Best Recent Time Travel Films. In this special series of sci-fi-themed articles, we’ll be reviewing the best time travel-related films from time loops to alternate realities. This series will cover the best recent films (since 2020) that feature people traveling forward or back in time, experiencing the same day repeatedly and living in an alternate reality or multiverse version of our world.
This is another series of KBZ articles and videos based on votes by the KBZ YouTube community, and you can see all these films in our collections for Films About Time Travel, Films About Time Loops, Films About Alternate History and Films About The Multiverse. If you’re not a fan yet of our YouTube channel, now is a good time to have your voice heard if you have specific ideas for subgenres or film themes you’d like KBZ to cover.
If you’ve followed our site for a while, you’re likely aware that KBZ members are huge fans of time travel films. We’ve covered everything from lesser-known films about time travel from the 1970s and 1980s to the best time travel comedies and best romantic time travel films to the best overall films about time travel. If there’s one film subgenre we’ve covered extensively, time travel is it.
In this article, we’re going to look at some of the best recent time travel films from 2020 – 2026. Time travel has always been a popular sci-fi subject in film throughout the past seven decades and the 2020s are no different. By our count, there have been over 84+ films about traveling through time released over the last 6 years – some great, some good and some not worth your time. However, we’re going to single out the 20 best recent films about time travel that every fan of the subgenre should enjoy.
Before we get onto our list, we also wanted to highlight the current articles planned for this series as well as past KBZ articles that should be of interest to any fan of time travel, time loops or parallel universes and the multiverse:
- Best Recent Time Loop Films
- Best Recent Films About The Multiverse
- Best Recent Time Travel Films
- Best Recent Animated Multiverse Films
- Best Time Loop Comedies
- More Time Loop Films You Haven’t Seen
- Best Time Loop Films
- Best Time Travel Comedies
- Best Time Travel Films
- Obscure Time Travel Films You Might Have Missed
- Best Time Travel Romance Films
- Best Fate & Destiny Films of All Time
- Best Multiverse Films
- Top Films About The Multiverse You Haven’t Seen
- Best Alternate Reality Christmas Films
For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, the film must specifically be about time travel. Time travel can cover a variety of themes from traveling to the past or future, traveling through time and creating a separate reality in the multiverse and so on.
Second, though time loops are technically time travel, we’ve already covered recent films about time continually repeating in our recent article of the Best Recent Time Loop Films. However, we will include films that have a blend of time travel and time loops where characters control time. An example here would be The Present (2024), which is often classified as a time loop film but the children in the film can turn back time 12 hours (via a family clock). So, while the film does include major time loop themes, it’s more about time travel as the main characters in the film are manipulating time. This is different than the core theme of time loop films where the characters often don’t control their time loop until they can figure a way out of it.
Third, Multiverse films almost always include some form of time travel but we’re going to give priority ranking to films where time travel is featured prominently in the creation of a multiverse. Examples here include Aporia (2023) and The Flash (2023) which will be included on this list as time travel is a mechanism that leads to elements of the multiverse. However, films such as Parallel (2020) and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) deal mainly with different multiverse personas so won’t be included here (but are featured in our recent article of Best Recent Films About The Multiverse).
Fourth, we aren’t including any animated films or anime about the time travel from 2020 – 2026 in this specific list.
And fifth, we had to follow our rule for all of KBZ’s film listings where we only list films that have a 4.0/10 or higher rating and for this specific list, were released after 2020.
Our complete list of Time Travel films features over 300+ films from 1960 – 2026. You can also view our complete lists of Time Loop Films and Films About The Multiverse which will likely include a film you might not see on this list. Finally, if you want to be updated as we release future sci-fi themed articles, you can subscribe to our newsletter.
Note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Best Recent Time Travel Films
Films that didn’t make our list (and only for completists): 2067 (2020), Intersect (2020), Christmas Comes Twice (2020), Mandao Returns (2020), You Might Get Lost (2021), The Greenhouse (2021), Timescape (2022), Deborah (2022), Madelines (2022), Rip in Time (2022), Incredible But True (2022), Love Destiny: The Movie (2022), The Five Devils (2022), All I Want for Christmas: The Magic Time Machine (2022), Lola (2023), Tokyo Revengers 2 Part 1 (2023), Time Addicts (2023), Breaking Infinity (2023), The Tomorrow Job (2023), 65 (2023), 57 Seconds (2023), Descendants: The Rise of Red (2024), Sentinel (2024), Timestalker (2024), A ‘90s Christmas (2024), Love Across Time (2024), Megalopolis (2024), Family Pack (2024), An American in Austen (2024), Site (2025), Time Travel is Dangerous (2025) and A Newport Christmas (2025).
Honorable Mentions: The Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020), Captain Nova (2021), Long Weekend (2021), Flashback (2021), Tokyo Revengers (2021), It’s a Summer Film! (2021), Hi, Mom (2021), Last Train to Christmas (2021), Love Strikes Twice (2021), Press Play (2022), Meet Cute (2022), Tomorrow is Today (2022), The Voyagers (2022), The Time Capsule (2022), Quantum Cowboys (2023), One Second Ahead, One Second Behind (2023), Aporia (2023), A Biltmore Christmas (2023), Relax, I’m from the Future (2023), Alienoid: Return to the Future (2024), Chinatown Cha Cha (2024), Things Will Be Different (2024), The Present (2024), Time Cut (2024), Reversi (2024), Escape from the 21st Century (2024), One More Shot (2025), Primitive War (2025), Back to the Past (2025) and Sore: A Wife from the Future (2025).
Rank 20-1:
#20 Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice (2026) Where to Stream / Buy: Hulu
#19 Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#18 The Visitor from the Future (2022) Where to Stream / Buy: N/A
#17 My Missing Valentine (2020) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#16 Our Times (2025) Where to Stream / Buy: Netflix
#15 My Old Ass (2024) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#14 Synchronic (2020) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#13 The Greatest Hits (2024) Where to Stream / Buy: Hulu
#12 Totally Killer (2023) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#11 Caddo Lake (2024) Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#10
The Flash
Plot: Worlds collide when the Flash uses his superpowers to travel back in time to change the events of the past. However, when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, he becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation. With no other superheroes to turn to, the Flash looks to coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian – albeit not the one he’s looking for.
KBZ’s Take: The Flash was a critical and commercial failure that was also plagued by production issues and controversy surrounding Ezra Miller (The Flash). However, we’re listing the film here (and this high) based on the qualification for this list – a film that explores Multiverse concepts in new and exciting ways through time travel.
And that criteria The Flash handles with ease from its visual depiction of time travel to its humorous take on multiple multiverse versions of the same person living in one world. But at its core, the film is about accepting loss and the decisions that define your life.
Additional Lists: Best Recent Films About The Multiverse #5
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.
KBZ’s Take: The Adam Project features a theme that has been used for decades within the subgenre – a time traveler encountering a younger version of themselves in the past. However, where the film excels is with execution, comedy and action which gives life to this somewhat overused theme.
The film speeds along while explaining the time travel rules in this universe, Ryan Reynolds (Older Adam) and Walker Scobell (Younger Adam) have great chemistry together with some very funny time travel-related in-jokes and there’s some great action in the film involving some nods to other sci-fi classics.
Where to Stream / Buy: Netflix
Plot: A fashion design student is mysteriously able to enter the 1960’s.
KBZ’s Take: This is a Time Travel Film, Slasher Film, Mystery Thriller and Musical all rolled into one. What Edgar Wright did for the Zombie subgenre with Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Action Chase subgenre with Baby Driver (2017), he has done again with this amazing film that breathes new life into common film tropes associated with time travel.
The film didn’t get as much exposure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but this should be moved to the top of your streaming queue right away. Like some of the best films in this subgenre, it will give you a new perspective on time travel and the dangers of tinkering with the past.
Additional Lists: Top Time Travel Films You Haven’t Seen – 2017 – 2022 #2, Top Time Travel Films You Haven’t Seen #3
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Claiming to be from the future, a man takes hostages at a Los Angeles diner to recruit unlikely heroes to help him save the world.
KBZ’s Take: This is a film where the less you know about it going in, the better your experience will be. All we can say is that it does involve time travel, artificial intelligence and some very quirky (and sometimes) raunchy comedy layered over some well-done action pieces.
We’d also recommend this film to fans of the subgenre that are looking for high concept themes about time travel and ‘on the nose’ thoughts about the current state of artificial intelligence.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: Daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter, he soon finds himself squaring off against Jürgen Voller, a former Nazi who works for NASA.
KBZ’s Take: The Dial of Destiny brings the Indiana Jones franchise back to its roots with an exciting adventure based on time travel. After the critically and commercially disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) – relative to fans’ expectations of the franchise – the latest Indiana Jones adventure features some exciting action sequences and a third act time travel ‘scenario’ that most subgenre fans have dreamed of.
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: A café owner discovers that the TV in his café suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.
KBZ’s Take: We like to think of Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes as a comedic version of Primer (2004). Like Primer, this Japanese film was made on a ridiculously low budget, but it’s ideas and execution rival those of Hollywood subgenre offerings.
This is a film with a simple concept about time yet gets increasingly creative with how the people in the film try to manipulate time over a two-minute period. It’s a film that shows that there can continue to be innovation within the subgenre despite all the overused film tropes involving time travel.
We would also highly recommend checking out director Junta Yamaguchi’s other subgenre effort, River (2023), which also upends film tropes in the Time Loop film subgenre and was featured in our recent article about the Best Recent Time Loop Films.
Additional Lists: Obscure Time Travel Films You Might Have Missed #2
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: A man makes a wish to travel through time to reunite with his lost love.
KBZ’s Take: Sometimes there are moments that we publish a list only to watch a film shortly thereafter that we wish we could travel back in time to add to that list. Yesterday Once More is one of those films that would have easily made the Top 10 on our past list of the best romantic time travel films.
This is a unique film that utilizes elements of both time travel and time loops layered over themes of fate and destiny. It’s a very romantic film yet also a devastating heartbreaker. It’s a film we highly recommend for fans of the subgenre but make sure to have some tissues on hand when you watch.
Additional Lists: Best Recent Time Loop Films #4, Best Time Travel Romance Films
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#3
Alienoid
Plot: Gurus in the late Goryeo dynasty try to obtain a fabled, holy sword, and humans in 2022 hunt down an alien prisoner that is locked in a human’s body. The two parties cross paths when a time-traveling portal opens up.
KBZ’s Take: Alienoid was our #1 selection for a past article about the Top Time Travel Films You Haven’t Seen – 2017 – 2022. It’s a shame this film (and its sequel Alienoid: Return to the Future (2024)) aren’t better known as they’re both great films of the subgenre.
While some people won’t like the constant shifts of tone from serious to comedic or might be confused by the constant time jumping between 1300’s Korea to 2022 South Korea, if you stick with this film to its second act, you’ll be glad you did. That’s when all hell breaks loose and the story starts to come together.
The film is hard to peg into one category. Its main theme is time travel, but it also spends a considerable amount of time in the Goryeo period of Korea. That’s where the more comedic tone takes place as different characters appear that will be much more integral to the plot of the film in the final act. The present time period is much more serious and features some of the best sci-fi action of any recent genre film.
Additional Lists: Top Time Travel Films You Haven’t Seen – 2017 – 2022 #1
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
Plot: The world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future, mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight. Among those recruited is high school teacher and family man Dan Forester. Determined to save the world for his young daughter, Dan teams up with a brilliant scientist and his estranged father in a desperate quest to rewrite the fate of the planet.
KBZ’s Take: As we noted earlier, we’re huge fans of any films involving time travel and though The Tomorrow War has its detractors, we still think it’s one of the best recent subgenre efforts. We will admit that the film has some pacing issues and tends to mimic some of the best parts of classic subgenre films. There’s also quite a few plot holes in the film, but to us, that’s “par for the course” involving any type of time travel.
What we did love about the film is its unique high concept within the subgenre and some great action. Sometimes that’s all you need if you’ve seen every film in the subgenre and want to enjoy a film that plays covers of its greatest hits.
Additional Lists: Best Alien Invasion Films #12, Best Military Sci-Fi Films #12, Best Time Travel Films #19
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
#1
Tenet
Plot: Armed with only one word – Tenet – and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
KBZ’s Take: Back to the Future (1985) or The Terminator (1984) could easily have been #1 on our list of the Best Time Travel Films but we went with Tenet. First, it’s a Christopher Nolan film and like his other films dealing with theoretical wormholes and time dilation in Interstellar (2014) or the science behind dreams in Inception (2010), Nolan takes a scientific approach to the control of entropy to allow for time manipulation. Like his other films, Nolan often uses the foundation of Hard Sci-Fi Films when he branches out into other film subgenres.
Second, Tenet is not a film that will be fully understood upon your first viewing. We saw the film five times before fully understanding all the nuances of the plot and how time travel (through time manipulation) functions within the film. Some might argue this actually takes away from the film, but we would argue the opposite – this is a film that takes time travel seriously and tries to relay how it might function in the real world.
The more you understand the film and how time flows from the start of the film to the end (and vice versa), the more you will appreciate just how amazing it is. For those of you still confused about the film and hesitant to give it a second watch, we would suggest reading a few articles that help explain the film in detail. That will make your subsequent journey into Tenet much easier and help you better understand all the time travel intricacies of this masterpiece.
Additional Lists: Best Time Travel Films #1, Best Hard Sci-Fi Films #8
Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon
