Best Time Travel Movies on Netflix: 12 Top Flicks, Ranked!

Back to the Future. Somewhere in Time. Kate & Leopold. Peggy Sue Got Married. Films that transport us back and forth through time have always captured our attention and stoked our imaginations. Who hasn’t fantasized about what it would be like to go back to a different point in history – or get beamed up into a faraway land hundreds of years in the future? Checking out some of the best time travel movies on Netflix is a great way to do just that … and no time machine is needed!

“Yeah, I would love to be a time traveler.… It’s a fun construct, isn’t it?” The Notebook star Rachel McAdams said during a panel interview for About Time, her 2013 sci-fi romance film that lands in the mind-bending genre. “It’s an enticing thing to indulge and fantasize about. It’s like winning the lottery and thinking about what you would go back and do again.” Though the actress insisted there’s a beauty to just accepting your life and any past mistakes without going back to tinker with them, she did offer a heartwarming reason why she’d love to sneak into a time machine if she could. “My mother’s parents died when I was quite young,” she shared, “so I would like to be able to go back and know those people, as an adult.”

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Keanu Reeves, Ted himself of the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure franchise, says he’d eye a couple of periods that are on his wish list. “I’d like to be there in the 1600s,” he shared with BuzzFeed, quipping that he’d always wanted to see “who really wrote the plays of Shakespeare…cause I don’t really think it was ‘Shakespeare.’ I'm an Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford [guy],” he noted, referencing a peer of the Bard, who some believe wrote the famous author’s plays and poems. He also expressed to Pedestrian TV a desire to travel back to “when the early globe, Earth, was formed,” so that he could get a taste of “that real first air, like, when it was really good.”

Taking in some deep breaths of pristine air alongside Reeves sounds pretty cool to us, and that’s the beauty of this genre: There are endless possibilities to imagine. Perhaps it’s time to start flying through the years by checking out these best time travel movies available on Netflix.

12. Captain Nova (2021): Best time travel movies on Netflix

Kicking off the best time travel movies on Netflix is this Dutch entry (available dubbed, or with subtitles) is a great choice for family viewing. It won both Best Children’s Film and Best Dutch Children’s Film honors at the Netherlands’ Cinekid Festival. The story follows a fighter pilot from 2050 who travels back in time to save the Earth from environmental doom. When she arrives in the past as a child, though, she has to prove she’s legitimately on a serious mission and not just some wildly imaginative kid.

11. When We First Met (2018)

Modern Family’s Adam Devine stars as friend-zoned Noah, who turns to a magical photo booth to travel through time in the hopes of changing his status from platonic to romantic with his pal Avery (Alexandra Daddario). “I’m sweet and lovelorn, and someone your mom wants you to marry,” he told Collider of his role in the rom-com, which Decider says “is funny and not overly sappy and just weird enough” to deliver, promising that “The first chunk of the movie feels like something you’ve seen before, but once the time travel kicks into gear, the comedy does as well.”

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10. Still Time (2022): Best time travel movies on Netflix

In this Italian film (available dubbed, or with subtitles), a workaholic businessman (Edoardo Leo) rarely has time to pay attention to the people and experiences around him. When he turns 40, however, he starts to notice that he’s lurching ahead a year in time with every hour that passes, which changes his whole perspective. “Each lurch forward brings him further from the people he loves … yet closer to the realization of what actually matters in life,” Deadline notes of this endearing dramedy.

9. In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

When a Philadelphia crime fighter (Boyd Holbrook) starts noticing a wave of similarly disturbing killings every nine years, he becomes obsessed with cracking the case, which he’s convinced involves an evil time-traveling culprit. The film is “a tightly wound thriller with a surprising speculative element,” says The Verge, adding that it’s “constructed as a puzzle for viewers to unlock.” Cleopatra Coleman and Dexter’s Michael C. Hall co-star.

8. Long Story Short (2021): Best time travel movies on Netflix

Still Time (from above) is based on this Australian romantic comedy, which in turn is inspired by both Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The story here follows a newly married procrastinator (Rafe Spall) who discovers that years are suddenly passing in minutes, and he must act fast to avoid losing the love of his life (Zahra Newman). “There's a truism that time moves faster as you get older so this is not a new idea but hopefully it’s a new way to package this morality tale about not wasting time and making the most of your moments,” Rafe told the Orange Country Register.

7. Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke star in this comedy about a bunch of guys who, thanks to the titular hot tub, get another chance of revisiting their wild high school years back in 1986. NPR promises that it “admirably turns a potentially one-note joke into a consistently funny package. Better yet, it even manages to engender a twinge or two of heartfelt nostalgia for the most culturally embarrassing of decades.” As Cusack lovingly noted to Entertainment Weekly, “It’s a ridiculous film. You’re pretty much either sold with the title, or it’s not for you.”

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6. 13 Going on 30 (2004): Best time travel movies on Netflix

“Something has happened where all the kids who were 13 are now 30. All you guys have put the movie back in the zeitgeist, and it’s so sweet,” Jennifer Garner told PopSugar of her now classic film. As one of the best time travel movies on Netflix, this film follows a girl named Jenna who wakes up as her 30-year-old self (Garner) after suffering through her disastrous 13th birthday party. People calls it “an immensely likable” comedy that is “Garner’s Pretty Woman.” Mark Ruffalo (with whom Garner re-teams in another film, below) and Judy Greer co-star.

5. See You Yesterday (2019)

Keep an eye out for a Michael J. Fox cameo in this film that director Stefon Bristol says was partly inspired by Back to the Future. The story follows a brilliant teen (Eden Duncan-Smith) who uses a time-traveling backpack she invented to try to prevent the police from killing her brother. It’s “an all-too-real time-travel fantasy,” the New York Times notes of this Spike Lee-produced project, which RogerEbert.com says is “an ambitious, striking debut that takes unexpected creative risks and heralds the arrival of an exciting new filmmaker.” The film was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards.

4. The Adam Project (2022): Best time travel movies on Netflix

Fighter pilot Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds) is traveling in 2050 when he crashes down in another time period and meets his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell), who becomes his unlikely partner in saving the future. Zoe Saldaña co-stars as Adam’s wife, and Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Garner play his parents. The film has “this high-concept, wish-fulfillment engine behind it,” Reynolds told The Hollywood Reporter of its time-travel elements. “I lost four teeth during the movie,” Scobell reported of his own experiences traveling through time while filming, to which Reynolds quipped, “I just lost bone density.”

3. Mirage (2018)

When a woman (Adriana Ugarte) travels 25 years back in time and saves a young boy, her own daughter is lost and a desperate struggle to save her begins. CNET calls this emotional Spanish film (available dubbed, or with subtitles) “the real deal,” noting it’s a sci-fi drama that hinges “on a time travel puzzle that's resolved in a satisfyingly unpredictable fashion.” Thanks to its spooky concept and the story being partially set in the 80s, you may just pick up on some slight Stranger Things vibes while watching.

2. Synchronic (2019): Best time travel movies on Netflix

Empire calls this “a smart indie sci-fi which has much to say and some great ideas,” but it warns that “it’s one of those films which you should see as soon as you can, before enjoying long, spoiler-filled conversations.” The mystery-thriller’s mind-bending action revolves around two New Orleans paramedics (Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s Anthony Mackie and 50 Shades of Grey’s Jamie Dornan) who discover firsthand that a new deadly designer drug is sending users spiraling back in time, leading to nail-biting encounters throughout different points in history, including the prehistoric era and the War of 1812 to name a few.

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1. Looper (2012)

“Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a killer who works for a mob in the future, and his job gets gravely complicated when his future self [Bruce Willis] gets sent back [in time] and he has orders to kill him,” director Rian Johnson explains of his “time-travel action movie,” which co-stars Emily Blunt. “In a genre infamous for loose ends,” Variety promises, “this thinking man’s thriller marshals action, romance and a dose of very dark comedy toward a stunning payoff.” Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, and Piper Perabo also star in this film, one of the best time travel movies on Netflix.

For more Netflix recommendations, keep reading!