7) H.G. Wells, Time After Time
In this 1979 movie, the real-life author and science fiction pioneer H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) debuts a real-life time machine in 1893. Shortly after, he discovers it’s been stolen by his friend John Stevenson, who’s revealed to be Jack the Ripper, to elude the police. Wells travels to 1979 to pursue his former friend and stop his newest killing spree but gets a bit distracted by the strangeness of modern society, the horrors of the past century, and a pretty bank teller (Mary Steenburgen). Wells eventually stops the Ripper, returns to 1883, and rededicates himself to the betterment of humanity, but he was probably going to do that anyway.
