Summary
Time travel is usually associated with the sci-fi genre, but there are plenty of movies which have elements of time travel without necessarily being classified as sci-fi.Time travel is one of the oldest sci-fi tropes, since it taps into the human desire to rewrite the past and to predict the future. Thebest time travel moviesuse the concept to explore universal themes of mortality, determinism and power.
Most time travel movies are sci-fi, since they require time machines like inBack to the Futureor vortexes and wormholes like inInterstellar.However,some movies try not to provide too much explanation for their time travel.They use the concept just like any other storytelling tool, weaving complex nonlinear narratives or pushing characters into unexpected situations. Horror movies, romcoms and thrillers have all used time travel in creative ways, proving that it isn’t just for sci-fi.
8 Sci-Fi Movies That Break Their Own Time Travel Rules
Even the most beloved of sci-fi movies break their own time travel rules, prioritizing plot and impactful scenes over maintaining consistent lore.
Triangle
Cast
This psychological thriller follows a group of friends stranded on a yacht in the Bermuda Triangle, where they board a passing ship only to experience terrifying temporal distortions and duplications of themselves.
Triangleisa horror movie, and its strange approach to sci-fi makes it much scarier. Without any understanding of the time anomaly she is trapped inside, Jess tries to fight her way through. Ultimately, she gives herself over to the chaos, hoping that the time loop will give her one more chance to make things right with her son. She becomes the monster that she initially fears.
Triangleuses its time travel premise to provide constant twists and turns.
Triangle’s mind-boggling time travelis very neatly constructed, with seemingly inconsequential details coming back later in the story. For example, Jess finds her keys when she first arrives on the ship, and she later understands that she is the one who drops them there in a later iteration of the loop.Triangleuses its time travel premise to provide constant twists and turns.
13 Going on 30
13 Going on 30 is 2004 fantasy romantic comedy about a 13-year-old girl named Jenna Rink, who, in 1987, dreams of being popular and wishes she were “thirty and flirty and thriving.” She later wakes up in 2004 at the age of 30. Jennifer Garner stars as 30-year-old Jenna, while Christa B. Allen plays the role of young Jenna. Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, Jim Gaffigan, and Andy Serkis also star.
13 Going on 30has a lot in common withbody swap comedies, but instead of having two characters switching places, one character wakes up one day in a different body. Jenna finds herself living in the future as an adult.13 Going on 30explains this time travel away with a bag of"magic wishing dust".The reason for the transformation isn’t too important, since13 Going on 30is more concerned with providing some body-swapping fun and games likeFreaky FridayorBig.
Jennifer Garner is charming and funny in13 Going on 30,playing the part of a child in an adult’s body perfectly. Her character gradually figures out what has happened to her, but she spends more time reveling in her newfound freedom and trying to piece together where things went wrong with her childhood friend.13 Going on 30uses time travel to offer Jenna a glimpse at how her life might turn out if she doesn’t learn some harsh lessons.
Palm Springs
Palm Springs is a sci-fi comedy film that sees two strangers, Nyles and Sarah, who meet at a wedding reception and, after heading off for a night of debauchery, are tossed into a strange vortex that keeps them date locked in November 9th with no perceivable way out. Nyles and Sarah bond while trying to find an escape from the odd time loop as the truth behind the vortex slowly unravels.
Palm Springsstars with Andy Samberg’s character, Nyles, already stuck in a time loop. Before too long, his reckless actions drag Cristin Milioti’s Sarah into the loop with him, and the duo have nothing but time to kill. As a time loop romcom,Palm Springswas partly inspired byGroundhog Day,but it does a lot to distinguish itself from the Bill Murray movie.Having two people in the time loop together dramatically alters the dynamic.
Palm Springsflirts with the idea of sci-fi at a few points, like when Sarah tries to figure out a way to escape the loop using concepts from quantum physics. The comedy also stops short before it heads too far into sci-fi territory, however. J. K. Simmons is always on hand to hunt Nyles down with a crossbow whenever the plot needs some picking up. Mostly,the story is about how the time loop forces Nyles and Sarah to share everything with each other, even the things they want to hide from everyone.
8 Best Time Travel Romantic Movies
The best time travel romance movies capture something essential about relationships and the impossible desire to go back and tamper with the past.
Last Night in Soho
In the acclaimed director Edgar Wright’s psychological thriller, Last Night in Soho, Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. However, the glamour is not all it appears to be, and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.
Last Night in Sohofollows a young fashion student living in London as she has dreams about living as a different woman during the 1960s. Gradually, the line betweenEllie’s dreams and her reality starts to blur, as if a part of her really is traveling back to the swinging sixties. Ellie and the woman from her dreams, Sandie, share a strange bond, even though they are separated by several decades.
Last Night in Soho’s unusual time travel wouldn’t be as interesting if the movie explained every detail.
Last Night in Sohois a psychological horror movie, and not sci-fi.It uses some of its unanswered questions to heighten the sense of paranoia and confusion. For example, Ellie never understands why she is having strange dreams, and she repeatedly switches between being a participant in the fantasy and merely an observer.Last Night in Soho’s unusual time travelwouldn’t be as interesting if the movie explained every detail.
“Wright uses scene composition and cues to establish everything from the film’s setting to key character details, efficiently setting up Eloise as a lower-class social outcast eager to fit in. His usual energetic style is also present, helping Last Night in Soho move along at a brisk pace, keeping the viewer engaged. Audiences are transported back to the 1960s along with Eloise thanks to standout production and costume design that’s period accurate and ambitious in scope.” -Chris Agar-Screen Rant’s Last Night in Soho Review
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: In Harry’s third year at Hogwarts, he faces more complex magical challenges and encounters fear-inducing Dementors. The escape of the notorious wizard Sirius Black from Azkaban casts a shadow over the school year, presenting new threats and mysteries for Harry and his friends to unravel.
TheHarry Pottermovies follow Harry as he learns more about the world of witchcraft and wizardry hidden from plain view. However, while he quickly learns how to communicate with snakes, fly on a broomstick, and cast spells, the magic still has some limits. For example, Harry can’t bring his parents back to life, nor can he travel back in time to visit them.The thirdHarry Pottermovie introduces a kind of time travel with several caveats.
Hermione is given a Time-Turner by Professor McGonagall so that she can attend multiple classes simultaneously. She later uses the magic of the Time-Turner to rewind time for herself and Harry, and they watch the events of the movie unfold from a different angle. Adding time travel to the world ofHarry Pottercould have created plenty of plot holes, butHarry and Hermione only use the Time-Turner once.
Why Harry Potter Didn’t Use The Time-Turner Again After Prisoner Of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban introduced time-turners, which allowed the user to travel in time, but these weren’t used again.
Run Lola Run
Run Lola Run is a German thriller film that follows Lola, a young woman who must navigate the streets of Berlin to find 100,000 Deutschmarks to save her boyfriend’s life within 20 minutes. With the clock ticking, Lola’s desperation grows as she encounters a series of obstacles and characters that test her resolve.
Run Lola Runis an experimental German movie that features a branching narrative. Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend telling her that a crime boss is going to kill him if he doesn’t recover a large sum of money within the next 20 minutes. Then,the movie follows three different paths in real time,showing three different decisions Lola could make to try and get the money.
There are different ways to interpretRun Lola Run.It could be that there is no time travel at all, and that the movie just shows three things that could happen, or three ideas that run through Lola’s head while she decides what to do. However, there are a few hints that characters retain memories from the other timelines as the loop restarts. Either way,Run Lola Runis a fascinating exploration of free will and determinism.
Midnight in Paris
Written and directed by Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris stars Owen Wilson as Gil Pender, a struggling writer who, on a trip to Paris with his fiance, begins traveling back in time to the 1920s every night at midnight, leading him to meet and mingle with some of the city’s biggest names of the time. Besides Wilson, the cast includes Rachel McAdams, Tom Hiddleston, Kathy Bates, Marion Cotillard, Corey Stoll, and Adrien Brody.
Midnight in Parisstars Owen Wilson asan American writer on vacation in Paris who finds a way to travel back to the 1920s each night.During his nights back in the past, Gil rubs shoulders with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and more great minds of the era. His fiancée never believes his stories, widening the rift developing between the couple. Gil eventually has to learn that his illusions about the greatness of the past are little more than a story to escape his present.
Gil’s fiancée is played by Rachel McAdams, and this isn’t the only time that she has played the love interest in a time travel movie.McAdams' time travel moviesare a strange career trend, since there aren’t many roles as women in relationships with time travelers to go around. She is in fine form inMidnight in Parisas a dismissive and self-interested American tourist.
It’s a Wonderful Life
Frank Capra’s classic Christmas film tells the story of George Bailey, a small-town business and family man who, after a series of personal and business losses, attempts to jump off a bridge on Christmas Eve. Bailey is stopped before he can jump by Clarence, an angel who wishes to show him how much impact he has had on those around him in order to keep him from killing himself. Jimmy Stewart stars as George Bailey, with a further cast that includes Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Henry Travers.
Frank Capra’s Christmas classic gets routinely trotted out in movie theaters all over the world every December, and its sweet message is just as powerful today as it was back in the 1940s.It’s a Wonderful Lifeis filled with inspiring quotes, all building up to a heartwarming finale. Althoughit was made just after the Second World War,It’s a Wonderful Lifeis an adaptation of a much older story.
There have been plenty of adaptations of Charles Dickens’A Christmas Carolover the years, includingIt’s a Wonderful Life,Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture animation version, andThe Muppets Christmas Carol.Each of them features a protagonist being shown his past, present and future by some supernatural beings.This is a magical approach to time travel that doesn’t require any scientific explanation.
7 Things That Happen In Every Time Travel Movie & TV Show
Time travel movies & TV shows can differ greatly in quality & content, but many enduring genre tropes are included in most time travel content.
About Time
When Tim Lake learns that he, like all the men in his family, has the ability to travel back in time, he decides to use this ability to help him find love and improve his and his loved ones' lives.
Richard Curtis made a name for himself as a master of romcoms with movies likeFour Weddings and a FuneralandNotting Hill.About Timeproves that he can add a dash of time travel to his movies without losing any of his heart or humor. Although time travel is involved,About Timeis about as far removed from the likes ofBack to the Futureas possible.Tim doesn’t use a high-tech time machine to relive his past. Instead, he just has to shut himself in a closet and close his eyes.This isn’t cinematic at all, but that’s the point.
With his newfound powers, Tim tries to woo the love of his life and erase any bumbling missteps he makes along the way. He soon learns that there are some important consequences to his powers, and that there is no substitute for experiencing something real and organic.About Timeis a beautifully written and acted movie, able to make its audience cry as well as laugh.
Groundhog Day
In Groundhog Day, the arrogant weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) finds himself living the exact same day over and over for what feels like an eternity. To cope with his curse, he learns a variety of skills in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and tries to earn the heart of his colleague Rita Hanson (Andie MacDowell) while he adapts to the time loop.
Groundhog Daydidn’t invent the time loop trope, but it perfected the subgenre, and plenty of similar movies have had to stand up to comparisons ever since. Bill Murray stars as an arrogant weatherman who is forced to repeat Groundhog Day in the small snowed-in town of Punxsutawney. With no end in sight to his strange ordeal, he travels through periods of intense depression and manic delirium.
Groundhog Dayisn’t about the specifics of whatever time anomaly is causing Phil trouble. It’s about how he responds to the situation.
Groundhog Dayis one ofBill Murray’s best movies. His charming performance makes Phil a great character to spend time with.He never figures out what exactly is causing the time loop, but he never has any clues.All he can do is pass the time in his new existence, since he has no way of knowing how to break free.Groundhog Dayisn’t about the specifics of whatever time anomaly is causing Phil trouble. It’s about how he responds to the situation.
