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The 15 Best Time-Travel Movies

Dre Rivas, Mar 15, 2010

Hot Tub Time Machine is warming up and you know what that means. It’s time to look at the other 14 great time-travel movies. That’s right. I’m including Hot Tub Time Machine in there sight unseen. Why? It’s about a freaking hot tub time machine. If it is not any good I’m harming myself. Let’s go!

12 Monkeys
Bruce Willis gives one of the ideal — if not the ideal — performances in this tricky, brain-twisting Terry Gilliam dip into the bizarre. Madeleine Stowe (sorely missed these days) grounds us, and Brad Pitt (in an Oscar-nominated role) blindfolds and spins us in our seats. The script by Janet and David Webb Peoples is brilliant. You can watch this one 100 times and always catch something new.

Back to the Future
The second film actually features some very clever monkeying around with the space-time continuum (I do not even know what that means), but it’s no secret that the sequels are nowhere near as satisfying as the original. Give me the 1955 adventures of Marty and Doc and Crispin Glover over those lame hoverboards any day.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
A couple of high school children that travel back in time for some kind of an oral history report sounds like a bad Miley Cyrus movie. And to be honest, this motion picture hasn’t aged all that well, but there is still enough charm (Napoleon cheating his way through a night of bowling still brings a smile to my face) and funny Keanu faces to keep it going.

Donnie Darko
I have to be honest with you. I’m not sure whether or not this is a time-travel movie. I mean, it kind of is. Yet I cannot state it with any real conviction, because I have no friggin’ idea what is going on here. I always think I know what is going on. And by the time the credits roll I’m like, Ah, OK, now I get it… But then the next day I’m like, Wait … what? Still, none of this stops me from digging it. Normally, not knowing what the heck is going on in a motion picture is infuriating (Hi, Lost Highway, I still hate you and wish you a painful death), but for some reason Richard Kelly’s motion picture stays in my head in a good way. And I prefer the less-answers, original release over the Director’s Cut.

Frequency
This motion picture took me by surprise when I first caught it. The characters only partially travel through time, mainly through the power of a ham radio — something to do with the northern lights and other things impossible. The father-son dynamic, the ’69 World Series with the Amazin’s and inventive time-travel games make this a solid entry in the genre.

Groundhog DayGroundhog Day
In this truly great Bill Murray comedy, time is like a broken record. Or the island on Lost. If I had to travel back in time without consequence a million times, I’d hope it is not a day where my ideal option is Andie MacDowell. I’d rather hang out with Ned Ryerson than that bore. But that is just me.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Alfonso Cuaron put his stamp on the Potter franchise, forever vanishing — for better or worse — Chris Columbus’ influences. This is a near-perfect fantasy film with a loopy time-warp ending that is still J.K. Rowling’s finest hour.

Planet of the Apes
Here is a motion picture that only reveals itself to be a time-travel motion picture in its classic twist ending. Not to be confused with the really terrible Tim Burton version, which only reveals itself to be completely brainless.

Primer
Shane Carruth hasn’t made another film since this 2004 Sundance winner and just when I started wondering why, I kicked it up to 88 mph and my time-travel skillz kicked in. That’s right. I back-Twittered and found this tweet from September 2009 by The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson:

to all who asked: Shane is alive and well and has a mind-blowing sci-fi script. Let’s all pray to the movie-gods that he gets it made soon.

Hmmm … according to IMDb.com, still nothing doing, but hopefully that changes soon.

Star Trek, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek: First Contact
The Star Trek series deserves its own special place on this list after three superior time-travel escapades. The only other great Star Trek motion picture missing from this list is Wrath of Khan, though one could argue that that film was about the past catching up with James Tiberius Kirk.

The TerminatorThe Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Time-travel machines built like Mr. Universe run amok, violence and tag lines ensue. Looking back it’s odd how James Cameron’s message of “No fate but what we make” is completely pissed on in the third film. The third flick ain’t half bad and it has an ending of conviction, but it’s “Forget everything we stated before … we are all screwed” message is almost unforgivable.

The Time Machine
Give me Rod Taylor in the 1960 George Pal film (one of the most disturbing movies of my upbringing) over that awful 2002 motion picture (one of the most disturbing movies of my twentysomethings). Guy Pearce deserves better.

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Dre writes for Film.com weekly.



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Submited at Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 4:00 pm on Movies by
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