Time Machine,” Wells tried to look to the future of the human race and envisioned it splitting in two, with the leisured upper classes becoming the ineffectual Eloi and the downtrodden working class becoming the predatory, light-fearing Morlocks; it’s a future that could only be imagined in the Victorian era.

Conversely, in the late 2010s, Dennis and Foster envision a destroyed planet that pushes humanity to an orbiting spaceship where humans grow to be eight feet tall, lose their ability to breathe oxygen and develop a completely alien language. The dystopic future of “Time Trap” might lean less on allegory in order to force the heroes to battle a giant man, but the movie employs its premise to the fullest extent of its creativity, and this sense of imagination creates some of the wilder sequences in the movie.

Regrettably, the majority of “Time Trap” is uninteresting. The subpar acting and adolescent action-adventure hijinks sink most of the film’s better moments. Moreover, the movie’s intended demographic is a little obscure; none of the film’s events are treated too seriously, yet multiple characters die onscreen.

“In the Shadow of the Moon” offers a thought-provoking, atmospheric alternative to “Time Trap.” Directed by Jim Mackle and produced by Netflix, “In the Shadow of the Moon” begins in 1988 with Locke (played by Boyd Holbrook), a beat cop in Philadelphia who begins to investigate a serial killer murdering people across the city, seemingly at random, with some  futuristic weapon. Jumping forward in time decade-by-decade as his life unravels, Locke becomes obsessed with the case before he ultimately realizes that his opponent is actually moving backward, using a time travel method somehow connected to the gravitational effect of the moon.

The conceit of following a character who is not the time traveler, but an outside observer, is definitely a fresh approach for the subgenre. Locke is tasked with deciphering a mystery that exceeds normal explanations and, in turn, discovers a motive that leads him to question whether stopping the killer is even the right thing to do. Interestingly, the theme of racial dynamics functions as an a fundamental aspect of “In the Shadow of the Moon”; the killer in question is a young black woman, and the relationship between the black community and the police as well as the rising power of white supremacist organizations all contribute to the film’s thematic foundation.

While “Time Trap” capitalizes on a limited budget, “In the Shadow of the Moon” looks glossy and expansive. There’s nothing particularly reliant on effects, but “In the Shadow of the Moon” is clearly one of the movies that Netflix has chosen to sink some money into. The film is clearly influenced by intellectual time travel stories like Terry Gilliam’s “12 Monkeys” while also delving into nostalgia with its recreation of Philadelphia in the ’80s and ’90s. Granted, the pacing is slow and the film makes few attempts to entertain or subvert its intelligence with humor or action, but it never fails to drag the viewer down a twisted rabbit hole — “In the Shadow of the Moon” goes for both grit and depth, but winds up slightly uneven.

As a permanent resident in popular entertainment, time travel has fascinated humanity as an idea for decades, but its connection to paradoxes and its lack of logic leaves the subgenre prone to plot holes. Some might think there is no satisfactory way to craft a flawless time travel story, but audiences still love it. Like all quality science fiction , the subgenre offers an alternative perspective on the world and creates a theoretical environment to confront one’s deepest fears. Although “Time Trap” and “In the Shadow of the Moon” are far from perfect, both films encompass entertainment and intellectualism equally, and I’d encourage you to watch both of them to decide which one you preferred.

• Netflix Original
• time travel

Caroline Forrey, Miami University, Ohio

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6 Movies Where the Earth Literally Blows Up On-Screen

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15 Great Movies Recommended by Steven Spielberg

10 big differences between american and japanese versions of godzilla, 10 famous novels with the most film adaptations.

What happens when the Earth gets blown up? Some popular sci-fi movies have tried to depict the end of planet earth. Unsurprisingly, some viewers enjoy seeing the chaos and disaster that follows Earth's destruction. Little wonder the sci-fi industry is booming and racks in a lot of money at the box office. Movies about the end of planet Earth have continuously thrilled viewers since A Trip to the Moon in 1902. Today, this genre remains one of the most enjoyed genres of movies across the world.

Movies like Armageddon and Independence Day and more recently produced sci-fi movies prove there's a place for films of this kind. While some films use psychological images and nuances to describe the Earth's state when destroyed , others contain graphics and downright explosive scenes. Here are six movies where the Earth goes kaboom!

6 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was adapted from a book with the same title created in 1992. The film puts the comedy in disaster and makes light of something that should have been sad. The scene where the Aliens blow up Earth is shocking, especially discovering the reason Earth had to be blown up was to allow the aliens proper passage to their planet. One man survives the disaster, though, and it's Arthur Dent with the help of his friend, an alien writer who looks human. It's easy to forget this is a disaster movie, because of the comedic relief. What these characters do is not as important as what they say and how they say it, says Roger Ebert .

5 End of the World (1977)

Not to be mistaken for the movie with the same name released in 2018, this version makes our list because it's much more remarkable. End of the World is a film created by Charles Band, creator of the Fists of Furry , Petrified and many others. The End of the World revolves around Prof Andrew, a NASA programmer, who is determined to find the source of irregularities in the space signal. Ultimately, he discovers that aliens have disguised themselves as priests and nuns, using the convent as a perfect hideout, all while working on an escape plan to leave Earth before destruction. They believe the Earth is ravaged with diseases and poses a threat to the galaxy at large and must be destroyed. In the end, Earth gets blown up to pieces.

RELATED: Best Apocalyptic Movies, Ranked

4 Knowing (2009)

Nicholas Cage plays John Koestler, an unregarded hero who tries to stop Earth from impending solar flare. Knowing covers the story of an MIT professor who unearths a time capsule full of coded messages about the future but also about the End of the world. All attempts to convince people to believe his predictions is ignored. Towards the end, aliens become allies in this film and help rescue some humans to another planet for a fresh start as Earth becomes obsolete. Watch the mayhem and fear in the faces of those left behind including John Koestler as they all accept their final fate. Knowing is directed and co-produced by Alex Proyas director best known for directing the movie I , Robot .

RELATED: Best Natural Disaster Movies, Ranked

3 When Worlds Collide (1951)

This George Pal's science fiction was one of the earliest movies to try to paint the end of the world. When Worlds Collide laid the basis and birth ideas for more similar sci-fi movies like The day after tomorrow. The title gives a literal description of the plot; it's about the Bellus star that collides with Earth. Although forty-five people manage to escape Earth, it's not a pretty sight when the star finally collides with Earth. However, it's a good thing there's a backup planet (Zyra) where survivors can live happily after. With the advancement of CGI being new, film producers made do with what was available then and created a masterpiece. When Worlds Collide is based on a novel of the same name written by Phillip Wylie and Edwin Balmer.

2 Deep Impact (1998)

In Deep Impact, a comet discovered to be on a collision course with Earth is what causes the mega explosion seen on screen. The casting was all shades perfect with Hollywood top actors like Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, and Tea Leoni amongst others. The film has been likened several times to Armageddon , as both were released in the same summer of 1998. However, what stands out in this film, aside from being executively produced by Steven Spielberg, is its profound message. Hollywood Reporter had this to say about the film: "Rubin and Michael Tolkin sagely created a human tale about the perilous grasp we have on life."

1 Titan A.E. (2000)

The Drej alien race is the reason for Earth's explosion in this film. The aliens have succeeded in turning Earth to dust and hope completely wipe humanity out. Lost in space, Cale (Matt Damon), a human teenager, with the help of his friends, must find the Ice Planet, where the Titan, the key to creating a new planet, is located. Titan A.E. makes this list as it was ahead of its time, shot to depict the 31st century with quite impressive 3D effects, which wasn't common in the year 2000.

• Movie Lists

Demi Moore on Full Frontal Nudity With Margaret Qualley in ‘The Substance’: ‘A Very Vulnerable Experience’ but I Had a ‘Great Partner Who I Felt Very Safe With’

Demi Moore ‘s new film, the feminist body horror “ The Substance ,” sees her bare it all, with several scenes featuring full nudity. At the Cannes Film Festival press conference for the film on Monday, the 61-year-old actor discussed the “vulnerable experience.”

“Going into it, it was really spelled out — the level of vulnerability and rawness that was really required to tell the story,” Moore said. “And it was a very vulnerable experience and just required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish.”

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“I had someone who was a great partner who I felt very safe with. We obviously were quite close  — naked — and we also got a lot of levity in those moments at how absurd those certain situations were,” she said. “But ultimately. it’s just about really directing your communication and mutual trust.”

As the film progresses, Moore becomes horribly disfigured thanks to the abuse her other half Qualley is inflicting on her. By the film’s last act, she quite resembles Anjelica Huston from the 1990 film “The Witches,” after she transforms into a humpback abomination.

Dennis Quaid also stars in the film as an “asshole,” as he described his character during the presser. The late Ray Liotta was meant to have the role before his passing in May 2022, and Quaid dedicated his performance to him.

“In my heart, I dedicated this role to Ray Liotta, who was set to play it,” Quaid said. “It was this week, two years ago that he passed, so I’d like to remember him. He was such an incredible actor.”

Cannes went wild for “The Substance” at its premiere on Sunday night, giving the film an 11-minute standing ovation , the longest of the fest so far.

In an interview with Variety , the French director discussed the film’s feminist themes, saying that body horror is “the perfect vehicle to express the violence all these women’s issues are about.”

With an undercurrent of #MeToo at this year’s festival as the movement grows in France, Fargeat hopes the film will shine even more light on the issue. “It’s a little stone in the huge wall we still have to build regarding this issue, and to be honest, I hope my film will also be one of the stones of that wall. That’s really what I intended to do with it.”

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