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Best time-travel movie

The 16 movies of the “Best time-travel movie” bracket, with year, director, runtime and rating for each — then play the knockout tournament and let your own duels pick the winner.

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What is in this bracket

The bracket spans 36 years of cinema, from 1984 to 2020, with an average TMDB rating of 7.5/10. The dominant genres are Science Fiction (15 movies), Action (8 movies), Thriller (8 movies), Adventure (6 movies). Robert Zemeckis appears 3 times, James Cameron appears 2 times — a good sign of how much one filmography weighs on the outcome. Watching the whole line-up back to back would take about 32 hours. The 2010s are the best represented decade with 7 entries.

The highest-rated entry going in is Back to the Future (1985) at ★ 8.3/10 — but a bracket is not a ranking: it only takes one duel against a favourite of yours for it to go out in the first round.

The full line-up (16 movies)

Seeded in the order they enter the bracket. 16 titles means 4 rounds and 15 duels to a champion.

  1. Back to the Future 1985 · Robert Zemeckis · 116 min · ★ 8.3/10

    Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.

  2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day 1991 · James Cameron · 137 min · ★ 8.2/10

    Ten years after the events of the original, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back in time to protect young John Connor from the shape-shifting T-1000. Together with his mother Sarah, he fights to stop Skynet from triggering a nuclear apocalypse.

  3. Edge of Tomorrow 2014 · Doug Liman · 114 min · ★ 7.6/10

    Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.

  4. Twelve Monkeys 1995 · Terry Gilliam · 129 min · ★ 7.6/10

    In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly and the son o

  5. Predestination 2014 · Michael Spierig · 98 min · ★ 7.4/10

    Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost.

  6. Looper 2012 · Rian Johnson · 118 min · ★ 6.9/10

    In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

  7. About Time 2013 · Richard Curtis · 123 min · ★ 7.9/10

    The night after another unsatisfactory New Year's party, Tim's father reveals to him that the men in their family have the ability to travel through time. They can't change history, but they can change what happens and has happened in their own lives. Thus begins the start of a lesson in learning to appreciate life itself as it is, as it comes, and most importantly, the people living alongside us.

  8. The Terminator 1984 · James Cameron · 108 min · ★ 7.7/10

    In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?

  9. Back to the Future Part II 1989 · Robert Zemeckis · 108 min · ★ 7.8/10

    Marty and Doc are at it again as the time-traveling duo head to 2015 to nip some McFly family woes in the bud. But things go awry thanks to bully Biff Tannen and a pesky sports almanac. In a last-ditch attempt to set things straight, Marty finds himself bound for 1955 and face to face with his teenage parents -- again.

  10. Back to the Future Part III 1990 · Robert Zemeckis · 119 min · ★ 7.5/10

    The final installment finds Marty digging the trusty DeLorean out of a mineshaft and looking for Doc in the Wild West of 1885. But when their time machine breaks down, the travelers are stranded in a land of spurs. More problems arise when Doc falls for pretty schoolteacher Clara Clayton, and Marty tangles with Buford Tannen.

  11. X-Men: Days of Future Past 2014 · Bryan Singer · 132 min · ★ 7.5/10

    The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods as they join forces with their younger selves in an epic battle that must change the past – to save our future.

  12. Source Code 2011 · Duncan Jones · 93 min · ★ 7.3/10

    When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

  13. Tenet 2020 · Christopher Nolan · 150 min · ★ 7.2/10

    Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.

  14. Avengers: Endgame 2019 · Anthony Russo · 181 min · ★ 8.2/10

    After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War, the universe is in ruins due to the efforts of the Mad Titan, Thanos. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers must assemble once more in order to undo Thanos' actions and restore order to the universe once and for all, no matter what consequences may be in store.

  15. The Time Machine 2002 · Simon Wells · 96 min · ★ 6.3/10

    Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th-century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds mankind divided into two warring races.

  16. Primer 2004 · Shane Carruth · 77 min · ★ 6.7/10

    A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.

How this tournament works

  1. 16 movies enter a knockout bracket.
  2. Two titles face off at a time — you pick the one you would rather watch.
  3. Winners advance round by round until one champion is left: your pick for tonight.

There is no “right” answer and no algorithm deciding for you: the bracket only forces a series of small, easy comparisons instead of one impossible choice in front of a catalogue. You can also play it with friends — everyone votes the same duels from their own phone in a Brawl Room.

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