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Is time travel possible? - Colin Stuart

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Time travel is a staple of science fiction stories, but is it actually possible? It turns out nature does allow a way of bending time, an exciting possibility suggested by Albert Einstein when he discovered special relativity over one hundred years ago. Colin Stuart imagines where (or, when) this fascinating phenomenon, time dilation, may one day take us.

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How Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure's Time Travel Works

Dudes, you asked for it, and it’s time to pay up! After several weeks of time travel adventures here at CinemaBlend, it’s time for a most non-non-non-non-non-heinous dissection of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure , and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey . So for you bodacious folks out there who don’t want spoilers for Bill & Ted Face The Music , you’re most assuredly safe in here, dudes. What’s even more exciting is, after a couple of weeks without a proper vehicle for traveling through all of time and space, I’ve finally been given the keys to something that can properly insulate a trip from here to there in the now and then!

Not that there’s anything wrong with using magical jewelry, like we did last week for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but an actual capsule for a voyage such as this adds a bit of fun to the danger of overwriting ones’ own history. A very heartfelt thanks to our underwriters at Tempus Fugit Insurance for allowing the usage of a vintage ‘80s time machine , which actually survives the journey with a little bit of wear and tear. But like any good time traveler, I’ve gotten ahead of myself, right on time. It’s time to go back in time, and look absolutely awesome doing it, as we tear into how the time travel of Bill & Ted works. Station!

The Time Travel In The Bill And Ted Movies

In danger of flunking out of high school, which would in turn sink the fates of their rock band Wyld Stallyns, Rufus (George Carlin,) a time traveller is sent back from 2688 to make sure that William “Bill” S. Preston Esq ( Alex Winter ) and Ted “Theodore” Logan ( Keanu Reeves ) pass their oral history report with flying colors. By passing history, these dudes would make history, as their band’s music would go on to influence an entire shift in human civilization, built upon two core tenets: “Be Excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!”

Who's Time Traveling

Bill and Ted are our primary time travelers, but they happen to acquire quite a few famous faces in their excellent adventure through the past, picking them up and taking them to the present to help with their history presentation. Their total time traveling party includes the following figures: Socrates (Tony Steedman), Genghis Khan (Al Leong), Joan of Arc (Jane Wiedlin), Napoleon Bonaparte (Terry Camilleri), Ludwig von Beethoven (Clifford Davis), Abraham Lincoln (Robert V. Barron), Billy the Kid (Dan Shor), and Sigmund Freud (Rod Loomis).

It’s no wonder their time traveling phone booth finds itself in disrepair towards the end of the movie; and it’s even more insane when in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey , evil robot versions of the boys are sent back from 2691 to 1991. And, of course, there’s the pivotal third act appearance of the mastermind trying to unravel it all, villainous radical/gym teacher Chuck De Nomolos (Joss Ackland). Evil time traveling robots trying to overthrow the course of history is definitely something very familiar that we’ve encountered in our recent past.

From When To When

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A lot of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure travels through the past, stopping in the following eras: 1,000,000 BC, 410 BC (Socrates), 1209 AD (Genghis Khan), 1429 (Joan of Arc), 1488 (Princesses Elizabeth and Joanna), 1805 (Napoleon Bonaparte), 1810 (Ludwig von Beethoven), 1863 (Abraham Lincoln), 1879 (Billy The Kid), 1901 (Sigmund Freud). There’s also one trip into the future, as Bill & Ted meet the future people that are inspired by their very music in 2688. As for Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, there’s only a couple of trips between 2691 and 1991, localized to San Dimas, California.

The Purpose Of Their Trip

In order to save the future of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure , Bill and Ted need to pass Mr. Ryan’s (Bernie Casey) history class by putting on one hell of an oral presentation. But in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey , our most righteous musical heroes need to defeat evil robot versions of themselves that have come back from 700 years in the future, just to ruin their lives and destabilize society.

How Time Travel Happens In The Bill And Ted Movies

As a wise Time Lord once said , “Time travel without a capsule. It’s a killer.” It’s something that makes me all the more thankful for the fact that if you want to time travel in the Bill & Ted universe, all you have to do is wait for someone to reach out and touch you through the power of the telephone. With the help of a noble time traveler with a phone booth, Bill & Ted get to travel through their universe’s version of time travel, and it’s actually pretty easy when you think about it.

There are two things you need to time travel in this scenario: a phone booth that can travel the Circuits of Time, and the phonebook that contains the co-ordinates to various persons and events that occur throughout history. After your fingers do the walking to land on the correct number in the phone book, all you have to do is dial those numbers and hold the Star and Infinity buttons to confirm.

It’s a return to the exact art and subtle science of time travel, where you need to input exact co-ordinates to travel. Even the literal visualization of time travel, via the Circuits of Time, is a linear journey from point A to point B. Though, the journey will depend on how well you maintain your equipment, as there’s one key component that was overlooked until the end of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure : the antenna.

Much like an old school telephone, your connection with time is only as strong as the equipment you're using will allow. If your antenna is busted, you’ll have a rough trip through the Circuits of Time, which could lead to the phone booth burning up a bit upon your journey. Also, your chances of getting to the next destination, or just back home in one piece, are slim to none… unless you remembered to bring a lot of chewing gum and tins of chocolate pudding to rig a suitable repair job. Thankfully, the redesigned time booths from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey include a retractable rig in the name of safety and performance.

Can History Be Changed As A Result Of Time Travel In The Bill And Ted Movies?

We really don’t see history change in the Bill & Ted series, and it’s all thanks to some clever usage of, your friend and mine, the Predestination Paradox. Right from the beginning, we see both Bill and Ted greeted by their future selves, convincing them to step into Rufus’ time traveling phone booth, and trying to remind Ted to wind his watch. Which, of course, doesn’t happen, as the warning to do so still occurs when we see our intrepid heroes acting out the other side of events.

Much like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban , we don’t see history change so much as we see it from two different streams of perception. Everything that happens in the timeline is a fait accompli, and all we’re seeing is how things ended up shaping up to encompass the outcomes present. One of the best examples is in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure , when Ted saves the day by merely thinking about going back in time to steal his father’s keys to the police station. Right after having that thought, Ted checks by the station’s sign, and sure enough, the keys that were missing in Act 1 were hidden in the future. (Which, funny enough, is a right where Bill joked his keys were in a diversion to allow Ted to escape the house.)

This also highlights another clever twist in the Bill & Ted universe, as simply thinking out a plan to time travel in the name of a specific goal is enough for it to happen. As we’ve seen partially in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure , and in a more complex manner in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey , making the presumption that you’re going to follow through on your time travel plans means they actually happen, and we never have to see it on screen because it’s already happened.

As the boys pointed out when they fought De Nomolos, only the winner of this battle can determine the outcome. So before you think there’s a simple way to keep this game going forever, the ending has already been written by the victors. All one has to do is sit back, and enjoy the ride to the end result they’ve thought long and hard to accomplish.

What Are The Consequences Of Time Travel In The Bill And Ted Movies?

Consequences aren’t exactly the stock in trade of the time travel on display in the Bill & Ted movies. While there’s plenty of potential changes implied, like Joan of Arc instituting an aerobics regimen with her army, we don’t see world events changing. Bill and Ted are still on course to inspire a whole era of human civilization to evolve into peaceful, music loving citizens. At least, that’s what we’re lead to believe at the end of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey ; as there’s plenty of opportunity for Bill & Ted Face The Music to mess with the time stream yet again.

Which leads us to the greatest lack of consequences we can credit the Bill & Ted movies with executing. Somehow, two princesses are whisked away from 1488, by Rufus himself nonetheless, and brought to 1988 to date, marry, and eventually start families with our heroes. And somehow, this doesn’t lead to a war, or even the slightest change to history. So either this was always supposed to happen, or the kingdoms these princesses were to unite were really small in the grand scheme of things. Like, smaller than a Circle K parking lot.

Be Excellent To Each Other, And Party On, Dudes!

Can you believe we’ve just completed our fifth time travel journey? And this time, Jane Wiedlin of The GoGos actually got to be part of the trip that saved the world! (though her valiant service in Starfleet during Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is still honored to this very day.) I’ll tell ya, this time travel stuff is pretty exciting, and as always, this journey has me yearning for yet another.

However, this venture was a bit taxing, and there are still plenty of non-vehicular adventures in temporal science that we could partake in. So for next week, your time travel homework will require you to watch writer/director Richard Curtis’ romantic dramedy About Time ; and yes, you’re gonna need tissues for this one. So until our next trip from here to there in the now and then, be excellent to each other, party on dudes, and never forget…

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Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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33 years ago, Keanu Reeves made the smartest time-travel movie ever — and also the dumbest

An unlikely duo leads one of the most thought-provoking takes on time travel.

On the face of it, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a dumb movie but purposefully so.

The movie’s selling point is that the very future of human civilization rests on the unthinking shoulders of two teenage idiots from Southern California. It’s not that they’re jerks — if anything, both Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) are almost impossibly well-intentioned — but rather, just that the two of them are… well, as dumb as rocks, even when gifted the opportunity to travel through time and learn from history’s greatest minds.

That’s all a feint, however. While it’s true that there is more than a small amount of stupid to be found in the 1989 comedy classic, the fact of the matter is that Excellent Adventure is, ultimately, one of the smartest time travel movies ever made.

For those unfamiliar with the movie, the story is deceptively simple: Bill and Ted are about to flunk their high school history class. If that happens, Ted’s father has threatened to send him to military school to straighten him out, separating the two best friends and, as it’s revealed, preventing a future utopia for humanity from coming into existence.

An agent from that utopia, Rufus (the wonderful George Carlin), is sent back in time to ensure the two pass the class. Rufus allows them to use his time machine to bring famous historical figures to the present day. After some hijinks and shenanigans, Bill and Ted do so, passing the test and finding true love with a couple of 15th-century babes in the process.

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? On that level, it is, but what makes Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure so notable in the history of time travel stories is its approach to the entire idea of time travel and what that means in a bigger sense. Unlike almost every other time travel story, Excellent Adventure quietly suggests that everything we do has already been predetermined, that free will is just an illusion, and that we should stop worrying about it all and just party on, regardless.

THE RULES OF TIME TRAVEL is an Inverse special issue exploring the evolution of science fiction's most imaginative sub-genre. From Marty McFly to Avengers: Endgame .

Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves star as the titular duo in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure .

It’s not that Bill and Ted kidnap major historical figures and bring them to the present day without utterly obliterating history. Beethoven discovering synthesizers in a shopping mall and writing his own music years ahead of time is just one of the events that would have been something to avoid instead of celebrate. Because, as Avengers: Endgame taught us, that kind of thing can just create alternate timelines if they need to be explained away. But those aren’t the time travel rules of Excellent Adventure , as one of the film’s climactic sequences makes clear.

As part of the previously mentioned hijinks and shenanigans, the various historical figures set loose in the San Dimas mall get arrested and placed in the cells of the local police station, where Ted’s hardass father (Hal Landon Jr.) is the police captain. Bill and Ted need to rescue them, but they need to do so in a hurry because their class presentation is about to begin — and so, they come up with a plan involving time travel, of course.

“The movie argues for a world in which time is a fixed , unchanging thing.”

Like the film itself, their plan is incredibly straightforward and deceptively intricate at once. Aware of how little time they think they have, the two make a list of things they will do in the future using their time machine to travel to their recent past. It creates a present filled with circumstances that allow them to break everyone free from jail.

It’s a plan that establishes that going back in time doesn’t create a different timeline, because then the objects Bill and Ted have planned to plant for themselves wouldn’t be there (They’d be in a parallel timeline). That all means bringing Billy the Kid, Socrates, et al. to their future and then returning them back to the past didn’t change history because all of this time travel had already happened and was always meant to happen.

Socrates and Billy the Kid help Bill and Ted pass history class in Excellent Adventure .

All of this is laid out early on in the film, where Bill and Ted are convinced to travel through time in the first place by their future selves. There’s even a point where the future versions of themselves remember to remind the past version of Ted to wind his watch… which we as an audience have already seen earlier in the movie from the perspective of their younger selves.

By creating these smart, funny, self-referential time loops, the movie argues for a world in which time is a fixed, unchanging thing to ensure that everything happens as it’s supposed to. (2020’s Bill & Ted Face The Music throws several enjoyable wrenches in this line of thinking, but that’s another story.)

But wait, you ask: isn’t the entire premise of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure that the characters go through time to not flunk history, thereby avoiding separation and no longer creating the utopian future where Rufus comes from? Well, yes. But the thing is everything Rufus, Bill, and Ted do in the movie – everything everyone does in the movie – just guarantees that the timeline stays exactly the same as it was supposed to be. The timeline, once again, does not change.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a movie that plays dumb but has smart – and, honestly, unusually pessimistic – things to say about time travel and what it could mean in practical terms if it were to exist. It’s simultaneously a riotous comedy that never loses sight of the jokes and an unexpectedly thought-provoking example of history being immutable. Not bad for two guys from Southern California.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is streaming for free on The Roku Channel.

This article was originally published on May 6, 2022

• Science Fiction

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine. Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine. Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.

• Stephen Herek
• Chris Matheson
• Keanu Reeves
• Alex Winter
• George Carlin
• 296 User reviews
• 129 Critic reviews
• 50 Metascore
• 3 nominations

• Ted 'Theodore' Logan

• Bill S. Preston

• Billy the Kid

• Genghis Khan

• Joan of Arc

• Abraham Lincoln

• Captain Logan

• (as Amy Stock-Poynton)

• Mr. Preston

• Princess Joanna

• Princess Elizabeth
• (as Kimberley LaBelle)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Alex Winter claimed that he gets two types of letters from teachers; positive ones from history teachers for encouraging students to learn about history, and negative ones from English teachers for affecting the way students speak.
• Goofs When Bill and Ted pick up Genghis Khan in Outer Mongolia, the screen card says it's 1209. During the report, Bill says they picked him up in 1269. Genghis Khan died in 1227. In 1269, the Mongol Empire was ruled by Kublai Khan, Genghis' grandson.

Ted : Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.

• Alternate versions In the Television version, there are a few minor dialogue edits. For example, in the scene where Ted falls down a flight of stairs in a suit of armor and a "medieval dude" run the suit through, Bill says to the man who did that "You killed Ted you medieval Dickweed", the Dialogue is changed to "You killed Ted you medieval 'Bonehead'"
• Connections Edited from War and Peace (1956)
• Soundtracks I Can't Break Away Written by Mitch Bottler and Gary Zekley Published by Colgems - EMI Music Inc. and Teenie Bopper Music Performed by Big Pig Produced by Nick Launay Courtesy of A&M Records, Inc.

User reviews 296

• billybrown41
• Jan 28, 2002
• What is "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" about?
• Is "Bill & Ted's Excellent Aventure" based on a book?
• Where and when does the movie take place?
• February 17, 1989 (United States)
• United States
• Greek, Ancient (to 1453)
• Metrocenter Mall - 9801 N. Metro Pkwy W., Phoenix, Arizona, USA (Joan of Arc scenes)
• De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)
• De Laurentiis Film Partners
• Giada International
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $8,500,000 (estimated)
• $40,485,039
• Feb 20, 1989
• $40,509,309

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 30 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The best time travel tv shows and movies.

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Bill & ted's excellent adventure, the time machine (1960), back to the future.

Time travel is a concept that's been around since the 1800s. Countless movies and TV shows have featured time travel, but it's not easy to pull off. Let's flip the switch and look back at a few of the best.

What qualifies a TV show or movie as being about time travel? Many shows and movies use a single time jump or time loops to set up the main plot---time travel isn't necessarily the focus. I tried to lean more toward shows and movies that make time travel an integral part of the story.

This list is made up of five movies and five TV shows in no particular order. Some choices are based on my personal opinion, others are based on the general consensus.

We can't talk about time travel TV shows without mentioning the one that features a main character who is literally called a "Time Lord." Doctor Who kicked off in 1963 and ran until 1989, but was later rebooted in 2005.

The show is not only about time travel. The Doctor's time machine---the TARDIS---can travel through both time and space. Each episode takes the characters to a specific time in history, often on different planets, and interacting with aliens and other creatures.

Primer is undoubtedly the most "realistic" time travel movie/show on this list. The story revolves around two engineers who accidentally discover time travel when researching electromagnetic reduction of an object's weight.

This is a movie that demands your full attention if you want to follow what's happening. Primer was made on a budget of only $7,000, and that low-budget feel really helps ground the movie in reality. It's fascinating.

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Timeless is a TV series that aired on NBC from 2016-18. The show follows a history professor, soldier, and engineer as the work together to stop an organization that plans to rewrite history with a stolen time machine.

This show really dives into the historical aspect of time travel. You learn about different moments throughout history and meet historical figures along the way. It's a bit of a cat-and-mouse chase through time, and you'll be sympathetic to the bad guys at times.

If you're looking for a comedy that heavily features time travel, there's no better choice than  Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure . A man from the distant future is tasked with going back in time to make sure Bill and Ted pass history class.

Bill and Ted use his time machine to go back in time and talk to a handful of classic historical figures, then bring them back to the current day to help pass their history report. There are tons of time travel-related gags throughout, and it's just a very silly, fun movie.

Travelers is one of the more unique time travel shows on the list. In a post-apocalyptic future, special operatives attempt to go back in time and prevent the collapse of society.

The "travelers" travel through time by sending their consciousness to "host" bodies of people who are just about to die. Not only do they have to work on their mission to save society, but they also have to blend in as the person whose body they now inhabit.

It wouldn't be a complete list without a love story. About Time is about a man, Tim, who has the ability to travel through time. However, he can only change past events and the future of his own life, not history.

The story follows Tim as he uses time travel to improve his life and those around him. He falls in love with a girl and uses time travel to fix his mistakes and marry her. However, he discovers things that can't be changed along the way, and has to make some tough decisions.

Loki is very different from most Marvel movies and TV shows. Time is the core component of the show. At the end of Avengers: Endgame, Loki gets away with the Tesseract. In doing so, he created a new timeline.

He is captured by the Time Variance Authority, an organization tasked with maintaining the timeline. The TVA gives Loki the choice of being erased from existence or helping them fix the timeline. He chooses the latter.

We can't talk about time travel without mentioning one of the very first time-travel stories, dating back to 1895. H.G. Wells' The Time Machine has been adapted to film a few times, but the 1960 version is probably the best.

The Time Machine is about an inventor in Victorian England who creates a time machine. He uses the time machine to travel far into the future, where he finds a dark and very different society. If you prefer newer movies, there's a remake from 2002 .

11.22.63 is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. For those that don't know, November 22nd, 1963 is the day John F Kennedy was assassinated. This story revolves around a man who is trying to prevent that from happening.

Time travel in this story works differently than most others. There's no time "machine" or anything like that, just a mysterious spot that sends people back to a specific day in 1960. You get a fascinating look at the build-up to the assassination and a pretty good love story too.

For my money, there is no better time travel story than Back to the Future . Many people consider it to be a perfect movie, and I'd have to agree. Time travel is a core part of the plot, but it doesn't get wrapped up in the technical aspects. The story is grounded in real life with relatable stakes.

An eccentric scientist, Doc Brown, builds a time machine out of a DeLorean. Through a string of events, his friend, Marty McFly ends up traveling back to 1955, when his parents were in high school. Marty then has to make sure his parents end up together to save his own existence. It's funny, action-packed, dramatic, and easy to watch.

There are plenty of other time travel movies, TV shows, and books to enjoy. It's one of the best plot devices for experiencing different time periods and taking a peek into the future. Now you just have to hope your favorite streaming service has them !

Related: Which Streaming Service Has the Best Movies, By the Numbers

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Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The Christian Science Church, and we’ve always been transparent about that.

The Church publishes the Monitor because it sees good journalism as vital to progress in the world. Since 1908, we’ve aimed “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind,” as our founder, Mary Baker Eddy, put it.

Here, you’ll find award-winning journalism not driven by commercial influences – a news organization that takes seriously its mission to uplift the world by seeking solutions and finding reasons for credible hope.

Is the future real? The philosopher’s guide to time travel.

To physicists, time can be bent, stretched, and possibly even looped back on itself. But does that mean we can change the past?

It’s About Time: Can We Change the Past?

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• By Eoin O'Carroll Staff writer
• Rebecca Asoulin

March 15, 2021

Modern physics shows that it’s possible to manipulate time. But does that mean we can travel to the past? And what does this say about what time actually is. Is the future real? Is the past? Do other points in time exist in the same sense that the present does?

In this second episode of the Monitor’s six-part series, “It’s About Time,” hosts Rebecca Asoulin and Eoin O’Carroll talk to a physicist, a philosopher, and a novelist who have all made it their life’s work to answer the question: What is time?

The physicist – Ron Mallett – designed a real (theoretical) time machine based on Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity. According to Einstein, time isn’t a rigid, invariant backdrop. Instead, it can be stretched, warped, and perhaps even curved into a closed loop where an object traveling through it ends up just where – and when – it began. 

Einstein’s work inspired Dr. Mallett, whose career in theoretical physics was sparked by the death of his father when he was 10. “I thought, if I understand Einstein, I can understand how to build a time machine,” Dr. Mallet says. “I can go back and see him again.”

Of course, time travel is still firmly in the realm of science fiction. So Rebecca and Eoin turn to sci-fi writer Ted Chiang, who wrote the short story that was the basis of the 2016 film “Arrival.” He says thinking about time travel can help us make meaning out of the trajectories of our lives.  

“Time travel stories have the potential to help us reconcile ourselves with our past,” Mr. Chiang says. “Because while we cannot change the things that happened to us; we cannot change the decisions that we made; we can potentially change our relationship to the past.”

This is Episode 2 of “It’s About Time,” our six-part series that’s part of the Monitor’s  “Rethinking the News”  podcast.  To listen to the other episodes on our site or on your favorite podcast player,  please visit the  “It’s About Time” series page .

Episode transcript

Jessica Mendoza: Welcome to “Rethinking the News” by The Christian Science Monitor. I’m Jessica Mendoza, one of the producers. Today, we’re releasing the second episode in our new six-part science series, “It’s About Time,” hosted by Rebecca Asoulin and Eoin O’Carroll. If you haven’t listened to our 1st episode, check it out! OK, let’s get started. 

[Montage of clips from different interviews] Rebecca  Asoulin: So the question that we ask everybody: what is your definition of time?  Tim Wilson: Oh, gosh, that’s a big question. Ummm.... Dawna Ballard: I absolutely cannot define time. Because time is really so many things, there’s not just one time. Dorsa Amir: (sighs) What is time, really? Ummm…. Tyson Yunkaporta : I don’t ... (sighs) I don’t really have one.  Leah Ruppanner: So the – I would define time... OK, I’ll start again.  Dorsa: I’m really stumped. I don’t know if I have a definition for you. I kind of want to look up Merriam Webster and just pretend that was my definition. 

Rebecca: This is “It’s About Time.” A series all about...

Eoin O’Carroll: Time. I’m Eoin O’Carroll. 

Rebecca: And I’m Rebecca Asoulin. 

Eoin: In this science series, we interview experts on time. They’ll help us unravel its mysteries.

Rebecca: Because understanding time more deeply can help us make the most of the time we have. 

Rebecca: So what is time? 

Eoin: According to Oxford University Press, “time” is the most common noun in the English language. We use it all the time. Yet we find it so hard to define.

Rebecca: We spoke to a lot of time experts for this series. And we asked every one of them to define time for us. They all struggled. And when they did finally define it, their definitions were really different. 

Heather Dyke: It’s so fundamental that most of the time people don’t think about it, you know? But it’s always there in the background.

Eoin: That’s Heather Dyke, a philosopher of time. What she’s saying is: Time is hard to define because it’s just sort of there. It’s such a slippery concept. 

Rebecca: This episode is about diving deep into that concept. We’ll talk to a philosopher, a physicist, and a novelist who have all made it their life’s work to answer the question: what is time? And maybe by trying to figure out what time is and how it works, we can learn a little about how to reframe the challenges in our own lives. 

Rebecca: So I’ve personally always found philosophy kind of baffling. It just never seemed that useful to me in terms of people’s day-to-day lives.

Eoin: I mean, philosophy is aimed at the most baffling questions. The ones that can’t be settled by normal science. So if you’re not baffled on some level, I think you’re not doing it right.  

Rebecca: Comforting, very comforting, Eoin.

Eoin:   But, you know, I think philosophy’s also unavoidable. 

Heather Dyke:  So as humans, we’re sort of natural philosophers. We want to understand the world. But there are so many different aspects to our understanding of the world in general, but I think this is particularly true of time. 

Rebecca:  This is Heather Dyke again. She’s a philosopher of time at the University of Otago, in Dunedin New Zealand. Heather says her goal as a philosopher is to understand time in itself. And how time connects to all different parts of our lives – from the politics of time, to the psychology of time.

Eoin: Heather’s understanding of time as a philosopher helped her put into perspective a difficult personal decision.

Rebecca: That decision centered around an 18th century manor house in the English countryside. 

Heather Dyke : Well, it was built by my ancestors in the 1730s. Three stories. Big blocks of sandstone, arched windows. It had beautiful gardens.

Rebecca: Just what you’d expect if you watch any BBC drama.

Heather Dyke:  It was full of old, you know, family portraits. And my great grandfather, he was massively into his big game hunting. So we actually had an elephant’s foot that had been made into a whiskey decanter holder. You know, it was really like a kind of, an old stately home that you’d go and visit.

Rebecca: Heather moved to the house when she was 12. And she used to visit it before then.

Heather Dyke:  It’s a vast place, but they didn’t have spare bedrooms for us. So we camped in the garden. 

Rebecca: By 2012, Heather has moved to New Zealand, and lives with her husband and children. And she realizes that she needs to make a decision, because 300 years really does a number on a place. Should they try to save the house or sell it? 

Heather Dyke:  My parents were getting elderly and it was kind of crumbling. You know, it had a leaky roof and it had chimneys that were falling down, windows that were falling out.  

Rebecca: Heather decides she wants to try to turn it around which would mean making enough money to keep up the maintenance of the house. So she moves with her family from New Zealand back to England. And they try to make it work. But after seven years of trying, it becomes obvious that the house can’t be saved.

Heather Dyke:  Nobody ever wants to be the generation that gives up and sells up. But there really was no other option. The last Moreland, which was my maiden name – the last Moreland to make any money died in 1784. That just made me think, “We’re not doing the wrong thing here. We’re doing the right thing. It should have been done a while ago.”

Rebecca: You might be thinking: what does any of this have to do with time? The decision felt like the right thing to do. But it was still really painful. And her philosophy on time actually helped her come to terms with what happened. 

Heather subscribes to a philosophical theory of time called the B theory. 

Heather Dyke:  The B theory says that time is a little bit like space, in that the moment that we designate as “now” is no more real than any other moment. 

Rebecca:  What she’s saying is all times exist, regardless of whether we’re perceiving it or not. So Eoin chatting with me right now in 2021 is as real as Eoin back in let’s say, 1990.

Heather Dyke:  I treat “now” a little bit like we treat the notion of “here.” You know, I’m here in Dunedin. You’re over there in, I don’t even know what city you’re in.  Rebecca: California.  Heather Dyke:  California. There you go. Thank you. But I don’t think that California is any less real than Dunedin just because it’s not here. Right? And so. So that’s kind of analogous to how the B theorist thinks about “now.” I don’t think that 1733 or 2120 are any less real than this moment now. I just think that they’re located at different times, just like California is located at a different place from me. 

Rebecca: In the B theory, there is no present moment. We label things “past,” “present,” and “future” to match up with our perception of the world. But what we consider the present isn’t special in this theory. I know this is mind blowing. It’s really counterintuitive to our experience. 

But Heather says it’s how time really works. And the theory is really comforting to her. So back to the manor house. 

Rebecca: So in the B theory, is it that you were always going to sell the house?   Heather Dyke:  So, no, that’s not – that’s not true. Because... so it is tricky to get your head around this. So just because the time is real, the future time is real, doesn’t mean that what happens at that time happens of necessity. It happens because of the things that happened before it. And those things can include free choices.  So take me back to 2012, when we first went there. It wasn’t then fixed that we would sell in 2019. That came about because of the various choices and decisions and other external factors. Things might have gone differently, but as it turns out, they didn’t. 

Rebecca: For Heather, when something bad happens, it’s comforting for her to know that our decisions, aren’t the only reason things turned out the way they did. To her, the future is not totally limitless. Whether or not the theory is true, it resonates with Heather and helped her deal with the pain of selling her family’s house.

Heather Dyke:  So I now can look back on that as a kind of finite closed – like it was a return journey. Do you know what I mean? Whereas on the way there, it felt like an open future. And I think my B theoretic view of time, it sort of helps me with that, because I don’t think the future is this kind of open realm. I do think that we are able to affect the future and our choices and decisions matter. They have causal influence, but I don’t think of it as this kind of open realm of possibility. I think that helps in cases when things don’t go as planned. 

Rebecca : The B theory’s foundation is built off of physics. In particular, Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity. Physics is foundational to many understandings of time.

Eoin : Time – if it really exists – is a characteristic of the physical universe. So if we’re going to find out what time really is, it makes sense to ask a physicist.

Ron Mallett: I thought, “If I understand Einstein, I can understand how to build a time machine.”

Eoin: That’s physicist Ron Mallett. He became a physicist because he wanted to build a time machine. Yes you heard that right.  And he succeeded, kind of. He says he actually came up with a design for a real time machine. Well, a real hypothetical time machine, with real science. And lasers!

Rebecca: A childhood tragedy led to Dr. Mallett’s desire to do that.  

Ron Mallett:   My father was a television repairman. And I idolized him. I mean for me, the sun rose and set on him. He was just everything for me.

Eoin: Growing up, Dr. Mallett’s dad would give him scientific toys, and he inspired his love of reading. Then when Dr. Mallett was 10, his father –

Ron Mallett:  – died of a massive heart attack. Suddenly, when he was only 33 years old. And it completely devastated my world. I went into a black hole. 

Eoin : His father’s death plunged the family into poverty. His mom was now a single Black mother, in 1955, with four children to raise. 

Ron Mallett:  A year after he died, I came across the book that changed my life. It was H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine.”

Eoin: “ The Time Machine ” was written in 1895. It tells a story of a man who travels hundreds of thousands of years into the future. 

Ron Mallett:    At the beginning of it, it said that: “Scientific people know very well that time is just a kind of space.” And we can move forward and backward in time, just as we can in space.

Eoin:  This quote is from the Time Traveler, the book’s main character. It’s part of his explanation of how his time machine works, which treats time as though it were a fourth spatial dimension. 

Ron Mallett:  And when I read those words, I thought, “Oh, this is it. This is the thing that is going to allow me to see my father again. If I could build a time machine, I can go back and see him again.” My mother had kept these all television and radio parts of my father … and I even tried to put something together that looked like the illustration. I mean, with bicycle parts in this thing. And of course, nothing worked.

Eoin: After all, Dr. Mallett was 10 years old at the time. But that first failure didn’t stop him. A few years later, he found another book at the Salvation Army.

Ron Mallett:   It was a paperback that had Einstein on the cover of it, standing next to an hourglass. 

Eoin: That book was called “ The Universe and Doctor Einstein .” 

Ron Mallett:   – and so I got the paperback and I didn’t understand most of it. But I did pick up the essence that Einstein said that there are ways you can alter time. 

Eoin: And so Dr. Mallett becomes a theoretical physicist specializing in Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, using it to create a theoretical time machine. He says he showed that it’s mathematically possible to use lasers to bend time back on itself. 

To understand how Dr. Mallett does that, we first need to talk about Einstein and his theory of relativity – there are actually sort of two theories, really. Einstein’s work is the basis of Dr. Mallett’s real hypothetical time machine. 

Rebecca: It’s also the foundation of physicists’ modern understanding of how time works. 

Eoin:  First, we’ll talk about Einstein’s special theory of relativity. 

Ron Mallett:  Suppose that you’ re standing in front of a vehicle and a friend who’ s moving in the vehicle throws something at you. 

Eoin: Let’s say the vehicle is going at 60 miles an hour, and the ball that your friend is throwing is going at 10 miles an hour. 

Ron Mallett:  Well, if you’ re standing outside the vehicle, the object isn’ t going to be coming at you at 10 miles an hour. It’ s going to be coming in at you with the speed of the ball plus the speed of the vehicle.

Eoin: If you’re in the car, the ball is going 10 miles an hour. But if you’re standing outside the car, you’ll see that ball coming at you at 70 miles an hour. In other words, how fast something moves depends on your frame of reference. 

But, by the beginning of the 20th century, physicists had hit a stumbling block. This principle did not apply to light. Light seemed to travel at the same speed, regardless of how fast the observer was moving.

Rebecca: And that’s weird. Because everything else changes depending on your frame of reference. And so –

Ron Mallett:  – what Einstein said is that the only way that the speed of light could be the same, no matter how fast the source of light could be, is that something else has to be changing. Space has to be changing and time has to be changing. Time has to be slowing down so that the speed of light can stay the same.

Rebecca: And that is the Special Theory of Relativity. 

Eoin: This was totally revolutionary. It created a whole new world for physicists to explore. Before this, everyone thought time was absolute. Now they understood it was actually relative. (Hence, relativity!) Special relativity became the basis for Einstein’s theory of gravitation, which he called general relativity. 

Ron Mallett:   The special theory says that time is affected by speed. The general theory says time is affected by gravity. 

Rebecca:  The general theory was what Dr. Mallett based his time machine math on.

This stuff is complicated. Dr. Mallett has spent his entire career on this topic. Einstein spent years developing the theory. It just takes some time to absorb. 

Eoin: Einstein’s basic idea was that gravity bends space and time.

Ron Mallett:  If gravity can affect time and light can produce gravity, then light can affect time. That was my breakthrough, by realizing that light can alter time.

Eoin: Dr. Mallett proved mathematically that by using a beam of laser light – 

Ron Mallett:  – it would be possible to twist space and to eventually twist time into a loop. And along that loop, in time, it might be possible to travel back into the past. 

Eoin: Like we said, a real hypothetical time machine. (As in the hypothesis is real! And the math plays out.) But he hasn’t actually been able to build it. It’s too expensive. It could cost billions of dollars in the end. 

Rebecca: And instead of finding this infuriating, Dr. Mallett is … pleased. 

Ron Mallett:  For me, the satisfaction is that I actually have achieved the goal that I had, of finding out a way that a time machine could possibly be built based on Einstein’s work. Unfortunately, it won’t allow me to go back to see my father – yet. 

Eoin: So what is a time from a physics standpoint? Time is malleable. Before Einstein, time and space were absolute. But Einstein showed us that the real absolute in our universe is not time or space, it’s the speed of light. 

Einstein’s theories give us all kinds of new physics and new technologies like GPS, nuclear power, and even those old cathode-ray televisions.

Rebecca: They haven’t yet gotten us back to the past. But Einstein’s theories still open up a whole universe of ideas for all sorts of thinkers. In fact, physics is the starting point for this episode’s third and final story. 

Rebecca: I really wanted to talk to a science fiction writer about time. In science fiction, you can kind of hand wave the mechanics of time travel. It doesn’t need to be possible. You don’t need to fully know how time travel would work to explore all of its juicy dramatic consequences.

Eoin: Still, science fiction writers often know and incorporate a lot of physics into their stories. Even if a lot of that is left off the page. 

Rebecca: But in a sci-fi story, the answer to the question: what is time? Is ultimately whatever the author wants it to be.

Ted Chiang: Time travel is kind of a literalization of memory. When we think about the past, we are metaphorically traveling back in time.

Rebecca: That’s Ted Chiang He wrote the short story that the 2016 film “Arrival” is based on. It’s called “ Story of Your Life .”

Both the film and the story are about a linguist who is trying to make sense of an alien language. Through that work, she begins to understand time as the aliens do. She can remember her future as well as her past. 

Ted has written two collections of short stories. The second collection includes the time travel story, “ The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate .”  In a lot of his work, characters try to come to terms with their pasts.

Ted Chiang:  Time travel stories are about how we feel about our past. They can offer a kind of wish fulfillment, you know, giving us an opportunity to make decisions differently. 

Rebecca: And most of the time, these stories –

Ted Chiang:  – are about regret, about events in our past, decisions we made that we wish we had made differently. 

Rebecca: “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” is about a fabric merchant in medieval Baghdad. He meets a shop owner who has a time travel portal. The shop owner tells him about three others who have used the portal before the merchant decides whether or not to use it himself. 

In the story, Ted’s rules of time travel are based on physicist Kip Thorne’s wormhole version of time travel which obeys Einstein’s theory of relativity. According to Kip Thorne, even if we could time travel, we can’t change the past.

But the vast majority of time travel fiction is about people going back and changing their past. Ted is OK with stories like that – 

Ted Chiang:  – mainly because I think that they are trying to convey a positive message. They are trying to tell people that you have agency, that you can change your life, you can make a difference. I think those are good things for a story to do. But in reality, we cannot go back and do things differently.  

Rebecca: Ted found himself wanting to write fiction that took that less popular route. 

Ted Chiang:  I think people don’t want time travel stories in which you cannot change the past. We usually find them depressing. They are usually couched as tragedies. So one of the things that I was trying to do with “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” was to write a story about time travel in which you could not change the past, but where that was not a tragedy.

Rebecca: In his story, the fabric merchant had experienced a loss 20 years before that left him hollow. He felt like he couldn’t atone for his past mistakes. 

I’m not going to spoil the story, so all I’ll say is it ends with this powerful line: “Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough.” 

Ted Chiang : Time travel stories have the potential to help us reconcile ourselves with our past. Because while we cannot change the things that happened to us, we cannot change the decisions that we made, we can potentially change how we feel about what happened to us. I’d like to see more stories in which time travel is used as a way of recognizing that even if you cannot change the past, you can change your relationship to the past. You can grow and learn.

Rebecca: Sci-fi writer Ted Chiang, philosopher Heather Dyke, and physicist Ron Mallett, all explored different aspects of time. We need to look at different perspectives, because time touches every part of existence. Shifting our perspective on time can also help us make the best of the time we have.

Eoin: So Rebecca, what’s your definition of time?

Rebecca: I think time doesn’t have a neat definition. It really depends on the context. And I think back to all our interviews, and I realize why both of us always prefaced the question, “How do you define time?” by saying that it was a really unfair question. It’s so hard to define.

Eoin: It’s almost like the more we use a word the harder it is to define. And we use the word “time” all the time. 

Rebecca: Do you have a definition?

Eoin: Before we started this series, I came up with what I thought was a pretty good definition of time. Time, I thought, is the “perceived dimension of reality along which change occurs.”

Rebecca: What do you think now?

Eoin: Now, I think I have a better definition. Time is this:

[Long pause]

Rebecca: So time is silence?

Eoin: Not necessarily silence -- it’s the thing that you’re experiencing as you experience silence. [very long pause round 2]

Rebecca: Thanks for listening! We hope you feel inspired to read or watch a good time travel story. Don’t forget to subscribe to “Rethinking the News” wherever you get your podcasts and leave us a rating or comment.

Eoin: And share this series with your friends, family, and coworkers! You can find us at csmonitor dot com slash time!

Rebecca : This series is hosted and produced by me, Rebecca Asoulin. My co-host is Eoin O’Carroll. It was produced with Jessica Mendoza. Editing by Samantha Laine Perfas, Clay Collins, and Noelle Swan. Sound design by Noel Flatt and Morgan Anderson. With production support from Ibrahim Onafeko. 

This story was produced by The Christian Science Monitor, copyright 2021.

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'How I Met Your Mother' recap, 'The Tme Travelers': 45 Days

The end game is in motion.

I mean, you could say it’s BEEN in motion for 8 seasons, but now we have a countdown that is arguably even more daunting than the Slap Bet Countdown: The Mother Countdown.

Let me explain.

It all started when Ted began arguing with future versions of himself and Barney about whether or not he should attend Robots Versus Wrestlers. (According to Barney, thinking about decisions from the Twenty Years From Now perspective helps guarantee a good decision.) Twenty Years From Now Ted and Twenty Years From Now Barney were totally in favor of Ted’s robot adventure because, simply put, you can’t lose by going to Robots Versus Wrestlers. (Always listen to the guys in the shiny, futuristic suits.) Twenty Hours From Now Ted, however, thought going to the event was a terrible idea because Current Ted (or just Ted) would drink too much and have a awful hangover with which to contend.

What to do, what to do…

Hold the phone! Twenty Minutes From Now Barney had a special bulletin: Coat Check Girl at 3 o’clock! Yes, Jayma Mays — you know, from season 1.

You could practically see Ted’s relationship-loving brain salivating. AFTER ALL THIS TIME!? IT’S FATE! MUST DATE. MUST DATE. BLEEP-BLOOP.

But just when he was about to approach her, Future Coat Check Girl pulled him aside with a warning: This wasn’t going to end well. She explained that if Ted approached her, there were two possible outcomes. 1) She would either becoming a crazy, obsessed girlfriend nightmare (Think Jeanette but with baking) or 2) She would grow tired of him. After all, that’s how all of his relationships eventually ended, she zinged.

Honest as her words were, no one should ever hear that kind of criticism without a drink in their hand/in a public place with nowhere to hide. So I felt deeply for Ted, and the look on his face crushed me. Because Ted’s our friend. And, admit it, we’ve all also had our own Ted moment.

Had it not been for the storyline involving a feuding Marshall and Robin, I would have called this episode a Grade A soul-crusher. Luckily, these two — and an amazing end-of-episode musical number — provided some much needed levity.

So what was the nature of this feud? It all stemmed from the fact that Robin had a drink named after her at MacLaren’s, but it wasn’t just any drink — it was a beauty Marshall called the Minnesota Tidal Wave. Angry that his drink was essentially stolen from him, Marshall tried to challenge Robin to a dance-off, but Lily stopped him because of his dancer’s hip. So instead, he and Robin launched into this mini prank war — he wrote her number on the men’s bathroom and she tricked him into getting caught in the women’s bathroom like some gross peeping Tom. After the latter resulted in Marshall getting unflattering recognition (the act of peeping on women in the bathroom = pulling a Marshall Eriksen) Lily finally allowed the dance-off to take place. And it was pretty epic. Quote of the night: I’m Sparkles, Bitch.

So that brings us back to poor, truth-bombed Ted, who after deciding to head home instead of heading to Robots Versus Wrestlers, gets another hard truth: He’s all alone. Literally .

It turns out that the entire episode was in Ted’s head. Barney and Robin were actually at their apartment trying to find a caterer, and Marshall and Lily were upstairs trying to put Marvin to bed. And Ted was alone.

The end of the episode is something you truly have to experience on your own, but I’ll try to explain:

For a brief moment, Narrator Ted imagined what he would do if he got a chance to relive that night. Maybe he would have made himself at home with Marshall and Lily or gone over to hear Robin and Barney bicker. He would have made himself a part of his friends’ lives instead of being alone, and they would have welcomed him. But let’s face it, Current Ted has hit a point where he doesn’t want to be an accessory to someone else’s life. He wants his own. So I understand him walking away at the time, but I also understand him looking back on it 20 years later and wanting a do-over.

Plus, said Narrator Ted, if he really had a chance to relive that night, his first order of business would have run to his future wife’s apartment on 115th street and explain the future. “Hi. I’m Ted Mosby,” Narrator Ted imagined himself saying, “and exactly 45 days from now, you and I are going to meet, and we’re going to fall in love and we’re going to get married and we’re going to have two kids. We’re going to love them and each other so much. All that is 45 days away. But I’m here now, I guess, because I want those extra 45 days with you. I want each one of them. If I can’t have them, I’ll take the 45 seconds before your boyfriend shows up and punches me in the face. Because I love you. I’m always going to love you. To the end of my days and beyond.”

That’s when — in Ted’s imagination — the mother’s boyfriend Louis shows up and punched Ted back into reality, where we saw Ted walk away — alone.

I feel like everyone will have a different way of interpreting this ending, and mine’s probably incorrect but here’s it is anyway: How I Met Your Mother has always been a story about hope. No matter how bad things get, we know it ends with happiness. I remember the clarity I felt the first time executive producer Craig Thomas told me that; I saw the show in a whole new light. I saw it as one big, “It will be OK.” And I saw this imagined-reality, this second-ending-that-never-was in a similar way; it was Narrator Ted telling past Ted that everything’s OK. He was speaking to the Ted who felt so hopelessly alone that one night, 20 years ago. Don’t you sometimes wish you could do that? Go back to a low-point and tell yourself about how you get through it? Seems nice. Maybe I’m reading into this too much.

Anyway, I was touched, kind of baffled, kind of sad (comedy my butt!), very excited, and overcome by a need to have a dance-battle with someone.

The episode concluded with the Future Teds and Barneys performing an amazing rendition of Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time,” which, wouldn’t you know, is about taking a chance on love after experiencing a lot of hurt. Actual lyric: “Once I thought my innocence was gone/ Now I know that happiness goes on.” It really does — in 45 days, Ted.

I’m eager to hear your thoughts. How did you read the final act? What did you think of the episode? And WHAT’S CARL’S LAST NAME? (Hint: It’s not “[Carl]’s Junior”)

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Best Family-Friendly Time Travel Movies

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If you and your family love watching time travel movies together, make sure to add some of the following films to your watchlist. These classics are fun and good entertainment. They will surely keep you hooked till the end. And be it  kids , partners, or your whole family, there is something for everyone here. So grab your popcorn buckets and enjoy the bonding time with your littles!

1. Back to the Future

As the name suggests, this movie is about time travel. In this film, Michael J. Fox plays the role of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student who accidentally travels back in time. The story starts in the 1980s when a scientist’s  experiment  takes the wrong turn, leading to Marty returning to the 1950s to reunite his parents’ younger selves. This movie has sequels, so watch Part II and III to finish the series.

2. The Time Traveler’s Wife

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” is a story about a man who can travel through time. Based on Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 novel of the same name, the story revolves around the life of Henry DeTamble, a  librarian  who possesses a unique gene that lets him involuntarily travel through time. However, his wife, Claire Abshire, finds it difficult to cope, creating friction between them.

3. Source Code

Do you like action thrillers? If so, then you will surely love this time travel movie.  The story  is about Colter Stevens, an army officer hired for a secret operation. Things were fine till he found himself in the body of a stranger and then on a mysterious trail to track down the bomber of a commuter train in Chicago.

4. Time After Time

This is a classic time travel movie you should  watch with your family . It shows H.G. Wells pursuing Jack the Ripper to the 20th century when the serial murderer uses the future writer’s time machine to escape his time period.

5. Run Lola Run

If you are a hardcore  romantic , this time travel movie is for you. This film shows a Chicago playwright, Richard Collier, using self-hypnosis to meet Elise McKenna, a famous American actress of the 1900s, after being mesmerized by her portrait hanging in a hotel. With his technique, the playwright goes back in time to meet the actress and fulfill his fantasy.

6. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Two  teenagers , Bill and Ted, are best friends and struggle to finish a history assignment. However, with the help of a man from the future, the two are finally able to complete their assignment with ease. Watch them achieve this feat by collecting prominent figures from different time periods. You can also watch “Bill & Ted Face the Music” to see more of their exciting time-traveling adventures.

7. Peggy Sue Got Married

This is a teen time travel  movie  in which a middle-aged divorcee regrets all her life decisions, but things change when she attends her 25th high school reunion. She faints at the event and wakes up to find herself in the past.

This time travel movie will  make you laugh all the way till the end . Starring Adam Sandler, the movie is about a workaholic architect who doesn’t have time for his wife and kids. However, his life changes when he meets a sales clerk who gives him a universal remote that permits him to fast-forward and rewind to different periods of his life. However, things get complicated when the remote begins to override his preferences.

Apart from these time travel movies, you can also watch “Palm Spring,” “Tenet,” “Interstellar,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Looper,” “Kate & Leopold,” and “The Flight of the Navigator.”

So, which of these time travel movies will you watch with your family? Do let us know in the comment section below. We suggest starting with the  classics  and having a movie marathon with your family.

The post Best Family-Friendly Time Travel Movies appeared first on Momtastic .

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Best Family-Friendly Time Travel Movies

By Parul Singh

If you and your family love watching time travel movies together, make sure to add some of the following films to your watchlist. These classics are fun and good entertainment. They will surely keep you hooked till the end. And be it  kids , partners, or your whole family, there is something for everyone here. So grab your popcorn buckets and enjoy the bonding time with your littles!

1. Back to the Future

As the name suggests, this movie is about time travel. In this film, Michael J. Fox plays the role of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student who accidentally travels back in time. The story starts in the 1980s when a scientist’s  experiment  takes the wrong turn, leading to Marty returning to the 1950s to reunite his parents’ younger selves. This movie has sequels, so watch Part II and III to finish the series.

2. The Time Traveler’s Wife

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” is a story about a man who can travel through time. Based on Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 novel of the same name, the story revolves around the life of Henry DeTamble, a  librarian  who possesses a unique gene that lets him involuntarily travel through time. However, his wife, Claire Abshire, finds it difficult to cope, creating friction between them.

3. Source Code

Do you like action thrillers? If so, then you will surely love this time travel movie.  The story  is about Colter Stevens, an army officer hired for a secret operation. Things were fine till he found himself in the body of a stranger and then on a mysterious trail to track down the bomber of a commuter train in Chicago.

4. Time After Time

This is a classic time travel movie you should  watch with your family . It shows H.G. Wells pursuing Jack the Ripper to the 20th century when the serial murderer uses the future writer’s time machine to escape his time period.

5. Run Lola Run

If you are a hardcore  romantic , this time travel movie is for you. This film shows a Chicago playwright, Richard Collier, using self-hypnosis to meet Elise McKenna, a famous American actress of the 1900s, after being mesmerized by her portrait hanging in a hotel. With his technique, the playwright goes back in time to meet the actress and fulfill his fantasy.

6. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Two  teenagers , Bill and Ted, are best friends and struggle to finish a history assignment. However, with the help of a man from the future, the two are finally able to complete their assignment with ease. Watch them achieve this feat by collecting prominent figures from different time periods. You can also watch “Bill & Ted Face the Music” to see more of their exciting time-traveling adventures.

7. Peggy Sue Got Married

This is a teen time travel  movie  in which a middle-aged divorcee regrets all her life decisions, but things change when she attends her 25th high school reunion. She faints at the event and wakes up to find herself in the past.

This time travel movie will  make you laugh all the way till the end . Starring Adam Sandler, the movie is about a workaholic architect who doesn’t have time for his wife and kids. However, his life changes when he meets a sales clerk who gives him a universal remote that permits him to fast-forward and rewind to different periods of his life. However, things get complicated when the remote begins to override his preferences.

Apart from these time travel movies, you can also watch “Palm Spring,” “Tenet,” “Interstellar,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Looper,” “Kate & Leopold,” and “The Flight of the Navigator.”

So, which of these time travel movies will you watch with your family? Do let us know in the comment section below. We suggest starting with the  classics  and having a movie marathon with your family.

Parul Singh is a content writer by profession and a mother by choice. She has written for various reputed websites about parenting, movies, news, etc. When not working, she would either be traveling or dozing off (if her kids let her). Other than this she is also a chocoholic, movie buff, and a foodie. She lives in India (Karnataka) with her Mr. Right and two innocent yet mischievous daughters.

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