Where would Hollywood movies be without time travel?
With the release of The Time Machine, H.G. Wells’ classic sci-fi story starring Guy Pearce, one must consider movies about time travel–especially considering this is the third movie to break that dimensional barrier in the past six months.
Basically, there are two kinds of time traveling films. One is the fish-out-of-water story, where the time traveler finds himself in a whole new era and must either adjust to his new surroundings or find a way back to his own time.
The other is where the time traveler is sent to another era to fix something, such as finding out why a plague wiped out the population or stopping a future rebel leader from being born.
(Actually, there’s a third option: a combination of both of the above.)
Ultimately, though, do time travel movies work?
Of course they do. Because, face it, we’d all love to travel through time and meet famous people or maybe change something for the better. It’s what we call escapism.
Here are just a few examples of movies that allow us the dream of time travel, in reverse chronological order, naturally:
Kate & Leopold (2001)
Time traveler(s): Stuart Besser (Liev Schreiber) and Leopold Mountbatten (Hugh Jackman)
Means of transportation: A time gap near the Brooklyn Bridge
Reason for travel: Kate (Meg Ryan) is a modern-day New York woman, climbing the corporate ladder with no time for love. Her ex-boyfriend Stuart finds a rift in time and goes back to the late 1800s and brings back more than mementos–he brings back his great, great grandfather, Leopold, a courtly gentleman. Leopold comes face to face with the 21st century and with Kate, and the two fall in love. It seems they are destined to be together.
Was it worth the trip?: No, not really. Well, it was probably worth it for Kate because she gets to meet the man of her dreams, but for the rest of us the far-fetched story simply doesn’t shed any light on the mysteries–or benefits–of traveling through time.
Black Knight (2001)
Time traveler(s): Jamal Sky Walker (Martin Lawrence)
Means of transportation: Falling into a moat
Reason for travel: Another remake of Mark Twain’s classic tale, A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court, Jamal is a worker at the Medieval World theme park who falls into a moat and emerges in 14th-century England. Desperate to return from whence he came, Jamal finds himself inadvertently caught up in a rebellion led by medieval feminist Victoria (Marsha Thomason) against an illegitimate monarchy. Jamal also teaches an army of peasants about football and wrestling techniques. Eventually, he finds a way back to the 21st century but must wrestle with the feelings he developed for Victoria.
Was it worth the trip?: Sure. Twain’s tale is one of the original travel-to-a-different-time, become-a-fish-out-of-water-but-teach-the-peasants-a-few-things-about-modern-life scenarios, and the concept still works. Also, watching comedian Lawrence teach 14th century folk how to dance hip-hop is just pure comedy.
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Time traveler(s): James Cole (Bruce Willis)
Means of transportation: A rather torturous-looking machine
Reason for travel: In the year 2035, only 1% of the population has survived a plague caused by an unknown and lethal virus which wiped out five billion people in 1996. Convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back to 1996 to gather information and locate the virus before it can mutate, bringing it back to the future so scientists can study it. However, Cole is sent too far back, to 1990, where he is put into a mental institution because no one believes his story.
Was it worth the trip?: This movie shows how time travel can go very, very wrong. Poor Cole has no control over where he ends up and the scientists in the year 2035 can’t seem to get the time travel formula down right. How do they expect to change the terrible course of history? Or is sending Cole back only hastening the plague? Apparently, time travel is a very tricky business.
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Time traveler(s): Bill S. Preston, Esquire (Alex Winter), Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves), Rufus (George Carlin)
Means of transportation: A telephone booth
Reason for travel: Bill and Ted seem destined to flunk out of high school unless they pass history by giving a kick butt presentation. Enter Rufus, a cool dude from the future who comes to help the boys. Apparently, Bill and Ted become rather important in the future, mostly by being excellent to each other, and it’s Rufus’s job to make sure they earn their diplomas by taking them on a journey back through time to meet some of the more influential figures in history.
Was it worth the trip?: Totally, dude! Going back through time and collecting historical figures such as Socrates, Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan gives the guys just what they need to graduate from high school and go onto great and glorious things. Sure, the plot was pretty silly but hey, it’s a decent time travel movie. Rock on, Bill and Ted.
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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Time traveler(s): Capt. James Kirk (William Shatner), Captain Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the whole Star Trek gang
Means of transportation: The Enterprise, natch
Reason for travel: In the 23rd century, a strange alien probe threatens to destroy Earth. Unfortunately, no one can communicate with it to ask it to stop. The odd sounds emanating from the probe are traced to an extinct species that once roamed Earth: the humpback whale. In order to save mankind, Kirk and his crew travel back in time to the pivotal year of 1986, retrieve two humpback whales and bring them back to the 23rd century so they can talk to the probe and tell it to go away.
Was it worth the trip?: Oh, those Enterprise guys are always traveling back and forth through time–you know, the whole space/time continuum thing. It’s apparently easy for them; transporting two humpback whales on a space ship was a little harder. (Scottie really had his work cut out for him in this Star Trek installment.) The important thing was that the whales saved Earth. And seeing Spock in a hat (to cover those ears) always gets a good laugh.
Back to the Future (1985)
Time traveler(s): Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox)
Means of transportation: A souped-up DeLorean
Reason for travel: Marty is an average modern-day slacker teenager, whose best friend happens to be an eccentric inventor named Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). When Doc creates a time machine out of a DeLorean car, Marty is accidentally transported back to the year 1955, where he finds the younger versions of his parents. When his mother (Lea Thompson) falls for Marty instead of his dad (Crispin Glover), Marty realizes he has upset history. He has to make sure his parents get together, get married and have kids or Marty will cease to exist.
Was it worth the trip?: The basic message of this movie is simple–don’t alter history, unless of course, it works out to your benefit. Marty gets his parents together, and in the process gives his dad some needed backbone, which slightly alters his family’s future in a good way. Plus, he inadvertently saves his friend Doc’s life. Unfortunately, the next two sequels just get more and more implausible. We’ll just go for it once, boys and girls.
The Terminator (1984)
Time traveler(s): Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) and the Terminator T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger)
Means of transportation: An electric-magnetic sphere of some sort (but it’s only good for a one way trip)
Reason for travel: A futuristic Terminator goes back to 1984 to hunt down and kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she gives birth to a boy, John Connor, who will become the leader of a rebellion against the machines late in the 21st century. The future John Connor sends Reese back to protect his mother–and Reese ends up getting a little more involved with Sarah than he planned.
Was it worth the trip?: Oh heck yeah! The movie is a sci-fi classic. The Terminator fails in his mission, Sarah gets pregnant by Reese and the great John Connor is born. Of course, a twelve-year-old John has to contend with a new, more deadly Terminator in T2 and ends up being protected by the old T-800, but that’s another story.
Somewhere in Time (1980)
Time traveler(s): Richard Collier (Christopher Reeve)
Means of transportation: Self-hypnosis (as well as dressing himself in garb from the early 1900s)
Reason to travel: Richard Collier is approached by an old woman named Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), who tells the young playwright to come back to her. Mystified, he finds out Elise was a famous actress in the early 1900s, ultimately tracing her history to an old hotel where Elise once performed. Collier becomes increasingly obsessed with her, and through his own sheer will power, manages to travel back to the turn of the century. He finds Elise and they fall in love. But is love enough to keep Collier in her time–or must he return to his own?
Was it worth the trip?: Simply willing yourself into another era seems pretty far-fetched, but hey, anything for love. This movie is for the pure romantic who will throw away scientific reason when trying to determine how Richard makes it back in time.
Time After Time (1979)
Time traveler(s): H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) and Jack the Ripper (David Warner)
Means of transportation: The time machine (what else?)
Reason for travel: After Wells invents his time machine in the 19th century, he mistakenly shows it to his friend John Lesley Stevenson, who, as Wells discovers a little too late, is actually Jack the Ripper. Stevenson uses the machine to escape into the late 1970s, where he finds modern-day life suitable to his violent ways. Wells is hot on Stevenson’s tail and finds love in this modern-day world, even though he knows he has to stop the madman.
Was it worth the trip?: What a fun spin combining the whole H.G. Wells Time Machine phenomena with the Jack the Ripper serial killer story. It’s completely plausible in the time travelin’ arena and seeing how both these gentlemen adapt to their modern surroundings makes it even more believable. This movie is a prime example on why time travel not only works but is necessary.
