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The 33 Best Time Travel Movies...Ready for 1.21 gigawatts of sci-fi greatness?
Popular Mechanics ^ | April15, 2026 | Darren Orf

Posted on 05/14/2026 8:22:31 PM PDT by Red Badger

Time travel movies often make for the most mind-numbing sci-fi films with paradoxes aplenty. But it’s those confusing temporal gymnastics that make them so fun. We’ve rounded up our favorites, from classic films like Back to the Future and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure to more recent flicks like Arrival and Interstellar, which left our minds tangled in knots.

These are the 35 best sci-fi films that explore the fluidity of time.

🤯 You love mind-bending science. So do we. Let’s nerd out over it together.

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(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; History; TV/Movies; Travel
KEYWORDS: scifi; time; timetravel
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To: sphinx

PRIMER is one of the ones I never heard of...............


41 posted on 05/15/2026 6:33:18 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann


42 posted on 05/15/2026 6:33:41 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” - the deep-state)
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To: yuleeyahoo

Trancers


43 posted on 05/15/2026 6:35:22 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” - the deep-state)
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To: Red Badger; All

can someone please post the list so we all don’t give those leftists the traffic?


44 posted on 05/15/2026 7:33:42 AM PDT by notdownwidems (Washington D.C. has become the enemy of free people everywhere!)
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To: Red Badger

Excellent!
From Bill and Ted


45 posted on 05/15/2026 7:36:05 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: notdownwidems

Timecop

The Final Countdown

Men in Black 3

Time After Time

Timecrimes

Source Code

Donnie Darko

Safety Not Guaranteed

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Predestination

Star Trek: First Contact

Army of Darkness

Doctor Strange

Tenet

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Looper

Run Lola Run

Avengers: Endgame

Interstellar

The Time Machine

Edge of Tomorrow

La Jetée

Groundhog Day

Arrival

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Planet of the Apes

12 Monkeys

Time Bandits

The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Primer

Back to the Future


46 posted on 05/15/2026 7:41:43 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

I notice they left out “Hot Tub Time Machine”.

Stupid, but funny. But stupid.


47 posted on 05/15/2026 9:30:32 AM PDT by AloneInMass (You'd think there would be more similarity between "chain letter" and "chain mail".)
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To: Red Badger

In reaction to tentpole disease and studio bloat, I’ve taken an interest in very low cost movies.

My “Road to Damascus” movie — the one that made me realize that I had a huge blindspot — was Columbus, shot for $700,000 and self distributed through an experimental Sundance program exploring self-distribution for low budget indies.

I thought $700,000 was pretty cool. Then I discovered Coherence ($30,000) and Primer ($7,000).

Primer was shot using borrowed spaces and homemade props. The $7,000 was almost all spent on film. It was a friends and family team, no professionals. But it is intelligent and universally praised for its mastery of technobabble.


48 posted on 05/15/2026 9:35:52 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: Red Badger

Thank you! Are these in order, reverse order or random?


49 posted on 05/15/2026 9:58:28 AM PDT by notdownwidems (Washington D.C. has become the enemy of free people everywhere!)
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To: Red Badger

My wife...for some reason...really likes The Lake House.


50 posted on 05/15/2026 10:11:51 AM PDT by USAF1985 (Joe McCarthy is a hero...he was absolutely, 100% correct!)
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To: notdownwidems

Random I think..........


51 posted on 05/15/2026 11:16:38 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

Other than MIB 3 this is actually a pretty solid list. Not like most you see. MIB 3 was terrible.


52 posted on 05/15/2026 11:25:05 AM PDT by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: ph_balanced

I liked “The Day the Earth Stood Still” It had a good message.


53 posted on 05/15/2026 3:44:16 PM PDT by oldtech
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To: ph_balanced

I liked “The Day the Earth Stood Still” It had a good message. “THe Time Machine” was a winner as well.


54 posted on 05/15/2026 3:47:38 PM PDT by oldtech
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To: MarlonRando

Wow

How cool is that!


55 posted on 05/16/2026 8:03:32 AM PDT by Salamander ( Please visit my profile page to help me go home again. https://www.givesendgo.com/GCRRDa)
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To: Red Badger

save for future (ha-ha) reference...


56 posted on 05/17/2026 6:17:20 AM PDT by goo goo g'joob (When honest people say what's true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful)
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To: Phinneous
There's a reason that the time machine (DMC) debuted on 11 Cheshvan. You have to go back in time.

"Say... you want to witness the birth of Christ.."

(There were no geo coordinates required, so all of history must have gone down in Hill Valley.)

Have you ever noticed the flaw in the logic? It's not a "cure before the disease" if the Messiah's Tisha B'Av birthday follows after the destruction of the Temple.

It's even worse because that order of events (smite first then create a remedy) is for the nations of the world, not the Jewish People:

The verse describes when the rest of the events of the Megilla occurred: "After these events did King Ahasuerus promote Haman" (Esther 3:1). The Gemara asks: After what particular events? Rava said: Only after the Holy One, Blessed be He, created a remedy for the blow and set in place the chain of events that would lead to the miraculous salvation was Haman appointed, setting the stage for the decree against the Jews to be issued.

Rava explains: As Reish Lakish said: The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not strike at the Jewish people unless He has already created a remedy for them beforehand, as it is stated: "When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered" (Hosea 7:1). But this is not so with regard to the nations of the world. With them, God first strikes them and only afterward does He create a remedy, as it is stated: "And the Lord shall smite Egypt, smiting and healing" (Isaiah 19:22).

https://www.sefaria.org/Megillah.13b?lang=bi

You may not appreciate my methods of operation, but I see a major foundational mistake here, one serious enough to prevent the cure from ever coming to light. Therefore, I need to point it out in case any Jewish person is interested in wanting out of this parking lot:

Obviously the wrong time ("after") had been punched into the keypad. Isn't that the reason for the englarged letters in the first line of the Shema? To prevent exactly that kind of awful mix up? Yet...

History was to show that the conquered Jews were to outlive their Roman conquerors who had robbed them of their national independence and their country. And we eagerly await the day when G-d will comfort and console us and return us to our homeland.

Our sages tell us that despite the sadness and pain associated with the 9th of Av, this is the birthday of Moshiach, our future redeemer (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 2:4):

"On the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed, a Jew was plowing his field when his cow suddenly called out. An Arab was passing by and heard the low of the cow. Said the Arab: 'Jew, Jew! Unyoke your cow, free the stake of your plow, for your Holy Temple has now been destroyed.' The cow then lowed a second time. Said the Arab: 'Jew, Jew! Yoke your cow, reset the stake of your plow, for the Redeemer has now been born...'"

The redeemer, and with him the potential for redemption, was born the moment after the destruction. Indeed, though ostensibly the destruction was a consequence of the Jews' sins, there was a deeper reason for it all. From the ashes of the destroyed temples will arise an infinitely greater Temple, one constructed by G-d Himself, one that will stand for all eternity.

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/953574/jewish/Hope.htm

There's a simple way to resolve this problem: the Messiah's birthday on Tisha B'Av would have needed to fall on the Tisha B'Av before the destruction of the Temple. That's great because then nobody even need question the exact date on the Roman calendar at the time, unlike here in the midst of all the destruction:

In 66 CE, the Jewish population of Judaea launched a rebellion against the Roman Empire. Four years later, on the Hebrew calendrical date of Tisha B'Av, either 4 August 70[116] or 30 August 70,[117] Roman legions under Titus retook and destroyed much of Jerusalem and Herod's Temple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple#Destruction_of_the_Temple

It's not complicated. Just set the Hebrew calendar for 9 Av 3829 to calculate the date conversion right above it.

(You have to go back in time. "Say... you want to witness the birth of Christ..")

57 posted on 05/17/2026 7:20:37 PM PDT by Ezekiel (🆘️ "Come fly with US". 🔴 Ingenuity -- because the Son of David begins with MARS ♂️, aka every man)
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