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[Larson Conway]

Hi GAF, I'm in search of good time-travel films. I'd like to compare the rules these different movies have on time travel. Of recent memory, I've watched the following:

1. Star Trek
2. The Time Traveler's Wife
3. The Lake House (lol)

Of the time-travel films you've watched, which one's rules do you personally subscribe to?

Feel free to discuss stories of the films you recommend watching, but for others' sake, please but them in spoiler tags. Thanks!

 

[Goldrusher]

Hey butthead, you forgot Back to the Future.

 

[CozMick]

Hey butthead, you forgot Back to the Future.

:lol :lol :lol :lol Holy shit

 

[Narag]

Amazing, Goldrusher.

 

[Falt]

I haven't seen any of the films you mentioned in the OP.

That said, no mention of Back to the Future is unforgiveable! Also, Twelve Monkeys.

 

[vazel]

The same matter cannot occupy the same space.

 

[Baron Doggystyle von Woof]

- Timecop, lolz.
- Terminator
- Butterfly Effect
- Primer

 

[Keylime]

Primer is a very good one if you're looking for a bit of a heady movie.

 

[robochimp]

12 Monkeys

what happened, happened

 

[pedrothelion]

I saw Primer the other day and really enjoyed it. Basically a couple guys create a box that can send you back in time and antics ensue. The box can only send you back to a time in which the box was in existence and turned on. There is more to it then just this, but I think I would need to see it again to completely understand. It deals with all sorts of issues paradoxes and two versions of the same characters excising with in a time line for a short period of time.

The movie is extremely dense and nearly incomprehensible. It deals with all sorts of issues with paradoxes and two versions of the same characters excising with in the same time line for a short period of time. Even though I didn’t completely understand what was going on all the time I still found it very entertaining. I have a feeling it would make more sense with another viewing.

 

[gdt]

Primer seems like it knows what it's doing...but it's unbelievably boring. The narrator can cure insomnia, for chrissakes.

 

[BobsRevenge]

I like The Time Machine. Probably because Guy Pierce is fucking awesome.

However, I haven't seen anything that's even a little accurate to what it would be like if possible.

I suppose if you put a mirror way out in space and looked at it through a really powerful telescope you'd be able to see the past...?

Maybe if we discover some kind of undiscovered tachyon field (if something like that can even exist) around earth we'd be able to read it to see into the future? I suppose you'd be able to send messages into the future too, if you could redirect them in some way.

edit: Oh fuck, what if you could send a message including all the information required to recreate your entire being in the past by sending it out into space and then reflecting it back, and then have a machine recreate it. For all intents and purposes, that would be like time travel. If tachyons exist you'd be able to project yourself into the future. Of course, the machine to receive those signals and rebuild you would have to be in existence first.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Fuck the rules. BttF makes fuck all sense once you start thinking about the plot-holes, but it's so fun that it doesn't matter.

Also, Terminator. 1+2 only, of course.

 

[Szu]

Hot Tub Time Machine
Absolute best use of the word "motherfucker" ever in a movie.

 

[NekoFever]

Timecrimes

Amazing Spanish time travel movie. If you like all the paradoxical time travel stuff in films it's a must-see.

 

[DrForester]

 

[JGS]

12 Monkeys

what happened, happened

12 Monkeys didn't subscribe to that did it? I thought there were subtle changes throughout but I haven't seen it in a while.



For me

I don't like movie time travel too much, but make exceptions for good stories like Back to the Future and Terminator. The ones I subscribe to are from television.
EDIT: I did like the way time travel was handled though in 12 Monkeys, so I guess it would be my one movie.

LOST- Whatever happened, happened
The Simpsons - The episode Homer kept going back in time and changing the present. Butterfly Effect

 

[Winterblink]

Millennium

Kris Kristofferson's acting is horrific, but the plot's actually kinda nifty.

 

[RedShift]

The problem is people assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... timey wimey... stuff.