The 25 best time travel movies to make your head spin

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15. Time Bandits (1981)

The movie: In a contemporary, suburban English home, Kevin (Craig Warnock)'s sleep is interrupted when he's kidnapped by dwarves who appear out of his closet and borrow him to help them steal valuable artefacts from various points in time. Lucky for him, Kevin's a massive history nerd, who quite enjoys travelling around time meeting Robin Hood, Napoleon and Agamemnon.  

Unresolved paradox: Does Kevin's time travelling cause his family to be killed, or was he simply dreaming?

14. La Jetee (1962)

The movie: One of the most influential science-fiction films ever made is a mere 29 minutes long and consists mostly of still photography. If it weren't for La Jetee, we wouldn't have The Terminator or Back to the Future. The plot follows an unnamed prisoner (Davos Hanich) living in the aftermath of the Third World War, who takes various trips to the pre-apocalyptic past of his childhood, and also into the future. 

Unresolved paradox: The man falls in love with a woman he first saw as a child who was witnessing his own future death.

13. The Time Machine (1960)

The movie: George, aka H.G. Wells (Rod Taylor), decides to try out his prototype time machine in the year 1900, trotting off happily to 1917, 1940, 1966 and then... err... 802,701. Yeah, that's quite a ways forward, so it's not much of a surprise that humanity in the future is split into the primitive Eloi and the savage Morlocks. 

Unresolved paradox: George tells his friend all about World Wars 1 & 2. They could've passed on the message.

12. Star Trek (2009)

The movie: JJ Abrams' Kelvin Timeline reboot of the beloved franchise wangles in a series of intriguing time travel elements. In the 23rd century, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Nero (Eric Bana) get caught in a black hole - but hey this is Star Trek! There's another timeline! In the 22nd century, Spock (Zachary Quinto) is young and only just starting out.  

Unresolved paradox: Whether 'reboot' Spock is going to be permanently emailing old Spock to ask what was meant to happen in the original timeline. 

11. Time Crimes (2007)

The movie: Nothing scarier than a figure in an overcoat and a bloodied towel over their face, lurking in the bushes is there? Timecrimes has that AND time travel. The horror time-travel genre is alive and well! This Spanish flick follows Hector (Karra Elejalde) on a sun-dappled afternoon as he spies a naked woman in the woods behind his house... and a mysterious figure approaching her. 

Unresolved paradox: Where does the time machine come from, anyway?

10. Planet of the Apes (1968)

The movie: Taylor (Charlton Heston) and crew set out into space in 1972 and they wind up in the year 3978! Although the journey only appeared to take 18 months because they were travelling at light speed. 

Unresolved paradox: What's never explained is how all of this happened. For that, you need to check out Rise of the Planet of the Apes. 

9. Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

The movie: Years after surviving a horrific near-death experience with a T-800, Sarah Connor's now in a psychiatric facility after blowing up a computer factory. That doesn't seem to bother the two machines from 2029, a T-1000 (Robert Patrick) and a reprogrammed T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who return to respectively assassinate/rescue both she and her son, John Connor (Edward Furlong). 

Unresolved paradox: Skynet is founded using bits of the Terminator from the first film that it won't invent until much later. 

8. Source Code (2011)

The movie: In the aftermath of a terrorist attack on a train. War veteran Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is forced to relive the eight minutes leading up to the tragedy in order to identify the perpetrator. Colter appears to fellow passenger Christina (Michelle Monaghan) as her boyfriend Sean but Colter behaves quite differently. 

Unresolved paradox: According to Colters handlers, this isn't time travel but memory manipulation, but who knows what damage to the timeline their meddling might cause. 

7. Looper (2012)

The movie: The one where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a young Bruce Willis is... actually a damn fine time-travel film. In this world, time travel is outlawed, which means criminals love it and harness its capabilities for wrongdoings like murder. JGL's character Joe is one such lackey, a mobster in 2044 who kills whichever random person is sent back in time to him from 2074. As the movie starts, the person sent back is him... 

Unresolved paradox: If the Rainmaker is who we know he is, then it's Old Joe's actions which lead to that. He can't off himself!  

6. Back to The Future Part 2 (1989)

The movie: The direct sequel to Back to the Future kicks off in 1985 right as the first film ends, with Doc Brown rushing to Marty (Michael J. Fox)'s house to inform him that they've got to go.... yep, back to the future. They head to 2015, where the ignoramus Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) has completely revived Hill Valley into his own image. 

Unresolved Paradox: When Marty and Jennifer travel to 2015, surely they cease to exist in the interim years. So how are they able to have kids?