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Back to the Future Part II poster

Movies that feel likeBack 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.

If you loved Back to the Future Part II, the closest films we have are Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), Paul (2011) and The Adam Project (2022). All three share Back to the Future Part II's epic and witty feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Used Cars (1980).

🍅 63% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Zemeckisepicwittyplayfulcerebral
8 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Amazon Prime Video · Disney Plus

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If Back to the Future Part II hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Back to the Future (1985) · Back to the Future Part III (1990)

Hot Tub Time Machine poster
Hot Tub Time Machine
2010 · dir. Steve Pink
🍅 64%★ 6.4science fiction · comedy · adventure

Time travel as comic mischief — rewriting your own past, 80s nostalgia and all

The difference: Raunchy and self-aware — sloppier plotting, adult jokes throughout

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.

Paul poster
Paul
2011 · dir. Greg Mottola
🍅 70%★ 6.9adventure · comedy · science fictionPeacock

Affectionate eighties geekery worn openly on its sleeve

The difference: Raunchy road comedy, with no clockwork story to admire

For the past 60 years, a space-traveling smart-ass named Paul has been locked up in a top-secret military base, advising world leaders about his kind. But when he worries he’s outlived his usefulness and the dissection table is drawing uncomfortably close, Paul escapes on the first RV that passes by his compound in Area 51. Fortunately, it contains the two earthlings who are most likely to rescue and harbor an alien on the run.

The Adam Project poster
The Adam Project
2022 · dir. Shawn Levy
🍅 68%★ 6.7adventure · science fiction · comedyNetflix

Time travel used to force a person to face their own family

The difference: Sentimental and streamlined, with none of the plot machinery

After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.

Barbarella poster
Barbarella
1968 · dir. Roger Vadim
🍅 64%★ 5.9science fiction · adventure · comedy

Epic where it counts, witty underneath

The difference: 21 years apart, and the 1960s show

In the far future, a highly sexual woman is tasked with finding and stopping the evil Durand-Durand. Along the way she encounters various unusual people.

Free Guy poster
Free Guy
2021 · dir. Shawn Levy
🍅 80%★ 7.1comedy · adventure · science fictionDisney+

An ordinary guy discovering the world runs on rules he can break

The difference: Video-game satire — no intricate timeline to keep straight

A bank teller discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game, and decides to become the hero of his own story. Now, in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way before it's too late.

Men in Black poster
Men in Black
1997 · dir. Barry Sonnenfeld
🍅 91%★ 7.3action · adventure · comedyParamount+

Deadpan invention and gadgets tossed off like they are routine

The difference: Episodic buddy comedy with no escalating timeline stakes

After a police chase with an otherworldly being, a New York City cop is recruited as an agent in a top-secret organization established to monitor and police alien activity on Earth: the Men in Black. Agent K and new recruit Agent J find themselves in the middle of a deadly plot by an intergalactic terrorist who has arrived on Earth to assassinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special poster
🍅 95%★ 6.9comedy · science fiction · adventureDisney+

Playful and cerebral in the same breath

The difference: Reviewed even better

On a mission to make Christmas unforgettable for Quill, the Guardians head to Earth in search of the perfect present.

Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession poster
Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession
1973 · dir. Leonid Gaidai
★ 8.2comedy · science fiction

An inventor's time machine swaps eras with farcical ripple effects

The difference: A Soviet comedy classic — subtitles and 70s stagecraft, no spectacle

A scientist builds a time machine and accidentally sends his apartment complex manager and a petty burglar to 16th century Moscow, while Tsar Ivan the Terrible travels to 1973.

Sexmission poster
Sexmission
1984 · dir. Juliusz Machulski
★ 7.5science fiction · adventure · comedy

Men flung into a warped future they have to scheme their way out of

The difference: A Polish cult satire — broader, stranger and politically barbed

Two scientists are chosen as guinea pigs for a time experiment: they are placed in hibernation and should be brought back to life after three years. In the meantime, however, World War III breaks out and life has been wiped off the surface of Earth. When they wake up, it turns out that not only 50 years have passed but also that they are the only living specimens of the male sex in a new, underground society composed exclusively of women.

Used Cars poster
Used Cars
1980 · dir. Robert Zemeckis
🍅 77%★ 6.7comedyPrime Video

Early Zemeckis — the same breakneck comic scheming, minus the DeLorean

The difference: No sci-fi at all — a cynical, raunchy con-artist farce

When the owner of a struggling used car lot is killed, it's up to the lot's hot-shot salesman to save the property from falling into the hands of the owner's ruthless brother and used-car rival.

Galaxy Quest poster
Galaxy Quest
1999 · dir. Dean Parisot
🍅 90%★ 7.4comedy · science fiction · adventureParamount+

A rare crowd-pleaser where clockwork plotting is the engine of the jokes

The difference: Spoofs space-opera fandom, not time travel — warmer, less intricate

For four years, the courageous crew of the NSEA Protector — Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, Lieutenant Tawny Madison, and Doctor Lazarus — set off on a thrilling and often dangerous mission in space... until their series was cancelled! Now, twenty years later, aliens under attack have mistaken the Galaxy Quest television transmissions for "historical documents" and beam up the crew of has-been actors to save the universe. With no script, no director, and no clue, the actors must turn in the performances of their lives.

Thor: Ragnarok poster
Thor: Ragnarok
2017 · dir. Taika Waititi
🍅 93%★ 7.9action · adventure · comedyDisney+

Candy-colored chaos with jokes stacked on top of spectacle

The difference: Cosmic superhero brawl — no nostalgia, no timeline puzzle

Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok, the destruction of his home-world and the end of Asgardian civilization, at the hands of a powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela.

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The best-reviewed films that share Back to the Future Part II’s defining feeling.