What happens when the past doesn’t leave but lingers – quiet, unresolved, and heavy? At Queer East 2025, grief and memory seemed to haunt not only the narratives but also the structure of the films themselves, written into their pacing, silences and repetitions. In Wang Ping-Wen and Peng Tzu-Hui’s A Journey in Spring, mourning is deferred, stretched and avoided through the rigid resolution of a man who continues to live according to his daily routine alongside his wife’s deceased body, in denial of her death. In Akihiro Suzuki’s Looking For An Angel, the film traces the life of a young porn star who died violently through recollections from those who knew him. In the former, grief is shaped by the quiet ache of losing a lifelong partner who had become inseparable from one’s own self; in the latter, it is moulded by a future that could have been, cut short before it could be fully experienced. Both are shaped by the unresolved weight of absence; yet one mourns the end of a shared lifetime, while the other contends with the brutality of erasure. What emerges is a sense of emotional haunting, as characters grapple with a grief-induced rupture in the temporality of everyday life.
Set in a lush green rain-soaked hillside just beyond Taipei, A Journey in Spring unfolds in a quiet, traditional home, seemingly untouched by modernity. Khim-Hok (King Jieh-Wen), an ageing, conservative man, and his wife Siu-Tuan (Kuei-Mei Yang, known for her iconic role in Vive L’Amour) venture up and down the mountain into town to complete errands before returning to their secluded abode. Their domestic life is punctuated by bickering and brief mentions of their estranged queer son. When Siu-Tuan suddenly dies, Khim-Hok places her body in a freezer, unable to confront her passing, and continues with his days as if she were still there. Much of his emotion is withheld; he fixes the plumbing, gets a job at a noodle shop, and sits in silence by himself. One of the few moments where his routine falters comes when he opens the freezer to add more ice. He stops, looks at her, and reaches out tenderly to touch her face. The close-up captures her features through the soft textures of the film’s 16mm medium, lending a warmth that feels both intimate and fragile. This stillness, paired with his cry, breaks the busy rhythm that has so far kept Khim-Hok’s emotion at bay. It is a gesture of startling vulnerability that breaks through his denial, making grief impossible to suppress any longer.
When their son returns, the seclusion which had so far allowed Khim-Hok to continue living with his wife is encroached, disrupting the fragile temporal suspension of his grief. As they prepare for the funeral, the relationship between Khim-Hok, his son, and the son’s partner remains laconic and steely. In several scenes, the three men spatially occupy the frame, but they often stand apart, oftentimes the dad within the background and the couple in the foreground or vice versa. The composition itself reflects their disconnection: three people moving through the same rituals across entirely different spatial and temporal planes. This intricate choreography stands in quiet contrast to earlier scenes, where Khim-Hok and his wife moved in gentle sync. Often walking slightly apart, they still followed one another, occupying the frame with a rhythm that felt habitual and interdependent. Their shared presence grounded the frame with a quiet intimacy that now feels conspicuously absent. Just before the cremation, Khim-Hok places his wife’s body in a truck and takes her on a final journey and speaks to her as if she were still alive. Her presence is not morbid, but comforting, marking a shift from the earlier freezer scene where his denial felt desperate. Now there is tenderness, a quiet attempt to stay close and say goodbye on his own terms. In the end, the film returns to its opening shot – Khim-Hok seated before the waterfall that his wife had desired to visit together, now carrying the full weight of their shared memories and her passing. Life continues, but he remains suspended in grief, and his everyday life is shaped by absence: not the kind that fades, but the kind that settles in and lingers.
Poker entails risk, quick judgment, and decision-making with incomplete information. Anyone who has played a few hands knows you spend more time guessing what you do not know. It is not a stretch to say poker turns decision-making under pressure into a real science.
How the Brain Tackles Poker’s Split-Second Decisions
Processing uncertainty in poker runs deeper than the ability to read bluffs or count outs. Every hand asks a player to weigh tells, bet sizing, stack depth, and the standard poker hand rankings. A player might decide between calling an all-in with top pair or folding when the board is full of potential draws.
Poker demands attention to more than the cards shown. Observing how previous hands played out, piecing together betting frequencies, and tracking position can change how uncertainty is solved at the table. One moment calls for a snap decision on a coin flip. The next, a player may need to pass on a high pair because the story does not add up.
The Nuts and Bolts of Uncertainty at the Table
Poker never gives you the full picture. You know your cards and the community cards. Everything else is up for debate. Playing hand after hand means your brain is always weighing clues, spotting patterns, and trying to stay a step ahead.
A sweeping study with over 35,000 players and millions of hands showed expert players handle information differently. These players act unpredictably and mask their true actions from others. Every bet, raise, or check is meant to deceive or extract information from opponents. That is a real-time blend of psychology, math, and people-reading.
Real Stakes, Real Pressure
Tournaments and cash games reward players who can calculate odds, anticipate outcomes, and still keep a poker face. Each hand is about calculated risk. Let’s say you hold a flush draw and an opponent bets big. Do you chase your draw and risk your stack? Or fold and wait for a better spot? Get it wrong and sit out the rest of the night.
This kind of decision-making improves skills that go beyond cards. You become comfortable acting without all the details. According to research, that habit builds discipline, sharpens risk assessment, and helps you see consequences before you act. Poker is full of real-time pressure. You only get a few seconds to figure out what to do and have to trust your judgment.
Pattern Seekers and Bias Breakers
Longtime players get used to working with incomplete facts. They start to see patterns in betting, timing, and player habits faster. Spotting when someone suddenly bets bigger or slower can tell you plenty about the strength of their hand. Missing these details will cost you.
But even regulars are not immune to mental traps. The confirmation bias, for example, can push a player to believe in their first read and ignore fresh evidence that their guess was wrong. Good players work hard to see past these blind spots. They review hands, talk hands out with other players, and always try to see what they missed.
Adaptation and Learning
None of these thought processes comes overnight. Players build this toolkit through thousands of hands and constant feedback. The best spend hours studying their own mistakes, watching others, and reading up on strategy. The goal is to become more adaptable and make fewer costly errors.
Online games have increased the tempo. Shorter turn clocks mean faster judgment calls. There is less time to second-guess and more room for sharp thinking. Players who think quickly and adjust to new information win more over the long run.
Real Life Benefits
Professional players like Maria Konnikova have spoken about how the discipline learned at the table shows up elsewhere. Bankers, negotiators, and even sports coaches report benefits from putting poker skills into action. You get better at finding clues, weighing the odds, and not folding under stress.
Science backs this up, too. MRI scans and clinical research on gamblers suggest that high-stakes poker changes how the brain reacts in risky situations. Profitable players display better emotional control and handle stress without letting it ruin their game.
Poker forces you to juggle uncertainty, risk, and split-second thinking every hand. Each session pushes you to make smart decisions with limited information. Regular play fine-tunes pattern recognition, silences mental biases, and pushes you to adapt strategies quickly. The same skills that keep you in the game also help in any area where decisions come fast.
These movie masks are the coolest in cinematic history.
Remember when everyone was wearing masks all the time?
We’re glad we don’t have to do that anymore.
The Bane Mask in The Dark Knight Rises
Tom Hardy as Bane, Christian Bale as Batman – Credit: Warner Bros
We’ve all replicated the “Bane mask voice” by cupping our hands around our mouths and talking with a high-pitched British accent.
But the mask also gives Bane an aura of mystery: Does it help him breath? Does it hide scars? Bane’s mask is as enigmatic and stylish as the man who wears it.
The Ghostface Mask in the Scream Saga
Matthew Lillard as Ghostface – Credit: Miramax
The Scream Ghostface-slasher mask is somehow silly, pulpy, and menacing all at once. Its innocuous simplicity hides the dreadful killer(s) underneath.
It would be very unusual to experience a Halloween absent of this costume, built around one of the most immediately recognizable movie masks.
The Hannibal Lecter Mask in The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter – Credit: Orion
Hannibal Lecter technically wears two famous movie masks in the greatest Thomas Harris adaptation, The Silence of the Lambs. The first is his terrifying muzzle, a Jason Vorhees-esque mask with bars blocking his mouth.
The second is not nearly as stylish — it’s an actual human face.
The former has certainly been more integrated into pop-culture more than the latter, but both are worth mentioning.
The Jason Mask in the Friday the 13th Films
Derek Mears as Jason Voorhees – Credit: Paramount
The cinematic influence of the Jason Vorhees hockey mask is incalculable. So many films reference Jason Vorhees’ crude face-covering that it is practically expected every time a bank robbery is depicted on screen.
Fascinatingly, the mask that would become the trademark of Friday the 13th — and slasher movies in general – didn’t make it to the screen until Friday the 13th Part III, released in 1982.
The hockey mask is a cheap yet effective symbol of dread that won’t be disappearing from the zeitgeist anytime soon.
Tie: All the Eyes Wide Shut Masks
Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut – Credit: Warner Bros
The Venetian masks that appear in the secret party sequence of Eyes Wide Shot represent exactly the kind of extravagance and costume work we expect from a Stanley Kubrick film.
They are ethereal and refined — a beautiful piece of ironic characterization designed to protect the identities of those about to become intimate. Among the most jarring and tragic movie masks.
The Darth Vader Mask
David Prowse as Darth Vader, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia – Credit: 20th Century Fox.
The most obvious, and inevitable choice is still a correct one for this list. Darth Vader’s masked visage is still the most awe-inspiring in the history of movie villains. It made countless other filmmakers realize great movie masks are among the most cost-effective storytelling devices.
Max’s Mask in Mad Max: Fury Road
Tom Hardy as Max – Credit: Warner Bros.
Though he spends the majority of his time with the mask attempting to forcefully remove it, Max’s metal face protector is nonetheless visually compelling.
There is a running joke in the film world that every director Tom Hardy works with makes him cover his face. He could easily have made this list more than twice.
The Guy Fawkes Mask in V for Vendetta
Hugo Weaving as V – Credit: Warner Bros.
The Guy Fawkes mask that V wears in V for Vendetta was infamous long before the film was released.
But the rhyming swashbuckler certainly provided it with a new flair, and turned it into one of the best movie masks of this century.
The Dread Pirate Roberts Mask in The Princess Bride
Cary Elwes as Wesley, aka The Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride. 20th Century Fox.
As you wish. Wesley returns to save his Princess Buttercup disguised as the Dread Pirate Roberts, and his mask allows him to find out if he’s still her true love.
Sporting a new mustache and elegant, black mask-scarf, he is skilled, debonair, and frightening, no longer the farm boy she once knew.
The Princess Bride is captivating even before the Dread Pirate Roberts arrives, but then he takes the movie into the stratosphere. With a detour through the Fire Swamp, of course.
The Mask of Zorro in The Mask of Zorro
Antonio Banderas as Zorro – Credit: C/O
See what we did there?
Antonio Banderas’ incarnation of Zorro is overflowing with charisma. His classic combination of black mask, large gaucho hat, and flowing cape never disappoints.
There have been many Zorros throughout cinematic history — in fact, Zorro helped inspire Batman to become a vigilante, decades ago. But Banderas’ Zorro is our favorite.
When the handsome David Aames (Cruise) has his face disfigured in a car crash, he takes to wearing a blank, expressionless mask to cover his scars and deformity.
The mask’s total absence of expression suggests that all life and joy has gone out of David, and maybe it has. But Vanilla Sky still has plenty of twists ahead.
The Michael Myers Mask in Halloween
Credit: C/O
Sometimes simplest is best.
Tasked with finding a suitable mask for Michael Myers, the monster of John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s horror masterpiece, production designer Tommy Lee Wallace went to a Hollywood Boulevard magic shop, where he found a Captain Kirk mask designed to look like Star Trek star William Shatner. He painted it white, changed the hair, and Michael Myers was born.
Wallace later directed Halloween III: Season of the Witch — which is all about masks. Specifically, a plot to take over people’s minds through microchipped Halloween masks.
There’s so much discussion around screen time and its potential harm that many parents may be tempted to enforce complete bans on this kind of activity. Removing screens means removing the problem, right? Or perhaps not.
Teens, in particular, are unlikely to stop a behaviour simply because their parents want them to. In this instance, screen time bans can prove more harmful as they result in secretive screen activity that’s entirely out of your knowledge or control.
Equally, complete screen time bans from a young age can result in the glamorization, or overuse, of screens as those children get older. Banning screens altogether also prevents children from understanding essentials to modern living, such as healthy, screen smart behaviours, and even the ability to access online benefits like personalized learning.
Nowadays, it’s also true that entirely banning your child from screens can leave them isolated from classmates or friendship groups, resulting in inevitable resentments and potential social difficulties both in and outside of school. For all of these reasons and more, management is always better than complete restriction, as it allows children to benefit from screens in an open, overseen way that keeps parents in control at all times.
# 2 – A Lack of Age-Appropriate Parental Controls
Parental controls on each of your child’s devices are by far the best ways to ensure they don’t encounter inappropriate content online. These controls can manage everything from how long and when your child can access the internet, to which sites they’re able to access during that time. Most parents understand the importance of putting these controls in place before handing a device to their child, but many don’t take enough precautions to make sure that these controls are effective or age-appropriate.
Even basic parental controls will be sufficient for younger children who, up until the age of at least five, should also be supervised while using screens. However, ill-thought or poorly managed parental controls can quickly come under fire as tech-savvy children reach their pre-teen and teen years. Not to mention that, at this age, strict restrictions could be as bad as complete bans for encouraging secretive use, or even hidden devices that you don’t know about.
The best way to overcome this is to continually review parental controls, ensuring that they provide age-appropriate restrictions and a strong enough defence to resist wise teenagers. As your children get older, it’s also worth speaking with them about restrictions that they may find problematic, and adjusting your approach to give them more overall control of their online activities, without entirely removing your much-needed oversight.
In an increasingly fast-paced and competitive business environment, time is one of your most valuable assets. As companies look for ways to streamline operations, reduce overheads, and focus on core objectives, outsourcing and strategic investments have become more vital than ever. From digital marketing to document management, choosing the right partners can save hours of admin and significantly boost your bottom line.
Here’s how you can free up time, improve productivity, and invest wisely in the future of your business.
1. Digitise and Declutter with Document Scanning Services
Managing physical paperwork is time-consuming, inefficient, and often risky. Lost files, compliance issues, and storage costs can quickly add up—not to mention the sheer frustration of rummaging through filing cabinets to locate important documents.
Outsourcing to professional Document Scanning Services offers an effective solution. These providers can convert thousands of paper files into secure, searchable digital records, giving you instant access to information at your fingertips. Whether it’s invoices, contracts, HR records, or historical archives, document scanning reduces physical clutter, improves data security, and ensures compliance with GDPR regulations.
More importantly, digital documentation streamlines workflows across departments. Staff can retrieve and share files quickly, work remotely with ease, and spend less time on repetitive admin tasks. The result? A more agile, productive workplace.
2. Boost Visibility with SEO Expertise
Even the best product or service in the world won’t succeed if customers can’t find it. That’s where SEO—Search Engine Optimisation—comes in. But mastering Google’s ever-changing algorithms is no easy task. That’s why more businesses are turning to a search engine optimisation consultancy for expert guidance.
An experienced consultancy will audit your website, identify opportunities for growth, and develop a custom strategy to improve your search rankings. This includes everything from keyword research and technical SEO to content optimisation and link-building. Unlike DIY efforts, a consultancy provides both strategic direction and measurable results—saving you time while increasing your online visibility.
For those looking for long-term partnership and hands-on management, working with an SEO company offers even broader support. These firms often combine SEO with other digital marketing services, giving your business an all-in-one solution for growth. Whether you’re a local shop trying to attract foot traffic or a national brand expanding your digital footprint, an SEO company can help you reach the right audience with precision and impact.
3. Focus on What You Do Best
One of the main advantages of outsourcing is that it allows you and your team to concentrate on your core strengths. Every hour spent filing documents, analysing web traffic, or wrestling with keywords is time taken away from serving clients, developing products, or closing deals.
By outsourcing tasks like Document Scanning Services or hiring an expert search engine optimisation consultancy, you’re buying back valuable time. You’re also gaining peace of mind, knowing that those tasks are being handled by professionals who specialise in them.
It’s not just about cost savings—though that can be significant. It’s about working smarter. When you invest in experts, you get access to the latest tools, insights, and best practices without the steep learning curve or overheads.
4. Scale More Easily and Responsibly
Outsourcing also makes it easier to scale. Instead of recruiting full-time staff for every function, you can access specialist services as and when needed. This gives you more flexibility to respond to market changes, customer demands, or periods of growth.
Need to digitise a decade’s worth of files before an office move? A Document Scanning Services provider can manage that project efficiently. Looking to expand your digital presence before a product launch? A trusted SEO company can accelerate your marketing efforts without overwhelming your internal team.
As your business grows, these partnerships evolve with you, ensuring your infrastructure keeps pace with your ambition.
5. Maximise Return on Investment
Whether you’re outsourcing digital marketing or streamlining document management, it’s important to measure success. Look for providers who offer clear reporting, set benchmarks, and demonstrate return on investment. A reputable search engine optimisation consultancy, for example, should provide regular analytics and performance updates, showing how your rankings, traffic, and conversions are improving.
Likewise, your document scanning provider should offer secure access systems, compliance certification, and flexible digital storage options—all of which contribute to ongoing efficiency and cost reduction.
Here’s are 13 movie con artists we fall for every single time.
Louis Winthorpe III and Billy Ray Valentine in Trading Places (1983)
Dan Aykroyd, left, and Eddie Murphy in the poster for Trading Places. Paramount.
After a mean-spirited bet causes them to trade lives, Dan Aykroyd’s yuppie-turned-homeless man Louis and Eddie Murphy’s homeless-man-turned-yuppie Billy Ray team up to take down Randolph and Mortimer Duke (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche), the bored rich brothers who played them like puppets.
Louis learns street smarts and Billy Ray learns market manipulation, making them both adept con man at opposite sides of the social hierarchy. Trading Places takes the view that luck matters every bit as much in life as hard work — unless you find a way to manipulate the odds.
It’s impossible not to root for Louis and Billy Ray, especially once they enlist the stagecraft of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Ophelia, a sex worker with a heart of gold.
Henry Gondorff and Johnny Hooker in The Sting (1973)
Universal Pictures. – Credit: C/O
Everything about. George Roy Hill’s Depression-era caper The Sting is a joy — the Scott Joplin music, the re-pairing of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stars Robert Redford and Paul Newman, the pacing — but what’s most fun is trying to figure out how the scams work.
The film’s many complicated schemes culminate in a brilliant reality-bending betting parlor setup concocted by Newman’s Henry and Redford’s Johnny, two of the most influential of all movie con artists.
The film deservedly won a slew of Oscars, including for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.
Lawrence Jamieson and Freddy Benson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
Orion Pictures. – Credit: C/O
Steve Martin and Michael Caine are irresistible as a pair of rivals-turned-partners in Frank Oz’s endlessly inventive farce about womanizing con artists in the French Riviera. Caine’s Lawrence Jamieson is sophisticated and impressive, and Martin’s Freddy Benson cheap and crass.
When they try to team up to bilk Janet Colgate ( an excellent Glenne Headly), the naïve “United States Soap Queen” out of her millions, things don’t break as anyone expects. You’ll love this movie or my name isn’t Dr. Dr. Emil Schaffhausen.
This is a remake of 1964’s Bedtime Story, starring Marlon Brando, David Niven and Shirley Jones.
‘Fast Eddie Felson’ and Vincent Lauria in The Color of Money (1986)
Tom Cruise and Paul Newman in The Color of Money. Buena Vista Distribution. – Credit: C/O
The second appearance on this list for Paul Newman is a sequel to 1961’s The Hustler and finds Newman reprising his role as “Fast Eddie” Felson, for which he won an Oscar. In the original film, he’s a hotshot humbled by Jackie Gleason’s Minnesota Fats. This time, he’s the old hand, and Tom Cruise plays Vincent, the young hotshot who thinks he knows everything.
One of the joys of The Color of Money is how much fun it has with the fact that being good at pool hustling isn’t the same as just being good at pool: Felson has to constantly calculate how good he is compared to his opponent, and mislead his adversary accordingly.
More on The Color of Money
Buena Vista Distribution – Credit: C/O
There’s a long stretch of The Color of Money — directed by Martin Scorsese — in which Newman’s Eddie and Cruise’s Vincent go from being partners to rivals, and you have no idea what kind of scam Eddie is running. It’s completely compelling.
Yes, Tom Cruise was the hot young actor when The Color of Money came out, and Paul Newman was the classic Hollywood icon — but you find yourself rooting for the older actor throughout.
Both The Hustler and The Color of Money are based on novels by Walter Tevis, who also wrote the novel that inspired the recent Netflix phenomenon The Queen’s Gambit.
Kelly Van Ryan and Suzie Toller in Wild Things (1998)
Columbia Pictures – Credit: C/O
Kelly (Denise Richards, above right) and Suzie (Neve Campbell, above left) play up their supposed innocence to set up an intricate, very twisty scam in this can’t-look-away modern noir in which nothing is as it seems.
Both leads are excellent, and the seediness of the whole affair makes you feel like you’re seeing the inner workings of something you shouldn’t.
There are many elements of Wild Things that would probably make it a non-starter for modern critics, but it has an undeniable atmosphere and slow-burn propulsion that are impossible to resist. And if you find the whole thing kind of exploitative, well, at least Kevin Bacon’s totally unnecessary shower makes it equal opportunity.
Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Dreamworks Pictures – Credit: C/O
It’s been said that charm is a quality that makes you want to say yes before you even know the question, and Leonardo DiCaprio overflows with it onscreen. He’s extremely adept at playing endearing young con artists. Somehow the people around them, especially women, always want them with their schemes instead of calling the cops.
One of the best examples is in his portrayal of Frank Abagnale Jr., the real-life young con artist turned security consultant who stars in Steven Spielberg’s kinetic and fun Catch Me If You Can.
Its stunning lineup of great actors, in roles big and small, also includes Tom Hanks, as a fictionalized version of the fed who caught the real Abagnale, Christopher Walken, and Amy Adams, who appears later in this gallery.
Sydney Prosser in American Hustle (2013)
Credit: C/O
Amy Adams in American Hustle. Sony Pictures Releasing.
Amy Adams’ Sydney Prosser — who also goes by the “Lady Edith Greensly” — is the more lovable, seductive half of a con artist partnership with Christian Bale’s Irving Rosenfeld.
When FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) catches them in a loan scheme, the FBI enlists them in a sting operation to snare the mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner).
You can get caught up in the complicated criminal machinations of American Hustle, or just enjoy the lavish late ’70s-early ’80s vibes and incredible performances, as well as the glitzy wardrobes of Prosser and Irving’s wife, Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence.) The movie looks dazzling, and Prosser is so charming that you find yourself rooting for her even when you shouldn’t.
Here are the 12 coolest time travel movies of all time — and all times.
Cinema’s obsession with time travel makes perfect sense, given that movies may be the closest most of us will ever get to it: The filmmakers of the past told stories for the audiences of the future. As the gap between creation and audience grows, so does every film’s value as an artifact of its time.
As people and places disappear, films can become our best ways to remember them, and experience something like immersion in times we may remember only faintly, if at all.
So in a way, all movies are time travel movies. But the following films are explicitly about people starting in one time, and traveling to another.
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Donna Reed, Jimmy Stewart and Karolyn Grimes in It’s a Wonderful Life. RKO Radio Pictures
If you think It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t a time travel movie, we would ask: How is it not? The dark Christmas classic from Frank Capra follows George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart at his best) revisiting his past — or rather an alternate version of his life in which he was never born.
Rather than going back and changing the past, George has to endure the present — and in doing so, shape the future. Just like all of us do every day.
As popular as the multiverse concept is today, it’s notable that It’s a Wonderful Life hit on it long, long ago. Credit goes to Capra and co-writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, as well as Philip Van Doren Stern, who wrote the story upon which It’s a Wonderful Life was based.
The Time Machine (1960)
When Morlocks attack: Yvette Mimieaux as Weena in The Time Machine. MGM
No discussion of time travel is complete without bowing to H.G. Wells’ 1895 novel The Time Machine, one of the most influential stories of all.
George Pal’s adaptation of the novel presents a two-caste future in which humans have evolved into Eloi and Morlocks. The passive, vegetarian Eloi seem to have it good: They live a pleasant, idyllic existence — above ground, no less.
It all seems very nice until we realize the Eloi (including Yvette Mimieaux as Weena, above) are basically veal for the Morlocks, the scrappy, resentful subterraneans who emerge occasionally from their caves to feed on their pampered cousins.
The Time Machine is a great time travel movie, and inspired many others on this list., sometimes quite overtly. But it’s also a provocative, still-relevant piece of social commentary.
La Jetée (1962)
Hélène Châtelain in La Jetée. Argos Films.
Chris Marker’s La Jetée explains to audiences that it is “the story of a man marked by an image of his childhood” — a violent image he witnessed “sometime before the outbreak of World War III.”
He comes to understand it only by experiencing it again and again, in a time loop that the short film illustrates almost entirely illustrated in still photos. His link to the past is a memory of a woman (played by Hélène Châtelain, above) he once encountered on the observation platform, or jetty, of Paris’ Orly Airport.
Between its deliberate repetition, black-and-white photography and unsettling setting — we are watching the past’s vision of our own possible future, which feels simultaneously dated and far beyond us — La Jetée is hypnotic.
Time After Time (1979)
Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen in Time After Time. Warner Bros.
Nicholas Meyers’ Time After Time has one of the best setups of any film. Pointedly inspired by The Time Machine, it begins in Victorian London, where Jack the Ripper (aka Dr. John Leslie Stevenson, played by David Warner) has just struck again.
He joins a gathering at the home of his friend H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell), who unveils a time machine he’s a bit apprehensive about using.
When the police close in, Stevenson flees to the future in the time machine — and H.G. follows him. They end up in 1979 San Francisco, where fish-out-of-water Stevenson adapts swimmingly to the violence of the (then) modern age, while gentle H.G. tries to stop him from killing again.
He’s aided by bank employee Amy (Mary Steenburgen), who becomes Jack’s target. Things build to kind of a disappointing climax, but there’s so much thoughtfulness and delight along the way that it’s silly to linger on it.
And in a sweet behind-the-scenes ending, Steenburgen and McDowell fell in love and were married for a decade.
The Terminator (1984)
Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn in The Terminator. Orion Pictures. – Credit: C/O
When the low-budget Terminator emerged in 1984, some people dismissed it as a dumb, violent shoot-’em-up about a killer robot.
While it’s undeniably one of the best killer robot movies ever made, it also offers one of the coolest takes on how time travel works.
In the world of The Terminator, time travel is like an inevitable loop that transgresses calendar years: Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back in time to save Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) so she can give birth to her son John, the savior of humankind in a dark, robot-infested future. But he also ends up fathering John — who, in turn, is the one who sends him back in time.
Brilliant.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2: Judgment Day. TriStar Pictures – Credit: C/O
Yes, we’re going with two Terminator movies, because the inevitable-loop concept ramps up to another level when we learn in T2 that the arrival of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 in the first Terminator was the cause of the Judgment Day that sparks the A.I. takeover.
In short, the last remaining piece of technology from the T-800’s final battle against Sarah and John becomes crucial to Cyberdyne, the company that creates SkyNet, which quickly makes things very tough for humanity.
The past creates the future which creates the past which creates the future. At least, that’s how it goes in The Terminator.
The next time travel movie on our list has a different theory about it all works.
Back to the Future (1985)
Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson and Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. Universal Pictures.
One of the most flat-out entertaining movies ever, Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future embraces the geekiness of time travel and makes it as goofily cool as possible — while grounding everything in a very human story.
1980s teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) travels back to the 1950s thanks to a time traveling DeLorean built by his mentor, Doc Brown (Christopher LLoyd). But upon arrival, Marty prevents a crucial meeting of his young parents (Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson).
Worse, his mom develops a crush on him — which is a huge problem for many reasons. But it’s arguably most troubling because in the Back to the Future school of time travel, nothing is inevitable, even Marty’s existence. If he can’t get his parents together, he and his siblings will never be born.
Things get more complicated (and occasionally even more fun) in Back to the Future 2, in which Marty is propelled into the future, and back to the past — and has to avoid running into himself. And Back to the Future 3 goes for pure Western thrills.
Diehard fans of time travel movies will note that in the latter, Mary Steenbergen plays a character in a similar situation to the one her character faced in the aforementioned Time After Time.
Groundhog Day (1993)
Andie McDowell and Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Columbia Pictures – Credit: C/O
Harold Ramis’ masterpiece stars his Ghostbusters castmate Bill Murray as a weatherman cursed to repeat the same holiday again and again. It enlivened the time travel movie genre and popularized the time-loop format. It’s also another of the best movies ever made.
Screenwriter Danny Rubin, who was steeped in Anne Rice’s vampire novels, became interested in the idea of immortality, and of repeating the same day over and over again. He and Ramis turned his original script into a meditation on life itself, and how all of us have the choice, each time the alarm goes off, to make each day a grinding re-enactment of the one before, or to take it in an entirely new direction.
Assemble enough of those decisions together, and you’ve completed a lifetime.
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Michael York as Basil Exposition in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. New Line Cinema
In the first Austin Powers film, 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Mike Myers’ swinging ’60s spy is frozen in 1967 and thawed out in the ’90s.
In the sequel, Austin must travel back — this time to 1969 — to match wits with Dr. Evil (also Myers) who has stolen Austin’s mojo. The ramifications of crossing paths with his (frozen) past self causes Austin to go cross-eyed — but the wise Basil Exposition gives him some advice.
“I suggest you don’t worry about this sort of thing and just enjoy yourself,” he says.
Then he and Myers turn smilingly to the audience, as Basil adds, “That goes for you all, too.”
Thus freed from thinking about the space-time continuum, we’re able to just enjoy Austin returning to the past to dance and fight alongside Felicity Shagwell (Heather Graham.)
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Midnight in Paris. Sony Pictures Classics
Woody Allen’s beguiling Midnight in Paris skips any concern about how time travel works in favor of charm. Owen Wilson’s character, who is having trouble with his fiancée (Rachel McAdams), travels back in time simply by stepping inside a 1920s car each night at midnight.
It transports him to glorious 1920s Paris, where he mingles with the likes of Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston), Zelda Fitzgerald (Alison Pill), Salvador Dali (Adrien Brody) and Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates). He also becomes captivated by Adriana, Picasso’s mistress, played by Marion Cotillard.
Instead of a new take on how time travel works, Midnight in Paris lays out a universal truth: Some people will always prefer to live in the past.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow. Warner Bros.
This Tom Cruise-Emily Blunt gem takes the Groundhog Day concept into the realm of action and sci-fi. But it’s also funny, in a different way than Groundhog Day.
Cruise plays against type as a man who, like Murray in Groundhog Day, must re-live the same day again and again. But Cruise, known for playing ultra-competent heroes like Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible films and Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun, goes against type by portraying a bit of a bumbler.
He’s a PR man who dies in a series of darkly amusing ways under the tutelage of Blunt’s experienced super soldier, Sergeant Rita Vrataski.
The film was a box office disappointment, but has gained much respect since its initial release. Based on the Hiroshi Sakurazaka novel All You Need Is Kill, it was almost given director Doug Liman’s preferred title, Live Die Repeat, which became the film’s tagline.
Spoiler Warning: The next and final film on this list isn’t obviously a time travel movie until its incredible ending.
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison in Planet of the Apes. 20th Century Fox.
Like we said, the presence of this film on this list is a spoiler — we’re sorry. Then again, the original Planet of the Apes has been out for 57 years, so you’ve had time to see it.
What’s coolest about Planet of the Apes is that for almost its entire running time, you don’t realize you’re watching a time travel movie. It just seems like a nightmarish sci-fi film in which a trio of astronauts led by Charlton Heston’s George Taylor crash-land on a planet ruled by apes. They treat humans — including Nova (Linda Harrison) — like animals.
If these time travel movies have taught us nothing, it’s that it’s much easier to prevent an apocalypse now than to try to build a time machine and go back to prevent one later. Good luck, everyone.
Main image: Yvette Mimieaux, as the Eloi Weena and Rod Taylor as H. George Wells in The Time Machine. MGM
Editor’s note: Corrects error in Time After Time item. Jack the Ripper flees into the future, not the past.
