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The 25 Best Time Travel Movies

The 25 Best Time Travel Movies

Flight of the Navigator

Release Date 1986
Rating : 6.9 Production Companies: New Star Entertainment, Producers Sales Organization (PSO) Director: Randal Kleiser, Lillian O. MacNeill, Randall Badger Stars: Joey Cramer, Paul Reubens, Veronica Cartwright

Summary: 12-year-old David is accidentally knocked out in the forest near his home, but when he awakens eight years have passed. His family is overjoyed to have him back, but is just as perplexed as he is that he hasn't aged. When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, David gets the chance to unravel the mystery and recover the life he lost.

Time After Time

Release Date 1979
Rating : 7.1 Production Companies: Orion Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures Director: Kathy Thomas, Nicholas Meyer Stars: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen

Summary: Writer H. G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to modern day San Francisco after the infamous serial killer steals his time machine to escape the 19th century.

Timecrimes

Release Date 2008
Rating : 7.1 Production Companies: Arsénico Producciones, Zip Films Director: Nacho Vigalondo, Aitor Basterretxea Stars: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Bárbara Goenaga

Summary: A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.

Source Code

Release Date 2011
Rating : 7.5 Production Companies: The Mark Gordon Company, Vendôme Pictures Director: Duncan Jones, Sarah Schooley, Kimi Webber Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga

Summary: When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

Donnie Darko

Release Date 2004
Rating : 8 Production Companies: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Pandora Cinema Director: Richard Kelly, Rebecca Asher, Richard L. Fox Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, James Duval

Summary: After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Release Date 2014
Rating : 7.9 Production Companies: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, The Donners' Company Director: Josh McLaglen, Brian Smrz, Bryan Singer Stars: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender

Summary: The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods as they join forces with their younger selves in an epic battle that must change the past – to save our future.

Army of Darkness

Release Date 2007
Rating : 7.4 Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Universal Pictures Director: Sam Raimi Stars: Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert

Summary: Ash, a handsome, shotgun-toting, chainsaw-armed department store clerk, is time warped backwards into England's Dark Ages, where he romances a beauty and faces legions of the undead.

Arrival

Release Date 2016
Rating : 7.9 Production Companies: 21 Laps Entertainment, Lava Bear Director: Denis Villeneuve, Donald Sparks, Isabelle Faivre-Duboz Stars: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Summary: Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.

Looper

Release Date 2012
Rating : 7.4 Production Companies: Endgame Entertainment, FilmDistrict Director: Samuel W. Sullivan, Rian Johnson Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt

Summary: In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

Star Trek: First Contact

Release Date 1996
Rating : 7.6 Production Companies: Digital Image Associates, Paramount Director: Jonathan Frakes, Judi Brown Stars: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner

Summary: The Borg, a relentless race of cyborgs, are on a direct course for Earth. Violating orders to stay away from the battle, Captain Picard and the crew of the newly-commissioned USS Enterprise E pursue the Borg back in time to prevent the invaders from changing Federation history and assimilating the galaxy.

Interstellar

Release Date 2014
Rating : 8.7 Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures Director: Nilo Otero, Christopher Nolan, Gary Hawes Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain

Summary: The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Release Date 1989
Rating : 6.9 Production Companies: Orion Pictures, Interscope Communications Director: Glen Sanford, Adrienne Hamalian-Mangine, Eric Heffron Stars: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin

Summary: Bill and Ted are high school buddies starting a band. They are also about to fail their history class—which means Ted would be sent to military school—but receive help from Rufus, a traveller from a future where their band is the foundation for a perfect society. With the use of Rufus' time machine, Bill and Ted travel to various points in history, returning with important figures to help them complete their final history presentation.

Edge of Tomorrow

Release Date 2014
Rating : 7.9 Production Companies: Village Roadshow Pictures, Warner Bros. Director: Doug Liman, Lisa Vick, Caroline Bowker Stars: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Summary: Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

The Time Machine

Release Date 2002
Rating : 6 Production Companies: DreamWorks SKG, Warner Bros. Director: Simon Wells, Sharon 'Mae' West, Trudy Ramirez Stars: Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Omero Mumba

Summary: Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds mankind divided into two warring races.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Release Date 1986
Rating : 7.3 Production Companies: Paramount Director: Leonard Nimoy, Douglas E. Wise, Pat Kehoe Stars: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

Summary: It's the 23rd century, and a mysterious alien power is threatening Earth by evaporating the oceans and destroying the atmosphere. In a frantic attempt to save mankind, Kirk and his crew must time travel back to 1986 San Francisco where they find a world of punk, pizza and exact-change buses that are as alien as anything they've ever encountered in the far reaches of the galaxy. A thrilling, action-packed Star Trek adventure!

Planet of the Apes

Release Date 1968
Rating : 8 Production Companies: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, APJAC Productions Director: Franklin J. Schaffner, William Kissell, Robert Doudell Stars: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter

Summary: Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.

Time Bandits

Release Date 1981
Rating : 6.9 Production Companies: Handmade Films Ltd., HandMade Films Director: Terry Gilliam Stars: Craig Warnock, David Rappaport, Kenny Baker

Summary: Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.

Twelve Monkeys

Release Date 1995
Rating : 8 Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Atlas Entertainment Director: Terry Gilliam, Mark Egerton, John Rusk Stars: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt

Summary: In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly, and patient Jeffrey Goines, the son of a famous virus expert, who may hold the key to the mysterious rogue group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Release Date 1991
Rating : 8.6 Production Companies: Canal Plus, Lightstorm Entertainment Director: Joyce King, Terry Miller, Barry K. Thomas Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong

Summary: Set ten years after the events of the original, James Cameron’s classic sci-fi action flick tells the story of a second attempt to get the rid of rebellion leader John Connor, this time targeting the boy himself. However, the rebellion has sent a reprogrammed terminator to protect Connor.

Primer

Release Date 2004
Rating : 6.7 Production Companies: Thinkfilm, Shane Carruth Director: Shane Carruth Stars: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden

Summary: Friends and fledgling entrepreneurs invent a device in their garage which reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it, but they discover that it has some highly unexpected capabilities - ones that could enable them to do and to have seemingly anything they want. Taking advantage of this unique opportunity is the first challenge they face. Dealing with the consequences is the next.

Back to the Future

Release Date 2023
Rating : 8.5 Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment Director: Nancy Hansen, David McGiffert, Robert Zemeckis Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover

Summary: Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Release Date 1991
Rating : 6.5 Production Companies: Toho Pictures Director: Kazuki Ōmori Stars: Katsuhiko Sasaki, Kosuke Toyohara, Anna Nakagawa

Summary: The Futurians, time-travelers from the 23rd century, arrive in Japan to warn them of the nation's destruction under Godzilla. They offer to help erase Godzilla from history by preventing his creation. With Godzilla seemingly gone, a new monster emerges as the Futurians' true intentions are revealed.

The Philadelphia Experiment

Release Date 1984
Rating : 6.1 Production Companies: New Pictures Group, New World Pictures Director: Stewart Raffill, Jeffrey Chernov, Pat Kehoe Stars: Michael Paré, Nancy Allen, Eric Christmas

Summary: Based on an "actual event" that took place in 1943. About a US Navy Destroyer Escort that disappeared from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, and sent two men 40 years into the future to 1984.

Timecop

Release Date 1994
Rating : 5.9 Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Renaissance Pictures Director: David Klohn, Jack Frost Sanders, Morgan Beggs Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mia Sara, Ron Silver

Summary: An officer for a security agency that regulates time travel, must fend for his life against a shady politician who has a tie to his past.

Men in Black 3

Release Date 2012
Rating : 6.8 Production Companies: Amblin Entertainment, Media Magik Entertainment Director: Barry Sonnenfeld, Peter Thorell, Christopher Surgent Stars: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin

Summary: Agents J and K are back...in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K's life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him - secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.