A Glean movie guide
Master the Timeline
Don't blink, or you'll miss the loop.
From mind-bending paradoxes to epic adventures across the fourth dimension.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Back to the Future
The gold standard of time travel adventures, blending high-stakes paradoxes with perfect comedic timing.
Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.
- 02
Groundhog Day
A brilliant exploration of the psychological toll and eventual growth found within an infinite temporal loop.
A cynical TV weatherman, along with his idealistic producer and his sardonic cameraman, is sent to report on Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney, where he finds himself repeating the same day over and over.
- 03
Interstellar
A visually stunning epic that uses relativistic physics to explore the emotional weight of time dilation.
The adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
- 04
The Terminator
A relentless thriller where a future war is fought through a desperate, one-way mission to the past.
In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?
- 05
Edge of Tomorrow
A propulsive action film that turns a 'die and restart' mechanic into a high-stakes tactical puzzle.
Major Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.
- 06
Primer
A dense, ultra-realistic look at how two engineers accidentally break reality in their own garage.
A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.
- 07
About Time
A heartfelt drama that uses time travel as a metaphor for appreciating the beauty of ordinary life.
The night after another unsatisfactory New Year's party, Tim's father tells his son that the men in his family have always had the ability to travel through time. They can't change history, but they can change what happens and has happened in their own lives. Thus begins the start of a lesson in learning to appreciate life itself as it is, as it comes, and most importantly, the people living alongside us.
- 08
Looper
A gritty, inventive noir where assassins must face the physical and moral cost of meeting their future selves.
In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.
- 09
12 Monkeys
A haunting mystery that questions the possibility of changing a post-apocalyptic fate through memory and time.
In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly and the son of a famous virus expert who may hold the key to the Army of the 12 Monkeys; thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.
- 10
Predestination
A complex, character-driven puzzle that dives deep into the ultimate causal loop paradox.
Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost.