List of Similar Time Travel Movies Like Christopher Nolan's TENET

I've just watched TENET, and understood pretty much nothing the first time. But it's the Nolan effect that even if you don't understand it the first time, you still enjoy the experience, and consequently you keep binging it until you crack the heck out of it. So, yeah, I've watched TENET, several times already, and still find it fascinating.

Christopher Nolan's latest Action/Sci-fi flick, TENET, is a mind-bending, time-inverted masterpiece that leaves us fans in awe as usual. It moves with the recent trend of Time-Travelling, but in a very different and unique way. The movie is based on moving forward and backward in time that looks and feels like an inverted reality. The movie is packed with mind-bending action scenes and plot twists.

The cast of TENET is as good as the movie itself. From the protagonist, played by John David Washington, to the antagonist, played by Kenneth Branagh, everyone did a fantastic job. Although my favorite role of the movie is Neil’s, played by Robert Pattinson.

So, if you are done watching TENET, and still craving for more of the same experience, here is a list of top movies that I believe will satisfy your cravings.

SOURCE CODE (2011)

SOURCE CODE, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan, is a 2011 Sci-fi/Action thriller that revolves around the same idea of time-travelling. Although the filmmakers do not view it as time-travelling, it is based on going back in time and save the future. Source Code is a program that is designed to affect the future by observing the past.

The storyline of this film may not be as complex as TENET, but it sure is very exciting and an enjoyable experience.

EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Starring Tom Cruise as Cage, EDGE OF TOMORROW is an action-packed sci-fi film that battles a future alien invasion. The plot of this movie is somewhat similar to SOURCE CODE in its basics. But, of course, differs in so many ways.

Cage, having no combat experience, is put into a battle that was always meant to fail and it does. In the process of which Cage acquires the power of resetting the day from the blood of an alien and wakes up in the previous morning moments before the failed battle. Every time Cage restarts the day, he moves a step closer to find the alien leader and overturn the devastating future.

LOOPER (2012)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson, LOOPER is a Sci-fi Action Thriller with a star-studded cast including Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt.

Joe, known as a Looper and portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is hired by criminal organizations from the future to kill targets from future but in the past so that there's no logical trace back to the target. But when Joe fails to close his loop to terminate his contract by killing his own future self, things start to fall apart and the consequences of which inevitably will create the main antagonist, The Rainmaker.

Joe must undo it all to stop The Rainmaker from ever being created.

ABOUT TIME (2013)

Okay, this one actually breaks the promise of similar movies like TENET. Sort of. It does involve time-travel, but unlike TENET it doesn't involve any action-packed sequences or a super agent. ABOUT TIME is a 2013 romantic comedy-drama starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. This one is for the romantic viewers.

Tim (Domhnall Gleeson) can travel back in time as did his ancestors before him. He uses this gift to make a good life of his own until he has to make the toughest decision of his life realizing it's not always possible to make everything right just going back in time.

INTERSTELLAR (2014)

INTERSTELLAR is a Sci-fi space expedition where time plays a significant role in the lives of the characters. Packed with stars like Matthew McConaughey (Cooper), Anne Hathaway (Brand), Jessica Chastain (Murph); INTERSTELLAR delivers a great deal of emotion and excitement throughout the whole movie. Like the other recent works from Nolan, INTERSTELLAR has amazing background score to go with the theme of the movie.

When Earth becomes uninhabitable in future, scientists from NASA sends astronauts - Cooper, Brand, and others - to other galaxies through a wormhole for finding new planets that can inhabit humans. Unfortunately however, Cooper's team gets to the only habitable planet at the very end of their journey leaving inadequate resources, and consequently Cooper gets stuck in a higher-dimensional place, from where he communicates with his daughter, Murph, in the past and gives her clues to solve the equation that will eventually help humanity to survive outside of Earth.

This one is based more on Einstein's theory of relativity rather than actual time-travel itself. But that is not to say it's any less interesting. Who knows! You may even find it more interesting.

INCEPTION (2010)

Another one of Nolan's finest Action/Sci-fi work was the 2010 installment INCEPTION. Although this movie does not directly involve time-travelling, strictly speaking. However, it does involve time in the characters' dream and how it affects the actual reality of the characters.

The main protagonist Cobb, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, infiltrates and plants a new idea in the mind of the heir to a business empire in his dream, and it takes effect in his real life. This whole operation of planting a new idea in someone's mind is known as Inception and will take you into an enthralling experience filled with never seen actions before and a great deal of emotions.

INCEPTION is probably the most similar to TENET in its storytelling with an amazing cast including stars like Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, Marion Cotillard, others, and oh yes, of course, what is a Nolan movie without Michael Caine!

PREDESTINATION (2014)

PREDESTINATION, directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, is your typical time-travel movie that uses a time machine for time-travelling, but the rest of the film is not. Just like TENET has temporal pincer movement, PREDESTINATION has temporal agents jumping through time to prevent crimes.

However, the significant twist of the movie revolves around the evolution of the main character's identity throughout the movie. The main character's role is played by Ethan Hawke and by another person, which I'm not going to reveal here. For that you'd have to watch the movie, and you sure won't be disappointed.

One last thing, this movie is just as hard to follow as TENET, or INCEPTION if not the hardest.

DARK (TV Series 2017 - 2020)

If you want the best of time-travel and full of suspense, it doesn't get any better than DARK. Starring Louis Hofmann and Lisa Vicari, DARK is a German Mystery Thriller unraveling the complicated, mind-bending plot twist that sets in different generations with parallel realities for 3 seasons. Don't worry, it's auto dubbed in English audio on Netflix and the result is excellent.

Four families, tied in extraordinary circumstances, experience the surreal reality of their existence in the town of Winden when Mikkel, portrayed by Daan Lennard Liebrenz, accidentally travels back in time and starts a life in the past which should never have happened in the first place. It all starts when H.G. Tannhaus, portrayed by Christian Steyer - a clockmaker in Winden, wanted to build a time-machine, but ends up building something that he never realized he did and the consequences of it.

The intense cinematography and the unexpected moments of anguish make DARK very emotional at times. It may take a lot of your time to complete the watch since it's 3 seasons long, but it won't let you off the hook until the very end.

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There you go, these are 8 of the best movies to fulfill your TENET cravings. Hope you enjoy them while we wait for the next Nolan entry into this world.