time travel movies 2023

Best new Time Travel movies in 2024 & 2023 (Netflix, Prime, Hulu & Cinema List)

New time travel movies in 2024 in Cinema & on VOD

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Best time travel movies on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+ or DVD in 2024

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Everything Everywhere All at Once

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The Best Time Travel Movies for a Brief Escape from 2023

We don't have time machines yet, so these films are the next best thing.

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Add these titles to your watch list to awaken the time traveler within you. From Japanese animations to over-the-top comedies to dramas saturated with social commentary, these films all have one thing in common: They'll boggle your mind and make you think, while keeping you entertained. But remember, no matter how cool it looks to fly in a time-traveling spaceship, the present moment is and always will be the most important time there is.

13 Going on 30 (2004)

Before anyone tries to suggest that 13 Going on 30 isn't a time travel movie, I'd like to point out that Jenna Rink seamlessly moves between the present and the future, navigating alternate timelines with ease. In this female-led riff on the Big story, Jenna Rink wishes to escape high school and become “thirty, flirty, and thriving.” With the help of a little magic wishing dust, Jenna gets her dream, waking up in the future as a successful magazine writer who looks just like Jennifer Garner. However, she's lost touch with her childhood bestie Matty (Mark Ruffalo), and she can't help but wonder what could have been.

Tenet (2020)

Christopher Nolan's epic sci-fi flick stars Denzel Washington's son, John David Washington, as The Protagonist, a former CIA agent enlisted with stopping World War III, which is no mean feat. In order to prevent the world's total destruction, The Protagonist learns to bend time, leading to some pretty trippy storylines. Robert Pattinson and The Crown 's Elizabeth Debicki co-star.

Watch Now on Prime Video

Meet Cute (2022)

Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson make a delightful couple in Peacock's deliciously dark romantic comedy Meet Cute . Cuoco plays Sheila, a woman having suicidal thoughts until she discovers a time machine in the back of a nail salon. Chronically unlucky in love, Sheila decides to go back in time 24 hours so that she can re-live her first date with Gary (Davidson), trying to create the perfect evening each time. However, the ability to time travel comes with some drawbacks, and the temptation to mess with history is pretty overbearing, especially in the search for true love.

Watch Now on Peacock

About Time (2013)

Richard Curtis' About Time employs time travel in an extremely inventive way to tell a (probably sweet) love story; though there's been much discourse around the story's portrayal of consent, or lack thereof. The movie follows Tim (Domhnall Gleeson), a man looking for love, who inherits the ability to travel through time from his father. Using his newfound gift, Tim courts Mary (Rachel McAdams), attempting to build a relationship in spite of any obstacles in the way.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass star in this intriguing indie film about the possibility of time travel. Plaza plays an aspiring journalist who takes on a very strange assignment involving a bizarre personal ad. “You'll get paid after we get back,” it reads. “Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.” What starts as an unlikely hoax soon challenges everyone's beliefs about the ability to travel through time.

Watch Now on Amazon

Happy Death Day 2U (2019)

2017's Happy Death Day delighted fans with its innovative twist on the time loop comedy. 2019's Happy Death Day 2U takes the concept to another level, and will have time travel aficionados screaming. Having escaped from her original time loop, Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself being hunted by the Babyface killer once more. After one of Tree's classmates develops an experimental quantum reactor, Tree finds herself caught in a brand new loop, and she's forced to find even more inventive ways to escape.

Needle in a Timestack (2021)

Needle in a Timestack is a romantic drama presenting an alternate future in which the rich are able to time travel for fun. However, these “time jaunts” have very real consequences, and often send ripples through the lives of the less wealthy. The film focuses on a happily married couple whose relationship is threatened when a wealthy ex decides to tamper with the timeline. The all-star cast includes Cynthia Erivo, Orlando Bloom, Leslie Odom Jr., and Freida Pinto.

Watch Now on Apple TV

Kate & Leopold (2001)

Kate & Leopold stars Hugh Jackman as a 19th century duke who is accidentally transported to 21st century New York by one of his ancestors. Amateur physicist Stuart discovers that he can use gravitational time portals, bringing Leopold to the present day without meaning to. Stuart's ex-girlfriend Kate (Meg Ryan) hilariously hits it off with Leopold, despite the fact that he's set to travel back to his own time period the following week.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Before dedicating his life to the Avatar franchise , James Cameron was responsible for a plethora of fun blockbusters, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day . Expanding upon the first film, Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, finds herself targeted by Skynet once again. This time, a killer T-1000 Terminator is sent back in time to assassinate Sarah's teenage son, John (Edward Furlong), the future leader of the resistance. Meanwhile, a reprogrammed, and much funnier, T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back to protect Connor. Easily the best installment in the franchise.

Watch Now on HBO Max

Mirai (2018)

The Japanese animated film Mirai is a dreamy adventure fantasy about a four-year-old boy named Kun, who starts feeling neglected when his little sister is born. Fleeing to the garden of his new house, Kun accidentally discovers a time travel portal. Throughout his wondrous journey, Kun encounters his mother as a child, and his little sister as an adult, learning so much about his family in the process.

Watch Now on Netflix

When We First Met (2018)

Noah (Adam DeVine) regrets missing his chance with Avery (Alexandra Daddario), especially when she meets her future fiancé, Ethan, the very next day. At Avery and Ethan's engagement party, an incredibly drunk Noah ends up in a photo booth, which transports him back in time. Hoping for a second chance, Noah uses the photo booth on multiple occasions, but he ends up altering the course of everyone's lives in the process, for better and worse.

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Edgar Wright's dazzling psychological thriller follows aspiring fashion designer Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), who manages to time travel back to the 1960s. There, she meets Sandie, a striking woman trying to get her start as a singer. Ellie's fashion designs become infused with the glamour she witnesses in the '60s, as well as the darkness she finds there. Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith co-star.

The Lake House (2006)

After demonstrating some intense chemistry in Speed , Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves reunited for 2006's The Lake House , a romantic drama with a time travel twist. Architect Alex (Reeves) and doctor Kate (Bullock) find themselves living in the same house, but years apart. By some magical turn of events, they're able to communicate by writing letters to one another via the Lake House's mailbox. Despite the distance between them, Alex and Kate strike up a romance thanks to their time traveling letters.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

A list of the best time travel movies wouldn't be complete with at least one of the Bill & Ted movies on it. 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is responsible for launching Keanu Reeves's career, and it remains one of the most enjoyable films from the era. In the first movie, Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) are failing history, until they magically discover a phone booth that just so happens to be a time machine. The academically-challenged pair meet some of history's most important figures, who they enlist to help with their dreaded school assignment.

Groundhog Day (1993)

Groundhog Day may belong in the "time loop" sub-genre of time travel movies, but it most definitely deserves a place on this list. Bill Murray's performance as disgruntled weatherman Phil is literally iconic, and the fun begins when he's set to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the annual Groundhog Day event. Unfortunately for Phil, his worst nightmare is realized when he wakes up the next morning to find that he must relive February 2 again. The hilarious time loop is made even better by Murray's co-star, Andie MacDowell.

Watch Now on AMC +

Back To The Future (1985)

This classic sets the scene for all time-travel movies that came after it. When 17-year-old high school student Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) hops into in a time-traveling car invented by his scientist friend Doc (Christopher Lloyd), he is accidentally sent 30 years into the past. From the moment he lands in 1955, Marty just wants to get back to the future. So, he embarks on a hysterical adventure to ensure his teenage parents-to-be meet and fall in love so that he can get back to life as he knows it. There are two sequels to the film, Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III , all of which deserve their own plaque in the time travel movie hall of fame too.

Watch Now on Prime Video with AMC +

Avengers: End Game (2019)

The dramatic finale to The Infinity Saga (comprised of 23 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), Avengers: Endgame pulls out all the stops. This epic showdown between the Avengers and Thanos uses newly discovered time travel technology to give the Earth's Mightiest Heroes a chance to win another battle. When Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) devises a time-bending strategy to gather all the Infinity stones, he enlists the help of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) to build a special device to time-jump. But with his new priorities as a family man, Tony is wary of altering history in any major way. So, instead of going back in time, they decide to bring back their fallen friends into their current timeline, five years later. Once reunited, the Avengers assemble to restore balance to the universe.

Watch Now on Disney+

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

This surreal A24 sci-fi flick is a brilliant take on the multiverse. Teeming with enchanting visuals, the action film features a Chinese-American woman named Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) who co-owns a little laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). She feels trapped in an unfulfilling marriage and is struggling to make ends meet. However, when she accidentally discovers the multiverse, she is granted an opportunity to reach her full potential. While a tale of time travel, EEAAO is ultimately a story of self discovery. Directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (collectively nicknamed “The Daniels”) are the minds behind this epic inter-dimensional adventure, which brings to light the powers hidden within every individual. You may want to consider the advice of one viewer who said, “Don’t do drugs, watch this instead.”

See You Yesterday (2019)

An amalgamation of time travel fantasy, political critique, and powerful family ties, See You Yesterday is a movie you don't want to miss. Produced by Spike Lee and directed by Stefon Bristol, who was taken under Professor Lee's wing while attending NYU's graduate film program, the story features two prestigious teenagers who spend all their spare time working on scientific inventions that eventually lead them to develop time travel technology. When her brother is caught in a fatal encounter with the police, Claudette “CJ” Walker (Eden Duncan-Smith) builds two time machines that can help her and her friend Sebastian (Danté Crichlow) change the series of events that lead to CJ’s brother getting killed. But their experience leads them to time travel's greatest truth: All actions have a ripple effect that can change the present moment in unseen ways. The film critically engages with police brutality and was made by a team of creators of predominantly African descent to bring you this time-travel adventure that will leave you entertained, engaged, and inspired.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Hot tubs have a good reputation for their steamy bubbles and even steamier memories. But what if they also doubled as time travel devices? This hilarious guilty-pleasure comedy features three pals who are caught in a rut in their adulthood, from being freshly dumped by a girlfriend, to being stuck in a dead-end job, to drinking away the sorrows of having accomplished absolutely nothing by the age of 40. Needless to say, these friends could all use a life upgrade. Luckily, when they venture into a magic hot tub at a winter resort, they accidentally travel back to 1986 and are given a second chance at life. Their tumultuous journey through the past leads them to be more conscious about the future. Plus, they have the opportunity to do a few things differently. When the hot tub teleports them back into the present day, each of them is better than they left off. Most hot tubs leave you feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, but this one took it to a whole other level.

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13 time travel movies that start out in the future.

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• Time travel movies offer a range of storylines and genres, from romance to drama to comedy, as they explore the tantalizing potential of anything happening.
• Time travel movies set in the future provide audiences with a glimpse of a world that might be, showcasing the merging of futuristic technology and historical eras.
• These time travel movies expertly intertwine past and future, as characters are sent from a dire future to alter the course of history, resulting in riveting journeys through time.

Time travel movies are a beloved subgenre of sci-fi, and while most start out in the current era and catapult the characters into the past or future, there are quite a few great time travel movies that already start in the future. Time travel offers the tantalizing potential of anything happening, allowing for a range of storylines. The concept works with any number of genres, from romance, to drama, to comedy. As a narrative setup, time travel is used over and over again for a reason.

With masterful expertise, some films portray the merging of futuristic technology and historical eras to play out journeys where advancements of tomorrow clash with ancient realities. Amidst this temporal crossroads, every character charts a unique path through time. Few time travel movies are as interesting as those set in the future, as they give audiences a glimpse of a world that might be. Here are 13 time travel movies that start in the future, whether near or distant.

Related: 10 Time Travel Movies That Start In The Past

13 12 Monkeys (1995)

12 Monkeys and the short film La Jetée share a striking resemblance, with the former having been influenced by the latter time travel movie . 12 Monkeys , a 1995 masterpiece, opens in a future ravaged by a viral outbreak. A convict is sent to prevent the outbreak, embarking on a riveting journey through time's layers. Both films expertly intertwine past and future, showcasing characters sent from a dire future to alter the course of history.

12 Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

In Escape from the Planet of the Apes , the story unfolds from a future perspective as intelligent simians Milo, Cornelius, and Zira flee their doomed world by rocketing back to the '70s. The clash of their advanced origins and the '70s births an engrossing stage. While the apes venture through this unfamiliar era, a fusion of suspense and curiosity molds a tense story. The spotlight shines on their adaptation and trials in this unknown time. Central to the narrative is the futuristic setting, a key portal that unveils how characters of a high-tech future adapt and immerse in a bygone era.

11 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure , led by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, the silver screen transforms into a time-traveling vortex. Bill and Ted start their journey in a future where they are destined to shape humanity. Guided by a telephone booth, they assemble revered figures from history's annals - thinkers like Socrates and composers like Beethoven. The charm is in their bumbling antics as they journey through the past.

10 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

In the distant 23rd century, Earth's chaos stems from an enigmatic alien signal in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . The exiled USS Enterprise crew crafts a daring plan to journey back to 1986 amidst a perplexing probe. Racing against time, their mission is to uncover Earth's salvation, found in ancient humpback whale songs. As they travel, their actions ripple through time. The backdrop molds their quest, where the destiny of tomorrow rests upon yesterday's moves.

9 Timecop (1994)

In Timecop , Jean-Claude Van Damme is Max Walker, an adept TEC agent navigating shattered time to thwart Senator McComb's power-hungry ambitions. Walker battles corruption, straddling past and future, striving to reshape destiny and safeguard his love. Beginning in the future, Walker leaps through time's corridors, altering history's course. As each decision resounds across ages, Timecop immerses viewers in a high-stakes temporal pursuit.

8 The Terminator (1984)

In a remarkable temporal leap, The Terminator transports viewers from a war-ravaged future to the neon-lit alleys of 1984 Los Angeles. Amidst this transition, two distinct individuals emerge, each bearing a hidden purpose. The first is an unyielding cybernetic assassin programmed to eliminate Sarah Connor from existence before she can give birth to John Connor, who will become humanity's leader in the future. The second is a gritty human soldier determined to safeguard her from erasure. As their deadly struggle for survival ensues, a clear warning unfurls regarding the looming ascendancy of sentient machines at a decisive juncture for humanity.

Related: 8 Sci-Fi Movies That Break Their Own Time Travel Rules

7 X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Set in 2023, mutants battle relentless Sentinels, robotic terrors unleashed to annihilate them. The world teeters on collapse as Sentinels dominate, eradicating mutant-kind. In Moscow, a brave X-Men faction stages a desperate last stand, sending Wolverine back to 1973. Amid Cold War tensions, Wolverine must alter history. With Professor X and Magneto, they seek to prevent the Sentinel program's birth. A rush against destiny unfolds, leading to a climactic clash challenging fate itself. Thus, Days of Future Past captivates by depicting a world edged with extinction and the audacious struggle to rewrite its course.

6 The Adam Project (2022)

In the bleak landscape of 2050, skilled pilot Adam Reed undertakes a vital mission. Escaping to 2018 to rescue his wife, he's thrust into a cascade of trials. A crash lands him in 2022, where the younger past Adam battles bullying and estrangement. The older Adam's encounter with his younger self, and the late father he's grown to hate, changes the future and Adam's life itself - both past and future. The story, full of twists and turns, reaches its highest point in a truly astonishing ending where love triumphs over the constraints of time.

5 A Sound of Thunder (2005)

The time-traveling sci-fi dinosaur movie A Sound of Thunder unfolds in 2055, where Time Safari enables hunting dinosaurs in the past. A hunt gone awry triggers time ripples, jolting TAMI's creator Sonia Rand and daredevil Travis Ryer. Amid clashes between ancient beasts and futuristic tensions, Ryer races against turbulent waves, with an evolving cityscape mirroring time's distortion. The dire outcome of meddling with the past soon becomes clear. In evolution's grasp, Ryer and Rand strive to mend the fracture, averting humanity's obliteration.

4 Freejack (1992)

In a future society that has stolen immortality from the past, Freejack immerses viewers in a dystopian web of temporal manipulation and power struggles. A Formula 1 racer, plucked from a deadly crash, hurtles through the desolation of New York City, pursued by unyielding mercenaries. The film's grip tightens with heart-pounding escapes and surprising alliances. Against a backdrop of ceaseless motion, Freejack weaves a tale brimming with enigmatic layers—an intricate puzzle unfolding as characters grapple with the consequences of a future-to-past leap.

3 The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987)

In a world of corporate rivalries, George Jetson and Fred Flintstone find themselves entangled in separate work predicaments. Unforeseen mishaps catapult these families from divergent eras—the Jetsons from the future, the Flintstones from the past—into a time-blending escapade. The futuristic charm of the Jetsons meshes with the prehistoric antics of the Flintstones. As misunderstandings arise and modern wonders baffle, an unexpected bond blooms.

2 Interstellar (2014)

Set in 2067, Interstellar portrays a fading Earth where survival surpasses cosmic exploration. Ex-NASA pilot Joseph Cooper uncovers a gravity-defying anomaly in his daughter's room. NASA seizes a chance: navigate a new Saturn-based wormhole for salvation. Cooper and his crew journey to uncharted planets, facing time-warping challenges and revelations as sacrifice and uncertainty unite them. A mind-bending twist emerges – a five-dimensional revelation entangling past, present, and destiny.

1 Looper (2012)

Set in 2044, Looper thrusts viewers into a world where assassins called loopers eliminate future targets. A twist emerges, however, when it's revealed these killers are compelled to eliminate versions of themselves from the future. Amid this, an aging protagonist evades his younger self's assassination plan. The plot sparks an exciting chase through different time periods, skillfully connecting the past and the present in an intriguing way. Among time travel movies, Looper distinguishes itself by not only its exciting storyline, but also by leveraging the future as a starting point.

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Join us for some temporal shenanigans —

The ars guide to time travel in the movies, we picked 20 time-travel movies and rated them by scientific logic and entertainment value..

Jennifer Ouellette and Sean M. Carroll - Nov 24, 2023 12:30 pm UTC

Since antiquity, humans have envisioned various means of time travel into the future or the past. The concept has since become a staple of modern science fiction. In particular, the number of films that make use of time travel has increased significantly over the decades, while the real-world science has evolved right alongside them, moving from simple Newtonian mechanics and general relativity to quantum mechanics and the notion of a multiverse or more exotic alternatives like string theory.

But not all time-travel movies are created equal. Some make for fantastic entertainment but the time travel makes no scientific or logical sense, while others might err in the opposite direction, sacrificing good storytelling in the interests of technical accuracy. What we really need is a handy guide to help us navigate this increasingly crowded field to ensure we get the best of both worlds, so to speak. The Ars Guide to Time Travel in the Movies is here to help us all make better, more informed decisions when it comes to choosing our time travel movie fare.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; rather, we selected films that represented many diverse approaches to time travel across multiple subgenres and decades. We then evaluated each one—grading on a curve—with regard to its overall entertainment value and scientific logic, with the final combined score determining a film's spot on the overall ranking. For the “science” part of our scoring system, we specifically took three factors into account. First and foremost, does the time travel make logical sense? Second, is the physical mechanism of time travel somewhat realistic? And third, does the film use time travel in narratively interesting ways? So a movie like Looper , which makes absolutely no sense if you think about it too hard, gets points for weaving time paradoxes thoroughly into the fabric of the story.

(Many spoilers below in the interest of meaningful analysis.)

What modern science has to say about time travel can be summed up thusly: You can travel to the future, but you probably can’t travel to the past, although to be honest, we’re not really sure. Einstein’s theory of general relativity—which says that space and time are unified into “spacetime” and the curvature of spacetime gives rise to gravity—at least lets us contemplate the possibility of time travel in a scientifically plausible context. A “ closed timelike curve ” is a path through spacetime on which someone can move forward in time as far as their local perspective is concerned and nevertheless end up visiting their own past. Such a context, however, would involve astrophysically massive gravitational fields, possibly wormholes, and negative energies or something equally exotic. Essentially none of the films we will discuss even attempt to portray physically realistic time travel (with one exception, Interstellar , which is only a partial exception).

Even without scientific accuracy, we can still ask for logical consistency. Alas, that is also pretty thin on the ground, although in this case, there are true exceptions. The most straightforward way for travel to the past to make sense is if you can visit but you can’t actually change anything—“ Whatever happened happened ,” in the memorable formulation of fictional physicist Daniel Faraday in the TV show Lost . Physicists have dubbed this the “ Novikov self-consistency principle ,” but it can really just be summed up as “making sense." Somewhat more ambitiously, we can imagine one or more alternative parallel timelines that are created by a sojourn into history. For the most part, however, our cinematic heroes make a cheerful hash of logic and narrative sense as they traipse through their pasts.

Here are our 20 representative picks, discussed in chronological order of their release to highlight how the understanding and treatment of time travel in Hollywood has evolved over the decades. There are some truly delightful entries here (plus a few stinkers for balance), but our deep dive into the topic has convinced us that the perfect time travel movie has yet to be made. That's a worthy goal for future filmmakers to strive for.

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• Entertainment

The 49 Most Anticipated Movies of 2023

M ajor blockbusters, crowd-pleasing horror, and much-anticipated sequels. Next year’s release calendar is full of reasons to head back to the theater. In 2023, movie lovers can look forward to more than a few Marvel heroes, a comedy starring a cocaine-addled bear, and M3gan, the AI android who is already the biggest star of the year. (At least, according to Twitter .) Maverick himself Tom Cruise will also get a chance to save the movie business again with his latest Mission: Impossible film. For those who prefer their home theater to the multiplex, you can Netflix and chill with films starring Jennifer Lopez , Bradley Cooper , and Julia Roberts . Here are the 49 most anticipated movies of 2023.

M3gan (Jan. 6)

Talented toy maker Gemma (Alison Williams) creates a high functioning lifelike doll named M3gan—whose name stands for Model Three Generative Android—to protect her grieving niece from emotional and physical harm. Let’s just say the titular star of this campy horror film takes her job very seriously.

Shotgun Wedding (Jan. 27)

Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel play a couple in this romantic action-comedy, streaming on Amazon Prime Video, whose destination wedding is hijacked by pirates. The two spend their wedding day fighting their way back to the altar, giving new meaning to ‘til death do us part.

Infinity Pool (Jan. 27)

Director Brandon Cronenberg, son of body horror legend David Cronenberg , proves he’s a chip off the old block with this sci-fi creepshow about a remote island where the punishment for any crime is death. When a famous writer ( Alexander Skarsgård ) finds himself facing execution, he’s told that he can save himself by creating a body double that will be killed in his place. What could go wrong?

Knock at the Cabin (Feb. 3)

M. Night Shyamalan trades in the Old beach for a remote cabin in the woods where two dads (played by Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge) and their young daughter are visited by a group of doomsdayers led by Dave Bautista, who claim they’ve been sent to prevent the apocalypse. In order to save the world, the dads are asked to make the ultimate sacrifice in this paranoid thriller based on the 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World .

80 For Brady (Feb. 3)

Four octogenarian best friends—played by Jane Fonda , Lily Tomlin , Rita Moreno , and Sally Field —head to 2017’s Super Bowl LI in order to see their favorite football player Tom Brady (playing himself in all his New England Patriot glory.) The shenanigan-filled comedy, which is based on a true story, is The Hangover meets the Golden Girls .

Magic Mike’s Last Dance (Feb. 10)

Cue the Donna Summer because Channing Tatum is leaving it all on the dancefloor in his third and supposed final Magic Mike film. The ever charming Mike Lane (Tatum) gets another chance at stardom with a little help from a wealthy socialite, played by Salma Hayek Pinault, who whisks him off to London to start a dance revue that will get everyone hot and bothered.

Sharper (Feb. 10 in select theaters, Feb. 17 on Apple TV+)

Julianne Moore stars in this enigmatic drama about the hidden secrets of New York City and the people who keep them. John Lithgow, Sebastian Stan, and Justice Smith also star in the mysterious A24 film.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (Feb. 17)

Paul Rudd’s tiniest Avenger is heading down to the Quantum Realm, the secret universe below our own, in the follow-up to 2018’s Ant-Man and The Wasp. There he meets Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), the MCU’s newest big bad, whose help comes at a steep price that is sure to ripple through the multiverses.

Cocaine Bear (Feb. 24)

The dark comedy, directed by Elizabeth Banks, is, as the title suggests, about a bear who ingests so much cocaine it goes out of its mind. The funny part is, the movie, starring Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr, and the late Ray Liotta, is loosely inspired by a true story .

Creed III (March 3)

Michael B. Jordan makes his directorial debut with the third installment of the Rocky spinoff . His character, Adonis “Donnie” Creed, must get in the ring with an old friend-turned rival (played by Jonathan Majors), who has a score to settle.

Scream 6 (March 10)

Ghostface takes Manhattan. Sidney Prescott won’t be returning for the latest installment of the Scream revival, which ditches California for New York City. But her mask-wearing nemesis wouldn’t miss a chance to expand his kill zone. The new Scream ’s star Melissa Barerra told Collider that the new film is “possibly a hundred times gorier.”

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (March 17)

Shazam (Zachary Levi) , the adult superhero alter ego of teen Billy Batson (Asher Angel), is experiencing a crisis of confidence. He doesn’t think he deserves his god-like powers, and the Daughters of Atlas—the goddesses Hespera ( Helen Mirren ), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler)—agree. Now, with help from his friends, he has to prove that he’s worthy of his powers so he can save the world. No pressure.

John Wick: Chapter 4 (March 24)

In the fourth installment of the gun-fu franchise, Keanu Reeves ’ titular character prepares to fight his final boss, the Marquis de Gramont (played by Bill Skarsgård), the leader of the High Table, the underground council of crime lords that has been hunting him. Win or lose, this battle is John Wick’s way out.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (March 31)

Chris Pine plays a charming thief (could he be any other kind?) who slays dragons, fights evil wizards, and engages in witty reparté with his band of misfits (played by Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page , and Justice Smith) in this action-fantasy epic based on the insanely popular role-playing game.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (April 7)

Whatever you make of Chris Pratt’s vocal styling s, his Mario is on a mission to save the Mushroom Kingdom from his long-time nemesis King Bowser (Jack Black) in this animated movie based on the iconic Nintendo video game series. Charlie Day, Keegan-Michael Key, and Anya Taylor-Joy round out the cast of nostalgic characters.

Chevalier (April 7)

In the biopic written by Atlanta scribe Stefani Robinson, Kelvin Harrison, Jr. plays the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a prolific French-Caribbean composer from the 18th century, known as “Black Mozart.” The period piece looks at how the musical prodigy’s relationship with Marie Antoinette—and its eventual fallout—led him to reexamine his place in French high society.

Renfield (April 14)

Nicholas Hoult plays the fanatically deranged henchman to Nicolas Cage ’s Count Dracula in this horror-comedy based on a story by The Walking Dead ’s Robert Kirkman. A must-see for fans of What We Do In The Shadows .

Next Goal Wins (April 21)

Taika Waititi ’s follow-up to Thor: Love and Thunder is a sports-comedy based on the true story of the Dutch-American coach (played by Michael Fassbender) who, in 2014, was tasked with turning the American Samoa national football team, considered the worst in the world, into a FIFA World Cup qualifier.

Evil Dead Rise (April 21)

The fifth installment in Sam Raimi’s legendary horror series focuses on two sisters who find a mysterious book in the basement of their high-rise building that unleashes flesh-possessing demons. Here’s to hoping OG Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell makes a cameo.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (April 28)

The Edge of Seventeen director Kelly Fremon Craig brings Judy Blume ’s seminal 1970 novel about a sixth-grade girl dealing with her religious identity to the big screen. Rachel McAdams, Benny Safdie, and Kathy Bates star in this coming-of-age dramedy.

The Mother (May 2023)

Jennifer Lopez goes full mama bear in the Netflix thriller about a deadly assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she gave up years earlier.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5)

The team of misfits led by Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) are trying to make the world a more peaceful place. But when one of their own needs their help they embark on a dangerous mission that could mean the end of the Guardians. You might want to buy a box of tissues before heading to the theater.

Fast X (May 19)

The second-to-last installment of the Fast & Furious franchise is still a bit of a mystery, but with a reported budget of $340 million and the notable castings of Brie Larson , Rita Moreno , and Jason Momoa, it’s clear the mega-franchise is pulling out all the stops for its final run.

The Little Mermaid (May 26)

Head under the sea with Halle Bailey , who plays Ariel in the live-action musical remake of the Disney animated classic that also features Daveed Diggs, Awkwafina, Javier Bardem, and Melissa McCarthy as Ursula.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (June 2)

The much-anticipated sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse reconvenes with Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) and his superhero crew, which includes a few new Spideys from the multiverse: Miguel O’Hara, a.k.a Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), Hobie Brown, a.k.a Spider-Punk ( Daniel Kaluuya ), and Jessica Drew, a.k.a Spider-Woman ( Issa Rae ). Their enemy this time around is The Spot (voiced by Jason Schwartzman), who has the ability to open interdimensional portals and has a surprising connection to Miles.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (June 9)

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and the rest of the Autobots are back in the latest installment of the Michael Bay-produced sci-fi blockbuster. This time, the Transformers are waging an epic battle on the streets of New York City.

Elemental (June 16)

In Pixar’s latest, the elements react. The rom-com fantasy feature is set in Element City, where residents made of air, water, fire, and land all commingle, but don’t always connect. When Ember, a fiery young woman, and Wade, a go with the flow guy, realize they can’t actually touch, they search for other ways to bond.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30)

Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones is coming out of retirement for his latest adventure—and looking better than ever doing it, thanks to a bit of de-aging movie magic . Director James Mangold is at the helm of the fifth installment of the action series, which features Phoebe Waller-Bridge , Antonio Banderas, and Mads Mikkelsen.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One (July 14)

Like every other Mission: Impossible movie, the mysterious seventh installment of the action series has Tom Cruise performing some of the most dangerous stunts ever put to screen. The film also features Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny), the former director of the IMF in 1996’s Mission: Impossible, who is back to antagonize Ethan Hunt (Cruise). A sign that Ethan’s past is catching up to him in ways he never imagined.

Barbie (July 21)

Little is known about Greta Gerwig ’s movie inspired by the iconic doll. (It’s been described as a rom-com about an imperfect doll who enters the real human world in hopes of finding herself.) What we do know for sure is that Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling look great in neon, which is more than enough reason to get excited for the film.

Oppenheimer (July 21)

Christopher Nolan ’s star-studded biopic tells the story of how J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Cillian Murphy) became the “ father of the atomic bomb .”

The Marvels (July 28)

Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is teaming up with Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and S.W.O.R.D. agent Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) in the Nia DaCosta-directed sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, which deals with the fallout of WandaVision and Ms. Marvel .

Untitled Exorcist Film (Oct. 13)

After reviving the Halloween franchise, David Gordon Green is breathing new life into The Exorcist with a little help from the original 1973 film’s star Ellen Burstyn.

Dune: Part Two (Nov. 3)

Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic picks up where Part One left off: Paul Atreides ( Timothée Chalamet ) is out to avenge his father and save the universe with help from Chani (Zendaya) and the Freman, the keepers of the spice. Florence Pugh , Austin Butler, and Christopher Walken join the already illustrious cast of the sequel.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Nov. 17)

The Hunger Games prequel , based on Suzanne Collins’ 2020 book of the same name, picks up 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute. Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) isn’t yet the future president of Panem, but an 18-year-old whose once great family is struggling to survive. When he’s assigned to mentor District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler in the 10th annual Hunger Games he sees a way to finally turn the odds back in his favor.

Wonka (Dec. 15)

Wonka picks up long before Charlie visits his chocolate factory, when Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) was just an eccentric teen who wanted to share his candy creations with the world. Chalamet’s co-stars, Olivia Colman and Keegan-Michael Key , are already raving about his performance in the musical prequel.

The Color Purple (Dec. 20)

The musical adaptation of the Broadway show based on Alice Walker’s novel follows Celie ( American Idol ’s Fantasia), a Black woman coming of age in the 1900s south. The film also stars Taraji P. Henson , Corey Hawkins, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, and H.E.R., who makes her feature film debut.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Dec. 25)

Aquaman (Jason Momoa) must make friends with an unlikely ally to help save the world from ancient evil. He’ll reportedly have another friend by his side in the James Wan-directed sequel: Ben Affleck’s Batman .

Beau is Afraid (TBA)

Not much is known about the plot of Midsommar director Ari Aster’s new film starring Joaquin Phoenix. However, he has referred to the movie, which was previously titled Disappointment Blvd., as a four-hour “ nightmare comedy ” so prepare to feel unsettled.

Enys Men (TBA)

The folk horror film set in the 1970s focuses on a wildlife volunteer who goes mad while patrolling a remote island off the British coast. Writer/director Mark Jenkins’ latest film is definitely giving off some Blair Witch vibes.

Golda (TBA)

Helen Mirren plays Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in this thriller set during the Yom Kippur War, which was the 1973 armed conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. The result of that conflict decided the fate of her nation, but also left her with a complicated legacy.

The Killer (TBA)

David Fincher ’s follow-up to Mank is a neo-noir thriller about an unnamed assassin (played by Michael Fassbender) based on the graphic novel of the same name.

Leave the World Behind (TBA)

The Netflix thriller, written and directed by Sam Esmail, tells the story of a Black family who find themselves unexpectedly staying at their summer cottage with the white family they rented it to. As things start to get weird outside the home, tensions begin to rise inside. Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali , and Ethan Hawke star in the tense film based on Rumaan Alam ’s 2020 novel of the same name.

Legally Blonde 3 (TBA)

Get ready to bend and snap with Reese Witherspoon ’s Elle Woods in this long-awaited sequel written by Mindy Kaling .

Maestro (TBA)

Bradley Cooper writes, directs, and stars in the Leonard Bernstein biopic that looks at the legendary composer and conductor’s life and marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre (played by Carey Mulligan).

MaXXXine (TBA)

Director Ti West and actor Mia Goth have become quite the prolific pair. The duo first teamed up for the 2021 slasher film X, in which Goth’s amateur porn star Maxine becomes the only survivor of a bloody massacre. In that film’s sequel (and the follow-up to the recent, Pearl ), Maxine is heading to 1980s Hollywood in hopes of making it big. Let’s hope it goes better than her last acting gig.

Nightbitch (TBA)

Marielle Heller directs and Amy Adams stars in the big screen adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s book of the same name, which is a deranged fairytale about a stay at home mom who sometimes turns into a dog.

Rebel Moon (TBA)

Zack Snyder heads to Netflix with a space opera about a young woman (played by Sofia Boutella) who is seeking warriors who can help protect her peaceful colony.

Showing Up (TBA)

Michelle Williams reunites with director Kelly Reichardt for their fourth collaboration, and first since 2016’s Certain Women . Williams plays an artist on the verge of a career-spanning exhibition. Expect this indie comedy to be quietly devastating.

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The 25 Best Time Travel Movies to Whisk You Away from Reality

Who wouldn't love a time machine right about now?

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Meet Cute (2022)

Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson co-star in Peacock's Meet Cute , a delightful and often dark rom-com based around time travel. Feeling suicidal, Sheila (Cuoco) finds a time machine in a nail salon and decides to go back in time 24 hours. While re-living her first date with Gary (Davidson) again and again, Sheila loses touch with reality and might have destroyed any chance she had with him.

A Wrinkle in Time (2018)

High schooler Meg Murry travels through time and space in search of her missing astrophysicist father (Chris Pine). On her journey, Meg meets Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling), as well as a whole host of dangerous beings.

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)

Based on Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 novel of the same name, The Time Traveler's Wife tells the story of Henry (Eric Bana), a librarian who is able to randomly travel through time. After meeting Clare (Rachel McAdams) as a child, Henry later develops a romantic relationship with her. HBO's recent adaptation starring Theo James and Rose Leslie has reignited the debate regarding whether or not the story promotes grooming , or if it's a timeless romance.

Back to the Future (1985)

'80s classic Back to the Future has stood the test of time, and spawned two equally entertaining sequels. In the first film, Marty McFly is sent to the 1950s in his friend Doc Brown's time machine, a super cool DeLorean. Marty meets his parents as teenagers, and his presence risks changing history forever.

See You Yesterday (2019)

Netflix's See You Yesterday follows science prodigy C.J. (Eden Duncan-Smith), who invents time traveling backpacks. Along with her best friend Sebastian, C.J. uses her invention to go back in time to stop her brother from being murdered by a racist police officer. However, she's also forced to face up to the limitations and consequences of time travel.

About Time (2013)

Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) inherits the ability to time travel from his father, and decides to use the gift to find love. After a failed attempt at romance, Tim meets Mary (Rachel McAdams), but due to several time travel-related mishaps, romance isn't instantaneous for the pair. Written and directed by rom-com aficionado Richard Curtis.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

James Cameron's follow-up to 1984's The Terminator was a smash-hit that cemented the franchise's popularity. In the sequel, a killer T-1000 Terminator is sent back in time by Skynet to kill the future leader of the resistance, the son of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), John (Edward Furlong). At the same time, the resistance sends a reprogrammed T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back to protect Connor.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

Four miserable friends reunite after one of them nearly dies. To cheer themselves up, they decide to spend some time together at a ski resort. Unfortunately, the resort's hot tub isn't what it seems, and they accidentally end up traveling back to 1986. The four friends scramble to find a way back to present day. Starring John Cusack and Craig Robinson.

12 Monkeys (1995)

After a deadly virus destroys humanity in 1996, survivors are forced underground. Decades later, prisoner James (Bruce Willis) agrees to go back in time to find the original virus, so that scientists can work on a cure. However, he arrives too early in 1990, and is promptly institutionalized, where he meets Jeffrey (Brad Pitt), an anti-corporate environmentalist. From there, the mystery only gets more intriguing.

Looper (2012)

In the future, time travel is used by the mob to assassinate people, who are sent back in time and killed by assassins known as "loopers." Joe's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) older self (Bruce Willis) is sent back to be eliminated, but manages to escape before he is killed. Thus begins a twisty time travel epic, that also stars Emily Blunt.

Tenet (2020)

The Protagonist ( John David Washington ), a former CIA agent, is tasked with stopping World War III. Learning to bend time, he attempts to prevent the destruction of the world. Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki co-star.

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Aspiring fashion designer Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) manages to travel back to the 1960s, where she meets singer "Sandie" ( Anya Taylor-Joy ). What starts as a glamorous encounter with the past soon becomings a horrifying nightmare. Co-starring Matt Smith.

Déjà Vu (2006)

A top secret organization has developed the ability to see four days into the past, in order to catch criminals. While hunting a terrorist, ATF agent Doug (Denzel Washington) realizes that this new technology might allow him to stop crimes from happening altogether.

Source Code (2011)

An unusual riff on the time travel movie, Source Code stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Army Captain Colter, who is trying to identify the person responsible for bombing a commuter train. Re-living an eight minute re-creation of the moments leading up to the explosion, Colter is stuck in a terrifying loop, until he can solve the mystery.

Mirai (2018)

A young boy called Kun runs away from home, as he feels neglected by his family after the arrival of his little sister, Mirai. Kun accidentally discovers a time travel portal in a magic garden, and is transported into the past, where he meets his mother as a child. Later, he travels to the future, where he finds his sister as an adult, and completely changes his outlook in the process.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Aubrey Plaza stars as an aspiring journalist whose latest assignment involves a mysterious classified ad about time travel. "You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED," the ad reads. Mark Duplass co-stars.

Groundhog Day (1993)

Although Groundhog Day is technically a "time loop" movie, it wouldn't feel right to leave it off the list. Phil (Bill Murray) is a disgruntled weatherman sent to cover the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. When he wakes up the next day, he realizes that he's re-living February 2, which happens again and again, until he figures out how to stop it.

Needle in a Timestack (2021)

The wonderful Cynthia Erivo stars alongside Orlando Bloom, Leslie Odom Jr., and Freida Pinto in this romantic sci-fi flick. In the future, the wealthy are able to partake in "time jaunting," but the ripples from these changes often cause timelines to warp and change. Needle in a Timestack focuses on a happily married couple whose relationship is jeopardized by an ex intent on changing history.

The Lake House (2006)

Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves star in this completely cheesy but endlessly loveable rom-com that defies time. Architect Alex (Reeves) and doctor Kate (Bullock) write letters to one another via a mailbox at a lake house where they both live at separate times. Despite the time difference, they're able to communicate with one another and forge a relationship via this magical postal system that transcends time.

Predestination (2015)

Ethan Hawke stars as an agent tasked with stopping a deadly attack before it happens, via time travel. Traveling back to 1975, he attempts to find and stop a bomber in New York, but his mission is far from simple. When he returns to the future, his life only gets more complicated.

Amy Mackelden is a freelance writer, editor, and disability activist. Her bylines include Harper's BAZAAR, Nicki Swift, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, ELLE, The Independent, Bustle, Healthline, and HelloGiggles. She co-edited The Emma Press Anthology of Illness , and previously spent all of her money on Kylie Cosmetics.

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Best time travel movies of all time

Journey through cinema and science fiction history as we run down the best time travel movies of all time, from simple trips to other eras to time loops.

Mankind has been fascinated by the possibility of travelling to a different age for over a century. This hypothetical activity, now widely recognized in philosophy and fiction, was popularized by H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel The Time Machine. But it was cinema that made it a recurring science fiction premise in mainstream works. Such movies have kept evolving and taking time travel in wildly different directions, so we have ventured across time and space to bring you our ranked list of the best time travel movies of all time.

A good time travel movie doesn’t need to try too hard to take the subject seriously, as the core concept itself and the mechanics surrounding it remain a mystery and purely hypothetical. Of course, there are stories that leave massive plot holes throughout, but even time travel movies which go for more “realistic” approaches have to make up their own sets of rules. As a result, our list covers both movies that are steeped in the science of the genre and those which simply use time travel as a vehicle for shenanigans. One-way trips through black holes ? Parallel timelines ? Mind-bending paradoxes? It’s got a bit of everything.

For other great sci-fi genres, check out our guides to the best alien invasion movies , the best zombie movies , the best disaster movies , and the best giant monster movies of all time. If you’re in the mood for hands-on time travel fun, our list of the best time travel video games you can play right now is a must-read too. 

15. The Time Traveler’s Wife 

• Release date: August 14, 2009
• Cast: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston

The original marketing of The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on the novel of the same name, was billed as a sappy romance movie akin to anything from Nicholas Sparks. While it does have its romantic moments, the movie’s commitment to a deep, compelling story of a man who cannot control his own movements through time is a well thought out original take on the concept. Think of it more as a romantic sci-fi drama.

As Henry DeTamble (Bana) travels through time, he cannot control when or where he appears. Luckily, at least, he often is among the same people, specifically, his future/present wife, Clare Abshire (McAdams). Their relationship develops and is bruised by his time shifts, which creates strain as well as successes for both of them throughout the movie. 

The Time Traveler’s Wife takes its premise seriously. It allows for the concepts of paradoxes by only ensuring that he directly affects what would, in theory, already occur. Henry is more enacting a prescribed timeline, rather than trying to fight it. It works, and it’s great.

• Release date: October 8, 2004
• Cast: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden

Primer is the quintessential movie for any fan of time travel. With a low budget of only $7,000, it grossed over $800,000 at the box office, making it one of the most successful independent movies of all time. It deserves its success as well, as it brings hard science to audiences in a way that, at first, seems impenetrable, but worms its way into our minds and keeps us analyzing the movie long after it’s over. 

When two engineers accidentally create a time travel apparatus during their own experiments, they begin using it for personal gain. As their ideologies on the preservation of time begin to diverge, however, their relationship is pushed to its limits alongside the fraying timeline they alter. 

Primer demands multiple viewings, each one illuminating hidden moments throughout the movie that hint at its own finale. Audiences looking for a dense, no-frills look at what time travel would mean if given to an average (albeit genius) Joe, will find it in Primer.

• Rent or buy Primer on Amazon.

13. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

• Release date: February 17, 1989
• Cast: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin

The Bill and Ted franchise are considered family hits for a reason. With the charm of two goofy leads that bumble their way through major historical moments, the movies rely on the time travel conceit to build out and support their silly sense of humor. While the historical moments are considered overly cliché by some, and it’s true that they often misrepresent the moments they are based on, the point of the movie is not to relish in accuracy, but to parody those that try to stick to history all too closely. 

In order to ensure a future utopian society created by the titular characters, Rufus travels back in time to the 1980s to help Bill and Ted pass a history class. In order to understand the perspective of the historic figures they are supposed to be researching, the trio travel through time to meet each of them. 

Without going into spoilers, decisions made by the pair of heroes as well as Rufus would, if not for the movie completely ignoring them, destroy history as it is known. While this is frustrating for anyone looking for a movie that takes paradoxes seriously, that doesn’t keep Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure from being a fun, engaging flick that should be watched with brains mostly turned off.

12. Deadpool 2

• Release date: May 18, 2018
• Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin

While many movies are poorly received due to their failure to properly respect their own laws of time, Deadpool 2 was given generally positive reviews from critics for intentionally doing the same. In true fashion of the character, Deadpool 2 pokes fun at time travel clichés and tropes, finding ways to both incorporate as well as deride them. 

After Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool joins the X-Men they take a young mutant, Russell, under their care. However, his actions in the future lead the mutant cyborg Cable to travel back in time in order to kill Russell and prevent his own tragedy from occurring. 

Multiple fourth-wall breaking jokes are made about the villains striking similarities to a certain futuristic machine that is mentioned later in this list. And also similarly, the movie strikes a balance in approaching the anti-hero trope that is often associated with these androids from the future. We’re looking at you Dragon Ball Z.

11. Source Code

• Release date: April 1, 2011
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga

Source Code is an exciting sci-fi thriller which shows a lot of restraint despite the sheer audacity of its premise: Army Captain Colter Stevens finds himself in someone else’s body and quickly discovers he’s part of an experimental US government program that wants him to find the person behind the bombing of the train where he wakes up. The catch is that he can only be there for the last 8 minutes before the bomb goes off, being stuck in that loop until he can catch the bomber.

Director Duncan Jones had already wowed sci-fi aficionados with the remarkable Moon (2009), so expectations surrounding Source Code were quite high. While the final result might not be a masterpiece, it ranks easily among the most interesting time travel flicks in recent times. It’s also relatively easy to follow despite its kooky premise thanks to its limited scale.

10. 12 Monkeys

• Release date: January 5, 1996
• Cast: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt

Let’s be honest, if someone were to run up to you on the street and say they were from the future and had come back to stop a society-destroying virus, would you believe them? Well, at this point, we probably would too. But, that certainly wasn’t the case when 12 Monkeys came out in the 90s. 

When James Cole (Willis) is sent back in time from 2030 to stop a devastating virus from ever being spread, he is immediately captured and committed to an insane asylum, because that’s what would realistically probably happen. There he meets Brad Pitt’s Jeffery Goines, who is a staunch anti-corporate activist and an environmentalist. You can see where this is probably going.

With plenty of back and forth time travel for Cole, and a sincerely harrowing story about the dangers of trying to intervene in the development of a horrific future, 12 Monkeys creates a narrative that looks at the actual implications of time travel. It’s a must see for any action-thriller science-fiction fan.

9. Groundhog Day

• Release date: February 12, 1993
• Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott

There’s always been discussion surrounding Groundhog Day and whether it’s really a time travel movie, but you know what? It doesn’t really matter. A simple time loop can be more interesting than a straight-up time-travelling odyssey. In fact, this movie is more of a fantasy comedy that poses the question of what would a regular person do if trapped inside a time loop they cannot explain nor fix.

It's an endearing movie that, despite many creative differences behind the scenes, ended up resonating with audiences thanks to its smaller scale and impeccable comedic timing, all built around a script which is undoubtedly clever, but lacks pretension. Many movies in this list are downbeat or serve as cautionary tales, so we thought it’d be great to inject a healthy dose of optimism.

8. Predestination

• Release date: August 28, 2014
• Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor

Predestination might be one of the most overlooked sci-fi movies in recent years, mainly because it didn’t get a very wide international release following its global premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Fanatics of time travel movies and loopy sci-fi thrillers made sure as many people as possible heard about it though.

The movie is based on the 1959 short story “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlen, and follows a temporal agent as he pursues one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase quickly turns into a mind-bending exploration of love, fate, and identity that questions the very foundations of time travel as explained in-universe. This one’s a big head-scratcher that requires your full attention, but it’s also far from a slog due to its (mostly successful) action thriller ambitions.

7. Tenet 

• Release date: August 26, 2020
• Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki

We’re still trying to wrap our heads around some of the wilder mechanics featured in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller, so that alone gives Tenet some weight among the genre’s best. It’s true that some of the character arcs aren’t as fleshed out as they could’ve been, plus its spy-movie villain – played by Kenneth Branagh – can often be unintentionally funny, but it’s hard to find a bolder big-budget action thriller in recent times.

The story follows a former CIA agent who must learn to master “time inversion” and prevent a renegade Russian oligarch from starting World War III. The problem is the attack will come from the future. As the plot unfolds, weirder concepts come into play, and everything isn’t what it seems at first glance. This is a time travel movie unlike anything we had seen before, mainly because it takes a while to adjust to the mind-bending mechanics of its universe and how they play out in parallel to regular action.

6. Edge of Tomorrow 

• Release date: June 6, 2014
• Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Edge of Tomorrow was one of the biggest surprises of 2014 thanks to a tight, action-packed script which masterfully mixed the alien invasion subgenre with time-travel shenanigans, so you’re killing two birds with one stone if you choose to watch this banger for the first time.

Based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow presents a near future in which most of Europe has been taken over by a hostile and unstoppable alien species. Major William Cage, a PR officer, is forced to join an operation against the aliens, only to end up experiencing a time loop that could be the key to defeating the invaders if he can convince the right people. Edge of Tomorrow is both funny and dark, but above all, a true rollercoaster ride.

5. Interstellar

• Release date: November 7, 2014
• Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain

Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, the man behind other “I lost my wife” movies such as Inception, The Prestige, and the more recent Tenet, Interstellar is a time travel movie that uses theoretical laws of physics to alter the perception of time for its protagonists. While Tenet may be a more direct time travel movie, Interstellar surpasses it in its writing, emotional character beats, and the spectacle of its space travel. 

After food sources on Earth have been depleted, Cooper (McConaughey) and a team of astronauts go out in search of a habitable planet beyond the solar system. During their journey, time shifts with them depending on the planets they are on, or how close they are to the black hole at the center of their travels. 

While none of the characters go back in time, they do experience time travel by how fast or slow their own perception of time is compared to the characters back home. And a particularly interesting point using the black hole does allow information and communication to be sent backwards, which we think totally counts.

• Release date: September 28, 2012
• Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt

Bruce Willis’ most recent foray into time travel, Looper is a mind-bending movie that attempts to tackle the grandfather paradox. Although it falls a bit short of this lofty goal, it still maintains a good narrative that builds to an intense climax that uses the universe’s rules against the main villain in unique ways. 

Time travel is ubiquitous in the world of Looper. Unfortunately, a crime syndicate has figured out a way to use this to “lose bodies” by sending their victims back in time to be killed by employees working in the past (or present, if you’re the employee). When Joe, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is hired to kill his older self, played by Bruce Willis, he fails to do so, setting off an intense chase for JGL to correct his mistake.

Ultimately, the movie sets out its own rules for time travel. When young Joe gets a cut, a scar appears on old Joe. This concept progresses through the movie to an ending that may not be temporally possible, but that works to bring closure to the loop.

• Rent or buy Looper on Amazon.

3. Avengers: Endgame

• Release date: April 26, 2019
• Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo

As the culmination of a storyline spanning over 20 movies, Avengers: Endgame had a serious amount of great moments to look back on in its finale of the Avengers’ stories. After having gone through far-flung cosmic adventures, as well as into subatomic realms, there was only one novel place the Avengers could go: Back in time. 

After Thanos wipes out half of all life in the universe with the Snap (or the Blip) in Infinity War, he destroys the Infinity Stones before being killed by a vengeful Thor. With the stones destroyed, the remaining Avengers travel back in time to collect them from various points in the timeline, so that they may restore the universe to what it once was. 

During their travels, the Avengers are met with spectacular fight scenes, heart-wrenching deaths, and great callback moments that reward long-time fans of the series. While it can be viewed just alongside Infinity War as a sequel, it needs to be seen after having watched all of the MCU in order to appreciate just how far the Avengers have come.

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

• Release date: July 3, 1991
• Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong

When it comes to famous time travel action movies,  Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the best of them all. With cutting-edge effects for the time that still hold up today, James Cameron’s sequel took what made the original great and expanded on it in ways that only few other sequels have ever managed to do. 

When a new Terminator, the T-1000, is sent back in time to kill John Connor, the one person responsible for protecting humanity’s future, the futuristic resistance also sends back Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator to protect him. Now there’s a great premise.

Schwarzenegger was able to bring humanity and empathy to the cruel, menacing robot that he had characterized in the first movie. Plus, Robert Patrick’s T-1000 became a villain that, to this day, is synonymous with the idea of unrelenting pursuit. The movie is pure blockbuster thrills bookended by a time travel story that could change the future of all humankind.

• Watch Terminator 2: Judgment Day free on Pluto TV.

1. Back to the Future

• Release date: July 3, 1985
• Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson

We gotta go back! Back to when time travel as a concept was still fresh in popular cinema. Back when it hadn’t yet become a TV and movie trope that is often used as a plot device when all other options have been exhausted. Back to when the concept was held with reverence as well as with glee. 

Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 classic follows Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) as he travels back in time to the 1950s in order to rescue his mentor, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). After Marty is accidentally rescued by his own mother in her teenage years, he has to work to ensure that not only can he make it back to the present, but that his parents get together so he’ll even exist. 

Back to the Future is full of time travel twists that wind their way into a viewer’s brain and beg to be dissected. This is a movie that’ll appeal to everyone – it has a nostalgic pull for older adults and it’s a great, fun way for a younger generation to connect to the sci-fi genre.

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‘Aporia’: Time travel with an ethical twist

Judy Greer plays a grieving widow who contemplates using a time machine to murder a drunk driver before he can kill her husband

If you could save a departed loved one by going back in time to kill the person responsible for their death, would you — could you — do it?

That’s the moral and decisive dilemma adding a twist to the time-travel drama “Aporia” from writer-director Jared Moshe (“The Ballad of Lefty Brown”). The film poses some thorny questions about the nature of time and justice, and the low budget and off-the-beaten-track Los Angeles locations heighten the crisis at the heart of the raw and contemporary tale. The resulting film doesn’t entirely earn its heavy-handed, $50 title, defined in its press material as “an expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty,” but typically referring to the rhetorical device of a paradox or logical impasse in a text. Nevertheless, it’s still an effective, anxious yarn.

As the film begins, Sophie (Judy Greer) has been struggling to go on without her husband, Mal (Edi Gathegi), who was killed by a drunk driver eight months ago. Their daughter, Riley (Faithe Herman), usually a model student, has turned into a troubled teen, and the tenuous family dynamic has been uprooted.

Mal’s best friend Jabir (Payman Maadi), a former physicist moonlighting as a cabdriver, has a possible solution: He’s been working on a kind of time machine. Jury-rigging a maze of tubes and circuits, he’s built a particle accelerator that can direct energy — even lethal energy — toward a precise GPS coordinate at a specific moment in the past, within a range of five years or so. But would Sophie be willing to kill someone to get her husband back?

Jabir’s machine works, but not without repercussions. Sophie remembers the eight months she suffered without her husband, but the rest of the world doesn’t, now following an entirely new chronology. What if she kills somebody else in the past to set things in yet another, entirely different direction?

It’s hard to watch “Aporia” without thinking of the Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” segment “Time and Punishment,” in which a tricked-out toaster sends Homer through varying timelines, including one in which it rains doughnuts. Moshe offers his characters a more complex toaster and a more serious look at the “butterfly effect,” the concept that posits that even the simple act of killing one insect can have far-reaching consequences.

It’s heady stuff, and a showcase for the prolific Greer, who’s usually relegated to supporting — and often comedic — roles but here has a chance to run through a wider gamut of emotion.

Still, despite a strong cast and a compelling plot, the fundamental relationship between Sophie and her husband isn’t established strongly enough for Mal’s loss to deeply resonate. We feel for Sophie and see her agony, but perhaps, like a lower-budget version of “ Everything Everywhere All At Once ” — because she has the ability to shift multiverses, as it were — the stakes don’t seem as high as they should.

To reference yet another cultural touchstone, “Aporia” comes across like an expanded, indie-film version of “The Twilight Zone.” It’s never going to set the world on a new and unfamiliar course, but it does its job well enough.

R. At area theaters. Contains some coarse language. 104 minutes.

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The 23 best time travel movies of all time

From Back to the Future to Looper to Palm Springs, the time travel narrative traverses the film spectrum. Here are EW’s picks for 23 of the best. 

Despite time travel being considered more of a science fiction trope, there is something positively enchanting about the idea of being able to go back to another time or forward into the future, even if just for a moment. While this list deals with a mix of films, some of which consider the hazards of time travel (mostly through time loops), for the most part, these films see time travel as a net positive. Time travel is also a sphere that is mostly occupied by television, thanks to shows like Doctor Who , Quantum Leap , and Lost , even though the number of time travel movies has shot up over the past two decades or so.

Unfortunately, the earliest this list goes is 1962; while there are some time travel movies from the Old Hollywood days, they lack a lot of the imagination and thoughtfulness about the nature of time that the movies on this list bring. This list is a mix of straight dramas, killer action, rollicking comedies, and heartfelt romance — and sometimes, all of those elements exist in a single movie. This list is unranked, and mostly grouped together according to each movie's particular "genre" of time travel: conventional time machines, time loops, magical circumstances, and missions to save the past and the future at the same time. These are 23 of the best time travel movies of all time.

La Jetée (1962)

Kicking off an unranked list of time-travel movies chronologically seems like a good place to start, actually. La Jetée is also probably the most experimental of the films on this list. A French Left Bank short film set in a post-nuclear apocalypse future told through narration and photographs, this is not the first time-travel film by any means, but its impact on the time-travel movies that came after, like 1995's 12 Monkeys , cannot be understated.

A young prisoner (Davos Hanich) is forced to undergo torturous experiments to induce time travel by using impactful memories — and unlike those who came before him, he succeeds, but he ends up discovering a time loop in the process. This is an incredibly stylish telling of what is now a familiar type of story, but in 1962, it was absolutely revolutionary. Honestly, because of its unique technical and visual elements, it still is.

Watch La Jetée on Criterion Channel

Time After Time (1979)

Nicholas Meyer is behind not one, but two brilliant time-travel movies that made this list. For this particular film, he not only wrote the screenplay but also made his directorial debut. The tale of two 19th-century former friends, H.G. Wells ( Malcolm McDowell , unusually wide-eyed and adorable) and John Leslie Stevenson a.k.a. Jack the Ripper ( David Warner , never more menacing yet charming), as they chase each other through 1979 San Francisco thanks to Wells' time machine, Time After Time doesn't spend too much time on the science of time travel, and it's better for it.

This is, in essence, a romantic thriller, as Wells falls for quirky bank clerk Amy ( Mary Steenburgen , delightfully independent) while in search of his old friend turned enemy. It has chase scenes, interrogation sequences, gory murder (courtesy of Jack), and a delightful sense of humor as Wells learns to navigate the future. He thought it would be a utopia; instead, he finds a world in sore need of his idealism, kindness, and dedication to justice.

Where to rent or buy Time After Time

The Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990)

While it's true that the first Back to the Future movie is probably one of the greatest time-travel movies of all time, with its two sequels living in its shadows, all three are essential to understanding the character of Marty McFly ( Michael J. Fox ). The Back to the Future trilogy is an '80s version of a bildungsroman about a teenager who has to learn that there's much more to life than being, well, a teenager. The first film, confidently directed by Robert Zemeckis , is imbued with so much humor and heart, it's all too easy to get sucked into a plot that should be convoluted, but that works so awfully well.

Back to the Future Part II evokes a bit less feeling than the original, and it's significantly grittier, but it's still " another fantastic voyage " as EW's Ira Robbins wrote, flinging Marty and Doc Brown ( Christopher Lloyd ) into a slightly prescient future version of 2015. Back to the Future Part III , meanwhile, restores the heart, but its story is slighter as it wraps up Marty's saga, sending Doc off on a brand new adventure all his own. While the first Back to the Future movie is required viewing for any time travel enthusiast, stick around for the rest of the trilogy, too: Even if this franchise's view of time travel is riddled with potential paradoxes, they are entertaining paradoxes nonetheless.

Watch the Back to the Future trilogy on Tubi

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

"Be excellent to each other" is the reigning philosophy of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure , the adventurous, fun-loving, stoner time-travel comedy that spawned a franchise, including a third installment released in 2020. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves absolutely triumph in the roles of lackadaisical teenagers Bill and Ted, respectively, as they journey through time to bring back legends in order to pass their history class.

If the film seems silly, that's because it is meant to be. Whereas the Back to the Future franchise intended to craft a legend, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure kicks off the journey with George Carlin as the duo's time travel guide and mentor, Rufus, who intends to enlighten the pair on their mission and destiny. In any other film, the two budding legends, with their free-wheeling ideals and misadventures, would bring down the fabric of time and space itself. However, Excellent Adventure is not a time-travel film that forces you to think too hard about its premise; instead, it invites you to just kick back and have a good time.

Watch Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure on Amazon Prime Video

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Meet the Robinsons received mixed reviews when it first debuted, but of the 3-D animated movies that came out of Disney Animation in the 2000s, it's probably the most imaginative and outstanding of the bunch. Following a young orphan as he goes on a fantastic voyage into the future with another young boy who is a time traveler (kind of), Robinsons is stylish to a point and is filled with heart. It's probably also the most kid-friendly entry on this list, but its good-natured humor and complicated emotional palette will appeal to adults, too.

It also fits neatly into a more classic genre of time travel, with time machines, eccentric inventors, and kids looking to make an impact — not just on their time, but on the time they find themselves in, be it the near future or the distant past.

Watch Meet the Robinsons on Disney+

Run Lola Run (1998)

This is, in many ways, the time loop movie; debuting in 1998 to rave reviews, Run Lola Run , a German experimental thriller, is one you will not be able to shake, long after you've finished a viewing (or even a second, to catch what you missed the first time). The protagonist, Lola (Franka Potente, in a punishingly physical performance), is forced to relive a scenario, again and again, involving saving her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) from certain death.

Potente's performance alone is worth the watch, and of the films on this list, Run Lola Run is actually one of the shorter ones, using its 80-minute runtime to its full advantage. The other time loop movies on this list are also worthy viewing experiences in a lot of ways, but for a pure shot of adrenaline, you can't miss the film EW deemed "a masterful pop piece, humming with raw romance, youth, and energy." If you're interested in more of director Tom Tykwer 's work, he also codirected 2012's Cloud Atlas with the Wachowskis , which, while not a pure time-travel movie, certainly plays with the intertwined nature of time and memory.

Where to rent or buy Run Lola Run

Source Code (2011)

Duncan Jones made a splash with his 2009 feature directorial debut Moon , a moody, philosophical insight into possible lunar labor practices in the future. He followed that thoughtful film up with Source Code , which, while not a movie that could always be described as "thoughtful," could certainly be described as moody. Hitchcockian in a sense, Source Code follows the misadventures of a U.S. Army pilot ( Jake Gyllenhaal ), as he attempts to stop a terrorist attack on a Chicago commuter train — repeatedly.

Source Code does have something to say about the commodification of bodies and minds in the service of the so-called "greater good"; while Gyllenhaal's Captain Stevens' services are no doubt helpful, are they necessary, the film asks. Is it really a good idea to force someone to relive an incredibly stressful idea, over and over again? The movie has its funny moments, even in the thick of all the intense chase scenes through the train; EW noted back in 2012, "The director finds moments of humor in unlikely corners of that train of fools." Indeed. If you enjoyed a film like The Commuter (2018), but thought it could use a time loop and the potential of alternate realities, Source Code is your next mandatory viewing.

Watch Source Code on Showtime

Looper (2012)

Before Rian Johnson introduced us to Benoit Blanc or journeyed to a galaxy far, far, away , he made the tangled time-travel film fittingly called Looper . Starring Bruce Willis , Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a younger Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt , Looper tells the tale of a contract killer sent after his next target: himself. This is a complicated film, and it is imperfect in a lot of ways, but its brutal appraisal of a possible dystopian future, and the efforts one man takes to prevent that future, are worth the amount of head-scratching you might find yourself doing throughout.

That Johnson likes his narratives to be impenetrable Gordian knots that only his designated protagonist can solve can perhaps be frustrating to the audience. However, if there's one thing that the Knives Out franchise seems to have reinforced, it's that not trying to unpack the mysteries of his work might work to your advantage as a viewer, because Johnson will probably have someone explain what just happened by the end, anyway. Like most of his films, Looper has a social conscience lurking within it as well. As EW's Lisa Schwarzbaum noted , "It's time to wipe the drops from our eyes or else get stuck in a loop, an endless cycle, a rut" about Looper 's core tenet back in 2012. It's a worthy takeaway from a film obsessed with self-fulfilling prophecies people find themselves within.

Watch Looper on Freevee

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Time loop movies need some incredible editing in order to really succeed, and Doug Liman 's enthralling Edge of Tomorrow certainly does so on that point. While Tom Cruise is the lead as a cowardly lion–turned–near-super soldier, all eyes are on Emily Blunt as Rita Vrataski, who rules this movie as one of the few heroes this dystopian, post-alien invasion world actually has left. While the quest Cruise and Blunt go on may be a bit convoluted, the film is so incredibly entertaining because it's so sharply cut, keeping up the pace even as we see similar things over and over and over again.

A tip of the hat must, of course, go to the action, which is as compelling as you would expect from a mega-star who seems determined these days to do all of his own stunts. In an era of often depressing science fiction, Edge of Tomorrow , as EW's Chris Nashawaty mentioned , is a fun, "deliciously subversive kind of blockbuster" to immerse your senses in for two hours, if nothing else.

Watch Edge of Tomorrow on Max

Interstellar (2014)

While this film might technically be considered more of a space opera than a time-travel movie, there's no reason it can't be both. Christopher Nolan 's Interstellar is a dazzling portrait not just of space travel, but of the love between a father and daughter that stretches over the thin fabric of both time and space. Matthew McConaughey as the astronaut father has never been so serious, but acclaim needs to go to Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway as Nolan's strongest women characters to date.

Interstellar varies between being almost too tense to stand, and, at other points, utterly relaxed. As a cinematic experience, it feels all-encompassing, using every possible outstanding special effect to draw its viewers in before the script hits them with emotional truth. While Nolan can certainly be considered " cold and clinical " as EW noted, his space-journeying meditation on the intersection between love and time is anything but.

Watch Interstellar on Paramount+

Palm Springs (2020)

Releasing a time loop movie during a global pandemic where life felt increasingly repetitive and bizarre was certainly a strategy for Hulu and Neon with Palm Springs , but it paid off. While the film was certainly developed long before COVID-19, the scenario of two wedding guests trying to escape the situational loop they've found themselves definitely resonated at the time, and it still does. Palm Springs may seem serious from the above description, but it is actually a fun sci-fi-tinged tale that is largely driven by the comedic skills of leads Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti .

EW noted that the movie avoids " true discomfort comedy ," and honestly, it's all the better for it. If Palm Springs had been angrier, it wouldn't hit home so hard, and it also wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. Instead, it's an often sweet rom-com that doesn't take itself or its completely made-up time loop physics too seriously. It was a Sundance darling for a reason, never quite letting up on the wild ride it takes its characters or its viewers on over the course of its 90 minutes.

Watch Palm Springs on Hulu

Somewhere in Time (1980)

Somewhere in Time might employ one of the strangest methods of time travel of all the movies on this list: time travel by hypnosis, of all things. (And self-induced hypnosis, for that matter.) Time travel on such shaky ground can't possibly hold up, and it somewhat doesn't, in the end. Science fiction great Richard Matheson adapted his own novel into a lackadaisical screenplay for this film, starring Christopher Reeve in a perfectly tragic role as the young man who gives his all for a woman (Jane Seymour) he can never really have.

In many ways, Somewhere in Time feels like a curio of the era from which it came, serving as a time capsule of how stories were told in the late-'70s and early-'80s. That is actually not a mark against it; this is a film that is just a peak tragic romance in a lot of ways; special nods must also go to Christopher Plummer as the young woman's cynical mentor, who seems to possess a certain foresight about the impossibility of Reeve's character. If you want a time-travel movie that is beautifully romantic, from its iconic score to its grand cinematography, you shouldn't stray from Somewhere in Time .

Watch Somewhere in Time on Tubi

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

The tale of a grown, about-to-be-divorced woman forced to relive her high school days and her courtship with a dorky-cool musician, Peggy Sue Got Married might be one of Francis Ford Coppola 's most small-scale movies, but it decidedly has the most soul of his catalog of mostly epics. Peggy Sue ( Kathleen Turner , in an Oscar-nominated performance) just wants to leave Charlie (Nicolas Cage) behind, but her time-traveling coma dream conspires against her to force her to reconsider. (It forces Charlie to become a better person, too.)

The film combines the cynicism of a rightfully embittered '80s housewife with the unbridled idealism of a '60s teenager to make one heck of a sincere cinematic concoction. That the film starts at a high school reunion could mean it becomes awkward very quickly, but instead, it's completely joyful. Whether Peggy Sue Got Married started a tradition of "person has some sort of crisis and subsequently ends up in another time" movies is unclear, but it does have a rather clear descendant in one of our next entries.

Where to rent or buy Peggy Sue Got Married

Kate & Leopold (2001)

Doesn't everyone want a young Hugh Jackman from the 19th century to fall out of the sky and into their lives? Leopold (Jackman) is a foppish and geeky, if not perfect, gentleman who quickly has Kate ( Meg Ryan ) falling for him despite her modern understanding of the world. That so many time-travel movies somehow end up in romantic territory is an interesting phenomenon, but one that does make sense. There is something appealing about falling for someone whose time is not your own.

Kate & Leopold is decidedly not a perfect film, although it is the first of director James Mangold 's and Jackman's collaborations (see 2017's Logan for the much grittier future fruits of their labor). It's fluffy, it's light, and it creates a paradox without even really acknowledging it. Someone looked at the Meg Ryan comedies of the '80s and '90s and asked, "But what if we made them science fiction?" It works in spite of itself, with Jackman's physical comedy as he plays " a doll of a boyfriend " and Ryan's sardonic tone carrying the day.

Watch Kate & Leopold on Paramount+

13 Going on 30 (2004)

When a 13-year-old girl is crushed after being tricked at her own birthday party, she makes a wish to be "30, flirty, and thriving," quickly waking up the next day to find herself just that, in the body of Jennifer Garner . Instead of traveling back to the past à la the protagonist of Peggy Sue Got Married , Jenna (Garner, Christa B. Allen) ends up in a potential future, where she is all the things she wished for, but definitely not as happy as she thought she would be.

The 2004 rom-com is a magical time travel tale — there's literally "magic wishing dust" — but that doesn't take away from the hilarity that comes with a 13-year-old trying to navigate an adult woman's life. Of course, in the end, Jenna learns her lesson — it's okay to just be young, for a little bit longer — but the journey she goes on as she discovers not just herself but also her true love ( Mark Ruffalo ) is worth all the silliness in the end.

Watch 13 Going on 30 on Max

Mirai (2018)

This lovely little gem directed by Japanese animation visionary Mamoru Hosoda tells the story of a little boy who unhappily gets a baby sister and ends up learning a lot of lessons about the past and the future. Kun (Moka Kamishiraishi) gets a chance to meet not only the grown, future version of his sister Mirai (Haru Kuroki) but also members of his family at different points in their lives. Mirai is a delightfully imaginative film with some gorgeous animation that contains some " mind-boggling visuals " as EW's Christian Holub pointed out.

It is also a genuinely heartwarming tearjerker; while all ends well for little Kun, the meditations this film offers on the nature of family bonds over the course of multiple generations might just leave you in a state of reflection on your own ties that bind. While many time-travel movies tell their stories from the perspective of youth, few unveil them through the eyes of a rambunctious preschooler, and gaining that perspective, in this case, allows for a truly precious journey.

Where to rent or buy Mirai

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

If you know anything about Star Trek , you know the fourth film is "the one with the whales," but if you don't know anything about the franchise, you probably also know that this one is "the one with the whales." Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home often gets acclaim as the funny Star Trek movie, but it brings a lot more than just comedy. The original crew of the Enterprise fling themselves back in time to save humpback whales in the past in order to save the future from a strange probe that threatens Earth...and will stop, but only if it hears some natural whalesong.

The crew finds themselves in 1986 San Francisco, so it's great that Time After Time's Nicholas Meyer returned to the franchise not as director (he helmed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ), but as a screenwriter. Watching these characters from a literal utopia navigate a world not designed for them creates not only dynamic humor but great tension as well. As they almost always do, the Enterprise team breaks all the rules in order to save the future as well as the whales. Or, as EW noted in a tribute to the film: "It has heart, and passion — Save the Whales! — and a tremendous sense of fun."

Watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on Max

Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

Star Trek: First Contact doesn't particularly feel as much like a Star Trek movie as Voyage Home does, and EW, in fact, says it harnessed "a sleek, confident style fully independent of its predecessors." As a Trekkie, this may not be the most complimentary way of looking at it, but as a film fan, however, it might be the highest honor someone could bestow upon a movie within this franchise. Captain Jean-Luc Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) turns from a peace-loving diplomat to a Borg-slaying action star while the rest of his crew tries to get the inventor of the Warp Drive (the technology upon which the future relies) to stop drinking so much and actually invent the thing. James Cromwell, as the inventor, Zefram Cochrane, serves as the comedic relief for a remarkably serious and often scary film.

The Borg, '90s Star Trek 's biggest villain, are the main antagonists here, and they do provide some chilling action, even if the introduction that they can easily time travel would really wreck things for some future Trek series. Stewart manages the transition from his mild-mannered diplomat to traumatized warrior well, turning in one of his most ferocious performances. Star Trek: First Contact also gives us a look at a post-apocalyptic world in the midst of a recovery, and in that respect, it makes it both a thoughtful entry in the Trek canon and a time travel action-thriller with a brain.

Watch Star Trek: First Contact on Max

The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

What would a best time-travel films list be without including at least one of the Terminator movies? While an often brutal franchise with diminishing returns after James Cameron 's first two installments, the misadventures of an evil cyborg-turned-good (played to physical perfection by Arnold Schwarzenegger ) in a consistently dangerous world are always thrilling and entertaining.

Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, mother of the future's savior (and much, much more), is also due an acknowledgment; while the films are remembered for Schwarzenegger's portrayal of the T-800, Hamilton is the heart of this franchise a great deal of the time, as she refuses to die or let her son face the same fate, either. The first two Terminator films are so much more than "scary robots take over the world, everybody dies" – they're action-packed, bloody thrillers with startling narratives, pioneering visual effects, and, of course, time travel as the catalyst.

Watch The Terminator on Max

Where to rent or buy Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

"Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke...I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED": This is part of the joke classified ad from which this movie was inspired. You might inspire a more risky movie from the tone of the ad, but what you get is a light comedy that served as the first leading film role for Aubrey Plaza . This Colin Trevorrow -directed film isn't so much about time travel as it is about the cultural assumptions that surround the concept, and those who think it might be possible.

In that sense, it's a meta-narrative on nearly every time travel story which has come before it, and quite possibly, that will come after it. EW called it " a fable of 'redemption' "; redemption, and the acts of salvaging something, anything, for the benefit of the future, is a regular time travel theme, from all those time machines to all those time loops. Safety Not Guaranteed manages to explore these themes with a lot of irony and a splash of heart.

Where to rent or buy Safety Not Guaranteed

Related content:

• The Terminator movies, ranked
• Back to the Future cast: Where are they now?
• Let's talk about the plot of Interstellar

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It’s Groundhog Day! These Are the Best Time Travel Movies, from ‘Donnie Darko’ to ‘Looper’ to ‘Interstellar’

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On February 2nd, 1993 — and on the infinite number of days that followed it — Bill Murray’s curmudgeonly weatherman Phil Connors woke up to the sounds of “I Got You Babe” and reported on the Groundhog Day festivities in Punxutawney, Pennsylvania. And while his displeasure about having to cover such a nonsensically rodent-centric holiday eventually faded, the enduring charm of “Groundhog Day” has not.  

In the three decades since Harold Ramis’ classic comedy hit theaters, the time loop formula of characters being stuck repeating a single day has been imitated by everyone from Tom Cruise to Natasha Lyonne . While the heights of “Groundhog Day” are hard to top, time loop films have become a charming addition to nearly ever genre under the sun. Ramis’ idea ended up providing a shot of adrenaline that allowed time travel cinema to flourish for another quarter century.  

Time travel has its roots in ancient myths and folk tales, but in terms of modern fiction, the concept can be traced to Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” An 1889 novel that used its premise of a normal American man bonking his head and ending up in Camelot to satirize feudalism and the monarchy, “Connecticut Yankee” made its way to cinemas in 1949 as a considerably more chipper Bing Crosby jukebox musical romance.

From that film, time travel started showing up earnestly in all kinds of different movies, mainly sci-fi adaptations like influential H.G. Wells flick “The Time Machine.” The concept practically exploded onscreen in the ’80s, being used for comedies like “Back to the Future” and “Peggy Sue Got Married” and more intense action films like “The Terminator.” The appeal of the concept is obvious; adding an everyman from our time is an easy way to make an exotic and unfamiliar landscape suddenly familiar. Furthermore, time travel at its core explores the very human anxiety of change and the passage of time. It forces heroes to confront who they were and what they’ll become, and whether their fates are pre-determined or can be rewritten. Sure, we love time travel because it’s cool, but not just because it’s cool.

Punxutawney Phil’s lack of a shadow this morning signaled that an early spring could be on the way, but there could still be some chilly weeks of binge-watching before the seasons truly change. On this very special Groundhog Day, we can’t think of a better way to spend that time then to catch up on some of the best time travel movies of all time. Keep reading for IndieWire’s updating list of our favorites.  

With editorial contributions by Alison Foreman, Christian Zilko, and Samantha Bergeson.

“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” (1949)

Method of travel:  The prototypical time travel story, Mark Twain’s “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was adapted into a swinging Bing Crosby musical in 1949, bringing the story of an ordinary American in medieval times to the big screen. Crosby’s Hank sets the template for many a future time traveler by journeying to the land of King Arthur through the foolproof method of bumping his head and getting knocked out. Now in an unfamiliar setting, he wins favor in court by introducing jazz and modern comforts to the land, while romancing the maiden Alisande (Rhonda Fleming).  

End destination:  During a rescue mission to save Alisande from Merlin (Murvyn Vye), who has gone rogue after his magic was rendered useless by the new technology, Hank gets shot and wakes up back in his own time. Devastated to lose Alisande, he goes to a British castle for vacation, where he meets a woman with a striking resemblance to his lost beloved. —WC

“The Time Machine” (1960)

Method of travel:  A time machine, of course. Specifically, “The Time Machine” is a steampunk contraption, operated by a lever, that allows genius inventor H. George Wells (Rod Taylor, in a role clearly named after the writer behind the novella the film is based on) to travel forward in time. Although he first travels slowly through time, an accident ends up flinging him far into the future, to a land where mankind has descended into two primative feuding tribes. 

End destination:  In the farflung future, George falls for the beautiful Eloi woman Weena (Yvette Mimieux) and defends her against the monstrous Morlocks. George is ultimately able to get back to his machine and head to the future. But he doesn’t stay there long, instead choosing to take a few books with him back to Weena and the Eloi with the hopes of restarting civilization. —WC

“La Jetee” (1962)

Method of travel: Chris Marker’s beguiling “La Jetee” is a short film that takes the viewer on a trip through the decades, all told through still photographs that somehow feel incredibly cinematic. In a post-apocalyptic Paris, a prisoner is chosen as a guinea pig for a time travel experiment intended to save humanity. Our protagonist (Davos Hanich) can handle the shock of time travel thanks to one key memory that grounds him: witnessing a woman (Hélène Châtelain) as a child on an observation platform, where a man mysteriously died. 

End destination:  In the past, the man seeks out the woman of his memory, and the two fall in love. Meanwhile, he goes to the future, where he receives a power unit capable of regenerating technology and saving humanity. His mission accomplished, the man is set to be executed, but he escapes to the past to be with the woman he loves. But in a devastating twist ending, he is killed by an agent from his time, and realizes in his dying moments that the man he saw die as a child was in fact himself. —WC

“Time After Time” (1979)

Method of travel:  Nicholas Mayer’s quirky 1979 film (which came five years before the iconic Cyndi Lauper single, thank you very much) stars Malcolm McDowell as “The Time Machine” author H.G. Wells himself. Imagining a world where Wells actually invented time travel instead of just writing about it, the movie pits the author against his old friend John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner, delightfully menacing), who turns out to be the notorious Jack the Ripper. Stevenson escapes to the future and Wells follows, with both landing in 1979 San Francisco. There, the cat-and-mouse games begin, although Wells makes detours to marvel at the technology of the period and romance cute bank receptionist Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen). 

End destination:  To convince Amy he’s really from the past, Wells uses his machine to take her three days into the future, where they discover that she’s one of the victims of Stevenson’s killing spree. Wells is able to defeat his friend by sending him traveling endlessly in time without the machine, and reasons he must return to his own time and destroy his creation. Amy begs him to bring her along, and the two head back to Victorian times for good, where they marry and remain together until death. —WC

“The Terminator” (1984)

Method of travel: James Cameron’s breakout film “The Terminator” begins with two men arriving in 1984 Los Angeles from the future world of 2029, through the use of “Time Displacement Equipment.” One man is actually not a man but an android called The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), sent back in time to assassinate shy young woman Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who will give birth to John Connor, the leader of the future resistance against evil A.I. defense network Skynet. The second is Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), John’s right-hand man, who arrives in the past to protect Sarah against The Terminator and ensure John will be born.  

End destination:  Although “The Terminator” initially looks like the type of time travel story where the past can be changed, that turns out not to be the case. Kyle and Sarah fall in love during their mission together, and when the two consummate the connection, it turns out Kyle is actually John’s father. He unfortunately dies fending off The Terminator, but Sarah survives, and from the experience, turns into a stone-cold badass prepared to fight off many more Terminators in the sequels to come. —WC

“Back to the Future” (1985)

Method of travel:  The DeLorean, of course! Robert Zemeckis’ beloved classic “Back to the Future” stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, an ordinary suburban kid frustrated with his parents George and Lorraine (Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson), who have been stuck in a rut for years. Marty spends his time with his girlfriend, his skateboard, his band, and his eccentric mad scientist family friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), who creates a car with the ability to travel through time. An accident involving the experiment lands Marty back in the ’50s, where he inadvertently spoils his parents meet-cute and ends up getting his mom sweet for him instead. So before he can go back home, he has to make sure the two fall in love so he doesn’t erase himself from existence.

End destination:  At the school dance, Marty attempts to stage a hero moment for his dad George to sweep Lorraine off her feet, only for George to get a true and genuine hero moment when he rescues Lorraine from his bully Biff (Thomas F. Wilson). That ends up having a huge impact on the future Marty returns to, as George grows into a successful businessman and his marriage with Lorraine remains in tact, happier than ever. As for Marty, he ends up getting pulled into another adventure with Doc, and ends up going to the future future (2015) for the film’s sequel. —WC

“Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986)

Method of travel:  One of Francis Ford Coppola’s most underrated films, the soulful and joyful “Peggy Sue Got Married” forces its main character (Kathleen Turner) to live everybody’s absolute worst nightmare: heading back to high school. Peggy Sue is a bitter, unhappy housewife separated from her philandering high school sweetheart Charlie (Coppola’s nephew Nicolas Cage), who collapses at her 25th high-school reunion and awakens in 1960 as a high school senior. Now reliving her youth, Peggy reconsiders what she really wants and if the choices she made as a teen are the ones she would make again. 

End destination:  She would make them again, it turns out; although Peggy Sue attempts to break up with Charlie, she realizes that she truly loves him no matter what and the two make love before she awakens back in 1985. The experience, which may or may not have been a dream, gives both a new lease on life, and she decides to take a second chance with Charlie again — this time in the modern day. —WC

“Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989)

Method of travel:  Move over “Doctor Who,” your police box has nothing on the telephone booth that takes the dopey Bill and Ted (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves) through time. Slackers with brains made of rocks but hearts made of gold, the two teenagers are on the verge of failing their history class. It’s a typical high school problem, but one that has massive consequences for the future, as the music and philosophy the two will create could be responsible for a utopian society in the year 2688. In order to keep the two in school, a visitor from the future, Rufus (George Carlin), arrives in a phone booth and whisks the hapless pair on a literal crash course through history.   

End destination:  After rubbing shoulders with Napoleon Bonaparte, traveling to the Wild West, learning philosophy with Socrates, falling for English princesses, and abducting Sigmund Freud, Ludwig van Beethoven, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, and Abraham Lincoln, Bill and Ted end their excellent adventure back in their modern day. All of the historical figures get imprisoned for their troubles, but Bill and Ted bust them out, and in return, they show up to their history class to help them present. The pair pass with flying colors, ensuring that the future they created will remain excellent no matter what. —WC

“Donnie Darko” (2001)

Method of travel: Chronicling the tragic teenagehood of the titular Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), this 2001 Sundance sci-fi gem introduces the concept of time travel through a mysterious old woman nicknamed Grandma Death (Patience Cleveland), and further explains its spin on the idea through private school teacher Kenneth Monnitoff (Noah Wyle). Struggling with what his therapist tells him are only hallucinations, Donnie encounters Frank (James Duval), a terrifying man in a rabbit suit, who prophesies the end of the world in just 28 days. Frank teaches Donnie about wormholes, saying they connect an alternate reality Tangent Universe with our Primary Universe. The terrified 16-year-old seeks help from Monnitoff, only to be turned away with the agnostic teacher at a religious school saying, “ I’m not going to be able to continue this conversation… I could lose my job. ” 

End destination:  “ Donnie Darko? What the hell kind of name is that? It’s like some sort of superhero or something. ” “ What makes you think I’m not? ” A mysterious jet engine crashing through Donnie’s room in the film’s second act sets the main conflict in motion and the film resolves with Donnie’s realization that he needs to travel back in time and die in the accident for a series of terrible events in his town to be avoided. It’s a punishing conclusion that, as a matter of philosophy and physics, remains a bit of a head-scratcher. But we’ll always remember Donnie’s strangely accepting laugh as he meets his fate — and the look on his mom’s face as she mourns his death. —AF

“13 Going on 30” (2004)

Method of travel: A sparkly, pink, homemade Barbie Dreamhouse covered in surprisingly potent novelty store wishing dust. Similar to the Tom Hanks-starring “Big” but with a time travel twist, “13 Going on 30” sees wannabe ’80s teenager Jenna Rink (Christa B. Allen) suddenly thrust forward into her 30-year-old body (Jennifer Garner) in 2004. She’s living life as a vapid beauty magazine editor, frenemies with her junior high rival (Judy Greer), and completely out of touch her childhood best friend (Mark Ruffalo). She’s also somehow completely unimpressed with the past decade-and-a-half of technological advancements, but whatever. 

End destination: This rom-com focuses less on how time changes the world and more on how it changes us. Throughout the movie, Jenna wrestles with the decisions she unwittingly made in her teens and twenties: an allegorical embodiment of young adulthood gone in a blink. Thankfully, she turns it around and manages a do-over that turns out much better the second time with her and her hunky husband (Who is he? Watch and find out!), spending their days eating Razzles in a real-life Jenna Dreamhouse.  —AF

“Hot Tub Time Machine” (2010)

Method of travel : A freakin’ hot tub, my dudes! In this stupidly funny “Back to the Future” UNO reverse card, a gaggle of problematic friends (John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson) and a random nephew (Clark Duke) head out for a ski weekend in hopes of reconnecting at a resort they used to love. The place isn’t what it used to be, but that’s fixed when a can of mysterious foreign energy drink Chernobly is spilled on a hot tub’s control panels. The pals are soon yanked back to 1986: an individual and collective heyday from their past lives as avid partiers. 

End destination: What goes up must come down and the dudes manage to use the hot tub to create a vortex that will take them back to the present day. Back in 2010, they discover only the positive impacts of the typically terrible Butterfly Effect — with one becoming wildly rich and closer to his family, another ending up with the girl of his dreams, and the last living out his ideal career. —AF

“Looper” (2012)

Method of travel:  Rian Johnson’s thrilling sci-fi action film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the same man, Joe. In 2044, Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is a 25-year-old man who works as a “looper,” a contract killer that kills hits sent back in time from 30 years later. The catch is that, in order to prevent the crime syndicate from getting detected, loopers who survive to 2074 are sent back in time and killed by their younger selves. That task ends up on Joe’s plate, but his older self (Willis) doesn’t take kindly to the idea, and escapes, with plans to save his wife (Summer Qing) from murder. 

End destination:  To save his wife, old Joe needs to kill the Rainmaker, a mysterious figure who will grow to take control of the syndicate, and plans to murder him as a child. The future Rainmaker turns out to be Cid (Pierce Gagnon), the son of a woman, Sara (Emily Blunt), that Young Joe is sweet on. Desperate to keep both safe, Young Joe ends up committing a sacrifice by killing himself — erasing his older self from existence and keeping Sara and Cid from their tragic fates, bringing the complicated sci-fi film to a closed loop. —WC

“Interstellar” (2014)

Method of travel:  During its first two acts, “Interstellar” is more about traveling across space than it is about traveling through time, but there’s definitely a lot of wobbly time shenanigans happening anyway. Our hero is NASA pilot Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), who is recruited to go on a secret mission to find a new habitable planet where humanity can flourish as Earth grows increasingly inhospitable. During the mission, Cooper and scientist Amelia (Anne Hathaway) end up briefly stranded on the ocean world Gargantua. When they return to their ship, they discover that, due to differences in gravity between the planet and Earth, 22 years passed where hours went by for them. For Cooper, this is particularly disastrous, as it means his kids (Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck) have grown up without him. 

End destination:  After some further adventures involving a murderous Matt Damon, Cooper ends up falling into a five-dimensional black hole. For reasons involving too much math to explain coherently, Cooper discovers that the hole is a construct from future humans able to interact in five dimensions with the power to see time physically, and uses the tesseract to send messages to his daughter Murphy (Chastain) from when she was a child. As an adult, Murphy eventually pieces together the strange knockings and movements she witnessed in her bedroom two decades ago as morse code, and uses it to solve a gravity equation needed to mass transport humanity off of Earth. Once rescued from the tesseract, Cooper finds himself now in the very distant future, where a now elderly Murphy has set up a satellite colony in Earth’s orbit that has saved civilization. The reunion is emotional but brief, as Murphy passes shortly afterwards, and Cooper leaves to find the now lost Amelia. —WC

“Palm Springs” (2020)

Method of travel:  Wedding guest Nyles (Andy Samberg) has been attending the same marriage ceremony for years; that’s because he drunkenly stumbled into a cave that turned out to be a tear in the universe. Nyles essentially traps maid of honor Sarah (Cristin Milioti) in the same loop he’s been plagued with, and together the duo live out an accelerated romance while trying to find their way back to reality.

End destination:  They finally blow up the cave and move on with their lives, but not without having multiple emotional breakthroughs. Who said anything about an existential crisis? — SB

“Happy Death Day” (2017)

Method of travel: Tree (Jessica Rothe) is having the worst day of her life. She had no idea it would be her last. Tree celebrates her birthday hungover, annoyed, and dumped. But later she’s slaughterd by a masked serial killer — and somehow it all starts all over again. 

End destination:  As Tree sets out to literally unmask her killer, she also stands up to frenemies, professes her love for a new friend, and becomes an all-around better person. She’s getting a second chance, and the afterlife is overrated. — SB

“Groundhog Day” (1993)

Method of travel:  Disgruntled weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) dreads reporting on Groundhog Day every year. The event forces him to travel to a small town with a production crew he finds irritating, and on top of that, this year’s February 2nd sees a huge storm rolling in. Phil soon finds himself trapped in time and space, literally. 

End destination:  After listening to “I Got You Babe” every morning for what feels like eternity, Phil snaps (even more so) and lives his repetitive life to the extreme, insulting strangers and manipulating his knowledge of facts about new producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) to seduce her. But Phil’s experiences with the residents of the small town finally seep in, especially after he witnesses the little moments of bliss that he once took for granted. Through it all, Phil learns the meaning of life and sheds his grumpy walls, just as Rita falls for him for real. — SB

“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)

Means of travel:  Set in an alternate world, “Edge of Tomorrow” follows rogue military member Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) as he tries to warn his new sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) of a fatal incoming attack. Think “Final Destination” but with the duo reliving the mass murder every day until they strategize to find a way out and save their team.

End destination:  A more action-centric take on the “Groundhog Day” trope, “Edge of Tomorrow” revolves around Cruise and Blunt’s onscreen bond as two government agents trying to save not just their army, but the world. While there’s not a lofty emotional takeaway, the film does offer some musings on survivor’s guilt and how much leadership is to blame in any given conflict. — SB

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The Best Movies that Got Time Travel Right

Making time travel work in a film is no easy task. Here are some movies that got it right.

Let’s just lay it all out on the table: time travel is terribly hard to get right in movies. Done poorly, time travel can be a one-way ticket to a confused and unhappy audience. Paradoxes pile on paradoxes, and nobody feels quite sure whether any of it makes sense . But at the same time, it’s one of the most intriguing subjects tackled by science fiction films.

Update August 21, 2023: This article has been updated by Callum Jones with even more mind-bending yet realistic time travel movies.

Done right, time travel is a source of wonder, a wellspring of mind-bending possibilities and inventiveness. Some films have done justice to the theme and dealt with Father Time in new and awe-inspiring ways. Let’s talk about them; here are movies that got time travel right.

Lightyear (2022)

Though Lightyear may not have been as well received as other titles in the Pixar canon , it still managed to get lots of things right. Chief among them is the film's handling of time travel. Framed as a film that the characters of the Toy Story universe have seen, the story centers on space ranger Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans), who has been marooned on a hostile planet for a number of years, and who stumbles across a threat to the entire universe. A key component of the narrative is the concept of time dilation - a phenomenon that has been explored in other films, such as Planet of the Apes and Interstellar , and that here means Buzz's four-minute test flights result in four years passing.

Related: How Lightyear Draws Inspiration From Popular Sci-Fi Films

Consequently, every time Buzz takes a test flight, the people around him age by four years until a full 66 years have passed. This is particularly heartbreaking as he watches the death of his best friend, Alisha (Uzo Abuba). Though it may have its flaws, Lightyear is a beautifully animated film that uses time travel to tell an emotionally heavy story.

The Adam Project (2022)

Netflix's sci-fi movie The Adam Project is another example of a 2022 film that, although it may have had its flaws, knew how to have fun with time travel. Starring Ryan Reynolds as an adult version of the titular character, the film follows a 12-year-old boy living in present-day America who teams up with his future self in order to save the future.

Taking inspiration from time travel movies that came before it, such as the Back to the Future films, The Adam Project is a great example of how much fun can be had when characters come into contact with past/future versions of themselves. Its approach to time travel isn't as tight as some of the very best films in the genre, but it's still pretty solid and stays just the right side of far-fetched to keep things entertaining rather than silly.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

The X-Men films took a big risk in 2014 when, after six relatively grounded superhero stories, they decided to tackle the concept of time travel. Inspired by the comic book storyline of the same name, X:Men: Days of Future Past sees the casts of the original trilogy and the prequel films onscreen together for the first time. In an attempt to save both humans and mutants from a world-destroying threat, the X-Men, led by Professor X (Patrick Stewart), send Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) back in time to 1973 on a mission to change the course of history for the better.

Though it could be dismissed as just another superhero sequel, X-Men: Days of Future Past takes its approach to time travel seriously. Director, Bryan Singer, devised a set of rules to ensure that the time travel depicted in the film was credible and grounded. The result is a fun and mature film with an interesting story that doesn't shatter the viewer's ability to suspend their disbelief. With no dangling plot holes and a satisfying conclusion, this is a smart superhero film.

James vs. His Future Self (2019)

Quirky sci-fi comedy James vs. His Future Self , like The Adam Project, finds a lot of fun in having two versions of the same character interact. In this case, the character is James (Jonas Chernick), a scientist with an interest in time travel, who gets a visit from his future self (Daniel Stern), who has traveled back in time to stop his past self from inventing time travel, which he claims will ruin his life. What follows is a lively and hilarious 90 minutes of the older James (known as "Jimmy") doing everything he can to stop his younger self from giving in to the urge to develop time travel.

Sure, James vs. His Future Self is a comedy, but the concept of time travel presented here is logical and plausible. The makers were clearly fans of the genre, which is a huge benefit to the film. Without the clear and thought-out approach to its main theme, the jokes wouldn't land as well, and the audience would have a hard time caring about anything that happens on screen.

Looper (2012)

Futuristic and intriguing, Looper immerses viewers in a society where time travel is outlawed and monopolized by criminal organizations. The story revolves around Joe, a young hitman proficient in eradicating targets after being sent back in time by the mob. Complications arise when his older self becomes the target. Looper breaks convention by introducing "loopers," assassins responsible for eliminating future targets, and eventually themselves to close their "loop," erasing any trace of past misdeeds.

This inventive twist on time travel mechanics sets the film apart. Throughout the movie, consistency in the established rules exemplifies the ramifications of meddling with history and the necessity of preserving the time loop. Rian Johnson, the movie's director, expertly unravels the complexities of time manipulation while maintaining a captivating and thought-provoking storyline.

About Time (2013)

This is not your usual "save the world" time travel movie. About Time presents a unique blend of romantic comedy-drama from the creative mind of director Richard Curtis. The narrative follows Tim, a young man who learns he can travel through time and opts to enhance his life by seeking love and happiness. The film portrays time travel as a hereditary talent passed down through generations within Tim's family.

This distinctive angle deemphasizes the scientific aspect, emphasizing the protagonist's emotional odyssey as he navigates interpersonal relationships and self-improvement. Effectively employing time travel, About Time delves into themes of love, family, and the value of life's fleeting moments. By concentrating on character development and emotional bonds, the movie offers a refreshing take on the consequences of manipulating time.

Source Code (2011)

Thrilling yet innately thought-provoking, Source Code unravels a high-stakes race against time as a soldier repeatedly journeys back to avert a disastrous train bombing. Directed by Duncan Jones, each attempt unveils new clues, drawing the protagonist closer to dismantling the terrorist scheme.

The movie unveils an inventive time travel concept encompassing parallel realities . The soldier's consciousness is transferred back in time to inhabit a train passenger's body, experiencing alternate timelines while retaining knowledge from previous endeavors. Provoking questions about reality, personal identity, and the ethical ramifications of altering the past, Source Code challenges viewers to contemplate the implications of meddling with timelines and the moral quandaries surrounding time travel.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

As one might expect from this franchise, Harry Potter and t he Prisoner of Azkaban takes a more magical approach to time travel rather than a scientific one. Nevertheless, the third film in the series still manages to get it right. An adaptation of J.K. Rowling's novel of the same name, the story sees the boy wizard return to Hogwarts, despite an escaped prisoner being on the run. With the help of a magical time travel device known as a time-turner, given to them by Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), Harry (Danial Radcliffe), and Hermione (Emma Watson), must travel back to the past to save two innocent beings from execution.

Related: 20 Most Confusing Time Travel Movies Ever Made

Directed by Alfonso Curón, The Prisoner of Azkaban marked a change in tone for the series, with a more mature approach to storytelling and more grown-up themes. It also received a better critical response than previous outings and is widely regarded as one of, if not the best of the franchise . A big reason for this is the time-travel nature of the story, which allows the film to have a lot of depth while still being highly entertaining.

Timecrimes (2007)

Tense and suspenseful is one way to describe this film. Timecrimes is a Spanish thriller directed by Nacho Vigalondo that centers on a man inadvertently sent back in time, encountering multiple versions of himself and initiating a series of events with severe repercussions. The film ingeniously employs time loops, as the protagonist's past actions directly impact the future.

As the plot progresses, viewers witness the outcomes of his choices and the difficulties of navigating time loops. Delving into the ethical conundrums tied to time travel, Timecrimes examines the extremes one might go to rectify errors and the unforeseen consequences of their efforts. The film poses a thought-provoking investigation of temporal manipulation and its influence on personal accountability .

12 Monkeys (1995)

12 Monkeys is a criminally underrated sci-fi epic directed by Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. Inspired by Chris Marker's La Jetée (see below), the film is set in a dystopian future in which the bulk of humanity has been wiped out by a deadly virus, and the survivors live underground. The plot centers around James Cole (played by Bruce Willis), a prisoner who is sent back in time to gather information about the origins of the virus in order to prevent its spread.

Despite its complex structure, 12 Monkeys manages to avoid the confusing timeline trickery of so many other films like it. It's funny, too, as you might expect from a project helmed by Terry Gilliam.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Donnie Darko deals with time in very peculiar ways. It may not even seem like a time travel movie, properly speaking. And in a sense, it’s not one, but it shows what happens when people communicate with earlier versions of themselves and others. It gets weird, too: there are portals, a stray jet engine, and tangent universes at play. According to CinemaBlend , the director's cut has more information on how time travel functions in Donnie Darko , while the theatrical cut presents a simplified version.

Whichever you choose, the key to understanding the film's treatment of time is an in-universe book called "The Philosophy of Time Travel," which lays out pretty clear rules for how it all works.

Interstellar (2014)

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar made everyone feel like they needed a degree in theoretical physics to understand its story. Confusing? Maybe — but close inspection reveals a film grounded in some pretty hardcore science . Once you wrap your head around its trickier concepts, Interstellar offers a fresh vision of time travel that doesn’t rely on fantastical time machines or magic. In a particularly excellent sequence, we see what happens when you spend time on a planet where one hour equals seven years on Earth.

Primer (2004)

Enigmatic director Shane Carruth is known for his puzzling concept films, and Primer was his debut feature. Hailed as one of the most realistic movies about time travel , Primer aimed at scientific accuracy, and Carruth made use of his background in engineering and mathematics when developing the film's time travel technology.

Related: The Strangest Explanations of Time Travel in Movies, Ranked

It may not be entirely realistic, but it is far more believable than your average science fiction movie. If you can avoid getting lost in its lengthy technical dialogues, you'll find that this low-budget brainteaser of a film is very much worth your time.

La Jetée (1962)

La Jetée is a classic example of French New Wave cinema from the singular mind of Chris Marker. Clocking in at just 28 minutes and made up entirely of static photographs, this no-budget gem was the primary inspiration for Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys .

With its apocalyptic vision of a post-World War III future and its strikingly inventive editing, La Jetée has long been considered one of the greatest movies about time travel ever made. The fact that Chris Marker accomplished all this with still images just boggles the mind.

The Terminator (1984)

What makes The Terminator 's approach to time travel so effective are the wildly high stakes of its premise. It sounds strange on paper: an AI-driven force of machines known as Skynet sends a cyber-assassin back in time to target and kill one unassuming young waitress named Sarah Connor, while the human-led resistance sends an operative of their own to stop this from happening.

Well, it turns out that the entire future of the human race rests on Sarah Connor's (again, unassuming) shoulders. Master director James Cameron makes this setup work and tells a new kind of time travel story in the process.

Tenet (2020)

Tenet is infamous for its convoluted portrayal of a process known as time inversion. A quick online search reveals dozens of articles offering explanations to confused viewers ( see GQ for a particularly lucid example ). But the concept of inversion does make a kind of weird sense — reverse entropy, and you essentially reverse time. Once you see what Christopher Nolan is going for, Tenet becomes one of the few movies to imagine a completely new version of time travel, one in which people and objects can literally move backward through time.

Back to the Future (1985)

Including Back to the Future on this list feels a little bit like cheating, as it set the gold standard for every time travel movie to follow. It's more comical than the films listed above, but this doesn't make its approach to time travel any less successful. It does an excellent job of establishing the rules of its world and following them consistently throughout the story. Also, the idea of a time machine built into a car (the iconic DeLorean) was innovative in the best possible way.

Intricately depicting time travel on screen remains an arduous task. Filmmakers need to achieve an equilibrium between maintaining internal consistency and captivating audiences with enthralling stories. The films mentioned in this list have masterfully overcome this obstacle, each presenting a distinct interpretation of the time travel concept while adhering to their established rules.

Delve into these cinematic masterpieces and savor the inventiveness and resourcefulness behind their time travel mechanisms. Venturing into these film odysseys through time allows viewers to grasp the intricacies and potential repercussions of altering the past, present, and future. Make yourself comfortable, and brace for an exhilarating journey into the realm of time travel, conjured by some of the most visionary filmmakers in the industry.

Time Loop Movies – A Definitive 2023 List (Live The Same Day Over)

Do you love movies where one or more people live the same day over and over? Well, you’re in the right place! This style of film has been made in various genres – horror, drama, action, romance, comedy, and more. The loopers typically have no control of the looping period, and  only they  remember the events of previous loops, which gives room for plenty of innovation in execution. Here is the definitive list of the best time loop movies of all time.

For the list of all time travel films go here – Best Time Travel Movies .

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Where To Watch?

To find where to stream any movie or series based on your country, use This Is Barry’s Where To Watch .

Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer .  You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

Before I Fall (2017)

Before I Fall is a teen drama that sees one girl caught endlessly living the same day after getting into a terrible car crash. Nothing she does appears to affect her daily time loop, but each loop gives her a reality check about her life and relationships. The movie is based on a book by the same name, and both are pretty interesting. However, the end could have done more to drive home the film’s core concept.

The Lift | El Ascensor (2021)

The Lift is a Mexican Spanish time loop movie that has a couple entering an elevator while in the midst of an argument. As they descend and get to the lowest level, the trip in the lift repeats itself in what appears to be an endless loop. The film could have been so much better, given the looping is attributed to more than just fate. However, the reveal is not too great, and the film ends with the audience wondering, “umm.. so what?”. The Lift is director Daniel Bernal’s first feature film, hope things get better from here.

Repeaters (2010)

Three inmates in a rehabilitation centre begin reliving the same day over. They feel they have been blessed to be able to do whatever they like with no consequence for once. While everything is fine initially, the recklessness of their actions begins pricking at the conscience of two while the third finds himself to be in the state of bliss. The core reason behind their disagreement is not very convincing; as one of the characters mentions, “it’s hypocritical”. But the film is a good one time watch.

Naken(2000) | Naked (2017)

Naked is the Hollywood remake of the Swedish film Naken that has a man waking up butt-naked inside an elevator with no memories of how he got there. No, he’s not trapped in the elevator; in fact, he needs to exit into the lobby of a hotel to begin figuring what might have happened. After just an hour, he resets back to the floor of the elevator, butt-naked again. To top it all, it’s his wedding day! The Hollywood remake has funny man, Marlon Wayans, and there is enough going on to keep you interested. It’s got the classic romantic film trope of a non-committal dude and the supportive fiancée, but well, that is the genre of the film.

The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)

The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things is a romantic film about a guy and a girl stuck in a perpetual daily loop. The opening sequence is fabulous, and the movie is light as air. Fundamentally, the loops play out as a metaphor for being stuck  at a certain point in life. The chemistry between Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen is brilliant, and the movie is executed very well. They try and throw in some scientific elements in the film to explain the looping that I have summarized here –  The Map Of Tiny Perfect Things explained .

Mine Games (2012)

Mine Games sees a group of friends heading out to a cabin to spend their weekend and celebrating completion of college. You already know this isn’t going to end well, don’t you? The good thing is, it’s not a plot with a random psycho killer or ghoul that is out to get this group. The gang enters a nearby mine and observes an Ouroboros (a snake eating its own tail) drawn on the mine walls. I think you know what this means; I’ll not say more to avoid spoilers. The concept and the execution are both neat, but the premise makes you feel there could have been more backstory to the key characters.

Haunter (2013)

The movie Haunter follows a girl who has been waking up to the same day repeatedly; the day just before her birthday. The film begins in the middle of one of her endless loops by when she has become tired of reliving the same day. Soon, she finds a secret door in the basement, which she enters, and subsequent loops take a turn for the worse with apparitions of dead girls and a lanky old man haunting her. Despite her fears, she presses on to find the reason why she is trapped. The time loop movie mixes well with the horror genre adding an innovative perspective.

Boss Level (2021)

Boss level is a high-intensity, all-out action time loop movie with Frank Grillo in the lead role and Mel Gibson playing the bad guy. The film opens at a point the lead has died in hundreds of loops because a city full of assassins are hunting him down and tearing him to bits. Then we’re shown earlier cycles to give us a context of what has been going on. The film has multiple laugh-out-loud moments and keeps you engaged all through. The reason behind the looping is disclosed towards the end and is not really the highlight of the film.

12:01 (1993)

12:01 is a movie based on the book by the same name. It is one of the earliest novels that fiddled around with short time loops. While the book sees the protagonist being stuck in a one-hour time window, the movie adaption chose to put him in a day-long loop where he tries to stop the murder of a co-worker he has a crush on. It’s a fun film that discloses the mystery behind the time-trap one loop at a time. The makers threw a plagiarism case on another popular film that released in the same year. Wanna guess which one? Scroll further to know.

Happy Death Day Movies (2017, 2019)

Happy Death Day 1 and 2 are dark-humour crime thrillers time loop movies featuring the amazing Jessica Rothe. The film sees a college girl who finds herself being haunted and killed by a masked murderer. Each time she dies, she wakes up at the start of the day, only to be killed all over again. She befriends a nerdy chap who helps her identify her murderer. Part 2 of the film sees her reliving this same day again, but this time in an alternate universe. The sequel is well made but doesn’t have the novelty of the first part . Read all about it here – Happy Death Day explained loop-wise .

Groundhog Day (1993)

Groundhog Day is a fun film featuring Bill Murray reliving Groundhog Day over and over. It’s a light romantic comedy that showcases the value of time. While the lead initially uses his loop to get close to the woman he loves, he eventually realizes the gift of time and works to make himself a better man. Most people consider Groundhog Day to be the mother of all time loop movies. Here’s a fun fact – it is not. The film had a plagiarism case thrown on it by the makers of 12:01, but the studio was too big and could easily overpower the plaintiff. That said, Groundhog Day was definitely better executed.

Palm Springs (2020)

Palm Springs is a romantic comedy set inside endless time loops. A guy who attends a wedding party decides to wander off to a nearby cave that houses a wormhole that traps him in an infinite time loop. He is later joined by another woman, accidentally, and the two of them try to beat the time-trap together. The cast has Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J K Simmons in the central roles. The film expects the viewers to understand this subgenre as it begins at a point when the lead has already been through thousands of loops. Check this out to know more –  Palm Springs and The Dinosaurs explained .

Retroactive (1997)

Retroactive is a 90s film that does a fine job of executing the concept of the time loop. The story begins with a hostage negotiator crashing into a signboard as she’s distracted by a recent failure. She ends up taking a lift from a couple passing by, and her intervention in the events to follow causes things to spiral out of control. At the same time, a scientist working on a particle accelerator succeeds in sending a mouse back in time by 10 minutes. You see where this is going. Retroactive is a high-speed action film that wraps up things nice and tight.

ARQ is a lesser-known science fiction film that revolves around a group of people looking to take possession of a mysterious device that ends up trapping them in a series of loops. The circumstances for how a person recollects memories of their previous cycles is unique, making ARQ stand out in the pool of time loop movies. While there are only a handful of characters, the film manages to pack in an impressive plot revealed across the many loops. More details here – ARQ explained .

Maanaadu (2021)

Maanaadu is an Indian Tamil film that follows a man arriving for a wedding with a plan to help his friend elope with the bride. Unfortunately, they have a run-in with a dirty cop and get entangled in the assassination of the Chief Minister. This complex film is wonderfully executed with action and humour thrown into the mix, and it pays homage to many others on this list of time loop movies. It clearly shows that Venkat Prabhu did solid research before directing India’s first Time Loop film. The cast is great, and S. J. Suryah has done a stellar job as the dirty cop and holds this movie together. 

A Day | Ha-roo (2017)

A Day (Ha-roo) is a Korean time loop thriller that sees a doctor waking up repeatedly to witness his daughter dying in a car accident. The film switches gears to start revealing the multifaceted nature of the loops. The cast has done a fantastic job of their roles to bring the movie together. The backstory is told beautifully, and the reason behind the seemingly unescapable horror is slowly unveiled through the many cycles. You can find more details here –  A Day explained .

Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)

Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt bring the Japanese book  All You Need Is Kill to life in this high-speed sci-fi action flick. Earth is under attack by an alien species with a unique ability. The extraterrestrials are interconnected in a network of minds that can send information back through time. The lead accidentally gets added to this alien network and begins repeatedly resetting to the same point in time every time he dies. Honestly, the book gives a little more interesting backstory to the aliens and what they are doing on Earth; even the ending is more brutal. You can find out all the details here – Edge Of Tomorrow movie vs book .

Blood Punch (2014)

Blood Punch is not very popular but is a must-see movie in this sub-genre. The story follows three people who head to an isolated house to cook meth. Hell breaks loose when they try to double-cross each other. The loops work very differently as compared to other time loop movies, especially the aspects of who remembers what in subsequent cycles. Olivia Tennet, Milo Cawthorne and Ari Boyland are three central cast members and play their roles beautifully. Here’s all you need to know – Blood Punch explained .

Source Code (2011)

Source code sees one man’s consciousness relieving a simulation that lasts eight minutes on a train in the hope to locate a bomber. While the train has already been detonated, the team is looking to find the identity of the bomber to stop his next attack. The mission seems straightforward, but Source Code exposes complexities and secrets layer by layer as the loops progress. Jake Gyllenhaal is the one to pick atypical films like this, and he’s done a stellar job with Michelle Monaghan and Vera Farmiga in excellent supporting roles. You can find full details here – Source Code explained .

Triangle (2009)

Triangle is arguably the most complicated of all time loop movies with multiple overlapping cycles. It takes a couple of watches to fully understand the nuances of this brilliant thriller. Melissa George, who you will know from Mulholland Drive , really shines in this film. Triangle’s plot is centred on a group of friends who go on a boat trip and get lost at sea. They get rescued by a liner, but it appears to be unmanned. I can’t say more without revealing spoilers but you must watch this amazing film. Check this article for a loop-wise breakdown – Triangle movie explained .

Wondering why this list is missing your other favourite films?

The phenomenon in Time Loop movies is very different from Causal Loop  films like  Timecrimes ,  Predestination  or  Looper , which are more generic time-travel films and hence aren’t part of this list.

The big fan favourite,  Run Rola Run , is not here because it’s three versions of an incident rather than a person living a loop repeatedly with accumulating memories . Other notable films like The Fare  also don’t make the list for similar reasons.

For the definitive list of all time-travel films, go here –  Best Time Travel Movies .

Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. Click to browse all his film articles

Top 100 Time Travel Movies

1. Back to the Future

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

3. The Terminator

4. The Butterfly Effect

5. Back to the Future Part II

6. 12 Monkeys

7. Groundhog Day

8. Avengers: Endgame

9. X-Men: Days of Future Past

10. Interstellar

11. Predestination

13. Palm Springs

14. Midnight in Paris

15. Timecrimes

16. Edge of Tomorrow

17. About Time

18. The Time Traveler's Wife

19. Back to the Future Part III

20. Time Sweep

21. Star Trek

22. Flight of the Navigator

24. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

25. Men in Black³

26. Source Code

27. The Time Machine

28. Idiocracy

29. 12 Dates of Christmas

31. Time Lapse

33. The Lake House

34. Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel

35. Frequency

36. Kate & Leopold

37. Project Almanac

38. Safety Not Guaranteed

39. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

40. Terminator Salvation

42. Synchronicity

43. Donnie Darko

44. Time Trap

45. time lapse.

46. Before I Fall

47. time trap.

49. Time Bandits

50. Mr. Peabody & Sherman

51. Shrek Forever After

52. Happy Death Day

53. Timecop

54. I'll Follow You Down

56. When We First Met

57. The Time Machine

58. The Jacket

59. Alice Through the Looking Glass

60. Triangle

61. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

62. Hot Tub Time Machine

63. Peggy Sue Got Married

64. Grand Tour: Disaster in Time

65. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

66. Time Freak

68. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey

69. The Man from the Future

70. Somewhere in Time

71. Deja Vu

72. Time Jumpers

73. Time Changer

74. Altered Hours

75. Hot Tub Time Machine 2

76. The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

77. Freejack

78. Another Time

79. The Butterfly Effect 2

80. See You Yesterday

81. Curvature

82. Paradox

83. A Wrinkle in Time

84. Counter Clockwise

85. S. Darko

More to explore, recently viewed.

The 45 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, Ranked

From classics like Metropolis and Alien to Everything Everywhere All At Once, this is Collider's ranking of the best science fiction movies ever.

The science fiction genre has been one of the most consistently thrilling to explore throughout the history of cinema. The way a visual medium like film can depict futuristic worlds or alternate realities means that almost anything that can be imagined can be depicted on-screen. Since the silent era, filmmakers have been using the medium to their advantage, commenting on humanity's present and hypothesizing about its future through the science-fiction genre.

There are countless great sci-fi movies that have been released since the birth of cinema as an art form, and it's ultimately futile to try and name every single amazing one. There are simply too many top sci-fi movies, and it's a genre that's still thriving, with new potential classics released seemingly every year. The following are among the best of the best from the sci-fi genre, being classics for their entertainment value, excellent technical qualities, and historical significance , and are ranked below in order from great to greatest.

45 'Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes' (2020)

Directed by junta yamaguchi.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is one of the best Japanese movies of the last few years , and also stands as one of the most entertaining and rewatchable sci-fi films in recent memory. It deals with an initially limited form of time travel that involves a screen that shows footage from two minutes in the future, which leads to wonder, fortunes, and eventual chaos for the people who discover this strange phenomenon.

Made on a limited budget and filmed in a way that makes it appear like a single take , Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is quite dazzling for such a small-scale movie, and endlessly inventive/clever. It’s got an infectious spirit and is overall the kind of movie that will provide significant entertainment value for just about anyone who seeks it out.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Watch on Amazon Prime

44 'Voyage of the Rock Aliens' (1984)

Directed by james fargo.

Calling Voyage of the Rock Aliens ridiculous would be underselling it to a considerable extent, but that’s obvious, given it’s literally called Voyage of the Rock Aliens . It functions as a surprisingly good (and wonderfully cheesy) musical, a comedy that feels like a throwback to teen movies of the 1950s and ‘60s, and a sci-fi movie about aliens coming to Earth and trying/failing to fit into life on the planet.

Voyage of the Rock Aliens is a cult movie through and through, and one of the most 1980s-feeling movies to come out of the decade. It’s sloppy, the music probably isn’t for everyone, and watching it is an undeniably chaotic experience, but there’s so much energy and vibrancy to the whole thing that it’s hard to resist , particularly for any sci-fi fans who have a particular fondness for science fiction of the B-movie variety.

Watch on Tubi

43 'August in the Water' (1995)

Directed by gakuryu ishii.

Blending some fantasy/supernatural elements with an odd yet compelling science fiction story, August in the Water is both a unique and underrated film. It focuses on several teenagers living in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, and explores what happens when one of them – a young girl – begins to develop mysterious powers, all the while strange occurrences continue to happen to the city’s population.

August in the Water isn’t exactly clear about the story it’s telling, nor is it particularly narrative-centered in the first place, but it is undeniably atmospheric and provides a distinct look/feel. It’s broad and open-ended enough to leave many things up to interpretation , and even those who get a bit lost in August in the Water will still be able to appreciate its visual style and singular tone.

Buy on Amazon

42 'Poor Things' (2023)

Directed by yorgos lanthimos.

Poor Things was surprisingly successful for such an odd and offbeat movie, but those willing to get immersed in something a little different will likely find the film to be a rewarding one. It’s a surprisingly funny and always visually dazzling sci-fi movie about a woman who’s brought back to life, and then goes on a strange and sometimes alarming journey, rediscovering life and effectively coming of age for a second time.

Yorgos Lanthimos is perfectly suited to this kind of story and this sort of style, with the cast also shining while digging into the strange material they’ve been given, especially Emma Stone in the lead role, who won a second Oscar for her performance. Poor Things is a movie that’s a highlight of the 2020s so far, and feels like the sort of sci-fi movie that will one day be held up as a classic .

Poor Things

*Availability in US

Not available

41 'Godzilla Minus One' (2023)

Directed by takashi yamazaki.

Speaking of relatively recent science fiction movies that already feel like modern classics, Godzilla Minus One was one of the biggest surprises of 2023, and one of the best Godzilla movies of the past couple of decades. It takes things back further in time than any other movie in the long-running series, taking place right after World War II, following people who are already struggling with surviving the war’s aftermath when the titular monster emerges and makes life even more difficult.

All the monster action in Godzilla Minus One is exciting and satisfying, but it’s the human characters – and their story – that give it the edge overall, and make it function as a genuinely good drama on top of being a kaiju movie . It’s very approachable and a perfect entry point into the series, particularly for anyone who’s more familiar with the American Godzilla movies and has yet to watch any from Japan.

Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla Minus One is currently not available to stream, rent, or purchase in the U.S.

40 'Woman in the Moon' (1929)

Directed by fritz lang.

The most famous sci-fi movie directed by Fritz Lang came out before Woman in the Moon (more on it a little down the line), but this 1929 shouldn’t be overlooked just because it’s his second-best science fiction film. It’s a remarkable cinematic achievement, considering it’s close to a century old, and remains an engaging film about an expedition to the moon – led by a scientist – in search of gold.

Now, given its age and premise, there are aspects here that feel more fictional than ever in a post-moon landing world , but considering Woman in the Moon predated humanity actually reaching the moon by 40 years, the sci-fi movie's predictions were still impressive . It’s also got inventive special effects and a surprisingly well-told and dramatic story, making it one of the best – and most underrated – films of the silent era, sci-fi or otherwise.

Watch on Kanopy

39 'Electric Dreams' (1984)

Directed by steve barron.

Perhaps feeling more like a quirky and heartfelt romantic comedy than a full-on science fiction movie, Electric Dreams does still center around an advanced computer that begins to fall for a young woman. The computer, in a sense, enters into a love triangle of sorts with the young man who purchased it, given the man also has feelings for the same woman, yet is too shy to approach her.

Electric Dreams then becomes like a sci-fi take on Cyrano de Bergerac , with the computer being Cyrano, helping a more conventional romantic partner while also having his own intense feelings of love toward a romance that can’t be. It might sound ridiculous, and Electric Dreams is kind of silly, but it’s also got a sincerity to it that makes it hard to resist . The cynical need not apply, but those open to the film’s odd charms might be it to be one of the more underrated sci-fi flicks of the ‘80s .

38 'Godzilla vs. Destoroyah' (1995)

Directed by takao okawara.

Throughout the remarkably long history of the Godzilla series , the titular monster has fought many other powerful and intimidating titans. For as mighty as foes like King Kong and King Ghidorah have been, there’s an argument to be made that his most powerful enemy wasn’t even a “King,” and that it was actually Destoroyah, a monster who’s only been featured in one Godzilla film to date: 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah .

Notable for being one of the most intense, frightening, and moving films in the entire series, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah serves as a grand finale for Godzilla ’s Heisei era, which comprised seven movies released between 1984 and 1995 that told a surprisingly continuity-heavy narrative spanning just over a decade. It might not be as powerful outside the context of the series/era, but it’s nevertheless one of the finest of all Godzilla films, and stands as a great work of science fiction as a result.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

Rent on Amazon

37 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' (2017)

Directed by rian johnson.

There are certainly things to criticize when it comes to the most recent Star Wars movies, largely owing to the messily constructed and planned-out sequel trilogy. Yet buried within this flawed trio of films is a genuinely great sci-fi movie that itself is divisive: Star Wars: The Last Jedi . This eighth entry in the Skywalker Saga has passionate fans and vocal detractors, but that seemed inevitable, given it was directed by the guy who was behind what some people call the worst Breaking Bad episode (“Fly”) and what many call the best Breaking Bad episode (“Ozymandias”).

Star Wars: The Last Jedi brings Luke Skywalker back into the fold, taking his character in interesting directions while ultimately having him live up to his legacy by the film’s end. Other aspects of the film seem odd or disappointing at first, but all of it comes together in an interesting way by the end . It reckons with the history of Star Wars , celebrates it, and critiques it all at once, and does so while also being tremendously moving, emotionally speaking, and spectacular, from a visual standpoint.

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

36 'forbidden planet' (1956), directed by fred m. wilcox.

Of all the science fiction movies made during the 1950s, Forbidden Planet is undeniably up there with the most iconic. It follows a crew of space travelers who go in search of another exploration party that's been missing for years, only to make some unusual and startling discoveries during their attempted rescue/recovery mission.

It has an undeniably distinct aesthetic that's inextricably tied to the look and feel of classic '50s sci-fi. It's also notable for having what's perhaps Leslie Nielsen 's best-known non-comedic role, given his career was rejuvenated in the 1980s thanks to starring in a range of iconic parody/spoof movies . Some may find Forbidden Planet to be a little old-fashioned and maybe even slightly cheesy by today's standards , but it's the aesthetics on offer here that might also prove charming to others.

Forbidden Planet

35 'inception' (2010), directed by christopher nolan.

Inception certainly was a cinematic highlight of 2010 , and it had some pretty tough competition that year, too. It's Christopher Nolan blending his affinity for action and science fiction in one , and making this blend go down smoothly with an engaging premise that's about performing a reverse heist within a target's subconscious, making it function well as an action/thriller movie as well as a piece of science fiction.

It's a movie that throws tons of fairly complex ideas at the viewer in rapid succession, and so if there's one criticism that can be thrown Inception's way, it's that it's a little heavy on the exposition at times. But the action-packed scenes serve well as payoffs, and the narrative does find interesting and sometimes unexpected places to go beyond the explanatory dialogue-heavy opening act.

34 'Under the Skin' (2013)

Directed by jonathan glazer.

Those who prefer their sci-fi conventional may want to steer clear of Under the Skin , or approach it very cautiously, given it's another strange, haunting, and unapologetic film directed by Jonathan Glazer . It's essentially an arthouse take on a story about an alien coming to Earth, perhaps being for the 2010s what the equally bizarre and captivating The Man Who Fell to Earth was for the 1970s.

Scarlett Johansson plays the alien at the center of Under the Skin , and much of the movie is about this life form - after taking on a human appearance - stalking and capturing various men who become prey. It offers little by way of easy answers, and much of the film is up to the interpretation of the individual viewer , for better or worse (probably more better, so long as you know roughly what you're in for).

Under the Skin

Watch on Max

33 'Avatar' (2009)

Directed by james cameron.

James Cameron might've referred to himself as the king of the world after his 1997 film Titanic swept the Oscars, but it's perhaps more accurate to call him the king of the sci-fi genre. He's made some of the biggest and most popular works of science fiction in cinematic history, with none being as successful (at least financially) as his 2009 film Avatar . Indeed, Avatar joins Titanic and its own sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water , as a movie that can claim to be the highest-grossing of its decade of release .

It recycles familiar tropes and story beats, but does so in a fantastical world and with breathtaking visual effects. Typical of Cameron, Avatar is also successful in blending genres to ensure it has mass appeal , with this movie being a sci-fi film, an action/adventure movie, and a romance all at once.

32 'Planet of the Apes' (1968)

Directed by franklin j. schaffner.

For as good as the reboot/prequel trilogy released throughout the 2010s was, it's hard to top the original Planet of the Apes film from 1968, at least when judging each movie in the series on its own merits. It's an eerie and oftentimes mysterious film, building to a fantastic conclusion that might still surprise those lucky enough to avoid knowing about it without having seen the movie.

It flips things around by having human beings be the subservient species, and forced to contend with an advanced race of apes who do indeed rule the planet they're on. It's not nearly as cheesy as you'd think (the sequels don't fare quite so well), and holds up as a compelling and entertaining sci-fi/action movie with some interesting things to say about humanity and its possible future.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Watch on Starz

31 'District 9' (2009)

Directed by neill blomkamp.

Though some are clamoring for a sequel that will probably never arrive (never say never, unless you can cowardly include a "probably" in there), District 9 still stands on its own as a great film regardless. It's part mockumentary, part action movie, and part body horror, detailing what happens to an alien ship that becomes stranded over the city of Johannesburg.

It's also packed with social commentary regarding race and how refugees are mistreated in real life, considering in this movie, it's the aliens who find themselves in the middle of a large-scale refugee crisis. It's thought-provoking, unique, exciting, and one of the best science-fiction movies of the 21st century so far, as well as one movie that demonstrated how 2009 was an unusually good year for the sci-fi genre as a whole .

30 'Stalker' (1979)

Directed by andrei tarkovsky.

One of the most acclaimed films of 1979 , Stalker is also among the best-known titles in Andrei Tarkovsky 's filmography. It follows three men who are trying to find a mysterious location known only as the Zone, as it's rumored to grant great power to anyone who can locate it. Stalker feels less focused on the narrative necessarily, as its status as an arthouse science fiction movie means it's more concerned with exploring abstract themes and providing a unique (in this case, also eerie) mood.

It unfolds in a way that's very slow, but also surprisingly absorbing . It's an intensely psychological sort of science fiction, exploring the minds of its characters more so than putting them in a series of exciting set pieces or action scenes. It's the kind of approach to sci-fi that might not be for everyone, but it is undoubtedly interesting.

29 'Moon' (2009)

Directed by duncan jones.

One of many great science-fiction movies released in 2009, Moon is about one man dealing with isolation while being the sole person at a manufacturing facility on the Moon. Things take a turn into the unexpected as he's about to return to Earth, though, throwing the film's events into an entirely new direction.

The less said about the rest of Moon , the better, but it's fair to say that it's certainly engaging and surprising in all the best ways. It's also a showcase for the talents of Sam Rockwell , given he maintains a compelling presence on-screen, even though he doesn't really have any other actual actors to appear alongside, and act with, and Moon undoubtedly solidifies Rockwell as one of the best and most underrated actors working today.

28 'Ex Machina' (2014)

Directed by alex garland.

Before taking a turn into horror by directing movies like Annihilation and Men , Alex Garland had his directorial debut with the sci-fi film Ex Machina . It's a unique look at artificial intelligence, revolving around a series of experiments in a remote location with a new, unnervingly smart robot, the creator of said technology, and a young coder who's won a competition to visit said location.

It's an eerie and engaging look at familiar science-fiction tropes and ideas , presenting things that viewers might have seen before in ways that are confined, realistic, and eye-opening. It's small-scale, personal science-fiction done right, and though it's not particularly old, it feels like the kind of movie where it's safe to say it will age well, and continue to hold up in years to come.

27 'Minority Report' (2002)

Directed by steven spielberg.

Minority Report is set in a future where surveillance has become so widespread and powerful that the crime/justice landscape has completely changed. Violent crimes can now be predicted before they even happen, leading to people being arrested and charged for crimes they didn't actually commit, but were ultimately going to commit, or so those in the business of "Precrime" say.

It's an uneasy and thought-provoking premise, and was explored in a way that ensured Minority Report ranked among the best movies of 2002 . It's getting on in years, but what it has to say still feels relevant and unnerving, and time will ultimately tell how relevant it'll continue to feel, and how unsettling its premise will feel for viewers even further in the future. Undoubtedly, it's one of the very best sci-fi/thriller movies Steven Spielberg has ever directed.

Minority Report

26 'interstellar' (2014).

While Interstellar isn't Christopher Nolan's only great science-fiction movie, it might be his most pure sci-fi effort, given Inception ' s action-heavy nature and Tenet feeling like an espionage thriller with sci-fi elements. Interstellar 's also one of his longest movies, making it a true sci-fi epic in every sense of the word.

It centers on a group of astronauts who explore space through a wormhole, as humanity is in danger on Earth and may need to find a new planet to live on. On the technical side of things, Interstellar is spectacular, with amazing visual effects and a phenomenal Hans Zimmer score . It's a long but rewarding film, and in contrast to some science-fiction, also contains a surprising amount of heartfelt - maybe even sentimental - emotion.

Interstellar

57 Seconds is a Forgettable Time-Travel Parable

This new indie sci-fi has a lot of potential, but it wastes most of it.

It’s important to try and meet a film on its own terms. In the case of 57 Seconds , the new sci-fi thriller starring Josh Hutcherson and Morgan Freeman, the film was made with such a clearly limited budget that it feels unfair to criticize its obvious cheapness. From its basic TV lighting to its occasional VFX mistakes, the film looks and feels like a Disney Channel Original Movie from the 2000s. That isn’t necessarily a knock against it, so much as it’s a component that’s worth addressing, especially for a film that feels, at times, like a truly independent sci-fi gamble .

In our current era of ballooning blockbuster budgets and industrywide disinterest in original genre properties, making a film like 57 Seconds has never been harder than it is now. In that sense, the movie is a bit of a miracle, though its redeeming qualities begin and end with the spirit behind its creation. Its clear budgetary constraints and elementary style aside, 57 Seconds falls flat because it’s duller than it should be. It’s a film that has some genuinely interesting sci-fi ideas at the center of them, but it fails to explore them as deeply as it could — and arguably should — have.

Based on a story by E.C. Tubb, 57 Seconds revolves around Franklin Fox (Hutcherson), a tech blogger with a personal interest in the potential that advanced AI technology has to cure or mitigate everyday health issues. His obsession with the fusion between the tech and health industries is what leads him to sneak backstage at a conference hosted by Anton Burrell (Freeman), the powerful CEO responsible for the creation of armbands that can track their users’ health habits and assist them in living a healthier lifestyle.

Franklin wants to interview Anton, but when an unexpected attack on the latter brings Hutcherson’s activist blogger even further into his idol’s orbit than he expected, he finds himself in possession of a mysterious ring that has the power to send its wearer 57 seconds back in time. Before long, Franklin has used the ring to not only jumpstart his relationship with the unaware Jala (Lovie Simone) but also turn his entire financial life around. When he’s eventually offered a job by Sig Thorensen (a scene-chewing Greg Germann), one of Anton’s rivals and the executive responsible for a secretly addictive pharmaceutical drug, he concocts a plan to use his time travel abilities to finally expose the billionaire CEO’s many crimes.

What follows is an unexpectedly moralistic story about how quickly money and power can derail someone from their chosen path. Over the course of its runtime, 57 Seconds follows Hutcherson’s Franklin as he uses his quantum abilities for both good and bad and gets drawn deeper and deeper into his rich mark’s toxic lifestyle. For the majority of its story, the film even goes so far as to position Germann’s Sig as the devil on Franklin’s shoulder and Freeman’s Anton as the holier, more angelic figure watching from afar.

57 Seconds offers a surprising new take on time travel, but it doesn’t explore its own concept as thoroughly as it should have.

57 Seconds ’ ideas about the potentially addictive qualities of short-range time travel are interesting, as is its decision to thematically link those ideas to the corrupt nature of America’s pharmaceutical industry. The film never takes its ideas far enough, though. None of the decisions Franklin makes are particularly surprising, nor are many of them heinous or heroic enough to add any dramatic weight to 57 Seconds ’ oversized climax. The drama’s script counts director Rusty Cundieff ( Tales from the Hood ) and Macon Blair ( I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore ) as its co-writers, but the latter’s well-honed, prickly sense of humor is completely absent from 57 Seconds .

There are a few refreshingly brutal bursts of violence scattered throughout the film, including one darkly funny mishap involving a gun and a container of thumbtacks that is the only instance in which Blair’s fingerprints are at all apparent. For the most part, however, the film is dramatically tedious and inert, a fact that only further emphasizes Cundieff’s dreary direction and John Quinn’s lethargic editing. Hutcherson’s performance, meanwhile, is too muted to sell Franklin’s spiritual crisis. The actor’s shockingly bad voice-over narration throughout the film doesn’t help his performance, either.

57 Seconds doesn’t have the budget or substance to emerge as the sci-fi hit it so desperately wants to be.

In the end, 57 Seconds is far too thin and straightforward for its own good. The film has lofty ideas and even loftier ambitions, but neither the drive nor the ability to truly reach as far as it wants. It’s a sci-fi drama full of odd details — like Anton’s inexplicably AI-based henchman (played by Kenneth Kynt Bryan) — and half-finished concepts that only make the shallowness of the film itself all the more apparent. It’s not the kind of unmitigated disaster that’ll necessarily leave you desperate to get the 99 minutes you spent watching it back, but there are far, far better ways to spend your time.

57 Seconds hits theaters and VOD on Friday, September 29.

• Science Fiction

Country Living

The 30 Best Movies of 2023

Posted: May 10, 2024 | Last updated: May 10, 2024

2023 has been an amazing year for cinema, whether you’re watching at the theater or streaming from the couch. While last year’s film offerings focused on thoughtful takes on the world and society, this is the year for billion-dollar blockbusters and talented ensemble pieces, like Barbie , Oppenheimer , The Little Mermaid , and more. Ahead, here are 30 of the best movies this year.

Timothée Chalameet as a young Willy Wonka? Sign me up. The film chronicles how Wonka met the Oompa-Loompas ahead of his time at the chocolate factory and should be quite the nostalgic ride when it’s officially released on December 15.

C’mon, Barbie, let’s go party—but Greta Gerwig style. With Gerwig behind the lens and a cast consisting of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside Will Ferrell, Emma Mackey , Hari Nef, Issa Rae, and America Ferrera, among many others, Barbie turned out to be the defining film of 2023. It’s a feminist take on girlhood, dreams, and gender roles that will surely be a sleepover classic for years to come.

3) Anyone but You

Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell made headlines earlier this year for reasons separate from their new rom-com, Anyone but You . Still, the tabloid firestorm worked as legitimate marketing for the film, which tells the story of a failed first date and an unexpected reunion at a destination wedding in … Australia?

4) Dicks: The Musical

Did you know Megan Thee Stallion was in a musical movie this year? A24’s first movie musical, Dicks , is a bizarre take on the classic Parent Trap story, in which two businessmen discover they’re long-lost twins and set out to reunite their parents. Megan Mullally, Nathan Lane, Bowen Yang, Nick Offerman, D’Arcy Carden— Dicks stars everyone!

Just a few years after the Academy Award–nominated Ford v Ferrari comes Ferrari , based on the 1991 biography of car titan Enzo Ferrari and the story of a fateful race along Italy’s Mille Miglia. Beyond the incredibly cool cars, though, is an equally cool cast: Adam Driver, Patrick Dempsey, Penélope Cruz, Shailene Woodley—even Hugh Jackman and Noomi Rapace!

We’ll do just about anything to see both Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan onscreen together, and Foe is no exception. This haunting sci-fi drama sees a young couple in an alternate America torn apart when they meet a stranger who offers them a life-changing opportunity, which calls into question the very nature of humanity itself.

This Leonard Bernstein biopic has been a long time in the making, with Bradley Cooper attached as early as 2018, when Martin Scorsese was still set to direct. Instead, Cooper took the directorial reins, as well as the starring role as Bernstein. It will focus almost exclusively on the legendary composer’s relationship with wife, Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan.

8) Past Lives

Writer-director Celine Song’s Past Lives opened to much acclaim (and more than a few tears) at this year’s Sundance festival, and has had audiences and critics talking ever since. (It opened in theaters across the country in June and is now available via video on demand.) You can chalk up its enduring appeal to Song’s ability to tap into a universal experience of love, longing, and wondering what could have been—all nestled in an intimate story about a Korean-American woman (Greta Lee) who rekindles a connection with her childhood crush (Teo Yoo) back in Korea.

9) May December

Todd Haynes’s latest flick will surely cause quite the splash when it lands on Netflix on December 1, after a limited theatrical run at the end of November. Natalie Portman stars opposite Julianne Moore, whose character is based on Mary Kay Letourneau, the high school teacher who caused a nationwide scandal for her exploitative sexual relationship with a sixth-grade student in the ’90s. The film is 20 years later, when the loosely inspired couple find themselves at odds over Portman’s character, an actor set to play the former teacher in an upcoming biopic about their lives.

10) Passages

Passages has lingered with me since I saw it. A startling work by director Ira Sachs, it is an odd tale of a gay couple whose marriage is torn apart by an affair with a woman. Adèle Exarchopoulos shines as Agathe, whose onscreen chemistry with Ben Whishaw and Franz Rogowski is the stuff of legend.

11) Priscilla

Sofia Coppola’s autobiographical film based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me is an interesting foil to Baz Lurhmann’s own 2022 biopic Elvis , which famously featured that Austin Butler accent. Whereas Elvis was an almost mythological retelling of the King of Rock and Roll’s life story, Priscilla sticks much closer to the actual source material, and is sure to leave viewers questioning everything they knew about one of America’s most divisive rock stars.

12) Renaissance: A Film by Beyonce

The Renaissance World Tour changed my life—and about a million other lives—this year. As Taylor Swift’s own concert documentary did in October, Renaissance will land in theaters for a limited run this December. Featuring footage of the history-making world tour, and behind-the-scenes footage, this is the certifiable can’t-miss movie event of the year.

13) Saltburn

Saltburn is Jacob Elordi’s second appearance on this list, and for good reason. Critics have already issued rave reviews about this Alice in Wonderland –style romp through the world of a secretive, mysterious English family, which also stars Rosamund Pike, Carey Mulligan, and Barry Keoghan.

14) You Hurt My Feelings

Nicole Holofcener made one of my favorite rom-coms of the last 10 years, Enough Said , so it’s no surprise she and muse Julia Louis-Dreyfus hit it out of the park again with You Hurt My Feelings . When Louis-Dreyfus’s Beth, a novelist, overhears her husband’s critical opinion of her latest book by accident, the two begin to question all the little lies couples tell themselves, and others.

The French coming-of-age film that follows two 13-year-old best friends has been described as heartbreaking and tremendous. Its intimate portrayal of young male friendship is simply moving to witness.

16) Knock at the Cabin

M. Night Shyamalan, the filmmaker known for his twist endings, is back with a thriller about an existential threat that falls on a happy family of three when four strangers appear at their remote cabin. Based on author Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World , the nature of the threat and the decision the family—Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, and Kristen Cui—have to make remains a mystery as the strangers, played by Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Abby Quinn, upheave their vacation.

17) Killers of the Flower Moon

Based on the best-selling nonfiction book of the same name, this American western crime drama is directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, and Brendan Fraser. The plot revolves around a series of murders that took place in 1920s Oklahoma after oil was discovered on Indian land.

18) Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan’s first biopic is based on the life of the father of the atomic bomb, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). Even if you know very little about the history of nuclear science, the cast is enough to want to tune in, with Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Josh Peck, and Alex Wolff.

19) Cat Person

Based on the viral New Yorker short story by Kristen Roupenian, Cat Person premiered at Sundance ahead of its wide release in October. Starring Emilia Jones from CODA as Margot, the young college student who embarks on a relationship with Robert (Nicholas Braun), a 34-year-old who frequents the movie theater she works at, the story caused such a response based on its subtle accounting of power imbalances in relationships ahead of #MeToo.

20) Magic Mike’s Last Dance

The third and final Channing Tatum stripper movie arrived just in time for Valentine’s Day. Grab your people and watch the self-proclaimed “Super Bowl of Stripping” unfold.

21) Cocaine Bear

If you have questions (as did I) about why a movie called Cocaine Bear came out this year, you are not alone . About a bear that goes on a cocaine-induced killing rampage, this thriller—based loosely on the real story of a 175-pound black bear nicknamed “Pablo Eskobear,” who died after snorting a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985—is an absurdly fun time.

Whether you saw the dancing killer doll that went viral on TikTok or the eight look-alikes that performed at the premiere, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the horror film M3GAN was a 2023 standout. M3GAN is an artificially intelligent, lifelike doll designed by roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams), who gifts her young niece with the prototype after becoming the girl’s primary caretaker. What follows is the stuff out of a Chucky movie, but with a little more flair.

23) When You Finish Saving the World

The first A24 film of the year focused on the complicated mother-son relationship between Evelyn (Julianne Moore) and Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard), set against the backdrop of the modern age and all the issues it entails, like streaming and social media. While the two struggle to connect, Ziggy pursues a politically active girl from his school and Evelyn connects with a young boy at the shelter where she works, making Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut an amusing and emotional film.

24) Asteroid City

Wes Anderson’s latest film is set to bring all his notable storytelling skills to the table, but this time at a Junior Stargazer convention in the desert. As with most of his movies, you don’t really know what Asteroid City is about until you’re done watching, which makes it beyond fun; and his ensemble casts only seem to get better and better, with this film starring Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Maya Hawke, Liev Schreiber, Jeff Goldblum, Rita Wilson, and Steve Carell.

25) The Color Purple

The musical adaption of Alice Walker’s classic novel, which premiered on Broadway in 2005, is coming to the big screen (again) and features an amazing cast at the hands of the director who helped with Beyoncé’s visual album Black Is King and Oprah Winfrey as one of the producers. Following protagonist Cellie (Fantasia) as she deals with growing up as a Black woman in the rural South in the early 1900s, the story introduces us to the many different women she encounters, like Sophia (Danielle Brooks), Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson), Mary “Squeak” Agnes (H.E.R.), and her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey/Ciara).

26) Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

Judy Blume’s amazing middle-school novel finally received a proper film adaption this year. Known for its frank discussion of religion, sex, and pondering female adolescence, the nostalgic film is an emotional ride. With Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret, the movie rounds out its cast with Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie playing her parents.

27) Scream VI

With the tagline “In a city of millions, no one hears you scream,” the latest Scream installment had thrills and frights in store that no one could be ready for. The film shows the survivors of the last movie—Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding—on a subway train in the city, where the next Ghostface runs rampant.

28) The Little Mermaid

The live-action adaption of The Little Mermaid far exceeded expectations. Halle Bailey soars as the beloved Ariel and effortlessly performs alongside a standout cast that includes Javier Bardem, Awkwafina, Melissa McCarthy, and more stars. It will make you believe mermaids really exist.

29) The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbird & Snakes

As someone who went to every midnight premiere of every original Hunger Games movie, I am beyond excited for the prequel to hit the big screens. Following a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) who mentors and develops feelings for the female District 12 tribute (Rachel Zegler) during the 10th Hunger Games, it will be a nostalgic venture back into the world created by Suzanne Collins. Plus, the cast also features Viola Davis, Peter Dinklage, and Hunter Schafer.

30) Bottoms

After Emma Seligman’s knockout directorial debut, Shiva Baby , she returned to the big screen with a movie about two unpopular queer girls in their senior year of high school, who start a fight club to try to impress and hook up with cheerleaders. Starring Rachel Sennott, Kaia Gerber, and Ayo Edebiri, Bottoms is the Gen Z comedy of the year.

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Candice Bergen would 'rather die' than wear her 'Book Club' passport belt in real life

You can thank Candice Bergen for "Book Club" going full Italiano.

Bergen started planning the next exotic chapter of the 2018 comedy − about four longtime friends whose lives are changed forever after reading "Fifty Shades of Grey" − from an airplane in Las Vegas while promoting the movie even before the release.

"We were saying, 'I think this movie's going to do OK − maybe we should do a sequel,' " Bergen recalls. "And I said, 'Yeah, and we should shoot the sequel in Italy.' It turns out, we did."

This second movie was sealed after "Book Club" rolled with an impressive $104 million at the box office worldwide. "Book Club: The Next Chapter" (in theaters) reunites Bergen with co-stars Jane Fonda , 85, Mary Steenburgen, 70, and Diane Keaton , 77, as the friends head for a long-delayed bachelorette party trip throughout Italy.

Bergen talks to USA TODAY about the "heavenly" two-month Italian shoot and being forced to wear her character Sharon's functional passport belt.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

'Book Club': Here's why it's a love story for women of all ages

Question: You had the juice calling for an Italian sequel for a movie that went on to make $104 million at the box office. Did that surprise you?

Answer: Yeah − who wants to see old women onscreen? Well, it turns out, other old women. And there are a lot of us.

Q: "The Next Chapter" looks so great in Italy. Was it as much fun to travel with your co-stars?

A: Well, Diane usually went ahead of the group, because she's quirky. But we became very close friends and loved shooting in Italy. It was heavenly. We took the train to Florence together, spent two days there going to great restaurants and staying in a fantastic hotel. We shot in Venice for the last 10 days and it doesn't get any better for a location. It never felt like work, ever. It was always relaxed and gorgeous.

Q: In "The Next Chapter," Jane Fonda's character is about to be married to Don Johnson, Mary Steenburgen has a longtime husband (Craig T. Nelson) and Diane Keaton has a serious beau (Andy Garcia). Do you enjoy that Sharon is the single one in both movies?

A: I like being the only one who didn't have a guy. And I liked being a Superior Court judge in the sequel. The fact is that would have been very isolating. So I sort of leaned into that.

Q: Sharon does have a canal boat romp with the dashing Ousmane ( Hugh Quarshie). What do you call that hairstyle, seen in the trailer, when she gets busted by the canal cops?

A: I was going for that post-makeout hairstyle. I just wanted it all messy and in my face. And I got it. I was really going for a laugh.

Q: Sharon also proudly shows off her not-hidden waist passport protector. Do you rock that sensibility when traveling?

A: Never. I would rather die. I just had to divorce myself. This is the character, I cannot identify with that.

Q: Sharon is a cat person with the doomed Ginsburg in "Next Chapter," but in actuality, you're a dog person with an Instagram star pooch named Bruce .

A: I'm primarily a dog person. It's Bruce and his brother Lloyd, who belongs to my daughter, Chloe. Lloyd is the more dominant dog. Bruce is kind of, well, a dumbass. But I love him. And he goes everywhere with me, except for this movie shoot. He couldn't come. It would have cost a fortune.

But quarantining nourished a lot of extracurricular activities, like Instagram. With Instagram, I believe in just being who you are. And if they don't like it, they don't have to look.

Q: The 2018 "Murphy Brown" revival was canceled after 13 episodes and many Trump jokes. Can we blame the then-president for the cancellation?

A: I'd like to blame it on Trump, but I don't think I can in all fairness. The ratings were comparable to shows that stayed on the air. So we were very disappointed because we were having such a good time and working together again. But, well, there you are.

Q: Where's the third "Book Club" movie going to be?

A: If we were to do a third movie, we should do it at Burning Man. That would be hysterical. I've never been (to the festival), and it must be hell. Four old women at Burning Man all covered in dust in our costumes. Everybody would be spitting at me because it was the worst idea. Now here we are because of you.

Burning Man or Hong Kong. Hong Kong just because.

Janet Fonda opens up: Actress discusses her experience with body dysmorphia in her younger years

Previously: Candice Bergen has changed her mind about her pal, ousted CBS chief Leslie Moonves