10. Time After Time (1979)- Time travel movies are really good at a couple of things. One of them is social commentary. By moving your main character into a distant time, you can reveal a lot about that character (Army of Darkness) or the state of the modern world (Idiocracy). Time After Time is a uniquely crazy movie in that HG Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has just discovered one of his best friends (David Warner) is actually Jack the Ripper. Not only that, but The Ripper has stolen a real time machine that Wells invented and uses it to travel to 1979. Once Wells follows him to bring him to justice, the differences between 1890s England and 1970s America become grist for social commentary on violence and the lack of enlightened societal progress. Of course, at the center of it all is a pretty cool cat and mouse game between Wells and Jack the Ripper.
9. Source Code (2011)- This is one on the very fringe of the time travel subgenre. Duncan Jones (aka, David Bowie's son) made an impressive debut with Moon a few years earlier. Source Code was the anxiously awaited follow up that, while more successful, somehow felt like a let down to some viewers. Personally, I think Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan do a great job of bringing their characters to life. The script does not do Monaghan any favors as she has to learn who Gyllenhaal is and form a plausible connection with him in 11 minutes. The plot is that a mad scientist (played by a hammy Jeffrey Wright) has figured out how to send the mind of a soldier into alternate dimensions. After a terrorist attack destroys a commuter train outside of Chicago, Gyllenhaal is sent back over and over again to find a way to identify the terrorist. In this model of time travel, what has happened, happened. Wright warns Gyllenhaal that he can't change the past, because he is really not in his own timeline, merely looking into other timelines where the same event happened. This is a pretty fascinating action/adventure that requires Gyllenhaal to use his intelligence to overcome his obstacles. The ending is about the best case scenario one could hope for in this instance, but the presence of real heart makes the weird science work.
8. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)- Besides social commentary, the other thing a time travel movie can do well is explore the old thought exercise: if you could go back and relive your life, knowing what you know now, would you? Kathleen Turner goes to her high school reunion shortly after separating from her husband (Nicholas Cage). After fainting at the reunion, she awakens to find herself back in high school. With her knowledge of how all her classmates turn out, should she change her life by picking the boy who would grow up to be a millionaire or stay with the man who would one day break her heart? It is an interesting movie about the choices we make and it did not end exactly how I thought it would, which was a nice surprise. Worth a watch if you've ever wanted to go back in time just to erase a mistake.
7. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)- Audiences avoided this movie in droves but shouldn't have. This is pure time travel as video game fun. Tom Cruise finds himself in a situation in which, every time he dies, he wakes up to restart his day all over again. It is kind of like Groundhog's Day but he can keep going as long as he doesn't die. Cruise finds himself in a war against an alien race that seems one step ahead of us humans at every turn. Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton make excellent additions to the cast. It is one of the more purely satisfying time travel movies on the list from an entertainment perspective.
6. 12 Monkeys (1995)- Terry Gilliam killed it with this time travel movie in the vein of Terminator. When a single man (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to prevent a global catastrophe he is treated exactly as any would-be time traveler would...like a mad man. This movie is one that comes at time travel from the "whatever happened, happened" school of thought. That is, perhaps even the future is immutable? Gilliam brings his inspired lunacy to the adventure while Brad Pitt plays against type as a deranged eco-terrorist. Is there such a thing as destiny?
5. Primer (2004)- Enveloped in techno-babble, Shane Carruth presents this fascinatingly original take on time travel in which meeting another you will not destroy all of reality. At times maddeningly cryptic, I have seen the movie about ten times and still cannot tell you where certain plots points come from. The idea of abusing time travel is looked at very closely as two amateur inventors make moves against each other once they discover the potential power of their "process." There are some nice, chilling moments and the screenplay is constructed pretty perfectly. A great indie time travel movie.
4. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)- Although this one features little to no time travel (depending on your point of view), it does a great job of thoroughly exploring what time travel would mean to real people who have no role in the overall future of the world. Like Peggy Sue Got Married, this is more a way of asking yourself who you would be if you hadn't lived the life you have lived. Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass are great in the main story of a reporter (Plaza) who is chasing a story about an obviously insane man (Duplass) who puts out a classified ad for a partner in time travel. Meanwhile, Jake Johnson figuratively visits his past by looking up an old flame and seeing if there was wasted potential in their aborted relationship. A very creative and thought-provoking indie, worth watching.
3. Terminator (1984)- Riddled with weird questions about the exact rules of time travel, the Terminator series has been a frequently exciting ride (at least in the first two movies). James Cameron brought us two great action flicks based around the idea that the present could be a target for the future. People often ask the old chestnut about going back in time and killing Hitler as a baby but what if someone else considered you to be Hitler in that scenario. Linda Hamilton is targeted by robots from the future who her son will lead a rebellion against one day. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the killer robot sent to end her life before she can have her child in the original Terminator. In the sequel, he plays a robot sent back to protect her and her son from a worse robot. Don't think too hard about it, just enjoy the ride.
2. Back to the Future 2 (1989)- I could include the whole series here but I believe this is the movie that had the most fun with the concept of time travel. After almost romancing his mother in the first movie, Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) is whisked into the future by his friend, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) to save his son from making a huge mistake. A sports almanac finds its way back to 1955, Biff gets possession of it and timelines are altered. Playing fast and loose with the rules of time travel, the Back to the Future series is about as fun as it gets.
1. Timecrimes (2007)- I don't know about you but I personally love an airtight screenplay. When the plot of a movie is complicated but pulled off effortlessly, it is a thing to behold. Timecrimes (directed by Nacho Vigalondo) is a Spanish language comedy/horror/science fiction movie that gets wackier and wackier but can work out no other way than the way it does. A man named Hector (Karra Elejalde) is vacationing in the countryside with his wife. Spying a young woman taking her clothes off, he decides to get a closer look but finds himself stalked by a man wrapped in pink bandages. As Hector runs into a mad scientist (played by the director), he finds himself caught in a time loop that keeps making matters worse and more complicated the longer it goes. Clever and surprising, this is a really cool movie I would highly recommend. And one we will definitely show at the Film House.
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