# Great time travel movies - 10 years later **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 10, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774 "2014-04-10T02:46:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/21 "2014-04-10T17:10:47Z")
[Millennium](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097883/) - saw it on video, or possibly HBO, back in the early 90s and I remember it being really interesting but extremely strange and somewhat difficult to follow, but I was like 13 at the time so I’m guessing it would make much more sense were I to watch it today (hopefully). ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/22 "2014-04-10T17:38:03Z")
Nothing new to add, but I’ve seen most of the movies mentioned here, and give high recommendations to _Time After Time_, _The Time traveler’s Wife_, and _Frequency_. Oh, yeah, and the _Doctor Who_ episode _Blink_. Yeah, it’s a TV show and not a movie, and the whole _Doctor Who_ series is about time travel, but that particular episode plays around with cause-and-effect paradoxes especially well. BTW, **Orr,G.** , can I find _La Jetée_ anywhere online? I haven’t seen that in over 35 years, and I’ve searched for it with no luck. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/23 "2014-04-10T17:54:12Z")
_Army of Darkness_ - because it’s awesome. _Star Trek: First Contact_ - best of TNG films. _Donnie Darko_ - strange, mostly nonsensical movie about [nobody really knows], but I love it anyways. _Idiocracy_ - best documentary ever. _Men In Black 3_ - actually my favorite of the MiB films. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/24 "2014-04-10T18:00:12Z")
_About Time_ > **[About Time (2013) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2194499/)** > > About Time: Directed by Richard Curtis. With Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson. At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a... British romantic dramedy film revolving around time travel where a young man tries to change his past to have a better future. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/25 "2014-04-10T18:11:32Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > Nothing new to add, but I’ve seen most of the movies mentioned here, and give high recommendations to _Time After Time_, _The Time traveler’s Wife_, and _Frequency_. _Frequency_ doesn’t seem to come up often in time travel discussions (perhaps because of the technicality that no one actually travels, except the slow way), but I find it a very well made and enjoyable example. > [@](#): > > Oh, yeah, and the _Doctor Who_ episode _Blink_. Yeah, it’s a TV show and not a movie, and the whole _Doctor Who_ series is about time travel, but that particular episode plays around with cause-and-effect paradoxes especially well. Also, it has the best description of time itself ever recorded. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jfreakofkorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jfreakofkorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jfreakofkorn)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/26 "2014-04-10T18:12:28Z")
goonies ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/27 "2014-04-10T19:10:19Z")
(ahem) the Planet of the Apes movies. The old ones. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/28 "2014-04-10T19:15:14Z")
Some titles I haven’t seen mentioned yet: (I only skimmed; I see some of these were mentioned.) Primer - The standard in consistent time travel logic if you’re able to follow it. Will likely require several viewings plus internet research to grasp the totality of its vision. Extremely low budget. (Less than 20k.) Triangle - Time travel plus horror, with a nice reveal at the end. The I Inside - Anything with Sarah Polley in it is aces in my book. Memento - Does it count as a time travel movie if only one character, plus we the audience through the eyes of that character, does any time traveling at all? Probably not. There is no time travel in the movie in any way, but it sure feels like it from our perspective. The Jacket - Not the greatest movie, but I kind of dug it. And it’s legitimate time travel fiction. Jacob Ladder - It’s not really a time travel story, unless you look at it sideways. Horror. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/29 "2014-04-10T19:19:30Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > [Millennium](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097883/) - saw it on video, or possibly HBO, back in the early 90s and I remember it being really interesting but extremely strange and somewhat difficult to follow, but I was like 13 at the time so I’m guessing it would make much more sense were I to watch it today (hopefully). 1. I saw the film at 20 and it didn’t make much sense either. For some reason, the scene where Cheryl Ladd is chain smoking while eating a salad has been stuck in my memory since then. 2. I just read the book this past weekend and it made less sense than the film. Cheryl Ladd’s character was (in the novel) f-ing a robot, and I believe the robot eventually became God to all the people who were time-napped. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/30 "2014-04-10T19:20:24Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > BTW, **Orr,G.** , can I find _La Jetée_ anywhere online? I haven’t seen that in over 35 years, and I’ve searched for it with no luck. [http://vimeo.com/46620661](http://vimeo.com/46620661) English dub version. I remember watching an English sub version, but this is the closest I found today. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/31 "2014-04-10T20:06:46Z")
Netflix has La Jetee. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/32 "2014-04-10T20:37:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > 1. I saw the film at 20 and it didn’t make much sense either. For some reason, the scene where Cheryl Ladd is chain smoking while eating a salad has been stuck in my memory since then. I don’t remember much about _Millenium_ but I also remember that scene. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/33 "2014-04-10T21:09:53Z")
[Time After Time](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_After_Time_(1979_film)): a time-travelling H G Wells has to stop Jack the Ripper in late 70s America. Sounds rubbish from the premise, but a very good film. ---
**Author:** ![aa6vh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@aa6vh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aa6vh)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/34 "2014-04-10T21:16:45Z")
Am I the only one who enjoyed _Timeline_? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/35 "2014-04-10T21:33:50Z")
I haven’t seen it yet but a friend recently recommended 2009’s _Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel_ to me. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/36 "2014-04-10T22:53:31Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Memento - Does it count as a time travel movie if only one character, plus we the audience through the eyes of that character, does any time traveling at all? Probably not. There is no time travel in the movie in any way, but it sure feels like it from our perspective. > > Jacob Ladder - It’s not really a time travel story, unless you look at it sideways. Horror. Neither of these films are about time travel. _Memento_ is a standard thriller with the story told in reverse, which dovetails nicely with the protagonist’s anterograde amnesia. _Jacob’s Ladder_ is a horror film interspersed with Vietnam flashbacks, although by the end, it’s revealed that the “flashbacks” are actually in Real Time, where Jacob Singer is slowly dying from combat injuries, whereas the “main story” represents his journey towards the afterlife. But since we’re loosening up the definition of “time travel” here, I’ll add a couple more: **Donnie Darko** : Hardly any time “travel” in this film, until it becomes clear that the time/space continuum’s been badly broken and somebody (Donnie, naturally) needs to “go back” and fix the problem. **The Butterfly Effect** : Again, more of a “fix the space/time continuum” style of movie, but with many more hops back & forth in time. An excellent, underrated film; possibly Ashton Kutcher’s best role to date. **Run Lola Run** : Another butterfly-effect story, where Lola must complete a certain task by a certain time – she fails, “reloads from a saved game”, tries and fails again, “reloads” and succeeds. Along the way, she meets random strangers whose personal destinies (as shown via a montage of Polaroid snapshots) become dramatically different due to tiny alterations in each time-stream. It’s actually more like an 80-minute techno video – but if you enjoy watching Franka Potente work up a sweat in a red wig while wearing a skimpy pale blue tank top, this movie earns my full recommendation. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/37 "2014-04-10T23:08:07Z")
Run Lola Run is an excellent film, and does fit the “feel” of the time travel genre if not technically qualifying. Regarding your description, I viewed it as more of a quantum story told in three different universes. > [@obfusciatrist](#): > > I haven’t seen it yet but a friend recently recommended 2009’s _Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel_ to me. I saw it and enjoyed it, but it’s now been a few years and I remember almost nothing about it. I’ll watch anything with Anna Faris, so for all I know it was terrible, but I do remember enjoying the film. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/38 "2014-04-11T01:20:48Z")
I’ve always been a sucker for [Peggy Sue Got Married](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091738/combined). ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/39 "2014-04-11T01:45:15Z")
The only one I can think of that hasn’t been mentioned is _Deja Vu_, with Denzel Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774/40 "2014-04-11T02:37:36Z")
But where oh where is _Time Cop_? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-time-travel-movies-10-years-later/685774.md?page=3)