Time-Travel Movies/TV Shows

[Darryl The Hitman]

As long as I can recall, I've always been a fan of time-travel. The idea of going back in time and changing something and then coming back to your own time to see the effect your action had has always fascinated me. By the same token, I also like the thought of being able to go forward in time and being able to see how your hometown and/or the world evolves and whether it moves in a direction that makes sense or that doesn't seem to have anything to do with your present.

Space travel always leaves me cold although I don't know why. Maybe it's because space travel is something we've already achieved whereas to date, nobody has invented time-travel (that we know of anyway).

In any case, which are some of your favorite TV shows or movies (or books, I suppose) about time-travel and why?

I've always loved the Back To The Future trilogy and I'm pretty sure most people have seen those and will understand why I love them so much.

I enjoy seeing alternate methods or theories of how time-travel might work. Whether it's Timecop where the same matter cannot occupy the same space or Los Cronocrimenes (Timecrimes) where the same matter can do more than occupy the same space, whether it's' Back To The Future or Frequency where multiple-timelines are possible or 12 Monkeys or Timecrimes which have a single-timeline, I enjoy seeing movies which have contrasting approaches to time-travel.

I also like TV shows although I can only think of two off the top of my head: Doctor Who and Quantum Leap. They have alternate theories (The Doctor can go anywhere in time whereas Sam Beckett can only go within his own lifetime or along his family tree) but I enjoy them for the same reason: they tell completely different stories from week-to-week but you tune in because you enjoy the chemistry between the leading pair of characters whether it's Sam and Al or The Doctor and his various Companions.

So which are your favorite time-travel stories and why?

What about books? Do any of you know of any interesting stories to read? Since it involves information travelling back and forth, I count Paycheck as a time-travel story and the movie and especially Philip K. Dick's original short story are quite interesting, I think.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Back To The Future has to be at the top of my list. This trilogy was pretty damn good. Christopher Lloyd was GREAT as Doc Brown, and Michael J. Fox did an awesome job with the Marty McFly character. The Back To The Future film sereis had so many good characters. You had the muscle head bully, Biff Tannen. George McFly was this nerdy and scared loser who you felt sorry for. You wanted to see him stand up to Biff, and he finally delivered the knockout punch in the first film. Mr. Strickland was also another favorite character of mine. He was a hard-ass, but his character was kind of funny. The scene where he scares Marty with the shotgun in Back To The Future II is soooo hilarious. Needles and Jennifer are some other honorable mentions.

I think Back To The Future II is the best film of the entire trilogy. I enjoyed the first film, but I've never been able to get into Back To The Future III. I wasn't too crazy about the ending, and the whole western setting and theme just didn't do it for me.

Another time travel movie I enjoy is The Butterfly Effect. I know this film gets shitted on a lot, but I thought it was pretty good. The story was good, and the way Ashton Kutcher traveled through time was really unique. Kutcher's character would read his journals to travel back in time, and I thought this method of time travel was very cool. Also, Kutcher's character was someone who wanted to feel for. I enjoyed this film, but I won't defend the other two films. The straight-to-DVD releases were shit films, and there's no denying that.

And I can't forget about Donnie Darko. This film was GREAT. Donnie Darko had such a unique story. This story keeps you hooked from beginning to end. This film is so mysterious, and Jake Gyllenhaal did a great gob with the Donnie character. Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze also put on fine performances here. When it comes to time travel films, someone always has to make a sacrifice or tough decision, and Donnie's decision to stay in bed was gut wrenching to watch. The ending is kind of bittersweet, but I still love this movie. I was actually looking forward to S.Darko when I first saw it last year, but I was very disappointed. That film was horrendous in every way, and it deserves all of the hatred it gets.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I loved Donnie Darko as well but I didn't want to list all my favorites in the first post because I wanted to leave room for other people to comment about their favorites. S.Darko si nowhere near as good as the original but it's much less horrible than I thought it would be. On its own terms, it's not that bad a movie but compared to the original, it's much worse.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I liked the concept of The Butterfly Effect but it's pretty bad when the 5-year-old version of Ashton Kutcher is a better actor than he is. I just wish I'd known there was two endings the first time I saw it. I never saw it in the theater so I saw it on DVD a couple years ago and I saw The Director's Cut ending and it was very very depressing. The original ending is downbeat as well but at least it doesn't leave a sour taste in your mouth as the DC did.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I too have always been fascinated by the idea of going back in time to change something and then returning to see the impact of that change. Back To the Future is probably my favorite movie that involved time travel. This type of story was ahead of its time and went on to become very inspirational. The reasons it wins for me are because of nostalgia as well as the ideas of changing something in the past to completely change the future, and the concept of seeing "the other you from another time period" screwing up the time space continuum. Things like that were very inspirational for me when writing the time traveling portion of the story in my video game. Back To the Future wins here and it's not even close. Although I will always be fascinated by time travel and the inevitable issues it causes in tv shows or movies.

 

[Phoenix]

Aside from the previously mentioned, the three films that stand out for me are Star Trek IV, Star Trek: First Contact and TimeCop. With the former, it was a nice idea of where you go back in time and have no clue what to do except find the Whales. It was nice good comedy element of time travel, having absolutely no clue about anything or the period they're in. This I was fond of where Back to the Future was close quartered, Star Trek IV really showed how much Time Travel can truly be something to look on the funny side.

Star Trek: First Contact is just as enjoyable but it's more about being a thriller, much like Back to the Future, it's about playing a role in a significant part of history. It's nice seeing about how knowing about the future can be offputting for some people.

The other is TimeCop, yes, it is a cheesy Van Damme film, but it is one of my favourites to be honest. While it takes the element of that you can't go forwards and that the same matter cannot occupy the same space, it does make a good film on the approach that people can abuse time travel and is there anyone to truly police it. Another original and unique concept with the vintage Van Damme elements we know and love. Certainly shows that there are darker sides to time travel outside the usual fun and games that can occur.

TV series wise, you got Heroes naturally, now the first series was great for that concept but it became serious overkill for the later seasons and it truly never got back to form in its storytelling, on top of that the future was always involving the world in danger. If you want a good time travel arc from Heroes, the first season only truly satisfies on that front.

Another series that springs to mind was a one off series called Crime Travellers, it was only around for one season but this was taking the concept of using time travel to solve a crime. It was fun to watch as it had its ups but naturally it wouldn't last but I would certainly like to this concept used again. One of the unique features is that with the time travel, you had to return back to the present time before it happens or you got lost in a dimmension trap, at leats I think it was that.

As many have said, Time Travel is a good concept and I love the idea of it, but naturally there's never been a true consistency with people's concept of time travel, so seeing one theory mix with another can be frustrating at times. But otherwise it's a great theme to watch on any given day.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

If you think about it, time travel is actually futile in most instances.

Think about it. Let's say that you build a time machine so that for example, you can go back and save your wife from being murdered. You build the machine, go back in time, change what you set out to change, and then what?

If you succeeded, surely you should cease to exist immediately, because the guy whose wife got murdered would never come to exist, because he's changed the circumstances that created him in the first place.

Or, as soon as you activate your machine, nothing would happen, because suppose you did travel back in time and change the past intentionally, then there would never have been any need to build the time machine in the first place, so therefore you never went back in time and changed anything, right?

Take Back To The Future 2 for example. Old Biff shouldn't have come back from the past in the time machine. Old Biff should have given his younger self the Sports Almanac, and then Old Biff should have ceased to exist immediately, because in the new 2015 that he created, there would never have been a time machine for him to steal and set those events into motion, and he'd never want to because he'd never have become the 80 year old still polishing cars.

In fact, it should have been impossible for him to return to that 2015 in the first place. Remember, Doc Brown tells Marty that they can't go to the future to set things right, because the future they'd travel to would be the future of the new timeline, and not the future of the timeline they recognise....... so how the fuck did Biff manage to travel back to 1955, change everything so he became a millionaire, and yet managed to return to his original 2015, when Doc Brown said doing that exact thing would be impossible?

In films like BTTF where they travel back in time to retrieve someone or do it accidentally, then i can see how that works, but in the Butterfly Effect, i don't see how you'd actually be able to change anything, without ceasing to exist or creating time paradoxes that destroy everything anyway.

Here's some random trivia for ya. Did you know that people actually petitioned to have BTTF 1 changed? Why? Well i'll tell you:

On two separate occassions Marty McFly accidentally sets in motion 2 sets of events that were hugely significant changes in 1950's America.

1. He meets Goldie Wilson in the cafe working as a bus boy, as all african americans did back then (obviously they weren't all bus boys, but they did all get the shit jobs), and Marty without thinking, blurts out that one day he'll become the Mayor of Hill Valley, an idea that Goldie hadn't even considered until Marty said something.

During the height of the civil rights movement, Marty encouraged a black man to become a political figure.

2. At the school dance after George has knocked out Biff, and Marty's onstage filling in for the guitar player, he decides to play 'Johnny B. Goode' so he can finally get the chance to show off his skills in front of an audience. Of course in 1955, that song hadn't been written, and as we know, the singer of the band calls Chuck Berry, and plays the song down the phone to him.

Marty McFly gave Chuck Berry, a black musician, the idea for 'Johnny B Goode'.

So in two separate instances in this film, African Americans make huge headway for the civil rights movement, all thanks to a white man.

And there's no show in particular, but there's a 2-part Justice League Unlimited episode called 'The Once and The Future Thing' that stands as one of my all time favourites.

Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman are taken back in time by a man named David Clinton, who refers to himself as Chronos, who builds a time machine so he can steal artifacts from the past that no one will miss. At first he loses them in the Old West where he's captured and the JL turn up 6 months later, and rescue him witht he help of Jonah Hex, Bat Lash and a few others.

Once free, Chronos deceives them and manages to escape to his own time where he manages to wipe out the future Justice League bar a few, and take over Gotham while littering it with ancient buildings and monuments, the Titanic being a prime example, and he even goes further forward in time to get weapons for the Jokerz to use when Bats, GL and WW will eventually show up.

Anyway, i mostly like this for some of the great dialogue between Original Batman, Old Bruce Wayne, and New Batman, Terry McGuinness.

Old Bruce Surprised to see me?
Batman A little. I'm more surprised that i actually lived this long
Terry (trying to add levity to the situation) Bruce Wayne, Batman. Batman, Bruce Wayne..... Or have you met?
Bruce and Bats together Not now!
Terry Great. What did they used to call it? Stereo?

And then later, once they've worked out how dire their situation is, Batman decides to go out looking for clues:

Batman Sometimes the old ways work best.
Terry You can't. Too much has changed. It's too risky. You won't know this city anymore.
Batman Are criminals still superstitious and cowardly?
Silence across the room
Old Bruce(without even turning round to answer)..... yep.
Batman Good enough for me.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I am a massive fan of the Denzel Washington film Deja-Vu, where he finds a way of altering the past, to hopefully prevent a murder and an explosion on a boat which killed hundreds of sailors.

Spoiler

Val Kilmers team have found a way of looking into the past, bending time as they describe it, but it can only be looked at once so you need to know where to look in order to catch a criminal in the process of commiting a crime, or before he does it, rather than waiting until after the deed is done.

Washington is recruited as he is the one who can tell them where to look, and he finds out a way of maybe altering the past not just looking into it. I wont say any more as it will spoil the plot but there are so many twists and turns in this movie, plus Denzel is always fucking awesome no matter what he is in.

Whenever I explain the storyline to someone they say it sounds shit, and I admit, time travel sounds awful and cheesy but just watch the film and you will love it.

 

[Mustang Sally]

An entirely new concept of time travel was introduced by Stephen King (who else?) in "The Langoliers," in which a group of people on an airplane went back in time about 15 minutes, only to discover that the "past" is erased shortly after it happens by an entity that turns what had happened into nothingness. The point of it all is to show that there's no sense in developing a method of time travel because there's no past to travel to. A great, great movie.

Another one is "A Sound of Thunder" in which an entertainment promoter gets control of a time machine and sends people back 65 million years to participate in a "dinosaur hunt." The problem is that one of the people who went back accidentally (and unknowingly) kills a butterfly that was originally supposed to have lived. You would think that nothing much would change because of this, but over 65 million years, lots of things changed; the climate, plant life, animal life.....and finally, human life. Each change hit the present in waves that altered life as we know it. The movie had a lot of weaknesses, but the implications of changing the past really gives the audience a lot to think about.

In books, a great time travel book to read is "Lightning" by Dean Koontz in which a man from the past (1944 Nazi Germany) uses a time machine to alter events in his future, primarily to benefit a woman from his future (our present) whom he falls in love with. Talk about a timeless love affair! It was the best time travel book I ever read.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I'm not sure it's meant to be considered canon but in one of the deleted scenes in BTTF II, Biff fades out of existence once he gets back to 2015 because apparently Lorraine shot him in 1995 in the "1985-A" timeline.

I often enjoy thinking about how many DeLoreans are in Hill Valley in a given time. In the 1955 part of Part II, there are three (the one Marty brings back in part I, the one Doc and Marty bring back in Part II, and the one Biff brings back from 2015). I also love thinking about how once Doc gets struck by lightning, his DeLorean is immediately replaced by the one in the abandoned mine that's been sitting there for 70 years.

 

[SorgFamily]

Well, my wife is a huge fan of Doctor Who and I enjoy them to a point. I've watched most of the five seasons and it's pretty good with the Doctor and his companion often running into important figures from the past fighting off aliens, yeah. Not really a time travel movie but I immensely enjoyed "Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind" in which Jim Carrey travels in his mind back to previous memories about his ex-girlfriend, Kate Winslet, while a firm he hired tries to erases them. Brilliant film.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I suppose we should also discuss bad time-travel stories/adaptations. I picked up The Time Traveler's Wife and enjoyed the novel thoroughly. I was worried it was going to be more chick-flick than sci-fi but it struck a really good balance. It was subtle about the ending but in retrospect, there were enough clues dropped that it didn't come as a complete surprise.

The ending didn't come as a surprise in the movie either but unfortunately, where the book had light touches and clever asides, the movie hammered its points home and spelled things right out. The book made me want to see the movie whereas the movie made want to read the book again just to get the "taste" of the movie out of my mind.

 

[Alex]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned The Terminator series. The first film was brilliant. A Terminator is sent back in time to kill the mother of the leader of the resistance (John Conner and a soldier is sent back to protect her (Kyle Reese). and the ending is just great.

Kyle Reese turns out to be John Connor's dad and when the terminator is destroyed at the end of the film Cyberdyne (the people who created Skynet who want to destroy the humans) find the Terminator's arm and broken CPU. they then use these in reasearch to create a superpowered computer system (Skynet) so it's all a big loop.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

If you have the time to watch it at least four times, I recommend Primer (2004). It may or may not have been mentioned already, but this film was a festival/indie darling and was made for some insanely paltry amount. Essentially, it's about four entrepreneurs who make a time machine in one of their garages and, well, I still can't tell you what happens afterwards since I've only seen it once. Anyway, I think what makes the film so confusing to most of us is the fact that it was made by an engineer versed in the philosophy of space and time. So, if that's your cup of tea, I highly recommend it.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

I finally saw Primer earlier this year and I almost understood it the first time through but I'll admit I had to go to Wikipedia afterwards to figure some things out. It probably didn't help that I was watching it just before falling asleep (my TV, VCR, and Blu-Ray player are on a stand right beside my bed so I can roll over and go to sleep afterwards if need be.

 

[LitasRevenge79]

I agree that Back To the Future was a great franchise for this concept. I'm surprised no one ever mentioned Quantum Leap. The story of Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula). He is a scientist that is doing an experiment on a time travel machine, he gets lost in time, with the help of a hologram, named Al, that always has a cigar, and wise cracks. He basically goes back in various points in time to "put right what once went wrong." Anything from the mundane points, to historical points in time, and various historical figures, such as Watergate scandal, Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker, JFK assassination, Elvis and so on, and other persons. He would leap from body to body, and when he looked in a reflective surface, he would see who he is supposed to help fix the 'circumstance' for in that era. I remember watching this show religiously as a youngster. To this day, anytime its on, I still get a kick out of watching it. I highly recommend anyone to check this show out. Its very good if you like this time travel stuff, and with some humor involved seeing a man dressed up in weird clothes from time to time. But nonetheless, it was a very fast forward show for its time.

 

[Darryl The Hitman]

It was a great show and I always wondered how long it would've gone on if NBC hadn't stuck their nose in. According to showrunner Don Bellisario (who also did Magnum PI and went onto JAG and NCIS, I think), NBC wanted Sam to start Leaping into the future. Bellisario didn't think this would work since he couldn't figure out how Al and Ziggy would be able to help Sam predict the future since it hadn't happened yet for Al and Ziggy. He decided to end the show instead and didn't even bother filiming a new finale--instead, he decied to use the episode they had filmed at the end of Season 3 two years before when they thought they were getting cancelled.

I've seen Los Cronocrimenes and I love it. It's a very small-scale, small-budget thing but the central premise is just so much fun to wrap your brain around. I believe David Cronenberg is making an American version of it but I'm not sure when it starts filming.

 

[Alastor]

Surprised nobody suggested 4400. The 4400 is a sci-fi TV series that had a little bit of time traveling element in the plot. 4400 people that disappeared at various time since 1946 returned to the present at the same location at the same time. None of them had aged from the time they were gone and could not remember what happened to them. These people then start to exhibit paranormal abilities. The tv series follows how agents in the department of homeland security deal with the emergence of the 4400.

I would recommend the show as a cross between Heroes and 24. A spoiler/warning if you want to watch it, the series was canceled after season 4 so the last episode of the series ended with a cliffhanger.