by Jamie Neben

While I love films pretty much across the board, there’s a genre or two that piques my interest a little more than all the others. One of them happens to be science-fiction, and that’s especially the case when the storyline involves time travel. The possibility to visit the past or future has always driven my imagination, and makes me want to see those tales being told.

I often used to daydream about what I could do if I were to go back or forward through time. Where would I go and what would I see? Would I try to change anything for my own benefit, the good of the world, or preferably both? Think about it – don’t we all win if I swipe a sports almanac from the future to place bets and use my winnings to help people? These were pressing questions in my mind when I was younger that desperately needed answered. But as I got older, I realized it’s more than likely I’d screw everything up, and it’s better to leave history well enough alone.

At least we always have movies to turn to, where the most catastrophic events can happen without the real world being put in any danger (we’ve got enough of our own problems already). Since I love time travel films so much, I have compiled a list of my favorites I’d like to share.

Before we start, I have to admit that my original list had far too many movies on it. Quite frankly, it was out of control and needed whittling down or else it wouldn’t be meaningful. I had to make some ground rules to guide me on this process. So I think some explaining is in order as to how I decided on these particular selections.

First, to define time travel for this discussion, it doesn’t matter how far in time the characters go, or what method they use to get there, as long as it’s a real journey with real consequences. In other words, the experience can’t be simply a vision or a dream. History must be changed, even if just on a small scale, by the end of the movie.

Secondly, I had to disqualify films that seem like they’re about time travel but they actually feature a time loop. In these movies, a character is doomed to repeat a finite period until they learn a lesson. While the ultimate outcome changes once the character finally gets something right, everything up to that point amounts to continually hitting a reset button, and therefore I have to exclude Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Happy Death Day, and Source Code, to name a few. Trust me, I love these movies, but there’s no traveling!

Finally, and please believe me when I say this was a hard decision, I am limiting my selections to non-sequels. I know there’s a ton of people, myself included, who insist that sequels can be very original in their own right. If not for this stupid but necessary rule I created, I wouldn’t leave out movies from the Star Trek, X-Men, Men in Black, and Austin Powers franchises, among others. And what would be the purpose of this exercise if there was no controversy? (Just kidding!)

With that all in mind, let’s get to the list already. Like any compilation, this is purely subjective, but that doesn’t make it immune to debate. Whether you agree or disagree, I’d love to hear from you. If you think I’ve made a grave omission of any film, please let me know. Perhaps I just haven’t seen it yet, so I’d appreciate any recommendations! Otherwise, thanks for reading and here we go in alphabetical order…

Domhnall Gleeson is Tim Lake, a young man who receives quite the unique gift for his 21^st birthday. Sure, some money or a fancy meal is always a nice way to celebrate for most people, but those presents are lame compared to his dad’s bombshell that the men in his family can travel back in time. And travel he does, first to make his own life better, and then to help others, and always in secret. Although Tim’s constant course correction is fundamentally dishonest, he has an innocence about him that somehow makes it alright. We all know there is often an unintended cost to meddling with the past, and I found the story more interesting when it addressed the repercussions of Tim’s behavior. But overall, it’s a love story, and a beautiful one at that. There’s certainly no doubt how much he loves his family and vice versa, and that dynamic creates a few heartstring-tugging moments. Rachel McAdams is terrific as usual, and the rest of the cast is strong as well. I won’t disagree with anyone who claims this movie has myriad plot holes (it comes with the territory in these types of movies), but I also submit that an abundance of charm and sentimentality more than fills them.

Forget time travel. As far as I’m concerned, Back to the Future is one of the best movies ever made. It checks all the boxes in terms of story, performances, dialogue, and even the soundtrack. BTTF tells the story of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a high school kid who travels 30 years back to good ‘ol 1955, threatens his very existence by running into his future parents, and….I’m such a butthead. Who am I kidding? We’ve all probably seen it enough times to practically have it memorized, right? If, by chance, you haven’t seen the movie, and have no idea what a flux capacitor is, please remedy that as soon as possible and thank me later. One of the reasons I love the movie so much (besides it being perfect) is the feeling of being on the adventure right along with Marty. I felt like I was riding in the DeLorean. I felt like I was in the past, witness to a period when families had only one television set. I felt like I was at the Enchantment under the Sea dance, and then later at the clock tower. I felt like I had gotten to know the main characters, played so memorably by Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. As for the sequels, they’re pretty good too, but the first installment is a masterpiece.

Bill S. Preston Esquire (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) aren’t very bright, but they mean well. Their band, “WYLD STALLYNS,” will make music that ultimately aligns the planets with peace and love. However, if Bill and Ted don’t pass their history class, the band will be forced to break up when Ted is sent to military school, and all that universal harmony will be lost. Rufus (George Carlin) is dispatched from the distant future to lend the duo a time machine, which they use to kidnap historical figures to exhibit at their final exam, an oral presentation they must deliver the next day. In other words, cue up the “fish out of water” scenarios across the centuries! It’s amazing how this movie is both smart and stupid at the same time. The story is illogical right from the very beginning, when we must assume that Bill and Ted are passing every other class (unless Ted’s father only cares about history). In the original timeline, they probably did fail, so how did future generations ever remember them, let alone worship them? But we shouldn’t let logic get in the way of entertainment. The key is to just enjoy the ride and embrace the goofiness. The script pokes fun at the conventions of time travel while more or less adhering to them. The film moves along at a good pace, the humor is still quite clever, and more than anything, it’s just fun to watch.

I must confess that although the premise of The Butterfly Effect intrigued me, I believed I had reasonable concerns about Ashton Kutcher in the lead role. After all, an unintentionally funny performance could derail an otherwise interesting film. Thankfully, Kutcher did his job well and put my doubts to rest (most of the time, anyway). He plays Evan Treborn, a 20 year old student who experienced memory blackouts throughout his childhood, which, by all accounts, is one that nobody in their right mind should want to remember. Thanks to his lack of recall surrounding a few horrific events, he grows up to be a relatively bright, well-balanced young man whose issues now seem to be well behind him. That is, until he learns the fate of his former friends, especially that of his young crush, Kayleigh (played as an adult by Amy Smart), who aren’t nearly so lucky. Conveniently enough, Evan finds that by reading his old journals, he can send himself back to pivotal moments to right some wrongs, and make everyone’s future bright. Ha! If it were only that easy! Certain moments in this movie gave me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies and sent chills up my spine. Despite that, I enjoyed all the twists and turns as each ripple…er, butterfly…effect created a new variation of the story. I had no idea how Evan was going to finally undo the damage. The theatrical ending doesn’t seem right, but the DVD includes a more honest, alternate version.

I’m stunned that The Final Countdown was made as recently as 1980, even though I remember quite well when it was released. Maybe that’s because it reminds me of thrillers made in the 1950’s and 1960’s, or that Kirk Douglas, who once starred in such films, is the lead actor in this one as well. He plays Commanding Officer Matthew Yelland of the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier that encounters a present day sea storm and comes out the other side on December 6, 1941- the day before the Pearl Harbor attack. Yelland, along with efficiency expert Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen) and Commander Dick Owens (James Farentino) debate whether they are the victims of a prank or if they are truly back in time. But once they realize the truth, a much bigger question looms large. Should they engage the Japanese air fleet and prevent the impending attack? Complicating matters is the history-changing rescue of Senator Samuel Chapman (Charles Durning), and his secretary Laurel Scott (Katharine Ross), both of whom had originally perished in the water after a Japanese strike on their boat. I like the slow but steady unfolding of the plot, as the characters individually and collectively constantly assess their situation. Even when I come across the movie on television and don’t intend to watch the whole film, each sequence strings me along until it’s over. I suspect that it might have been a much faster-paced, action-charged movie if it had come out a few years later. That could be good also, but not necessary, because it makes my all-time favorites list just the way it is.

Rub-a-dub-dub. Four time travelers in a tub. But you’ll find no butchers or bakers among them. Specifically, it’s old friends Adam Yates (John Cusack), Nick Webber-Agnew (Craig Robinson), and Lou Dorchen (Rob Corrdry), all of whom are living pathetic lives and are in desperate need for some fun. Adam’s nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) is along for the ride as the men book a room at the ski resort where they once spent an epic weekend in 1986 when they were teenagers. That weekend had consequences that have haunted them ever since (except for Jacob because he wasn’t born yet). After a night of heavy drinking in the hot tub, all four of them wake up to find themselves right back on that fateful day when things unraveled. Not only that, but everyone else sees them as their younger selves. A mysterious repairman (Chevy Chase) informs the guys that the whole system could crash if any little thing is changed, a warning they take as needing to replicate every action they originally took, as difficult as that might be. Thus, Adam must endure a literally painful breakup with his girlfriend, Nick must suck at open mic night and have sex with a groupie despite feeling like he’s cheating on his wife, and Lou must get beaten up after picking a fight. Jacob accompanies the trio throughout their experiences, and gets a history lesson he didn’t expect. You don’t find many time travel movies that also serve as raunchy comedies, so this one was double my pleasure. But it’s not a series of jokes in search of a story. You still find the staples of a solid script in terms of narrative and character development. I also love to see how the 1980’s are depicted in films that were made considerably later, and as someone who was in high school during that decade, I think they got it right. Of course, the primary ingredient is humor, and nearly every main and supporting character is funny to varying degrees. It’s a refreshing change from the action and science-fiction angles that are more common with time travel.

Who doesn’t love a romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan? By the time Kate & Leopold was released, she had already made three modern classics, all written by Nora Ephron. This time around, the writing talent was different, and you won’t find Billy Crystal or Tom Hanks serving as her co-stars. Instead, it’s Hugh Jackman doing the honors, fresh off his debut of Wolverine the prior year. Ryan plays Kate McKay, a market research executive who is having trouble finding the right actor for a butter commercial. Meanwhile, her ex-boyfriend Stuart Besser (Liev Schreiber), who lives just upstairs from her, has created a time portal to 1876 and, while snooping around, managed to get the attention of Leopold, the Duke of Albany. Leopold chases Stuart back to the portal and follows him through it to arrive in present day New York City. Stuart becomes hospitalized, and then committed, after injuring himself by falling down an elevator shaft—a consequence directly related to his time travel. Now on his own, Leopold finds a friend in Kate’s brother, but is dismissed as an oddball by Kate herself. After all, it’s preposterous to believe he’s actually from the past than to believe both he and Stuart aren’t acting crazy. Despite this, they get closer when she realizes his unique way of speaking is perfect for the commercial. Time is not on their side for much else since Leopold must return home when the time portal reopens the following week. There is nothing particularly original about this movie, but sometimes it’s not the story that grabs me as much as in the way it’s told, and who’s telling it. To that end, it’s perfect for me because it has the right amounts of humor, character likability, love story, and time travel backdrop. Although the film is not meant to be taken seriously beyond simple entertainment, I am very serious when I say it’s one of my favorite movies about time travel.

If I believed in guilty pleasures, this film might very well qualify as one. But I’m not ashamed to admit what I like, even when it’s not necessarily held in high esteem. Mind you me, I’m not calling The Philadelphia Experiment a terrible film, or anything of the sort. On the contrary, it’s quite enjoyable but has a few imperfections that, unfortunately, get more obvious with age. In 1943, David Herdeg (Michael Paré) and Jim Parker (Bobby Di Cicco) are sailors aboard the USS Eldridge during an experiment to make the ship invisible to radar. It worked, until the ship became the victim of some kind of radioactive attack and disappeared completely. The two men jump overboard to escape, but, instead of finding the ocean, they fall through a vortex until they land in the desert in 1984, where a little town has also vanished. Long story short, they evade military personnel in the area and kidnap a woman named Allison Hayes (Nancy Allen) to drive them around in her car. As if being pursued by law enforcement isn’t enough, Jim’s body has an energy field that attracts bolts of lightning and induces seizures, not to mention the vortex might destroy the world. But other than that, everything is fine. To say the acting is sub-par throughout the film is like saying the sky is blue. Usually such statements are a matter of opinion, but I don’t think that’s the case here. In all fairness, some of the dialogue does not inspire great performances.  The on-screen chemistry between Michael Paré and Nancy Allen is virtually non-existent but we’re supposed to believe there could be a romance. Then you have the special effects. The quality can range from noticeably better in some science-fiction films to noticeably worse in others. This movie would be an example of the latter. So why is it one of my favorites? Well, that’s a damn good question. It must be because I keep returning to it. I like the old familiar story of seeing a stranger in a strange land and whether they can figure out how to get home. Michael Paré also lends a presence that makes we want to go on the journey with him. As I said, it’s not terrible, even with my unflattering remarks. You’ve heard of loving something warts and all? Maybe that’s all there is to it.

I first came across Somewhere in Time on cable television when I was about thirteen, and I honestly don’t know if I would have watched it, at least at that age, if not for Christopher Reeve. I was a big fan of Superman, but not so much of period pieces, sappy love stories, and the music of Rachmaninoff. I’d much prefer to go to the dentist, to be honest. Out of courtesy to the actor who portrayed the man of steel, I decided to give it a few minutes, and that’s apparently all I needed to get sucked right in. Richard Collier (Reeve), a theatre student, celebrates the opening of his first play when an elderly woman approaches him with a pocket watch and tells him “Come back to me.” Years later, as an established playwright, he visits the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan. While there, he becomes spellbound by the portrait of actress Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), which hangs on the hotel museum wall. As you’d predict, it’s the woman with the watch, except she’s much younger since the picture was snapped way back in 1912. Collier wants to be with her, but there’s only one way that will happen since she’s long dead. Going back in time turns out to be the easy part. Once he’s there, he must pry Elise away from her protective manager, William Fawcett Robinson (Christopher Plummer), who does not welcome Collier’s entrance onto the scene, and then try to win her love without revealing his backstory, so to speak.  Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay, so even though the mode of time travel is a little suspect (I’ve tried it myself and it doesn’t work), the way it’s executed allows the viewer to buy in. The profound beauty of this film, from the page to the screen, extends to every aspect of the production. The Grand Hotel is as much a character as a location, and John Barry’s score, much like the movie itself, haunts you long after it’s ended.

This film was a modest hit when released, but its legacy grew increasingly popular due to its sequels. That’s bound to happen when the direct follow-up, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is one of the best action movies ever made. To those who have been off planet and never heard of this pop culture phenomenon, it’s the story of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son John will be the leader of the Resistance after machines outsmart humans and set off a nuclear holocaust. A nearly indestructible future cyborg in the form of Arnold Schwarzenegger is sent back in time, prior to the rise of the machines, to terminate Sarah and prevent John’s birth. Future John is able to send his best friend, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), back to protect Sarah. The Terminator might have been just a cult classic if anyone but Schwarzenegger was in the part. Even in the capable hands of James Cameron, this is one instance where the actor is synonymous with the movie itself. And to think, Arnold’s people didn’t want him to play the bad guy. Of course, his role was reversed in later installments, but in this one he is a laser-focused killing machine of few words, and he certainly doesn’t go around saying things like “Hasta la vista, baby.” It’s also cool to see Linda Hamilton before she became a badass mama. Different variations of the movie have come and gone with mixed results, but they can’t tarnish the original.

In a story that is definitely not a biopic, H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has built a time machine. The invention operates with a keyless ignition, but requires a key in order to remain at the destination and prevent it from returning to the point of origin. Before Wells can go anywhere, one of his friends, who happens to be Jack the Ripper (David Warner), uses the machine to escape 1890’s London, winding up in San Francisco nearly a century later. Since Wells holds the key, he gets his machine back and takes it upon himself to chase the fugitive in the future, as if Jack will just agree to return to his own time and face justice. On the contrary, Jack is energized by his new surroundings and is anxious to continue his wicked ways, although he also wants the key so he can hop around in time as he sees fit. A friendly bank employee named Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen) assists Wells in more ways than one, but unwittingly puts herself in jeopardy in the process. I believe this was the first time travel movie I ever saw, and I watched it repeatedly on HBO. It was a big reason why I fell in love with this branch of science fiction. I appreciate that the film avoids a common pitfall of the genre, which is to have characters stumble throughout the whole movie in constant wide-eyed amazement at the sight of everything being so foreign. Sure, there is some of that, but not to the point where the joke gets old. Aside from the time machine having some obvious design flaws, there aren’t too many creative choices I would second guess. When a movie is this good, I’m just happy to go along for the ride.

Timecop offers an effective combination of action and science fiction, which is good because the actual plot is a bit thin. Max Walker (Jean Claude Van Damme) works for a secret government agency to catch people who violate the laws of time travel. When Max apprehends an ex-partner gone bad who used the stock market to gain future wealth, he is informed that the earnings were for the benefit of a present-day politician who will stop at nothing to become the president. With the agency under threat of shutting down, Max is literally in a race against time to thwart the conspiracy and protect his own existence in the process. I have no issue with any part of this movie. It’s what’s missing that draws a small complaint from me. As much as I enjoy the film, I wish the running time was just a bit longer. Some extra substance in the first half hour would set up the rest of the story much better. For instance, there is only the slightest hint that anyone else in the world is time traveling, and we don’t know how they do it. I would have also have liked a little more suspense about who the villain is. But that’s my only criticism, and is hardly enough to have kept me from watching the movie several times since its release.

I don’t know of many international films about time travel. I’m sure there’s a lot of them, and I need to do a better job of seeking them out. But I’m aware of Timecrimes, a product of Spain, and it’s one of my favorites. Héctor (Karra Elejalde) and his wife are enjoying a pleasant afternoon at their countryside home when the day suddenly gets more interesting. Holding his binoculars, he sees a woman (Barbara Goenaga) disrobe in the woods near the house. Curiosity aroused, Héctor investigates the area after his wife goes shopping, only to find the woman lying unconscious on the ground. He is then attacked by a bandaged-up man, so he flees and finds a building–a laboratory–which is empty other than for one scientist (Nacho Vigalondo) who is conveniently working on the weekend. Lucky for Héctor, the scientist helps him escape danger by having him hide in a giant liquid tank. But it’s really a time machine, and now a thoroughly confused Héctor needs to adjust his watch because he has just fallen back an hour into the past. This means there are two of him walking around, and there will be more yet to come. It’s easy to become your own worst enemy when you keep running into yourself all the time! I liked how this film kept adding layers to a relatively short sequence of events, and did so in a way to complicate matters enough to create suspense while keeping it simple enough to understand. I’m surprised an American version of the film has never been made, although I’ll be perfectly happy if there never is one.

12 Monkeys is not a full-length remake of the short French film La Jetée (1962) in the traditional sense. With the exception of a key event, there is only a small resemblance in terms of plot. However, the connection is more apparent when one compares the look and feel of the films, both of which feature a dark, dystopian future in need of rescue. Bruce Willis plays prisoner James Cole in the year 2035, who is selected to travel back in time to find the origin of a virus, believed to be unleashed by a group known as The Army of the Twelve Monkeys, which has all but eradicated humanity. Instead of going to 1996 as planned, Cole arrives in 1990 and gets himself arrested and subsequently institutionalized on the order of Dr. Kathyrn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). In the hospital, he meets a patient and fierce environmentalist named Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), and you don’t have to be Nostradamus to predict he will ultimately become involved with the Twelve Monkey army. Cole is pulled back to the future (if I may use that phrase) where he is interrogated and allowed a do-over. This time, he successfully reaches his destination and promptly kidnaps Dr. Railly so that he can get a ride to Philadelphia and search for Goines. All the while, he has recurring dreams of something he witnessed at the airport as a child. I liked both the style and substance of this movie, and the acting is top notch. Pitt does very well in offbeat roles, having recently played a stoner, a serial killer, and a vampire prior to his role here, just as his career was seriously heating up. The other great thing is that there is plenty of time traveling throughout the story. It’s not just a one and done trip like in so many other films (and sometimes barely shown). I don’t know anything about the 12 Monkeys television series, but if it’s anything like the movie, I better check it out.

Warlock is billed as a horror film, but it’s not all that scary. It might be disturbing at times, but it’s also many other things, including a road movie, an action-thriller, and a comedy. And, of course, it’s also science-fiction, which is why it’s on my list of favorite time travel movies. A warlock (Julian Sands) is about to be put to death in colonial Boston when Satan gives him a last-minute reprieve by putting him inside a time portal to the 20th century. His executioner, Giles Redferne (Richard E. Grant) is swallowed up with him, and from that point on, it’s a cat-and-mouse chase to prevent the warlock from locating the scattered pages of a demonic book called The Grand Grimoire. The warlock gains more power as he assembles the manuscript, but once complete, the contents will allow him to undo creation. Redferne is accompanied by Kassandra (Lori Singer), a young woman who had her own run in with the warlock. She is understandably reluctant to help, but she must recover an item in order to break a spell that was put upon her. This movie is full of cheesy special effects, and even cheesier jokes. For better or worse, many of Singer’s groan-worthy lines are right in line with my sense of humor. Julian Sands, in the title role, elevates the material perhaps higher than it deserves, but it’s Richard E. Grant’s performance that makes this film a personal favorite. Maybe it’s because he played his part so earnestly that I wanted to believe he was a time traveler. He injected personality into a no-nonsense character who was clearly annoyed throughout his whole mission. I also think there was a missed opportunity to spin off Redferne into his own franchise. I can’t be the only one wanting to see him hunt down more supernatural beings. Can I?

There you have it, and now you can feel free to let me have it!  Just be respectful, and I’ll gladly have a conversation with you.  And if you have your own list of favorite time travel films, I’d love to see it!