Do you ever wish you could go back in time and change the past? Maybe you’d go back to tell a deceased loved one how much they meant to you. Or perhaps you’d reveal your true feelings for your crush and prevent them from marrying someone else. What if you visited the past to prevent yourself from doing that one thing which set off a chain of irreversible events? What would you do? Whatever the reason, many of us wish time travel was possible.
In cinematic films, time travel can be a difficult concept to grasp. That could be because every movie seems to have its own theories (based on real and not-so-real science) and time-traveling rules are not consistent. So, viewers never know what to expect when watching these types of movies. Regardless, there have been many great time-traveling movies over the years, from Hollywood masterpieces like 12 Monkeys to indie experiments like Primer. Today we’re highlighting a few of the best, so buckle up, and get ready to jump back in time to relive the magic of these movies.
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8 Time Bandits
HandMade Films
Prepare for a wild adventure in this 1981 British fantasy film starring Sean Connery, John Cleese, Michael Palin, and Shelley Duvall. Eleven-year-old Kevin is ignored by his parents, who are obsessed with staying up to date with the newest trends and devices. One night, Kevin witnesses six little people coming out of his wardrobe and joins them on an epic quest through time. Time Bandits is popular among movie critics and has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90% and an audience score of 77%. Shenanigans await, along with an infamously bleak ending, so proceed with caution!
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
7 The Time Traveler’s Wife
Warner Bros. Pictures
In The Time Traveler’s Wife, Henry De Tamble (Eric Bana) has a genetic condition that makes him shift uncontrollably back and forth through time. During one of his episodes, he meets the love of his life, Claire (Rachel McAdams), and marries her. Henry wishes to have a happy life and start a family with Claire, but his genetic condition makes that nearly impossible, considering he is always time traveling at the most inconvenient moments. However, despite the odds, Henry tries to do everything in his power to give Claire a happy life. It seems love has no time limit in this sentimental romance.
6 Interstellar
Warner Bros
In a dystopian future, it’s a race against time for Professor Brand (Michael Caine), who is trying to save mankind from crop blights and dust storms that are slowly destroying Earth. His idea is to transport Earth’s population to a new planet. To do this, he will need the aid of NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) to test his means of transportation (a wormhole) and to discover which planet is ideal for living on. To complete his mission, Cooper will have to make sacrifices as he strives to save mankind. While Interstellar was nominated for several Academy Awards, it only won for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. The film is a head-trip through the concept of time-travel, using the notion to emotionally explore a father-daughter relationship.
5 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third installment of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. During their third year of Hogwarts, Hermione is given a time turner to attend extra classes. After Harry’s godfather Sirius Black is captured and given to Dementors who are about to suck out his soul, Harry and Hermione use the time turner to go back in time to rescue him. However, they must be careful not to accidentally be seen by their previous selves as that could disrupt time and cause permanent damage. This film has the most explicit use of time-travel in the franchise, and the concept is used with whimsical delight suitable to the kid-friendly films. While Professor Trelawney’s tea reading classes may be fictitious, the rules of the time turner are not.
4 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
20th Century Fox
Jake (Asa Butterfield) grew up listening to his grandfather tell stories of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an orphanage for children with special powers. After his grandfather is mysteriously murdered, Jake finds clues that lead him to a new world, the wonderful world of Miss Peregrine and her children with peculiar abilities, known as Peculiars. There, he meets, Miss Alma Peregrine (Eva Green) who reveals herself to be a Peculiar called a Ymbryne. Her powers are transforming into a bird and manipulating time in this magical, mystical movie full of stunning special effects and time-travel superpowers which are rarely explored.
3 X-Men: Days of Future Past
20th Century Studios
X-Men: Days of Future Past is just one of many superhero movies within the Marvel Universe, but is the most explicit about time-travel. The mutants who make up the X-Men, Wolverine, (Hugh Jackman), Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), Professor X (James McAvoy), and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender), must travel back in time to try to stop the Sentinels, enormous robotic weapons bred to destroy mutants. This fantasy action-adventure film has an impressive Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90% and an audience score of 91%, and uses time-travel in some of the most action-packed, special effects-laden ways in film.
2 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Paramount Pictures
Embark on a time-traveling journey to save Earth with the Starfleet crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, a mysterious probe drifts through space and starts to orbit around Earth, destroying every starship it passes. The orbit sends out an indecipherable signal which Spock believes matches the songs of extinct humpback whales, and that a whale could respond to the orbit. Therefore, Captain Kirk and his crew travel back in time to Earth to 1986 to a time before Humpback whales went extinct. Often considered the most comical and delightful film in the entire Star Trek franchise, the movie embraces the comedy of placing these futuristic sci-fi heroes into the ’80s, and the ridiculousness of sending a whale through time. It’s a silly but iconic take on time travel.
1 Back to the Future Trilogy
Universal Pictures
The Back to the Future trilogy is a masterpiece that combines all the great elements of a movie from the ’80s: music, action, and great hair. Join Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmet Brown (Christopher Lloyd) as they jump between timelines, attempting to correct their mistakes while trying to avoid permanent damage to the space-time continuum. From start to finish, all three movies are a magical ride that shows viewers Marty’s hometown of Hill Valley in different time periods: 1885, 1955, 1985, 2015, and one dystopian alternate universe in 1985 where antagonist Biff Tannen rules the town. These are funny films, and yet they take the issue of time travel (and all the ethical and scientific ramifications therein) seriously. This is heavy stuff, doc!
