Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the release of several upcoming movies and shows have been postponed, and more delays may be on the horizon. One highly anticipated movie that has not yet fallen victim to a release date delay is Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster Tenet, an epic thriller about espionage, war, and time travel.
There’s a good chance Nolan will fight hard for his newest movie to debut on time, as the Oscar-nominated filmmaker pleaded with the United States Congress to allocate funds to keep movie theaters open in an essay he penned for The Washington Post earlier this week. Whether Tenet can maintain its July 17 release date or not, you’ll want to catch these 10 time-bending thrillers to prepare!
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Seeing as it’s now the highest-grossing movie ever made, there’s a good chance you’ve already seen Avengers: Endgame, but just in case you haven’t, its currently streaming on Disney+. To defeat Thanos (Josh Brolin), the surviving Avengers travel back in time using Quantum Realm technology in an attempt to obtain the Infinity Stones from their past locations.
The technology used for time manipulation in Tenet could differ greatly from Endgame, but the superhero epic does a good job of accurately explaining the impacts of time travel on timelines. While it’s unlikely that the quantum realm will play into the plot of Tenet, quantum physics still very well could.
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Currently streaming on HBO, The Adjustment Bureau (based on a Philip K. Dick story) follows the ill-fated relationship between New York politician David Norris (Matt Damon) and contemporary dancer Elise (Emily Blunt).
While the two characters appear passionately in love, a powerful shadow organization known as the Adjustment Bureau does everything in their power to keep the two apart for mysterious reasons. The bureau can freeze and manipulate time and space to change the course of events to lead to the outcomes desired by the bureau, which is constantly monitoring the way small events in the present have massive future implications.
Minority Report (2002)
Based on another Philip K. Dick story that examines the ways present events impact an ever-changing future, Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report is set in a future where a special police unit is tasked with arresting murderers before the crimes are committed, thanks to a group of three mutated humans (called “precogs”) with the ability to see crimes before they happen.
When Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) sees a precog’s vision of himself committing murder, his investigation leads him down a dark rabbit hole that questions everything John believes about his work. Other than Colin Farrell’s American accent, the movie is an entertaining thrill ride.
Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)
Another starring vehicle for Tom Cruise, Edge of Tomorrow follows William Cage (Cruise), a soldier who mysteriously gains the ability to relive the same day over and over every time he’s killed in his attempts to fight off a powerful alien race that’s invaded Europe, making the story feel like Groundhog Day on sci-fi steroids.
With the help and instruction of Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), the pair eventually come to realize that the very technology that trapped Cage in his time loop has been the key to the aliens’ success throughout the war, and the key to finally defeating them.
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
The final movie directed by legendary filmmaker Sidney Lumet (Network, Dog Day Afternoon), Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead may not feature any time manipulation in its story, but it certainly does in its storytelling. Told out of chronological order, the movie follows Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), two brothers that organize a robbery of their parents’ jewelry store.
While the plot may sound like a Coen Brothers dark comedy, this tragic story is anything but. The robbery going horribly wrong is only the beginning in a chain of events that leads to an emotionally shattering climax for the entire family.
Source Code (2011)
Not much is known about the plot of Tenet yet, as Nolan has kept his latest story shrouded in mystery, but clips from the Tenet trailer suggest that time-manipulating technology is used to try and prevent World War III (or something worse) from occurring.
A similar concept forms the basis of the story in Source Code, which follows US Army soldier Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), who wakes up after a mission in Afghanistan to find himself in a stranger’s body on a train in Chicago. Stevens comes to realize he’s a guinea pig for an experimental government program, and that the only way out is to prevent the imminent bombing of the train.
Inception (2010)
The Tenet trailer also hints at some massively stunning visual effects used in the movie, which may remind Nolan fans of his 2010 movie Inception, which took home Academy Awards for cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing, and visual effects.
Currently streaming on Netflix, the story follows Dominick Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his group of professional thieves who steal information from people using dream-sharing technology, only this time they’re given the inverse task of planting an idea in a target’s subconscious. The breathtaking visuals and complex layering of timelines should prepare viewers well for Nolan’s next venture.
12 Monkeys (1995)
Like Tenet, 12 Monkeys is another story of a man using time travel to prevent a worldwide catastrophe. Those looking for a distraction from the coronavirus pandemic may do best to avoid this one though, as the movie takes place in a not-so-distant future where most of humanity has been wiped out by a viral pandemic.
When scientists figure out the time and place of the outbreak’s origin, they send prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis) back in time to find the original form of the man-made virus so that a cure can be developed from it.
The Terminator (1984)
The oldest induction to the list, James Cameron’s The Terminator has spawned five sequels (so far) and given Arnold Schwarzenegger his most iconic role. Rather than a disease like in 12 Monkeys, The Terminator imagines a future where the world has been taken over by machines.
Sent from the year 2029, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is tasked with locating and protecting Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son will lead the future human resistance. But the bad guys have access to the same time-travel technology, and it’ll take everything Reese and Connor have to defeat the Terminator – an indestructible cyborg killing machine sent back in time to kill them.
Looper (2012)
Before he was directing mega-budget franchise movies like Star Wars: The Last Jedi, or receiving Oscar nominations for Knives Out (2019), filmmaker Rian Johnson’s biggest critical and box office success came with Looper.
In a future so advanced that getting away with murder is almost impossible, what does the mob do when they need someone killed? They send their target back in time to die in the past of course. But what will hitman Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) do when he realizes his next target is the older version of himself (Bruce Willis)? You’ll have to watch to find out.
