8 Forgotten Time Travel Movies That Work Better Than Back to Future
The best time travel stories are those that aren’t part of any big franchises — like these 10 overlooked gems that are worth every second of your time!
8. Source Code (2011)
Have you ever considered that the most optimal way to prevent terrorist attacks is to lock soldiers into a never-ending hell? A US soldier wakes up stuck in a military simulation: he needs to find a terrorist on a commuter train before the latter succeeds, but he only has eight minutes to do that. So he dies, over and over…
You can watch Source Code on Netflix, Apple TV, and Prime Video.
7. Deja Vu (2006)
Another soldier, another terrorist attack — but this time, everything is real. He needs to prevent a bomb from going off on a ferry and killing countless civilians, and he has little time to do so. The mission becomes personal when the soldier falls in love with one of the passengers, but no matter how hard he tries, she keeps dying every time.
You can watch Deja Vu on Apple TV, Disney Plus, and Prime Video.
6. Primer (2004)
Friendship or power, the good old question… Two brilliant students discover a way to travel back in time. Just six hours, but that’s enough to pull off stock market manipulations. All goes well until their relentless time travel starts taking effect on their bodies and mentality, leading to increasingly regular clashes between them.
You can watch Primer on Apple TV and Prime Video.
5. Donnie Darko (2001)
Donnie Darko follows a troubled teenager whose life gets irreversibly changed. His sleepwalking leads to his narrowly escaping death; he’s haunted by an elusive man in a rabbit costume who tells him when the world will end; he commits crimes when he sleeps; and time travel is just another problem to mark off his list of troubles.
You can watch Donnie Darko on Prime Video.
4. 12 Monkeys (1995)
We’re all familiar with post-apocalypse, but how about a post-apocalypse where the characters are using time travel to learn more about the tragedy that caused the end of the world and prevent it from happening? In 12 Monkeys, a convict is sent back in time to discover the origin of the deadly virus that wiped out most of humanity.
You can watch 12 Monkeys on Apple TV and Prime Video.
3. Flight Of The Navigator (1986)
Most time travelers visit the past, but only top dogs like the 12-year-old David visit the future. Having mysteriously disappeared eight years ago, the boy just as mysteriously reappears having not aged a day; apparently, he spent all this time with aliens who taught him to fly UFOs, and now, the universe is his playground.
You can watch Flight Of The Navigator on Disney Plus and Prime Video.
2. Somewhere In Time (1980)
A young man meets an unfamiliar elderly woman who gives him a watch and asks to “return to her.” He doesn’t think much of it until he learns that the woman was a popular actress in 1912. Intrigued, he uses self-hypnosis and travels back in time to meet her face to face and learn what’s really going on and why she chose him…
You can watch Somewhere In Time on Apple TV and Prime Video.
1. The Final Countdown (1980)
Most people fantasize about traveling back in time and preventing the biggest tragedies, don’t they? But the crew of a modern nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier gets a chance to do so when their hi-tech vessel travels back in time to 1941 — just one day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that changed American history.
You can watch The Final Countdown on Prime Video.