A-List: Time Travel Movies
By Josh Spiegel
March 25, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But time travel movies, of all shapes and colors, are all patently ridiculous. Even the good ones, including the five that I'll be highlighting in this week's A-List, are silly. One of them involves a DeLorean, for goodness' sakes. We're not talking about movies that live in the world that we're all comfortable in. But what makes a good time travel movie? Sometimes, it's when the movie gets bogged down, purposely or not, in the science of time travel, if only to heighten the suspense by throwing overblown scientific terms at the audience, even if some of the terms either are or seem fabricated. However, there are just as many time travel movies that bore audiences to death with such terms, or by sometimes ignoring it (The Time Traveler's Wife comes to mind, with regards to the latter problem).
Some of the movies on this list don't seem like time travel movies in the same way as the common time travel movie. A couple of them don't feature time machines (speaking of, the 2002 remake of The Time Machine...it won't be on this list, and for good reason), or even a discussion of time travel in such a way that Doc Emmett Brown would be proud. That said, they do involve time travel, even if it's in a sneaky way. Frankly, some of the better time travel movies might be the ones that choose to avoid all the discussions of paradoxes and other space-time continuum conundrums. My guess is that Hot Tub Time Machine won't be one of those movies, either, even if the time travel element is more than obvious. Will it one day be considered as awesome a time travel movie as those on this week's A-List? We'll see; for now, read on and find out what the movies are.
Back to the Future
During the fifth season of ABC's Lost (yes, I know, you probably want me to stop talking about it, but you'll have to wait a couple more months), the main characters found themselves traveling through time, without any control on when they'd travel or where they'd travel to. While stuck in 1977, one character was worried that he, like the protagonist of the Back to the Future trilogy, would end up fading away, from his hand all the way through the rest of his body. This is the profound effect the Back to the Future films have had on popular culture. We don't even need to have the characters fully explain the reference; we all know these movies. The series, which was released from 1985 to 1990, made Michael J. Fox a star, gave Christopher Lloyd a supremely weird character to play, this time on the silver screen, and made Robert Zemeckis a director to watch.
Back to the Future, the original from 1985, presented a time travel machine in the form of a DeLorean, and a lead in the form of Fox, as a too-cool teenager who travels to 1955, the same year that his mother and father met and fell in love. Unfortunately, Fox's Marty McFly ends up making that union nearly impossible when he realizes that his mother has a crush - on him. What could be worse? Well, Marty's dad is a huge nerd, shy around everyone, and bullied by Biff, the same man who bosses him around in 1985. And, if Marty can't time his departure to match with an oncoming storm, he's stuck in the past forever. That's just the beginning of the plot, which is cheerfully overheated; the movie works thanks to the cast, the filmmaking, and the breathless pace. If you haven't seen this movie, what are you waiting for?
Field of Dreams
And I would ask the same question if you haven't seen Field of Dreams. Granted, this is a movie better suited for baseball fans or men who don't mind unleashing a few tears at the end of a movie that isn't meant to make them cry, but still. It's Field of Dreams. For some, it might seem odd to watch a movie where Kevin Costner's not only the star, but he's actually pretty damn good, but so it goes. For those who have seen the movie, you might be surprised to consider Field of Dreams a time travel movie, but think about it: the main concept of the movie is that Costner's character builds a baseball field in his farm and is then visited by Shoeless Joe Jackson, the long-dead controversial baseball player.
Not to mention the climactic scene of the film, when Costner meets...well, if you haven't yet seen Field of Dreams, I won't ruin it for you, but it's a tearjerking moment. If you don't feel for the lead at the end, you have a heart of stone. All that aside, the time travel elements are very much under the surface of this 1989 classic. What's on the screen most blatantly is a love for baseball, and a passion for following one's heart. Does it make sense that Ray Kinsella would hear a voice that tells him to build a baseball field so fabled players would come play? Well, no. But it does happen, and it is a form of time travel. You're not going to tell me that Shoeless Joe and the mystery player who makes an appearance at the end aren't real, are you? Because...that would mean that you indeed have a heart of stone. Watch this movie, and you'll melt, too.
12 Monkeys
Here is arguably the most depressing movie on the list, a film that is all about the closed-loop theory of time travel. In this film, a man sees something happen, attempts to stop that thing from happening, and ends up making it happen...by trying to stop it from happening. The mechanics of time travel are a bit too heady here, but what makes this 1995 film from Terry Gilliam work so well (and end up being his last great movie, as I've got no love for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) is that the characters are believable, even in a world of science-fiction wonderments. In one of his better and more understated performances, Bruce Willis portrays James Cole, a criminal who volunteers for a scientific experiment: research a deadly virus that has wiped out most of mankind, by traveling in the past to 1995. Cole ends up falling in love with the psychiatrist who encounters him and first assumes that his rantings are the product of insanity.
Oh, to be sane, thought to be insane, and in love with the woman who thinks you're nuts. What a world. Eventually, of course, the shrink realizes that Cole is telling the truth, and must stop the virus from being unleashed. The plot machinations are very overcooked, but the characters are well-drawn and performed. In one of his earlier and standout performances, Brad Pitt plays a fellow inmate who may hold a key to the virus. Gilliam throws in plenty of stylistic flourishes, and the effects of the time travel are fascinating. Still, there's no doubt that the end of the film is tragic, at least on a small level. The issue of the virus is...well, without ruining anything, it could be left up in the air, depending on your point of view. Either way, as a great time travel movie or just as a great movie, 12 Monkeys is absolutely worth your time.
Frequency
Here is a movie that manages to be good despite being completely ridiculous, and a movie that manages to hit close enough to home for some that they can't even see it. Okay, the "they" in this story is my father. It's rare that he refuses to see something, but Frequency is too much for him. Why? Well, the movie is about a New York man who, through the magic of the Northern Lights and CB radio, is able to communicate with his father. The problem is that his father is in 1969 and he is in 1999. Oh, and his father's been dead for 30 years, ever since their beloved New York Mets won the World Series. Yes, Frequency is about how the two men are able to revive their relationship, even as the father (Dennis Quaid) is unaware that his life may be over sooner than he thinks.
So why does my father refuse to see this film? Well, he's a Mets fan, has been all his life, and his father died when he was young. Even if the basic story seems farfetched, it's just a bit too familiar to revisit. And what's truly exemplary about Frequency, which is a movie you should check out, is that the story can be as ridiculous as it wants to be, but Quaid and Jim Caviezel, as the son in 1999, do such a great job with the father-son relationship that you buy it. The movie may be silly, the situations contrived, but even through all the time travel gobbledygook, this is a story about two men getting to know each other, and doing so in the most heartfelt yet desperate way possible. Frequency is a more underrated film, and even if you're not a Mets fan like these two men, my father, and me, you ought to see it.
Groundhog Day
Now, I know what you're thinking. Obviously, Back to the Future and 12 Monkeys are time travel movies. Sure, Frequency has the element of time travel, even if it's not always physical. Field of Dreams - sure, you'll buy there being time travel. But Groundhog Day? Here's a classic modern comedy about a man who's not unstuck in time, but the opposite. He continues to live in the same day, over and over: Groundhog Day. True, this may not be time travel in a literal sense, but within the context of the movie, there's no question that Phil Connors, snarky weatherman from Pittsburgh on a business trip to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, actually stays put during February 2nd for hundreds, if not thousands, of times. There's never any explanation given, and Phil never tries to figure anything out.
After a little bit of doubting, Phil just accepts his plight; eventually, he decides to do whatever he can in each day and, once that gets too boring for him, tries to off himself, if only to see if it's possible for him to stop living the same day over and over again. Bill Murray stars here, of course, in one of his best performances, alongside his lead performance in Ghostbusters and his supporting role in Rushmore. Phil is the iconic Bill Murray character, but by the time Groundhog Day is over, and we've seen Phil genuinely change into a good person, we want the time loop to stop. This man may have deserved to be taught a lesson when the movie begins, but there's no reason for him not to re-live the rest of his days in peace with the love of his life. Anyway, this choice might be a bit unconventional for the list, but there's no question that Groundhog Day is one of the best comedies of the past 25 years, and a great movie in general.