In some of the mentioned films, the time travel aspect may be a surprise twist and or simply not obvious from the outset, so just mentioning their titles in this context may merit a spoiler warning.
This is a list of time travel movies that don’t completely suck — more specifically movies where the time travel aspect is more than a poorly thought out plot device and the time travel actually makes some kind of logical sense even if it might not reflect our best current understanding of the universe. As a general rule, I’m excluding films that contain only one instance of time travel or films where time travel has no consequences1.
Please feel free to let me know about other films I should consider for this list or to argue with me about my classifications — comment on this gist or email me at [email protected].
- Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
- Groundhog Day (1993)
- 12 Monkeys (1995)
- Happy Accidents (2000)
- Primer (2004)2
- Timecrimes (2007)
- Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
- Coherence (2013)
- Predestination (2014)
- ARQ (2016)
These are mostly here because I want to go bach and watch them again before classifying them.
- The Terminator (1984)
- Back to The Future (1985)
- Donnie Darko (2002)3
- The Butterfly Effect (2004)
- Looper (2012)
- Somewhere in Time (1980)
- Time Bandits (1981) — I really need to watch this again
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
- Army of Darkness (1992)
- Freejack (1992)
- Run Lola Run (1998) — definitely not a time travel movie in my head, but it’s on lists of such…
- Timeline (2003)
- Click (2006) — I’m not going to sit through another Adam Sandler movie just to see if it qualifies for this list
- Time Cop (1994) — it’s less a time travel movie and more an extended anti-masturbation metaphor (if you touch yourself, you die)
These are movies I haven’t seen, but have been recommended by someone4 out there as good time travel movies.
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
- Brigadoon (1954)
- The Time Machine (1960)
- Le Jetée (1962)
- Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968)
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
- Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
- Time After Time (1979)
- Final Countdown (1980)
- The Philadelphia Experiment (1984)
- Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
- Millennium (1989)
- The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1998)
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
- Kate & Leopold (2001)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2003)
- The Jacket (2005)
- The Sound of Thunder (2005)
- Déjà Vu (2006)
- The Lake House (2006)
- The Last Mimzy (2007)4
- The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
- Mr. Nobody (2009)
- Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)
- Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
- About Time (2013)
- Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
- Interstellar (2014)
- X-Men Days of Future’s Past (2014)
- Time Lapse (2014)
- Terminator Genisys (2015)
- Project Almanac (2015)
- Ruby Red (2013) — a.k.a. Rubinrot (German)
1with the notable exception of films that represent a closed time loop.
2 I’m not positive that this film belongs on the list — because it’s really pretty sloppy — but it’s generated enough interesting discussion (and several interesting diagrams) online that I’m giving it a pass.
3 I don’t think this is a 4 Some by folks I know, but mostly by random people on the internet — so take that into account.
4 This one is based on a short story that I loved, so I kind of haven’t watched it on purpose — in case it sucks really bad.