SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - 20 of the Best Sci-fi Time Travel Movies

Posted: Feb 03 2011 10:59 pm

http://www.eatmyzombie.com/20-of-the-best-sci-fi-time-travel-movies

agree? disagree? GO!

1. Primer
2. Sound of Thunder
3. Time After Time
4. Somewhere in Time
5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
6. Time Machine 1960
7. Back to the Future
8. Millennium
9. The Philadelphia Experiment
10. 12 Monkeys
11. Sleeper
12. Land of the Lost
13. Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann
14. Army of Darkness
15. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
16. Time Bandits
17. Timeline
18. Escape from the Planet of the Apes
19. Stargate: Continuum
20. Slipstream 2005

Posted: Feb 03 2011 11:54 pm

Primer? what the hell is that

Posted: Feb 04 2011 01:40 am

I am sorry any list where Back to the Future isn't number 1 is not for me. Although I may not be judging fairly since back to the future is like my favorite movie.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 01:41 am

SnesGuy wrote:

Primer? what the hell is that

i never heard of it either, but this is what that website wrote:

Quote:

A low budget films that turned out to be more than what most would expect. It delves into the deeper philosophical implications of time travel as the two protagonists, Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), start to make changes in their own pasts. They begin by using their time machine to get rich but eventually it created friction between the two and endangers their friendship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_%28film%29

Posted: Feb 04 2011 01:42 am

Also what is the deal with no Hot Tub Time Machine!!!!!????? This Is A Joke

Posted: Feb 04 2011 04:01 am

Timeline was a good movie but it didn't do the book justice.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 04:05 am

username wrote:

SnesGuy wrote:

Primer? what the hell is that

i never heard of it either, but this is what that website wrote:

Quote:

A low budget films that turned out to be more than what most would expect. It delves into the deeper philosophical implications of time travel as the two protagonists, Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), start to make changes in their own pasts. They begin by using their time machine to get rich but eventually it created friction between the two and endangers their friendship.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primer_%28film%29

So basically they're saying:

"We want to look cool and sophisticated by picking a movie nobody ever heard of as #1."

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

Seriously one of the worst lists I have ever seen in my life. I saw Primer one time on that Independent Films channel and it was fucking awful.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 07:17 am

Yeah any time you see a "Best time travel movies" list, just ignore it. Anyone attempting to do one of these lists is an idiot because there isn't any point as there is only one time travel movie worth watching. You can tell from his list that he was really struggling to come up a full list and was really reaching on some of them; T2 is not a movie about time travel.

Back to the Future is the best time travel movie ever and there's no debating that. It's scientific law.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 07:21 am

No Timecop, no deal.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 12:35 pm

"The Final Countdown" should be on that list. It was way better then some of the ones listed.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Pandajuice wrote:

Yeah any time you see a "Best time travel movies" list, just ignore it. Anyone attempting to do one of these lists is an idiot because there isn't any point as there is only one time travel movie worth watching. You can tell from his list that he was really struggling to come up a full list and was really reaching on some of them; T2 is not a movie about time travel.

Back to the Future is the best time travel movie ever and there's no debating that. It's scientific law.

The list is total shit, but T2 is most certainly a movie about time travel.

A guy sends his father back in time to impregnate his mother and protect her only to find that a more advanced robot is being sent back in time to kill him as a child. He steals the type of robot that tried to kill his mother and sends it back to protect his childhood self.

Not to mention that the first robot sent back is the primary catalyst for the creation of all future robots due to its parts being used to develop the future robots.

The entire terminator series belongs on this list, even the weakest movies in the collection.

Also, isn't Land of the Lost a parallel universe or some odd collection of alternate reality? I never really got the impression that it was a reversal of time, but rather a mix match of time.

And where the fuck are Bill and Ted?

Posted: Feb 04 2011 02:50 pm

GPFontaine wrote:

Pandajuice wrote:

Yeah any time you see a "Best time travel movies" list, just ignore it. Anyone attempting to do one of these lists is an idiot because there isn't any point as there is only one time travel movie worth watching. You can tell from his list that he was really struggling to come up a full list and was really reaching on some of them; T2 is not a movie about time travel.

Back to the Future is the best time travel movie ever and there's no debating that. It's scientific law.

The list is total shit, but T2 is most certainly a movie about time travel.

A guy sends his father back in time to impregnate his mother and protect her only to find that a more advanced robot is being sent back in time to kill him as a child. He steals the type of robot that tried to kill his mother and sends it back to protect his childhood self.

Not to mention that the first robot sent back is the primary catalyst for the creation of all future robots due to its parts being used to develop the future robots.

The entire terminator series belongs on this list, even the weakest movies in the collection.

Also, isn't Land of the Lost a parallel universe or some odd collection of alternate reality? I never really got the impression that it was a reversal of time, but rather a mix match of time.

And where the fuck are Bill and Ted?

yes on the T2 deal. it definitely is a time travel movie.

and i asked myself the same deal about Bill & Ted.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 03:06 pm

I hate time travel. The present is exciting enough without grandfather paradoxes.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

aeonic wrote:

I hate time travel. The present is exciting enough without grandfather paradoxes.

Fry being his own grandfather was funny as hell.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 03:43 pm

GPFontaine wrote:

aeonic wrote:

I hate time travel. The present is exciting enough without grandfather paradoxes.

Fry being his own grandfather was funny as hell.

And Dr. Zoidberg getting dysected by the president
"Im being dysected by the president? What an honor"

Posted: Feb 04 2011 04:02 pm

Sound of Thunder is one of the worst pieces of shit I've ever seen. This list is complete and utter bullshit because it does not begin thusly:
1. Back to the Future
2. 12 Monkeys
3. Terminator 2

Army of Darkness is awesome, but it also doesn't really belong on that list, nor does Time Bandits.

And wait, which Land of the Lost do they mean? Do they mean the 1948 movie that no one's ever even seen and no one cares about, or the recent one with Will Ferrell? That movie was so bad that I just chose to sleep through it. It didn't bore me to sleep, I consciously decided "You guys can watch this, but I'm checking out."

Posted: Feb 04 2011 04:36 pm

Yeah, I would have put Millennium or Freejack on this list, before some of the others, and those two movies are average at best.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 04:55 pm

T2's backstory has to do with time travel yes, but it isn't ABOUT time travel. The characters (besides the Terminator) don't travel through time and time travel isn't the main catalyst for the plot progression. When a film completely takes place in one certain time period (excepting the 5 minute exposition scenes from the future), it isn't a time travel movie.

Nobody is traveling through time like Marty McFly or H.G. Wells.

Posted: Feb 04 2011 10:55 pm

ok. in that respect, you are correct.

one thing that bothered me about T2, and this is me being nitpicky, is the one scene where they break into skynet. when the swat team goes into the building, the first group uses a security key card to get in, while the second group just breaks the glass door. why did they even bother w/the security card?!

Posted: Feb 04 2011 11:13 pm

Terminator 2 is about an assassin and a bodyguard traveling back in time to battle over the life of a boy who is important to the future. Yeah, it takes place in one time period. So does the vast majority of Back To The Future. Back To The Future takes place primarily in 1955, with short parts at the beginning and end where Marty is in 1985.

List is missing:

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Hot Time Machine (Hey, it's better than at least half of the list.)
Demolition Man (It fucking counts!)
Universal Solider (It fucking counts!)
Timecop
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
The Butterfly Effect
Donnie Darko
The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones
The original Planet of the Apes
Warlock

Oh yeah.... AND MOTHERFUCKING GROUNDHOG DAY!

So yeah, most of the list is crap. I'd keep BTTF, T2, and 12 Monkeys for sure. I might replace Voyage Home with First Contact.

Posted: Feb 05 2011 01:31 am

Syd Lexia wrote:

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Hot Time Machine (Hey, it's better than at least half of the list.)
Demolition Man (It fucking counts!)
Universal Solider (It fucking counts!)
Timecop
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
The Butterfly Effect
Donnie Darko
The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones
The original Planet of the Apes
Warlock

Yeah seriously why no Bill & Ted? And thank you for putting Butterfly Effect on your list. I always thought that movie was pretty good.

Also I don't think I ever really though about Groundhog Day as a time travel film. It sort of feels like a lack of time travel film really.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Primer is badass, if you disagree you are simply wrong.

Posted: Feb 05 2011 07:10 am

username wrote:

ok. in that respect, you are correct.

Thanks username. Man, you motherfuckers have to argue with me about everything!

Quote:

So does the vast majority of Back To The Future. Back To The Future takes place primarily in 1955, with short parts at the beginning and end where Marty is in 1985.

The difference though is that Marty actually travels through time in the film, whereas the Terminator just sort of appears in a blue bubble and says he came from the future. Also, while it does take place primarily in 1955, the entire plot of BTTF is about getting Marty back to 1985 i.e., it centers around his traveling back through time. Bill and Ted as well is a time travel movie because it centers around time travel.

Terminator's plot isn't about time travel so it isn't a "time travel movie".

Posted: Feb 05 2011 08:33 am

Pandajuice wrote:

the Terminator just sort of appears in a blue bubble and says he came from the future.

So if there was an extra two minutes of footage where we saw the T-800 and T-1000 step through portals in the future and arrive in the past, it would count? It is about time travel. Specifically, it's about whether time travel can change the future, or if the path is already set. You can argue against this point all you want, but you're in the minority, and you're wrong. Note that these are two independent facts: being in the minority doesn't make you wrong, but you are wrong nonetheless.

Optimist, I read the Wikipedia page on Primer, it sounds fascinating.