What’s up, Doc? Time travel has appeared throughout cinematic history time and time again. We all know the dangers of fidgeting with time. It starts with a simple trip to the past or the future in some form of a time machine. However, a mere minute of a change in the timeline can lead to pure chaos. Moving a pen or a neighbor seeing you on the street can lead to the erasure of your existence. And yet, even with the consequences, many of us would still take that chance if a time machine was at our disposal.

Perhaps the most iconic journey through time is in 1985’s Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd. The shenanigans of Marty McFly and Doc Brown using the time-traveling DeLorean has become a staple in time-traveling cinema. Other notable time-traveling duos include Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton in The Terminator (1984) and Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), amongst many others. To this day, films revolving around time travel continue to be released every year. That’s not to say other movies haven’t made notable contributions to the genre as well.

Looper (2012) masterfully depicts time travel when a hit man must kill his older self. About Time (2013) includes an inherited time-traveling ability used for both romantic and life improvement purposes. Edge of Tomorrow (2014) shows Tom Cruise in a dreaded time loop of dying during an alien invasion. Christopher Nolan’s films Tenet (2020) and Interstellar (2014) both include mind-bending manipulation of time. However, for every recognizable time-traveling film, there are ten more that no one has ever heard of. Let’s take a journey through time and uncover the flicks that got stuck in their year. Cue 80’s time-travel theme music…

Time-Lapse (2014)

Instead of using a device to travel backwards or forwards in time, Time-Lapse involves a camera that spits out polaroids at 8pm for the following night. Three friends, Callie, Jasper, and Finn, share an apartment together. Finn, the manager of the apartment complex, is a failed artist doomed to sit in front of an empty easel as he suffers from writer’s block. His girlfriend, Callie, is an aspiring writer who waits tables and does as many small acts of kindness as she can in order to get her boyfriend to look at her again, even if that means sacrificing the remainder of her paycheck to buy Finn art supplies. Jasper, the third wheel, spends his time betting and losing money to greyhound races. Each roommate is essentially stuck at this point in time.

After finding out that an elderly tenant, Mr. Bezzerides, hasn’t paid his rent in two months, Callie decides to check in on him. She finds newspapers piled onto his porch step and uses the master key to get inside his apartment. Much to her surprise and disgust, Callie stumbles upon a collage of images hanging in Mr. Bezzerides’s apartment. All of these images show the apartment living room of the three roommates taken at night. Finn, Callie, and Jasper realize that Mr. Bezzerides has invented a camera which takes a picture of the following night at 8pm. The three friends collectively decide to keep the camera a secret from everyone else and use it for their own personal gain.

At first, the outcome is optimistic. Simply follow the photos to get the results. Finn uses the photos to copy the masterpieces he paints in the future. Jasper tapes signs to the living room window of which dogs are going to win so he can bet on them the following day. Callie can finally treat herself to the finer things in life. However, gradually, things become more disturbing. Jasper’s bookie becomes suspicious of his winnings. The photos reveal infidelity, danger, and violence. Content faces are now fatigued and scared for their lives. The film is filled with mounting tension and exhilarating twists. It’s a unique concept that hooks the audience. As Jasper warns, “Do not mess with time.”

See You Yesterday (2019)

Time travel takes a grave and profound turn in Netflix’s See You Yesterday. Bronx High School of Science students C.J. and Sebastian want to get into the top tech schools with their current project, a time-travel machine. Their science teacher is none other than Michael J. Fox, which is a nice nod to the Back to the Future franchise, who has full faith in C.J. and Sebastian. After a few failed attempts, C.J. and Sebastian realize they have just enough energy to send them back in time for 24 hours. Once they arrive in the past, they have ten minutes to get out before the wormhole that sent them closes. At first, their approach is rather innocent, such as gleefully asking Brooklyn residents what the date is and splashing slushies on their enemies. However, the film significantly shifts after the death of C.J.’s brother, Calvin.

Characters in the time travel genre have, let’s face it, been mostly white. It’s a common pattern, and these films mostly veer away from racial issues and focus more on the consequences of time manipulation. See You Yesterday is a much-needed fresh approach to the genre which incorporates and emphasizes police brutality that remains a significant problem to this day. C.J.’s brother, Calvin, is murdered by two white police officers for being mistaken for another suspect. That, and he is shot and killed for “reaching into his pocket”, which is later revealed to be just his phone. An unarmed black man being shot and killed by police is unfortunately all too common. C.J., however, has the ability to turn back time and save her brother.

With each attempt of C.J. trying to save her brother from his untimely death, an inevitable scenario unfortunately comes to play: either Calvin or Sebastian has to die. C.J.’s character is passionate, driven, and at times hardheaded. She is constantly provoked by those around her and then scrutinized for having a temper. Her and her brother have a discussion about misogyny, how men are perceived as tough and expected to fight back, while women are ridiculed for having a temper and expected to stay on the sidelines. Although seeing those she loves thrown to the ground and shot at, she continues to save those closest to her while risking her own life. The ending is purposefully open-ended, leaving it to the audience to decide.

Meet Cute (2022)

Released on Peacock in 2022, Meet Cute is anything but. The typical “meet cute” scenario is when a boy meets a girl for the first time in a playful or humorous way that inevitably leads to a romance. However, this “meet cute” has some darkness attached to it. Sheila, played by Kaley Cuoco, discovers that a tanning bed in a nail salon can send anyone back to any moment in time for only 24 hours. Instead of changing her past, Sheila decides to repeat the same experience over and over again on a date she had 24 hours ago with a man named Gary, played by Pete Davidson. At first, the interaction seems playful and innocent, until the audience realizes a dark twist.

The reason Sheila repeatedly sends herself back in time to the same date is because that date is essentially what is stopping her from killing herself. Yes, she had planned the entirety of her suicide, down to the exact location. Her date with Gary was the last bit of happiness in her life she could hold onto. However, fidgeting with time has its consequences, and after months of repeating the same night, Gary starts to experience adverse effects. He has bouts of déjà vu. He can finish Sheila’s thoughts before she can. Each date takes its toll on Gary until he no longer experiences joy when they meet. Sheila becomes obsessive, and tries to fix Gary by any means necessary, including changing his personality by interfering with his childhood trauma.

“It’s okay for things to be messy sometimes” is the quote this film revolves around, constantly reminding the audience about the immense amount of pressure that we put on ourselves on a daily basis. If you’re looking for a light-hearted romantic flick, then this isn’t the film for you. Meet Cute shows an incredible amount of depth to each character and how trauma shapes them. It’s a dark film, real dark, but also realistic in the sense that a “meet cute” in real life comes with some baggage, and that’s okay.

Omni Loop (2024)

Time-travel can be a bit easier when you’re a quantum physicist and already one step ahead of everyone else. When Zoya Lowe, played by Mary-Louise Parker, is given the diagnosis of a gaping black hole in her chest and one week to live, she travels back in time with the help of some peculiar medication. Fortunately for her, Zoya has had this bottle of pills since she was twelve. Unfortunately for her, she does not understand how they work and why she can’t travel back in time further than only a few days. Stuck in an endless Groundhog-Day affect, she finds hope in a gifted student who may be able to break her free from the endless loop.

The relationship between Zoya and the talented student Paula, played by Ayo Edebiri, is what drives the film. They first meet each other when Zoya bumps into Paula at her mother’s retirement home. Paula drops a physics book on the ground, the same book Zoya and her husband co-authored. Their interaction leads to Paula offering up the lab she studies in as a means of helping Zoya figure out her time-traveling dilemma. At times, they are polar opposites, with Zoya being hard-headed and scrutinous, while Paula is hopeful and ambivalent. However, they find similarities in growing up without parental figures and sharing their passion for physics.

The film is sprinkled with bits of dry humor, such as the man who was successfully shrunken but just kept on shrinking and now is hidden in an empty box under a professor’s desk. However, for the most part, the film is a drama which focuses on the importance of family and the acceptance of death. Throughout her life, Zoya used the time-traveling medication to ace her studies and outshine her peers. Now, Zoya spends so much of her time feeling guilty for leaving her work in the past that she ultimately forgets to focus on the present. Omni Loop emphasizes that success does not have to be measured by how much you excel in your field, but by the bonds you build.

In summary…

It’s tempting to alter your future or past if given the opportunity to do so. A time-travel machine could allow someone to get out of financial debt, experience the most joyous moment of life again, finish a forgotten project, or even bring back a loved one who has passed. Time-travel films have developed their own unique set of rules, and breaking those rules results in dire consequences. Chaos and havoc occur one way or another, whether it’s competing for ownership of the time machine or erasing a person entirely from existence. Perhaps time just needs to be left alone… for the time being.