Author: Lloyd Chandler
So I had a word with Ben and suggested that a little list series might go down well with the readership. As always he was open to the idea and agreed (hooray!!) So I thought time travel would be a good one to kick off with so…I looked back or is it forward or is it parallel…not sure, however time travel has proved highly fertile ground for the imaginations of film makers. So below in no particular order (this is a piece about time travel after all!) are my top 5 films about time travel.
Predestination
This has Ethan Hawke, who can be currently seen giving a career best performance in First Reformed [2017]. He portrays a top temporal agent on the trail of a mysterious terrorist who has illegally gained access to a time travel device. It moves back and forward along a single timeline and in common with other films in this list, does require you to pay close attention to seemingly insignificant details. It has a fantastic reveal at the end which brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘self made’.
Looper
Joseph Gordon-Levit is Joe, Joe is a ‘looper’. Joe lives in 2074 and makes a living travelling into the past to kill past versions of people and disposing of the bodies as ordered by his criminal boss. One day Joe’s boss orders him on a looper job only to be confronted by an older version of himself played by Bruce Willis. This was directed and written by Rian Johnson pre Star Wars:The Last Jedi and was a bit of a sleeper hit at the box office well worth a look.
Timecrimes
This is probably the film on this list that requires the most concentration. It has the most intricate plotting of almost any film I’ve come across. It concerns Hector (Kara Elejalde) ,who is a bit weird, seeing through his binoculars a naked girl wondering around in the woods that adjoins his property. He goes to investigate and is then stabbed by a figure in draped in pink bandages. Turns out his neighbour has a time machine and is able to travel back in time 60 minutes. The action follows what happens to Hector stumbling into what fast becomes a nightmare of temporal action and reaction. It shows the dire and on this occasion horrific consequences of travelling back just a few minutes can have and how they do linger in the memory.
Primer
A group of intellectual engineers have a small startup company building error checking technology. Whilst attempting to improve there product it appears that they have created a time machine. One of them strikes out on his own to enhance the discovery to the point where it can transport a person. They debate and obsess over the device and what to do with it, little understanding the dark consequences their actions may have. This film was made on a micro budget of $7,000 and shows what can be done with real imagination and creativity.
About Time
If you watch this film and then think ‘that was Love Actually [2003] with time travel’ funnily enough you’d almost be right. It comes from Richard Curtis the writer and director of that film. It is a gentle film, quintessentially English, about some of the issues, big and small, time travel throws up. Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) seen as General Hux in both new trilogy Star Wars films The Force Awakens [2015] and The Last Jedi [2017], discovers that, with a little concentration and an enclosed space, he can revisit any moment from his past. He attempts to change and/or influence many different things from his life with varying degrees of success. It is at times sentimental but hits the mark when it tackles the key relationship in Tim’s life between himself and his father, the ever fab Bill Nighy, a veteran of Curtis films.
So there you have it time travel in five easy pieces, try not get confused and do pay attention or you’ll miss those crucial details. A couple of films worth a mention Run Lola Run [1998] crackling breakneck action drama and for me a surprisingly good big budget effort Edge of Tomorrow [2014] Tom Cruise vehicle based on the even better novel All You Need Is Kill [2004] by Hiroshi Sakurazaka…enjoy!
Editors note: Lloyd didn’t mention the Back to the Future trilogy, Terminator 1&2, Bill and Ted, Butterfly Effect or Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Having serious words when next we speak. Haha.
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