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:
| 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 | High | Machine |
Classic |
|
| Star Trek First Contact | Low | Future Tech |
Classic |
|
| Avengers Endgame | Full-fledged | Machine |
Classic |
|
| Synchronic | Full-fledged | Drug |
Classic |
|
| Long Story Short | High | Unknown |
Time jump |
|
| Needle in a Timestack | High | Future Tech |
Classic |
|
| The Adam Project | Full-fledged | Future Tech |
Classic |
|
| River | Full-fledged | Machine |
Time loop |
|
| Relax, I'm from the Future | Full-fledged | Future Tech |
Classic |
|
| Totally Killer | Full-fledged | Machine |
Classic |
|
| The Flash | Story starter - high | Superpowers |
Classic |
|
| Time Cut | Full-fledged | Machine |
Classic |
|
| Caddo Lake | High | Natural phenomena |
Classic |
|
| Omni Loop | Full-fledged | Unknown |
Time loop |
|
| The Present | Full-fledged | Magical Device |
Time loop |
|
| Things Will Be Different | Full-fledged | Machine |
Classic |
|
| Timestalker | Medium | Reincarnation |
Consciousness |
|
| Time Travel is Dangerous | Full-fledged | Machine |
Classic |
Mockumentary |
| Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice | Full-fledged | Machine |
Classic |
TV Shows:
| 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 |
|
| Quantum Leap | Full-fledged | Machine |
Consciousness |
Original and revival |
| The Lazarus Project | Full-fledged | Future Tech |
Time loop |
|
| Kindred | Full-fledged | Unknown |
Classic |
Based on the novel |
| The Way Home | Full-fledged | Natural phenomena |
Classic |
|
| A Time Called You | Full-fledged | Unknown |
Consciousness |
|
| Bodies | Full-fledged | Future Tech |
Classic |
Based on the Graphic Novel |
| Time Bandits | Full-fledged | Magic/Magical Device |
Classic |
Based on the movie |
| Time Patrol Bon | Full-fledged | Future Tech |
Classic |
Anime |
| Mobius | Full-fledged | Supernatural |
Time loop |
Books, Comic Books, & Graphic Novels:
Coming soon...