The Strangest Explanations of Time Travel in Movies, Ranked

Throughout the course of film history, the concept of time travel has always been something that has fascinated filmmakers. The logic behind time travel varies depending on the filmmakers. Some use science, reason, and logic to explain the possibility of time travel, while others simply use the concept as a plot device to justify whatever outlandish the characters in the film get up to. It’s hard to tell if any of these explanations of time travel are actually accurate, considering that time traveling is a phenomenon yet to be explored by humanity. But that hasn’t stopped filmmakers from using their own creative license to come up with their own logic. Let’s take a closer look at some of the strangest explanations for time travel over the years.

6/6 The Terminator (1984)

Directed by James Cameron, The Terminator follows Sarah Connor, portrayed by Linda Hamilton, whose life in 1984 is being threatened by a time-traveling cyborg assassin from the year 2029. Within the narrative of the film, Sarah learns from Kyle Reese, the time-traveler sent to save her, that in the year 2029, an artificial defense network called Skynet will try to exterminate humanity. However, this global nuclear war is prevented by Sarah’s future son, John, who is able to successfully lead a resistance movement against Skynet. To prevent humanity from succeeding, Skynet sends the Terminator back in time to kill Sarah and thus preventing John from ever being born.

While running away from the Terminator, Sarah and Kyle fall in love and have sex, which leads to the conception of John. This is a rather interesting paradox that often reoccurs in many time travel movies. It’s referred to as the bootstrap paradox. It refers to when an object/person/situation occurs due to an intervention from someone in the future, and the intervention leads to the existence of the object/person/situation. This often creates an endless causal loop where the past and future are dependent on each other.

So, how does time travel work in The Terminator? Throughout the Terminator franchise, it is hinted that time travel is possible because of the Time Displacement Equipment. It uses an enormous amount of energy to send someone back to a different time and place. Now, the franchise doesn’t go into a lot of detail, however; it does have two noteworthy conditions. The first is that time travel is only a one-way trip, unless the Time Displacement Equipment exists in the time that one’s traveled to. And second, only living things can travel through time; anything synthetic would disintegrate in the middle of the trip. As far as strange reasons go, The Finishedr’s logic behind time-traveling isn’t too odd, but it definitely has a few loopholes.

5/6 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)

Based on a novel of the same name by Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a fantasy film that’s directed by Tim Burton. The movie follows Jake, portrayed by Asa Butterfield, who discovers a portal in the ruins of a children’s home, which takes him to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Through his interactions with Miss Peregrine and the peculiar children she houses, Jake learns that the home exists in a time loop created by Miss Peregrine. In simple terms, Miss Peregrine is a ymbryne, a female peculiar who can transform into a bird and has the ability to control and manipulate time. Through her abilities, Miss Peregrine is able to create a safe space for all the peculiar children by creating a time loop on September 3rd, 1943.

Normally, this would mean that the same day repeats over and over and over again. And this is true to an extent for animals and humans that reside in the town. However, Miss Peregrine and the other peculiars have different experiences each day; they are able to grow older as well. This is probably due to Miss Peregrine’s ability to control and manipulate time.

Related: Interstellar: How it Was One of the Most Scientifically Accurate Sci-Fi Movies Ever

4/6 Interstellar (2014)

Many claim that Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has one of the best representations of time travel that’s shown in the film. It’s also more confusing as it uses actual physics to explain the phenomenon. The movie is set in a dystopian future where a group of astronauts travels through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity. The concept of time travel is a bit warped in the film, such that rather than going back or forward in time, the astronauts literally travel in time. The team of astronauts on the ship Endurance travel to a planet near Saturn, where time moves differently in comparison to time on Earth. For instance, while one of the astronauts spends a few minutes on Miller’s planet, on Earth, his daughter Murph’s entire childhood passes by.

By the time Cooper and his team return to earth, his daughter is older than he is. So in a way, Cooper and his fellow astronauts travel forward in time. The concept is rather confusing but makes more sense if you’re a hardcore physicist.

3/6 Tenet (2020)

Tenet is another one of Christopher Nolan’s works. However, unlike Interstellar, where the director really took the time and effort to ensure scientific accuracy for time travelwith Tenetit’s a bit more confusing. One blink and viewers just might miss a crucial scene, making the film even more confusing. Tenet follows a secret agent who goes through time to prevent an on-coming war that might cause the end of the world. Unlike other movies, where one is able to travel back to a specific point in time, in Tenet one is only allowed to move backward in time. The protagonists use a machine called the Turnstile that allows them to move backward starting from the point that they entered the machine. For science buffs, it works similarly to reverse entropy. It’s a difficult concept to imagine.

Related: Here’s 5 Great Movies About the Multiverse and the Many Worlds Hypothesis

2/6 Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Avengers: Endgame uses the Marvel Cinematic Universe to explain time travel in the movie. At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos uses the infinity stones to destroy half of life in the universe. During Endgamethe Avengers try to find Thanos and the infinity stones to undo the damage, but are unsuccessful as Thanos has already destroyed the stones.

Five years later, a rat accidentally travels through time by crawling over a time machine which releases Ant-Man from the Quantum Realm where he had been stuck for half a decade. Ant-Man is then able to contact the Avengers and tell them that they can prevent Thanos’ snap by traveling back in time through the Quantum Realm. Tony Stark is able to build a machine that allows them to do so. Now, it gets complicated when it comes to the rules of time traveling. Unlike the usual time travel fiction, where any changes in the past impact the future, the butterfly effect is irrelevant in the MCU. Rather than disturbing the current timeline, any changes in the past create a parallel universe.

1/6 Back to the Future (1985)

When talking about time traveling, it’s practically a crime to not mention Back to the Future. There’s no doubt that the film is a classic and helped popularize time-traveling in film; the explanation for traveling is rather strange, to say the least. Back to the Future follows Marty, who is able to travel back in time with the help of a time-traveling car created by his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown. During his visit to the past, Marty saves his father from an accident, which prevents him from meeting and falling in love with his mother. Throughout the duration of the film, Marty tries to get his parents to fall in love so that he can exist in the future.

The main plot of the film creates a paradox. Marty should have disappeared the minute he stopped his parents from meeting, but the film gives Marty a little time before playing out the paradox. Moreover, it’s a little strange that Marty is only able to travel through time on a vehicle that needs to go exactly 88 miles per hour while generating a charge of exactly 1.21 Gigawatts. Logically, it makes little sense, but there’s no denying that Back to the Future is an enjoyable classic.