The ability to travel through time is by far my favorite movie storyline. Who hasn’t, at least once, wished they could turn back the hands of time to buy a winning lottery ticket or to set something right that once went wrong? Maybe there is a place in the past you would love to visit? Whatever your desire, time travel is a fascinating topic.
The movies listed below have a variety of inventive ways to move the characters across time. See which ones appeal to you, and enjoy a movie night with time travel as the theme!
Somewhere in Time (1980)
Stars: Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer
This one must be recognized as a cult classic! A Chicago playwright uses self-hypnosis to travel back in time and meet the actress whose vintage portrait hangs in the grand hotel where he is staying in Mackinac Island, Michigan. The two seem destined to be together until a cruel twist of fate and a jealous manager intervene.
The Terminator (1984)
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn
Disguised as a human, the Terminator, a cyborg assassin from the future, travels from 2029 to 1984 in an attempt to find and kill Sarah Connor, a waitress who is destined to give birth to a man who will save humankind from extinction.
Back to the Future (1985)
Stars: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
In this 1980s sci-fi classic, small-town California teen Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, when an experiment goes awry. Marty encounters young versions of his parents and must make sure that they fall in love, or he’ll cease to exist.
12 Monkeys (1995)
Stars: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt
Imprisoned in the 2030s, James is recruited for a mission that will send him back to the 1990s to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet. Traveling back in time isn’t simple, as he learns the hard way.
The Lake House (2006)
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Christopher Plummer
A lonely doctor who once lived in a beautiful lakeside home, falls in love by exchanging letters with its latest resident, a frustrated architect. When they discover that they are living two years apart, the pair must unravel the mystery behind their incredible romance before it’s too late.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Stars: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates
While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée’s family, a nostalgic screenwriter and aspiring novelist sets out each night to tour the city alone and finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s at the stroke of midnight where he encounters some of the Jazz Age’s most famous icons of art and literature.
About Time (2013)
Stars: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy
When Tim Lake is 21, his father tells him a secret: The men in their family can travel through time and change what happens in their own lives. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out to be not as easy as you might think. Tim finds that his special ability can’t shield him and those he loves from the problems of ordinary life.
Interstellar (2014)
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
When Earth becomes uninhabitable due to a global crop blight and second Dust Bowl, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked with piloting a spacecraft along with a team of researchers through a wormhole to find a new planet where the human race can survive.
