I searched far and wide for lists of best time travel movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and covering all time, not just a decade. The lists were generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).

I was able to find 50 lists. I took the 50 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. The total number was over 1,400 including all the repeats. I experimented with different formulas, trying to balance the value of being ranked high on any list and being included on the most lists. I ended up averaging the rankings each movie got (there were 132 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by the number of lists that movie was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. The complete spreadsheet is attached at the bottom of this page.

The movies that were on the most lists (out of 50) were:

  • Back to the Future (1985) – 48 lists
  • Looper (2012) – 43 lists
  • 12 Monkeys (1995) – 42 lists
  • Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) – 37 lists
  • Groundhog Day (1993) – 35 lists
  • Donnie Darko (2001) – 34 lists
  • The Terminator (1984) – 33 lists
  • Edge of Tomorrow (2014) – 33 lists
  • Primer (2004) – 31 lists
  • Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – 30 lists
  • Interstellar (2014) – 30 lists

Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created: