Influential timeline movies you must see before you die

Is time travel possible? Not in principle, but that hasn't stopped Hollywood from giving the world cinematic gems around this subject. Let's review some of the best ones.

It's a Wonderful Life - Flashbacks are a spectacular resource to show elements of the past; and in this film they are key for the lead character not to take his own life at the very beginning.

A Christmas Carol - The adaptation of the Dickens classic made Mr. Scrooge known all over the world, thanks to the visit of ghosts from the past, present and future who warn him of his cruel behaviour.

The Time Machine - George Pal directs and produces one of the great masterpieces of time travel cinema. He introduced the world to the Eloi and the Morlocks, essential to 20th century Hollywood culture.

Planet of the Apes - Another gem of this genre that has led to multiple sequels in film and television: some good, some bad. But nothing can beat Charlton Heston arriving on a planet ruled by civilised apes.

Slaughterhouse-Five - This was an interesting adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's best seller that combines World War II, a traumatic experience and time travel.

The Terminator - One of the pinnacle works of time travel. Set in 2029, when robots and humans fight to dominate the planet, the machines send a robot back to the 1980s to kill the mother of John Connor, leader of the resistance, to prevent him from being born.

The Philadelphia Experiment - What was to be a naval experiment to develop an undetectable ship, ends up sending two young Marines 40 years into the future.

Back to the Future - Perhaps the best time travel movie, this story became a classic trilogy. The first film is Hollywood history and was essential to the pop culture of the 80s. Marty McFly, Doc Brown, and the Delorean stood at the head.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day - The Terminator sequel improved on the original with a similar plot but a much scarier villain than Arnold Schwarzenegger, the indestructible T-1000 who arrived from the future to kill John Connor.

Groundhog Day - The film that cost the friendship between Bill Murray and Harold Ramis is a masterpiece of 90's comedy. Phil Connors will have to repeat the same day hundreds of times, until everything is perfect. As it turns out, that particular day is Groundhog Day.

12 Monkeys - A masterful Brad Pitt accompanies a superb Bruce Willis on a journey to find the cure for a virus that has devastated much of humanity. A must-see.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Run, Lola, Run - A story told in three sides and with three different endings, where Lola must recover, in 20 minutes, the 100,000 marks that her boyfriend, Manni, has lost.

Tremendous adaptation of a story in which the Pre-Crime Division of the police stops citizens before they commit crimes, thanks to the help of the Pre-Cogs, mutated beings that see the future.

With only $7,000, Primer tries to explain how to travel in time at a theoretical level and explained from the point of view of a mathematician, Shane Carruth. Closer to a YouTube video than a movie, but a must-see.

Photo: New Line Cinema

The Butterfly Effect - Intent on fixing past mistakes and traumas, Evan Treborn travels back in time to his pre-teen self and tries to change things. The problem is that every action causes terrible consequences in the future. Tough to watch but highly recommended.

Déjà Vu - In order to prevent a terrorist attack, an agent travels back in time to save a key woman in the incident. Obviously, they end up falling in love. Yes, time travel and love are not incompatible.

Midnight in Paris - Can you go from being in Paris with your in-laws and fiancée in the 21st century to partying with Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s? You can if Woody Allen says so.

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics

Looper - An original idea, the movie is set in 2072 where murders are frowned upon, so criminals are sent to 2042 to get the death penalty. Everything gets complicated when one of the killers from the past must execute his future self.

Photo: Sony Pictures

About Time - Combining time travel with romantic comedy seemed like a crazy and complicated idea but Richard Curtis did alchemy, once again, and turned the film into an instant classic.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Interstellar - The search for a habitable planet leads NASA to play with space-time, causing unexpected consequences for those involved.

Photo: Paramount Pictures

X-Men: Days of Future Past - A merciless hunt by The Sentinels leaves mutants almost extinct, so Charles Xavier devises a plan to send Wolverine back in time to fix it.

Photo: Twentieth Century Fox

Arrival - A contemporary classic in which aliens arrive on Earth with an a priori indecipherable message that turns out to be related to time.

Photo: Paramount Pictures

Paradox - How can traveling just one hour into the future affect us? Much more than you might expect.

Photo: Paradox

Happy Death Day - Blumhouse combined a horror element with time loops and we got Theresa who relives a birthday without end. She must discover who murdered her.

Photo: Universal Pictures

Michael J. Fox is the science teacher who inspires CJ to create a time travel device to help him save his brother from being murdered by the police. It won't be simple at all.

Photo credit: Netflix

Avengers: Endgame - The most epic film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe showed the world how to find the one way in 14 million to save the world, and it involved a lot of time travel.

Photo: Marvel Studios

Tenet - Preventing World War III is reason enough to travel back in time, fight back and surprise the viewer in every scene. A complicated and very unique story by Christopher Nolan.

Photo: Warner Bros Pictures