It’s no mystery that movies influence the way I think and, to some extent, how I approach everyday life. Don’t get me wrong—I am fully capable of making my own decisions, but movies often remain somewhere in the back of my mind, providing perspectives that can influence how I view the world.
One idea I frequently find myself considering is how characters in films make their decisions and whether there is any way to reverse choices that lead to terrible consequences. Perhaps nowhere is this concept explored more imaginatively than in movies about time travel.
Here are several examples of time travel films that offer interesting perspectives on our own choices and the possibility of learning from them. Ultimately, these movies are not really about time. They are about regret, responsibility, consequence, fate, and the possibility of change.
The Terminator (1984)
A cyborg, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, travels back in time with the goal of murdering Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the future mother of John Connor. John will eventually lead the human resistance against Skynet, an artificial intelligence system that launches a war against humanity. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is also sent back in time, but his mission is to protect Sarah.
The film suggests that the future can appear predetermined. John Connor will lead the resistance, Skynet will initiate its attack, and Kyle Reese will travel back to protect Sarah. Yet Sarah’s choices ultimately help shape whether that future comes to pass.
The film also creates one of cinema’s most intriguing time-travel paradoxes: Kyle travels back to protect Sarah and ultimately becomes John Connor’s father. In other words, the future literally depends upon events that are made possible by time travel itself.
The Terminator asks us to consider whether fate is something we inherit or something we create through our choices. If we somehow knew what the future had in store for us, would we simply accept it—or would we fight to change it?
Back to the Future (1985)
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) accidentally travels back to a time when his parents are teenagers and inadvertently prevents them from meeting. His seemingly insignificant actions begin to threaten the existence of his own future.
The film provides a memorable example of the butterfly effect—the idea that even a seemingly minor action can produce much larger consequences. Marty’s interference with his parents’ relationship could alter his family’s future and, ultimately, prevent Marty himself from ever being born.
Marty eventually finds Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), the scientist who built the time machine, and together they work to restore the timeline. Marty also befriends his future father, George McFly (Crispin Glover), and inadvertently gives him the confidence to stand up for himself and pursue Lorraine Baines (Lea Thompson), who will eventually become Marty’s mother.
The film presents the idea that even well-intentioned interference with the past can have serious consequences for the future. Regret is an important part of Marty’s journey, as he realizes that his actions have consequences far beyond what he initially imagined.
Yet Back to the Future also reminds us that our lives are the sum of countless decisions, many of which may seem insignificant when we make them. We rarely know which choices will ultimately have the greatest impact.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) are on the verge of failing their high school history class. Their lives change when they receive a time machine in the form of a telephone booth, allowing them to travel through history and meet prominent figures such as Socrates and Abraham Lincoln.
The film playfully turns the conventions of time-travel stories upside down. Rufus (George Carlin), a man from the future, travels back in time to help Bill and Ted preserve the future they will eventually create. Their seemingly ridiculous journey through history ultimately becomes essential to their passing their history presentation—and, consequently, to the future itself.
The movie plays with the idea that future consequences can influence present decisions. The characters’ seemingly absurd interactions with historical figures ultimately become important pieces of the future they are destined to create.
It also illustrates the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy: the future exists, at least in part, because characters take actions that help ensure that future comes to pass. Their relationships with the people they encounter demonstrate how even brief interactions can have lasting consequences.
While The Terminator asks whether we can escape a seemingly terrible destiny, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure asks whether we can grow into the people our future requires us to become. The future isn’t simply something that happens to us; it can also be something we actively build.
Groundhog Day (1993)
Phil Connors (Bill Murray) finds himself trapped in a time loop, forced to relive the same day over and over again. After traveling to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to report on the annual appearance of Punxsutawney Phil, Phil becomes stranded in the town following a blizzard. Worse, he finds himself unable to connect with the people or culture around him.
At first, Phil uses the time loop for selfish purposes. Because he knows that each day will reset, he begins taking advantage of the situation, committing robberies and engaging in other reckless behavior without having to face lasting consequences.
Eventually, however, Phil becomes increasingly desperate. His romantic advances toward his producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell), are repeatedly rejected, and even death cannot provide an escape from the cycle. Eventually, he begins to approach his predicament differently—not as an opportunity to manipulate the day, but as an opportunity to improve himself.
Unlike the other films on this list, Phil does not travel through different periods of history. Instead, he remains trapped in a single day and is given seemingly unlimited opportunities to make different choices.
Rather than continuing to focus on himself, Phil begins listening to the needs of others. He learns new skills, helps the people around him, and ultimately discovers a sense of fulfillment through becoming a better person.
Groundhog Day suggests that we often wish we could change the past when what we really need to change is ourselves. Changing our circumstances isn’t always the answer. Sometimes the most important consequence of repeated choices is the person those choices turn us into.
Donnie Darko (2001)
Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) begins experiencing strange visions, including encounters with a mysterious figure named Frank wearing a rabbit costume. Frank tells Donnie that the world will end in twenty-eight days.
Donnie later wakes up on a local golf course and returns home to discover that a jet engine has crashed into his bedroom—the very place where he would have been sleeping had he not left the house.
As Donnie continues going about his daily life, he struggles to understand whether these events are simply bizarre coincidences or part of something much larger. His repeated visions and encounters with Frank eventually lead him to believe that he may have a role to play in preventing the apocalypse he has been warned about.
Donnie Darko is perhaps the darkest and most ambiguous film on this list. It complicates the idea of free will by suggesting that Donnie’s actions may be part of a predetermined sequence of events. The film raises questions about sacrifice, fate, and whether knowing the outcome of a choice changes the meaning of making that choice.
Unlike Back to the Future, where changing the past creates new possibilities, Donnie Darko leaves us wondering whether there was ever another path available to Donnie in the first place.
Its ambiguity invites an especially compelling question: Is a choice truly free if the person making it believes that it has to happen? And if someone willingly chooses a predetermined outcome, can that decision still be considered an act of free will?
We Can’t Change the Past, But We Can Change What Comes Next
In real life, we rarely know what would have happened if we had taken another job, moved somewhere else, met someone five years earlier, or simply said yes instead of no. We cannot go back and experience those alternate versions of our lives. Time-travel stories, however, give filmmakers a way to visualize those hypothetical possibilities.
That may be the real appeal of time-travel movies. It isn’t necessarily the ability to travel through time; it is the fantasy of understanding our choices.
These films allow us to see consequences that would normally remain invisible. They let us explore alternate versions of our lives and imagine what might have happened if we had made different decisions.
The Terminator asks whether we can escape fate. Back to the Future explores the consequences of even our smallest actions. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure suggests that our future can be shaped by the choices we make today. Groundhog Day reminds us that sometimes the person who needs to change is ourselves. And Donnie Darko challenges us to consider whether a predetermined outcome can still contain meaningful choices.
Perhaps that is why these stories continue to resonate with us. We cannot go back and change our past, no matter how much we may wish we could.
But we can learn from it.
And, more importantly, we can still make choices that change what happens next.
Happy watching!
