The concept of time travel has been well used in literature for a long time. Charles Dickens used it as a literary device in “A Christmas Carol” in 1843 as did H.G. Wells in “The Time Machine” in 1895, albeit in a completely different way. Whether it is used to enhance a plot and gain a glimpse into the past or present, or whether it is the main theme of the story, films have eagerly adopted the concept.
The most recent addition to the long list of movies that explore the exciting theme of time travel is Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time.” The film, based on the novel by Madeleine L’Engle, opens this Friday, March 9. With this in mind, 24/7 Wall St. has identified the 30 best time travel movies of all time, based on user and critic ratings from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.
Click here to see the 30 best time travel movies of all time.
Click here to see our detailed findings and methodology.
30. The Dead Zone (1983)
> Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
> Director: David Cronenberg
> Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt
> Domestic box office: $20.77 million
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29. Army of Darkness (1992)
> Genre: Comedy, Horror
> Director: Sam Raimi
> Starring: Bruce Campbell, Embeth Davidtz, Marcus Gilbert
> Domestic box office: $11.50 million
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28. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
> Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
> Director: Colin Trevorrow
> Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson
> Domestic box office: $4.01 million
27. Time Bandits (1981)
> Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
> Director: Terry Gilliam
> Starring: Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall, John Cleese
> Domestic box office: $42.37 million
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26. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
> Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
> Director: Jonathan Frakes
> Starring: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner
> Domestic box office: $92.00 million
25. Mr. Nobody (2009)
> Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
> Director: Jaco Van Dormael
> Starring: Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger
> Domestic box office: $0.00 million
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24. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
> Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
> Director: Mamoru Hosoda
> Starring: Riisa Naka, Takuya Ishida, Mitsutaka Itakura
> Domestic box office: N/A
23. A Christmas Carol (1951)
> Genre: Drama, Fantasy
> Director: Brian Desmond Hurst
> Starring: Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison
> Domestic box office: N/A
22. Source Code (2011)
> Genre: Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi
> Director: Duncan Jones
> Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga
> Domestic box office: $54.71 million
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21. Doctor Strange (2016)
> Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
> Director: Scott Derrickson
> Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams
> Domestic box office: $232.64 million
20. Minority Report (2002)
> Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
> Director: Steven Spielberg
> Starring: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
> Domestic box office: $132.07 million
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19. Planet of the Apes (1968)
> Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi
> Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
> Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter
> Domestic box office: $33.40 million
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18. 2046 (2004)
> Genre: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
> Director: Kar-Wai Wong
> Starring: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Ziyi Zhang, Faye Wong
> Domestic box office: $0.26 million
17. Twelve Monkeys (1995)
> Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
> Director: Terry Gilliam
> Starring: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt
> Domestic box office: $57.14 million
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16. Sleeper (1973)
> Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi
> Director: Woody Allen
> Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, John Beck
> Domestic box office: N/A
15. Groundhog Day (1993)
> Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
> Director: Harold Ramis
> Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott
> Domestic box office: $70.91 million
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14. Run Lola Run (1998)
> Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
> Director: Tom Tykwer
> Starring: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup
> Domestic box office: $7.27 million
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13. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
> Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
> Director: Alfonso Cuarón
> Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint
> Domestic box office: $249.36 million
12. Midnight in Paris (2011)
> Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
> Director: Woody Allen
> Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates
> Domestic box office: $56.82 million
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11. Looper (2012)
> Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
> Director: Rian Johnson
> Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt
> Domestic box office: $66.49 million
10. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
> Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
> Director: Doug Liman
> Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
> Domestic box office: $100.21 million
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9. Interstellar (2014)
> Genre: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
> Director: Christopher Nolan
> Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
> Domestic box office: $188.02 million
8. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
> Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
> Director: Bryan Singer
> Starring: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman
> Domestic box office: $233.92 million
7. The Terminator (1984)
> Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
> Director: James Cameron
> Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn
> Domestic box office: $38.40 million
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6. Star Trek (2009)
> Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
> Director: J.J. Abrams
> Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg
> Domestic box office: $257.73 million
5. Arrival (2016)
> Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
> Director: Denis Villeneuve
> Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker
> Domestic box office: $100.55 million
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4. Terminator 2 (1991)
> Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
> Director: James Cameron
> Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong
> Domestic box office: $204.84 million
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3. Back to the Future (1985)
> Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
> Director: Robert Zemeckis
> Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson
> Domestic box office: $210.61 million
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
> Genre: Adventure, Sci-Fi
> Director: Stanley Kubrick
> Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
> Domestic box office: $56.95 million
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1. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
> Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy
> Director: Frank Capra
> Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
> Domestic box office: $7.27 million
While the theme of time travel appears in films of all genres, it is perhaps most common among science fiction movies. Of the 30 films on the list of best time travel movies, half are classified as sci-fi by the Internet Movie Database. Audiences are drawn to films that explore not only the philosophical implications of time travel – including a number of potentially frightening, unintended consequences – but the technology that could bring about such a possibility.
Similarly, filmmakers are drawn to the topic for different reasons. James Cameron brought a fairly bleak vision of a future with access to time travel in “The Terminator” and “Terminator 2.” Those living in the future try to change catastrophic events from unfolding via time travel. We don’t associate time travel with movies from Woody Allen, but he used the device in both “Sleeper” and “Midnight in Paris.” And Frank Capra played with it as a narrative tool to explore human morality in his classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Time travel allows filmmakers to take audiences to worlds both new and old. It’s been a narrative staple for hundreds of films and, as the release of “A Wrinkle in Time” illustrates, and moviegoers are far from tired of the journey.
To determine the best time travel movies, 24/7 Wall St. created an index based on each film’s Rotten Tomatoes average critic rating, Rotten Tomatoes’ average audience rating, and Internet Movie Database average user rating. To be considered, each film had to have at least 10,000 total user ratings between IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes and 10 approved Tomatometer critic reviews. Films for which time travel was deemed to not play a large enough role in the movie were removed.
We averaged the user ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb and weighted by the number of votes for each. The combined user rating was then averaged with the Rotten Tomatoes critic rating. Box office data is from IMDb and is not adjusted for inflation.
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