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@tomasino@tilde.zone

Post #1132265

2026-04-10 20:33 UTC

Help me out. I'm trying to think of the quintessential films that demonstrate the different types of theoretical time travel. Back to the Future12 MonkeysBill & Ted's Excellent Adventure or Predestination What else? I'm thinking Primer is a 12 Monkeys type, but maybe it needs another category. And what about multiverse? What's the best choice there?

Replies (33)

  • @tomasino@tilde.zone 2026-04-10 21:18

    Doh! Arrival!

    Open ##2332799

  • @tomasino@tilde.zone primer is its own type, and one of the better ones in terms of probable realism. maybe edge of tomorrow for its own.... thing... basically groundhog day with extra steps.

    Open ##2332802

  • @mdhughes@appdot.net 2026-04-10 20:37

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Jet Li's The One. Sliders & Everything Everywhere All at Once are good, too, but The One is just such a perfect use of multiverse/parallel timelines, doesn't get goofy with it.

    Open ##2332810

  • @whvholst@eupolicy.social 2026-04-10 20:43

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Multiverse-wise Inception is not a bad choice. The Matrix also is a multiverse one.

    Open ##2332812

  • @bkhl@tilde.zone 2026-04-10 20:44

    @tomasino@tilde.zone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jet%C3%A9e was the inspiration for 12 Monkeys and is good in its own right.

    Open ##2332813

  • @olm_e@tchafia.be 2026-04-10 20:45

    @tomasino@tilde.zone between Time Bandits, Predestination or the series Travelers, El Ministerio del Tiempo or Lost, there are so many ways ...

    Open ##2332814

  • @alcinnz@floss.social 2026-04-10 20:45

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Not a film, but https://arsparadoxica.com fits squarely into multiversal timetravel! No doubt about it, the authors are talented! Hmmmm... Don't include The Terminator on the list since what the characters believe contradicts the (at least to me) simplest interpretation of the events. Or Doctor Who, since every episode might treat time travel differently. Only way the show could last so long!

    Open ##2332815

  • @trashheap@tech.lgbt 2026-04-10 20:46

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Run Lola Run, for groundhog day style stuck in a moment of time?

    Open ##2332816

  • @rysiek@mstdn.social 2026-04-10 20:48

    @tomasino@tilde.zone The Time Machine?

    Open ##2332817

  • @etherdiver@ravenation.club 2026-04-10 20:51

    @tomasino@tilde.zone here's a new one for you: the weird time traveling message from the future in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, where they have to send messages back in time encoded in dreams

    Open ##2332819

  • @tomasino@tilde.zone independent one: Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (JP, 2020) Illustrates in a humorous way how people strive to control time, as well as the consequences of small interventions aimed at changing it ...

    Open ##2332821

  • @tomasino@tilde.zone Somewhere in Time. Christopher Reeve seemed to do it purely via his imagination and wishing hard enough, and while In Wuv with a portrait of the woman he wanted to meet in person. my recall of the film's script anyway

    Open ##2332822

  • @tomasino@tilde.zone Everything Everywhere All At Once prob has some flavor of time travel. inter-dimensional travel is arguably functionally equiv to time travel

    Open ##2332824

  • @stebby@bsd.network 2026-04-10 21:01

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Season 6 Episode 7 of Futurama: The Late Philip J. Fry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Philip_J._Fry

    Open ##2332831

  • @tomasino@tilde.zone La Jetée is the inspiration for 12 Monkeys and presents the same core time-travel idea but in a more compressed way

    Open ##2332835

  • @brennen@federation.p1k3.com 2026-04-10 21:12

    @tomasino@tilde.zone _frequency_? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_(2000_film) time travel as such not possible, but communication is allowed through some device or medium. (apart from that part of the conceit i think it's a _back to the future_ model?)

    Open ##2332836

  • @FiXato@toot.cat 2026-04-10 21:13

    @tomasino@tilde.zone at first glance One-Minute Time Machine may be one, though it probably more accurately is a multiverse one instead. Not a feature-length film, but rather a short film though.

    Open ##2332838

  • @anthk@neopaquita.es 2026-04-10 21:18

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Infinitum?

    Open ##2332839

  • @kbm0@mastodon.social 2026-04-10 21:21

    @tomasino@tilde.zone (Shudders) Loopers.

    Open ##2332856

  • @nblr@chaos.social 2026-04-10 21:30

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Hot tub time machine squarely fits in (1)

    Open ##2332857

  • Source code starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

    Open ##2332858

  • @ColmDonoghue@mastodon.ie 2026-04-10 21:43

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Memento Travel backwards in time

    Open ##2332859

  • @t36s@social.ordinal.garden 2026-04-10 21:49

    @tomasino@tilde.zone A recent one I really liked was Good luck, have fun, don't die I'm not sure which one of your three films it aligns with.

    Open ##2332864

  • @slarti@mastodon.social 2026-04-10 22:10

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Tenet by Christopher Nolan has a two-way time travel map n same scene.

    Open ##2332867

  • @leffe@social.linux.pizza 2026-04-10 22:18

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Sliding Doors (1998) was popular, but not really a favorite for me. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120148/reference/

    Open ##2332869

  • @felipeB@hachyderm.io 2026-04-10 22:27

    @tomasino@tilde.zone

    Open ##2332871

  • @doctorLURK@mastodon.social 2026-04-10 22:38

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Synchronic is an example of past(-and-sometimes-back-to-present)-only, chemically-induced, temporary time travel that's also contextualized to position in space. For example, standing on a couch and inducing travel will take you to a specific past time and place, while standing *next to* the couch will take you somewhere else.

    Open ##2332872

  • @brennen@federation.p1k3.com 2026-04-11 00:25

    @tomasino@tilde.zone ok, i've got another one that i feel like is sort of a paradigm: the thing in russian doll's second season where you can go to a different time but only by taking over or being transported into the body/consciousness of a person in that time.

    Open ##2332873

  • @Thoreau@mas.to 2026-04-11 01:12

    @tomasino@tilde.zone Loopers, Donnie Darko, The Travellers, and The Lazurus Project, and the Korean Series Sisyphus: The Myth.

    Open ##2332875

  • @tomasino@tilde.zone @mdhughes@appdot.net Superman: the movie? 💨 🌎 Hot tub Time Machine 🤭

    Open ##2332879

  • @burnitdown@beige.party 2026-04-11 02:46

    @tomasino@tilde.zone does it have to be movies? cause Sliders fits, but that was a TV show. so was Quantum Leap.

    Open ##2332880

  • @mk30@tilde.zone 2026-04-11 08:47

    @tomasino@tilde.zone what kind is "predestination"? Also: "relax, I'm from the future"? Also: terminator movies?

    Open ##3268106

  • @Imprinted@mastodon.uno 2026-04-11 12:58

    @tomasino@tilde.zone @racchio@mastodon.online What about Looper?

    Open ##3268107