1. The Terminator
Type of time travel: Past Mode of transport: Some kind of machine The original time travel action adventure saw Arnold Schwarzenegger as the eponymous Terminator sent back in time to kill an unsuspecting Sarah Connor who is being protected by a handsome human soldier from the future who tells her that her son will grow up to lead a human resistance against a robotic uprising. This film has it all, youve got the issues of the past, the paradoxes of the present and the designs for the futurenot to mention some of the best and original action sequences ever put to film. And the final sequence of the film where (spoiler alert for the uninitiated) we realize that all of this was pre-ordained has that classic oh! moment that really makes for the perfect time travel film.
Honorable Mention: The Star Trek film franchise, The Time Machine (the original not the terrible remake), the rest of the Back to the Future trilogy, Time Cop, Midnight In Paris, the aforementioned Time Bandits, Somewhere in Time, Deja Vu, It's a Wonderful Life, Source Code (Groundhog Day for geeks), TV series Lost, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fringe, Futurama, Red Dwarf and Daybreak (a little watched Groundhog Day style show about a time loop). The paradoxes, loops, destinies and impossibilities are about to be reborn with the brand new Looper (from the mind of the brilliant Rian Johnson), which is showing at a cinema near you from this coming Friday the 28th September. I cant tell you the future, but I can tell you Ill be there on Friday. Or maybe Im already there... I think I need to sit down...