Saturn Laboratory_

Time travel is a tricky subject __

There is nothing in Einstein's theories of relativity to rule out time travel, although the very notion of traveling to the past violates one of the most fundamental premises of physics, that of causality. With the laws of cause and effect out the window, there naturally arise a number of paradoxes associated with time travel. These paradoxes fall into two major categories:

Causal Loop, such as the Predestination paradox and the Bootstrap paradox, which involve a self-existing time loop in which cause and effect run in a repeating circle, but is also internally consistent with the timeline's history. This implies that whatever happened, happened. A timeline is fixed and cannot be changed.

Consistency Paradox, such as the Grandfather paradox and other similar variants such as The Hitler paradox, and Polchinski's paradox, which generate a number of timeline inconsistencies related to the possibility of altering the past. Opposing to the closed causal loops, a timeline in this notion is flexible and can be changed for a better outcome.

Since most of the popular movies about time-travel adhere to the consistency paradoxes, this page features a number of movies in which causal loop served as a prominent plot device.

France_

La Jetée

One of the earliest film adaptation of the closed causal loop paradox, inspired many other in the genres to follow its footstep __

It's post WWIII Paris, where nuclear radiation has devastated life on the surface, driving most survivors underground. There are generally two categories of survivors, the victors who control what happens and the prisoners who are at the mercy of the victors. Because of the devastation, scientists have been experimenting with time travel so that they can learn from both the past and the future to help cure the present. They generally use prisoners as guinea pigs because of the physical and emotional toll of the experiments. One specific prisoner is haunted by a vague childhood memory that will prove fateful.

U.S.A_

The Terminator

A prime and popular example of the closed causal loop paradox __

In the future, Skynet, a computer system fights a losing war against the humans who built it and who it nearly exterminated. Just before being destroyed, Skynet sends a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah, the mother to be of John Connor, the Leader of the human resistance. The terminator can pass for human, is nearly indestructible, and has only one mission, killing Sarah Connor. One soldier is sent back to protect her from the killing machine. He must find Sarah before the Terminator can carry out it's mission.

See also Terminator 2: Judgment Day Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Terminator Salvation Terminator Genisys

U.S.A_

12 Monkeys

A neo-noir that later developed into a TV series aired on Syfy since 2015 __

An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict, James Cole, reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic (who he's told was spread by a mysterious "Army of the Twelve Monkeys") and locate the virus before it mutates so that scientists can study it. Unfortunately Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990, six years earlier than expected, and is soon locked up in a mental institution, where he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly, a psychiatrist, and Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert.

See also 12 Monkeys on Syfy

Spain_

Los Cronocrímenes (Timecrimes)

A low-budget thriller loaded with dark humor and bizarre twists __

Hector is an ordinary man who has just moved to a new house with his wife. One evening, while he's looking through his binoculars, he sees a naked girl in the woods. He decides to go there to find the girl. Suddenly, a man with a pink bandage covering his face, stabs Hector in his arm with a scissors. Hector's lazy afternoon turns into a nightmare after fleeing the masked murderer and stumbling upon a remote science laboratory in the woods at the back of his house. Seeking a place to hide, Hector accidentally travels one hour back in time.

Soundtrack vinyl inner gatefold

Japan_

Steins;Gate

Anime series adapted from a sucessful video game franchise __

The self-proclaimed mad scientist Rintarou Okabe rents out a room in a rickety old building in Akihabara, where he indulges himself in his hobby of inventing prospective "future gadgets" with fellow lab members: Mayuri Shiina, his air-headed childhood friend, and Hashida Itaru, a perverted hacker. The three pass the time by tinkering with their most promising contraption yet, a machine dubbed the "Phone Microwave," which performs the strange function of morphing bananas into piles of green gel. Though miraculous in itself, the phenomenon doesn't provide anything concrete in Okabe's search for a scientific breakthrough; that is, until the lab members are spurred into action by a string of mysterious happenings before stumbling upon an unexpected success—the Phone Microwave can send emails to the past.

Australia_

Predestination

The trippiest, weirdest take yet on the time-travel concept __

Predestination chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to prevent future killers from committing their crimes. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must stop the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time and prevent a devastating attack in which thousands of lives will be lost. The chase turns into a unique, surprising and mind-bending exploration of love, fate, identity and time travel taboos.

"The first few jumps can really knock you out"