Movies like Escape from the 21st Century (2024)
The best movies like Escape from the 21st Century (2024) are Mark Antony (2023), Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009) and Mega Time Squad (2018). If Escape from the 21st Century hooked you with its science fiction and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBack to the Future Part II (1989)7.8/10 from 14,512 votes
- NewestGood Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026)Released 2026
Mark Antony (2023)
Set in 1995, Mark, a skilled mechanic and the son of a former gangster, stumbles upon a phone that has the ability to connect with the past, tries to save his estranged mother from a grim fate. While facing his own family's legacy, Mark must navigate through dangerous consequences of altering the past, as it causes unforeseen repercussions in the present.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009)
Follows three social outcasts -- two geeks and a cynic -- as they attempt to navigate a time-travel conundrum in the middle of a British pub.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMega Time Squad (2018)
A small-town criminal finds an ancient Chinese time-travel device that can help him pull off a heist and start a new life-but he may not survive the consequences of tampering with time. The Castle meets Looper, Mega Time Squad is a study in high-meets-low, combining elements of the sci-fi, the crime thriller and the comedy to make a comedy heist film with a time-traveling twist.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime Travel Is Dangerous! (2025)
Best friends Ruth and Megan run a vintage shop in North London. One day, their lives are forever turned upside down when an abandoned time machine appears outside their shop. Mixing reality with fantasy, we explore the strange and outlandish world of The Unreason, as the girls traverse space and time sourcing items to sell.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & comedy
I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen (1970)
This futuristic science fiction comedy features an atomic bomb blast that causes women to grow beards and lose the ability to have children. A summit meeting is held at the United Nations, with the proposed solution of building a time machine. The decision is made to travel back in time and murder Einstein, with the hopeful result being that without the noted mathematician's research there will be no atomic bombs.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & comedy
Tim Travers and the Time Traveler's Paradox (2025)
A scientist creates a time machine and kills their younger self to see what would happen. And that self-obsessed, misanthropic, mad genius of a scientist is Tim Travers. And the universe was bad enough with only one of him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
24 (2016)
Scientist turned Entrepreneur Dr. Sethuraman tries to safeguard his newly invented time travel device from falling into the hands of his Evil Twin Brother Aathreya.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOur Times (2025)
Husband and wife Nora and Héctor's scientific breakthrough lets them time travel from 1966 to 2025. As Héctor struggles, Nora thrives—but at what cost?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrimer (2004)
A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 33D Invader (2011)
A young woman named Future is sent from the year 2046 to the year 2011 in Hong Kong. Future was sent by the United Nations in order to get pregnant, where she can then extract her genes and repopulate the earth as 99% of males have become infertile in the future due to attacks from Planet Xucker. Two assassins from Xuckler are sent after her to stop her. Future meets three University students: Felix, Dan-san and Sing. The men are obsessed with female students next door: Chin-chin, Chen-chen and Sai-sai. The students agree to help Future find a mate at the university.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Taklee Genesis (2024)
A time-travel adventure that takes place during the Cold War when a US military base in Thailand was testing the Taklee Genesis, a warp-speed teleporter even though it had not yet been fully developed. After the war, the Taklee Genesis was left behind in Thailand and was being illegally used by someone.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBack to the Future Part II (1989)
Marty and Doc are at it again as the time-traveling duo head to 2015 to nip some McFly family woes in the bud. But things go awry thanks to bully Biff Tannen and a pesky sports almanac. In a last-ditch attempt to set things straight, Marty finds himself bound for 1955 and face to face with his teenage parents -- again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMen in Black 3 (2012)
Agents J and K are back...in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K's life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him - secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Time Shifters (1999)
Tom Merrick gets caught up in a time-traveling conspiracy and must set the timeline right before it is irrevocably altered.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Man with the Magic Box (2017)
A man stricken with amnesia, discovers a mysterious radio whose music brings back troubling memories from his forgotten past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisFuture Cops (1993)
In the year 2043, an evil crime lord is trying to take over the world. Only one government official stands in his way, and plans to send him to prison, so The General and his minions Kent, Thai King, and Toyota travel to the year 1993 to kill the official before he has a chance to get into office. During a battle with The General's minions, the Future Cops Lung, Broom Man, Ti Man, and Ah-Sing hear of their evil plan and devise a plan of their own to travel back in time to protect the official.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCycle of Time (2025)
In 1950s France, Helene and Michel lead a simple life until a freak accident in 2025 leads to Helene becoming a bank executive and Michel struggling with unemployment and depression. Their children grow up in a technology-dominated world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea (1977)
Former Nazi Klaus Abard survives to the 1990s by taking anti-ageing pills. He plans to use a time travel trip to return to Germany in 1944 and present Hitler with a hydrogen bomb, so that he can win the war. Unfortunately the pilot, woman-chasing Karel Bures, dies on the morning of the trip and his earnest twin brother Jan impersonates him, without knowing about the plot.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Four pals are stuck in a rut in adulthood: Adam has just been dumped, Lou is a hopeless party animal, Nick is a henpecked husband, and Jacob does nothing but play video games in his basement. But they get a chance to brighten their future by changing their past after a night of heavy drinking in a ski-resort hot tub results in their waking up in 1986.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFuturama: Bender's Big Score (2007)
The Planet Express crew return from cancellation, only to be robbed blind by hideous "sprunging" scam artists. Things go from bad to worse when the scammers hack Bender, start traveling through time, and take Earth over entirely! Will the crew be able to save the day, or will Bender's larcenous tendencies and their general incompetence doom them all?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBack to the Past (2025)
In the Qin Dynasty, time-traveller Hong Siu-lung has lived in seclusion with his family for twenty years. Yet every step he takes remains under the watchful eye of his former disciple, now the Qin Emperor. On the brink of ultimate power after conquering the six warring states, the emperor is suddenly ambushed by a mysterious team wielding advanced weapons clearly originating from Hong’s time. Drawn together by fate again, Hong and Qin Emperor are forced to confront the long-buried conflict between them, because the future now depends on how they settle their past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNeil Stryker and The Tyrant of Time (2017)
In a madcap future era, the world's greatest secret agent, Neil Stryker, struggles to rescue his young son from the clutches of his infamous former mentor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & science fiction
Mr. Nobody (2009)
Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence with his wife and 3 children; one day, he wakes up as a mortal centenarian in the year 2092.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPredestination (2014)
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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlienoid: Return to the Future (2024)
Ean has a critical mission to return to the future to save everyone. However, she becomes trapped in the distant past while trying to prevent the escape of alien prisoners who are locked up in the bodies of humans. Meanwhile, Muruk, who helps Ean escape various predicaments, is unnerved when he begins sensing the presence of a strange being in his body. Traveling through the centuries, they are trying to prevent the explosion of the haava.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026)
A 'Man from the Future' arrives at an LA diner where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStar Wreck: In the Pirkinning (2005)
Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning begins with Captain James B. Pirk of the starship Kickstart shipwrecked on the 21st century Earth with his crew. Originally from the distant future, Pirk and his crew traveled back in time to save the Earth from hostile aliens, but lost their ship and became stranded. Pirk's daily routine consists mainly of stuffing his face at the local fast food restaurant, and he is finding it difficult to convince the ladies he is, in fact, an intergalactic space hero from the future. As the prospects for humanity's conquest of space look increasingly bleaker, Pirk comes up with a questionable plan to save mankind's future...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrossworlds (1996)
College good guy Joe is drawn into a battle to save the world from arch-enemy Ferris. Joe's heirloom pendant just happens to be the key to the staff that opens doors to the Crossworlds. When Laura shows up to check on the key and Ferris' goons begin their assaults, they run to semi-retired adventurer A.T. for help and guidance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisJesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (2020)
CIA agents Palmer and Gagano are tasked with the perilous mission of destroying “The Soviet Union!" As they enter the system using a VR simulation, their mission quickly turns into a delirious trap, far more complex than expected, as the fabric of reality starts unraveling around them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Escape from the 21st Century?
The closest matches to Escape from the 21st Century are Mark Antony (2023), Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009) and Mega Time Squad (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Escape from the 21st Century?
People who watched Escape from the 21st Century most often go on to Mark Antony (2023), Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (2009) and Mega Time Squad (2018).
What is the highest-rated movie like Escape from the 21st Century?
Back to the Future Part II (1989), rated 7.8/10 by 14,512 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Escape from the 21st Century?
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Escape from the 21st Century?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to Escape from the 21st Century chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Escape from the 21st Century, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.