THE WHOLE ITTDB   CONTACT   LINKS▼ 🔍 by Keywords▼ | by Media/Years▼ | Advanced
 
The Internet Time Travel Database

Hypnosis, Potions, and Drug-Induced Travel

Time Travel Methods

Journey into Mystery #31

Dark Room!

by unknown writers and Ed Winiarski

In a Chinese tea shop, thirty-something Andrew Wilson wishes he could do everything all over again so that he wasn’t such a financial failure and Jo Clark would marry him.
— Michael Main
If I could just go back to my youth, start over! I wouldn’t make the same mistakes I made then!

“Dark Room!” by unknown writers and Ed Winiarski, in Journey into Mystery #31 (Atlas Comics, February 1956).

Journey into Mystery #35

The Long Journey

by unknown writers

College janitor Tad Sheen has discovered a chemical formula that he believes will take him through time.
— Michael Main
Tad was certain that if he mixed ammonia with a chemical he had brewed called Dyproxylin, then heated this mixture in a flask to boiling, chilled it suddenly, you could, by breathing the fumes, project yourself forward in time.

“The Long Journey!” by unknown writers, in Journey into Mystery #35 (Atlas Comics, June 1956).

Journey into Mystery #40

The Question That Can’t Be Answered!

by an unknown writer and John Forte

Reporter Ned Parker tries to expose a fraudulent hypnotist, but instead he ends up being hypnotized and sent into his look-alike descendant 500 years in the future.
— Michael Main
It was Ned who fell under the hypnotic trance . . . and Ned who responded to the commands of Jiminez!

“The Question That Can’t Be Answered!” by an unknown writer and John Forte, in Journey into Mystery #40 (Atlas Comics, November 1956).

Journey into Mystery #42

Life Sentence!

by Carl Wessler and Robert Q. Sale

Leo Sampsom is a four-time thief serving a life sentence. So what has he got to lose when a strange man offers him a pill that will put him back into his own body right before his last theft?
— Michael Main
But what if those pills really work? I’d be out of prison . . . free, back twenty years!

“Life Sentence!” by Carl Wessler and Robert Q. Sale, in Journey into Mystery #42 (Atlas Comics, December 1956).

Unusual Tales #26

Where Is Amelia?

by Joe Gill [?], Bill Molno, and Vince Alascia

At a happenin’ party, a beatnik puts Amelia into a trance, sending her to, like, the the 25th century!
— Michael Main
Sleep, chick, sleep deep! You will like go into another world. A world without squares. A world where everyone is like real sweep people!

“Where Is Amelia?” by Joe Gill [?], Bill Molno, and Vince Alascia, Unusual Tales #26 (Charlton Comics, February 1961).

La jetée

English release: La Jetée Literal: The pier

written and directed by Chris Marker

In a world made uninhabitable by the Third World War, a prisoner is chosen as being the only person with vivid enough memories of the past to travel through time and return with salvation.

This 28-minute photo montage with about 1,200 words of narration has a nice seed of an idea, but I find it insulting to other talented filmmakers that Time magazine ranked this sketch of a film as #1 in their 2010 list of best time travel movies.

— Michael Main
Tel était le but des expériences : projeter dans le Temps des émissaires, appeler le passé et l’avenit au secours du présent.
Such was the purpose of the experiments: to project emissaries into Time, to summon the Past and the Future to the aid of the Present.
English

La jetée written and directed by Chris Marker (at movie theaters, France, 16 February 1962).

The Ghosts

by Antonia Barber

In the 1960s, a solicitor—Mr. Blunden—arranges for a widow and her children to move to an English house while the rightful heir is tracked down. The two children, Lucy and Jamie, soon meet two orphans, Sara and Georgie, who are living in the house—with their own version Mr. Blunden—exactly one century before! The orphans need help, so with the aid of a magic potion, Lucy and Jamie go back in time to the very day before the orphans will die in a fire (according to the gravestone that Lucy and Jamie found). They definitely have a fix-the-past mission, and they definitely succeed, but in the process, an amazing twist on the grandfather paradox arises (see the spoiler below).

The story has a kind of reverse grandfather paradox: [spoiler Lucy and Jamie’s great-great-grandparents are Sara and Tom (a boy who died trying to save Sara and George). So, initially, Lucy and Jamie actually have no grandparents (at least not on that side), and it’s only by Lucy and Jamie going back in time to save Sara and George (as well as Tom) that Sara and Tom live long enough to have offspring. So where did Lucy and Jamie come from initially in order to be able to go back in time and create the conditions so that they will be born? This is almost a single nonbranching, static timeline, except for the fact that initially, Sara, Georgie, and Tom did die (as evinced by what Lucy and Jamie see and hear in the graveyar), so Lucy and Jamie did change things. I think we need a new name for it, perhaps the grandchild paradox.[/spoiler]

— Michael Main
Lucy found it very confusing. “I don’t think I really understand this Wheel of Time business even now,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t understand it,” said Jamie cheerfully, “but then I don’t understand television either. But when you’ve seen it working, you can’t help believing in it.”


The Ghosts by Antonia Barber (Jonathan Cape, 1969).

Si Morley 1

Time and Again

by Jack Finney

Si goes back to 19th century New York to solve a crime and (of course) fall in love.

This is Janet’s favorite time-travel novel, in which Finney elaborates on themes that were set in earlier stories such as “Double Take.”

— Michael Main
There’s a project. A U.S. government project I guess you’d have to call it. Secret, naturally; as what isn’t in government these days? In my opinion, and that of a handful of others, it’s more important than all the nuclear, space-exploration, satellite, and rocket programs put together, though a hell of a lot smaller. I tell you right off that I can’t even hint what the project is about. And believe me, you’d never guess.

Time and Again by Jack Finney (Simon and Shuster, 1970).

The Amazing Mr. Blunden

written and directed by Lionel Jeffries

As in the The Ghosts, which formed the basis for the film, a mysterious Mr. Blunden arranges for a widow and her children to move to an old English house while the rightful heir to the house is tracked down. But in the film, young Lucy and Jamie are in 1918 rather than the 1960s, and the “ghost children” are from 1818 rather than the 1860s. Nevertheless, Lucy, Jamie, Sara, George, and Tom all have the same adventure in the past along with a cool Grandchild Paradox.
— Michael Main
Now is the time. Look straight ahead and don’t be afraid.

The Amazing Mr. Blunden written and directed by Lionel Jeffries (at movie theaters, UK, 30 November 1972).

The Nonsuch Lure

by Mary Luke

— based on publicity material
Timothy spoke. “Are you there? In 1536?” He avoided using Andrew’s name. If there was to be an answer, any name would be unfamiliar at the moment. “Do you wish to tell me, my friend, what you see?”

The Nonsuch Lure by Mary Luke (Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, September 1976).

Somewhere in Time

by Richard Matheson, directed by Jeannot Szwarc

An elderly woman presses a pocket watch into a man’s hand, beseeching him to come back to her, and eventually) he does come back to her. We count this as science fiction rather than fantasy because of Professor Finney(!)’s attempt at an explanation of time travel via self-hypnosis, similar to the method in Jack Finney’s Time and Again (1970). In addition, the film may contain the first example of a looping artifact with no beginning and no end.

Wayne Winsett, owner of Time Warp Comics, tells me that this is his favorite time travel movie. Wayne is not alone in his assessment of Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, as the film now enjoys a mild cult following.

— Michael Main
Come back to me.

Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson, directed by Jeannot Szwarc (at movie theaters, USA, 3 October 1980).

Trancers I

Trancers

by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, directed by Charles Band

In the first of six (really!) Trancer movies (plus a “lost” short), heroic trancer-hunter (and newly anointed time cop) Jack Deth follows evil trancer-maker Martin Whistler from 2247 to 1985 via drug-induced time-travel that can take you back only to the body of an ancestor.
— Michael Main
Greetings to the council. As you may have gathered, I have survived the pathetic trap set by Trooper Deth on Mecon 7. For twelve long years, you have hunted my disciples like dogs. Now, my day of vengeance is at hand. I’ve synthesized a time drug, and in a moment shall retreat down the dark corridors of history. Know that it is I who is solely responsible for your demise. One by one, your ancestors shall be murdered, and you, their progeny, shall cease to exist. Then shall I return, join my legion, and claim the seat of power for my own. Adieu . . . adieu . . . 

Trancers by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, directed by Charles Band (at movie theaters, UK, 7 November 1984).

Cloche vaine

English release: Empty ring Literal: Vain bell

by Francine Pelletier

At the end of her long successful writing career, a woman is still haunted by her sister’s death four decades earlier.
— Michael Main
We had talked about SF literature, books on the theme of going back in time. This was related to the activities of the day. During the convention, one of the guest scientists had stated that time travel was impossible.

[ex=bare]“Cloche vaine” | Vain bell[/ex] by Francine Pelletier, in Solaris 109, Spring 1994.

From Time to Time

by Jack Finney

Finney’s sequel to Time and Again initially finds Si Morley living a happy life in the 19th century with his 19th century family, while The Project in the future never even got started because he prevented the inventor’s parents from ever meeting. But vague memories linger in some of the Project member’s minds, and Morley can’t stay put.
— Michael Main
They’re back there in the past, trampling around, changing things, aren’t they? They don’t know it. They’re just living their happy lives, but changing small events. Mostly trivial, with no important effects. But every once in a while the effect of some small changed event moves on down to the—

From Time to Time by Jack Finney (Simon and Shuster, February 1995).

The Girl Who Leapt through Time #3

時をかける少女

Toki o Kakeru Shojo English release: Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt through Time Literal: Time-soaring girl

by 菅野友恵, directed by 谷口正晃

In this second sequel to Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1965 novel 時をかける少女 em]The Girl Who Leapt through Time[/em, Naka Riisa plays the daughter, Akari, of a grown-up Kazuko (the original “girl who leapt through time”). Akari tries to leap back to the time of her mother’s first love, Kazuo, in hopes that he can bring her mom out of a coma induced by a car accident.

The actress Naka Riisa has another connection to time-leaping girls: In the first sequel to the original novel, , a 2006 anime adaptation, Riisa voiced the lead character, Makoto, who was Kazuko’s niece. So if I have this right: The original leaper is Kazuko; Kazuko’s niece Makoto is the leaper in the 2006 anime; and Kazuko’s daughter Akari is the leaper in the 2010 live-action movie. So in some sense, Riisa is her own cousin.

— Michael Main
So you believe me? You’re an SF geek, right?

[ex=bare]時をかける少女 | Time-soaring girl | Toki o kakeru shojo[/ex] by 菅野友恵, directed by 谷口正晃 (at movie theaters, Japan, 13 March 2010).

B4

by Patrick Ryder and James Hamblin, directed by Patrick Ryder

After Rupert Shaw’s wife dies, he starts receiving phone calls from a man who claims to be Rupert himself and claims that his wife is still alive.
— Michael Main
We can’t meet. Seeing each other physically . . . You have no idea what that would cause.

B4 by Patrick Ryder and James Hamblin, directed by Patrick Ryder (at limited movie theaters, UK, 24 October 2014).

12 Monkeys, Season 1

written by Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett, et al., directed by multiple people

Same pandemic backstory as the movie, similar names for the characters, no Bruce Willis, and a mishmash of time-travel tropes along with tuneless minor-key chords in place of actual tension and slowly spoken clichéd dialogue in place of actual plot. Random discussions of fate brush shoulders with an admixture of possible time travel models from narrative time (when a wound sprouts on old JC’s shoulder while watching young JC get shot), to skeleton timelines (JC thinks that his timeline will vanish if he succeeds), to a fascination with a single static timeline (you’ll see it in Chechnya) and time itself has an agenda. Primarily, we’d say that the story follows narrative time from Cole’s point of view.

By the end of the first season, one principal character has seemingly been trapped in the 2043, and Cole is stuck in 2015, having just gone against fate in a major way, but with a third principal character poised to spread the virus via a jet plane.

P.S. Whatever you do, whether in narrative time or elsewhen, don’t bring up this adaptation as dinnertime conversation with Terry Gilliam (but do watch it if you can set aside angst over a lack of a consistent model and just go with Cole’s flow).

— Michael Main
About four years from now, most of the human race will be wiped out by a plague, a virus. We know it’s because of a man named Leland Frost. I have to find him.

—from “Splinter” [s01e01]


12 Monkeys, Season 1 written by Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett, et al., directed by multiple people (SyFy, USA, 16 January 2015 to 10 April 2015).

Coffee Time

written and directed by David deMena

Tiffany’s coffee takes her back and forth through time to help with her hectic college life.
— Michael Main
Tiffany [waking up late]: Oh, no! It didn’t go off. I thought I’d turned it on.

Coffee Time written and directed by David deMena (Highbridge Film Festival, 21 April 2018).

The Blacklist (s09e19)

The Bear Mask

by Noah Schechter, directed by Matthew McLoota

Under severe stress, Agent Aram Mojtabai decides to try psychedelic therapy. Not realizing that he’s tripping, he finds himself repeating a violent time loop.
— Tandy Ringoringo
Aram: You know, when I first heard about psychedelic therapy, I imagined something a bit more—
Dr. Idigbe: —tie-dye and trance music?

The Blacklist (s09e19), “The Bear Mask” by Noah Schechter, directed by Matthew McLoota (NBC-TV, USA, 6 May 2022).

as of 10:11 p.m. MDT, 5 May 2024
This page is still under construction.
Please bear with us as we continue to finalize our data over the coming years.