Top 10 Time Travel Movies Besides the Back to the Future Trilogy

Where we're going, we don't need Back to the Future.

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The original Back to the Future is the best time travel movie that will ever exist. But it’s nice to see some other movies about the possible reality of traveling through time. For this list, we'll be looking at the movies where time travel is essential to the plot, not movies like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where time travel is only mentioned in minor ways. And, just a note, the Terminator movies won’t be included, because those movies aren’t associated with time travel movies the way these movies are.

Bill & Ted (1989, 1991, 2020)

A contender to Back to the Future in terms of best time travel movies, this series also forms a trilogy and follows two individuals who travel through time. Slacker Theodore "Ted" Logan (Keanu Reeves) and his friend Bill (Alex Winter) travel around in a time-traveling phone booth. At the same time, a man named Rufus (George Carlin) is sent to make sure Bill and Ted don't fail history class. Along their journey, Bill and Ted meet historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Socrates, and Sigmund Freud, as well as ensure the safety of the human race, among other activities, some of which helped younger audience members find out what "69" meant. But through all of this, the message is pretty clear: a good friend will stick around with you until the end of time.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

This movie sees three friends and the nephew of one of the friends come together to visit their old vacation home and reminisce about the times before things turned sour. This sounds normal until you add in a hot tub which also functions as a time machine (clues in the title) if you get drunk enough. After a night of partying, the time machine takes them back to 1986, which was a year that changed everything for the four main characters. While trying not to alter the present time, the group decides to go and recreate their fondest memories, while making new memories along the way. While the humor in this movie is pretty raunchy (hence its R-rating), those moments are also the funniest moments.

The Time Machine (1960 and 2002)

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While the original and its remake are two separate movies, they’re being counted as one because they were both based on the H.G. Wells novel from 1895. In this tale, a scientist and inventor only known as "The Time Traveller" uses his invention to travel into the year 802,701, where he meets a group of little people. Both movie versions interpret this story differently. In the 1960 version, the inventor is given a name: George. At dinner with four friends, George tells of his travels to a fourth dimension and back with his machine. The 2002 version, however, does things pretty differently. This time, the inventor's name is Alexander Hartdegan, and he is determined to prove that time travel is possible. After his fiancée is murdered by a mugger, he gets the machine going and goes back to save her but learns that doing so has consequences. Later, he goes the year 802,701 by mistake and learns of a different civilization exists in that time. While both are different, they are both worthy of being watched but be prepared for two different stories pertaining to time travel.

The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)

In this flick, a Chicago librarian named Henry de Tamble (Eric Bana) possesses the ability to travel through time, albeit involuntarily, appearing in moments that involve his true love (Rachel McAdams). While the two marry, their relationship is strained by the fact that de Tamble appears and disappears at any given moment, leaving the two completely out-of-sync. The point of this one is disputed among fans, but it's widely accepted that the movie is meant to serve as an exploration of free will against destiny, with time travel being used as a metaphor for the struggles of long-term relationships and grief.

About Time (2013)

In one of the most highly rated movies on this list, Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) is a 21-year-old man who gains the ability to use time travel to change what happens and what has happened in his life. In a series of events, the movie ends on a happy and sad note, with a depressing farewell to Tim's unnamed father (Bill Nighy) and an uplifting conclusion being combined into one memorable ending to a British coming-of-age film. Quite unlike the science fiction vibes from most of the other movies on this list, this one blends time travel with romance across the pond.

12 Monkeys (1995)

In this Terry Gillam movie that saw Brad Pitt earn his first Oscar nomination, we see the future of 2035, after a mysterious man-made disease has ravaged the Earth and has almost wiped out the human race. James Cole (played by Bruce Willis) is a hardened convict who is sent back through time to find the moment the virus was released and joins a disturbed man (Brad Pitt) who may hold the key to finding that moment. This movie is actually deeply pessimistic, in the sense that Cole can't save the day entirely, which echoed in the real-life buildup of tension prior to Y2K.

Time Bandits (1981)

Also from director Terry Gillam, Time Bandits is the first movie of the Trilogy of Imagination, which includes the sequels Brazil (1985) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). Time Bandits is told from the perspective of 11-year-old Kevin (Craig Warnock) and details a battle between God (Ralph Richardson) and the Devil (David Warner), even though they're never referred to by those names. Along his adventures, Kevin meets figures such as Robin Hood (John Cleese), Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm), and King Agamemnon (Sean Connery). It could be accurate to describe this one as a distant relative of Bill & Ted, given that both movies feature historical figures galore, and that both feature nostalgia and semi-history. But Time Bandits employs the use of child-like wonder in its storytelling, whereas Bill & Ted use teenage tendencies instead.

Somewhere in Time (1980)

If we ignore all the sci-fi surrounding practically all other time travel movies, we get a love story that was first glossed over at the time of its release but has since gained somewhat more recognition as a tale of love. Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour bring to life a 1970s playwright who travels back to 1912 to find love with an actress from that time. Though sometimes described as solemn and boring, this one is worth checking out if you love sweeping, unapologetically sentimental, classic period romances.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise lack a time machine in this one, which doesn't mean there's no time travel involved. Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cage (Cruise) is a soldier who mistakenly finds himself on the front lines of a war against aliens attacking Earth. He then gets caught in a time loop after being exposed to the alien's blood, becoming more and more hostile as each day passes. As if things couldn't get more chaotic, a no-nonsense female soldier (Emily Blunt) shows up and accompanies Cage on his day-to-day fights with the aliens and to get him out of the time loop once and for all. There's plenty of Groundhog Day comparisons here, but none of them do this crazy movie justice.

Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)

A movie from the 1980s where a character time travels back to the 1950s. Sound familiar? Well, surprise, it’s not Back to the Future. The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola made this. The titular Peggy Sue (Kathleen Turner) separates from her high school sweetheart Charlie (Nicolas Cage). After this, she faints at her high school reunion and wakes up in 1960, which was the most important year of her life. After denying it a few times, she eventually accepts the fact that she has traveled back in time. She then tries to change her future (the present time) but realizes that her happenstances aren't really negotiable. Robert Zemeckis definitely delivered a teenage time travel film the year before Peggy Sue Got Married, but Coppola gave us a movie that nails the bittersweet feeling that makes nostalgia appealing.