time travel and love movies

10 Romantic Time Travel Movies to Binge Watch: I’ll Love You to the End of Time

These are some of the best time travel romance movies!

Time travel as a genre is always fascinating in any medium, whether a book, movie, TV show or comic. The possibility of meeting anyone in existence, going to places long forgotten, and uncovering secrets of well-loved icons of the past and maybe even the future gives a special allure to time travel romance movies.

The fantastical direction this genre takes adds elements of magic, naivete, and touches of illusion, appealing to older and younger viewers alike. Add into this the sprinkle of romance, and you have me hooked.

If I get the chance to watch Shakespeare wooing a girl from the 21st century using poems that have become cult classics, I’m grabbing the popcorn and switching my phone off.

RELATED: 80 OF THE BEST ENTERTAINING TIME TRAVEL TV SHOWS YOU NEED TO WATCH

Like most people, I grew up watching time travel movies. Consequently, they have become my favorites. For example, we can all appreciate Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure or watching Hermione travel back in time to see herself punch Draco in the face. (Not only a win for Harry Potter fans but for girls all around.)

Meanwhile, Doctor Who (2005) is my first exposure to real romance and time travel. With the Doctor’s companions all falling for him, he initially only falls for Rose (Nine and Ten).

RELATED: 7 FUN AND ROMANTIC TIME TRAVEL ASIAN DRAMAS

As a result, it had millions of us hoping he would appear in our living rooms, ready to take us on our own adventure. Since then, there was no going back. There are just so many romantic time travel movies calling out to be binged.

Here is a list of my personal favorite romantic time travel movies that have thus far survived the test of time. However, I will admit this list is not exhaustive (limiting the films to 10 was difficult).

10 ROMANTIC TIME TRAVEL MOVIES TO BINGE WATCH

(In No Particular Order)

#1: ABOUT TIME (2013)

Without a doubt, this is a humorous and engaging retelling of a classic boy trying to win over a girl story. Tim wishes to change his life and get a girlfriend. With this intention, enter Mary.

Tom falls for her and is relentless and tenacious in his pursuit, all thanks to a family secret. The men in his family can travel through time! What a secret to have, and at 21, your options are endless.

About Time beautifully captures the fun-loving side of romance. And, as viewers, we see the benefits of having such a gift and just how painful the gift can be.

For this reason, we see the love between a man and woman and the close relationship between Tim and his father, played by the talented Bill Nighy . Have tissues ready, as poignant scenes will get you teary-eyed.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK for mild profanity, nudity, violence, and moderate love scenes. For the same reason, About Time is a mild rated R in the United States.

#2: THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (2009)

This falls quite high on my list of must-watch romance films in general as it has sweeping romance and not to mention swoon-worthy Eric Bana as the protagonist. The film beautifully interweaves through different phases of time, keeping the viewer enthralled.

It follows the life of Clare (Rachel McAdams) and how she meets Henry (Eric Bana), or rather how he encounters her. Clare and Henry ‘meet’ in a library. Soon, they both know what Henry is and what he can do, which is being involuntarily thrown through time, forwards or backward.

The movie’s most interesting aspect is that, despite Henry being the traveler, Clare knows more about him. She’s even aware of their relationship during their ‘first meeting’.

You can assume this is not their first meeting without giving too much away. The story follows them through their life together, how his continued absence becomes a toll on Clare, and over time, it delves into the life of living with a time traveler.

Could you live with someone who knows your future? They will know exactly where your life together could end up. Instead of going for the fated lovers’ angle, this looks at how fate may have brought them together, but should they have walked away?

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK for mild sensuality, nudity, and profanity. In the US, the film is rated PG-13.

#3: SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980)

If you prefer sweet innocent love stories with classic romance, Somewhere in Time will be perfect for you.

Set in 1972, Christopher Reeve stars as student Richard Collier who travels to Mackinac Island to stay at the Grand Hotel, where he sees a portrait of a woman who he becomes enamored with.

He finds out she was a famous stage actress who has passed away. In this obsession with the picture, he finds a way to go back in time to meet her.

Using methods of self-hypnosis, he is able to get back to 1900 and meet Elise McKenna, but what fate is in store for two people with such a big ‘time’ difference? Get ready to fall in love with the characters, cinematography, music, and love stories all over again.

Fun tidbit: Somewhere in Time was nominated for an Oscar for best costume design.

Content Note : This film is rated PG for mild profanity and sensuality.

#4: THE LAKE HOUSE (2006) AND IL MARE (2002)

The Lake House is a somber story, showing love with a facet of yearning, similar to Somewhere in Time . Both have protagonists who are trapped in different times.

Kate Forrester (Sandra Bullock) moves to a new house, leaving behind a letter for the next tenant. The person who reads the letter, Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), realizes some unusual things are happening.

Events mentioned in the letter have yet to occur. They come to the realization that they are exactly two years apart, writing from different times.

This charming movie weaves a beautiful story that will appeal to anyone in a long-distance relationship. You will be able to relate to the dates they attempt to go on and how they try and share experiences with each other.

It will make you appreciate that you are at least a phone call away. The ending of the movie will have you on the edge of your seats, and the revelations revealed will make you want to believe in fate and kismet take your pick.

Special mention to the original movie Il Mare (2002), a Korean production and equally a must-watch if you don’t mind subtitles.

Content Note: This film is rated PG with mild profanity, alcohol, and drugs.

#5: BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (1990)

If you are not familiar with this series, what are you doing? Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and the iconic DeLorean made a generation of kids dream about hoverboards and Nike trainers.

This is the third installment of the series, giving more focus to the ‘Doc’ Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd).

Set against the backdrop of the 1885 old west (and true to the name), we get standoffs, brawls, and romance. Meanwhile, Marty travels to 1885 and is stuck because his car breaks down.

Of course, he has a run-in with ‘Mad Dog’ Biff Tannen and his unruly gang. (Trying to send Marty back with their limited resources makes you appreciate a lot of amenities we take for granted.)

In this process, Emmett meets a school teacher, Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), who is a science geek just like him, and soon a romance blossoms.

It is surreal and sweet to see Doc so enamored and unable to figure out how to act. Furthermore, the romance breathes new life into his character and shows an angle we never thought we needed.

In the climax of the movie, there is a race against time to get the DeLorean fixed and Marty back to the present day. Ultimately, even as a sequel, Back to the Future Part III is brilliant.

Content Note: This film is rated PG with moderate profanity, mild sensuality, nudity, and violence.

#6: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)

‘ You’re in love with a fantasy.’ ‘I’m in love with you.’

Woody Allen does it again, giving us a spellbinding movie with sophisticated and witty characters. He portrays Paris in a way that will make you want to go there and explore.

Winner of an Oscar, Midnight in Paris follows Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams) on vacation in Paris, where he wishes to move after they marry.

However, his wife-to-be doesn’t see the magic of the city, hoping to settle in America instead. In the meantime, Gil struggles to write his first novel and takes a strange late-night stroll through Paris, getting an invite to a party that includes guests such as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude, and many others who frequented the famous salon of Stein.

It is up to the audience to decide if this is time travel or just the fantasy of a desperate writer who is in love with the golden era of the ’20s. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie because it gave a glimpse of how some of my favorite writers would interact.

This is what other genres cannot do, transport and introduce characters and figures who we would love to meet. This charming film will have you falling in love with the characters and the dialogue.

The superb acting by Wilson portrays an awe-struck, enthusiastic writer who meets his heroes. There is no real story to follow, but rather more events that unfold and how the characters react to them. But life is like this sometimes: we don’t know where things are going until later on.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A  in the UK and PG-13 in the U.S. for mild profanity, sensuality, and nudity.

#7: 13 GOING ON 30 (2004)

13 Going on 30 is a reverse-coming-of-age time travel romantic comedy. Jenna (Jennifer Garner) makes a wish on her thirteenth birthday, wanting to be older after going through an embarrassing ordeal.

Jenna wishes to make her older, and it is fulfilled magically. She wakes up the next day to find she is weeks from her thirtieth birthday, has a dream job as a magazine editor, a car, and a very attractive boyfriend.

Everything that anyone could want, but she is still not happy, which pushes the story toward what she truly desires.

This approach is always fun to watch, including hilarious scenes where the protagonist tries to understand the new circumstances and her new body. I admit it’s nothing new in terms of what we can expect, but Garner portrays the character’s innocence and naivete so well.

We see beautiful shots of New York City, which will make you want to book your flight and get over there. However, the surprise in this movie is Mark Ruffalo, who plays Matt, the high school best friend.

Seeing him in this role will be new and a fresh take for fans of the Marvel world. One of the best moments in the movie is the Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ dance which will leave you astounded and get you on your feet.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK and PG-13 in the U.S. for mild profanity and suggestive content.

#8: WINTER’S TALE (2014)

Winter’s Tale is set in 1895 on the streets of New York and is based on the novel of the same name. Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is a seasoned thief who enters the home of Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay). Beverly catches him in the act.

They both fall in love, and she tells Peter a story about how everyone is born with a miracle inside them. This is the theme for the whole movie so keep this in mind while watching.

The movie boasts a lot of big stars: Russell Crowe, Will Smith, and William Hurt, who all play fantastical characters brilliantly. The story jumps to modern times showing us Peter again. But he has amnesia, setting the story for the rest of the movie. The search for his memories and lost story.

Romance like this is always beautiful to watch, even though the audience and characters know it will not be the happy ending we all hope for.

Fans of Downton Abbey will recognize Findlay as Lady Sybil Crawley, carrying off the character of Beverly competently, with a timeless beauty that is only enhanced because we know the fate of the character.

Farrell is exquisite as always, playing his role as an Irish thief so convincingly. There are many twists and turns to keep you entertained during the second half, which is worth the effort.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK and PG-13 in the U.S. for violence and sensuality.

#9: IF ONLY (2004)

If Only uses the winning formula that led Groundhog Day (1993) to success, where the day is on repeat. We have Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ian (Paul Nichols), who are a typical couple, showing the relationship and fights.

Tragedy strikes when Samantha has a car accident leaving a heartbroken and grief-stricken Ian. But fate gives him another chance to back in time to try and change events. He lives the same day again and, like any sensible hero, tries to alter the events leading up to her accident.

It’s a sweet story showing the importance of cherishing the people close to you. The film further makes you wonder about how you would react in this situation. Would you be able to change anything?

The story moves at a good pace, keeping audiences on edge as to whether Ian will succeed. Very beautiful moments occur between the two as Ian knows what will come.

He tries his hardest to make everything perfect (and take notes, guys – ahem, ahem). Tissues may be needed; you have been warned.

Content Note: This film is rated PG-13 for some sensual material.

#10: KATE & LEOPOLD (2001)

‘I’m not very good with men.’ ‘ Perhaps you haven’t found the right one.’

This time travel romance movie captures everyone’s heart because Leopold (Hugh Jackman) comes from 1876 and has a romantic, classic approach to love.

He has purity dripping from every glance and every word he speaks. It would make any girl fall head over heels for the chivalrous Leopold.

So, what chance does Kate (Meg Ryan) have? Leopold needs to marry someone for wealth, with a dwindling purse and big dreams to pursue. He enters a portal transporting him to modern times. This blows him away to see the sights and progress.

He meets Kate, a market researcher who is cynical but ambitious. They get close but inevitable differences arise, and he returns back to his time.

Kate & Leopold also provides well-written comedic scenes with Kate’s brother, an actor assuming Leopold is deep in character. For fans of epic romantic movies from the ’90s, this 2001 film is equally awesome. Plus, any fan of Jackman will enjoy seeing him in this swoony role.

Content Note: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Did you find one of your favorite movies about time travel and love? If you had the chance to have one of these romances, which one would it be?

Top Photo Credit: Somewhere in Time (Universal Pictures)

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Book lover – reader and writer. Being a bookworm from an early age introduced me to all wonderful worlds, travelling from Narnia to Hogwarts. This became my hobby and passion leading me to pursue avenues where I can write not just for my enjoyment but also to progress my career. Some of my current obsessions include K-dramas, all things period - any BBC original adaptation. I am currently reading Dan Brown's new novel as well as "All men are Mortal" and re-reading "North and South" because you can never read enough about Mr.Thornton and Margaret!

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12 thoughts on “10 Romantic Time Travel Movies to Binge Watch: I’ll Love You to the End of Time”

Found some new ones for my list, so thanks! I love Hugh Jackson in Kate and Leopold – he plays it so straight it makes the whole thing so much funnier.

Though I haven’t seen it in a while now, I remember that I liked “Lake House,” and I just started to watch “About Time” last night. It’s nothing like I expected, but so far I quite like it! 🙂

Man, Rachel McAdams is all about that time travel life!

Oh, I hoped I’d find a new romantic time travel movie to add to my watched list, but I’m afraid I’ve already seen them all. Lovely curated list, tho!

A long time ago there lived a scientist who would hardly ever venture outside. His life was a lonely one, with long days of research and experiments. It was his ambition to create a potion to see into the future. He had over years collected hundreds of herbs and combined them in various ways until eventually, he was on the brink of a breakthrough…

Where am I able to find the remainder of this story? One mustn’t dangle a carrot expecting no one to bite! Rachel

All these are lovely —- another good one is “1994 Timecop” with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mia Sara — thriller & romance

I can’t seem to find the movie which was based on a short story “ Christopher Frame “ a photo restorer who time travels ,.falls in love and stays there , tried to lookup but there is no information about it ,I can’t remember the name of the movie or episode either for the love of God ,If anyone knows about it please let me know ,thanks

Another outstanding time travel movie is the 1998 Hallmark Hall of Fame production “The Love Letter”, starring Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Aired in the late 90s, it’s about an engaged civil war buff who finds hidden letters in an old desk which were written by an unmarried woman in 1863. He is compelled to respond to her and even though he lives in the late 20th century she receives his letters and they begin a correspondence through time. This obviously causes a big problem for his life with his fiance. It’s an excellent movie based on a short story by Jack Finney. Finney is the author of two great time travel novels, Time And Again and From Time to Time.

Hi Everybody, I read through the candidates for best time travel romance, all of which I have seen. I agree with your choices, but not exactly in that order. Although they were all great movies, it is “Somewhere in Time” that takes the number one spot. I was happy to see that at least you gave them the 3rd spot, but, in reality, it was the one movie that expressed so beautifully the concept that love transcends time and in the end, true love brings them together as they slip off into eternity.

There is one more movie to which I would give honorable mention. That is the 1979 movie “Time After Time” where the prolific writer HG Wells pursues Jack the Ripper into the future where Hubert (Malcolm Mcdowell) meets Mary Steenburgen and falls in love. This is another great movie. Thanks, DAD

Hi Dad! I agree with you that Somewhere in Time is the best time-travel romance movie. 🙂 Such a beautiful film!

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The 25 Best Time Travel Movies to Whisk You Away from Reality

Who wouldn't love a time machine right about now?

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Meet Cute (2022)

Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson co-star in Peacock's Meet Cute , a delightful and often dark rom-com based around time travel. Feeling suicidal, Sheila (Cuoco) finds a time machine in a nail salon and decides to go back in time 24 hours. While re-living her first date with Gary (Davidson) again and again, Sheila loses touch with reality and might have destroyed any chance she had with him.

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

High schooler Meg Murry travels through time and space in search of her missing astrophysicist father (Chris Pine). On her journey, Meg meets Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), as well as a whole host of dangerous beings.

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

Based on Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel of the same name, The Time Traveler's Wife tells the story of Henry (Eric Bana), a librarian who is able to randomly travel through time. After meeting Clare (Rachel McAdams) as a child, Henry later develops a romantic relationship with her. HBO's recent adaptation starring Theo James and Rose Leslie has reignited the debate regarding whether or not the story promotes grooming , or if it's a timeless romance.

Back to the Future (1985)

'80s classic Back to the Future has stood the test of time, and spawned two equally entertaining sequels. In the first film, Marty McFly is sent to the 1950s in his friend Doc Brown's time machine, a super cool DeLorean. Marty meets his parents as teenagers, and his presence risks changing history forever.

See You Yesterday (2019)

Netflix's See You Yesterday follows science prodigy C.J. (Eden Duncan-Smith), who invents time traveling backpacks. Along with her best friend Sebastian, C.J. uses her invention to go back in time to stop her brother from being murdered by a racist police officer. However, she's also forced to face up to the limitations and consequences of time travel.

About Time (2013)

Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) inherits the ability to time travel from his father, and decides to use the gift to find love. After a failed attempt at romance, Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), but due to several time travel-related mishaps, romance isn't instantaneous for the pair. Written and directed by rom-com aficionado Richard Curtis.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

James Cameron's follow-up to 1984's The Terminator was a smash-hit that cemented the franchise's popularity. In the sequel, a killer T-1000 Terminator is sent back in time by Skynet to kill the future leader of the resistance, the son of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), John (Edward Furlong). At the same time, the resistance sends a reprogrammed T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back to protect Connor.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Four miserable friends reunite after one of them nearly dies. To cheer themselves up, they decide to spend some time together at a ski resort. Unfortunately, the resort's hot tub isn't what it seems, and they accidentally end up traveling back to 1986. The four friends scramble to find a way back to present day. Starring John Cusack and Craig Robinson.

12 Monkeys (1995)

After a deadly virus destroys humanity in 1996, survivors are forced underground. Decades later, prisoner James (Bruce Willis) agrees to go back in time to find the original virus, so that scientists can work on a cure. However, he arrives too early in 1990, and is promptly institutionalized, where he meets Jeffrey (Brad Pitt), an anti-corporate environmentalist. From there, the mystery only gets more intriguing.

Looper (2012)

In the future, time travel is used by the mob to assassinate people, who are sent back in time and killed by assassins known as "loopers." Joe's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) older self (Bruce Willis) is sent back to be eliminated, but manages to escape before he is killed. Thus begins a twisty time travel epic, that also stars Emily Blunt.

Tenet (2020)

The Protagonist ( John David Washington ), a former CIA agent, is tasked with stopping World War III. Learning to bend time, he attempts to prevent the destruction of the world. Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki co-star.

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Aspiring fashion designer Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) manages to travel back to the 1960s, where she meets singer "Sandie" ( Anya Taylor-Joy ). What starts as a glamorous encounter with the past soon becomings a horrifying nightmare. Co-starring Matt Smith.

Déjà Vu (2006)

A top secret organization has developed the ability to see four days into the past, in order to catch criminals. While hunting a terrorist, ATF agent Doug (Denzel Washington) realizes that this new technology might allow him to stop crimes from happening altogether.

Source Code (2011)

An unusual riff on the time travel movie, Source Code stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Army Captain Colter, who is trying to identify the person responsible for bombing a commuter train. Re-living an eight minute re-creation of the moments leading up to the explosion, Colter is stuck in a terrifying loop, until he can solve the mystery.

Mirai (2018)

A young boy called Kun runs away from home, as he feels neglected by his family after the arrival of his little sister, Mirai. Kun accidentally discovers a time travel portal in a magic garden, and is transported into the past, where he meets his mother as a child. Later, he travels to the future, where he finds his sister as an adult, and completely changes his outlook in the process.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Aubrey Plaza stars as an aspiring journalist whose latest assignment involves a mysterious classified ad about time travel. "You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED," the ad reads. Mark Duplass co-stars.

Groundhog Day (1993)

Although Groundhog Day is technically a "time loop" movie, it wouldn't feel right to leave it off the list. Phil (Bill Murray) is a disgruntled weatherman sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. When he wakes up the next day, he realizes that he's re-living February 2, which happens again and again, until he figures out how to stop it.

Needle in a Timestack (2021)

The wonderful Cynthia Erivo stars alongside Orlando Bloom, Leslie Odom Jr., and Freida Pinto in this romantic sci-fi flick. In the future, the wealthy are able to partake in "time jaunting," but the ripples from these changes often cause timelines to warp and change. Needle in a Timestack focuses on a happily married couple whose relationship is jeopardized by an ex intent on changing history.

The Lake House (2006)

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves star in this completely cheesy but endlessly loveable rom-com that defies time. Architect Alex (Reeves) and doctor Kate (Bullock) write letters to one another via a mailbox at a lake house where they both live at separate times. Despite the time difference, they're able to communicate with one another and forge a relationship via this magical postal system that transcends time.

Predestination (2015)

Ethan Hawke stars as an agent tasked with stopping a deadly attack before it happens, via time travel. Traveling back to 1975, he attempts to find and stop a bomber in New York, but his mission is far from simple. When he returns to the future, his life only gets more complicated.

Amy Mackelden is a freelance writer, editor, and disability activist. Her bylines include Harper's BAZAAR, Nicki Swift, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, ELLE, The Independent, Bustle, Healthline, and HelloGiggles. She co-edited The Emma Press Anthology of Illness , and previously spent all of her money on Kylie Cosmetics.

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The Best Time Travel Movies for a Brief Escape from 2023

We don't have time machines yet, so these films are the next best thing.

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Add these titles to your watch list to awaken the time traveler within you. From Japanese animations to over-the-top comedies to dramas saturated with social commentary, these films all have one thing in common: They'll boggle your mind and make you think, while keeping you entertained. But remember, no matter how cool it looks to fly in a time-traveling spaceship, the present moment is and always will be the most important time there is.

13 Going on 30 (2004)

Before anyone tries to suggest that 13 Going on 30 isn't a time travel movie, I'd like to point out that Jenna Rink seamlessly moves between the present and the future, navigating alternate timelines with ease. In this female-led riff on the Big story, Jenna Rink wishes to escape high school and become “thirty, flirty, and thriving.” With the help of a little magic wishing dust, Jenna gets her dream, waking up in the future as a successful magazine writer who looks just like Jennifer Garner. However, she's lost touch with her childhood bestie Matty (Mark Ruffalo), and she can't help but wonder what could have been.

Tenet (2020)

Christopher Nolan's epic sci-fi flick stars Denzel Washington's son, John David Washington, as The Protagonist, a former CIA agent enlisted with stopping World War III, which is no mean feat. In order to prevent the world's total destruction, The Protagonist learns to bend time, leading to some pretty trippy storylines. Robert Pattinson and The Crown 's Elizabeth Debicki co-star.

Watch Now on Prime Video

Meet Cute (2022)

Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson make a delightful couple in Peacock's deliciously dark romantic comedy Meet Cute . Cuoco plays Sheila, a woman having suicidal thoughts until she discovers a time machine in the back of a nail salon. Chronically unlucky in love, Sheila decides to go back in time 24 hours so that she can re-live her first date with Gary (Davidson), trying to create the perfect evening each time. However, the ability to time travel comes with some drawbacks, and the temptation to mess with history is pretty overbearing, especially in the search for true love.

Watch Now on Peacock

About Time (2013)

Richard Curtis' About Time employs time travel in an extremely inventive way to tell a (probably sweet) love story; though there's been much discourse around the story's portrayal of consent, or lack thereof. The movie follows Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), a man looking for love, who inherits the ability to travel through time from his father. Using his newfound gift, Tim courts Mary (Rachel McAdams), attempting to build a relationship in spite of any obstacles in the way.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass star in this intriguing indie film about the possibility of time travel. Plaza plays an aspiring journalist who takes on a very strange assignment involving a bizarre personal ad. “You'll get paid after we get back,” it reads. “Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.” What starts as an unlikely hoax soon challenges everyone's beliefs about the ability to travel through time.

Watch Now on Amazon

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

2017's Happy Death Day delighted fans with its innovative twist on the time loop comedy. 2019's Happy Death Day 2U takes the concept to another level, and will have time travel aficionados screaming. Having escaped from her original time loop, Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself being hunted by the Babyface killer once more. After one of Tree's classmates develops an experimental quantum reactor, Tree finds herself caught in a brand new loop, and she's forced to find even more inventive ways to escape.

Needle in a Timestack (2021)

Needle in a Timestack is a romantic drama presenting an alternate future in which the rich are able to time travel for fun. However, these “time jaunts” have very real consequences, and often send ripples through the lives of the less wealthy. The film focuses on a happily married couple whose relationship is threatened when a wealthy ex decides to tamper with the timeline. The all-star cast includes Cynthia Erivo, Orlando Bloom, Leslie Odom Jr., and Freida Pinto.

Watch Now on Apple TV

Kate & Leopold (2001)

Kate & Leopold stars Hugh Jackman as a 19th century duke who is accidentally transported to 21st century New York by one of his ancestors. Amateur physicist Stuart discovers that he can use gravitational time portals, bringing Leopold to the present day without meaning to. Stuart's ex-girlfriend Kate (Meg Ryan) hilariously hits it off with Leopold, despite the fact that he's set to travel back to his own time period the following week.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Before dedicating his life to the Avatar franchise , James Cameron was responsible for a plethora of fun blockbusters, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day . Expanding upon the first film, Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, finds herself targeted by Skynet once again. This time, a killer T-1000 Terminator is sent back in time to assassinate Sarah's teenage son, John (Edward Furlong), the future leader of the resistance. Meanwhile, a reprogrammed, and much funnier, T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back to protect Connor. Easily the best installment in the franchise.

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Mirai (2018)

The Japanese animated film Mirai is a dreamy adventure fantasy about a four-year-old boy named Kun, who starts feeling neglected when his little sister is born. Fleeing to the garden of his new house, Kun accidentally discovers a time travel portal. Throughout his wondrous journey, Kun encounters his mother as a child, and his little sister as an adult, learning so much about his family in the process.

Watch Now on Netflix

When We First Met (2018)

Noah (Adam DeVine) regrets missing his chance with Avery (Alexandra Daddario), especially when she meets her future fiancé, Ethan, the very next day. At Avery and Ethan's engagement party, an incredibly drunk Noah ends up in a photo booth, which transports him back in time. Hoping for a second chance, Noah uses the photo booth on multiple occasions, but he ends up altering the course of everyone's lives in the process, for better and worse.

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Edgar Wright's dazzling psychological thriller follows aspiring fashion designer Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), who manages to time travel back to the 1960s. There, she meets Sandie, a striking woman trying to get her start as a singer. Ellie's fashion designs become infused with the glamour she witnesses in the '60s, as well as the darkness she finds there. Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith co-star.

The Lake House (2006)

After demonstrating some intense chemistry in Speed , Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves reunited for 2006's The Lake House , a romantic drama with a time travel twist. Architect Alex (Reeves) and doctor Kate (Bullock) find themselves living in the same house, but years apart. By some magical turn of events, they're able to communicate by writing letters to one another via the Lake House's mailbox. Despite the distance between them, Alex and Kate strike up a romance thanks to their time traveling letters.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

A list of the best time travel movies wouldn't be complete with at least one of the Bill & Ted movies on it. 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is responsible for launching Keanu Reeves's career, and it remains one of the most enjoyable films from the era. In the first movie, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are failing history, until they magically discover a phone booth that just so happens to be a time machine. The academically-challenged pair meet some of history's most important figures, who they enlist to help with their dreaded school assignment.

Groundhog Day (1993)

Groundhog Day may belong in the "time loop" sub-genre of time travel movies, but it most definitely deserves a place on this list. Bill Murray's performance as disgruntled weatherman Phil is literally iconic, and the fun begins when he's set to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the annual Groundhog Day event. Unfortunately for Phil, his worst nightmare is realized when he wakes up the next morning to find that he must relive February 2 again. The hilarious time loop is made even better by Murray's co-star, Andie MacDowell.

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Back To The Future (1985)

This classic sets the scene for all time-travel movies that came after it. When 17-year-old high school student Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) hops into in a time-traveling car invented by his scientist friend Doc (Christopher Lloyd), he is accidentally sent 30 years into the past. From the moment he lands in 1955, Marty just wants to get back to the future. So, he embarks on a hysterical adventure to ensure his teenage parents-to-be meet and fall in love so that he can get back to life as he knows it. There are two sequels to the film, Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III , all of which deserve their own plaque in the time travel movie hall of fame too.

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Avengers: End Game (2019)

The dramatic finale to The Infinity Saga (comprised of 23 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Avengers: Endgame pulls out all the stops. This epic showdown between the Avengers and Thanos uses newly discovered time travel technology to give the Earth's Mightiest Heroes a chance to win another battle. When Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) devises a time-bending strategy to gather all the Infinity stones, he enlists the help of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to build a special device to time-jump. But with his new priorities as a family man, Tony is wary of altering history in any major way. So, instead of going back in time, they decide to bring back their fallen friends into their current timeline, five years later. Once reunited, the Avengers assemble to restore balance to the universe.

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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

This surreal A24 sci-fi flick is a brilliant take on the multiverse. Teeming with enchanting visuals, the action film features a Chinese-American woman named Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) who co-owns a little laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). She feels trapped in an unfulfilling marriage and is struggling to make ends meet. However, when she accidentally discovers the multiverse, she is granted an opportunity to reach her full potential. While a tale of time travel, EEAAO is ultimately a story of self discovery. Directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (collectively nicknamed “The Daniels”) are the minds behind this epic inter-dimensional adventure, which brings to light the powers hidden within every individual. You may want to consider the advice of one viewer who said, “Don’t do drugs, watch this instead.”

See You Yesterday (2019)

An amalgamation of time travel fantasy, political critique, and powerful family ties, See You Yesterday is a movie you don't want to miss. Produced by Spike Lee and directed by Stefon Bristol, who was taken under Professor Lee's wing while attending NYU's graduate film program, the story features two prestigious teenagers who spend all their spare time working on scientific inventions that eventually lead them to develop time travel technology. When her brother is caught in a fatal encounter with the police, Claudette “CJ” Walker (Eden Duncan-Smith) builds two time machines that can help her and her friend Sebastian (Danté Crichlow) change the series of events that lead to CJ’s brother getting killed. But their experience leads them to time travel's greatest truth: All actions have a ripple effect that can change the present moment in unseen ways. The film critically engages with police brutality and was made by a team of creators of predominantly African descent to bring you this time-travel adventure that will leave you entertained, engaged, and inspired.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Hot tubs have a good reputation for their steamy bubbles and even steamier memories. But what if they also doubled as time travel devices? This hilarious guilty-pleasure comedy features three pals who are caught in a rut in their adulthood, from being freshly dumped by a girlfriend, to being stuck in a dead-end job, to drinking away the sorrows of having accomplished absolutely nothing by the age of 40. Needless to say, these friends could all use a life upgrade. Luckily, when they venture into a magic hot tub at a winter resort, they accidentally travel back to 1986 and are given a second chance at life. Their tumultuous journey through the past leads them to be more conscious about the future. Plus, they have the opportunity to do a few things differently. When the hot tub teleports them back into the present day, each of them is better than they left off. Most hot tubs leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, but this one took it to a whole other level.

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The 15 Most Creative, Mind-Bending Time Travel Movies Ever Made

With Safety Not Guaranteed and About Time , these are the best movies about time travel you haven't seen yet.

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Ever wish you could go back in time and handle a situation differently — or live through a historic event before your time? You're not the only one. Time travel has captured the imagination of countless creatives over the years, giving us some fascinating, morally challenging and even hilarious movies. We may not be able to talk a walk into the past — but as some of these films prove, that may be a good thing.

About Time (2013)

Instead of altering history and life as we know it, the protagonist in this charming British film uses his time-traveling abilities for something a little more relatable: finding love. The result is a surprisingly sweet and criminally underrated romantic comedy.

RELATED: The 60 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time to Stream Right Now

Predestination (2015)

Based on Robert Heinlein’s short story All You Zombies , this Ethan Hawke movie will leave you guessing (and second-guessing) the whole time. Without spoiling the ending, it's definitely worth watching again.

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

Of the three movies where Rachel McAdams dates a time traveling man (girlfriend's got a type), the drama is definitely the most serious. Based on Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel of the same name, Clare tries to build a life with the man she loves — while dealing with the fact he has no control over where and when he will travel through time.

Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

Excellent! You're going to want to revisit this goofy, fun time travel flick before Keanu Reeves returns for the upcoming sequel.

Groundhog Day (1993)

Does living the same day over-and-over again count as time travel? This Bill Murray film about a weather man trapped in the worst day of his life is a classic, so we're going to count it.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Marvel fans are probably already familiar with Benedict Cumberbatch's role as a neurosurgeon with the powers to access alternate dimensions, but even if you're not familiar with the Marvel Universe, you can still enjoy this superhero romp.

RELATED: How to Watch All 24 Marvel Movies in the Correct Order

Back to the Future (1985)

If you're looking for some good, old-fashioned nostalgia, this 80s classic holds up! Michael J. Fox stars as Marty McFly, a teen who accidentally who accidentally gets stuck in the 1950s thanks to his mad scientist friend — and must make sure his parents fall in love with each other so he can still exist!

Interstellar (2014)

Trippy, mind-bending, and everything you want out of a time-travel movie, Christopher Nolan's time-traveling space epic will stay with you long after you finish watching,

Donnie Darko (2001)

Though it initially flopped at the box office, this film gathered a cult-following when it was released on DVD, thanks to Jake Gyllenhaal's intense performance and the surrealist images and themes just waiting to be dissected and discussed. See if you can untangle this famously dense plot for yourself.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

One of the best Harry Potter films happens to also be a time-traveling tale. Hermione uses a "Time Turner" to take more classes at Hogwarts, but that's not all Harry and his friends use the device for.

Time Bandits (1981)

Terry Gilliam's endlessly imaginative film follows an 11-year-old boy who teams up with 6 dwarves for an adventure through time.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

A classified ad from a mysterious man looking for a time-traveling companion intrigues three cynical Seattle journalists. An unexpected connection forms between the would-be scientist and one of the reporters in this low-key indie.

Primer (2004)

Two engineers create an invention that can alter time — and butt heads over how to handle the magnitude of their creation.

Time After Time (1971)

H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper in 1970's San Fransisco — as outlandish as the premise is, it's a fascinating movie once you get on board with it.

The Terminator (1984)

Two time travelers from the future, an evil cyborg and a resistance fighter, fight over the life of modern woman Sarah Connor, after it's revealed her fate can save humanity.

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25 of the Best Time Travel Movies Ever Made

These films will have you flying through the years, decades and dimensions—and ready to do it over and over again.

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From star-crossed lovers to harrowing action sequences, the plots to these films didn't stay in one dimension.

Back to the Future

What is a list of time travel classics a without a nod to Marty McFly and his friend Doc Brown from the 1980's classic, Back to the Future ? Although the second and third movie are equally as entertaining– it's hard to beat the original.

Somewhere in Time

Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour play the ultimate time-crossed lovers in this romantic drama that will have you rooting for time to be by their side.

The Lake House

Settle in for a mystifying romance and watch the relationship between the characters of Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves unfold — all while they are communicating with each other separated by two years of time.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Every marriage requires work, but when your husband has a condition that causes him to involuntarily time travel– your issues are outside the normal scope of relationship stressors. The romantic drama starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana follows a newlywed couple through the trials and tribulations of their unusual relationship.

Palm Springs

When carefree Nyles (Andy Samberg) and reluctant maid of honor Sarah (Cristin Milioti) have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, the two get stuck in a time loop that they can't escape.

Kate & Leopold

A 19th-century bachelor (Hugh Jackman) falls through time and meets a 21st-century woman (Meg Ryan). What more could you want in a time travel movie, honestly?!

Time After Time

No, not the Cyndi Lauper song: this is a time travel movie where H.G. Wells (Malcom McDowell) chases Jack the Ripper (David Warner) through time, and they end up in... 1979 San Francisco! When there, Wells falls for a bank clerk named Amy (Mary Steenburgen). There's a bit of everything: Romance, action, adventure, and obviously, time travel.

Source Code

When Jake Gyllenhaal finds himself inside the body of a man he doesn't know, he quickly figures out there's an important reason for why he's been sent back in time. The film's plot twists as well as the climax of his pressure-filled mission makes for incredible action and drama.

Donnie Darko

A cult classic ever since it's release in 2001, Donnie Darko takes a dark twist on teenage time travel.

Interstellar

Interstellar left audiences perplexed, bewildered, and all around baffled as it's characters journey through a wormhole in space.

Groundhog Day

Ever used the term groundhog day to describe a never-ending day? Well you can thank the 1993 film for that! Comedian Bill Murray stars as a weatherman who finds himself trapped reliving the same day over and over again.

In Loop , actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt star in the marvelous film that combines the the best traits of a mob drama with the intrigue of the space-time continuum.

13 Going on 30

As a thirteen-year old in the 1980's, all Jenna Rink wants is to skip over her teenage years and live as a sophisticated and self-assured 30 year old (who didn't want that?). But when she gets exactly what she's dreamed of, she realizes it's not everything she though it'd be. In a film which imbues the message "enjoy the journey not the destination" cliche, Jennifer Garner does an amazing job of keeping the role refreshing and sweet.

Predestination

The intertemporal plots of the film Predestination along with actor Ethan Hawke's marvelous performance will leave you wanting to view it over and over again.

The Family Man

Although the film Family Man is more about an alternate universe than actual time travel, watching Nicolas Cage portray an investment banking bachelor who gets thrust into the life of a suburban dad to teach him what really matters in life is just too good not to recommend it.

Doctor Strange

Marvel dips its toe into the world of time travel with the release of Doctor Strange, the story of a neurosurgeon who introduces the audiences to an entire world of alternate dimensions.

Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow takes the winning concept behind Groundhog Day and combines it with an action-fueled adventure starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.

The film was met with mixed reviews from critics, however the plot's time travel complexities are extremely well done and will satisfy any sci-fi lover.

What would you do if you could go back in time and re-do any moment? We're sure you'd change a few corny pick-up lines, awkward conversations, and coulda-woulda-shoulda moments and that's exactly what you'll find in this romantic comedy meets fantasy drama.

The Adjustment Bureau

Matt Damon and Emily Blunt will captivate you as they protect their love from a mysterious group that is aiming to tear them apart.

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Top 10 Best Time-Travel Romance Movies

#10: “Kate & Leopold” (2001)

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Director James Mangold rarely dips his toes in the romantic comedy genre, but when he does he’s known for delivering endlessly entertaining high-concept flicks. “Kate & Leopold” is no exception, asking audiences to suspend their disbelief for just over two hours in order to appreciate the humor and love shared between the two titular characters. The film is about a 19th century duke who finds himself transported to modern day New York City. There he meets Kate, a market researcher, and the two quickly fall in love. The film doesn’t overplay the time travel aspect of the story, instead choosing to focus on the relationship between the two leads. Hugh Jackman earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance and it’s easy to see why.

#9: “Back to the Future Part III” (1990)

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Known more for its depiction of time travel than for its romantic subplots, few could deny that the “Back to the Future” film series has featured a number of iconic romances. In fact, the original film was almost exclusively about Marty trying to make his parents fall in love. In “Back to the Future Part III,” it was Dr. Emmett Brown who found himself pierced by cupid’s arrow, falling for fellow science-lover Clara Clayton after saving her from an untimely demise. While the film is far from a rom-com, the scenes featuring Doc and Clara are undeniably sweet and their relationship brings closure to a part of Doc’s arc we never thought we needed to see.

#8: “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986)

While dated in some areas, “Peggy Sue Got Married” is nonetheless a thoroughly enjoyable film, with big names both on-screen and off. Helmed by legendary director Francis Ford Coppola and starring Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage, the film tells the story of a jaded divorcee trying to get over her ex-husband’s infidelities, who is suddenly transported back in time to her senior year of high school. While in the past, she gleans information about her future that she’d previously overlooked and, in the process, manages to forgive her husband’s mistakes. The film is worth revisiting for Turner’s performance alone, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

#7: “Somewhere in Time” (1980)

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While time travel romance flicks often lean towards the comedic, there are others that throw themselves wholeheartedly into the melancholic nature of finding the love of your life in the past. One such film is “Somewhere in Time,” starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Reeve plays Richard Collier, a playwright living in 1980 who is bewitched by the portrait of a woman from 1912. Through the power of hypnosis, he travels back in time to be with her, and the two quickly fall in love. The chemistry between Reeve and Seymour is palpable, making the film’s ending all the more emotional.

#6: “The Lake House” (2006)

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While critics were quick to judge “The Lake House’s” for its convoluted premise and narrative inconsistencies, others, such as Roger Ebert, were quick to point out that “A time travel story works on emotional, not temporal, logic.” When viewed from that perspective, “The Lake House” is not only one of the best romantic films of the 2000s, but one of the most imaginative time travel flicks as well. Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock deliver passionate performances as two lovers living in different times, who manage to communicate through their lake house mailbox. Rooting for two characters to get together despite their difficult circumstances has never been so easy.

#5: “Midnight in Paris” (2011)

“Midnight in Paris” might just be Woody Allen’s most complete film. It’s certainly one of his best written, winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The film centers on screenwriter Gil Pender, who is obsessed with the literary world of the 1920s. During a visit to Paris, he is magically transported to his dream era, where he meets everyone from Ernest Hemingway to Pablo Picasso. He also meets and falls in love with a beautiful muse named Adriana. However, despite the vigor he once felt, he soon discovers that his ideal time period may eventually sour on him. So, will he continue to escape to the 1920s or learn to function in his own time?

#4: “13 Going on 30” (2004)

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Be careful what you wish for! “13 Going on 30” is about Jenna Rink, a girl who wants nothing more than to be one of the popular girls. However, when the popular girls pull a mean prank at her 13th birthday party, she cries and wishes that she could be a 30-year-old woman. The next morning, she is both shocked and elated to wake up in her 30-year-old body. Unfortunately for Jenna, it appears she turned into a bit of a jerk during those missing 17 years and is now estranged from both her parents and her former best friend, Matty. Featuring heartfelt and hilarious performances from Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo, “13 Going on 30” is a coming-of-age story that definitely sticks the landing.

#3: “Groundhog Day” (1993)

The verdict: is groundhog day a time travel movie.

The time travel genre is as much about second chances as it is about imaginative plot devices. From “If Only” to “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” time travel is often used as a way to show wayward men the error of their ways. Few films did it with as much heart and humor as “Groundhog Day.” Known for Bill Murray’s curmudgeonly performance and popularizing the time loop trope, the film touches upon everything that makes cinematic time travel great. From getting to punch the annoying guy in the face to finally winning over the woman you love, the film is pure escapism. However, at its core, it’s about love and the things we’re willing to do for it… such as spending 10,000 years in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

#2: “The Time Traveler's Wife” (2009)

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Starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams as the titular time traveler and his wife, this film weaves a complicated narrative, one that involves one of cinematic history’s most impossible romances. Bana plays Henry DeTamble, a man who sporadically travels through time with no control over when he will disappear or where he will end up. Keeping him grounded is his wife Clare, who knows more about him than he does about himself - thanks to his constant unplanned temporal travels. Through their love for one another, they manage to endure the trials and tribulations of Henry’s condition… for a time. All we’ll say is that you’d be wise to have a box of tissue ready at the end of this one… Before we unveil our top pick, here are some honorable mentions: “When We First Met” (2018) “Happy Accidents” (2000) “Safety Not Guaranteed” (2012) “Time After Time” (1979) “Les Visiteurs” (1993)

#1: “About Time” (2013)

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Featuring a who’s who of lovable actors, from Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams to Bill Nighy and a young Margot Robbie, the film is about a young man who upon turning 21 discovers that the men in his family can travel to different points in their own lives. Armed with this newfound knowledge, Gleeson’s character embarks on a quest to win over the love of his life. Along the way, he discovers what it means to live each day as if it were the last and to cherish the time he has with his friends and family. Featuring great writing and a fantastic soundtrack, “About Time” is the perfect date night flick. Exactly how many time travelers can McAdams date, though?

The 20 best time-travel movies – ranked!

As Adam Driver accidentally winds up 65m years ago , facing not just dinosaurs but an asteroid, we count down the best films about going backwards, or forwards, through the ages

20. Timecop (1994)

Regardless of what anyone says, I believe in my heart that Timecop was greenlit because someone showed a studio executive a picture of Jean-Claude Van Damme and said the word “Timecop” out loud, at which point they had to throw a script together as quickly as possible. Nothing about Timecop makes sense. It is the most 90s film ever made.

19. Tenet (2020)

I have to be careful here, because Tenet might not be a time-travel movie. Certainly time passes in it and some of the people are going backwards in time in it. But I’ve seen this movie twice now, and it mainly just seems to be about people mumbling everything, except for Kenneth Branagh, who gets to shout very loudly three times. Anyway, here it is.

18. Cavegirl (1985)

Finally, a film that uses time-travel for the correct reason; to allow a horny 1980s high school student to go back to prehistory so that he can convince a smoking hot, bikini-wearing cavegirl to have it off with him. You will note I’ve ranked this above Tenet .

17. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Weird to think that Austin Powers was originally a fish-out-of-water comedy, in which the promiscuous titular character had to navigate the (then) uptight world of the 1990s. That all fell apart for the sequel, where Powers was sent back to the 60s to shout his catchphrases at people who actually appreciated them. That makes it a time-travel movie, right?

16. The Butterfly Effect (2004)

God, this film. In summary: Ashton Kutcher plays a man who experiences blackouts, only to learn some years later that he can travel back in time and inhabit his younger self’s mind during the blackouts. But in doing so, he unleashes a world of unintended consequences. He becomes a murderer and loses limbs. Seek out the director’s cut if you can, because it ends with Kutcher’s character deliberately strangling himself in the womb with his umbilical cord. No, really.

15. The Tomorrow War (2021)

Wherein Chris Pratt is drafted into a war that takes place 26 years later, because the invading aliens have already killed all the soldiers who were alive at the time. It’s a great premise for a film – we all pay the price for the actions of other generations – let down by a truly confusing ending. Admit it, you forgot this film even existed, even though it cost $200m to make and only came out 18 months ago.

14. The Time Travelers (1964)

A 1964 movie made on the cheap with genuinely terrible effects, The Time Travelers is about a group of scientists who travel to the future, fight some mutants and then return. What sets it apart, though, is its crazed ending. The film ends with the scientists venturing into the distant future, whereupon the film plays through again, faster and faster and faster until it cuts away to a still of the galaxy. Are they trapped in a loop? Is free will an illusion? Did the producers just run out of money? We may never know.

13. The Adam Project (2022)

In which a young boy’s life is turned upside down when he is visited by an older version of himself from the future. The good news? He grows up to be a fighter pilot. The bad news? He also grows up to have all the cadences and surface-level snarky patter of Ryan Reynolds. What follows is a buddy movie where the two buddies are the same person.

12. Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

So seminal that it was namechecked in Avengers: Endgame . A flat-out comedy that primarily exists to allow a bunch of middle-aged men to act like teenagers, Hot Tub Time Machine is a film about an enchanted Jacuzzi that sends people back to the mid-1980s. Possibly a bit too bawdy for its own good, there’s a hint of a message about the unreliability of nostalgia here.

11. Flight of the Navigator (1986)

This family film involves a young boy who goes missing in a Fort Lauderdale ravine, only to show up eight years later having not aged. There are UFOs and rubbery little creatures and whatnot, but there’s a real emotional wallop to the moment when the boy realises that the world has moved on without him, right down to the scene (that plays out like a horror movie) where the boy realises that his parents have become unrecognisably ancient, even though they are probably only in their early 40s.

10. Primer (2004)

Some see Shane Carruth’s Primer as the gold standard of what a time-travel film should be. It’s the sort of movie that seems unnervingly realistic, from the down-at-heel engineers to the unshowy nature of time travel itself, where people in effect just get in and out of some boxes. Almost entirely unwilling to explain itself, for years Primer fans have come to rely on a series of graphs and charts to figure out what the film actually is.

9. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

A time-travel movie that may or may not have any actual time-travel in it, Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed is a delicate wonder of a thing. A man places an ad in a magazine asking for a time-travel companion – “Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before” – and the respondents slowly come to realise that all is not quite as it seems.

8. Planet of the Apes (1968)

If you haven’t seen Planet of the Apes, then the fact that I’ve put it on a list of time-travel movies is probably quite a heavy spoiler, and for that I’m sorry. But what a reveal this is – what seems at first like a silly movie about Charlton Heston being persecuted by some monkeys quickly becomes something darker and much more sinister. That new Adam Driver movie probably could have achieved something similar, if it hadn’t blabbed its big secret in the trailer.

7. Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Endgame is a lot, so much so that it is effectively a time-travel movie bookended by two entirely separate movies. And, yes, it takes a lot of liberties with time-travel, from Tony Stark’s “Huh, I did it” invention to the lazy referencing of other time-travel movies as a shorthand for what the characters can do. Nevertheless, when they get to it, the film nails it. The Battle of New York is the obvious highlight, with Captain America fighting Captain America and the Hulk embarrassed by his unreconstructed former self, but the heart of the film really comes when Tony meets his father as a man and learns to let go of the past.

6. Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is also a lot. But at its core is a simple ethical quandary: would you try to save the world if it meant missing your children’s entire lives? Matthew McConaughey has to touch down on a planet during a space trip. The problem is that every hour he spends there is equal to seven years on Earth. Is the trip important enough for him to miss seeing the wonder of his children grow into adults? Technically, if you want to be fussy about this, Interstellar is a time dilation movie rather than a time-travel movie. But it gets a pass, largely because McConaughey sells the agony of the moment so beautifully.

5. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

There are times when Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure feels like it was written by a toddler off his face on pop. But that’s a deliberate ploy, a way to camouflage all the careful rigour that underpins the script. The lead characters are initially reluctant to embark on their time-travel adventure, until they’re visited by versions of themselves from the near future who compel them to do it; a beautiful and hilarious example of predestination in action. Extra points are awarded thanks to the film’s total lack of interest in consequences. Swiping Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon from their respective eras has no bearing on world history whatsoever, which is probably quite lucky.

4. Looper (2012)

One problem with time-travel movies is that the rules always need to be explained upfront. In lesser hands, this can lead to all manner of clunky, stilted exposition. But when Rian Johnson dabbled in the genre with Looper , he gave us a masterclass in “show, don’t tell”. The sequence where poor Paul Dano’s character is tortured at two different points in time simultaneously, with the older version following instructions carved into the younger version’s arm, is arguably one of the most inventive uses of time-travel in the entire history of cinema. All that plus this is Bruce Willis’s last truly great performance.

3. The Terminator (1984)/Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

The lure of the first two Terminator movies were the killer robots running around murdering everyone. But they were very smartly built around a framework of pure time-travel. We only see the future in brief flashes, but what’s important is the present. It is very, very important that Kyle Reese (a guy from the future) has sex with Sarah Connor (a woman from the present), because only that will save humanity as we know it. It’s a hell of a pickup line, but the device also elevates what could have simply been a shonky B-movie into the realm of the classics.

2. Idiocracy (2006)

The smartest time-travel movies use the device as a mirror, telling us more about the times we live in now than the times the characters visit. Enter Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s stinging satire about modern times. An average person is cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the future, shocked to discover that the global IQ has fallen off a cliff in the intervening years. Surrounded by aggressive stupidity, he single-handedly saves the US from famine by suggesting that they use water – and not an electrolyte drink – to grow crops. We are conservatively 15 years from this happening in real life.

1. Back to the Future (1985)/Back to the Future Part II (1989)

The only conceivable first choice. The first two Back to the Future films (the third, which is basically just a western, is far less imaginative) have come to define time-travel as a genre. They deliver a complex set of hard sci-fi rules about what can and cannot happen during time-travel and – miraculously – manage to do it in a way that kids can understand. Good music, cool clothes, a million catchphrases and, in the case of the second film, an unnervingly prescient prediction of how Donald Trump would turn out. Just perfect.

• Science fiction and fantasy films
• Back To The Future
• Avengers: Endgame
• Interstellar

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30 Best Time-Travel Movies to Watch If You’re Ready to Leave 2020 Behind

Does 2020 have you googling “best time-travel movies” as a last-resort attempt to try and transport yourself to a different version of reality? No, just us? Well, it's certainly understandable. Who wouldn't want to get out of this year, if only for a couple hours? The idea that you could potentially jump into a machine and change the past à la Back to the Future or stumble upon an infinite time loop like in Palm Springs is an interesting thought experiment, to say the least.

Or maybe you're just out of things to watch. Whatever the case, the best time-travel movies cover every genre. Looking for a tug-at-your-heartstrings romance? Try About Time or The Time Traveler's Wife (both of which star Rachel McAdams , who must have a thing for time travel). If a sci-fi action flick sounds more appealing, the Terminator films still hold up. For a goofy comedy, watch Hot Tub Time Machine or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Like we said, there's something for everyone. 

Palm Springs (2020)

So Palm Springs is not technically a time-travel movie, but it's definitely time-travel adjacent. The film follows Sarah (Cristin Milioti) and Nyles (Andy Samberg), two acquaintances who find themselves perpetually repeating Sarah's sister's wedding day. Frankly, this rom-com might remind you of your own quarantine time loop (in the best way possible, of course).  

Available to stream on Hulu

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

A group of buddies (John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Rob Corddry) wake up after a night of partying in a ski resort hot tub to find themselves back in 1986. They even look like versions of their younger selves to the others they meet along the way. But can they actually fix the messes their lives have become? 

Available to rent on Amazon Prime Video

The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)

The Time Traveler's Wife is a 2009 science fiction drama film based on Audrey Niffenegger's novel of the same name. The story follows Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana), a man who happens to have the ability to time-travel but has no control over when or where he goes in time. While that's complicated enough, things become even more complex for DeTamble once he starts building a romantic relationship with Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams).

Available to stream on Netflix  

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 science fiction thriller film starring Ashton Kutcher as 20-year-old Evan Treborn and Amy Smart as Kayleigh Miller, Treborn's college sweetheart. In the film, Evan finds he can travel back in time to inhabit his former self and attempts to change the present by changing his past. But, as any good time-travel fan can tell you, changing the past means there will be unintended consequences in the future. 

By Héloïse Salessy

By Kathleen Walsh

Idiocracy (2006)

Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) is a super-average dude in 2005 who agrees to take part in an experiment (alongside Maya Rudolph ) that puts him into hibernation until 2505. The thing is, when he wakes up, he discovers that humans have become so unintelligent that he's now the smartest person in the whole wide world. It's both hysterical and a cutting satire that draws some parallels to our current state of affairs. 

Available to buy on iTunes

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

Ava DuVernay directed an all-star cast in this Disney adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's beloved 1962 novel of the same name. Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling play three immortal beings who help a young girl (Storm Reid) search for her missing father across space and time.

Click (2006)

Adam Sandler plays a man whose wife (Kate Beckinsale) is frustrated by how much time he spends at work and away from his family. He thinks all his problems are solved when he comes into possession of a magical remote that allows him to fast-forward through the mundane parts of life. But, of course, nothing's quite that simple. 

About Time (2013)

No, you're not seeing things—Rachel McAdams has, in fact, starred in multiple films in which she has a time-traveling partner. In this case, her love is played by Domhnall Gleeson, who is actively trying to change his past in order to have a better future. Prepare to possibly shed a tear or two with this one. 

Available to stream on Netflix

Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

Yeah, baby! In the second installment of the Mike Myers series, Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, and the whole crew find themselves back in the ’60s. Dr. Evil is trying to steal Austin’s “mojo,” and along with Heather Graham's Felicity Shagwell, the international man of mystery tries to thwart the bad guys. 

Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

After conquering the late ’60s in the second film, the Austin Powers trilogy is completed with a trip back to 1975. Austin teams up with Beyoncé, a.k.a. Foxxy Cleopatra, when Dr. Evil plans to bring back a notorious villain called Johan van der Smut, the titular Goldmember. It is as ridiculous and amusing as the first two films, naturally. 

Back to the Future (1985)

Great Scott! Doc Brown's (Christopher Lloyd) DeLorean time machine sends Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) back to his parents' high school days in 1955, and things get very awkward when his mom (Lea Thompson) develops a crush on him. He has to work hard to make sure his future existence isn't totally erased. 

Back to the Future Part II (1989)

In the second film of the Back to the Future franchise, Marty and Doc find themselves in yet another time-space conundrum. This time they have to travel to 2015 (a world that people in the ’80s imagined would have us all on hoverboards!) to try to make sure the evil Biff doesn’t take over the town. 

Back to the Future Part III (2000)

The third installment of the Back to the Future trilogy may not be its strongest, but if you're a completist, you're going to want to see Marty's journey through. This time around he and Doc Brown find themselves in the Wild Wild West. Actually, is this the movie that eventually led us to Westworld ?!?

Deja Vu (2006)

Technology allows a team of federal agents, including Denzel Washington, to go back in time four days to try to stop a massive ferry bombing set off by a terrorist (Jim Caviezel, who also time-traveled in Frequency ). But will Washington's character also use the tech to stop other crimes, thereby messing with the future? You'll have to watch and see. 

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

In the sequel to Happy Death Day , Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself in yet another time-loop situation—and this time she seemingly moves through different dimensions. While her life is still very much in danger, this sequel adds some very emotional scenes that happen when an important figure from Tree's past makes her way into the present. 

Looper (2012)

In Looper 's version of the future, which was directed by Rian Johnson, time travel totally exists—if you can afford to pay for it on the black market. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a time-traveling hit man who finds himself in quite the predicament when a future version of himself (Bruce Willis) is sent back to eliminate him . 

See You Yesterday (2019)

Teen science prodigies experimenting in making time-travel backpacks? Um, we're already all the way in. But everything takes a dramatic turn when one of their brothers is killed and the two try to put their work into action to change the past. Did we mention this was also produced by Spike Lee? 

The Terminator (1984)

In this James Cameron action classic from the ’80s, a cyborg assassin who is disguising himself as a human (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) because of the threat her future son will one day become—and a blockbuster franchise was born. 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Set 11 years after the original film, this James Cameron–helmed sequel finds Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator in the role of protector of Linda Hamilton's son, played by Edward Furlong, because a shape-shifting T-1000 (Robert Patrick) is out to kill him, naturally. Also, Hamilton's fitness routine must have been incredible prefilming because she is a very strong badass . 

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) and Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter), go on quite the excellent adventure indeed, dudes. The best friends use a phone booth time machine to ensure they both pass their history class—and keep Ted from being shipped off to military school. Their interactions with historical figures are very righteous, and you'll want to watch the original film in preparation for the upcoming reboot . 

Kate & Leopold (2001)

Rom-com meets fantasy in this Meg Ryan–Hugh Jackman film in which Liev Schreiber plays a physicist who opens a portal through which his great-great-grandfather Leopold travels from 19th-century New York to modern times and falls in love with his ex-girlfriend (Ryan). Talk about complicated family dynamics, right? 

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

Peggy Sue is an unhappy woman on the verge of divorce attending her 25-year high school reunion after leaving her cheating husband (Nicolas Cage). Magically, she finds herself reliving her senior year and she's faced with whether or not to change some of the choices she grew to regret as an adult. 

Star Trek (2009)

Directed by science fiction king J.J. Abrams, this reboot of the beloved Star Trek franchise had a unique plot for James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), and the staff aboard the USS Enterprise: All the action takes place in an alternate reality, because of time travel, which allowed the movie to operate free from any continuity restraints from the original Star Trek series. 

Frequency (2000)

A New York police officer (Jim Caviezel) in 1999 somehow crosses radio frequencies (get it?!) with the past and soon begins to communicate with his father, a firefighter who died in the line of duty when he was a kid. But will he be able to change what transpired on that tragic day in 1969?

12 Monkeys (1995)

Maybe don't watch this one until you're ready for the too-real plot: A deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity, so a prisoner (Bruce Willis) is trained to be sent back in time to find the original virus and help establish a cure. Brad Pitt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film. 

Available to stream on HBO.

Men in Black III (2012)

Set 15 years after the events of the original Men in Black , this third installment in the franchise was a hit with critics and at the box office for its action-packed plot in which Agent J (Will Smith) must travel back to the 1960s to save a young Agent K (Josh Brolin, in the role originated by Tommy Lee Jones) from a murderous, time-hopping alien. 

Clockstoppers (2002)

If you're feeling an early-aughts teen comedy with a side of time travel, Clockstoppers is, well, your only option. Jesse Bradford plays Zak, the son of a scientist who accidentally finds a watch that can essentially stop time. So, of course, the first thing he does is use it to impress his crush Francesca (Paula Garcés) and best friend Meeker (Garikayi Mutambirwa). 

Available to stream on HBO

Somewhere in Time (1980)

Christopher Reeve stars as a playwright who becomes obsessed with the photograph of a woman from 1912 (Jane Seymour), to the point that he magically finds himself transported back in time to find her. Fun fact: Visit Michigan's Mackinac Island, where this was filmed, and you'll feel like you're in another era yourself. The island famously has a ban on motor vehicles. 

The Lake House (2006)

Keanu Reeves plays a hot architect, Alex, who renovates a lake house in Wisconsin and sometimes writes romantic love letters to Sandra Bullock's character, Kate. How is that a time-travel movie, you ask? Turns out Alex is living in 2004, while Kate is in 2006—somehow the mailbox at the lake house is a mysterious time portal. 

Deadpool 2 (2018)

In this superhero sequel, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) reluctantly teams up with the X-Men—including the incredible Zazie Beetz as Domino, a mutant with the ability to manipulate luck—to fight a time-traveling soldier known as Cable (Josh Brolin). Because this is a Deadpool movie, expect a lot of R-rated language and violence. 

By Andrea Navarro

By Talia Abbas

By Shanna Shipin

By Jake Henry Smith

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The 25 Greatest Time-Travel Movies Ever Made

It must say something, surely, about humans, how often time-travel movies are about returning to the past rather than jumping to the future. As Mark Duplass’s forlorn character says in Safety Not Guaranteed , “The mission has to do with regret.” With all the potential to explore the unknown world of the future, so often when our minds conspire to bend the rules of time it’s instead to rehash the old. It’s compelling to watch a character in a movie do what we cannot — right past wrongs or uncover the reason for or meaning behind the events in their lives, whether they be emotionally catastrophic or merely geopolitically motivated.

So absent is the future from the canon, in fact, that when it is involved, typically future dwellers are leaving their own time to come back to the present. Back to the Future Part II aside, it seems as if there’s something about going forward in time that just doesn’t track for humans. (Of course, you could argue that this is because the present-day concept of bidirectional time travel would infinitely multiply or change beyond recognition any future that may occur, but that’s a knot for another article.)

In any case, the time-travel stories deemed worthy of Hollywood budgets aren’t always straightforward in their mechanics. Some films on this list barely qualify as time-travel movies at all; others could hardly qualify as anything else. There are movies about trips through time but also ones about the bending and fracturing and muddying thereof; then there are those about, as Andy Samberg aptly puts it in Palm Springs , “one of those infinite time-loop situations you might have heard about.” There’s even a movie in which we get only 13 seconds’ worth of time travel, when it functions more like a joke whose punch line hits at the film’s climax.

What these films all do have in common is a fascination with changing the way time works. That being said, the list leaves out movies in larger, more extended franchises in which time meddling is a one-off dalliance thrown into a sequel with little by way of foreshadowing: think Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Avengers: Endgame , and Men in Black III . (It also leaves off perhaps the Ur-time-travel movie, Primer , and the quite good Midnight in Paris because their directors don’t deserve the column inches.) We’re looking at self-contained stories using time mechanics from the start, with preference given to those that involve themselves more intently with the ins and outs of time travel; that ask questions about time, aging, memory and so forth; and that try to succeed at it in new and interesting ways. So let’s get to it.

25. Galaxy Quest (1999)

Does Galaxy Quest really count as a time-travel movie? Some compelling reasons argue that it doesn’t: Time travel isn’t a major factor in the plot, and the time traveling that does occur is, yes, only a 13-second jump. But its use of time travel is meaningful insofar as the movie itself is a loving spoof of Star Trek , which makes use of time travel in three films ( one of which made this list ), not to mention dozens of episodes across its various TV iterations. Tacking on time travel as a deus ex machina for the actors in a Star Trek– like show pressed into service as an actual space crew by an endangered alien race is the exact right amount of ribbing in a movie that’s as on point as it is hilarious.

Galaxy Quest is available to rent on Amazon .

24. Happy Death Day (2017)

Pick away at the surface of a time-loop movie and you find a horror movie. Most of the entries on this list are covered in enough feel-good spin to land as comedies, but Happy Death Day stares the horror of the time-loop phenomenon right in the face. (It’s also quite funny.) Reliving the same day over and over is an unimaginably potent form of psychological torture, and adding murder to the equation does little to dull that edge. The film follows a college-age protagonist struggling to escape from a masked slasher hell-bent on killing her again and again while she tries to solve the mystery of how she got stuck in a time loop.

Happy Death Day is available to rent on Amazon .

23. Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Seriously, this may be the only good movie in which the film’s whole focus is using a time machine to travel into the future. The fact that it’s a sequel is telling — the characters already traveled into the past in the first movie , and the filmmakers decided to save “traveling even further into the past“ for the third film in the trilogy. Still, Back to the Future Part II is a fun time that makes great use of sight gags and references, recasting scenes from the first film in the distant future year of 2015 with all its hoverboards and self-lacing Nikes.

Back to the Future Part II is available to rent on Amazon .

22. See You Yesterday (2019)

It’s a dirty little secret of time-travel movies that they tend to be, well, pretty white. Tenet ’s Protagonist aside, if Hollywood’s sending someone through time, they’re almost certainly not a Black person, and for obvious reasons: Most of post-contact North American history is deeply unfriendly to people of color, and the problems a person running around out of time and place is going to encounter are deeply compounded if they’ll likely be the target of racist abuse or violence — which makes See You Yesterday all the more compelling. Produced by Spike Lee and featuring one of filmdom’s most famous time travelers in a cameo role, it follows a Black teenage science prodigy who uses a time machine to try to save her brother from being killed by a police officer.

See You Yesterday is streaming on Netflix .

21. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

No offense to the Back to the Future franchise, but time travel never looks more fun on film than it does in the first Bill & Ted movie. It’s a concept that feels distinctly of a different era, so pure is its zaniness, that it’s hard to imagine anyone concocting it today. The titular duo, Californian high-school students in the ’80s, travel through the past looking for historical figures in order to ace a history project, then bring them all back to the present. High jinks ensue! We get Genghis Khan in a sporting-goods store and Mozart on an electric keyboard. What more could you want?

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is streaming on HBO Max .

20. Source Code (2011)

Time-travel-film aficionados know this won’t be Jake Gyllenhaal’s only stop on this list, but no matter. Source Code finds him repeating the same eight minutes over and over as he struggles to find the culprit in a train bombing — with each replay ending in his own death by explosion. For some reason, a romantic subplot is shoehorned into this, along with a bunch of frankly unnecessary technical mumbo-jumbo, but the core idea is a compelling mix of the time-loop movie and the train whodunit that Gyllenhaal is a perfect fit for.

Source Code is available to rent on Amazon .

19. 12 Monkeys (1995)

Some sort of law of nature dictates that every genuinely good idea and/or piece of true art has to at some point be turned into a Hollywood movie. Thank God La Jetée was adapted into something that can stand on its own feet artistically. 12 Monkeys may not retain its source material’s black-and-white look or stripped-down, static-image presentation, but it is a rollicking good time nonetheless. That’s in no small part due to director Terry Gilliam getting the best out of Bruce Willis and a young Brad Pitt, and recasting World War III as a planet-decimating virus. Which, like at least one other movie on this list , “speaks to the present moment,” or whatever.

12 Monkeys is available to rent on Amazon .

18. Run Lola Run (1998)

Unlike almost all of the other films on this list, the terms time travel and time machine don’t show up anywhere in Run Lola Run . Rather, it’s a sort of de facto time-loop scenario in which the protagonist tries repeatedly to pay a ransom to save her boyfriend’s life. In fact, if not for a few key details, it could easily be characterized (and often has been) as an alternate-endings movie rather than a time-travel film. But the fact that Lola seems to be learning from her past attempts with each successive one suggests that she is, indeed, using knowledge gained from previous loops to bring a satisfactory end to this situation.

Run Lola Run is available to rent on Amazon .

17. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

One of the most striking things about Groundhog Day is the mutability and replicability of its core conceit. Perhaps the best case in point is Edge of Tomorrow , sometimes known as Live. Die. Repeat. after its original tagline. It’s the kind of physically grueling movie only an actor as genuinely unhinged as Tom Cruise could pull off. A noncombatant thrust into a war against invading aliens, Cruise’s character finds himself reliving day one of combat over and over, slowly but surely refining his techniques in order to survive the extraterrestrial onslaught. Like the central twosome in the much less violent Palm Springs , he winds up with a partner in (war) crime, teaming up with the similarly time-trapped Emily Blunt, and the explanation for the replay glitch here is actually pretty satisfying.

Edge of Tomorrow is streaming on Fubo TV .

16. Star Trek (2009)

If you could create some sort of an advanced stat to measure controversy generated per unit of interesting filmmaking decisions, J.J. Abrams would have to be near the top in terms of his ability to rig up movie drama from almost nothing. This is a guy whose filmography is like Godzilla rip-off, Spielberg homage, safe reboot of cherished IP, repeat. Star Trek may be his best film, though, a sure-footed reinvention of a dorky sci-fi franchise that made it, well, cool. Somehow, the beauty of Spock and Kirk’s bromance being woven through chance encounters with future selves kind of … works?

Star Trek is available to rent on Amazon .

15. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

There’s a relative dearth of time travel in animated film, which perhaps is a function simply of the fact that it’s less impressive to stage in a world that’s already unreal. If you can Looney Tunes your way through physics, what’s so special about grabbing the flow of time and tying it into a bow? Still, the original Girl Who Leapt Through Time deserves mention here. It’s a beautiful story that interlaces the complexity of time leaping with the intensity of teenage emotion and the thorny process of growing up where the opportunity to redo things leads, over time, to growth — a less shitty Groundhog Day , in a way.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is available to rent on Amazon .

14. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

She may not be the most famous, decorated, or emulated actress of her generation, but Aubrey Plaza is someone whose personality spoke to the irony-soaked 2010s in a way that simply could not be denied. Her character on Parks and Recreation , April Ludgate, was, by all accounts, created specifically to channel Plaza’s real-life personality to the screen, and she plays essentially the same character in Safety Not Guaranteed . Here, she’s a sarcastic intern at a magazine working on a story about a would-be time traveler and using her feminine wiles to slowly gain his trust. The chemistry between Plaza and Mark Duplass is probably the film’s high point; the subplot about the FBI feels like it was clipped out of a bad X-Files episode.

Safety Not Guaranteed is streaming on Tubi .

13. La Jetée (1962)

At only a 28-minute run time, La Jetée is arguably too short to merit inclusion on this list. However, what it lacks in content (and in, well, moving images; it’s almost exclusively a collection of static black-and-white shots set to voice-over), it more than makes up for in inventiveness and influence, and it would be a travesty to leave it out in favor of more recent by-the-book fare. Tracing the tale of a man held prisoner in post-WWIII Paris being used in time-travel experiments as his captors seek to remedy the postapocalyptic state of the world, he’s sent into both the future and the past and ends up unraveling a lifelong personal mystery while he’s at it.

La Jetée is streaming on the Criterion Channel .

12. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Unlike the worse but more straightforwardly time-traveling Tim Burton remake, the relationship between the original Planet of the Apes and time travel is inexact — technically, the astronaut crew that lands on the titular planet does travel forward 2,000 years, but it’s not done via a time machine. The travel isn’t instantaneous: It literally does take them 2,000 years to get there; they’re just unconscious and on life support. Still, the way the film’s ending handles the iconic reveal is exactly in line with the best of the time-travel canon, the telescoping, mise en abyme feeling of the world shifting in front of your very eyes without your moving an inch.

Planet of the Apes is available to rent on Amazon .

11. Groundhog Day (1993)

The famous Bill Murray vehicle essentially invented the infinite-time-loop genre (and it’s hardly a movie that succeeds on the strength of its concept alone), but the idea at its core is so steeped in the casual misogyny of late-’80s and early-’90s cinema that it’s hard to watch today without cringing. Murray’s character employing what amounts to PUA-style techniques over and over and over in a desperate bid to fuck his hapless co-worker just doesn’t hit the way it did back then. If the story arc didn’t present a guy detoxifying himself of the worst aspects of masculinity in order to be worthy of a woman’s love as the primary way for a 20th-century white man to achieve full personhood, this would be much higher on the list.

Groundhog Day is streaming on Starz .

10. Predestination (2014)

This is probably the most complicated film on the list. Following a “temporal agent” (played by Ethan Hawke) who’s trying to prevent a bombing in 1970s New York, it’s based on a Robert A. Heinlein short story and features Shiv Roy herself, Sarah Snook, in a star-making turn as someone with a complicated backstory and a secret. Like the best sci-fi, the film’s premise raises all kinds of fascinating questions about the titular concept and throws in some interesting musings on sex, gender, and the self in the process.

Predestination is streaming on Tubi .

9. Looper (2012)

Wes Anderson gets a lot of flak for his overwrought twee visuals, but Rian Johnson has a knack for making movies that feel and function like dioramas even if they don’t look it. Narratively speaking, everything here is constructed just so — and there’s a certain beauty in that — but who ever had a profound experience of art by looking at a diorama? Looper was probably Johnson’s least precious pre– Star Wars film, which is nice because the temptation to drastically overmaneuver the mechanics of a time-travel story can lead to disaster. The tech used to Bruce Willis–ify Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s face is distracting, and the third act’s retreat from the postapocalyptic city of the future to the postapocalyptic corn farm of the future is a brave choice that the film struggles to land. Still, Johnson’s vision of a future in which organized crime runs time travel is compelling and well worth a watch.

Looper is streaming on Netflix .

8. Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko is a bit of a genre mash-up. Part high-school movie, part sci-fi flick, part bleak meditation on the soullessness of late-’80s America, it’s nevertheless a weirdly successful piece of filmmaking that makes fantastic use of a young Jake Gyllenhaal, a great supporting cast (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Jena Malone, and Patrick Swayze among others), and an absolutely iconic haunting cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World.” Watching high schoolers navigate parallel universes, wormholes, and time travel is a dicey proposition, but director Richard Kelly makes it work, somehow.

Donnie Darko is streaming on HBO Max .

7. Back to the Future (1984)

While it’s clearly superior to the sequel (and leagues ahead of the final film in the trilogy), the original Back to the Future is a bit of a mess (John Mulaney was right , to be honest). Its racial and gender politics are cringey, and the incest subplot is weird (“It’s your cousin Marvin. Marvin Pornhub . You know that new plot element you’ve been looking for?”), but there’s a clear interest in time travel beyond its shimmering surface: the very real addressing of the “grandfather problem” in time travel via the slow disappearance of Marty from his family photo, the accidental invention of rock music, and a genuine curiosity about the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of time machines. Ahh, what the hell. It’s a romp.

Back to the Future is available to rent on Amazon .

6. Palm Springs (2020)

No offense to Gen-Xers and boomers, but the best time-loop movie of all time is Palm Springs . The film isn’t without its missteps, but it’s much more curious about life than Groundhog Day was through the eyes of Murray’s misanthrope. Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg‘s characters, stuck in the loop together, are a perfect comedic match, and their shared humanity makes for a beautiful arc. The film raises questions about what’s worth doing in life when nothing lasts and how to stay sane when every day is the same. Of course, as a sort of polar opposite of Tenet , it benefited from coming out during the pandemic by speaking, as it does, to the experience of lockdown.

Palm Springs is streaming on Hulu .

5. Tenet (2020)

Interstellar wasn’t enough for Chris Nolan, apparently. Tenet ’s legacy may end up being little more than that of the COVID action movie no one saw — a bloated thriller that Nolan fought to get into theaters and bar from home viewing reportedly to swell the size of his own pockets. It really did suffer from bad timing, though, because this is genuinely a quintessential big-screen popcorn movie whose absurdity is all the more palatable when it’s given the audiovisual bombast it deserves. Ambitious in scope as it traces a war on the past by the future (yes, you read that right), Tenet is as enamored of action tropes as it is in bucking them, and its investment in rendering visible the brain-bendingly knotty mechanics of moving through time is laudable, even when the movie itself remains opaque — as impenetrable as the future, as hazy as the past.

Tenet is streaming on HBO Max .

4. The Terminator (1984)

A partner to Blade Runner in the mid-’80s invention of sci-fi noir, The Terminator is a stunning film in many ways, despite the third act’s now-iffy visual effects. While it’s not James Cameron’s debut, and it would go on to be bested by its sequel , it functions as an incredible showcase for an emerging young director who would exclusively make big stories for the rest of his career. Arnold Schwarzenegger is perfectly cast as the relentless, unemotional killer cyborg sent back from the future to terminate the mother of the eventual resistance leader, and the film’s romantic subplot has just the perfect amount of time-travel-induced cheesiness for it to work.

The Terminator is streaming on Amazon Prime Video .

3. Interstellar (2014)

It’s not inaccurate to say Christopher Nolan is a director who’s more interested in scale and scope than in expressing the minutiae of the human experience in its purest form. But in Interstellar, a Nolan movie in its titular ambitions, there’s a core element of time travel wrought not as sci-fi fireworks but as a paean to the sheer force and will of the power of love. It both does and doesn’t work, depending on your capacity for cheese in space, but even besides that, Nolan’s use of time as story arc — the way Miller’s planet functions, in particular — is conceptually masterful in the best kind of time-travel-movie way.

Interstellar is streaming on Paramount+ .

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Whereas the franchise’s first movie spends more time on the question of time travel, in the second it takes a bit of a back seat to the action itself. It’s hard to fault director James Cameron for this decision; T2 remains one of the best action movies of the ’90s and — along with Jurassic Park and The Matrix — one of the decade’s best when for special effects. The groundbreaking T-1000 would honestly be enough to get this movie on the list; a tween John Connor grappling with questions of predestination and the fact that he is vicariously responsible for his own conception feel almost like icing on the time-travel cake. Much as in 12 Monkeys , time travel here is mistaken for delusion, as valiant Sarah Connor, in a Cassandra-esque nightmare, has to battle against the future only she knows is coming. Of course, Cassandra never had access to any firepower stored in underground desert arsenals.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is streaming on Netflix .

1. Arrival (2016)

It’s fair to wonder whether Arrival really is, in fact, a time-travel movie. The Ted Chiang short story it’s based on isn’t about time travel per se; rather, it’s an exploration of alternate forms of temporal understanding. The linguist protagonist, played by Amy Adams, doesn’t travel through time so much as come to experience it differently. Still, the plot ends up hinging on foreknowledge that she is granted not via visions but by actually experiencing her future simultaneously with her present and past. For our purposes, though, that’s time fuckery enough to merit inclusion, and boy howdy does the film deliver in overall quality. Partly, that’s simply a question of the source material. Chiang is arguably the most talented (and possibly the most decorated) American sci-fi writer of his generation. But the source story is not especially Hollywood friendly, and director Denis Villeneuve has adopted it lovingly, borrowing a plot device from another of Chiang’s stories, the more straightforwardly time-travel-based “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” in order to add some third-act blockbuster flavor. The result is a beautiful meditation on love, choice, and courage that packs art-film ethos into a genuine sci-fi blockbuster.

Arrival is streaming on Hulu and Paramount+ .

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Will Bedingfield

The Best Time Travel Movies of … All Time

Time—ravager of youth; spoiler of milk; humanity’s oldest and deadliest foe. Yet in films we can conquer time easily: running it forwards and backward, skipping into the future or past with a simple edit. Filmmakers constantly time travel, so it’s no coincidence that there are so many films where this trick becomes a plot conceit.

But unfortunately for their protagonists, the best time travel films often show us that time’s prison is inescapable. Even when these protagonists look like they’ve found a way out, from natural wormholes to heretical machines, their fates are usually shown to be predetermined: Often they end up stuck in time loops, or just dead. Time and death are close companions .

Of course, this chaos translates into mind-bending entertainment for the viewer, so without further ado, let us introduce our picks for the best time travel movies.

Terminator 1 and 2 are really quite different movies. In the first, Arnie—the terminator—is the bad guy. He’s sent back in time by our machine overlords to kill a woman who will give birth to a child that will lead the human resistance to victory. A human from said resistance is sent back to stop Arnie. It’s a dark and weird story: a classic action film made on a stringent budget. The second, in contrast, is a big-budget extravaganza, featuring perhaps the greatest special effects in movie history relative to their time. Here, Arnie, now a blockbuster star, demanded to play the good guy: He’s still a robot, but he’s defending the key kid from the icy, and more advanced, T-1000 robot.

The most famous art house film about time travel, La Jetée follows a man sent back from a post-World War III dystopia to save the future, and to find the truth behind a traumatic memory for his past. Only 28 minutes long, the film is a simple series of black and white photographs put to a hazy narrative, yet it's captivating. Terry Gilliam turned it into 12 Monkeys , a zany, colorful caper starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, a similarly weird but tonally different film.

This modern sci-fi classic follows the alien “arrival” of giant, peaceful, ink-inscribing squids. Before geopolitical squabbles can escalate the situation into a nuclear exchange, Amy Adams must translate the squid’s inky pleas into American English. (Spoiler: It relates to time travel.) This visually stunning film is based on Story of Your Life , a short by Ted Chiang, one of the best living sci-fi writers. The movie is a great introduction to his writing.

A classic featuring Bill Murray at his laid-back best. Murray plays a jerkish newsman who wakes up one morning to find that he is stuck in a time loop on Groundhog Day (and, yes, that is where the term comes from). Fear gives way to joy as he realizes he is now an omniscient god. This then gives way to boredom as he lives out the same day an infinite number of times, and Murray must work out why he has been cursed. Still a moving and thoughtful comedy.

This is really the time travel movie to beat them all, if you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of time travel itself. Two engineers accidentally discover an “A-to-B” causal loop side effect: They can basically travel back a short distance of time, and begin to use it to make huge amounts of money on the stock market. What follows is a highly technical and philosophical take on the implications of time travel.

Looper is just an air tight, fantastic action film: a compelling world, sketched in just under two hours, with entertaining and interesting characters. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays a contract killer who kills and disposes of his targets in the past, in order to avoid detection in the future. Bruce Willis plays his older self, who Levitt is tasked to kill. The time travel aspect being realistic isn’t really the point of the film: Writer Rian Johnson contrasted it directly to Primer , where the rules of time travel are so important; Looper was intended instead as a character driven thriller.

One of the highest-grossing anime films of all time, Your Name is a slick, ever so slightly hollow affair, but undoubtedly fantastic entertainment. Two school kids swap bodies each night, bicker about wrecking each other's lives, then eventually fall in love. They must fight through time to save a town from an apocalyptic disaster. The animation is gorgeous, painterly and fluid, the music from Radwimps is brilliant earworm pop, and the story is a real tearjerker.

Where the time travel in Tenet was left largely unexplained, in Interstellar Nolan actually seems interested in teaching his audience, and does an admirable job depicting some of the implications of Einsteins’ theory of general relativity. The movie’s dialog can be a bit saccharine and vapid, but the visit to the mountain-high planet of waves, where years pass as minutes, is just a great piece of cinema, worth the price of entry alone.

A cult classic that rocketed Jake Gyllenhaal to massive fame. It’s one of those high concept films that bombards you with lore, but really isn't as smart as it thinks it is. It’s better to just sit back and let it wash over you, including, of course, Frank, the iconic black bunny rabbit, who tells Gyllenhaal the world will end in 28 days. It’s also an important artifact of a certain section of Millennial culture: any Gen Z cultural critic trying to understand Millennial neuroses should definitely add this film to their research.

The original Planet of the Apes is a deeply odd film—there’s something disconcerting about the apes now: the prosthetic makeup techniques by artist John Chambers were revolutionary at the time. But while the prequels with Andy Serkis are certainly more action packed, the original has got to make the list because it features the most iconic time travel “twist” in cinema. Charlton Heston’s final revelation as he smashes his fists into the beach at the film’s end has been parodied to death, most notably by The Simpsons . (Which also created a fantastic musical adaptation of the film.)

This story originally appeared on WIRED UK .  

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The 80+ Best Time Travel Movies

Time travel holds a fascination for both filmmakers and audiences alike, with its endless possibilities and intriguing paradoxes. The concept of altering the past and witnessing historic events, or visiting the future captures the imagination, and cinema provides the perfect medium to explore these ideas. The best time travel movies are those that not only venture into the realm of temporal displacement but also present compelling characters and stories. 

These time travel movies offer a diverse range of cinematic experiences, from blockbuster action-adventures to dramas. Each film has themes of time manipulation and its consequences, featuring strong character development and dynamic storylines that make them captivating. 

Notable examples of the best time travel movies include Back to the Future, a classic 1985 film that effortlessly blends humor, action, and compelling characters. Another standout is Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a relentless action blockbuster that raises the stakes of the original film while showcasing an intricate exploration of destiny and the human spirit. More recently, Edge of Tomorrow demonstrates the genre's continued evolution by incorporating a gripping sci-fi premise within a high-stakes action-packed setting. These exceptional films represent just a fraction of the extensive collection of time travel movies that captivate viewers. 

Time travel movies have played an instrumental role in shaping the trajectory of cinematic storytelling, proving their timeless appeal and the potential for further exploration. Whether it's revisiting the past, glimpsing the future, or navigating alternate realities, these films create unforgettable and inspiring cinematic experiences. 

Back to the Future

Back to the Future , a legendary science-fiction adventure film directed by Robert Zemeckis, stands as a triumphant depiction of time travel in the 1980s. With exceptional performances by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, this movie artfully immerses viewers in the nostalgic world of Hill Valley, 1955, when Marty McFly (Fox) is sent back in time by Doc Brown's (Lloyd) iconic DeLorean-powered time machine. As Marty navigates his new environment, the importance of preserving the past and personal destinies becomes increasingly evident, giving birth to a timeless tale that resonates with audiences across generations. Through its humorous yet tender storytelling and innovative special effects, Back to the Future  remains an essential addition to the pantheon of time-traveling cinema.

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The Terminator

Helmed by visionary director James Cameron, The Terminator  is a gripping sci-fi thriller that solidified Arnold Schwarzenegger's status as a Hollywood superstar. Set against the backdrop of a dystopian future where machines rule over humans, the film tells the story of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who finds herself pursued by a relentless, technologically advanced cyborg (Schwarzenegger) sent back in time to change the course of humanity's future. Featuring groundbreaking visual effects and an adrenaline-fueled storyline, The Terminator  became an instant classic upon its release and still captivates viewers with its exhilarating blend of action, suspense, and time-travel intrigue.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day

The gripping sequel to James Cameron's groundbreaking The Terminator , Terminator 2: Judgment Day  elevates the stakes and pushes the envelope further with its enhanced visual effects, compelling narrative, and poignant character development. In this ambitious follow-up, Schwarzenegger reprises his role as a Terminator, this time tasked with protecting a young John Connor (Edward Furlong) from an even more menacing and advanced cyborg. As the story unravels, themes of redemption, sacrifice, and humanity's struggle against fate take center stage, leaving viewers riveted by the film's immersive storytelling. Terminator 2: Judgment Day  continues to stand as a testament to the power of cinema and the unyielding potential of time-travel tales.

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Back to the Future Part II

In Back to the Future Part II , director Robert Zemeckis reunites Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd for an inventive and thrilling follow-up that expands on the original's narrative and explores new dimensions of time travel. As Marty McFly and Doc Brown embark on a daring quest to save their future, viewers are treated to a visually stunning and expertly crafted adventure that transports them across multiple timelines - from a fascinatingly dystopian 2015 to an alternate version of 1985. With its razor-sharp wit and intricate plot twists, Back to the Future Part II  showcases the boundless creativity of its filmmaking team while solidifying the franchise's standing as a beloved and timeless piece of cinematic history.

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Groundhog Day

Marrying wry humor with a potent dose of existential introspection, Groundhog Day  is a gem of a film that defies conventions and captures the complexities of human nature. Directed by Harold Ramis and led by comedic genius Bill Murray, the film follows the cynical weatherman Phil Connors as he finds himself inexplicably trapped in an infinite time loop, forced to relive the same day over and over again. As Phil grapples with his predicament and searches for meaning amidst the monotony, viewers are drawn into a poignant study of redemption, empathy, and the power of personal transformation within the framework of a seemingly whimsical comedy. Groundhog Day  remains a touchstone of 1980s cinema and serves as an enduring reminder of the potential for growth inherent in every passing moment.

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Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt as they embark on a high-stakes sci-fi adventure, filled with adrenaline-pumping action sequences and an intelligent twist on the time travel genre. The film expertly weaves together aspects of extraterrestrial warfare, an unexpected romance, and the concept of repeating the same day to achieve victory against all odds. Cruise's performance as a reluctant hero, paired with Blunt's fierce determination, create a compelling dynamic that drives the film forward. The intricately crafted storyline is bolstered by stunning visual effects, immersing viewers into the palpable tension and excitement of this epic time-traveling battle for humanity.

Masterfully directed by the visionary Terry Gilliam, 12 Monkeys  is a dystopian sci-fi thriller that immerses viewers in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a deadly virus. With captivating performances by Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt, the film follows a prisoner (Willis) as he is sent back in time to gather information on the origins of the lethal disease and potentially prevent the catastrophe from ever occurring. As the plot unfolds, the intricate narrative blurs the lines between past, present, and future, offering a mesmerizing study of fate, reality, and memory. Boasting stunning visuals and an unforgettable storyline, 12 Monkeys  stands as a masterwork in the time-travel genre and a testament to the power of innovative filmmaking.

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Looper is a mind-bending sci-fi thriller directed by Rian Johnson that boldly ventures into the realm of time travel with a unique twist. In the film's futuristic setting, hitmen known as "Loopers" eliminate targets sent back in time by crime syndicates, thus erasing them from existence. Featuring exceptional performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, the movie centers on a young Looper (Gordon-Levitt) who faces the ultimate dilemma when he's assigned to eliminate his future self (Willis). As the narrative weaves through a complex web of morality, survival, and destiny, viewers are left spellbound by the film's intensity and thought-provoking themes. Looper  is a gripping cinematic achievement that will have viewers contemplating its intricate story long after the final credits roll.

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Back to the Future Part III

Concluding the beloved time-travel trilogy, Back to the Future Part III  takes Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) on a thrilling adventure to the Wild West of 1885. Helmed once again by visionary director Robert Zemeckis, this installment seamlessly melds classic Western tropes with the franchise's trademark humor and sci-fi elements, resulting in a highly entertaining and satisfying conclusion to the series. As Marty and Doc work together to return to their own time, they encounter a host of new characters and challenges, further exploring themes of fate, friendship, and love. Back to the Future Part III  is a fitting finale that stays true to its predecessors' charm and leaves audiences with a sense of wistful nostalgia for the adventures they've shared.

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• # 228 of 288 on The 250+ Best Western Movies Of All Time

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

With its irreverent humor and endearingly quirky cast, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure  remains an iconic '80s comedy that delivers laughs and heart in equal measure. The film follows two lovable yet dim-witted teenagers, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves), as they embark on an epic journey through time, meeting historical figures such as Napoleon, Socrates, and Abraham Lincoln while attempting to pass their history final. Directed by Stephen Herek, this wildly inventive tale is brimming with hilarious moments, memorable quotes, and an infectious sense of fun that stands the test of time. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure  captures the spirit of adventure and friendship, reminding viewers of the joys inherent in life's most unexpected journeys.

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Interstellar

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar  is a visually stunning and emotionally charged sci-fi epic that explores the depths of human ingenuity and the complexities of time travel. Featuring powerful performances from Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain, the film follows a group of astronauts as they embark on a perilous journey through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet for humanity. With its breathtaking visuals, thought-provoking themes, and intricately woven narrative, Interstellar  pushes the boundaries of storytelling, challenging viewers to ponder the future of mankind and the inexorable passage of time.

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The Time Machine

H.G. Wells' classic science fiction tale comes to life in George Pal's 1960 adaptation of The Time Machine , a groundbreaking study of time travel that captivated and inspired generations of filmmakers. Starring Rod Taylor as a Victorian scientist who invents a machine capable of traversing the centuries, the film transports viewers on a thrilling journey through time, from the peaceful countryside of 19th-century England to the far-flung future. Rich in both visual splendor and narrative depth, The Time Machine  is an enduring cinematic treasure that continues to intrigue and entertain audiences more than half a century after its release.

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The Butterfly Effect

The Butterfly Effect is a captivating psychological thriller that delves into the dangerous consequences of altering the past. Starring Ashton Kutcher as a college student who discovers he can change his traumatic childhood experiences through meditation, the film explores the unpredictable ripple effects of tampering with the delicate fabric of time. Directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, The Butterfly Effect  keeps audiences on the edge of their seats with its intense storyline, inventive plot twists, and compelling study of fate and redemption.

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Avengers: Endgame

Marvel Studios' Avengers: Endgame  serves as the stunning culmination of an epic saga, expertly weaving time travel into its grand narrative to deliver a thrilling and emotionally resonant superhero adventure. As Earth's mightiest heroes race against time to undo the havoc wrought by Thanos, they confront personal challenges, shattered relationships, and the immutable nature of their destinies. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Endgame  provides both heart-pounding spectacle and poignant character moments, solidifying its status as a landmark achievement in the annals of sci-fi and comic book cinema.

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Planet of the Apes

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, Franklin J. Schaffner's Planet of the Apes  presents a chilling vision of a future where intelligent primates rule over subjugated humans. Charlton Heston stars as an astronaut who crash-lands on a seemingly primitive world, only to discover its terrifying secret – a civilization where apes dominate and humans are enslaved. With its thought-provoking themes, iconic imagery, and unforgettable climax, Planet of the Apes  stands as a cornerstone of 20th-century cinema and continues to captivate viewers with its bold study of the consequences of untamed ambition.

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Frequency combines elements of sci-fi, thriller, and drama to weave a gripping tale of a father and son separated by time yet connected through a miraculous radio signal. Starring Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid, this unique time-travel narrative unfolds as father and son attempt to solve a murder, even as their actions in the past precipitate unforeseen consequences in the present. Directed by Gregory Hoblit, Frequency  is a suspenseful and emotionally resonant film that deftly navigates the complexities of time travel while exploring themes of family, love, and destiny.

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In Mike Judge's darkly comedic satire Idiocracy , time travel serves as the catalyst for a biting examination of societal decline and human stupidity. The film follows a perfectly average man (Luke Wilson) who is accidentally frozen and awakens 500 years in the future, only to find that society has devolved into a dystopian nightmare of ignorance, commercialism, and environmental catastrophe. With its razor-sharp wit and incisive social commentary, Idiocracy  offers both laughter and sobering reflection on the trajectory of human progress.

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X-Men: Days of Future Past

Merging the original X-Men with their younger counterparts, X-Men: Days of Future Past  is an ambitious and thrilling installment in the long-standing superhero franchise. Directed by Bryan Singer, the film employs time travel to bridge the gap between past and present, as Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back to the 1970s to prevent a cataclysmic event that could alter the course of history. With its star-studded ensemble cast and compelling narrative, X-Men: Days of Future Past  delivers action-packed entertainment while exploring themes of redemption, unity, and the endless potential for change.

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Minority Report

An exhilarating blend of mystery, action, and speculation, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report  presents a chilling vision of a future where psychic technology enables law enforcement to predict and prevent crimes before they occur. Tom Cruise stars as a pre-crime investigator who becomes a fugitive when the system he once believed in implicates him in a crime he has yet to commit. As he seeks the truth, he confronts a web of intrigue, deception, and moral quandaries. Minority Report  is a thrilling cinematic odyssey into a dystopian future, offering both edge-of-your-seat excitement and thought-provoking commentary on fate, free will, and the price of security.

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Galaxy Quest

In the beloved sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest , time travel plays a crucial role in the uproarious adventures of a group of washed-up actors unwittingly recruited by real aliens to save their species. Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman, this hilarious send-up of both classic Star Trek and fan conventions showcases the power of love, friendship, and courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. With its delightful humor and heartfelt moments, Galaxy Quest  remains a cherished favorite among fans of lighthearted time-travel escapades.

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J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot of the iconic Star Trek franchise boldly goes where no film has gone before, utilizing time travel to create an exciting and refreshing take on the beloved sci-fi universe. Featuring a fantastic ensemble cast led by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, this modern retelling introduces a new generation of fans to the thrilling adventures of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and the USS Enterprise crew, while staying true to the spirit of the original series. Brimming with dazzling special effects, kinetic action sequences, and heartfelt character moments, Star Trek  is a thrilling ride that has breathed new life into the storied franchise.

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• # 210 of 769 on The Most Rewatchable Movies

Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly's enigmatic cult classic Donnie Darko  offers a haunting and atmospheric study of time travel, destiny, and mental health. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled titular character, the film follows Donnie's descent into a surreal world of prophetic visions, mysterious occurrences, and sinister manifestations. As he confronts the prospect of an impending apocalypse, Donnie finds himself navigating a labyrinthine narrative that deftly interweaves elements of horror, science fiction, and coming-of-age drama. Donnie Darko  remains a deeply evocative and mesmerizing cinematic experience that continues to haunt and engage viewers nearly two decades after its release.

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It's a Wonderful Life

Frank Capra's enduring masterpiece It's a Wonderful Life  is a timeless study of the impact of a single life on the world around it. In this heartwarming tale, James Stewart stars as George Bailey, a down-on-his-luck man who contemplates ending his life on Christmas Eve. Through the intervention of a bumbling guardian angel, George is granted the opportunity to witness an alternate reality where he never existed, ultimately realizing the profound effect his life has had on those around him. Though not typically viewed as a time-travel narrative, It's a Wonderful Life  thoughtfully demonstrates the ripple effect of our actions through time and serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of compassion, gratitude, and human connection.

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This 2002 adaptation of H.G. Wells' groundbreaking novel, directed by Simon Wells, plunges viewers into a thrilling and visually stunning journey through time. Starring Guy Pearce as a brilliant inventor who creates a time machine to change the tragic course of his past, the film introduces audiences to an array of fantastical settings, from Victorian London to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Though differing from its literary source material in several key aspects, The Time Machine retains the spirit of Wells' work, offering an engrossing study of human ambition, love, and the inexorable march of time.

Star Trek: First Contact

Star Trek: First Contact is an exhilarating installment in the iconic science fiction franchise, blending elements of action, adventure, and time travel to create a thrilling cinematic experience. As the USS Enterprise crew, led by Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard, confront the malevolent Borg, they find themselves transported back in time to the pivotal moment of humanity's first contact with an alien race. Faced with the responsibility of preserving history and ensuring the future of mankind, the crew embarks on a desperate mission to thwart the Borg's sinister plans. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, Star Trek: First Contact  is a gripping and emotionally charged journey through time and space, celebrating the spirit of exploration and unity at the heart of the long-running franchise.

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In Richard Curtis' charming romantic comedy About Time , time travel serves as a poignant metaphor for the beauty and fragility of life's fleeting moments. The film follows Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), a young man who discovers he has the ability to travel through time, and uses his newfound power to find love, fix mistakes, and bring happiness to those around him. With its whimsical humor, heartfelt performances, and beautiful cinematography, About Time  artfully explores themes of love, family, and the importance of cherishing every moment of our lives.

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The Time Traveler's Wife

Based on Audrey Niffenegger's bestselling novel, The Time Traveler's Wife  is a deeply moving study of love, loss, and the complexities of time travel. Starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana, the film tells the story of Clare (McAdams), who falls in love with Henry (Bana), a man with a rare genetic disorder that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. As their relationship unfolds across the years, the couple faces numerous challenges and heartbreaks, resulting in a poignant and bittersweet portrait of devotion in the face of uncertainty. The Time Traveler's Wife  is a tender and memorable examination of the enduring power of love, even when time itself seems to conspire against it.

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Predestination

Predestination , a mind-bending science fiction thriller directed by the Spierig Brothers, expertly navigates the intricate paradoxes of time travel to deliver a captivating and cerebral cinematic experience. Starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook, the film follows a time-traveling agent on his mission to stop a mysterious criminal known as the "Fizzle Bomber." As past, present, and future collide, a dizzying web of secrets, betrayal, and destiny is revealed, leaving viewers enthralled by the film's labyrinthine narrative and stellar performances. Predestination  is an ambitious and thought-provoking study of fate, identity, and the complex nature of time itself.

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Somewhere in Time

Somewhere in Time is a romantic fantasy that captures the hearts of viewers with its touching portrayal of love transcending the boundaries of time. Starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, the film tells the story of Richard Collier (Reeve), a playwright who becomes infatuated with a woman from the past and wills himself back in time to be with her. Through tender performances and a sweeping score, Somewhere in Time  showcases the power of timeless love and leaves a lasting impression on those who have experienced this enchanting narrative.

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Hot Tub Time Machine

In the irreverent comedy Hot Tub Time Machine , a group of disillusioned friends, played by John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke, accidentally travel back in time to the 1980s via - you guessed it – a hot tub. As they navigate the raucous decade, complete with outrageous fashions, wild parties, and questionable hair choices, they each face the consequences of their past decisions and the potential to rewrite their futures. Directed by Steve Pink, Hot Tub Time Machine  is a hilarious and nostalgic romp through time that serves as both a love letter and a playful critique of the era.

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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.

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May 08, 2024 at 03:12 PM

30 Time Travel Movies That Will Blow Your Mind And Expand Your Horizons

Time travel has long been a fascination for audiences, offering a gateway to explore the complexities of the past, present, and future. From mind-bending paradoxes to heartwarming tales of redemption, time travel movies have enthralled audiences with their imaginative narratives and thought-provoking themes.

In this article, we’ve curated a list of the 30 best time travel movies that are sure to entertain and captivate, inviting you to embark on a journey through the annals of time and space from the comfort of your own home. So, prepare to suspend disbelief and delve into a world where the past, present, and future collide in unexpected and extraordinary ways.

Time Travel Movies List

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1. The Time Machine (1960)

• Lead actors: Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux
• Supporting Artist: Sebastian Cabot, Tom Helmore, Whit Bissell
• Director: George Pal
• Release date: August 17, 1960
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• IMD b Rating: 7.6/10
• Revenue: $1.2 million (USA)
• Language: English

It follows the story of a Victorian-era inventor who builds a time machine and embarks on a journey to the distant future. There, he encounters a world divided into two species: the peaceful Eloi and the monstrous Morlocks. As he navigates this dystopian future, he discovers the dark truth behind humanity’s evolution and confronts the consequences of tampering with time.

2. The Terminator (1984)

• Lead actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton
• Supporting Artist: Paul Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Earl Boen
• Director: James Cameron
• Release date: October 26, 1984
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• IMD b Rating: 8.0/10
• Revenue: $78.3 million (worldwide)

The story revolves around a cyborg assassin, the Terminator, sent back in time from 2029 to 1984. Its mission is to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son will lead the human resistance against the machines. In a desperate attempt to survive, Sarah is aided by Kyle Reese, a soldier sent back in time to protect her. This is one of the best time travel films.

3. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

• Lead actors: Riisa Naka, Takuya Ishida
• Supporting Artist: Mitsutaka Itakura, Ayami Kakiuchi
• Director: Mamoru Hosoda
• Release date: July 15, 2006
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• IMD b Rating: 7.8/10
• Revenue: $4.6 million (worldwide)
• Language: Japanese

Makoto Konno, a high school girl discovers that she can leap through time. Initially using her newfound power for trivial purposes, she soon realizes the consequences of her actions and the impact they have on those around her. As she grapples with the complexities of time travel, including love, friendship, and loss, Makoto learns valuable lessons about responsibility and the importance of cherishing the present moment.

4. Frequency (2000)

• Lead actors: Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel
• Supporting Artist: Andre Braugher, Elizabeth Mitchell
• Director: Gregory Hoblit
• Release date: April 28, 2000
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• IMD b Rating: 7.3/10
• Revenue: $68.1 million (worldwide)

John Sullivan, a New York City firefighter discovers a mysterious ham radio that allows him to communicate with his deceased father, Frank, 30 years in the past. Through this unexpected connection, they work together to prevent a series of tragic events, including the death of Frank’s wife and John’s mother. However, their actions have unintended consequences, leading to a dangerous chain of events that threatens to unravel the fabric of time itself.

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5. Timecrimes (2007)

• Lead actors: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández
• Supporting Artist: Bárbara Goenaga, Nacho Vigalondo
• Director: Nacho Vigalondo
• Release date: April 20, 2007
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• IMD b Rating: 7.2/10
• Revenue: $4.4 million (worldwide)
• Language: Spanish

The film follows the story of Hector, who, while relaxing at his new countryside home with his wife, stumbles upon a mysterious scientific facility. After investigating further, he finds himself inadvertently transported back in time one hour. Desperate to undo the events leading to his temporal displacement, Hector becomes embroiled in a series of increasingly complex and morally compromising situations.

6. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

• Lead actors: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence
• Supporting Artist: Nicholas Hoult, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen
• Director: Bryan Singer
• Release date: May 23, 2014
• Run Time: 132 minutes
• Revenue: $747.9 million (worldwide)

The movie revolves around a dystopian future where mutants are hunted by Sentinels, advanced robots programmed to eradicate them. To prevent this apocalyptic future, Wolverine’s consciousness is sent back in time to 1973 to unite the younger versions of Professor Xavier and Magneto. This is one of the best time travel movies.

7. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

• Lead actors: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt
• Supporting Artist: Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson
• Director: Doug Liman
• Release date: May 28, 2014
• Run Time: 113 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
• Revenue: $370.5 million (worldwide)

The story is set in a future where Earth is invaded by alien creatures called Mimics. Major William Cage, finds himself caught in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over after being killed in battle. With the help of Sergeant Rita Vrataski, who once experienced a similar time loop, Cage seeks to use his repetitive experiences to become a better soldier and find a way to defeat the Mimics.

8. About Time (I) (2013)

• Lead actors: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams
• Supporting Artist: Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson
• Director: Richard Curtis
• Release date: September 4, 2013
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
• Revenue: $87.1 million (worldwide)

The film follows the story of Tim Lake, who learns from his father, portrayed by Bill Nighy, that the men in their family can travel back in time. Tim decides to use this power to improve his life, particularly in matters of love. However, he soon realizes that changing the past has its consequences and that true happiness lies in cherishing the present moment.

9. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)

• Lead actors: Rachel McAdams, Eric Bana
• Supporting Artist: Ron Livingston, Arliss Howard
• Director: Robert Schwentke
• Release date: August 14, 2009
• IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
• Revenue: $101.3 million (worldwide)

The film tells the story of Henry DeTamble, a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. Rachel McAdams, Henry’s wife, must cope with the challenges of loving a man whose presence is unpredictable due to his time-traveling condition. This is one of the best time travel movies.

10. Somewhere in Time (1980)

• Lead actors: Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour
• Supporting Artist: Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright
• Director: Jeannot Szwarc
• Release date: October 3, 1980
• IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
• Revenue: $9.7 million (USA)

Richard Collier, a playwright becomes obsessed with a portrait of a beautiful actress named Elise McKenna. Through self-hypnosis, he transports himself back in time to the year 1912, where he meets Elise and they fall deeply in love. However, their romance is challenged by the barriers of time and the secrets surrounding Elise’s life.

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11. Happy Accidents (2000)

• Lead actors: Marisa Tomei, Vincent D’Onofrio
• Supporting Artist: Holland Taylor, Nadia Dajani
• Director: Brad Anderson
• Release date: August 24, 2000
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
• Revenue: $688,523 (USA)

Ruby Weaver, a New York City woman struggles with relationships due to her history of dating unreliable men. Everything changes when she meets Sam Deed, who claims to be a time traveler from the year 2470. Despite her initial skepticism, Ruby falls for Sam and his quirky charm.

12. Time Bandits (1981)

• Lead actors: Craig Warnock, David Rappaport
• Supporting Artist: John Cleese, Sean Connery
• Director: Terry Gilliam
• Release date: July 13, 1981
• Run Time: 116 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 7.0/10
• Revenue: $42.4 million (worldwide)

Kevin, a young boy, joins a group of time-traveling dwarves as they embark on a series of adventures through various historical periods. Led by the eccentric and bumbling Randall, the Time Bandits are on a quest to steal treasure from different points in time. However, their journey takes a dark turn when they encounter the malevolent Supreme Being and his evil henchman, Evil. This is one of the best hollywood time travel movies.

13. Lucy (I) (2014)

• Lead actors: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman
• Supporting Artist: Choi Min-sik, Amr Waked
• Director: Luc Besson
• Release date: July 25, 2014
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 6.4/10
• Revenue: $463.4 million (worldwide)

The story revolves around Lucy, a young woman who inadvertently gains extraordinary abilities after a drug implanted in her body leaks into her system. As Lucy’s cognitive powers expand beyond human comprehension, she sets out on a mission to unlock the full potential of her mind while being pursued by ruthless criminals and the authorities.

14. Midnight in Paris (2011)

• Lead actors: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams
• Supporting Artist: Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates
• Director: Woody Allen
• Release date: May 20, 2011
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 7.7/10
• Revenue: $151.1 million (worldwide)

Gil Pender, a nostalgic screenwriter, finds himself magically transported to 1920s Paris every night at midnight. As Gil explores the vibrant nightlife and encounters iconic figures from the past, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Salvador Dalí, he becomes enamored with the romance and artistic vitality of the era.

15. 13 Going on 30 (2004)

• Lead actors: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo
• Supporting Artist: Judy Greer, Andy Serkis
• Director: Gary Winick
• Release date: April 23, 2004
• IMDB Rating: 6.2/10
• Revenue: $96.5 million (worldwide)

Jenna Rink, a 13-year-old girl after making a wish on her birthday, wakes up the next morning in the body of her 30-year-old self. As Jenna navigates her new life as a successful magazine editor in New York City, she must come to terms with the consequences of her childhood wishes and the person she has become.

16. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

• Lead actors: Kathleen Turner, Nicolas Cage
• Supporting Artist: Barry Miller, Catherine Hicks
• Director: Francis Ford Coppola
• Release date: October 10, 1986
• IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
• Revenue: $41.4 million (USA)

Peggy Sue Bodell, a middle-aged woman finds herself transported back in time to her high school days in the 1960s after fainting at her high school reunion. As she navigates her teenage years once again, she must confront unresolved issues from her past, including her relationship with her high school sweetheart, Charlie.

17. Next (2007)

• Lead actors: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore
• Supporting Artist: Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann
• Director: Lee Tamahori
• Release date: April 27, 2007
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Revenue: $76.1 million (worldwide)

Cris Johnson is a Las Vegas magician with the ability to see two minutes into his future. When government agents discover his unique talent, they enlist Cris to help them prevent a terrorist attack. However, he soon finds himself pursued by both the authorities and a dangerous group of terrorists who want to exploit his abilities for their nefarious purposes.

18. The Lake House (2006)

• Lead actors: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock
• Supporting Artist: Dylan Walsh, Shohreh Aghdashloo
• Director: Alejandro Agresti
• Release date: June 16, 2006
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
• Revenue: $115.7 million (worldwide)

This time machine movie stars Sandra Bullock as Kate Forster and Keanu Reeves as Alex Wyler, two people who begin exchanging letters through a magical mailbox despite living in different years. Kate resides in 2006, while Alex is living in 2004. As they continue to correspond, they realize that they are living in the same lake house, but their encounters are separated by a two-year time difference.

19. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

• Lead actors: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter
• Supporting Artist: George Carlin, Terry Camilleri
• Director: Stephen Herek
• Release date: February 17, 1989
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Revenue: $40.5 million (worldwide)

The film follows the comedic exploits of two high school slackers, Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan, who are on the brink of failing their history class. However, their fortunes change when a time-traveling figure from the future, Rufus, provides them with a phone booth that allows them to journey through time to collect historical figures for their history presentation.

20. The Jacket (2005)

• Lead actors: Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley
• Supporting Artist: Kris Kristofferson, Jennifer Jason Leigh
• Director: John Maybury
• Release date: March 4, 2005
• Revenue: $15.1 million (worldwide)

Jack Starks, a Gulf War veteran is wrongly accused of murder and sentenced to a mental institution. While at the institution, he is subjected to experimental treatments, including being placed in a straitjacket and confined to a morgue drawer. During these sessions, Jack experiences vivid flashbacks and travels through time to the future, where he meets a woman named Jackie.

21. The Final Countdown (1980)

• Lead actors: Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen
• Supporting Artist: Katharine Ross, James Farentino
• Director: Don Taylor
• Release date: August 1, 1980
• IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
• Revenue: $16.6 million (USA)

The story follows the crew of the USS Nimitz, a modern-day aircraft carrier, as it is mysteriously transported back in time to the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. As the crew grapples with the implications of their presence in the past, they must decide whether to intervene and alter the course of history or adhere to the principle of non-interference.

22. Freejack (1992)

• Lead actors: Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger
• Supporting Artist: Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins
• Director: Geoff Murphy
• Release date: January 17, 1992
• IMDB Rating: 5.3/10
• Revenue: $17.1 million (worldwide)

The story is set in a dystopian future where the wealthy elite have found a way to achieve immortality by kidnapping individuals from the past and transplanting their consciousness into their younger bodies. Emilio Estevez, a race car driver becomes a target for these “freejack” operations. After narrowly escaping a fatal car accident, he finds himself transported to the future where he becomes the prey in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

23. The Butterfly Effect (2004)

• Lead actors: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart
• Supporting Artist: Elden Henson, William Lee Scott
• Director: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
• Release date: January 23, 2004
• IMDB Rating: 7.6/10
• Revenue: $96.1 million (worldwide)

Evan Treborn discovers that he can travel back in time to moments in his past. As Evan revisits pivotal events in his life, he attempts to alter the course of history to prevent tragic outcomes for himself and those around him. However, his actions have unintended consequences that ripple through time, leading to unforeseen and often devastating changes in the present.

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24. Idiocracy (2006)

• Lead actors: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph
• Supporting Artist: Dax Shepard, Terry Crews
• Director: Mike Judge
• Release date: September 1, 2006
• Run Time: 84 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 6.6/10
• Revenue: $495,303 (worldwide)

The story follows Joe Bauers, a dim-witted but average man who is selected for a top-secret military hibernation experiment. However, the experiment goes awry, and Joe awakens 500 years later to find himself in a world where intellectual and cultural standards have plummeted.

25. Army of Darkness (1992)

• Lead actors: Bruce Campbell
• Supporting Artist: Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert
• Director: Sam Raimi
• Release date: October 9, 1992
• Run Time: 81 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
• Revenue: $21.5 million (USA)

The story follows Ash Williams, who finds himself transported back in time to the medieval era after being sucked through a time portal. Armed with his chainsaw hand and his trusty shotgun, Ash must battle an army of the undead and the evil sorcerer, Lord Arthur.

26. Timecop (1994)

• Lead actors: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mia Sara
• Supporting Artist: Ron Silver, Bruce McGill
• Director: Peter Hyams
• Release date: September 16, 1994
• IMDB Rating: 5.9/10
• Revenue: $101.6 million (worldwide)

The story is set in a future where time travel has been invented and subsequently regulated by a government agency. Jean-Claude Van Damme, a Time Enforcement Commission agent tasked with policing time travel violations. When Walker discovers a conspiracy involving a corrupt politician’s plans to alter the past for personal gain, he must race against time to stop them and preserve the integrity of the timeline.

27. Looper (2012)

• Lead actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis
• Supporting Artist: Emily Blunt, Paul Dano
• Director: Rian Johnson
• Release date: September 28, 2012
• IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
• Revenue: $176.5 million (worldwide)

The film is set in a dystopian future where time travel exists but is outlawed and only available on the black market. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a “looper,” is a hired assassin who kills targets sent back in time by criminal organizations. However, Joe’s life turns when his future self, is sent back in time for assassination.

Also Read: Hollywood Inspirational Movies

28. Sleeper (1973)

• Lead actors: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
• Supporting Artist: John Beck, Mary Gregory
• Release date: December 17, 1973
• Revenue: $18.3 million (USA)

Miles Monroe, a health food store owner is cryogenically frozen and wakes up 200 years later in a radically transformed society. Mistaken for a rebel leader, he becomes embroiled in a resistance movement against the oppressive government, led by the dictatorial Leader, in disguise.

29. The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)

• Lead actors: Michael Paré, Nancy Allen
• Supporting Artist: Bobby Di Cicco, Eric Christmas
• Director: Stewart Raffill
• Release date: August 3, 1984
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• IMDB Rating: 6.1/10
• Revenue: $8.1 million (USA)

The film follows two sailors, who find themselves transported to the future along with the ship. As they struggle to adapt to their new reality and unravel the experiment’s mysteries, they must confront the government agents who will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden.

30. Pleasantville (1998)

• Lead actors: Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon
• Supporting Artist: William H. Macy, Joan Allen
• Director: Gary Ross
• Release date: October 23, 1998
• Run Time: 124 minutes
• Revenue: $49.8 million (worldwide)

The film follows the story of siblings David and Jennifer, who are magically transported into the fictional world of a black-and-white 1950s sitcom called “Pleasantville.” In this idyllic world, everything is perfect and orderly, but as they introduce modern ideas and concepts, such as color and individuality, the once-static town begins to undergo profound changes.

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These time travel films offer a diverse range of storytelling approaches .

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The 45 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, Ranked

From classics like Metropolis and Alien to Everything Everywhere All At Once, this is Collider's ranking of the best science fiction movies ever.

The science fiction genre has been one of the most consistently thrilling to explore throughout the history of cinema. The way a visual medium like film can depict futuristic worlds or alternate realities means that almost anything that can be imagined can be depicted on-screen. Since the silent era, filmmakers have been using the medium to their advantage, commenting on humanity's present and hypothesizing about its future through the science-fiction genre.

There are countless great sci-fi movies that have been released since the birth of cinema as an art form, and it's ultimately futile to try and name every single amazing one. There are simply too many top sci-fi movies, and it's a genre that's still thriving, with new potential classics released seemingly every year. The following are among the best of the best from the sci-fi genre, being classics for their entertainment value, excellent technical qualities, and historical significance , and are ranked below in order from great to greatest.

45 'Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes' (2020)

Directed by junta yamaguchi.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is one of the best Japanese movies of the last few years , and also stands as one of the most entertaining and rewatchable sci-fi films in recent memory. It deals with an initially limited form of time travel that involves a screen that shows footage from two minutes in the future, which leads to wonder, fortunes, and eventual chaos for the people who discover this strange phenomenon.

Made on a limited budget and filmed in a way that makes it appear like a single take , Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is quite dazzling for such a small-scale movie, and endlessly inventive/clever. It’s got an infectious spirit and is overall the kind of movie that will provide significant entertainment value for just about anyone who seeks it out.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Watch on Amazon Prime

44 'Voyage of the Rock Aliens' (1984)

Directed by james fargo.

Calling Voyage of the Rock Aliens ridiculous would be underselling it to a considerable extent, but that’s obvious, given it’s literally called Voyage of the Rock Aliens . It functions as a surprisingly good (and wonderfully cheesy) musical, a comedy that feels like a throwback to teen movies of the 1950s and ‘60s, and a sci-fi movie about aliens coming to Earth and trying/failing to fit into life on the planet.

Voyage of the Rock Aliens is a cult movie through and through, and one of the most 1980s-feeling movies to come out of the decade. It’s sloppy, the music probably isn’t for everyone, and watching it is an undeniably chaotic experience, but there’s so much energy and vibrancy to the whole thing that it’s hard to resist , particularly for any sci-fi fans who have a particular fondness for science fiction of the B-movie variety.

Watch on Tubi

43 'August in the Water' (1995)

Directed by gakuryu ishii.

Blending some fantasy/supernatural elements with an odd yet compelling science fiction story, August in the Water is both a unique and underrated film. It focuses on several teenagers living in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, and explores what happens when one of them – a young girl – begins to develop mysterious powers, all the while strange occurrences continue to happen to the city’s population.

August in the Water isn’t exactly clear about the story it’s telling, nor is it particularly narrative-centered in the first place, but it is undeniably atmospheric and provides a distinct look/feel. It’s broad and open-ended enough to leave many things up to interpretation , and even those who get a bit lost in August in the Water will still be able to appreciate its visual style and singular tone.

Buy on Amazon

42 'Poor Things' (2023)

Directed by yorgos lanthimos.

Poor Things was surprisingly successful for such an odd and offbeat movie, but those willing to get immersed in something a little different will likely find the film to be a rewarding one. It’s a surprisingly funny and always visually dazzling sci-fi movie about a woman who’s brought back to life, and then goes on a strange and sometimes alarming journey, rediscovering life and effectively coming of age for a second time.

Yorgos Lanthimos is perfectly suited to this kind of story and this sort of style, with the cast also shining while digging into the strange material they’ve been given, especially Emma Stone in the lead role, who won a second Oscar for her performance. Poor Things is a movie that’s a highlight of the 2020s so far, and feels like the sort of sci-fi movie that will one day be held up as a classic .

Poor Things

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41 'Godzilla Minus One' (2023)

Directed by takashi yamazaki.

Speaking of relatively recent science fiction movies that already feel like modern classics, Godzilla Minus One was one of the biggest surprises of 2023, and one of the best Godzilla movies of the past couple of decades. It takes things back further in time than any other movie in the long-running series, taking place right after World War II, following people who are already struggling with surviving the war’s aftermath when the titular monster emerges and makes life even more difficult.

All the monster action in Godzilla Minus One is exciting and satisfying, but it’s the human characters – and their story – that give it the edge overall, and make it function as a genuinely good drama on top of being a kaiju movie . It’s very approachable and a perfect entry point into the series, particularly for anyone who’s more familiar with the American Godzilla movies and has yet to watch any from Japan.

Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla Minus One is currently not available to stream, rent, or purchase in the U.S.

40 'Woman in the Moon' (1929)

Directed by fritz lang.

The most famous sci-fi movie directed by Fritz Lang came out before Woman in the Moon (more on it a little down the line), but this 1929 shouldn’t be overlooked just because it’s his second-best science fiction film. It’s a remarkable cinematic achievement, considering it’s close to a century old, and remains an engaging film about an expedition to the moon – led by a scientist – in search of gold.

Now, given its age and premise, there are aspects here that feel more fictional than ever in a post-moon landing world , but considering Woman in the Moon predated humanity actually reaching the moon by 40 years, the sci-fi movie's predictions were still impressive . It’s also got inventive special effects and a surprisingly well-told and dramatic story, making it one of the best – and most underrated – films of the silent era, sci-fi or otherwise.

Watch on Kanopy

39 'Electric Dreams' (1984)

Directed by steve barron.

Perhaps feeling more like a quirky and heartfelt romantic comedy than a full-on science fiction movie, Electric Dreams does still center around an advanced computer that begins to fall for a young woman. The computer, in a sense, enters into a love triangle of sorts with the young man who purchased it, given the man also has feelings for the same woman, yet is too shy to approach her.

Electric Dreams then becomes like a sci-fi take on Cyrano de Bergerac , with the computer being Cyrano, helping a more conventional romantic partner while also having his own intense feelings of love toward a romance that can’t be. It might sound ridiculous, and Electric Dreams is kind of silly, but it’s also got a sincerity to it that makes it hard to resist . The cynical need not apply, but those open to the film’s odd charms might be it to be one of the more underrated sci-fi flicks of the ‘80s .

38 'Godzilla vs. Destoroyah' (1995)

Directed by takao okawara.

Throughout the remarkably long history of the Godzilla series , the titular monster has fought many other powerful and intimidating titans. For as mighty as foes like King Kong and King Ghidorah have been, there’s an argument to be made that his most powerful enemy wasn’t even a “King,” and that it was actually Destoroyah, a monster who’s only been featured in one Godzilla film to date: 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah .

Notable for being one of the most intense, frightening, and moving films in the entire series, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah serves as a grand finale for Godzilla ’s Heisei era, which comprised seven movies released between 1984 and 1995 that told a surprisingly continuity-heavy narrative spanning just over a decade. It might not be as powerful outside the context of the series/era, but it’s nevertheless one of the finest of all Godzilla films, and stands as a great work of science fiction as a result.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

Rent on Amazon

37 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' (2017)

Directed by rian johnson.

There are certainly things to criticize when it comes to the most recent Star Wars movies, largely owing to the messily constructed and planned-out sequel trilogy. Yet buried within this flawed trio of films is a genuinely great sci-fi movie that itself is divisive: Star Wars: The Last Jedi . This eighth entry in the Skywalker Saga has passionate fans and vocal detractors, but that seemed inevitable, given it was directed by the guy who was behind what some people call the worst Breaking Bad episode (“Fly”) and what many call the best Breaking Bad episode (“Ozymandias”).

Star Wars: The Last Jedi brings Luke Skywalker back into the fold, taking his character in interesting directions while ultimately having him live up to his legacy by the film’s end. Other aspects of the film seem odd or disappointing at first, but all of it comes together in an interesting way by the end . It reckons with the history of Star Wars , celebrates it, and critiques it all at once, and does so while also being tremendously moving, emotionally speaking, and spectacular, from a visual standpoint.

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

36 'forbidden planet' (1956), directed by fred m. wilcox.

Of all the science fiction movies made during the 1950s, Forbidden Planet is undeniably up there with the most iconic. It follows a crew of space travelers who go in search of another exploration party that's been missing for years, only to make some unusual and startling discoveries during their attempted rescue/recovery mission.

It has an undeniably distinct aesthetic that's inextricably tied to the look and feel of classic '50s sci-fi. It's also notable for having what's perhaps Leslie Nielsen 's best-known non-comedic role, given his career was rejuvenated in the 1980s thanks to starring in a range of iconic parody/spoof movies . Some may find Forbidden Planet to be a little old-fashioned and maybe even slightly cheesy by today's standards , but it's the aesthetics on offer here that might also prove charming to others.

Forbidden Planet

35 'inception' (2010), directed by christopher nolan.

Inception certainly was a cinematic highlight of 2010 , and it had some pretty tough competition that year, too. It's Christopher Nolan blending his affinity for action and science fiction in one , and making this blend go down smoothly with an engaging premise that's about performing a reverse heist within a target's subconscious, making it function well as an action/thriller movie as well as a piece of science fiction.

It's a movie that throws tons of fairly complex ideas at the viewer in rapid succession, and so if there's one criticism that can be thrown Inception's way, it's that it's a little heavy on the exposition at times. But the action-packed scenes serve well as payoffs, and the narrative does find interesting and sometimes unexpected places to go beyond the explanatory dialogue-heavy opening act.

34 'Under the Skin' (2013)

Directed by jonathan glazer.

Those who prefer their sci-fi conventional may want to steer clear of Under the Skin , or approach it very cautiously, given it's another strange, haunting, and unapologetic film directed by Jonathan Glazer . It's essentially an arthouse take on a story about an alien coming to Earth, perhaps being for the 2010s what the equally bizarre and captivating The Man Who Fell to Earth was for the 1970s.

Scarlett Johansson plays the alien at the center of Under the Skin , and much of the movie is about this life form - after taking on a human appearance - stalking and capturing various men who become prey. It offers little by way of easy answers, and much of the film is up to the interpretation of the individual viewer , for better or worse (probably more better, so long as you know roughly what you're in for).

Under the Skin

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33 'Avatar' (2009)

Directed by james cameron.

James Cameron might've referred to himself as the king of the world after his 1997 film Titanic swept the Oscars, but it's perhaps more accurate to call him the king of the sci-fi genre. He's made some of the biggest and most popular works of science fiction in cinematic history, with none being as successful (at least financially) as his 2009 film Avatar . Indeed, Avatar joins Titanic and its own sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water , as a movie that can claim to be the highest-grossing of its decade of release .

It recycles familiar tropes and story beats, but does so in a fantastical world and with breathtaking visual effects. Typical of Cameron, Avatar is also successful in blending genres to ensure it has mass appeal , with this movie being a sci-fi film, an action/adventure movie, and a romance all at once.

32 'Planet of the Apes' (1968)

Directed by franklin j. schaffner.

For as good as the reboot/prequel trilogy released throughout the 2010s was, it's hard to top the original Planet of the Apes film from 1968, at least when judging each movie in the series on its own merits. It's an eerie and oftentimes mysterious film, building to a fantastic conclusion that might still surprise those lucky enough to avoid knowing about it without having seen the movie.

It flips things around by having human beings be the subservient species, and forced to contend with an advanced race of apes who do indeed rule the planet they're on. It's not nearly as cheesy as you'd think (the sequels don't fare quite so well), and holds up as a compelling and entertaining sci-fi/action movie with some interesting things to say about humanity and its possible future.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Watch on Starz

31 'District 9' (2009)

Directed by neill blomkamp.

Though some are clamoring for a sequel that will probably never arrive (never say never, unless you can cowardly include a "probably" in there), District 9 still stands on its own as a great film regardless. It's part mockumentary, part action movie, and part body horror, detailing what happens to an alien ship that becomes stranded over the city of Johannesburg.

It's also packed with social commentary regarding race and how refugees are mistreated in real life, considering in this movie, it's the aliens who find themselves in the middle of a large-scale refugee crisis. It's thought-provoking, unique, exciting, and one of the best science-fiction movies of the 21st century so far, as well as one movie that demonstrated how 2009 was an unusually good year for the sci-fi genre as a whole .

30 'Stalker' (1979)

Directed by andrei tarkovsky.

One of the most acclaimed films of 1979 , Stalker is also among the best-known titles in Andrei Tarkovsky 's filmography. It follows three men who are trying to find a mysterious location known only as the Zone, as it's rumored to grant great power to anyone who can locate it. Stalker feels less focused on the narrative necessarily, as its status as an arthouse science fiction movie means it's more concerned with exploring abstract themes and providing a unique (in this case, also eerie) mood.

It unfolds in a way that's very slow, but also surprisingly absorbing . It's an intensely psychological sort of science fiction, exploring the minds of its characters more so than putting them in a series of exciting set pieces or action scenes. It's the kind of approach to sci-fi that might not be for everyone, but it is undoubtedly interesting.

29 'Moon' (2009)

Directed by duncan jones.

One of many great science-fiction movies released in 2009, Moon is about one man dealing with isolation while being the sole person at a manufacturing facility on the Moon. Things take a turn into the unexpected as he's about to return to Earth, though, throwing the film's events into an entirely new direction.

The less said about the rest of Moon , the better, but it's fair to say that it's certainly engaging and surprising in all the best ways. It's also a showcase for the talents of Sam Rockwell , given he maintains a compelling presence on-screen, even though he doesn't really have any other actual actors to appear alongside, and act with, and Moon undoubtedly solidifies Rockwell as one of the best and most underrated actors working today.

28 'Ex Machina' (2014)

Directed by alex garland.

Before taking a turn into horror by directing movies like Annihilation and Men , Alex Garland had his directorial debut with the sci-fi film Ex Machina . It's a unique look at artificial intelligence, revolving around a series of experiments in a remote location with a new, unnervingly smart robot, the creator of said technology, and a young coder who's won a competition to visit said location.

It's an eerie and engaging look at familiar science-fiction tropes and ideas , presenting things that viewers might have seen before in ways that are confined, realistic, and eye-opening. It's small-scale, personal science-fiction done right, and though it's not particularly old, it feels like the kind of movie where it's safe to say it will age well, and continue to hold up in years to come.

27 'Minority Report' (2002)

Directed by steven spielberg.

Minority Report is set in a future where surveillance has become so widespread and powerful that the crime/justice landscape has completely changed. Violent crimes can now be predicted before they even happen, leading to people being arrested and charged for crimes they didn't actually commit, but were ultimately going to commit, or so those in the business of "Precrime" say.

It's an uneasy and thought-provoking premise, and was explored in a way that ensured Minority Report ranked among the best movies of 2002 . It's getting on in years, but what it has to say still feels relevant and unnerving, and time will ultimately tell how relevant it'll continue to feel, and how unsettling its premise will feel for viewers even further in the future. Undoubtedly, it's one of the very best sci-fi/thriller movies Steven Spielberg has ever directed.

Minority Report

26 'interstellar' (2014).

While Interstellar isn't Christopher Nolan's only great science-fiction movie, it might be his most pure sci-fi effort, given Inception ' s action-heavy nature and Tenet feeling like an espionage thriller with sci-fi elements. Interstellar 's also one of his longest movies, making it a true sci-fi epic in every sense of the word.

It centers on a group of astronauts who explore space through a wormhole, as humanity is in danger on Earth and may need to find a new planet to live on. On the technical side of things, Interstellar is spectacular, with amazing visual effects and a phenomenal Hans Zimmer score . It's a long but rewarding film, and in contrast to some science-fiction, also contains a surprising amount of heartfelt - maybe even sentimental - emotion.

Interstellar

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15 best movies like james bond.

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Every Kingsman Movie, Ranked Worst To Best (Including The King's Man)

How jason bourne improved (& saved) the james bond movies, james bond theory: the rock is sean connery's real final 007 movie.

• For fans of James Bond looking for similar spy movies, Tenet is a must-watch with a stellar cast and thrilling time-travel plot.
• Salt, with Angelina Jolie as a betrayed CIA agent, offers gripping Cold War thrills reminiscent of early Bond movies.
• Our Kind of Traitor provides a grounded and captivating spy story, ideal for those seeking an amateur couple in a dangerous spy world.

Movies like James Bond offer fans a look at super spies, espionage, and world-threatening situations. James Bond is one of the most iconic movie characters of all time, a super spy who has been a huge box office draw for well over 50 years. As a result of this, Bond movies have also formed the basis for not only other serious adaptations of spy novels but parodies of the genre. With so many movies directly inspired by the series, fans searching to find movies like James Bond's adventures discover that it's not hard to find.

The release of No Time to Die closed out the highly-acclaimed Daniel Craig era of Bond movies, leaving many longtime fans of the franchise pumped up for more spy movie thrills even though the role has yet to be recast and a new installment is still very far away on the horizon. Now more than ever is the time for 007 fans to be looking to the past for some of the great movies that have inspired the Bond franchise as well as the thrillers that have taken inspiration from it.

Daniel Craig Is Right About James Bond's No Time To Die Ending

Daniel Craig is justifiably proud of No Time To Die's ending. Here's why the actor is right about the powerful way his James Bond's story concluded.

15 Tenet (2020)

A sci-fi time-travel movie like james bond.

Tenet is a must-watch for fans of the Craig era of 007 films, despite the far heavier science-fiction elements of its plot. The movie stars John David Washington as a secret agent who is tasked with saving the future from an arms dealer who is using time manipulation to carry out his villainous plot. The movie also features a stellar cast including Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debecki, and Kenneth Branagh.

Tenet is the closest that Nolan has come so far to producing a Bond film.

Many film fans have called for Christopher Nolan to take on the Bond franchise in earnest as its influence on some of his action-thriller movies, especially his hugely popular Batman trilogy, is quite evident. Tenet is the closest that Nolan has come so far to producing a Bond film, with Washington's Protagonist carrying out exciting side missions that bring him closer and closer to his target and set up the action-packed climax with some of Nolan's best set-pieces.

14 Salt (2010)

Angelina jolie stars as a betrayed cia agent.

Angelina Jolie steps into the spy game to make the titular Evelyn Salt a super spy worth mentioning alongside both Bond and Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt. A CIA agent accused of being a traitor, Salt goes on the run to prevent a wider plot involving a hidden team of Russian sleeper agents who have secretly infiltrated the highest levels of the U.S. government.

Fans of early Bond movies should love its take on Cold War thrills and fans of the more recent Bond movies won't be left disappointed by Jolie's confidence as an action star. It is also a gripping story with the truth behind Salt's actions and motivations left a mystery for much of the movie. Though the canceled plans for Salt 2 left many disappointed, the original movie still provides a lot of slick spy thrills.

13 Our Kind Of Traitor (2016)

A regular couple sucked into a spy thriller, our kind of traitor.

Our Kind of Traitor is adapted from the novel of the same name by John le Carré.

Sometimes it is more fun to watch an amateur spy at work in a dangerous situation rather than a skilled and trained agent like 007. That is the approach with the grounded and captivating, Our Kind of Traitor . Adapted from the novel of the same name by John le Carré , Our Kind of Traitor follows a civilian couple who become embroiled in a shadowy international plot involving illegal money and assassination . It stars Ewan McGregor, Naomie Harris, and Damian Lewis.

The approach to the spy world is certainly more old-school Bond than latter-day Bond, but the intelligent conversations driving the plot forward keep the tension as high as elaborate action sequences do. Fans of Ian Fleming's novels should seek it out for its rich characters and story details , while movie fans won't want to miss the impressive ensemble.

12 Jack Reacher (2012)

Tom cruise stars in the lee child adaptation, jack reacher.

Tom Cruise brought Jack Reacher to the big screen, and, while he might not have the same expensive tastes as Bond, the highly-trained sleuth shares his distinctly uncompromising attitude. Reacher is a tough and formidable military police officer who comes to investigate the case of a former soldier gunning down innocent civilians only to discover that there is a wider conspiracy at play.

With a mysterious European villain (Werner Herzog), Jack Reacher is a gripping mystery with all the tension and quality of a James Bond movie. There was some criticism for Cruise stepping into the role of Reacher who is described in Lee Child's books as being a massive warrior, more akin to how Alan Richardson plays him in the Reacher TV series.

11 Atomic Blonde (2017)

Charlize theron in a john wick-style adventure, atomic blonde.

In Atomic Blonde , Charlize Theron plays secret agent Lorraine Broughton , who's sent to Berlin on a mission to find out who murdered her colleague and to recover an important list. There, she is confronted with the ambiguity of the Cold War-era spy world as she finds herself surrounded by enemies and now knows which of her potential allies is really on her side.

The brutality of the action scenes is the best testament to Theron's commitment to the role, which sees the super spy showing off her Bond-like skills as both a lover and a fighter. The movie is a lot more visually stylized than the James Bond franchise ever is, but that spills over into the action sequences and doesn't just linger in the backdrops. However, as memorable as the action scenes are, Atomic Blonde works well as a gripping thriller.

10 North By Northwest (1959)

Alfred hitchcock's spy masterpiece, north by northwest.

Alfred Hitchcock was a master filmmaker, and his 1956 masterpiece, North by Northwest , is one of several Hitchcock movies that informed the spy genre before Dr. No came out and directly inspired the Bond franchise. The film follows a New York City ad executive (Cary Grant), as he finds himself on the run for his life after being confused with a government agent by international spies.

The genre of mistaken identities can be hit or miss, but North by Northwest is seen as the gold standard for telling these stories with thrills and intrigue. Grant gives an iconic performance as another everyday character who is thrust into the spy world and fights to survive against relentless and skilled enemies. Grant and Hitchcock's collaborations were high points in each of their respective careers with many claiming this is their best work together.

North By Northwest's True Story Inspiration Explained

Although North by Northwest is not based on a true story, it has some intriguing true-story inspirations that make its narrative even more riveting.

9 Three Days Of The Condor (1975)

Robert redford in a spy thriller from the 1970s.

Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway star in this icy thriller that uses a more subversive urban-set conspiracy story than Roger Moore's campier James Bond adventures in the mid-1970s. Redford takes on the role of a CIA researcher who finds all of his co-workers assassinated when he returns from lunch, forcing him to go on the run in New York City and stay one step ahead of those trying to kill him.

Three Days of the Condor is an iconic spy movie that helped shape the genre as much as some of the classic James Bond movies did. It is another film that features a spy who is in over his head and Redford's hero is not equipped for this kind of danger. It also features a standout performance from Max Von Sydow as the assassin who is on Redford's trail yet who showcases a fascinating philosophy about his job.

8 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

Gary oldman's take on george smiley, tinker tailor soldier spy.

Adapted from the novel of the same name by John le Carré, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a Cold War thriller set during the 1970s and follows George Smiley, played by Gary Oldman, a former British agent who is brought back into the spy game to find a mole . Oldman received his first Oscar nomination for his reserved role while the movie also features standout performances from Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hardy.

Fans of the literary side of James Bond will love the cast of the film as each of the world-class actors amplifies the stiffer-upper-lip side of Bond to its full dramatic extent and the film delves deeper into the psychology of its characters than most movies. Like many of le Carré's stories, it is a more grounded and real-world spy movie without big action scenes but still manages to pack a punch.

7 Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

A spy movie based on a graphic novel, kingsman: the secret service.

Director Matthew Vaughn has made several movies inspired by or paying homage to James Bond, but The Kingsman was his best effort. The movie stars Taron Egerton as a young hoodlum recruited by Colin Firth's sophisticated spy to join a top-secret organization as one of its newest agents. The movie also stars Samuel L. Jackson as the movie's fun take on a Bond villain.

Kingsman: The Secret Service is more graphically violent than even 007's darkest moments, but those elements are balanced by the film's emphasis on comedy. The Kingsman franchise may be heavily inspired by James Bond , but it adds its twist to the spy genre. Rather than having the titular Kingsman spy organization be an extension of a government, they're an independent body. The movies satirize the tropes of the genre as much as they save the world.

So far, there have been three Kingsman movies from director Matthew Vaughn, with more on the way. Here's the Kingsman films ranked worst to best.

6 The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

A spy movie based on the 1960s tv show, the man from u.n.c.l.e..

Henry Cavill has long been a fan-favorite to take on the role as Bond, but he has already played a Bond-like role in a criminally underseen spy movie. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is an adaptation of the 1960s TV series of the same name and follows two spies, one from the USA and one from the Soviet Union , who work with the daughter of a missing scientist to stop a plot involving a nuclear bomb.

Guy Ritchie brings out a back-and-forth dynamic between the main trio, evoking a classic James Bond movie feeling. It is also the best case that has been made for Cavill starring as Bond with the actor delivering a funny, charming, and heroic performance that steals the movie. The movie's period setting also evokes the relatively simplistic beauty of the early Bond movies from the 1960s.

5 The Bourne Identity (2002)

The movie that forced james bond movies to change.

The Bourne Identity was a game-changer for the action and spy genres, bringing hard-hitting fight scenes and intense grounded set-pieces to the genre that can sometimes get over the top. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Robert Ludlum, the story follows Jason Bourne as he is pulled out of the ocean, barely clinging to life with four bullet holes in his back. Suffering from amnesia, Bourne must uncover the truth about his past.

The film was a massive success for critics and at the box office, offering a low-key take on the concept of a superspy that the 007 franchise emulated , especially in Daniel Craig's Bond movie, Quantum of Solace . Matt Damon made for a surprisingly effective action star and Jason Bourne became another of cinema's most iconic spies while also being a complex character.

Although the super-spies are usually box office rivals, amnesiac CIA operative Jason Bourne saved the James Bond franchise from embarrassing failure.

4 Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Tom cruise takes m:i to a higher level, mission: impossible - fallout.

While James Bond has the longevity and iconic status on its side, the Mission: Impossible movies have gradually surpassed 007 to become the best spy franchise right now. Mission: Impossible - Fallout continues to prove that with the sixth entry into the franchise which finds Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team attempting to stop a mysterious figure from detonating a nuclear warhead and bringing about a new world order.

Hailed by critics as one of the best in the series, the film contains several of the Mission: Impossible franchise's most death-defying stunts, ones only in danger of being topped by Cruise himself in the next installment, Dead Reckoning . Henry Cavill also joined the team for this adventure, furthering his credentials for the 007 role, and the action sequences match the Bond franchise's emphasis on practicality with impressive gusto.

3 The Rock (1996)

A spy movie starring the first james bond actor.

Filled with explosive shootouts and chases, this Michael Bay thriller sees Nicolas Cage play an FBI chemical weapons expert forced to team with a captured spy to break into Alcatraz and stop a group of rogue Special Forces soldiers threatening San Francisco with deadly nerve gas.

There's an excess of the kind of action and adventure sequences that fuel the spy movies. Many fans regard this as Bay's best movie to date with thrilling and entertaining action sequences without being weighed down by the humor injected into his later movies. The most fun aspect of the movie is the chemistry between Cage and Sean Connery as the two unlikely heroes. Sean Connery's character plays off of his past as James Bond and the action sequences on display all but guarantee a good time for 007 fans.

Sean Connery officially stopped playing James Bond in 1971, but is 1996's The Rock movie is real final outing as 007? A compelling theory says so.

2 The Ipcress File (1965)

A spy thriller starring michael caine, the ipcress file (1965).

The Ipcress File was released during the rising popularity of James Bond in 1965 and Michael Caine portrays the main character, a spy named Harry Palmer. Unlike Bond, Palmer struggles with bureaucracy and leads a far less exotic lifestyle that focuses on the reality of post-war life in Europe . The movie follows Palmer as he investigates the cases of British scientists being captured and brainwashed.

Caine's Harry Palmer movies remain one of their most interesting counterpoints in British cinema.

Palmer makes for a unique and entertaining protagonist in the spy genre with a wisecracking nature to him . Caine reprised the role several more times and, though they never achieved the popularity of Eon Productions' Bond films, Caine's Harry Palmer movies remain one of their most interesting counterpoints in British cinema. It is an exciting alternative to the earlier Bond movies while still capturing the spy intrigue and compelling mission at the center of the story.

1 Patriot Games (1992)

Harrison ford in the jack ryan thriller, patriot games (1992).

Following The Hunt for Red October, Harrison Ford became the second actor to play Jack Ryan , the CIA analyst hero at the center of several of Tom Clancy's novels. Patriot Games follows Ryan as he prevents the assassination of a prominent British official. Ryan then becomes the target of a terrorist, played by Sean Bean. Along with Ford and Bean playing the hero and villain roles, Patriot Games also includes Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Harris, and James Earl Jones.

The film features stellar performances from the cast, most notably Harrison Ford as Ryan, who reprised the role in Clear and Present Danger . Both films offer an interesting take on the espionage hero, one of the best movies like James Bond , but the British connection makes Patriot Games one of Ryan's most Bond-like movie outings to date.

• Entertainment

The 31 Best Love Triangle Movies to Watch After Challengers

I n honor of Zendaya ’s new film Challengers, which focuses on the intersecting love lives of three tennis players, we are taking a look at the best love triangles in movie history. The 31 films included on this list span decades, genres, and romantic machinations that may end up convincing you that, when it comes to love, three is a crowd. (There’s even one four-way love square, which is the most tragic romance on this list by far.)

The greatest love triangles include a martial arts epic in which two men become rivals for a woman’s heart and a Nicholas Sparks -inspired melodrama. John Hughes created an unrequited love triumvirate for the teen set, while basketball becomes the third wheel in Gina Prince-Bythewood ’s full length directorial debut. 

From a romantic comedy that casts Julia Roberts as the villain to a pair of Mike Nichols' films with troubled romances and a notable soundtrack, below are the best love triangles that Hollywood has to offer.

The Notebook (2004)

In the 1940s-set The Notebook , Allie (Rachel McAdams) must choose between her fiancé Lon (James Marsden), a caring and gentle World War II veteran who she helped nurse back to health, or her first love Noah (Ryan Gosling), a hotheaded carpenter who drives her nuts, but forces her outside her comfort zone. What makes the romance, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, so compelling is that even those who are happy to see her end up with Noah can’t help but hope that Lon finds his own happily ever after.

Broadcast News (1987)

The blonde-haired blue-eyed Tom (William Hurt) is a born on-air personality , while Aaron (Albert Brooks) is not quite safe (and far too sweaty ) for TV. Despite their professional differences, both men are competing for the affections of the same woman: a skilled but sometimes severe news producer, Jane (Holly Hunter). The ending of Broadcast News, which feels rather ahead of its time, shows that there are far more than two choices when it comes to both the news business and matters of the heart.

The Graduate (1967)

The Graduate begins with the seduction of recent college grad Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) by Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), the wife of his father’s law partner who is at least 20 years his senior. (In real life, the 35-year-old Bancroft was only six years older than her co-star.) The Mike Nichols comedy is all fun and late night liaisons, until Benjamin finds himself falling for her more age appropriate daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross), much to Mrs. Robinson’s chagrin. The film’s memorable final shot will leave you wondering whether Benjamin’s wedding interruption was about love or revenge. 

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)

In the Pride and Prejudice -inspired Bridget Jones’s Diary, perpetual singleton Bridget Jones ( Renée Zellweger ) finds herself caught between her womanizing boss, the Mr. Wickham-esque Daniel (Hugh Grant at his absolute smarmiest) and the reindeer jumper-wearing barrister Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), who, as his name suggests, is as hard to read as Jane Austen’s romantic hero (whom the actor once played to much acclaim ). It’s only after getting to know each of them better (and trudging through the snow in her tiny knickers ) that Bridget realizes, just like Elizabeth Bennet, she is meant to be with Mr. Darcy.

Casablanca (1942)

Casablanca might have the most iconic love triangle in cinematic history. Amid World War II, exiled former American freedom fighter Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) has built a life for himself in the titular Moroccan city, far away from Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the woman who abandoned him years earlier. But when she unwittingly walks into his gin joint with her husband, Czech resistance leader Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid), looking for a way to escape the Nazis, it’s clear things aren’t quite over between them. Yet Rick knows that the only way to save her is to let her go. They may not have a future together, but they’ll always have Paris —and for him, that has to be enough. 

The Age of Innocence (1993)

Grab all of the tissues, you’re going to need them for the Martin Scorsese -directed Gilded Age weepie based on Edith Wharton’s 1920 novel of the same name. In 1870s New York, Daniel Day Lewis’ chivalrous lawyer Newland Archer is set to marry a respectable woman, the sweet and virtuous May Weiland (Winona Ryder). But he soon finds himself falling in love with May’s cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), who has been ostracized by the city’s elite following her separation from her husband. Age of Innocence is a beautiful tragedy of manners that questions whether it is better to follow one’s own heart or the rules set by polite society.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

If you were Katharine Hepburn , who would you rather marry: Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart? It’s the question at the heart of the classic romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story. Wealthy socialite Tracy Lord (Hepburn) is on the brink of walking down the aisle with fellow aristocrat George Kittredge (John Howard). Their wedding is the talk of the town, which is how her ex-husband, yacht designer-turned-journalist C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant), and his photographer Mike Connor (Stewart), end up at her home to cover the star-studded affair. It’s in the days before saying “I do” that Tracy begins to rethink the choices she’s made to please her family. In the end, Tracy leaves George at the altar for another guy who she believes will give her the life she’s always wanted.

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

House of Flying Daggers is an exhilarating martial arts film about love and betrayal. Set in 859 AD during the dying days of China’s Tang Dynasty, undercover cop Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) arrests Mei (Ziya Zhang), a blind dancer whom he suspects of being the daughter of the leader of the underground rebel group that shares the film’s name. With the help of fellow cop Leo (Andy Lau), Jin works to land a confession from Mei, but amid the investigation, both men find themselves falling for her. The Zhang Yimou film ends with the three battling it out to the death in an action sequence for the ages; a poetic end to a love story destined to end tragically. 

Jules and Jim (1962)

The complex love triangle at the center of François Truffaut ’s landmark French New Wave film is between two best friends, Jules (Oskar Werner) and Jim (Henri Serre), and the young woman, Catherine (Jeanne Moreau), they both love. Jules and Jim is often credited with creating the manic-pixie-dream-girl trope before we had a term for it. But many, including movie critic Roger Ebert , argue that the film isn’t about Jules and Jim’s quest to win the freewheeling Catherine’s heart. It’s about her long, hard journey into adulthood; a reading that makes the ending of this trilateral romance all the more bittersweet.

The Half of It (2020)

In Netflix’s The Half of It , high school football star Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) is crushing on popular girl Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemireso) so he enlists the shy, but shrewd Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) to write her a love letter for him. The only problem is: Ellie has a thing for Aster, too, in this Cyrano de Bergerac -inspired teen rom-com with a queer twist that's a welcome addition to the love triangle canon.

Sabrina (1954)

Two wealthy brothers, played by Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, find themselves competing for the same girl: the titular character played by Audrey Hepburn . The two men, who couldn’t be more different, have known Sabrina all their lives; she’s the daughter of their chauffeur. But it isn’t until after she returns from Paris—looking more sophisticated than ever—that they give her a second glance. Now, she must figure out if either one of these guys really loves her for who she is or if she’s just a trophy to be won. 

The Hunger Games (2012)

No offense to the Twihards , but Twilight 's Bella, Edward, and Jacob have nothing on Katniss and her guys, Peeta and Gale. Throughout The Hunger Games series, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself drawn to fellow tribute Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), who poses as her fake boyfriend in hopes that it will help them survive the death tournament. But their fake romance doesn’t sit well with Katniss’ District 12 bestie Gale (Liam Hemsworth), who secretly harbors feelings for her. No matter what team you’re on, The Hunger Games offers a compelling battle for Katniss’ heart and soul.

The Apartment (1960)

A pencil pusher at an insurance agency (Jack Lemmon) finds himself falling for his office’s sweet elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine). Unfortunately, she’s also the mistress of his two-timing boss (Fred MacMurray) in Billy Wilder’s heartfelt comedy about the struggle to find the kind of love one deserves. 

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

The love triangle in While You Were Sleeping is between a man, a woman, and a man in a coma who doesn’t actually know he’s part of this romantic triumvirate. After lonely Chicago transit token collector Lucy (Sandra Bullock) saves her longtime secret crush Peter (Peter Gallagher) from being hit by a train, she is falsely identified as his fiancée. Peter’s estranged family quickly adopts her and she can’t help but fall in love with them. Specifically, Peter’s brother Jack (Bill Pullman), who is at first suspicious of Lucy, but soon finds himself captivated by his brother’s soon-to-be fake wife. Hilarity definitely ensues in this zany rom-com.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También is a sexy hormone-fueled road trip movie set in the Oscar-winning director’s home country of Mexico in which two teenage friends, played by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna , find themselves falling for their travel companion, a married woman in her late 20s (Maribel Verdú). Possibly at the expense of their lifelong friendship. 

Brooklyn (2015)

Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) is torn throughout Brooklyn. Not just between two countries—her motherland of Ireland, or her newly adopted home of New York City—but between the two men who exemplify the best of both those worlds. Soon after moving to Brooklyn, she meets Tony (Emory Cohen), a nice Italian plumber who wants to build a life with her, but when a tragedy forces her to go back home, she finds herself getting close to Jim (Domhnall Gleeson), a fellow Irishman who hopes he can give her a reason to stay. The charming romantic drama based on Irish author Colm Toibin’s 2009 novel of the same name offers a thoughtful look at what it really means to put down roots with someone. 

The Piano (1993)

In Jane Campion ’s feminist classic The Piano , talented pianist and mute Ada (Holly Hunter) finds herself at the center of an odd love triangle. Set in the mid-1800s, Scotswoman Ada has been sold into a marriage with Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill), a New Zealand frontiersman who is aloof to her needs and wants. But when Alisdair’s right-hand man George (Harvey Keitel) enlists Ada to teach him to play piano she is finally able to find pleasure outside of her music. But it may be at her own peril.  

The Dark Knight (2008)

Most superhero movies are action-packed, but light on romance. Not The Dark Knight , which uses its love triangle of Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), his childhood sweetheart, assistant District Attorney Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and her new romantic partner, Gotham’s new D.A. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) as the Christopher Nolan film’s major turning point. Losing Rachel at the hands of the Joker (Heath Ledger), sends each of these heroic men on diverging paths looking for vengeance. Neither finds salvation, only more destruction. 

The Favourite (2018)

At first glance, the love triangle in Yorgos Lanthimos’ 18th century dark comedy The Favourite appears to be one of pure convenience. Both Lady Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) and her cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone) are battling for the affections of England’s Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) in hopes of earning power over her court. But as the film goes on, it’s clear that not everyone is faking their lustful feelings for the depressed ruler, which makes the final shot of The Favourite feel even bleaker.

Reality Bites (1994)

Budding filmmaker Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder) has a thing for her friend, former convenience store clerk and scruffy grammar savant Troy Dyer ( Ethan Hawke ). But it isn’t until she takes up with Michael, an executive at an MTV-like network played by the film’s director Ben Stiller, that Troy makes his feelings for her known in the worst way possible. Reality Bites perfectly encapsulates the angst of falling in love with someone you shouldn’t be falling in love with. But to be fair, who would really turn down a chance to get with Ethan Hawke in the ‘90s ?

Something’s Gotta Give (2003)

Would you break up with a handsome, attentive younger doctor (played by Keanu Reeves) to be with a charming sexagenarian socialite who previously dated your daughter (Jack Nicholson)? That’s the predicament Diane Keaton’s character, playwright Erica Barry, finds herself in with Nancy Meyers ’ mature rom-com that shows you’re never too old to find love.

Your Sister’s Sister (2011)

After the death of his brother, Jack (Mark Duplass) needs a break, so his best friend Iris (Emily Blunt) sends him to her father’s cabin in the woods. It’s there he meets her sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt), who has set up camp there after a breakup. The two make for easy drinking buddies and bedmates. But when Iris arrives with plans to tell Jack that she’s in love with him is when things get really complicated in Lynn Shelton’s tender drama. Like, possibly stealing someone’s sperm kind of complicated. 

Bound (1996)

Three years before they created The Matrix , the Wachowskis made Bound, a lesbian heist movie in which the deadly eternal triangle at the center of it—a violent gangster (Joe Pantoliano), his conniving girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly), and an ex-con (Gina Gershon)—must work together to steal from the mafia. But can these three really be trusted? In this modern edge-of-your-seat noir, all’s fair in love and gang war.

Love & Basketball (2000)

The hoopers at the center of Love & Basketball , Quincy (Omar Epps) and Monica (Sanaa Lathan), fall in and out of love throughout their lives . And while the climax of the sports drama has Monica balling to keep Quincy from marrying another woman, the real love triangle at the center of the movie is between those two and basketball, the shared passion that risks tearing them apart.

Pretty In Pink (1986)

In the John Hughes classic Pretty in Pink , Molly Ringwald plays Andie, a stylish teen from the wrong side of the tracks who falls for classmate Blaine (Andrew McCarthy), a (mostly) goodhearted yuppie who finds himself enamored with her despite the objections of his caddish best friend ( James Spader , giving a masterful performance). But Blaine’s not the only guy in love with Andie; her sweet, but awkward bestie Duckie (Jon Cryer) is too shy to tell her how he really feels. (Though lip synching for his life to Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” should have been a clear giveaway.) But there’s an awkward truth about this teen love triangle: Andie doesn’t seem as torn between the two as so many in the audience are. #JusticeForDuckie .

Past Lives (2023)

Celine Song ’s poignant romance Past Lives spans 24 years, two continents, and two great loves. As a tween growing up in South Korea, Nora ( Greta Lee ) dreamed of marrying her best friend Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). In reality, she ends up with Arthur (John Magaro), a budding author she meets at a writing retreat in Montauk. Seven years into her marriage, Hae Sung comes to visit her in New York and she finds herself wondering what could have been.

Blood Simple (1984)

The Coen Brothers debut feature is a nasty thriller in which a husband (played by Dan Hedaya) sets out to kill his wife (Frances McDormand in her movie debut) for taking up with another man, who also happens to be his employee (John Getz). Blood Simple is a twisty noir that will keep you guessing on where each of the members of this devilish triangle’s allegiances lie until the very bloody end. 

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

When Jules (Julia Roberts) finds out her best friend Michael (Dermot Mulroney)—with whom she had a longstanding pact that they would get married if they were both single at 28—is engaged to a younger woman (Cameron Diaz), she sets out to win him back by any means necessary. By the end of My Best Friend’s Wedding, you may find yourself asking: is Jules part of a love triangle or just delusional? Casting Roberts as the possible villain makes this one of the genre’s best. 

The Worst Person in the World (2021)

Despite what the Norwegian film’s title might imply, protagonist Julie ( Renate Reinsve ) is not the worst person in the world. Heck, she’s not even the worst person in this movie. Instead, she is a lost twenty something woman trying to figure out whether she wants to be with a curmudgeonly cartoonist 15 years her senior (Anders Danielsen Lie) or a laidback barista (Herbert Nordrum). Or, maybe, perhaps find a third option that will make her even happier. 

Closer (2004)

It can be hard to look away from the car crash that is Closer ’s ever changing love square: Dan (Jude Law) loves Alice (Natalie Portman), but cheats on her with Anna (Julia Roberts), who is married to Larry (Clive Owen), who plans to seduce Alice out of revenge. So why then would you do it? Because there’s something heartbreakingly therapeutic about watching this foursome try to come to terms with their own infidelities in director Mike Nichols’ penultimate film.

Gone With the Wind (1939)

Frankly, you might not give a damn about Gone With the Wind, but the controversial Hollywood classic has one of the most compelling love triangles ever put to screen. Set during the American Civil War, Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) spends a decade obsessing over Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard), the film’s most tragic character, while spurning the advances of Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a strikingly handsome soldier who is both her knight in shining armor and her greatest antagonist. All of this makes for a tormented love story with an ending that is still as explosive as it was 90 years ago.

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The 40 Best Time Travel Movies & Series

1. Back to the Future

2. Journeyman

3. The Time Traveler's Wife

4. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

5. The Time Machine

6. Doctor Who

7. The Lake House

8. Hot Tub Time Machine

9. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

10. The Time Tunnel

11. Timeline

12. The Philadelphia Experiment

13. Kate & Leopold

14. Seven Days

15. The Butterfly Effect

16. Time After Time

17. Timetrip: The Curse of the Viking Witch

18. The Jacket

19. Premonition

20. The Terminator

21. Groundhog Day

22. Quantum Leap

23. 12 Monkeys

24. The Visitors II: The Corridors of Time

25. Idiocracy

26. Grand Tour: Disaster in Time

27. A Sound of Thunder

28. Retroactive

29. Deja Vu

30. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

31. Flight of the Navigator

32. Frequency

33. Black Knight

34. The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

35. Second Life

36. Time Bandits

37. Millennium

38. Unterwegs nach Atlantis

39. Timecop

40. I Want To

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12 Best Romance Movies Of The 2010s

• Romance movies have enduring popularity because they allow audiences to experience a range of emotions and escape from reality.
• The 2010s saw the release of many memorable romance films, from indie gems like Blue Jay to blockbusters like Crazy Rich Asians.
• These films explore various themes of love, including rekindling old flames, long-distance relationships, and the complexities of marriage, all while celebrating diversity and breaking stereotypes.

A romantic film will never go out of fashion, and the decade of the 2010s, in particular, had some great romance movies with epic love stories that last. Escaping from reality to get swept up in a good love story is a time-honored tradition, and plenty of audiences still yearn to see poignant romances on screens both big and small. A good romance will make a viewer want to fall in love when it goes right and cry their heart out when it goes wrong.

Romance stories have never gone out of fashion because love is an enduring theme in audiences' lives. Scientists have even studied the effect romantic cinema has on audiences; watching them can release stress hormones that can calm viewers and allow people to feel a deep range of emotions. Such is the power of a good love story, and the 2010s were full of them.

Blue Jay (2016)

Blue Jay simply depicts the fuzzy warmth of reconnecting with an old friend. This raw indie stars Mark Duplass and Sarah Paulson as Jim and Amanda, high school sweethearts who bump into each other decades later. Both have moved away, but Jim has returned after his mother dies, and Amanda is there to help her sister, who is giving birth.

Where most romance movies would have the pair embark on a passionate affair, Blue Jay is a little more subdued. Jim and Amanda go to coffee together and do anything they can to keep the conversation going. The couple go to Jay's mother's home and play house, pretending they had never grown apart. Heavily improvised and filmed in black-and-white, Blue Jay explores the concept that two lonely souls destined to be can find their way back to each other.

Like Crazy (2011)

Anton Yelchin's Jacob and Felicity Jones' Anna are loved-up college students whose relationship hits a roadblock when she overstays her student visa. When the semester ends, she reluctantly returns to England to renew her paperwork, but the couple must maintain their relationship transatlantic when it doesn't go as planned. They try to move on, but their love is real, something they can't easily replace.

This Sundance-winning film's dialogue is mostly improvised, giving the effect audiences are watching a documentary. The actors were only given a brief scene outline during shooting, making many of the emotional scenes feel unbearably raw. Like Crazy is a fresh take on the age-old dilemma of maintaining long-distance relationships and wondering if one has chosen to tie themselves to the right person.

Before Midnight (2013)

The last in the Before trilogy, Before Midnight follows Ethan Hawke's Jesse and Julie Delpy's Céline spending a summer vacation in Greece with their children. The Oscar-nominated movie is about everything and nothing. In Before Midnight , Jesse is a celebrated writer, and Céline is an environmental activist. Although they are still the people they fell in love with, years of disappointment and baggage have changed the dynamic.

Before Midnight is an organic ending to this applauded trilogy. The narrative documents the struggles to keep love alive realistically and with a gentle touch. While most films would write melodramatic arguments between the couple, Before Midnight shows the irritability and gripes that anyone in a relationship will connect with. It's hard to disagree that the Before trilogy is one of cinema's best love stories .

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

Starring Henry Golding and Constance Wu, Crazy Rich Asians is an escapist fantasy about an American woman meeting her fiance's wealthy family. Co-starring Awkwafina and Michelle Yeoh, Crazy Rich Asian has stunning outfits , memorable characters, and a tender romance. This Cinderella story is a lavish romance, a movie rarely made in the 2010s.

Based on Kevin Kwan's best-selling book, this film was a game changer for both the romantic genre and casting in Hollywood. Many cast members became international stars after the movie was released, proving how important representation is in the industry. Although Crazy Rich Asians is a frothy romance from a distance, under the sparkles, the film is a subversion of Asian stereotypes and a celebration of Asian women.

A Star Is Born (2018)

It has been done three times before, but Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's sizzling chemistry stops A Star is Born from becoming another unnecessary remake of a classic movie . In fact, their chemistry was so hot rumors circulated that they were dating in real life. A Star is Born centers on an alcoholic rock star, Jason, and an upcoming pop star, Ally, who find what they need in each other.

Ally soon becomes Jackson's safe house, taking on the roles of lover, muse, and carer throughout the musical drama. Bradley Cooper's directorial debut is an epic tale of heartbreak, sacrifice, and abuse. Their love struggles as her career ascends and his descends. A Star is Born ends in one of the most heartbreaking scenes in modern movie history, all soundtracked to Lady Gaga's belting vocals.

Spike Jonze's science-fiction love story rethinks romance in the age of social media and handheld devices. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore, a talented but lonely writer who is still trying to come to terms with his divorce. He starts to slowly start a bond with an AI operating system called Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).

Samantha grows past Theodore to the point that she is too curious and intellectual for him. Her explores one man's relationship with an electronic device and highlights how humans can use AI to fulfill their emotional needs. While most movies feature AI as a cautionary tale, Her celebrates how it could connect humanity's loneliest people.

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019)

Set in coastal Brittany in the 18th century, Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a slow-burning romance between a portraitist, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), and the woman she has been commissioned to paint, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). Portrait of a Lady on Fire depicts the pair as collaborators, eliminating any artist and muse cliches.

Love and art get entangled in this heart-breaking period movie. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is one of the most significant lesbian dramas and love stories in modern cinema. This movie is a carefully compromised series of conversations between equals, with the art often mirroring their romance as it evolves. Not a single sentence in Portrait of a Lady in Fire isn't filled with longing and pain, with the silence often depicting their romance as many of their feelings can't be said aloud.

Carol (2015)

Carol depicts the universal emotion of longing. Adapted from a 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel, Carol is a slowly seductive romance between two women. When Carol orders an expensive Christmas gift for her young daughter, she leaves her leather gloves behind in the store where Therese works. Therese ships them back to her address, and their slow love affair starts.

The centerpiece of Carol is the coded lunch between the two women. They are second-guessing themselves, trying to understand what their feelings mean and where it could go. Cate Blanchett has never been more hypnotic than when she plays this titular character, whilst Rooney Mara is vulnerable and naive as the object of her affection. Carol portrays love at first sight in a way Hollywood hasn't in decades.

La La Land (2016)

La La Land is better remembered for not winning the Best Picture Academy Award than it is one of the best romance movies of the 2010s. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone play Sebastian and Mia, two dreamers hoping to make it in Los Angeles. La La Land is one of the most brutal and beautiful depictions of how love does not conquer all and how dreams can get in the way of relationships.

The film uses song and dance to follow the musician and actress through their relationship. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling's chemistry makes it difficult for audiences not to root for them despite knowing they will likely never end up together. Despite La La Land's heart-wrenching ending , it continues to be one of the most romantic films of the 21st century.

The Big Sick (2017)

Medically induced comas don't scream romance, but The Big Sick turns their real-life trauma into one of the best modern rom-coms . Based on Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily V Gordon's (who also co-writes the movie) real-life meet cute, The Big Sick is a genuinely funny cross-cultural comedy. It hits all the familiar beats of the rom-com genre, whilst also exploring Nanjiani's Pakistani-Muslim upbringing, arranged marriage, and intergenerational differences.

Kumail plays himself, the up-and-coming comedian whose overbearing parents are desperate for him to marry. They are setting him up with fellow Pakistani women, but he is smitten with Emily, a girl who heckles him during a gig. Then, one day, Emily lands in the hospital with a mysterious infection, and he finds himself at her bedside with her parents (Ray Romano and Holly Hunter).

About Time (2013)

Richard Curtis is the king of romantic cinema, having written Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral, among others. About Time is Curtis' most moving and profound movie, using time travel to explore the many what-ifs of life and death. On his 21st birthday, Domhnall Gleeson's Tim learns that he can travel through time and uses it to woo Rachel McAdam's Mary.

Tim battles his awkwardness to try and win Mary over, using his time travel to rewrite bad dates and redo terrible sex. Although the romance between the charming leading pair is the center of About Time , his relationship with his father (Bill Nighy) will have audiences shedding a tear. About Time is a time-travel romance that asks big questions about love without sugar-coating the answers.

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Call Me By Your Name is a romance made by the subtle hand of Italian film director Luca Guadagnino. The sun-soaked romance sees Timothée Chalamet's Elio falling for his father's colleague Oliver, played by Armie Hammer. Set in Italy in 1983, this sensual LGBTQ romance movie skips any of the stereotypical melodrama and is more about the things not said between the couple.

Call Me By Your Name is one of the most delicate coming-of-age movies of the 2010s. Chalamet, in his star-making turn, looks younger than his 20 years of age, while Armie Hammer's Oliver is a walking representation of masculinity. Despite the age gap, it never feels predatory, and Elio never stops feeling like a master of his own sexuality.

The 10 Best Love Triangle Movies

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“Challengers,” Luca Guadagnino’s enthralling sports opera about three great-looking tennis stars who trade partners, is the latest movie to feature that time-honored configuration, the love triangle. And make no mistake: This one is complicated. It’s no mere either/or thing. But then, that’s always been true of the best movie love triangles. There’s an equality to them, a kind of symbiotic harmony. “Titanic” is a love triangle (and a timeless film), but it’s not like there’s much suspense about who Kate Winslet loves more, Leonardo DiCaprio or Billy Zane. You could say something similar of “Gone With the Wind.” But in the most haunting movie triangles, the triangle has an isosceles aspect; the angles exist in tantalizing balance. With that in mind, here are our picks for the 10 best love-triangle movies.

Bull Durham (1988)

You might call Ron Shelton’s Minor League Baseball romance the “Challengers” of its day, as scripted by a cornball macho Preston Sturges. Tim Robbins, as a pitcher who’s gifted but wild (on the mound and in the sack), hooks up with hyper-literate baseball groupie Susan Sarandon. But it’s Kevin Costner, as the surly veteran brought in to show Robbins the ropes, who’s revealed to be the master of everything, from the Zen of baseball to the right angles of love.

Unfaithful (2002)

Diane Lane plays a suburbanite who sneaks away from her Hudson Valley dream home, and the husband and family she loves, to indulge in a cathartic affair with a weaselly French hunk (Olivier Martinez). That the fuddy-duddy husband is played by former heartthrob Richard Gere is the film’s first curveball. The second one is that the marriage winds up being held together by the very adultery that tears it apart.

Casablanca (1942)

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman seem as made for each other as any couple in screen history. Yet they’re not   a couple — they’re an ex-couple who will always have Paris. And Bergman’s husband, a WWII resistance fighter (Paul Henreid), needs her because she’s “the thing that keeps him going.” The deep meaning of this triangle is the way it crystallizes the place where love meets morality.

She’s Gotta Have It (1986)

It’s not technically a triangle — more like a quadrangle. But Spike Lee’s puckish first feature gives you that triangular tingle. It’s built around Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns), a Brooklyn graphic artist who juggles three ardent suitors. Will she choose one, or will she choose the impulse to be free? 

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

How’s this for a heady triangle? Katharine Hepburn, as the divorced daughter of a socialite family, is on the verge of getting remarried — and her fiancé isn’t even one of the suitors who matter. They would be Cary Grant, as her ex-husband, and James Stewart, as the gossip journalist who shows up to cover the wedding. Have there ever been two dreamier options? George Cukor’s classic is the perfect sophisticated romantic comedy, in part because the rivalry keeps us in suspense.

The Mother and the Whore (1973)

At this point you may be wondering: Where’s “Jules and Jim”? Sorry, but we think it’s a turgidly whimsical, overpraised movie. When it comes to French ménage dramas, we prefer Jean Eustache’s 3-hour-40-minute New Wave-meets-New Realism epic about three café bohemians (Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Françoise Lebrun) who think that the freedom of connection they long for was promised to them by the hangover of the counterculture.

Reality Bites (1994)

Ever since the 1980s of “Pretty in Pink,” youth movies have been rife with love triangles (the “Twilight” films, “Wild Things,” “The Kissing Booth 2”). But Ben Stiller’s Gen-X landmark set the standard. Should Winona Ryder, as a budding filmmaker, go with the sweet nerdish music-channel executive (Stiller) or the slacker (Ethan Hawke) who’s a serious louse? The answer is obvious … until it isn’t.

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)

In John Schlesinger’s decades-ahead-of-its-time classic, Murray Head plays a bisexual sculptor carrying on two affairs at once: one with a brittle recruitment agent (Glenda Jackson), one with a Jewish physician played by Peter Finch with an ordinary-bloke melancholy that made him a groundbreaking figure in queer cinema. This triangle is no movie sculpture — on the contrary, it’s as complex as life.

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)

Julia Roberts plays a food critic who decides to sabotage the wedding of her best friend (Dermot Mulroney) — to yupscale princess Cameron Diaz — when she realizes she’s in love with him. Her destructiveness puts the audience in an exquisitely amused, jaw-droppingly squirmy position. Do we want to see her succeed? The triangular resolution is nothing less than transporting.

The Apartment (1960)

In Billy Wilder’s sublime office drama, insurance clerk Jack Lemmon loans out his Upper West Side apartment to his executive overseers, who use it for their adulterous trysts. When Lemon himself tries to court an elevator operator (Shirley MacLaine), only to learn she’s having a fling with his boss (Fred MacMurray), their triangle becomes a lightning rod channeling love, power, corporate dehumanization and the rise of women.

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