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Time travel movies are like a good magic trick – you know there's a sleight of hand, but you're too caught up in the wonder to care, and this list of 30 films is the cream of the crop, each one a unique spin on the what-ifs of hopping through time.
From the mind-bending plots that leave you pondering long after the credits roll, to the heartwarming adventures that you want to relive again and again, these films cover the whole gamut, ensuring there's something for everyone.
Whether it's the thrill of seeing how changing one small event can unravel history, or the charm of reliving the same day until it's perfect, these movies are not just about time travel; they're about the human experience wrapped up in a sci-fi bow.
1. "Groundhog Day" (1993) Rotten Tomatoes score: 94% A weatherman finds himself inexplicably living the same day over and over again.
2. "Looper" (2012) Rotten Tomatoes score: 93% 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 get rid of someone, they send their target into the past, where a "looper", a hired gun like Joe, is waiting to mop up.
3. "Midnight in Paris" (2011) Rotten Tomatoes score: 93% While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight.
4. "Source Code" (2011) Rotten Tomatoes score: 92% A soldier wakes up in someone else's body and discovers he's part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train within 8 minutes.
5. "Time Bandits" (1981) Rotten Tomatoes score: 91% A young boy accidentally joins a band of time-traveling dwarves, as they jump from era to era looking for treasure to steal.
6. "Edge of Tomorrow" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 91% A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.
7. "Safety Not Guaranteed" (2012) Rotten Tomatoes score: 91% Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified advertisement seeking a companion for time travel.
8. "Timecrimes" (2007) Rotten Tomatoes score: 90% A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.
9. "12 Monkeys" (1995) Rotten Tomatoes score: 88% In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about a man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on Earth.
10. "Time After Time" (1979) Rotten Tomatoes score: 88% H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.
11. "Donnie Darko" (2001) Rotten Tomatoes score: 87% After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
12. "Peggy Sue Got Married" (1986) Rotten Tomatoes score: 87% Peggy Sue faints at a high school reunion. When she wakes up, she finds herself in her own past, just before she finished school.
13. "Predestination" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 84% For his final assignment, a top temporal agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase turns into a unique, surprising and mind-bending exploration of love, fate, identity and time travel taboos.
14. "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989) Rotten Tomatoes score: 82% Two seemingly dumb teens set off on a quest to prepare the ultimate historical presentation with the help of a time machine.
15. "The Time Machine" (1960) Rotten Tomatoes score: 76% A man's vision for a utopian society is disillusioned when traveling forward into time reveals a dark and dangerous society.
16. "Time Lapse" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 74% Three friends discover a mysterious machine that takes pictures 24hrs into the future and conspire to use it for personal gain, until disturbing and dangerous images begin to develop.
17. "Primer" (2004) Rotten Tomatoes score: 73% Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention, a machine that can make the user travel back in time.
18. "Interstellar" (2014) Rotten Tomatoes score: 73% A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.
19. "The Adjustment Bureau" (2011) Rotten Tomatoes score: 72% The affair between a politician and a contemporary dancer is affected by mysterious forces keeping the lovers apart.
20. "About Time" (2013) Rotten Tomatoes score: 70% At the age of 21, Tim discovers he can travel in time and change what happens and has happened in his own life. His decision to make his world a better place by getting a girlfriend turns out not to be as easy as you might think.
21. "Frequency" (2000) Rotten Tomatoes score: 70% An accidental cross-time radio link connects father and son across 30 years. The son tries to save his father's life, but then must fix the consequences.
22. "Mr. Nobody" (2009) Rotten Tomatoes score: 68% A boy stands on a station platform as a train is about to leave. Should he go with his mother or stay with his father? Infinite possibilities arise from this decision. As long as he doesn't choose, anything is possible.
23. "Hot Tub Time Machine" (2010) Rotten Tomatoes score: 64% A malfunctioning time machine at a ski resort takes a man back to 1986 with his two friends and nephew, where they must relive a fateful night and not change anything to make sure the nephew is born.
24. "Deja Vu" (2006) Rotten Tomatoes score: 56% After a ferry is bombed in New Orleans, an A.T.F. agent joins a unique investigation using experimental surveillance technology to find the bomber, but soon finds himself becoming obsessed with one of the victims.
25. "Somewhere in Time" (1980) Rotten Tomatoes score: 52% A Chicago playwright uses self-hypnosis to find the actress whose vintage portrait hangs in a grand hotel.
26. "Timecop" (1994) Rotten Tomatoes score: 42% Max Walker, an officer for a security agency that regulates time travel, must fend for his life against a shady politician who has a tie to his past.
27. "The Time Traveler's Wife" (2009) Rotten Tomatoes score: 39% A Chicago librarian has a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, creating complications in his marriage.
28. "Project Almanac" (2015) Rotten Tomatoes score: 38% A group of teens discover secret plans of a time machine, and construct one. However, things start to get out of control.
29. "The Lake House" (2006) Rotten Tomatoes score: 35% A doctor who once occupied an unusual lakeside home begins exchanging love letters with its former resident, a frustrated architect. They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it's too late.
30. "The Butterfly Effect" (2004) Rotten Tomatoes score: 34% Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
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