Buzz
While real-time travel remains out of reach for scientists, the idea continues to captivate audiences in movies. Some time-travel films feature characters who willingly journey through different eras, aided by a tricked-out DeLorean or a high-tech phone booth. Others find themselves unexpectedly thrust into time-altering situations, whether through hot tubs or repeating time loops. Although we may never experience time travel firsthand, the making of these films reveals a treasure trove of intriguing behind-the-scenes stories.
10. The Birth of 'Hot Tub Time Machine' Began with the Title
In most cases, movies begin as a story or concept, but for the 2010 film *Hot Tub Time Machine*, the title itself came first. Writer Josh Heald shared with Hollywood.com that the idea emerged during a conversation about 1980s comedies with producer Matt Moore, who proposed remaking the ski comedy *Hot Dog... The Movie* (1983). Heald, however, misheard Moore and thought he said 'Hot Tub,' which sparked a new direction. Heald discarded the mix-up but soon began crafting a fresh ski comedy based around the quirky title.
Heald recognized that setting the movie in the 1980s might lead to cheesy clichés, while a modern-day setting wouldn't capture the right comedic vibe. He needed a way to blend both time periods, and that's when inspiration struck: 'What if there was a time machine? A Hot Tub Time Machine.' He spent several months developing a story that would fit this outlandish premise. The key, as Heald puts it, was to let the absurdity of the time-traveling hot tub drive the humor.
9. The Creepy Babyface Mask in 'Happy Death Day' Could Have Been a Pig Mask
In *Happy Death Day* (2017), the unsettling babyface mask worn by the killer who repeatedly murders Tree (Jessica Rothe) was the creation of Tony Gardner, who also designed the iconic Ghostface mask from *Scream* (1996). However, the concept for the mask was originally conceived by director Christopher Landon.
'I was expecting my first son,' Landon recalls. 'I don’t know if it was the thought of impending fatherhood or just the idea of babies occupying my mind, but that baby image just stuck with me. Tony also made a pig mask, but when I tried on the baby mask in the office and scared a co-worker, we knew it was the right choice. This is the one we had to use.'
However, Jonathan Bertuccelli is now suing Universal and Blumhouse, alleging that the mask is a rip-off of his design for the King Cake Baby, the mascot of the New Orleans Pelicans basketball team.
8. The Interrogation Room in '12 Monkeys' Led to a Lawsuit Against the Filmmakers
*12 Monkeys* (1995) features Bruce Willis’s character, James Cole, strapped into a seat mounted halfway up a wall, undergoing interrogation by a floating, spherical robot. The film’s distinctive visual aesthetic was heavily influenced by the photography of Josef Sudek and the avant-garde architecture of Lebbeus Woods. Production designer Jeffrey Beecroft reveals that no one had ever attempted to construct any of Woods’s designs due to their impracticality. 'So I built it! And it doesn’t make sense, but it works,' Beecroft explains.
The interrogation room in *12 Monkeys* is essentially a physical manifestation of Woods’s conceptual drawing 'Neomechanical Tower (Upper) Chamber.' When Woods discovered that his artwork had been used without his consent, he filed a lawsuit against Universal, Beecroft, and director Terry Gilliam.
The court sided with Woods, leading to a decision that forced Universal to recall all copies of *12 Monkeys* and remove the offending scenes from the film just one month after its release. However, Woods ultimately agreed to allow Universal to continue distributing the film in exchange for a hefty cash settlement, reportedly in the six-figure range, though the exact amount remains undisclosed.
7. Time Travel in *Avengers: Endgame* Was Written to Solve a Dilemma
*Avengers: Infinity War* (2018) left writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely with a tough challenge. Spoiler alert: after half of the universe's population was wiped out by the snap, they needed a way to restore the heroes’ victory in *Avengers: Endgame* (2019). Markus remembers, 'We were sitting in a room trying to figure out how the hell to get out of the corner we wrote ourselves into.'
Eventually, the writers turned to time travel as a solution. Although they initially thought, 'it’s the stupidest idea you could possibly have,' they soon realized that the *Ant-Man* franchise, which they hadn’t yet explored, contained legitimate, scientifically grounded hints of a time machine—if you believe the science, that is.
The time travel explanation provided by Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) in *Avengers: Endgame* is, according to Markus, 'essentially what we were told by actual quantum physicists who were brought into the writers’ room to help explain time travel to us.'
6. *Edge of Tomorrow* ExoSuits Led to Actors Suspended from Chains
*Edge of Tomorrow* (2014) features the use of powerful armored exoskeletons, known as ExoSuits, to battle an alien invasion. Director Doug Liman assigned prop maker Pierre Bohanna, production designer Oliver Scholl, and costume designer Kate Hawley with the task of making the ExoSuits as realistic as possible. The result? The suits were incredibly heavy.
Each ExoSuit weighed around 85 pounds (38.5 kg), but the addition of extra equipment could push that weight up to 176 pounds (79.8 kg). Due to the immense weight, chain rigs—described by Emily Blunt as resembling 'a kid’s swing set'—were used during breaks in filming to suspend the actors, giving them a chance to relieve the strain.
5. The Special Effects in *Terminator 2* Cost More Than Twice the Entire Budget of the First Film
*The Terminator* (1984) had a production budget of $6.4 million, whereas the special effects budget for *Terminator 2* (1991) alone exceeded double that amount, reaching around $15-$17 million. The total cost of the film was $94–102 million, making it the most expensive movie ever made at the time. A significant portion of the effects budget was dedicated to the liquid metal CGI version of the T-1000 (played by Robert Patrick).
James Cameron, the writer and director, initially wanted to include the T-1000 in the first film, but the technology and budget weren't advanced enough to make it possible. However, after working with ILM on the water alien effects in *The Abyss* (1989), Cameron knew that the technology had finally caught up.
Cameron explained to ILM that he envisioned something similar to *The Abyss* but with a metallic finish, so it wouldn't face the same translucency issues. He did acknowledge, however, that there would be 'surface reflectivity issues.' *The Abyss* didn’t meet expectations, and Tom Sherak, who oversaw distribution for Fox, jokingly lamented, 'Who would have known that we made a $60 million movie that was just a test run for *Terminator 2*?'
Although *Terminator 2* is famous for its groundbreaking CGI effects, it actually relied heavily on practical effects as well. For example, the shot of the frozen T-1000 being shattered by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 was a model crafted by Stan Winston.
4. Sean Connery Wasn't Meant to Appear in *Time Bandits*
When Monty Python's Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin were writing *Time Bandits* (1981), they had the idea to cast a famous actor as Agamemnon, to surprise the audience. They instantly thought of Sean Connery but figured they would never be able to get him for their low-budget film. In the script, they humorously wrote, 'He reveals himself to be none other than Sean Connery or an actor of equal or cheaper stature.' To their surprise, Connery was a fan of Monty Python and accepted the role.
Connery's involvement proved invaluable during production. Gilliam had not directed a film in several years and was struggling on the first day. Connery stepped in, offering direction and telling him which shots to focus on. 'He literally saved my ass,' Gilliam recalls.
Connery also made the film's ending unforgettable. He wanted to play the fireman in the final scene and happened to be in England for a single day to meet with his accountant. 'I managed to get him to come out of the middle of nowhere to just put on a fireman’s helmet, wink, get in the truck, and go,' says Gilliam. 'It ended up being this brilliant ending that wouldn’t have happened without Sean and his tax issues.'
3. The Actors in *Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure* Thought Their Characters Were Switching Roles
It's difficult to picture anyone else other than Alex Winter as Bill S. Preston, Esquire, and Keanu Reeves as 'Ted' Theodore Logan. But surprisingly, the actors initially believed they were cast in the opposite roles for *Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure* (1989). In 2013, an interviewer mistakenly assumed that Reeves played Bill. Responding with a laugh, 'You just lost all of your cred, dude,' Reeves shared that he had once thought he was playing Bill. 'Alex and I both, once we heard that we got the roles, thought we were playing the other guy’s role,' he said. They only discovered the mix-up when they went for their wardrobe fittings.
It’s easy to see why Winter and Reeves were confused about their roles, considering their undeniable chemistry during the auditions. The two ended up pairing together and auditioning for both parts, leading to their mix-up about who was playing who.
2. *Groundhog Day* Initially Had a Different Ending Twist
In the first draft of *Groundhog Day* (1993) written by screenwriter Danny Rubin, the film began in the middle and concluded with a surprising twist. The audience would watch as Phil (Bill Murray) experienced his day already knowing what was going to happen, and then a voiceover from Phil would reveal that he was stuck in a time loop. However, when director Harold Ramis began working on rewrites, development executive Whitney White pointed out that 'most of the audience will feel cheated if they don’t see his reaction to the onset of the time warp.'
In the final version, Phil wakes up beside Rita (Andie MacDowell), signaling the end of his time loop. Rubin explains that in his original script, 'A second later, Rita is out of there. She can’t wait to leave. And it turns out that she’s been reliving February 3 over and over again.' This moment would have been paired with 'a Rita voiceover, so the movie actually switches point of view from his voiceover to hers.'
1. Crispin Glover's Replacement in *Back to the Future Part II* Led to a Lawsuit
Crispin Glover chose not to return as George McFly in *Back to the Future Part II* (1989) for two primary reasons. First, Glover was offered less than half the salary paid to Lea Thompson and Tom Wilson, both of whom had similar-sized roles. Additionally, Glover disagreed with the first film’s ending, where the McFly family becomes wealthy, believing that it sent the wrong message by suggesting 'money equals happiness.'
To solve the issue of Glover’s absence, director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale devised a clever solution. They took face molds from the first movie’s old age makeup and created prosthetics for replacement actor Jeffrey Weissman. They also used specific camera angles to keep Weissman’s face hidden. However, according to Lea Thompson, the scene where George is hung upside down from a futuristic device was meant as a form of punishment for Glover, 'because they were so mad at him for not hitting his marks' in the original film.
Glover took legal action against Universal for using his likeness without his consent. The studio ultimately settled the case for a reported $760,000, and the lawsuit helped establish stricter rules to prevent filmmakers from replicating actors’ images without approval.
