The Top 10 Best Movie Time Travelers

5. Wolverine (X-Men: Days of Future Past)

Wolverine always says that he’s “the best at what he does” and I guess that time travel is one of those things. Sure there are a lot of time travelers out there, but how many of them have bone claws and berserker rage? More importantly, though he manages to reboot the X-Men franchise and makes it so X-Men: The Last Stand never happened, which makes him a real hero in my book. Besides, his method of time travel is pretty cool, since it’s his mind that travels to the past and not his body. Plus, it’s Wolverine. How could I not include him on this list?

4. Captain Kirk (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

To boldly go where no man has gone before. That’s the motto of the starship enterprise and they follow that directive back to San Francisco in the 1980’s. Sure Captain Kirk is no stranger to time travel, but of all his adventures this is definitely his finest. Kirk travels to the far past to save the future by bringing an extinct animal back with him. I’m sure we can all get behind a good cause like saving the whales. It’s a good thing the Sea Shepherds didn’t show up though because I doubt Kirk would have set his phasers to stun.

3. Major William Cage (Edge of Tomorrow)

I was part of the group that thought a movie called “The Edge of Tomorrow” was probably going to be one of the dumbest things ever made. Well, this is me eating a big slice of humble pie. William Cage is a helpless loser at the beginning of the film, but like Phil he finds himself caught in a time loop where he returns to what is basically a save point every time he dies. So, he decides to take advantage of it by becoming a super warrior and the very scourge of the alien invaders. I have to say, Tom Cruise really restored my faith in him with this one.

2. T-800 (Terminator series)

Come on, you didn’t think I was going to forget about Arnold, did you? Now, it’s not my place to argue which T-800 is the best, but it’s obviously not going to be one that showed up after the year 2000. The T-800 has been both a force of good and evil during its tenure, and despite doing against far superior models, it’s proven that nothing beats good old-fashioned American muscle (well, Austrian muscle). He might not be the most charismatic time traveler on this list, but he’s one of the most iconic and probably the biggest badass of them.

1. Marty McFly (Back to the Future series)

Look, this was inevitable. Marty McFly is the greatest time traveler that cinema has to offer today, period. I doubt there will ever be a finer time traveler to come out of Hollywood. Marty often finds himself in over his head, but he’s a problem solver more than anything, which makes him a perfect match for Doc Brown who is more of a problem creator. Marty has been to the past, present, and future, and nothing has managed to keep him down for long. This is one classic time traveler who deserves to stay in the past. Let’s hope a reboot never happens.

Honorable Mention: Kevin (Time Bandits)

ne of the lesser-known cinematic time travelers. Kevin was just a regular kid that got caught up in the wrong crowd. I have no idea why there aren’t more PSA’s about Time Bandits influencing our youth with their time crimes and half-baked plans, but they definitely would have helped Kevin avoid a whole mess involving Robin Hood, Napoleon, King Agamemnon, and the Supreme Being. Still, Kevin’s innocence kept his heart pure and managed to keep him from stepping on any butterflies.

Shout-Out: Superman- Superman (1978)

Now, I wouldn’t think that flying around the Earth really fast until it starts spinning backwards would cause time-travel, but I guess I was wrong. Though it might be one of the most absurd examples of time-travel in movie history, I have to give a shout-out to Superman for creativity.

There are plenty of other great time travelers out there, but I feel like these characters really differentiated themselves from the films they made. Sure not all of them were in great time travel movies, but these guys deserved a place on the list. If there’s someone I forgot the mention that you think should be on here, be sure to comment below!