30 Best Time-Travel Movies to Watch If You’re Ready to Leave 2020 Behind
Does 2020 have you googling “best time-travel movies” as a last-resort attempt to try and transport yourself to a different version of reality? No, just us? Well, it's certainly understandable. Who wouldn't want to get out of this year, if only for a couple hours? The idea that you could potentially jump into a machine and change the past à la Back to the Future or stumble upon an infinite time loop like in Palm Springs is an interesting thought experiment, to say the least.
Or maybe you're just out of things to watch. Whatever the case, the best time-travel movies cover every genre. Looking for a tug-at-your-heartstrings romance? Try About Time or The Time Traveler's Wife (both of which star Rachel McAdams, who must have a thing for time travel). If a sci-fi action flick sounds more appealing, the Terminator films still hold up. For a goofy comedy, watch Hot Tub Time Machine or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Like we said, there's something for everyone.
©Hulu/Courtesy Everett Collection1/30Palm Springs (2020)
So Palm Springs is not technically a time-travel movie, but it's definitely time-travel adjacent. The film follows Sarah (Cristin Milioti) and Nyles (Andy Samberg), two acquaintances who find themselves perpetually repeating Sarah's sister's wedding day. Frankly, this rom-com might remind you of your own quarantine time loop (in the best way possible, of course).
©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection2/30Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
A group of buddies (John Cusack, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Rob Corddry) wake up after a night of partying in a ski resort hot tub to find themselves back in 1986. They even look like versions of their younger selves to the others they meet along the way. But can they actually fix the messes their lives have become?
©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection3/30The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
The Time Traveler's Wife is a 2009 science fiction drama film based on Audrey Niffenegger's novel of the same name. The story follows Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana), a man who happens to have the ability to time-travel but has no control over when or where he goes in time. While that's complicated enough, things become even more complex for DeTamble once he starts building a romantic relationship with Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams).
©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection4/30The Butterfly Effect (2004)
The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 science fiction thriller film starring Ashton Kutcher as 20-year-old Evan Treborn and Amy Smart as Kayleigh Miller, Treborn's college sweetheart. In the film, Evan finds he can travel back in time to inhabit his former self and attempts to change the present by changing his past. But, as any good time-travel fan can tell you, changing the past means there will be unintended consequences in the future.
©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection5/30Idiocracy (2006)
Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) is a super-average dude in 2005 who agrees to take part in an experiment (alongside Maya Rudolph) that puts him into hibernation until 2505. The thing is, when he wakes up, he discovers that humans have become so unintelligent that he's now the smartest person in the whole wide world. It's both hysterical and a cutting satire that draws some parallels to our current state of affairs.
Atsushi Nishijima /© Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection6/30A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Ava DuVernay directed an all-star cast in this Disney adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's beloved 1962 novel of the same name. Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling play three immortal beings who help a young girl (Storm Reid) search for her missing father across space and time.
©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection7/30Click (2006)
Adam Sandler plays a man whose wife (Kate Beckinsale) is frustrated by how much time he spends at work and away from his family. He thinks all his problems are solved when he comes into possession of a magical remote that allows him to fast-forward through the mundane parts of life. But, of course, nothing's quite that simple.
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection8/30About Time (2013)
No, you're not seeing things—Rachel McAdams has, in fact, starred in multiple films in which she has a time-traveling partner. In this case, her love is played by Domhnall Gleeson, who is actively trying to change his past in order to have a better future. Prepare to possibly shed a tear or two with this one.
©New Line Cinema/courtesy Everett Collection9/30Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Yeah, baby! In the second installment of the Mike Myers series, Austin Powers, Dr. Evil, and the whole crew find themselves back in the ’60s. Dr. Evil is trying to steal Austin’s “mojo,” and along with Heather Graham's Felicity Shagwell, the international man of mystery tries to thwart the bad guys.
©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection10/30Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)
After conquering the late ’60s in the second film, the Austin Powers trilogy is completed with a trip back to 1975. Austin teams up with Beyoncé, a.k.a. Foxxy Cleopatra, when Dr. Evil plans to bring back a notorious villain called Johan van der Smut, the titular Goldmember. It is as ridiculous and amusing as the first two films, naturally.
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection11/30Back to the Future (1985)
Great Scott! Doc Brown's (Christopher Lloyd) DeLorean time machine sends Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) back to his parents' high school days in 1955, and things get very awkward when his mom (Lea Thompson) develops a crush on him. He has to work hard to make sure his future existence isn't totally erased.
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection12/30Back to the Future Part II (1989)
In the second film of the Back to the Future franchise, Marty and Doc find themselves in yet another time-space conundrum. This time they have to travel to 2015 (a world that people in the ’80s imagined would have us all on hoverboards!) to try to make sure the evil Biff doesn’t take over the town.
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection13/30Back to the Future Part III (2000)
The third installment of the Back to the Future trilogy may not be its strongest, but if you're a completist, you're going to want to see Marty's journey through. This time around he and Doc Brown find themselves in the Wild Wild West. Actually, is this the movie that eventually led us to Westworld?!?
©Touchstone Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection14/30Deja Vu (2006)
Technology allows a team of federal agents, including Denzel Washington, to go back in time four days to try to stop a massive ferry bombing set off by a terrorist (Jim Caviezel, who also time-traveled in Frequency). But will Washington's character also use the tech to stop other crimes, thereby messing with the future? You'll have to watch and see.
Michele K. Short / © Universal /Courtesy Everett Collection15/30Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
In the sequel to Happy Death Day, Tree (Jessica Rothe) finds herself in yet another time-loop situation—and this time she seemingly moves through different dimensions. While her life is still very much in danger, this sequel adds some very emotional scenes that happen when an important figure from Tree's past makes her way into the present.
©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection16/30Looper (2012)
In Looper's version of the future, which was directed by Rian Johnson, time travel totally exists—if you can afford to pay for it on the black market. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a time-traveling hit man who finds himself in quite the predicament when a future version of himself (Bruce Willis) is sent back to eliminate him.
©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection17/30See You Yesterday (2019)
Teen science prodigies experimenting in making time-travel backpacks? Um, we're already all the way in. But everything takes a dramatic turn when one of their brothers is killed and the two try to put their work into action to change the past. Did we mention this was also produced by Spike Lee?
Orion Pictures Corporation/Courtesy Everett Collection18/30The Terminator (1984)
In this James Cameron action classic from the ’80s, a cyborg assassin who is disguising himself as a human (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) because of the threat her future son will one day become—and a blockbuster franchise was born.
©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection19/30Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Set 11 years after the original film, this James Cameron–helmed sequel finds Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator in the role of protector of Linda Hamilton's son, played by Edward Furlong, because a shape-shifting T-1000 (Robert Patrick) is out to kill him, naturally. Also, Hamilton's fitness routine must have been incredible prefilming because she is a very strong badass.
©Orion Pictures Corp/Courtesy Everett Collection20/30Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) and Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter), go on quite the excellent adventure indeed, dudes. The best friends use a phone booth time machine to ensure they both pass their history class—and keep Ted from being shipped off to military school. Their interactions with historical figures are very righteous, and you'll want to watch the original film in preparation for the upcoming reboot.
Allstar Picture Library Ltd. / Alamy Stock Photo21/30Kate & Leopold (2001)
Rom-com meets fantasy in this Meg Ryan–Hugh Jackman film in which Liev Schreiber plays a physicist who opens a portal through which his great-great-grandfather Leopold travels from 19th-century New York to modern times and falls in love with his ex-girlfriend (Ryan). Talk about complicated family dynamics, right?
©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection22/30Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
Peggy Sue is an unhappy woman on the verge of divorce attending her 25-year high school reunion after leaving her cheating husband (Nicolas Cage). Magically, she finds herself reliving her senior year and she's faced with whether or not to change some of the choices she grew to regret as an adult.
©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection23/30Star Trek (2009)
Directed by science fiction king J.J. Abrams, this reboot of the beloved Star Trek franchise had a unique plot for James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), and the staff aboard the USS Enterprise: All the action takes place in an alternate reality, because of time travel, which allowed the movie to operate free from any continuity restraints from the original Star Trek series.
©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection24/30Frequency (2000)
A New York police officer (Jim Caviezel) in 1999 somehow crosses radio frequencies (get it?!) with the past and soon begins to communicate with his father, a firefighter who died in the line of duty when he was a kid. But will he be able to change what transpired on that tragic day in 1969?
AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo25/3012 Monkeys (1995)
Maybe don't watch this one until you're ready for the too-real plot: A deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity, so a prisoner (Bruce Willis) is trained to be sent back in time to find the original virus and help establish a cure. Brad Pitt was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film.
©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection26/30Men in Black III (2012)
Set 15 years after the events of the original Men in Black, this third installment in the franchise was a hit with critics and at the box office for its action-packed plot in which Agent J (Will Smith) must travel back to the 1960s to save a young Agent K (Josh Brolin, in the role originated by Tommy Lee Jones) from a murderous, time-hopping alien.
©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection27/30Clockstoppers (2002)
If you're feeling an early-aughts teen comedy with a side of time travel, Clockstoppers is, well, your only option. Jesse Bradford plays Zak, the son of a scientist who accidentally finds a watch that can essentially stop time. So, of course, the first thing he does is use it to impress his crush Francesca (Paula Garcés) and best friend Meeker (Garikayi Mutambirwa).
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection28/30Somewhere in Time (1980)
Christopher Reeve stars as a playwright who becomes obsessed with the photograph of a woman from 1912 (Jane Seymour), to the point that he magically finds himself transported back in time to find her. Fun fact: Visit Michigan's Mackinac Island, where this was filmed, and you'll feel like you're in another era yourself. The island famously has a ban on motor vehicles.
©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection29/30The Lake House (2006)
Keanu Reeves plays a hot architect, Alex, who renovates a lake house in Wisconsin and sometimes writes romantic love letters to Sandra Bullock's character, Kate. How is that a time-travel movie, you ask? Turns out Alex is living in 2004, while Kate is in 2006—somehow the mailbox at the lake house is a mysterious time portal.
© 20th Century Fox Film Corp/courtesy Everett Collection30/30Deadpool 2 (2018)
In this superhero sequel, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) reluctantly teams up with the X-Men—including the incredible Zazie Beetz as Domino, a mutant with the ability to manipulate luck—to fight a time-traveling soldier known as Cable (Josh Brolin). Because this is a Deadpool movie, expect a lot of R-rated language and violence.
