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Movies

Time travel in the movies

Plot: Harry DeTamble (Eric Bana) survives a car crash by unintentionally travelling back in time two weeks. After the incident, DeTamble travels through time with no control over where he goes or when he goes there. His affliction causes complications when he falls in love with a woman named Clare (Rachel McAdams). Time traveled to: DeTamble gets his ability in the early '70s, and his travels range from Clare's younger years to after she gives birth to their daughter. Method of time travel: DeTamble simply disappears and reappears elsewhere, naked wherever he ends up.

Plot: Harry DeTamble (Eric Bana) survives a car crash by unintentionally travelling back in time two weeks. After the incident, DeTamble travels through time with no control over where he goes or when he goes there. His affliction causes complications when he falls in love with a woman named Clare (Rachel McAdams).

Time traveled to: DeTamble gets his ability in the early ‘70s, and his travels range from Clare’s younger years to after she gives birth to their daughter.

Method of time travel: DeTamble simply disappears and reappears elsewhere, naked wherever he ends up.  (Alan Markfield / Associated Press)

By Andrea Wang, Christy Khoshaba, Tracy Brown, Noelene Clark and Jevon Phillips

We’ve theorized and fantasized about how time travel could be possible, and these films show the many ways it’s been dreamed of.

'Midnight in Paris' | 2011

Plot: Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) reevaluates his life and his relationship with his fiancée while in Paris for their wedding. Remarkably, he’s able to travel back in time each night to the 1920s, interacting with luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and more.

Time period traveled to: 1920s

Method of time travel: A car, a 1920s Peugeot, picks Gil up. There’s no discernible time-travel transition.  (Cannes Film Festival / EPA)

'Source Code' | 2011

Plot: Soldier Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds himself aboard a train in the body of another man when the train car explodes and kills everyone present. As he regains consciousness in another reality, Stevens learns that he’s been assigned to revisit the explosion to discover who planted the bomb.

Time traveled to: Stevens is continuously transported to the eight minutes before the incident.

Method of time travel: “Source Code” is a technology that allows Stevens to embody another person in the last eight minutes of his lifespan.  (Jonathan Wenk / Associated Press)

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