Characters in film are often put into a twisted plot of time travelling. Time travel has been a popular paradigm for screenwriters and while being a challenge it offers the benefits of spicing up the story with some future sci-fi world with some historical events.
Dealing with Time
Characters often have to meet with their past to deal with the roots of their problems. The tasks they’re faced with vary from guiltless adventures to immoral. Marty McFly meets his parents in High School, Ebenezer Scrooge uses time travelling magic to attend more classes than her time would physically allow, while cyborgs in Terminator travel back in time to eliminate their enemies and change the future forever in one way or another.
Time Travel Devices
There is a huge range of fictional devices used for time travelling. Perhaps the most iconic one is the DeLorean used by Marty and Dr Emmett Braun in the Back to The Future franchise. Also in this size category are Terminator’s Time Displacement Equipment, Time Machine from the 1960’s classic with the same title, the Telephone Booth in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure or its immediate cousin Tardis in Dr Who.
Time travel enabling devices could also be small and handy like the Time-Turner used by Ebenezer Scrooge in the Harry Potter series or perhaps just an event of waking up (Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow).
List of Characters Time Travelling in Film
All film titles below are linked to their pages on IMDB
- Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in T2: Judgment Day (1991)
- T-1000 (Robert Patrick) in T2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Phil (Bill Murray) in Groundhog Day (1993)
- Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) in Quantum Leap series
- Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr Emmett Braun / Doc (Christopher Lloyd) in Back to The Future
- Bil and Ted (Alex Winters and Keanu Reeves) in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
- Austin Powers (Mike Myers) in Austin Powers series
- X-Men in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
- Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in Looper (2012)
- James Cole (Bruce Willis) in Twelve Monkeys
- Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Donnie Darko
- Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Source Code (2011)
- Kenneth (Mark Duplass) in Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
- Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) in Interstellar (2014)
- Astronaut crew in Planet of the Apes (1968)
- Dr Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in Dr Strange (2016)
- The Doctor in Doctor Who series
- Hermione Granger in Harry Potter
- Makoto in the anime film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
- The Barkeep (Ethan Hawke) in Predestination (2014)
- Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) in Terminator Genisys (2015)
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