Best Alternate History Films

Alternate History Films are a subgenre of the Sci-Fi genre that deal with alternate historical events and parallel worlds or alternate realities. Films in the subgenre will often include narratives featuring a different outcome of a major historical event to a person that is transported to an alternate reality where their life has changed.

In our previous article on the Top Alternate History Films You Haven’t Seen, we looked at some of the lesser-known films in the subgenre. Some of these films dealt with the Multiverse as alternate histories often play a pivotal role in films involving Multiverse concepts of Parallel Worlds and Alternate Realities. Though some films will be classified in both the Alternate History Films and Multiverse Films subgenres, we try to differentiate between the two when possible.

As an example, the film Fatherland (1994) is about Germany winning World War II and features an alternate history based on the altered event. The film only features alternate history concepts so is thus classified in that subgenre. However, when a film features a person that travels from their own universe to a parallel world where history has changed, this is often classified in the Multiverse subgenre. Depending on the number of historical events that have changed in the person’s life in the alternate world, the film could also be classified in the Alternate History subgenre. An example of a film that would reside in both subgenres is Mr. Nobody (2009).

What are the Best Alternate History Films? Read on as we look at some of the most popular films where history has changed in parallel worlds or alternate realities from the last 50 years. This is our fifteenth “Best Of” subgenre list where we will rank the Top 20 films of the Alternate History Films subgenre.

For our rankings we’re going to use some criteria to help define and refine our list. First, the film must include an instance where history has changed. This can include major historical events or more minor personal events that change a person’s path in life.

Second, though some Films About the Multiverse will be included on our list, we’re only going to include Multiverse films that focus on alternate realities or histories in a parallel world or universe. This will exclude most Multiverse films that do not focus on altered historical events.

Third, priority ranking will be given to films that solely focus on a world where a major historical event has changed leading to a much different outcome. An example of a film that features a parallel reality would be Watchmen (2009) where historical events are significantly changed – Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as president, the Cold War has escalated in 1985, etc.

Fourth, we are going to de-prioritize ranking of Fantasy-based films that deal with someone thrust into a different reality where their life has changed. Though these films are often included in the Alternate History subgenre, they usually don’t feature science fiction concepts or alternate historical themes of the subgenre. Examples of these types of Fantasy-based Alternate Reality films include Mr. Destiny (1990), The Family Man (2000) and Click (2006).

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. We’ll also be focusing on films from 1968 to the present.

Our complete list of Alternate History Films features over 112+ films from 1968 – 2023. As we mentioned earlier, there’s a significant overlap between Alternate History Films and Multiverse Films, so if you don’t see a favorite film of yours in this collection, it’s likely in our Films About the Multiverse collection. We’re also planning some additional articles about Alternate History films so subscribe to our newsletter to get updated as we release future articles.

Best Alternate History Films

Honorable Mentions: Quest for Love (1971), Threads (1984), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), Mr. Destiny (1990), Cosmic Slop (1994), White Man’s Burden (1995), Nightmare Street (1997), Possible Worlds (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), The Time Machine (2002), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2004), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Click (2006), Jackboots on Whitehall (2010), Coriolanus (2011), Priest (2011), Iron Sky (2012), Red Dawn (2012), Comet (2014), Parallels (2015), Kung Fury (2015), Terminator Genisys (2015), Destined (2017), Transit (2018), Love at Second Sight (2019), Parallel (2020), Flashback (2021) and Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).