A non-exhaustive list of Time Travel Movies, TV Shows, and more, updated occasionally…
While it is difficult to recommend a time travel movie without spoiling that is has time travel in it, the Mechanism and Category can be considered thematically spoilery depending on one’s aversion to knowing anything about a movie, so I hid those behind a spoiler tag, just click the tag to show it.
Legend:
Time Travel Level – Just how time travely is it
- Full-fledged – As time travely as it gets
- Low/Medium/High – The amount of time travel taking place as an ongoing part of the story
- Story starter – low/medium/high – Time travel mainly sets the story in motion, but it’s integrality to the story takes a back seat to one degree or another
Mechanism – What makes time travel possible
- Machine – A good-old time machine or device
- Time Dilation – Time moving differently between places
- Future Tech – An obscure or hand-wavey technology from the future
- Relativity – The effects of relativity causing time travel-like results
- Genetic – A genetic cause for a person’s ability to time travel
- Natural phenomena – A feature that is or is seemingly part of the environment, wormholes, etc’
- Magic/Magical Device – A spell or magical artifact
- Superpowers – Who wouldn’t want time travel as their superpower?
- Unknown – When the mechanism is not explained or is not hinted at
Category – What story style/trope is it or what is it that traverses time
- Classic – Good old fashion time travel, people moving through time
- Consciousness – Consciousness is the thing that travels through time
- Time bubble – Where a different part of space moves at a different pace
- Time loop – A where someone experiences a repeating time/day/sequence but recalls previous iterations
- Information – Where the only thing moving through time is information and not objects
Movies:
| Title | Time Travel Level | Mechanism | Category | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back to the Future | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| The Time Machine (2002) | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Time trap | Full-fledged | Time Dilation | Time bubble | |
| Deja Vu | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Looper | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Interstellar | Full-fledged | Future Tech + Relativity | Information | |
| Volition | ||||
| Time Crimes | Full-fledged | Classic | ||
| The Butterfly Effect | Full-fledged | Unknown | Consciousness | |
| The Time Traveler’s Wife | Full-fledged | Genetic | Classic | |
| Groundhog Day | Full-fledged | Unknown | Time Loop | |
| Palm Springs | Full-fledged | Natural phenomena | Time Loop | |
| Frequently Asked Questions about Time Travel | Full-fledged | Future Tech | Classic | |
| X-Men Days of Future Past | High | Genetics/Superpowers | Consciousness | |
| The Jacket | High | Unknown | Consciousness | |
| About Time | Full-fledged | Genetic | Classic | |
| Project Almanac | Full-fledged | |||
| ARQ | Full-fledged | Machine | Time Loop | |
| Timeline | Story starter – medium | Machine | Classic | |
| Hot Tub Time Machine | Full-fledged | Machine | ||
| Terminator Series | Story starter – high | Machine | Classic | |
| Predestination | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Frequency | Full-fledged | Information | ||
| 12 Monkeys | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| A Wrinkle in Time | ||||
| Bill & Ted | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Timecop | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Time Bandits | Full-fledged | |||
| Primer | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Arrival | Medium-high | Information | ||
| Prince of Persia | Full-fledged | Magical Device | Classic | |
| Planet of The Apes | Low | Natural phenomena | ||
| Paycheck | High | Machine | Information | |
| Timelapse | Machine | Information | ||
| Displacement | Not good | |||
| Flight of the Navigator | Story starter – Medium | Relatively | ||
| Sphere | Low | Future tech / Unknown | ||
| Source Code | High | Virtual | Time loop | |
| Edge of Tomorrow | Full-fledged | Alien tech/biology | Time Loop | |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | High | Magic | Classic | |
| Star Trek – First Contact | Medium | Future tech | Classic | |
| Star Trek – 2009 | Medium | Future tech | Classic | |
| Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | Medium | Future tech | Classic | |
| Avengers Endgame | Full-fledged | Future tech | Classic | |
| Project Almanac | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| The History of Time Travel | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | Mockumentary |
| Midnight in Paris | High | Unknown/Natural phenomena | Classic | |
| The I Inside | ||||
| 41 | Unknown | Classic | ||
| Safety Not Guaranteed | ? | Machine | Classic | Hard to classify |
| The Map of Tiny Perfect Things | Full-fledged | Time loop | ||
| Tenet | Full-fledged | Future Tech | Classic? | Hard to classify |
| 41 | Full-fledged | Unknown | Classic | |
| The I Inside | ||||
| The Final Countdown | ||||
| The Greatest Hits | Full-fledged | Unknown | Consciousness | |
| 57 Seconds | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| See You Yesterday | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| The Tomorrow War | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic |
TV Shows:
| Title | Time Travel Level | Mechanism | Category | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor Who | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Travelers | High | Future tech | Consciousness/Information | |
| Timeless | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Continuum | Story starter – medium | Machine | Classic | |
| The Umbrella Academy | Medium-High | Superpowers | Classic | |
| 12 Monkeys | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Legends of Tomorrow | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| Future Man (Hulu) | Full-fledged | Machine | Classic | |
| 11.22.63 (Hulu) | Story starter | Natural phenomena | ||
| Dark | Full-fledged | Machine | ||
| Outlander | Story starter | Natural phenomena | ||
| Early Edition | Unknown | Information | ||
| Gravity Falls | Occasional | Future Tech | ||
| Futurama | Occasional | Classic | ||
| Loki | Full-fledged | Future Tech | ||
| Paper Girls | Full-fledged | Classic | Based on the Graphic Novel | |
| Russian Doll | Full-fledged | Unknown | Time loop | |
| The 7 Lives of Lea | Full-fledged | Consciousness | Time loop | |
| Last Night in Soho | High | Unknown | Classic | |
| The Time Traveler’s Wife | Full-fledged | Genetic | Classic | |
| Outer Range | Low/Medium | Natural Phenomena | Classic |
Books, Comic Books, & Graphic Novels:
Coming soon…