Note: This page is a work in progress. I am slowly adding more information in this section, but in the meantime, you can read a full explanation of the 21 models of time travel by downloading a free copy of my PhD thesis.
Following are five different types of timelines and in brackets is the percentage of time-travel movies reviewed that use each one:
- the diverging replacement timeline (36%)
- the converging replacement timeline (24%)
- the double-well replacement timeline (24%)
- the fixed timeline (14%)
- the parallel timeline (3%).
The were also four different rules that could be applied to these timelines:
- an open past, open future rule (78%)
- the closed past, closed future rule (14%)
- the closed past, open future rule (5%)
- the open past, closed future rule (3%).
I concluded the analysis by combining the nine timelines with the four past-future rules to create a comprehensive set of 21 distinct models of time. It was interesting to note that ten of these models of time travel were not used by filmmakers in any of the films I reviewed.