#movies about time travel

[julez-fiction]

Top 10 Movies You Probably Haven't Seen about Time Travel and Parallel Universes

If you are a fan of time travel movies, this list is for you. This list includes some gems you probably haven't seen but are totally worth a watch. Included on the list are movies with themes about time loops, alternate realities, parallel universes and time travel itself. So go on, get lost in time with this amazing list. Sorry, couldn't help it 🤣

1. Coherence, 2013

Sci-fi/ Thriller

IMDb: 7.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

Director: James Ward Byrkit

Starring: Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicolas Brendon, Elizabeth Gracen, Lorene Scafaria, Hugo Armstrong

Synopsis:

Eight friends at a dinner party experience a troubling chain of events due to the malevolent influence of a passing comet.

Google Synopsis:

2. Parallel, 2018

Sci-Fi/ Drama

IMDb: 5.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes: -

Director: Isaac Ezban

Starring: Aml Ameen, Martin Wallström, Georgia King, Mark O'Brien and Alyssa Diaz

Synopsis:

A group of friends stumble upon a mirror that serves as a portal to a "multiverse", but soon discover that importing knowledge from the other side in order to better their lives brings increasingly dangerous consequences.

3. Triangle, 2009

Horror / Thriller

IMDb: 6.9 / 10

Rotten Tomatoes: 80%

Director: Christopher Smith

Starring: Melissa George, Michael Dorman,Liam Hemsworth, Henry Nixon, Rachel Carpani

Synopsis:

Five friends set sail and their yacht is overturned by a strange and sudden storm. A mysterious ship arrives to rescue them, and what happens next cannot be explained.

4. The Endless, 2017

Horror / Thriller

IMDb: 6.5 / 10

Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

Director: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

Starring: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Callie Hernandez,Tate Ellington, Lew Temple, James Jordan

Synopsis:

Two brothers receive a cryptic video message inspiring them to revisit the UFO death cult they escaped a decade earlier. Hoping to find the closure that they couldn't find as young men, they're forced to reconsider the cult's beliefs when confronted with unexplainable phenomena surrounding the camp. As the members prepare for the coming of a mysterious event, the brothers race to unravel the seemingly impossible truth before their lives become permanently entangled with the cult.

5. The Mandela Effect, 2018

Sci-Fi / Drama

IMDb: 5.8 /10

Rotten Tomatoes: 20%

Director: David Guy Levy

Starring: Charlie Hoffheimer, Aleksa Palladino, Robin Lord Taylor, Clarke Peters

Synopsis:

A man becomes obsessed with a phenomenon where facts and events have been collectively misremembered by thousands of people. Believing it to be the symptom of something larger, his search for answers brings him to the brink of insanity when a startling revelation forces him to make a difficult decision that, if he is right, could have consequences for the entire world.

6. Looper, 2012

Sci-Fi / Action

IMDb: 7.4 / 10

Rotten Tomatoes: 93%

Director: Rian Johnson

Starring: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Sagan, Piper Perabo, Garret Dillahunt, Jeff Daniels

Synopsis:

In a future society, time-travel exists, but it's only available to those with the means to pay for it on the black market. When the mob wants to eliminate someone, it sends the target into the past, where a hit man known as a looper lies in wait to finish the job. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one such hired gun, and he does his job well -- until the day his bosses decide to "close the loop" and send Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) back in time to be killed.

7. Madelines, 2022

Horror / Sci-Fi / Drama

IMDb: 3.9 / 10

Rotten Tomatoes: -

Director: Jason Richard Miller

Starring: Richard Riehle, Brea Grant, Perry Shen, Sydney Steinberg

Synopsis:

While working in their garage, Madeline and Owen discover the secret to time travel. However, a mistake in their code causes a copy of Madeline to appear every day, and the pair must kill her to prevent the universe from destroying itself.

8. The Alternate, 2021

Sci-Fi / Thriller

IMDb: 5/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 75%

Director:Alrik Bursell

Starring: Ed Gonzalez Moreno, Natalia Dominguez, Syra McCarthy

Synopsis:

A man discovers a portal to another dimension in which he has everything he has always wanted.

9. Synchronic, 2019

Sci-Fi / Thriller

IMDb: 6.2 / 10

Rotten Tomatoes: 79%

Directors: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

Starring: Jamie Dornan, Anthony Mackie

Synopsis:

When New Orleans paramedics and longtime best friends Steve and Dennis are called to a series of bizarre and gruesome accidents, they chalk it up to a mysterious new drug found at the scene. But after Dennis' oldest daughter disappears, Steve stumbles upon a terrifying truth about the supposed psychedelic that will challenge everything he knows about reality -- and the flow of time itself.

10. Synchronicity, 2015

Sci-Fi / Thriller

IMDb: 5.4 / 10

Rotten Tomatoes: 47%

Director: Jacob Gentry

Starring: Chad McKnight, A.J. Bowen, Brianne Davis, Michael Ironside

Synopsis:

A physicist (Chad McKnight) travels back and forth in time to prevent a seductive woman (Brianne Davis) and a ruthless tycoon (Michael Ironside) from stealing his invention.

[grey-viridian]

Leonardo

I finished this comic about a month ago but couldn't bring myself to post it. It started as a simple illustration and then I just kept adding more and more and at some point I had to stop myself and cut the story short. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the result but... well. I like it. That's enough.

[echofades]

ANTONIA GENTRY & MEGAN BEST TIME CUT (2024)

[rhys-ravenfeather]

Time travel is a reality! However, it's still in the early stages, and you can only go as far back as seventy-something years.

Feel free to explain your reasons in the tags :P

[giddlygoat]

TRADITIONAL TOAD GARB PEACH LETS GOOOOOOOO

[autism-swagger]

Since the identity of the Sweet Sixteen Killer is known in Timeline 2, I don't think it would be as big of a part of the town's identity as it in Timeline 1. So I propose that the big unsolved mystery the town builds itself around in Timeline 2 isn't the killings.

It's Jamie.

The supposed exchange student who was only in town for five days, who knew things she shouldn't (couldn't) have, who disappeared without a trace and, when looked into, never even existed to begin with.

[workingchemistry]

“It matters not to me what form you take.” Thor soothes, echoing the words he spoke centuries earlier when Loki hesitantly explained that he was not always a prince but that did not necessarily mean he was Asgard’s princess either. “Whether you are my brother, my sister, my sibling, or a glorious snake, you are still my kin to protect above all else in Asgard.”

“And what do you propose I am, if not Asgardian?”

Fear grips tight to Thor’s heart but he does not falter. “Loki, you are Jotun.”

[fourth-dimensional-thinker]

Back to the Future + excerpts from "Keeping Up With Teen-Agers"

[theautisticjedi]

"Game Michael and Movie Mike would hate each other-" Yes yes I know that but what I wanna see is Game Michael comforting young Movie Vanessa.

I wanna see Michael making sure the things that happened to him never happen to her.

[fictionadventurer]

Thoughts about A Biltmore Christmas that could drive me to write fanfiction (spoilers for everything):

The story of his death was a plan "we" concocted just in case. "We" suggests there were multiple people involved. My best guess is that Ava also saw Lucy disappear, and so she was primed to buy it when Jack told her this wild story of time travel.

Maybe the prop guy was involved, too? Repairing a magical time travel artifact has got to give you some insight into the existence of magical time travel.

I still thing that one bearded guy in the crew is a time traveler. He seems more casual about it. Time traveling to help a classic Hollywood film crew just for fun. He could help arrange things, too.

The story of how Jack managed not to get fired after helping a criminal escape against direct orders from the head of the studio.

About five minutes after Jack decides to stay in the future, Margaret stumbles upon them. Her shrieks of joy can be heard from space.

Lucy: Okay, Jack, time to fly back to Santa Monica....oh, wait, you have no ID. /Margaret, somehow making a facial expression that is the equivalent of fifty-seven ecstatic emojis all at once: ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!

Lucy: Excuse me, Mr. Tour Guide Riker, sir, I have a film star from 1948 here what do I do with him, please?/ Mr. Tour Guide Riker, handing her a manila envelope: Here are all necessary identification documents to set him up in a modern life. Please ask no questions.

(I know what Tour Guide Riker's name is. Tour Guide Riker is funnier).

Alternately, the thrilling legal battle of trying to get Jack some documentation, the same way that kids whose parents don't get them birth certificates have to.

Lucy comes home to her sister, trailed by the 1948 actor from the film they've watched multiple times a year since they were kids. Lots of freaking out happens.

Jack, who has trained as an actor in an extremely outdated style, struggles to find a job not only because of his dubious legal documentation, but also because he has zero marketable skills. With the same happy-go-lucky pluck that led him to travel eighty years into the future for the sake of a girl he'd known for a couple days, he makes the best of it and becomes an amazing house husband.

Jack watching the remake of His Merry Wife!, and having a lot of opinions about the comparative skills of the new actors. Is either extremely amused at the new Charlie actor or offended by his very existence. (I can't imagine the Hallmark actors would favorably compare to the original).

Jack: Honey, I'm sure you're an amazing writer, but I can't even begin to wrap my head around the new style of movies.

Lucy: Puts Jack through a months-long training course of classic movies to catch up on the history of cinema.

Jack Huston is an obvious stage name. Jack starts going by his original name in the future. It takes a while for Lucy to adjust.

Jack has to catch up on all of history for the past seventy-odd years. Too much amusement potential to even know where to start.

Did Jack fight in WWII? Does this affect his life at all?

Semi-regular encounters with classic Christmas movie fans: "You look just like Jack Huston." "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Jack cosplaying at Biltmore at Christmastime and having the time of his life quoting the film and getting pictures from people who are amazed that the staff found such a good impersonator.

[romanceyourdemons]

guy who spends a lot of time analyzing machismo and hypermasculinity in film and literature, watching barbie (2023): whadda fuck. that’s not how this works. what’s up with this mojo dojo casa house where’s tge fucking brotherhood

[peterpcrker]

i will never be over how X-Men is about homophobia and racism and the whole spectrum of bigotry and otherness, while essentially all storylines boil down to trying to change an inevitable violent future, and despite failing every single time still having endless hope

[sonknuxadow]

my honest reaction

[human-encounters-diary]

Day 15

We are set to arrive on Fendaar in two cycles. As we are currently stuck on the SIIR Noxos, I have concluded that the passages of time that I am free of duties would be best spent continuing to observe the human. The human, on the other hand, seemed to have different plans in that matter, as it took me an unusually long amount of time to locate her.

As I eventually found her, she seemed to be working on one of the control panels in the main control room, so I may excuse her absence with duties she had to attend to. As she saw me, although, she seemed rather…excited (this is obviously mere speculation, as the study of the Terran so far has provided far too little evidence to prove such theories)?

As she rolled out from under the control board and sighted me, her face once again split into a wide opening revealing her horrifying amount of teeth.

"Hey! Dude!", she said, raising to her full height and stepping towards me, still baring her teeth, although I did not recoil, as I did not want to seem impolite. She raised her arms, each pointing into a different direction, away from their connection to the human's body.

"Human Quinn. How are you?"

"Me? I‘m fine, the whole 'wandering around in space' thing just made me throw up, I honestly don‘t know why they insisted on keeping me there for two whole days."

The ends of her fingers, studded with claw-like (rather short and rounded instead of sharp, perhaps they were not meant to function as claws at all, or perhaps the beings on Terra were far different from what I knew, and therefore a shape like this was far more useful to hunt) protuberances, scraped over the back of the connection between her head and her upper body. If I interpreted her facial expression correctly, she seemed to be thinking.

"Maybe I got a light concussion too, I’m not entirely sure. But it's improbable, because I’m fine now."

I decided to focus on one piece of information at a time. "Well, this "throwing up" can certainly not be a healthy nor normal process, otherwise, it would not seem so violently painful and involuntary, would it?"

"Well it‘s not…unnatural, it‘s just something that can happen. And about health, it‘s not unhealthy, it usually helps us to get rid of stuff that is bad for our bodies!", she eludicated, moving one of her arms in a rather random manner.

"The scientists have concluded that this fluid is highly acidic. If this 'stuff' is so harmful to you, wouldn‘t it just dissolve in this fluid before being able to cause any further harm?"

Quinn seemed to think about that. 

"Well, just because it gets dissolved, doesn‘t mean it‘s gone, you know? It's still in our bodies, and we have to get rid of it somehow. And if it needs to be fast, we throw up. Honestly, I‘d definitely explain this further to you, but Biology‘s never really been my strongest subject, ya know what I mean?"

I did not, in fact, know what she meant, but I decided against questioning her further.

After a pause the Terran spoke up again: "So, this planet we're landing on..." "Fendaar.", I clarified. "Right. So, this planet that we‘re going to, it‘s a desert, right?" "That is correct." "So, is it a sand, an ice or, I guess you could also count rock desert? 'Cuz on my planet, we‘ve got all of those types."

"Fendaar‘s ecosystem is mostly made up out of sandlike landscapes with rather scarce vegetation and biodiversity. Most of the planets in system 36-54 have rather extreme temperature ranges, and Fendaar is no exception.", I eludicated.

"Alright, cool.", she spoke, rolling back under the underside of the control panel she had been working on previously. She seemed to be sitting, or rather lying, on a piece of metal with four small wheels attached to it, allowing her to move it around.

"Your planet.", I initiated. 

"Yeah?", she responded, while continuing her work on the wiring.

"Am I assuming correctly that your planet has a far bigger biodiversity?"

"Oh, yeah.", there was a small spring in her voice, as if she had let out air in the middle of speaking. "Big biodiversity. We‘ve got deserts and rainforests, coral reefs and permafrost - although perhaps not for that long anymore - mountain ranges and all that stuff."

"Interesting.", I supplied, for lack of a better response. If Terra had such differences in temperature and landscapes, it was a logical conclusion that the humans had evolved to survive under such circumstances.

"Yeah."

It was unusually quiet for some time. That was, until Quinn rolled out from the underside of the control panels.

"Alright, I‘m done." She took a deep breath before opening her mouth once again. Then, all of a sudden, the muscles of her face started contracting as if she was plagued by an invisible pain. Her eyes squeezed shut and she let out horrifying noise, holding an arm angled in front of her nose and mouth. The noise itself was not particularly loud or long, but I recoiled either way, as a measure of safety. I could not be certain if this gesture was meant to harm me, after all.

Quinn‘s arm sank down again as her other hand rubbed at her nose. She huffed, a sound far less threatening than the one she had produced a moment ago. One of the hair patches above her visual organs raised itself, prompting the question to arise if human hair was controlled by muscles or if it had a mind of its own, although this was a question that could be further investigated later. One of the corners of her mouth raised, revealing the seemingly sharpest teeth in her mouth.

"I guess dust is an inter-galactic thing, huh?"

I did not respond. Her face muscles contracted, causing the skin above her visual organs to crease.

"Hey, you okay? You‘re looking a little spooked over there."

"Human, I do not wish to cause you discomfort, but, if I may ask, what was the purpose of the noise you just uttered?"

She did not respond for a moment, blinking with both of her eyes as she stared at me. It was quite unsettling, considering her previous explanation, that most humans preferred not being stared at. 

"I…sneezed?" The creases in the skin above her eyes deepened.

My front pliers uttered another rattling sound. "What is this 'sneezing'? What purpose does it serve?" I admit, I was quite curious. Terrans seemed much more complex than I had previously assumed.

She paused, seemingly to think of an answer. "Well, it‘s like…if something is bothering us at or in out nose, like dust, for example, it‘s kind of the natural response to that. To keep things out of our bodies that don‘t belong there."

"Human bodies seem to require a lot of defense mechanisms.", I commented.

She raised and lowered the connection of her arms to her upper body, baring her teeth once again while raising herself to her full height, using one of her arms as support.

"Y’know, it’s surprisingly hard to explain something you’re so used to to someone who’s never heard of it. I guess I still have to work on the whole 'awareness that I‘m around aliens' thing. S‘ kind of surreal."

She patted off her clothing, as if to remove non-existent filth once again. I had noticed the past few cycles that most of her clothing seemed to consist of several, usually differently-coloured, pieces of fabric. 

Her clothes usually covered her body from the connection between her arms and torso to the connection between her legs and, presumably, her feet. Her feet were usually also covered, although I could not determine the purpose it was supposed to serve in the environment we are currently in, although the theory that the conditions on Earth are vastly different compared to the ones on the SIIR Noxos is gaining more probability, based on the Terran's narrations.

The human seemed to evaluate a question she wanted to ask (this is, of course, a mere speculation based on previous observations: her face muscles were contracted to form a crease over her visual organs, which could so far most likely be interpreted as confusion, thoughtfulness or discomfort; her head was both slightly raised and tilted to one side at the same time, a gesture that was most likely supposed to convey an ongoing thought process).

Although, before she could utter a noise, V-7 informed us of a request from the Vitrichl to gather for a matter of importance.

The purpose of his summoning was to divide the crew into several smaller groups that were to be assigned with different tasks to fulfill once we sucessfully landed on Fendaar.

I was grouped with the Terran, which was unsurprising, as well as Tkzt, a member of the species that is widely known across the galaxies as Ctzas (it is to note that the Ctzas have not evolved any form of written language and communicate exclusively through clicking and chittering sounds. The written forms of, for example, names of this species, are written by other species to produce approximately the same sound as the Ctzas make when recited verbally).

Tkzt, as a member of the unit controlling supply chains and keeping a list of the stock of the SIIR Noxos, would make a helpful addition in our task of seeking out the nearest settlement in order to stock up on supplies.

After all matters of importance were settled, the crew dissipated, continuing their respective tasks. The Terran was ordered to stay and to assist the Vitrichl in another matter, which is the reason I did not cross paths with the human again for the rest of this cycle.

Despite this, I am positive that accompanying the human on an foreign planet will give me a further insight into the species' mannerisms and interaction manners with foreign species, which will prove to be helpful further on in studying the human.

[angelxd-3303]

Huh, how would DK react to teen Mario? He would be overprotective of him?

DK isn't gonna cry, what're you talking about?

Nope, definitely not gonna cry.

[thebluestbluewords]

time travel shenanigans again

Rise of Red is driving me SLIGHTLY crazy with the time travel retcon, but in a way that’s making me want to write about how the timeline shifts COULD have worked. loosely inspired by this post.

"I don't know what that's like," Bridget says. Her expression, which Red is just starting to understand as perpetually stuck in a sweet, bright smile, falls blank for a moment. "I love my mom. It must be awful, not having someone who really loves you. If you were my daughter, I'd think you're the coolest daughter ever." 

Oh, if you only knew. 

"Thanks." Red manages, around the lump that shouldn't be in her throat. Bridget isn't her mom yet, not really. There's nothing for her to get upset over. "That's sweet of you." 

"And speaking of sweet," Chloe jumps in, giving Red's hand a little squeeze. Oh, please. Like the perfect princess knows anything about having a tyrant as a mother. "We're looking for a cookbook. Your cupcakes were amazing, so we thought maybe you'd have what we're looking for." 

Bridget beams. "Of course! I have almost every cookbook ever. Except like, the super illegal ones. I don't have those. Did you want to make something special?" 

"Just a little magical baking. I think the recipe we need is in the sourcer's spellbook?" 

Bridget's face falls again. "That one's illegal. I might be breaking the Wonderland laws that you remember, Red, but I don't break international law. At least not while I'm at school."

"But you'd break them out of school," Red drawls. If they can't get the cookbook they need, they can at least pump Bridget for information about herself. Half of her pranks back home only worked because she was able to get classified information from Maddox, or Isaac and the other guards, or swipe it from her mother's writing desk before she noticed a letter had even arrived. "That's pretty cool." 

Bridget giggles. "Well, I wouldn't say that. I...." 

She stops. 

"You?" Chloe prompts. 

Bridget doesn't move. Doesn't even blink. 

"Bridget? Hello?" 

"She's breathing." Red says. It's all she's doing. Just standing there, completely frozen, breathing. She's not even smiling. Her face is just....blank. 

Chloe steps close enough to wave her hand an inch from Red's mom's nose. "Hello? Can you hear me?" 

Red sidesteps around her princess sidekick to slip the back of cards out of Bridget's pajama pocket. It's not the same pack that she's seen her mom use in their timeline, but disarming her future mom makes her feel a little better. "She's broken, princess. We froze her." 

"People don't just freeze. That's not how human bodies work, even if we are in the past. My mom never mentioned freezing up like this." 

"I bet your mom never mentioned knowing my mom either." Red shoots back. "Or Merlin Academy, or how gross that Alchemy class was." 

"My mom," Chloe starts, and then stops. Just like Bridget. 

"Princess?" 

"My mom never mentioned attending Merlin Academy." Chloe says, bursting into motion again. "She only mentioned it once, and that wasn't until we were in the carriage on our way to school, a few hours ago." 

"Or twenty years in the future." Red reminds her. 

Chloe spins around, her hair flying out in a fluffy blue halo around her head. Her empty sword belt swings with the rhythm of her pacing. "More like thirty-five. Maybe more. I have an older brother, and my parents didn't have him until they were already  married for like, ten years. So we don't know exactly how far back we are, and my mom never talked about attending school until we were already in the carriage. And more importantly, you were in your carriage." 

"So what?" 

"So I think we started changing the flow of time the minute your mom let you leave Wonderland. I mean, think about it. The timing makes sense." 

Red considers the facts. 

Her mom never mentioned attending school - check. But her mom hardly mentions anything to her aside from how inadequate she is, so that's off their evidence list. Bridget is acting really weird - sure. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything, because Red's mom is really weird. Whatever statue Bridget's become, it could just be her brain rebooting to be even more evil. Or maybe she started rewriting time from the moment she grabbed the pocketwatch, and everything that's happened since then really is all her fault, and her mom would never have turned evil in the first place if Red hadn't gone back in time to try and fix her. 

Or maybe time travel logic is bullshit, and they're doing the right thing. 

"Whatever." Red declares. "We can think about it after we search this place for secret evil cookbooks."