Somewhere in Time (1980)
Time-Travel Romance
Old-fashioned romantic weepie with Christopher Reeve hypnotising himself into travelling back in time to 1912 to woo actress Jane Seymour
Time Travel
Time travel is the ability to move back and forward throughout time. Methods of doing so vary from the time machine created by H.G. Wells to DeLorean and British police box to portals and bracelets even hot tubs. Time warps and portals are also popular while some people have the mental ability to travel.
Stories vary depending on which direction one goes in time, including those in which characters travel into various futures or have adventures in past historical eras. Other stories include travellers from the future returning to the present, or else people plucked out of or awoken from the past into the present.
Stories can range from simple adventures to the more challenging complexities of time paradox stories and others where time travel ends up changing the timeline creating an Alternate History or Alternate Timeline. Other stories deal with time wars or the establishment temporal police forces to ensure the integrity of the timeline.
Other treatments include stories in which time is frozen, where individuals are caused in Timeloops and made to repeat a small pocket of time over and over, or where time is reversed.
Sound of My Voice (2011)
Cult Led by a Woman Who May Have Come from the Future
Fascinating film about a cult centred around a woman who claims to come from the future. Featuring an ethereal performance from a then unknown Brit Marling, the film remains ambiguous about her claims. Less a script than a series of often emotionally raw scenes that have been improvised between the actors
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Time Travel/Dinosaurs Amok/Ray Bradbury Adaptation
Adaptation of the classic Ray Bradbury time travel story is overblown as a ridiculous big-budget film filled with bad science where the original point of the story disappears in a script that makes no sense
Space Cop (2016)
Cop from the Future Comedy
Comedy about a cop from the future who joins the present-day force where he is partnered with a cop thawed out from the 1960s. This is a premise that should have been funny but emerges as something like Sledge Hammer cast with the characters from Dumb and Dumber
Sphere (1998)
Crashed UFO Underwater/Michael Crichton Adaptation
Michael Crichton was hot property after the success of Jurassic Park but this was one flop. A by no means uninteresting film about a group of scientists in an underwater habitat making contact with an alien lifeform
The Spirit of 76 (1990)
Time Travel/1970s Retro Comedy
Clearly an attempt to copy the success of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, this is a comedy with time travellers visiting the 1970s. Lots of 70s pop culture and faces without any of it being funny
Split Infinity (1992)
Children's Time Travel Story
Christian-made family film where a girl travels back in time to 1929 to help save the family farm
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011)
Juvenile Spy Adventures
A series that reached its maximum level of cuteness two films ago is dragged out for another pointless entry that nobody was asking for. Robert Rodriguez delivers shabby juvenile slapstick
Star Trek (2009)
Intergalactic Adventures
J.J. Abrams revives the Star Trek franchise by recasting it with younger faces and rewriting continuity. But in the appeal to a hipper, sexier vibe, it feels a long way from Gene Roddenberry’s creation – nowhere in evidence is the original’s concern with galactic politics and social issues of the day
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Time Travel/Cyborg Gestalt
The second of the Star Trek: The Next Generation films where series regular Jonathan Frakes takes the director’s chair and delivers an exciting adventure, showing an excellent hand with the special effects. Far more satisfying than the previous film
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning (2005)
Star Trek/Babylon 5 Parody
An extraordinary example of the fan film where Finnish filmmakers created a parody of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Babylon 5, with effects that rival those of A-list studio fare made on their home computers
Stasis (2017)
Time-Travelling Rebels/Disembodied Teen
A low-budget film that mixes the rebels from the future premise of The Terminator with the story of a disembodied soul trying to get back to their own body. Too low-budget to make the idea work.
Summer Time Machine Blues (2005)
Japanese Time Travel Comedy
Witty and enormously clever Japanese time travel film. This readily homages Back to the Future but has a great deal of original fun of its own creating a series of hilarious temporal conundrums. One of the most entertaining films I have seen in some time
Superman (1978)
Comic-Book Superhero
This is where the modern comic-book superhero began on screen. A film that is almost completely successful in banishing campy silliness and taking itself seriously, allowing Superman to fly with magnificent effects. Christopher Reeve shines as the ultimate boy scout
Synchronic (2019)
Drug That Causes People to Travel Through Time
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have become one of the most underrated indie genre voices. Here they make a film where Anthony Mackie discovers a drug that causes people to travel through time
Synchronicity (2015)
Time Paradox
An ambitious film reminiscent of Twelve Monkeys, this has a time traveller venturing into the past and a conceptual jigsaw as he intersects with and has to hide in the margins of events in his own timeline
A Tale from the East (1990)
Hong Kong Supernatural Comedy
A wannabe entry aboard the HK supernatural fantasy fad of the late 80s/early 90s sparked by the likes of the Mr Vampire and A Chinese Ghost Story films … This, which involves a time travel plot, is crippled by a pandering to a slapstick inanity that makes it a painful watching experience
Tales That Witness Madness (1973)
Horror Anthology
Director Freddie Francis had had great success making several of the Amicus horror anthologies then went independent to made another Amicus-styled anthology here with mixed results
Tamala 2010 (2002)
Demented Anime/Girl Cat's Space Adventures
Grungy low tech anime that comes out like a sarcastic version of Hello Kitty
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018)
Animation/Comic-Book Superhero Team
Film spinoff from the animated tv series Teen Titans Go! This hits in with an hilairous barrage of one-liners wickedly spoofing the superhero genre and jokes at DC Comics canon
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)
Comic-Book Superheroes in Feudal Japan
The third of the original live-action Turtles films is a lazily conceived affair that transplants the Turtles back in time to feudal Japan in a plot that rips off The Seven Samurai
Tenet (2020)
Time Travel Action/Temporal Weaponry
After delays, Christopher Nolan’s unique time travel film is with us, a dense challenging work that plays like an intellectual version of a James Bond film
The Terminator (1984)
Time-Travelling Killer Android
One of the 2-3 most influential SF films since 1980. James Cameron creates a barrelling powerhouse of a film, all lorded over by Arnold Schwarzenegger as the relentless killer machine in the role that defined his career
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Time-Travelling Killer Androids
The first sequel to The Terminator where James Cameron returns with the biggest budget for a film at the time. Cameron harnesses then top-drawer CGI technology to create one of the most original nemeses in any SF film
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Time-Travelling Killer Androids
After the highs of James Cameron’s first two Terminator films, this was a crashing disappointment. Schwarzenegger is back but his performance has become self-parody and the uninspired action sequences are accompanied by some terrible effects
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Time-Travelling Killer Androids
The sixth Terminator film that boasts the return of both James Cameron and Linda Hamilton to the franchise. After the troughs of Terminator: Genisys, this makes one forget about the last three sequels
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Time-Travelling Killer Androids
A hodgepodge of competing elements – an aging Arnold Schwarzenegger, a soft reboot, alternate timelines, reintroduction of the familiar, twists to the familiar – that make no sense on a narrative level, least of all come anywhere near what James Cameron delivered back in the first two films
Terror from the Year 5000 (1958)
Deadly Woman from the Future
1950s B movie about time travel experiments that produce a deadly woman from the future. Nothing standout but Salome Jens has an otherworldly presence as the woman
Test Tube Teens from the Year 2000 (1994)
Time Travellers from a Future Where Sex is Banned
Charles Band film directed by David DeCoteau, a lame softcore comedy where two guys travel back from a future where sex is outlawed and end up in a girl’s boarding school
The Testament of Orpheus (1960)
French Existentialism/Meta-Fictional Autobiography
Jean Cocteau’s follow-up to his earlier Orpheus becomes an opportunity where Cocteau makes an autobiographical films, revisiting his own life and works
Things Will Be Different (2024)
Mysterious House of Time
A fascinatingly enigmatic time paradox film about a brother and sister on the run who takes refuge at a house that exists out of time
The 30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959)
Giant Woman Comedy
The one and only solo outing from Lou Costello of Abbott and Costello fame made after the duo’s split-up and just before Lou’s death. The film is essentially a comedy remake of the previous year’s Attack of the 50 Foot Woman in which Lou’s newlywed wife abruptly becomes a giant
The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962)
Idiots Time-Travel to Ancient Greece
The Three Stooges travel through time to take on the Italian muscleman film in a never particularly funny comedy
Thrill Seekers (1999)
Time Travel
A throwaway direct-to-dvd release about time travellers come back to view famous disasters that rises above low expectations to develop an occasionally interesting plot
Time Addicts (2023)
Time Paradox
This is an Australian film where two crystal meth addicts find a drug that transports them through time. While keeping itself contained to a single location, this emerges out into a cleverly constructed time paradox
Time After Time (1979)
Time Travelling H.G. Wells vs Jack the Ripper
A clever and ingenious film from Nicholas Meyer in which H.G. Wells builds his own time machine and pursues Jack the Ripper through time to present-day San Francisco. Lots of witty play around Wells’s cultural bewilderment and some great performances
Time Bandits (1981)
Gonzo Adventures Throughout Time
Highly enjoyable Terry Gilliam film about a young boy who joins a group of dwarves on a series of adventures though time
The Time Capsule (2022)
Man’s Teenage Love Returns Unaged from a Space Journey
This has an interesting premise where a middle-aged man suddenly faces his teenage girlfriend returned unaged from a relativistic space voyage
Time Changer (2002)
Christian Time Travel Film
This holds the novelty of being a Christian time travel film but plummets into bad movie stakes when it has a 19th Century professor travel into the present to become appalled at seeing couples kiss on tv and lingerie in store … A great idea for a comedy but then you realise the film is serious
Time Freak (2018)
Time Travel
Time travel film in which Asa Butterfield invents a time machine to go back and stop Sophie Turner breaking up with him. On the lightweight side but eventually not unworthwhile
The Time Guardian (1987)
War Across Time
An Australian entry in the 1980s time travel film fad featuring Carrie Fisher engaged in a war across time in a time-travelling city
The Time Machine (1960)
Time Travel/H.G. Wells Adaptation
This adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel was one of the best films from 1950s SF producer/director George Pal. The time travel is depicted with considerable wondrousness and standout effects for the era
The Time Machine (1978)
Time Travel/H.G. Wells Adaptation
Largely forgotten adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel made for tv. While other versions place the story in Victorian England, this has been Americanised – where the time traveller is a weapons designer and journeys back to the Wild West. What kills the film is a painful cheapness
The Time Machine (2002)
Time Travel/H.G. Wells Adaptation
Remake of the classic H.G. Wells novel that comes with the novelty of being directed by Wells’s great-grandson. More disappointingly it prefers to merely remake the 1960 film rather than return to the book
The Time Masters (1982)
Animation/Planetary Adventure
Rene Laloux, the animator who made Fantastic Planet, collaborates with cult fantasy artist Moebius and the result is a planetary adventure filled with trippily exotic backgrounds and creatures
Time Slip (1981)
Soldiers Thrown Back in Time to Feudal Japan
Highly entertaining Japanese film about modern soldiers thrown back to feudal Japan and deciding to overthrow the shogunate
Time Toys (2016)
Super-Powered Toys from the Future
Children’s film with the promising idea of kids finding a bunch of toys from the future that grant them amazing abilities unaware they have world-destroying potential.; The idea is alas watered down to the blandness of family formula and the limited conceptual horizons of a low budget
The Time Travelers (1964)
Time Travel/Post-Holocaust Future
Modest B-budget SF film with scientists opening a time portal and becoming caught up in a future war between humanity and mutants
The Time Travelers (1976)
Time Travel
Unsold tv pilot that was a collaboration between Irwin Allen and Rod Serling where time travelers visit the Great Fire of Chicago
The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
Time Travel Romance
Film adaptation of the best-selling story about a romance between a woman and a man with the ability to travel through time. Nicely made if not quite holding the emotional involvement the book did
The Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2010)
Japanese Time Travel Film
A live-action film based on a popular Japanese young adult novel that has been filmed multiple times before. This is a rather dull film that fails to do anything terribly interesting with its time travel premise
Time Under Fire (1997)
Time Travel/Action
Unimaginative time travel/action film that plays out like
Timecop (1994)
Time Police
Film featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a temporal police officer. While you expect another time travel action film, this has quite a deal more sophistication in the scripting department than you expect
Timecop: The Berlin Decision (2003)
Time Police
Sequel to Timecop with more of an action emphasis as Jason Scott Lee replacing Jean-Claude Van Damme trying to stop a criminal who is erasing agents from the timeline.
Timecrimes (2007)
Time Paradox
The debut film from Nacho Vigalondo, a time travel (or more correctly time paradox) film that holds a real delight in its conceptual dexterity with which Vigalondo keeps winding the story around on itself
Timecut (2024)
Time Travel/Slasher
A time travel film produced by Christopher Landon that has a number of similarities to Totally Killer in which a girl travels back in time to 2003 to prevent her sister being murdered by a serial killer
Timeline (2003)
Time Travel/Michael Crichton Adaptation
Michael Crichton adaptation that flopped at the box-office. Crichton tells a story about time travel to the Mediaeval period where he spends a good deal of time researching the era. The film ditches all of this to make no more than an historical film with an SF gimmick
Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (1982)
Motorcyclist Time Travels to the Old West
Rather slight film with the amusing concept of a present-day motorcyclist thrown back in time to the Old West
Timescape (1992)
Time Travel
A directorial debut for screenwriter David Twohy who went on to Pitch Black, among other works. Jeff Daniels plays an ordinary man who realises that guests at his hotel are travelers from the future come to witness a disaster. A strong and intelligent maturation of time travel themes
Timeslip (1955)
Man Out of Phase in Time
A British quota quickie with a fascinating central idea of a scientist who has slipped several seconds out of phase in time and can answer questions before they are asked
The Tomorrow War (2021)
War Across Time
Chris Pratt is recruited to fight an alien invasion in a war across time in a big-budget film that flounders in its own ridiculousness
Totally Killer (2023)
Time Travel/Slasher Film
A Blumhouse production that ends up being a smart conceptual mash-up between Back to the Future and Halloween
Trancers (1985)
Time-Travelling Detective
One of the more enjoyable films from Charles Band with Tim Thomerson giving a highly entertaining performance as a hard-boiled detective travelled back from the future
Trancers II (1991)
Time-Travelling Detective
The first of several sequels to Charles Band’s Trancers with Tim Thomerson as a hard-boiled time-travelling detective. This does a passably okay job of following up on its predecessor
The Triangle (2005)
Solving the Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle
An impressive line-up of genre names came together for this big event mini-series that sets out to offer a conclusive explanation for the Bermuda Triangle in a plot that juggles an entertaining stew of wild ideas involving timewarps, alternate timelines and government cover-ups
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Time Paradox
Terry Gilliam remakes the classic short film La Jetee as one of the most impressive of modern time travel films with an exceptional plot that is built around a sophisticated time paradox
The 25th Reich (2012)
Time Travel, UFOs and Nazi-Ruled Alternate Future
Time travel, Nazis in UFOs and a Nazi-ruled alternate timeline, giant robot spiders – ok, I’m sold. A surprisingly good little film where the fact that this is also made on a low budget and with a good deal of conceptual constraint makes it all the more creative an effort
Twice Upon a Yesterday (1998)
The Past Revisited/Romance
Appealing and well told fantasy in which a couple are each individually offered the opportunity to go back in time and change the circumstances that led to their breakup
The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan (1979)
Time Travel Romance
Classic tv movie in which Lindsay Wagner travels back to the 19th Century to romance Marc Singer. Classic what is the question – what we have is a weepy romantic version of a time travel film that eliminates any of the interesting things like culture clash, advanced knowledge and time paradox
2067 (2020)
Time Portal
Australian film in which Kodi Smit-McPhee heads through a time portal to save a polluted world resulting in a time paradox that ties back to his childhood. This had promise but badly lets down on its premise
The Undead (1957)
Hypnotic Regression/Mediaeval Witchery
An early Roger Corman film that stirs a fascinating mix of elements involving hypnotic regression, witchery, time travel and appearances from The Devil
Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979)
Astronaut in King Arthur's Court/Disney Comedy
A Disney version of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court where the story of a man thrown back in time to Camelot is dragged into the era of Star Wars with the addition of space shuttles and androids
The Visitor from the Future (2022)
Time Travel Comedy
A French film about a time traveller come to prevent the catastrophic explosion of a nuclear power plant. A low expectation film that turns out to be a comedy that sparkles with wit and inventivity
The Visitors (1993)
Time-Travel Comedy
Hilarious French comedy where a filthy Mediaeval knight and his servant are transported into the present-day
The Voyage Home: Star Trek IV (1986)
Time Travel Back to the Present
Fourth of the original Star Trek films jumps on board the popularity of time travel themes following Back to the Future to have the regulars time travel back to the present for a series of amiable, easy comic encounters
Warlock (1989)
Witchfinder Pursues Warlock Through Time
Richard E. Grant is a witchfinder who pursues warlock Julian Sands through a time vortex into the present day. David Twohy’s script takes all the Old Wives’ tale aspects of Middle Ages superstition seriously to immensely entertaining regard
Watchmen (2009)
Comic-Book Superheroes
Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s groundbreaking graphic novel is exceedingly faithful to the original. Often called unfilmable, Snyder articulates the material in ways that quite surprise
The Wave (2019)
Reality Bending Drug Hallucinations
Justin Long goes on a bender and takes some drugs that bend reality and leave him moving through time. Sort of like a version of Scorsese’s After Hours that dives into drug culture, this wants to be edgy but ends up in surprisingly traditional places.
We Can Be Heroes (2020)
Kid Superheroes
Robert Rodriguez appears to have gotten the oversized non-event that was Alita: Battle Angel out of his system by making another of his seat of the pants home movies – this is less Spy Kids than Superhero Kids – and brings back one element Alita forgot, a sense of fun
We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story (1993)
Animation/Talking Dinosaurs
Juvenile animated film from Amblin Entertainment concerning dinosaurs whose intelligence is raised to human level and they are let loose in the present-day
Willy McBean and His Magic Machine (1965)
Children's Time Travel Film
Likeable puppet animated film about a time-travelling boy and his monkey companion
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Comic-Book Superheroes
It is nice to see Bryan Singer regain his form after several years lull. The plot is nothing world-shattering but it is nice to see a character-driven X-Men, while Singer delivers the superheroics with a cheer-out loud elan that most of the sequels missed by a wide margin
YatterMan (2009)
Anime TV Series in Live-Action/Gonzo Giant Robot Heroics
Takashi Miike conducts a live-action adaptation of a 1970s anime tv series with completely madcap results. The effect is like drowning in multi-coloured candyfloss flavoured with LSD
The Yesterday Machine (1963)
Nazi Scientist Builds Time Machine
A complete obscurity that has only been brought to public attention during the YouTube era – not that it has been obscure without justifiable reason. Don’t be hooked by the intriguing premise of Nazis building time machines, this is painfully dull in every regard
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Comic-Book Superheroes
Zack Snyder’s original cut of Justice League is a magnificent work that restores much character depth and story. I would far rather watch this than any of the recent MCU films