Gotta Get Back in Time (Travel)

“Wait a minute, Doc.  Are you telling me that you built a time machine!…out of a DeLorean?”  The way I see it, if you’re going to build a time machine, why not do it with some style?”

A movie that needs no introduction.  Time travel is by far my favorite and most interesting science fiction phenomenon.  So why are so many people captivated by time travel?  In a nutshell, it uses the same mechanism many popular games use that draw people in: a simple, easy-to-understand concept, but infinite possible approaches.  It’s a puzzle that can be solved various different ways.

I’m always a fan of creative storytelling.  Films like The Matrix, Memento, The Prestige, and The Butterfly Effect are just a few examples of brilliant people pushing the envelope of creativity to give us something new.  If I see another cop movie, where the main character’s partner dies in the first 15 minutes , and now he’s out for revenge, I might punch somebody.  So let’s take a look at 5 of my favorite uses of time travel in film, plus some honorable mentions.

Without a doubt when almost anyone thinks of a time travel movie, the Back to the Future Trilogy is the first thing to spring to mind.  It’s fun, comedic, uncomplicated, memorable, it has everything.  The original Back to the Future was conceived when writer Bob Gale found his father’s yearbook and wondered if he met him as a teenager, would they be friends.  Michael J. Fox was the original choice to play Marty, but his Family Ties schedule demanded too much of his time.  Eric Stoltz was his replacement, but after 4 weeks of filming, everyone, including Stoltz, agreed he wasn’t right for the part.  By then, Michael J. Fox’s schedule freed up enough to let him film Family Ties and Back to the Future concurrently.  But, that’s OK, because Eric Stoltz gets his shot in…

The Butterfly Effect was Ashton Kutcher’s venture into serious filming, having just come off of That ’70s Show.  Reviews weren’t that great, but personally, I think Kutcher did a fine job.  As a kid, Evan Treborn has blackouts and can’t remember what happened during them.  He starts keeping a journal.  Years later, in college, he digs them out and reads some of the entries and is transported into the body of his younger self.  Even the slightest action causes a ripple that changes his present-day life dramatically.

In Déjà Vu, Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is an ATF agent investigating a terrorist bombing when he joins up with an experimental task force that has managed to find a way to view events in real time four days in the past.  When the question is posed if a person can be sent through, Doug is hellbent on trying to change the events that caused the explosion.

Star Trek (2009) is the first film franchise (that I know of) that managed to pull off a reboot of the series, while still keeping the original films in their continuity.  All the events from the previous films (with Shatner & Nimoy) had played out as presented, but events in this movie cause them to alter their timeline, so now, in the new series, anything is possible.

If you’re a time travel fan like me and want something different, you have to see Primer.  Primer is the brainchild of Shane Carruth, who also starred in the film.  This film only cost a record-breaking $7,000.  If time travel is every really discovered, this is likely how it will happen.  Written by engineers, there is an undeniable realism about it, an engaging story, plus the most well-though-out time travel mechanic I’ve ever seen.  A group of engineers trying to make a cold superconductor, stumble upon time travel, and their lives begin to unravel.  After seeing this movie, you’ll have to see it again.  You won’t know what’s going on the first time through.  But give it a chance and you’ll see how well-crafted it is.

Some honorable mentions are Next (2007) starring Nicolas Cage, Minority Report, Meet the Robinsons, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Somewhere in Time (1980), starring none other than Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.  If you could go back (or forward), what would you do?