Ten Best Time Travel Movies

German lobby card for The Time Machine (1960), image courtesy Heritage Auction Galleries

Is time travel possible? Quantum physics says maybe while Hollywood voices a definite yes. Here are ten outstanding time travel movies from the fantastic world of science fiction. Hello, McFly?

The Time Machine (MGM, 1960)

Producer-director George Pal’s The Time Machine remains the granddaddy of time travel motion pictures. Solid, square-jawed Rod Taylor stars as Victorian Era scientist H. George Wells who jets off in his time machine to the year 802,701 A.D. Here he encounters the peaceful Eloi and the mutant Morlocks, who prey on the former from their underground catacombs. Joining Taylor in the cast are Yvette Mimieux (Weena), Alan Young (David Filby/Jame Filby), Sebastian Cabot (Dr. Philip Hillyer) Whit Bissell (Walter Kemp) and an array of impressive special effects which still wow the viewer today. 

Time After Time (Warner Bros., 1979)

Malcolm McDowell stars as inventor-author H.G. Wells, whose 1893 time machine is used by none other than Jack the Ripper to escape to 1979 San Francisco. The intrepid Wells pursues the serial killer where he tries to prevent the murder of his 20th century girlfriend, who is slated to become the Ripper’s latest victim. David Warner (Dr. John Leslie Stevenson a.k.a. Jack the Ripper), Mary Steenburgen (Amy Robbins), Charles Cioffi (Lt. Mitchell) and Patti D’Arbanville (Shirley) join McDowell in fantastic support.

Back to the Future (Universal, 1985)

The first and best in the series, Back to the Future stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a high school kid who travels back to 1955 where he meets his future parents. Marty’s mother, however, soon takes a romantic interest in him, leaving dear old dad as the squeaky third wheel and the perennial victim of bully Biff Tannen. Christopher  Lloyd (Dr. Emmett Brown), Lea Thompson (Lorraine Baines McFly), Crispin Glover (George McFly), Thomas F. Wilson (Biff) and a revved up, time traveling DeLorean ably complement Fox’s bravura performance – on a skateboard and otherwise.

Planet of the Apes (Twentieth Century-Fox, 1968)

Charlton Heston as George Taylor leads his fellow American astronauts on a long journey through space and time. When awakened from suspended animation, the crew find themselves on a future Earth where intelligent apes are the dominant species and mute humans their obedient slaves. Roddy McDowall (Cornelius), Kim Hunter (Zira) and Maurice Evans (Dr. Zaius) play the ape scientists behind fantastic simian headgear.

Somewhere in Time (Universal, 1980)

Christopher Reeve plays a young Chicago playwright named Richard Collier whose obsession with an actress propels him back to 1912 and the Grand Hotel. Here he falls in love with the thespian Elise McKenna, much to the dismay of her theatrical manager. Joining Reeve in the cast are Jane Seymour (Elise), Christopher Plummer (William Fawcett Robinson), Teresa Wright (Laura Roberts) and the rich, lush scenery of Michigan’s Mackinac Island where the movie was filmed.

Peggy Sue Got Married (TriStar, 1986)

A second chance at high school? That’s what Kathleen Turner gets in this charming fantasy from director Francis Ford Coppola in which she is whisked from her 25-year high school reunion back to the spring of 1960 and her senior year. But it’s boyfriend trouble and senioritis all over again, as Miss Peggy Sue disses her algebra teacher, dumps her future husband and hooks up with the handsome class literary buff. Nicolas Cage (Charley Bodell), Barry Miller (Richard Norvik), Catherine Hicks (Carol Heath), Kevin J. O’Connor (Michael Fitzsimmons) and a young Jim Carrey (Walter Getz) ably play high schoolers despite being a little long in the tooth for their Brylcreem/bobby sox roles.

The Final Countdown (United Artists, 1980)

Kirk Douglas and the crew of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz encounter a freakish, electromagnetic storm while out on a routine cruise. The powerful tempest propels them back to the eve of the December 7, 1941, attack at Pearl Harbor, which heralded the United States’ entry into World War II. As the Nimitz’s skipper Captain Matt Yelland, Douglas must decide whether to engage the approaching Japanese air armada or simply let history take its course. Joining Douglas in the cast are Martin Sheen (Warren Lasky), Katharine Ross (Laurel Scott), James Farentino (Commander Richard T. Owens), Ron O’Neal (Commander Dan Thurman), Charles Durning (Senator Samuel Chapman) and the officers and men of the USS Nimitz.

The Philadelphia Experiment (New World, 1984)

The controversial 1943 Philadelphia Experiment is dramatized in this science fiction entry in which two sailors are transported through time to the year 1984. The two young men were aboard the USS Eldridge, where a government experiment into invisibility has gone horribly awry. Michael Pare (David Herdeg) and Bobby Di Cicco (Jim Parker) play the two reluctant time travelers, with Nancy Allen (Allison Hayes) and Eric Christmas (Dr. James Longstreet) along for the ride.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Paramount, 1986)

The former officers of the USS Enterprise commandeer a Klingon starship and travel back in time to 1986 on a mission to save Earth. Their plan involves the transportation of two humpback whales which hold the key to disarming a deadly alien probe threatening the planet. The entire Star Trek gang is here – William Shatner (Captain Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), James Doohan (Scotty), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (Sulu), Walter Koenig (Chekov) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) – battling loud music, primitive medical techniques and the 1980s punk culture.

The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (Columbia, 1962)

If the Stooges can manage to time travel, then pretty much anyone can, right? Using inventor Schuyler Davis’ time machine, the boys, along with Schuyler and his gal pal Diane, journey back to Ithaca in ancient Greece where they run afoul of the evil King Odius. While confined to a ship’s galley with the Stooges, young Schuyler develops huge, rippling muscles. The time travelers eventually escape, whereby Schuyler begins performing great feats of strength under the name of “Hercules,” garnering the attention of the real Greek strongman. Moe Howard (Moe), Larry Fine (Larry) and Joe DeRita (Curly Joe) head the cast, with Quinn K. Redeker (Schuyler), Vicki Trickett (Diane Quigley), George N. Neise (Ralph Dimsal/King Odius) and Samson Burke (Hercules) in solid, fun-filled support.

Honorable Mention:

• The Time Travelers (1964)  
• Timescape (1992)
• Timecop (1994)
• Time Bandits (1981)
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1949)
• Flight of the Navigator (1986)
• The Butterfly Effect (2004)
• 12 Monkeys (1995)
• Timeline (2003)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)