CAST
JIM CAVIEZEL, DENNIS QUAID, SHAWN DOYLE, ELIZABETH MITCHELL, ANDRE BRAUGHER

DIRECTED BY
GREGORY HOBLIT

Gregory Hoblit’s underrated sci-fi thriller about a NY cop (Jim Caviezel) who re-connects with his long deceased father (Dennis Quaid) 30 years in the past through a ham radio is a heartfelt, father/son story where an astronomical phenomenon provides a second chance for connection and salvation, yet also brings about dangerous consequences. A popcorn movie and tearjerker for blokes.

CAST
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, BRUCE WILLIS, EMILY BLUNT, JEFF DANIELS, PAUL DANO

DIRECTED BY
RIAN JOHNSON

Newly released in cinema’s, Looper thrusts itself into this Top Ten due to writer/director Rian Johnson’s ingenuity and the excellent performances of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis who play different versions of the same character, caught in a cat and mouse game with unexpected consequences. Looper is sure to be the time travel movie for a new generation.

CAST
JAKE GYLLENHAAL, MICHELE MONAGHAN, VERA FARMIGA, JEFFREY WIRGHT, MICHAEL ARDEN

DIRECTED BY
DUNCAN JONES

Duncan Jones’ follow up to Moon was another ethical, intelligent and entertainingly rich sci-fi yarn that gets better with repeated viewings. Playing out like an episode of The Twilight Zone meets Groundhog Day, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier who goes back (or in this case sideways) in time on a mission to find the bomber of a commuter train that was blown to kingdom come. Great thrills and morally relevant questions about the worth of human life during a scientifically advanced era makes this a thinking man’s thriller worth investing in.  

CAST
BRUCE WILLIS, MADELINE STOW, BRAD PITT, CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, DAVID MORSE

DIRECTED BY
TERRY GILLIAM

Another Bruce Willis film, only this time it’s a much grittier time travel opus as told through the manic vision of Terry Gilliam. 12 Monkeys stars Willis as a convict sent back in time to stop a fatal disease from being unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. A modern classic, this is a film that took the spectacle out of time travel sci-fi and replaced it with a dark, grungy atmosphere. Willis and Brad Pitt deliver exceptional performances, and Gilliam achieved that rare distinction of a box office hit.  

CAST
CHRIS PINE, ZACHARY QUINTO, ZOE SALDANA, KARL URBAN, ERIC BANA

DIRECTED BY
J.J. ABRAMS

J.J. Abrams successful reboot of the Star Trek franchise featured a clever time travel angle that sat comfortably alongside its slick action and excellent character development. While it was not the first Star Trek film to use time travel as a plot device, Abrams along with screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman skilfully use time travel as a means to bring together Star Trek’s past with its present, satisfying both old school fans and newcomers while giving a logical reason to cast Leonard Nimoy who one again dons those pointy ears as Spock.

CAST
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, LINDA HAMILTON, MICHAEL BIEHN, PAUL WINFIELD, LANE HENRIKSEN

DIRECTED BY
JAMES CAMERON

James Cameron’s calling card to Hollywood, The Terminator remains an iconic classic and one of the first time-travel themed movies to haunt cinemas during the 1980s.

Cameron’s story about a cyborg assassin (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent back in time to kill the mother (Linda Hamilton) of a future resistance leader is a brilliant concoction of gritty action, hi-tech sci-fi and slasher movie conventions, a thing of nightmares where the villain is an immovable force brought to life through Schwarzenegger’s brilliant performance and Stan Winston’s innovative make-up effects.

While the science behind its time travel concept was never uttered, its descriptions of a future where humans are conquered by machines still influences sci-fi cinema to this day, Cameron unknowingly creating a legacy while bringing his dark vision to life.

CAST
JAKE GYLLENHAAL, JENA MALONE, MARL McDOWELL, HOLMES OSBOURNE, MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL

DIRECTED BY
RICHARD KELLY

Cult independent classic Donnie Darko fascinated and confused audiences in equal measure, with writer/director Richard Kelly placing his fingers in a lot of pies as time-travel, spirituality and teen angst combine to make a truly genuine movie experience.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the title role of Donnie Darko, a messed up teen who is haunted by hallucinations of a figure in a monstrous rabbit suit who proclaims the end of the world is near.

What follows is a film that engrossed while it bewildered, Gyllenhaal’s star making performance and Kelly’s deft touch for creating chilling atmospherics along with his uncanny ability to meld wormholes and teen angst into a slick, unforgettable package.   

CAST
BILL MURRAY, ANDIE McDOWELL, CHRIS ELLIOTT, STEPHEN TOBOLOWSKY, BRIAN DOYLE-MURRAY

DIRECTED BY
HAROLD RAMIS

Imaginatively depicting the banality, adventure and enlightenment of living the same day again and again and again and…Groundhog Day broke new ground by blending the rom-com with a spiritually rich story about learning to love life one repeated day at a time.

Directed by Harold Ramis by way of Frank Capra, the film starred a brilliant Bill Murray as cynical weatherman Phil whose nightmare assignment of covering the Groundhog Day festivities is made worse when he’s trapped in a time loop and forced into reliving the same day repeatedly.

Thought provoking as well as entertainingly heartfelt, Groundhog Day leaves the sci-fi out of the time-travel movie, opting for character to sell this particular brand of fantasy.   

CAST
MICHAEL J. FOX, CHRISTOPHER LLOYD, LEA THOMPSON, CRISPIN GLOVER, THOMAS F. WILSON

DIRECTED BY
ROBERT ZEMECKIS

Is there ever been a cooler time machine than a DeLorean? Such is the ever lasting effect that Back to the Future has on viewers, its many props and special effects contemplating its engrossing and entertaining story about prideful teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) who travels back in time and inadvertently prevents his parents from getting together, thus placing his own existence in jeopardy.    

The brainchild of producer Steven Spielberg and director Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future is the type of cartoonish adventure that benefits from Spielberg’s Midas touch.

High stakes are placed on McFly’s time travelling escapades with every action on his part garnering a reaction (as seen in its two sequels), yet Zemeckis fills the drama with infectious fun and spirit. Then there are the performances by Fox, Crispin Glover at his eccentric best and Christopher Lloyd as everyone’s favourite mad scientist Doc Brown. ‘80s sci-fi adventure at its best.

CAST
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, LINDA HAMILTON, EDWARD FURLONG, ROBERT PATRICK, JOE MORTON

DIRECTED BY
JAMES CAMERON

James Cameron’s sequel to his ground breaking Terminator is a slicker, more grandiose beast, building upon the story of its predecessor and laying the ground work for a sci-fi mythology where a war between man and machine takes place.

As always in the Terminator movies it is the machines that take centre stage. Arnold Schwarzenegger - at that point the king of Hollywood- reunited with Cameron to once again play a time travelling cyborg killer, only this time the mission had changed from killing future resistance leader John Connor (Edward Furlong) to protecting him from an advanced synthetic assassin, the unsuspecting T-1000 (Robert Patrick).

To say the stakes are high in this story is an understatement, with the fate of mankind resting in the balance. Cameron’s excellent direction makes those stakes feel palpable, conjuring brilliant performances from his cast (don’t let anyone say action films cannot contain great acting) and coupling them with state of the art filmmaking technology that forever did away with the line between the real life and the digital life.