A Glean movie guide
Mind-Bending Time Travel Paradoxes
Don't break the timeline.
Master the logic of causal loops and temporal contradictions with these essential films.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Primer
A notoriously dense and realistic look at the technical chaos of overlapping timelines.
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.
- 02
Predestination
A shocking exploration of identity built entirely around a single, self-contained causal loop.
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.
- 03
Timecrimes
A tight thriller where every attempt to fix a mistake only makes the loop more inevitable.
A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.
- 04
12 Monkeys
A haunting classic where the traveler’s actions directly cause the catastrophe they aim to prevent.
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.
- 05
Looper
A gritty action-thriller that tackles the visceral consequences of confronting your own future self.
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.
- 06
Tenet
A massive spectacle that uses inverted time to create mind-melting tactical pincer movements.
Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
- 07
Triangle
A chilling blend of slasher horror and high-concept recursion on a deserted ocean liner.
When Jess sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong.
- 08
Donnie Darko
A cult favorite that weaves together tangent universes and the necessity of a sacrificial paradox.
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
- 09
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
A clever, low-budget gem that builds complex paradoxes using a simple two-minute delay.
A cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.
- 10
Back to the Future
The definitive cinematic introduction to the grandfather paradox and the danger of erasing oneself.
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.
- 11
The Terminator
A foundational sci-fi actioner driven by a perfect bootstrap paradox involving the hero's origin.
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?
- 12
Interstellar
A grand space odyssey where a future version of the hero provides the key to saving humanity.
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.