I’ve been working on this list of the top 20 of the greatest time travel movies ever, for a couple of years now. The problem though, has been that every time I learn about a new time travel movie that I’ve never seen it derails the writing of the list indefinitely. I was researching this list a couple years ago when I heard of the movie Timecrimes, and there went six months chatting with the director and completely immersing myself in that awesome movie. And a few months after that I discovered the clever little movie entitled Timelapse which introduced me to BP Cooper and Bradley King. It seems like every time I have a sewn up list, a new time travel movie drops in out of nowhere and derails this post. Or like when I found Coherence, and started chatting with the director James Byrkit and writer for the film. I just can’t seem to button this list up.
But I have honed my list and thrown out the movies that aren’t worthy that normally make everyone else’s lists of the best time travel movies. (Cough, Bill and Ted’s anyone?) Yes, you are very welcome for that. And I have tried to represent both the hardcore sci-fi interests as well as the more centrist-mainstream, easier to swallow time travel movies for those of you out there that aren’t completely hardcore about science fiction. But if you know me at all, you already know what movie has to be number one on this list. Its a forgone conclusion. But hopefully there’ll be a few new movies in this list of the top 20 of the greatest time travel movies ever. Oh, and in case you were looking for Custom Keyrings? We got you covered.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
Place in list – Honorary Mention
Director – Collin Trevorrow
Safety Guaranteed begins with a simple enough, real life, Craig’s List ad: “Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. You must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.” I can’t add a better summary than that.The acting here is fantastic. The plot is brilliant. And the real question here is… is this really a time travel movie or not? Is this guy a complete nut job… or not? Which makes me wonder, what was I thinking dropping this movie on the list? Except for Duplass of course.But from a time travel movie standpoint, this movie features time travel as the least pivotal part of this list and therefore, the honorary Mention. But with that, let’s start our official list off with number 20…
Looper (2012)
Place in list – #20 Director – Rian Johnson
Ok, so Looper was two really great movies. There was the time travel segment that was really really a great time travel movie. And there was this other part about a boy that could make it rain up in here. Two, totally different movies. Not even close to each other.But I adored the Looper time traveling section… and I also adored the make it rain movie, but they can’t be the same movie. Just isn’t ok with me that Rian decided this was a good idea. But regardless, even in spite of the chaotic left turn at the little rainmaker, I think this movie warrants a place on this list. So there.
The Jacket (2005)
Place in list – #19 Director – John Maybury
The Jacket stars Adrien Brody and Kiera Knightley. Basically a Gulf war veteran is wrongly sent to a mental institution for insane criminals, where he becomes the object of a Doctor’s experiments. And when pushed to the brink it would appear that he travels in time. Or does he?I’m personally a little unclear about what I feel about this movie, and need to delve deeper on it. But there are too many other amazing time travel movies on this list that I have yet to delve on at all. Gah! Regardless, good little “time travel” movie to fill in our number 19 spot.
The Lake House (2006) Place in list – #17 Director – Alejandro Agesti
The Lake House centers on an architect living in 2004 and a doctor living in 2006. The two meet via letters left in a mailbox at the lake house they have both lived in at separate points in time; they carry on correspondence over two years, remaining separated by their original difference of two years.I’m almost a bit embarrassed to include the Lake House here – but despite Sandra Bullock, and Keanu Reaves leading this travel junket, the idea of the Lake House is so captivating I can’t leave it out. I have often wanted to go back to the original South Korean movie Il Mare that The Lake House is based on, but haven’t been able to find it. Any ideas?
Source Code
Place in list – #16 Director – Duncan Jones
U.S. Army pilot Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), last aware of being on a mission in Afghanistan, wakes up on a commuter trainto Chicago, at 7:40 am. To the world around him – including his traveling partner Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) and the bathroom mirror – he appears to be Sean Fentress, a school teacher. As he comes to grips with this revelation, the train explodes, killing everyone aboard. And then he does it again. And again. And again… all for the sole purpose of figuring out what happened.This reminds me of Edge of Tomorrow in it’s repetitiveness in order to get the situation perfect in the time allotted. Or maybe Groundhog’s Day? But Source Code has a secret hiding behind it’s time travel exterior. Right? It’s a time travel movie with a twist ending to end all twist endings.
La Jetee
Place in list – #15
La Jetee is by far the most experimentally crazy time travel movie ever. It even out does Shane Caruth’s Primer by a factor in the extreme category. La Jetee is a 1962 French science fiction featurette constructed almost entirely from still photos, that tells the story of a World War III, post-nuclear war experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long and shot in black and white. It won the Prix Jean Vigo for short film. Oh, and have I mentioned that it is an epic head job yet?I recently watched it again and realized this movie has got to be actually made. I definitely am not going to be the one volunteering to do the making. But I will say that this movie is possibly the only movie with the potential of knocking Primer off the top of this list (oh wait, did I just ruin the surprise? Daggum, I hate it when I do that) – but only if it actually gets made. Right now it’s just stills and a very few cut scenes of film that was hashed together.
Frequency
Place in list – #14 Director – Gregory Hoblit
Is this technically a time travel movie? Frequency is about an accidental cross-time radio link which connects a father and son across 30 years. Which is all well and good until the son tries to save his father’s life, but then he needs to solve the rippling consequences as a result. Quaid and Caviezel are quite good together across the distance of time.
Coherence (2014)
Place in list – #13 Director – James Ward Byrkit
An argument could be made, that this movie doesn’t belong on this list. My response would be, seriously? But the moment you get to that argument you would have to have a doctoral level understanding of this movie. And after chatting with Cameron, and tearing this movie apart completely, I still don’t know. Coherence is a time splitting, reality splitting, movie about a comet that splinters reality for a group of people at a party. That’s it. That’s all I’m telling you. It’s an awesome little movie regardless of whether you think it should be on this list or not. If this movie was clearly demarcated one way or the other I’d drop it into the top five or ten in a heartbeat.So James Ward Byrkit just came out and said out loud, there was no time travel occurring in his movie. But to that I yell foul. How is it physically possible to split the space continuum without splitting space-time continuum? Here’s his tweet
About Time is possibly one of the most counter-genre movies in this list… and all the more fantastic for it. I absolutely adore this movie. The short of it is that at the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time. As could all the males in his family. So Tim uses his new powers in order to change his life for the better and get the girl that eluded his grasp. But obviously, changing everything for the better is not as easy at it might seem at first blush and the ongoing complexities of this movie are fantastically well achieved… especially for a romantic-comedy. Love this movie.
Predestination (2014)
Place in list – #11 Director – Michael Spierig
Ethan Hawke just broke your brain with this mobius strip, twisting turning, head job of a movie. I can’t really say much about this movie without completely ruining it all. So I will just say this – Predestination is basically about a time-traveling Temporal Agent (Hawke), who has to track down the one criminal that has eluded his grasp over and over again over the course of his career. That’s it… that’s all I can tell you about the movie while still keeping my soul in tact. This is a movie that I have had plans to do a long review of, a deep deep dive, but forgive me if I have a beer instead… thank you very much.
Primer (2004)
Place in list – #1 Director – Shane Carruth
Was there really any doubt? Since starting writing this list up I’ve wandered about and checked out a few other lists out there highlighting the best time travel movies, and invariably, they conclude with Back to the Future. Which, I’m sorry… Is bull crap. Sure, I enjoyed Back to the Future just as much as the next guy. But it deserves to be on the top of a time travel best of list just about as much as Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure does.Primer is the perfect time travel movie experience. It is a story driven by the egos and the pride of our two heroes. And we willingly follow them into the abyss of this experience. Kudos to Mr. Carruth on this, the pinnacle of Time Travel Movie experiences.
Don’t agree with any of these movies? Think I should have added your favorite instead? I want to hear about it in the comments. I promise I won’t tell you that you are a complete idiot to your face. Promise. hahaha.
