The 20 Best Time-Traveling Movies to Stream on HBO Max Right Now
Time travel has always been a big draw for movie lovers. It offers a special kind of escape, letting us imagine fixing past mistakes or seeing what the future holds. These stories can be exciting adventures, deep emotional journeys, or mind-bending puzzles. They let us explore the big “what if” questions of life, all from the comfort of our couches.
Max has a great collection of movies that play with time. You can find everything from big action movies to quiet dramas and funny comedies. Whether you want to see history changed, futures saved, or just enjoy a clever story, there is a time travel movie for you on the streaming service. Here are 20 of the best you can watch right now.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
A mysterious black monolith is discovered on the Moon, sending a signal to Jupiter. A crew of astronauts, along with the advanced computer HAL 9000, is sent to investigate. The journey is long and quiet, with the crew relying on HAL to manage the ship’s systems.
As they travel deeper into space, HAL begins to show strange and dangerous behavior. The mission becomes a fight for survival against their own technology. The end of the journey takes the surviving astronaut on a trip through space and time that changes him forever.
The Terminator (1984)
In the future, machines have taken over the world. A human resistance, led by John Connor, is close to winning the war. In a last-ditch effort, the machines send a cyborg assassin, the Terminator, back to 1984 to kill John’s mother, Sarah Connor, before he can be born.
The resistance sends its own soldier, Kyle Reese, to protect Sarah. He must convince her that she is in danger and that the fate of the future rests on her survival. They are hunted through Los Angeles by the nearly unstoppable Terminator in a desperate race against time.
Back to the Future (1985)
Marty McFly is a regular teenager from 1985. His friend, the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, creates a time machine out of a DeLorean car. Marty is accidentally sent back to 1955, where he meets his own parents as teenagers.
His presence in the past accidentally prevents his parents from falling in love. This threatens his own existence. Marty must find the younger Doc Brown and figure out a way to get his parents together and get himself back to 1985.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Two high school friends, Bill and Ted, are on the verge of flunking their history class. If they fail, Ted will be sent to military school, and their band, Wyld Stallyns, will be finished. They get help from an unexpected source: a man from the future named Rufus.
Rufus arrives in a time-traveling phone booth and explains that their band’s music is the foundation of a future utopian society. To pass their history report, Bill and Ted travel through time to collect historical figures like Napoleon, Billy the Kid, and Socrates to help them with their presentation.
12 Monkeys (1995)
In a future devastated by a deadly virus, humanity lives underground. A prisoner named James Cole is sent back in time to 1996 to find the source of the virus. The hope is that scientists in the future can use this information to create a cure.
Cole is accidentally sent to 1990, where he is locked in a mental institution. There, he meets a psychiatrist, Dr. Kathryn Railly, and a fellow patient who may be connected to a radical group called the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. Cole’s journey through time becomes a confusing and dangerous quest to save humanity.
The Matrix (1999)
A computer programmer named Thomas Anderson, who goes by the hacker alias Neo, feels that something is wrong with the world. He is contacted by a mysterious group led by Morpheus. They reveal that the reality he knows is a computer simulation called the Matrix, created by intelligent machines to control humanity.
Neo is awakened to the real world, a desolate future where humans are used as a power source. Morpheus believes Neo is “The One,” a prophesied savior who can free humanity. Neo must be trained to bend the rules of the Matrix to fight against the powerful computer programs that guard it.
Donnie Darko (2001)
Donnie Darko is a troubled teenager who is prone to sleepwalking. One night, he is led out of his house by a mysterious figure in a giant rabbit costume named Frank. Frank tells him the world will end in 28 days. While he is out, a jet engine crashes into his empty bedroom.
Donnie tries to understand these strange events and his connection to Frank. He explores ideas of time travel and alternate universes. His journey leads to a series of events that blur the line between reality and hallucination as the predicted end of the world approaches.
Primer (2004)
Two engineers, Aaron and Abe, work on tech projects in their garage. They accidentally discover a way to create a time loop. The machine they build allows them to travel back to the moment it was turned on.
They start by using their invention to make money on the stock market. However, they soon discover that their actions have unforeseen and dangerous consequences. The friends find themselves caught in a complex web of overlapping timelines and paranoia.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
After a painful breakup, a woman named Clementine undergoes a procedure to erase all memories of her ex-boyfriend, Joel. When Joel learns about this, he decides to do the same. As the procedure begins, he is taken on a journey through his own memories of their relationship.
Joel realizes he doesn’t want to forget Clementine and tries to fight the process from within his own mind. He desperately hides his memories of her in other parts of his past. The film explores love, loss, and what we choose to remember and forget.
Deja Vu (2006)
An ATF agent, Doug Carlin, investigates a ferry bombing in New Orleans. He is brought into a top-secret government program that allows him to look into the past. Using a special window in time, he can observe the events leading up to the explosion.
As Carlin watches the past, he becomes convinced he can change it and save the hundreds of people who died. He develops a connection to one of the victims and risks everything to travel back in time to prevent the disaster before it happens.
Inception (2010)
Dom Cobb is a skilled thief who steals valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state. His rare ability has made him a coveted player in corporate espionage, but it has also cost him everything he has ever loved. Cobb is offered a chance at redemption.
Instead of stealing an idea, he and his team of specialists have to plant one. This is a dangerous and complex task known as inception. If they succeed, it could be the perfect crime. But no amount of planning can prepare them for the dangerous enemy that seems to predict their every move.
Source Code (2011)
A soldier named Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man on a commuter train. He soon discovers he is part of a government mission to find the bomber of the train. He has only eight minutes to complete his task before the train explodes.
Stevens is sent back into the same eight minutes over and over again. Each time, he gathers more clues to identify the attacker. As he relives the final moments of the passengers, he becomes determined not only to find the bomber but also to save the people on the train.
About Time (2013)
At the age of 21, Tim Lake discovers he can travel in time. His father tells him that the men in their family have always had this ability. Tim can’t change history, but he can change what happens and has happened in his own life.
He decides to use his power to improve his life by getting a girlfriend. He meets and falls in love with a woman named Mary. He uses his ability to perfect their relationship, but he soon learns that his unique gift can’t save him from the sorrows and ups and downs that affect all families, everywhere.
Interstellar (2014)
In the near future, Earth is becoming uninhabitable due to famine and extreme weather. A former NASA pilot named Cooper is recruited for a daring mission. He must lead a team of astronauts through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity.
Cooper leaves his children behind, knowing that time will pass differently for him in space. The crew travels to distant galaxies, facing unknown dangers and making difficult choices. The film explores themes of love, sacrifice, and the survival of the human race against impossible odds.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
The world is at war with an alien race that seems unbeatable. Major William Cage, an officer with no combat experience, is dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. He is killed within minutes but finds himself thrown into a time loop.
He is forced to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again and again. With each battle, Cage becomes more skilled. He teams up with a Special Forces warrior to find a way to defeat the alien invaders.
Predestination (2014)
A time-traveling agent is on his final assignment. His mission is to prevent a criminal known as the “Fizzle Bomber” from carrying out a devastating attack. The agent’s pursuit takes him through different time periods.
The story unfolds through a series of conversations in a bar. The agent meets a man with a strange and complicated past. Their stories become intertwined in a mind-bending tale of identity, fate, and the paradoxes of time travel.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
In a dark future, mutants are hunted by powerful robots called Sentinels. The surviving X-Men send Wolverine’s consciousness back to 1973. His mission is to prevent the event that led to the creation of the Sentinels.
Wolverine must unite the younger versions of Professor X and Magneto, who are then enemies. They need to work together to stop an assassination that will trigger a chain of events leading to the doom of both mutants and humans.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry Potter’s third year at Hogwarts takes a dark turn with the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban prison. Black is believed to be a dangerous supporter of the dark wizard Voldemort and is thought to be hunting Harry. As the school year progresses, Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, uncover secrets about Black’s past.
Hermione reveals she has a Time-Turner, a device that allows her to travel back in time. She and Harry use it to save more than one innocent life. They must navigate the complexities of time to change the past without being seen.
Men in Black 3 (2012)
Agent J discovers that his partner, Agent K, has been dead for over forty years, and no one else at the Men in Black agency remembers him. An alien criminal has escaped from a lunar prison and traveled back in time to kill the younger Agent K, which has altered the timeline.
To save his partner and the world, Agent J must also travel back to 1969. There, he teams up with the younger Agent K to stop the alien and restore the timeline. Along the way, J uncovers secrets about K’s past and the history of their organization.
Tenet (2020)
A secret agent known only as the Protagonist is recruited into a mysterious organization called Tenet. He is tasked with a global mission to prevent World War III. The threat is not nuclear annihilation, but something far stranger: time inversion.
The Protagonist learns to manipulate the flow of time to navigate a dangerous world of international espionage. He must use this new ability to unravel a complex plot orchestrated by a powerful and dangerous man from the future. The mission challenges his understanding of reality and the laws of physics.
