The best time-travel movies of all time

10 time-ly classics I would happily go back and watch again, and again

While I’ll gleefully watch pretty much any time-altering movie—from the doomed (12 Monkeys, Looper, Time Traveler’s Wife) to the hahahas (Hot Tub Time Machine, all the Back to the Futures even the wild west one which was basically horrible) to the Keanu-y (The Lake House, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure)—here are my absolute favorites, grouped by flavor:

The do-overs

I think the reason why I love do-over movies is because I talk so much. On any given day, I’d say I say a good 300% more than normal people, which means the number of regrettable things I say per day is like 300% higher than average. So I’ve always been drawn to the prospect of being able to go back and un-say and un-do things, which is why these movies hold a special place in my regret-torn heart:

About Time. This lovely little love story, which I loved, is about a family where the men can travel back in their own lives and redo the things they regret most. As much as it’s about Domhnall Gleeson bumbling through time as he repeatedly tries to get with Rachel McAdams, it’s even more about the true and deep love between Gleeson and his father (the always Bill Nighy-y Bill Nighy). Big takeaway: Live your life with enough humor and gratitude, and you might just find you don’t need to go back because things were so good you don’t regret anything.

Groundhog Day. The ultimate do-over-and-over-and-over until you get it right story. It’s a doozy! (<-SORRYYY)

Edge of Tomorrow. Tom Cruise endlessly relives the exact same battle sequence like a horrible real-life video game, but no matter what he does he’s still Tom Cruise. Big takeaway: Movies where Tom Cruise is allowed to be his craven, off-putting, real Tom-Cruise-crazy self are the ones where I like him the most, weird.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Hermione gets a Time Turner (available for purchase in the Harry Potter shoppe!) so she can take extra classes (der) and also save the lives of Harry, Sirius and an attack-eagle-horse.

Peggy Sue Got Married. Straight-laced Kathleen Turner goes back to high school where she for some reason still wants to have sex with her past-day-boyfriend-slash-present-day-estranged-husband Nicolas Cage, even though he insists on doing the strangest acting choice of a voice—like muppet Bert with an extra layer of teeth. Also is that Jim Carrey? Yes.

The what-ifs

Almost as good as a good do-over are the what-ifs, movies where people get to see what kind of life they could have had if only they hadn’t been so dumb the first time.

Family Man. Supposively this is based on It’s a Wonderful Life (also a wonderful movie…though not included here because it’s about what would happen if Jimmy Stewert died, which does not qualify as time travel), Family Man stars Nicolas Cage again (he’s becoming a bit of a nicmotif around these parts). This time he’s a horrible self-centered womanizing businessman who gets sent back to an alternate life as a devoted family man by Don Cheadle who is an an angel. This movie comes back into rotation every holiday season, and I watch it every single time. Warning: Only to be watched if you’re up for extra cheese…which basically is all the time for me.

Sliding Doors. Okay this is not a great movie, and goopy Gwenyth Paltrow’s English accent is pretty ruff. And yet! The device the movie hinges on (what happens if your whole life changes just because you miss your subway train?) is so commonplace, I find myself thinking about this movie all the time. What if I take the bus instead of BART? What if I wear clogs instead of flats? What if I stop for coffee? Watch, I’ll skip the coffee and arrive at the next corner just in time to get degloved by a towtruck. Meanwhile if I do get coffee, then I can throw it in the face of a robber — if somehow getting coffee leads me to get mugged, which could happen. Once you get it into your mind that every small act could be its own choose-your-own-adventure fork in your road, it can really slow you down. Thanks, Sliding Doors!

The time-crossed lovers

Then there are the time-travel romances where two people from two very different times somehow manage to worm-hole their way into each other’s heart. (PS: Did you know this is also a whole huge genre in the romance novel world? I didn’t know this until my friend Veronica Wolff (her actual name) started writing sexy Silicon-valley-girl-gets-lost-in-15th-century-Scottland tales, and…oh man!)

Kate and Leopold. This only got 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, which makes zero sense because this movie is GOOD. At least I’m pretty sure it is—it’s possible I may not be exactly trustworthy on the topic of Huge Ackman ever since his nether-shaking turn as Wolverine. All I know is if I’m flicking through the channels and this movie pops up, that’s it. I’m clearing my schedule and couching myself until it’s done. Though one thing I can’t help but always think: What is poor Meg Ryan going to do the first time she gets her period when she’s back in 1883 and there’s nary a tampon to be found? There’s a good dose of regret, right there.

The Terminator. Yes the catchphrases (hasta le I’ll be back, etc), yes the music, yes the awesome glowing red eyeball. But…the romance! That dude came back through time just so he could put his future best friend up in Linda Hamilton, all because of one super unflattering photo he saw of her with her crazy beauty-and-the-beast hair!

The just kind of weird

Time Bandits. I saw this when I was little, before I really understood how weird it was, and I loved it. “Don’t touch it, it’s evil” (last line of the movie) was my catch phrase for my whole eleventh year. Now that I have a kid and can see first hand how bonkers kids’s brains are (basically like talking to someone on heavy hallucinogens 24/7), I can see now how a Terry Gilliam movie would seem totally normal to me as a kid. Verdict: Definitely worth touching.

The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything. Every time I find myself yearning for some napping (twice daily), I think of the watch from made-for-TV The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything (“Myserious watch stops time and starts fun!” says TV Guide). You’d just click it and time would stop for everyone else but you. Of course the star of the movie, good old Robert Hays of Airplane! fame, used the magic watch to do all sorts of haha stuff like untie the ladies’ bikini tops. He completely missed what a golden opportunity it really was. He could go sleep! Or learn how to play the glockenspiel! Or watch every single time-travel movie ever made over and over endlessly for all time!