A Glean movie guide
No Paradoxes Allowed
Logic-first science fiction.
Time travel movies that actually respect their own rules.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
Primer
A mathematically rigorous puzzle that demands—and rewards—intense concentration.
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
Timecrimes
A masterclass in the closed causal loop where every action has a perfectly logical reaction.
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.
- 03
Predestination
A mind-bending logic puzzle that executes a complex paradox with flawless internal consistency.
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.
- 04
12 Monkeys
A gritty, deterministic thriller where the past is unchangeable and the future is inevitable.
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
Arrival
A profound exploration of non-linear time that trades physical machines for the logic of language.
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.
- 06
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
A clever, real-time experiment that pushes a simple two-minute delay to its logical extreme.
A cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.
- 07
Edge of Tomorrow
A high-octane action film that uses clear, video-game-inspired rules to anchor its time-loop mechanics.
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.
- 08
Source Code
A tense, disciplined thriller that stays strictly within its established eight-minute window.
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
- 09
Triangle
A recursive nightmare that uses physical evidence to track its complex, overlapping timelines.
When Jess sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong.
- 10
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
A charming animation that explores the unintended consequences of small changes with strict limitations.
When 17-year-old Makoto Konno gains the ability to 'leap' backwards through time, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past isn't as simple as it seems, and eventually, will have to rely on her new powers to shape the future of herself and her friends.
- 11
Tenet
A massive espionage epic built on the rigid, inverted physics of entropy rather than traditional jumping.
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.