Time travel is a common theme in fiction and has been depicted in a variety of media. It can be the central theme of the plot, or merely a plot device to set the story in motion. In some science fiction stories, time travel is included in the plot or at least normal time speed is slowed down. Whereas hard science fiction may restrict time travel by examining the causes and effects of time travel paradoxes, soft science fiction and science fantasy may ignore these aspects and focus on fantastic wonders and adventures. With that being said I'm going to bring you my top 10 favorite time travel films of all-time. You can check out my other list here These movies are ranked 11-20 so when you see number 5 it is actually number 15. So without further ado...
10. (20) Groundhog Day
This is fun and hilarious film and it's nice little take on the holiday that either everyone hates or loves. Phil (played by Bill Murray), a TV weatherman working for a local station in Pennsylvania but convinced that national news stardom is in his grasp. Phil displays a charm and wit on camera that evaporates the moment the red light goes off; he is bitter, appallingly self-centered, and treats his co-workers with contempt, especially his producer Rita (played by Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (played by Chris Elliot). On February 2, 1992, Phil, Rita, and Larry are sent on an assignment that Phil especially loathes: the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, PA, where the citizens await the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who will supposedly determine the length of winter by his ability to see his own shadow. Phil is eager to beat a hasty retreat, but when a freak snowstorm strands him in Punxsutawney, he wakes up the next morning with the strangest sense of déjà vu: he seems to be living the same day over again. The next morning it happens again, and then again. Soon, no matter what he does, he's stuck in February 2, 1992; not imprisonment nor attempted suicide nor kidnapping the groundhog gets him out of the loop. But the more Phil relives the same day, the more he's forced to look at other people's lives, and something unusual happens: he begins to care about others. He starts to respect people, he tries to save the life of a homeless man, and he discovers that he's falling in love with Rita and therefore wants to be someone that she could love in return. Groundhog Day has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. (19) Austin Powers in Goldmember
This movie is absolutely hilarious and it is so quotable. The swinging-'60s leftover Austin Powers (played by Mike Meyers), who, as the film opens, is busy critiquing a big-budget Hollywood production of his life story, replete with a 20-million-dollar star in the lead role and a slew of John Woo-style action scenes. But not far from the soundstage lurks arch nemesis Dr. Evil (played by Mike Myers), who has opened up a talent agency representing some of the industry's biggest stars -- all the while channeling their profits into a diabolical world-destruction plan with the unfortunate code name Preparation H. Dr. Evil presents a distraction to Austin by kidnapping his similarly swingin' father, Nigel Powers, and transporting him back in time to 1975. Travelling there to save his father -- and in turn win back his dad's sometimes-errant affection -- Austin comes across the alluring superspy Foxxy Cleopatra (played by Beyonce Knowles). The three of them travel back to the present day, where they join forces to battle Dr. Evil and his posse of nefarious evil-doers, including the trusty clone Mini-Me (played by Verne Troyer); his snotty son, Scott (played by Seth Green); the inimitable Fat Bastard (played by Mike Myers); and the eponymous new addition to the fold: the epidermis-obsessed, precious-metal-fortified Dutchman called Goldmember (played by Mike Myers). Austin Powers in Goldmember has a rating of 54% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. (18) Timecop
In my personal opinion, this film is the best film of Jean-Claude Van Damme's career. In 1994 policeman Max Walker (played by Jean-Claude Van Damme)'s wife Melissa (played by Mia Sara) is about to tell him that she is expecting their first child when they are attacked by a group of criminals. Walker is shot and beaten and lies helplessly on his lawn while he sees their home and his wife blown up by the killers. Ten years later, Walker remains an employee of the Time Enforcement Commission, a federal agency which was set up in 1994 after the U.S. government learned that time travel technology is feasible. The commission's role is to prevent time travel to protect U.S. economic interests. Walker learns that the corrupt Senator McComb (played by Ron Silver), who helped establish the agency, is exploiting it for personal gain, trying to establish a monopoly on time travel so that he can enrich himself in the stock market. Walker travels back in time to stop McComb from murdering his former partner. At the same time, Walker hopes to rescue his wife, and he learns that the attack on his home was ordered by McComb to stop Walker from foiling his plans. Timecop has a rating of 43% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. (17) Star Trek: First Contact
This film is vastly underrated as a Star Trek movie and it is one of the better films in the franchise and of The Next Generation series films. Capt. Picard (played by Sir Patrick Stewart) and his crew pursue the Borg back in time to stop them from preventing Earth from initiating first contact with alien life. Star Trek: First Contact was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup and it has a rating of 92% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. (16) Lost in Space
It may not live up to the greatness of the tv show, but it's still a fun film with a talented cast. In the year 2058, when the United Global Space Force sends Professor John Robinson (played by William Hurt) and family -- wife Maureen (played by Mimi Rogers), daughter Judy (played by Heather Graham), teen Penny (played by Lacey Chabert), and 10-year-old Will (played by Jack Johnson) -- sent to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri system to herald the "offshore" future for the human race (now saddled with eco problems on Earth). Major Don West (played by Matt LeBlanc), more accustomed to fighting menacing Global Sedition forces, is reluctant to sign on as the Jupiter II pilot but quickly changes his mind after he gets a good look at Judy in her fetish-fashioned space togs. Space spy Dr. Smith (played by Gary Oldman), hired to sabotage the mission, programs in problems but winds up aboard the craft unconscious. Once awake, he summons the Robinsons from suspended animation, and they save the ship just in time, passing through hyperspace to arrive near an Earth ship where they encounter space-pet Blawp and hordes of teethy spiders. Lost in Space has a rating of 27% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. (15) Frequency
This film has a talented cast with great performances and a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. What if you had the chance to travel back in time and change just one event in your life? What would it be? For John Sullivan (played by Jim Caviezel), there is no question. He would undo the events of October 12, 1969, when the out-of-control Bruxton fire took the life of his father (played by Dennis Quaid), a heroic firefighter. Ever since he was a kid, John dreamed of being able to stop the tragedy of that fateful day, which set into motion the anger and loneliness that have haunted his adult life as a cop in the 1990s. Now John may get exactly what he has wished for, and more than he bargained for. One day before the anniversary of his father's death, in the midst of the spectacular storm known as the aurora borealis, John Sullivan discovers in the house he inherited his father's old ham radio and begins to play with it. Through the electrical static, he finds himself talking to a man who claims to be a firefighter and who appears to be awaiting the World Series of 1969. Is John really talking to his own living father on the very same day, in the very same house, but exactly three decades ago? At first neither can believe it, but soon John is carrying on an all-night conversation with his young father, sharing for the first time his deep love and regret over his future death. Yet John realizes that now he may be able to change all that. By alerting Frank to the mistake that cost him his life the first time around, John saves his youthful father from dying in the Bruxton fire. On October 12, 1999, John Sullivan discovers that he now has photographs on his walls of his father as a gray-haired man. By changing the past, the Sullivans have forged a new present. John is ecstatic with his new memories of his father- until he discovers other things have been altered. Subtle changes caused by his father's survival have led to a string of unsolved serial homicides, including the grisly murder of John's mother. Now Frank and John must race against the clock-divided by three decades and connected only by a radio-to prevent a murder that will seal their destinies. And each time Frank changes something in his universe, John wakes up to a whole new reality. Frequency has a rating of 70% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. (14) Edge of Tomorrow
This film is so much fun and it plays out just like a video game and it was vastly underrated last year. Major William Cage (played by Tom Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again...and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (played by Emily Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.
3. (13) The Terminator
This film is a cinematic achievement and it still holds up as one of the greatest sci-fi films of all-time. A Cyborg (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been sent from the future on a deadly mission, it has been programmed to kill a young woman named Sarah Connor (played by Linda Hamilton). Sarah has no idea that her life will have a staggering effect on the fate of mankind and that she is in danger of being killed at the hands of an inescapable machine known as the Terminator. Kyle Reese (played by Michael Biehn) has also been sent from the future, but his mission is to protect the unknowing mother of a future leader. Is there any way to stop the death of an innocent when the relentless Cyborg is set on his course. The Terminator has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. (12) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Men
This is by far the best Austin Powers film and it is very memorable for introducing one of the best characters in the franchise. Austin Powers -- fashion photographer, denizen of Swingin' London, international espionage agent, and bane of dental hygienists everywhere -- returns in his second screen adventure. Powers (played by Mike Myers), a 1960s superspy stranded in the 1990s, discovers that his nemesis, criminal genius Dr. Evil (played by Mike Myers), has somehow stolen his "mojo" (the secret to his otherwise inexplicable sex appeal) and traveled back in time to the 1960s as part of his latest fiendish scheme. Powers must also travel back in time to retrieve it, but if Austin doesn't quite fit into 1998, he's been there just long enough not to fit in in 1968 anymore, either. Powers also discovers that Dr. Evil has new allies this time: Mini-Me (played by Verne Troyer), a clone of Dr. Evil one-eighth his size but just as nasty; Fat Bastard (played by Myers), whose name describes him just fine; and vixenish assassin Robin Swallows (played by Gia Carides). Powers' lack of mojo also proves troublesome when he's paired with his new partner, saucy CIA operative Felicity Shagwell (played by Heather Graham). Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me has a rating of 51% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. (11) Interstellar
This film may have its problems, but it's still mind-blowing and it presents a lot of interesting theories. With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars. Interstellar was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and Best Production Design while winning the award for Best Visual Effects and it has a rating of 72% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite time travel films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
10. (20) Groundhog Day
This is fun and hilarious film and it's nice little take on the holiday that either everyone hates or loves. Phil (played by Bill Murray), a TV weatherman working for a local station in Pennsylvania but convinced that national news stardom is in his grasp. Phil displays a charm and wit on camera that evaporates the moment the red light goes off; he is bitter, appallingly self-centered, and treats his co-workers with contempt, especially his producer Rita (played by Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (played by Chris Elliot). On February 2, 1992, Phil, Rita, and Larry are sent on an assignment that Phil especially loathes: the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney, PA, where the citizens await the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who will supposedly determine the length of winter by his ability to see his own shadow. Phil is eager to beat a hasty retreat, but when a freak snowstorm strands him in Punxsutawney, he wakes up the next morning with the strangest sense of déjà vu: he seems to be living the same day over again. The next morning it happens again, and then again. Soon, no matter what he does, he's stuck in February 2, 1992; not imprisonment nor attempted suicide nor kidnapping the groundhog gets him out of the loop. But the more Phil relives the same day, the more he's forced to look at other people's lives, and something unusual happens: he begins to care about others. He starts to respect people, he tries to save the life of a homeless man, and he discovers that he's falling in love with Rita and therefore wants to be someone that she could love in return. Groundhog Day has a rating of 96% on rottentomatoes.com.
9. (19) Austin Powers in Goldmember
This movie is absolutely hilarious and it is so quotable. The swinging-'60s leftover Austin Powers (played by Mike Meyers), who, as the film opens, is busy critiquing a big-budget Hollywood production of his life story, replete with a 20-million-dollar star in the lead role and a slew of John Woo-style action scenes. But not far from the soundstage lurks arch nemesis Dr. Evil (played by Mike Myers), who has opened up a talent agency representing some of the industry's biggest stars -- all the while channeling their profits into a diabolical world-destruction plan with the unfortunate code name Preparation H. Dr. Evil presents a distraction to Austin by kidnapping his similarly swingin' father, Nigel Powers, and transporting him back in time to 1975. Travelling there to save his father -- and in turn win back his dad's sometimes-errant affection -- Austin comes across the alluring superspy Foxxy Cleopatra (played by Beyonce Knowles). The three of them travel back to the present day, where they join forces to battle Dr. Evil and his posse of nefarious evil-doers, including the trusty clone Mini-Me (played by Verne Troyer); his snotty son, Scott (played by Seth Green); the inimitable Fat Bastard (played by Mike Myers); and the eponymous new addition to the fold: the epidermis-obsessed, precious-metal-fortified Dutchman called Goldmember (played by Mike Myers). Austin Powers in Goldmember has a rating of 54% on rottentomatoes.com.
8. (18) Timecop
In my personal opinion, this film is the best film of Jean-Claude Van Damme's career. In 1994 policeman Max Walker (played by Jean-Claude Van Damme)'s wife Melissa (played by Mia Sara) is about to tell him that she is expecting their first child when they are attacked by a group of criminals. Walker is shot and beaten and lies helplessly on his lawn while he sees their home and his wife blown up by the killers. Ten years later, Walker remains an employee of the Time Enforcement Commission, a federal agency which was set up in 1994 after the U.S. government learned that time travel technology is feasible. The commission's role is to prevent time travel to protect U.S. economic interests. Walker learns that the corrupt Senator McComb (played by Ron Silver), who helped establish the agency, is exploiting it for personal gain, trying to establish a monopoly on time travel so that he can enrich himself in the stock market. Walker travels back in time to stop McComb from murdering his former partner. At the same time, Walker hopes to rescue his wife, and he learns that the attack on his home was ordered by McComb to stop Walker from foiling his plans. Timecop has a rating of 43% on rottentomatoes.com.
7. (17) Star Trek: First Contact
This film is vastly underrated as a Star Trek movie and it is one of the better films in the franchise and of The Next Generation series films. Capt. Picard (played by Sir Patrick Stewart) and his crew pursue the Borg back in time to stop them from preventing Earth from initiating first contact with alien life. Star Trek: First Contact was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup and it has a rating of 92% on rottentomatoes.com.
6. (16) Lost in Space
It may not live up to the greatness of the tv show, but it's still a fun film with a talented cast. In the year 2058, when the United Global Space Force sends Professor John Robinson (played by William Hurt) and family -- wife Maureen (played by Mimi Rogers), daughter Judy (played by Heather Graham), teen Penny (played by Lacey Chabert), and 10-year-old Will (played by Jack Johnson) -- sent to colonize a planet in the Alpha Centauri system to herald the "offshore" future for the human race (now saddled with eco problems on Earth). Major Don West (played by Matt LeBlanc), more accustomed to fighting menacing Global Sedition forces, is reluctant to sign on as the Jupiter II pilot but quickly changes his mind after he gets a good look at Judy in her fetish-fashioned space togs. Space spy Dr. Smith (played by Gary Oldman), hired to sabotage the mission, programs in problems but winds up aboard the craft unconscious. Once awake, he summons the Robinsons from suspended animation, and they save the ship just in time, passing through hyperspace to arrive near an Earth ship where they encounter space-pet Blawp and hordes of teethy spiders. Lost in Space has a rating of 27% on rottentomatoes.com.
5. (15) Frequency
This film has a talented cast with great performances and a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. What if you had the chance to travel back in time and change just one event in your life? What would it be? For John Sullivan (played by Jim Caviezel), there is no question. He would undo the events of October 12, 1969, when the out-of-control Bruxton fire took the life of his father (played by Dennis Quaid), a heroic firefighter. Ever since he was a kid, John dreamed of being able to stop the tragedy of that fateful day, which set into motion the anger and loneliness that have haunted his adult life as a cop in the 1990s. Now John may get exactly what he has wished for, and more than he bargained for. One day before the anniversary of his father's death, in the midst of the spectacular storm known as the aurora borealis, John Sullivan discovers in the house he inherited his father's old ham radio and begins to play with it. Through the electrical static, he finds himself talking to a man who claims to be a firefighter and who appears to be awaiting the World Series of 1969. Is John really talking to his own living father on the very same day, in the very same house, but exactly three decades ago? At first neither can believe it, but soon John is carrying on an all-night conversation with his young father, sharing for the first time his deep love and regret over his future death. Yet John realizes that now he may be able to change all that. By alerting Frank to the mistake that cost him his life the first time around, John saves his youthful father from dying in the Bruxton fire. On October 12, 1999, John Sullivan discovers that he now has photographs on his walls of his father as a gray-haired man. By changing the past, the Sullivans have forged a new present. John is ecstatic with his new memories of his father- until he discovers other things have been altered. Subtle changes caused by his father's survival have led to a string of unsolved serial homicides, including the grisly murder of John's mother. Now Frank and John must race against the clock-divided by three decades and connected only by a radio-to prevent a murder that will seal their destinies. And each time Frank changes something in his universe, John wakes up to a whole new reality. Frequency has a rating of 70% on rottentomatoes.com.
4. (14) Edge of Tomorrow
This film is so much fun and it plays out just like a video game and it was vastly underrated last year. Major William Cage (played by Tom Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again...and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (played by Emily Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.
3. (13) The Terminator
This film is a cinematic achievement and it still holds up as one of the greatest sci-fi films of all-time. A Cyborg (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been sent from the future on a deadly mission, it has been programmed to kill a young woman named Sarah Connor (played by Linda Hamilton). Sarah has no idea that her life will have a staggering effect on the fate of mankind and that she is in danger of being killed at the hands of an inescapable machine known as the Terminator. Kyle Reese (played by Michael Biehn) has also been sent from the future, but his mission is to protect the unknowing mother of a future leader. Is there any way to stop the death of an innocent when the relentless Cyborg is set on his course. The Terminator has a rating of 100% on rottentomatoes.com.
2. (12) Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Men
This is by far the best Austin Powers film and it is very memorable for introducing one of the best characters in the franchise. Austin Powers -- fashion photographer, denizen of Swingin' London, international espionage agent, and bane of dental hygienists everywhere -- returns in his second screen adventure. Powers (played by Mike Myers), a 1960s superspy stranded in the 1990s, discovers that his nemesis, criminal genius Dr. Evil (played by Mike Myers), has somehow stolen his "mojo" (the secret to his otherwise inexplicable sex appeal) and traveled back in time to the 1960s as part of his latest fiendish scheme. Powers must also travel back in time to retrieve it, but if Austin doesn't quite fit into 1998, he's been there just long enough not to fit in in 1968 anymore, either. Powers also discovers that Dr. Evil has new allies this time: Mini-Me (played by Verne Troyer), a clone of Dr. Evil one-eighth his size but just as nasty; Fat Bastard (played by Myers), whose name describes him just fine; and vixenish assassin Robin Swallows (played by Gia Carides). Powers' lack of mojo also proves troublesome when he's paired with his new partner, saucy CIA operative Felicity Shagwell (played by Heather Graham). Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me has a rating of 51% on rottentomatoes.com.
1. (11) Interstellar
This film may have its problems, but it's still mind-blowing and it presents a lot of interesting theories. With our time on Earth coming to an end, a team of explorers undertakes the most important mission in human history; traveling beyond this galaxy to discover whether mankind has a future among the stars. Interstellar was nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score and Best Production Design while winning the award for Best Visual Effects and it has a rating of 72% on rottentomatoes.com.
So ladies and gentlemen what are some of your favorite time travel films and what do you think of my list? Let me know in the comments section below and let your voice be heard.
Jonah Sparks
No comments:
Post a Comment