Timecrop – At Least 5 Good Time Travel Movies
Wyld Stallyns Rule!
In the last two weeks no less than three separate people on my Facebook friends list have asked about good time travel movies. It’s easily one of the most common tropes in science-fiction, and it’s so often done wrong that finding good examples can be a challenge. Giant plot holes, unacknowledged paradoxes, and just plain bad writing and acting destroy most films before you even have a chance to think about them. And that’s really where the fun in time travel movies lies – the long hours of trying to work through the labyrinthine plots they weave. So, to help you navigate the seas of shitty sci-fi, I’ve compiled a list of my five of my favorite time travel movies.
1. Primer
I hope you have a degree in advanced mathematics with a focus in graph theory, because you’re going to need it to follow the timelines created in this movie. While the loops that the characters create are overly complex, the character’s themselves are believable, as are their motivations. This movie essentially revolves around a couple of guys at a startup accidentally inventing time travel. The actions of the characters reflect the petty politics that are played in the business world, with one trying to maintain some type of ethical control over his life and a suddenly changed world, and the other out to seize opportunity at any cost. There’s also a star-crossed lover story tossed in for good measure. It handles the material in a better way than any other sci-fi I’ve seen OR read. And all for a shoe-string budget – this movie is an independant film that was made for $7,000.
2. Donnie Darko
Even reading the name of this movie kicks off Gary Jules cover of “Mad World”. This movie is what they coined the word “haunting” for. It’s the film where Jake Gyllenhaal proved he was more than just the Bubble Boy. A loving tribute to both the superficiality of the 80s as well as high-school brutality, Donnie Darko lives in the twilight dimension of Odd Shit. It’s one of those movies that manages to be completely hinged on the concept of time travel and yet also have that be completely unimportant to the scope of the movie. It is the flip side of It’s a Wonderful Life, complete with “guardian angel”. Though that rabbit costume will give me nightmares for life.
3. 12 Monkeys
Bruce Willis is tough! Brad Pitt is crazy! The end doesn’t make a lot of sense! This movie beats out Terry Gilliam’s other time travel movie, Time Bandits, only because Bandits is a little dated at this point (though you should still watch it). 12 Monkeys is a basic time travel movie crossed with a viral pandemic film like Contagion or The Andromeda Strain. A criminal from the future is sent into the past in order to find the source of a viral outbreak that has driven mankind underground. From there, of course, things start to go haywire. Bruce Willis is perfect as Bruce Willis, but it’s the supporting cast propping him up that really make the film. Also, it has a bear.
4. Groundhog Day
If you don’t like Groundhog Day, seriously, just fuck you. It’s Bill Murray when he was coming off of his wacky Stripes comedy period, but before he entered his hipster Lost in Translation period, and he is genius. The basic premise involves a douchebag that gets stuck living the same day over and over until he figures out how to be a decent human being. It’s one of those movies where the punishment is something that everyone secretly WANTS to happen to them. Imagine the things you could learn to do living the same day over a million times, the crazy things you could explore. This movie is funny, sweet, and very reminiscent of A Christmas Carol in all of the good ways. Sci-fi shows these days are nearly required to have a Groundhog Day episode, and I love it. Also, you get to see this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOwhG_y0HQg
(For those in Seattle, I recommend checking out on February 2nd – Groundhog Day at the SIFF Cinema Uptown with Stephen Tobolowsky in person! The SIFF folks are showing this as a double feature with… Groundhog day. Get it?)
5. Looper
Another time travel movie where Bruce Willis comes back in time to try and save the future. This time he runs into Joseph Gordon-Levitt who is trying to defeat him in a brow-furrowing contest. Looper is a crime movie in the vein of The Professional, but using time travel to give the movie a spin. The characters shine, and the world laid out is very believable, especially in light of the hundred and one economic crises we’ve faced in the last decade. It also has one of the most horrific scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a movie, and manages to do it with no blood or gore involved at all. Still gives me shivers.
Honorable Mentions: Time Bandits, Terminator 1 and 2, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Star Trek IV, Run Lola Run, Back to the Future, Somewhere In Time, the Groundhog Day episode of Stargate, and Trials and Tribble-ations.
