10 Movies Like Primer You Need To Watch

In 2004, sci-fi fans were introduced to "Primer." Directed, written by, and co-starring filmmaker Shane Carruth, the low-budget film about two engineer friends who stumble upon the secret of time travel quickly became an indie cinema darling, a great example of DIY filmmaking, and one of the most beloved time travel movies ever made.

Though its scope is limited, the ideas in "Primer" are big and thoughtfully considered, as the film digs into the implications of time travel with a level of sophistication few other films of its kind have ever reached. It's the kind of movie you can watch over and over again, but it's also the kind of movie that will send you searching for other films with the same thoughtful approach, particularly in the world of low-budget cinema.

So if you love "Primer" and want to move on to another film that will hit some of those same notes, here are 10 places to look next.

One of the key sources of dramatic tension in "Primer" comes from the way the film's two inventors of time travel begin to use their power to manipulate events around them to their advantage. Whether they're playing the stock market or trying to paint themselves as heroes by anticipating tragedies before they happen, both men are exerting control over time in search of the perfect moment to capitalize on.

Richard Curtis' 2013 romance "About Time" is another film that hinges on this particular moral quandary. The story of a young man (Domhnall Gleeson) who discovers that the males in his family have an innate ability to time travel, it follows his adventures as he meets the love of his life (Rachel McAdams) and starts a family, all while learning the tough lesson that the search for perfection can never truly be complete. It's much lighter and funnier than "Primer" for much of its runtime, but if you love time travel movies that explore their own rules in-depth, this one is for you.

"Arrival" may or may not be the best sci-fi movie of all time, but on the surface it's not a time travel movie, and even after you've learned the tricks the film plays with time, it's certainly far from a conventional entry in the subgenre. Instead, it largely takes the form of an alien invasion or first contact film, and then delves deeper into our own understanding of human lives, consequences, and what it means to know your own future.

Set in a world where mysterious alien ships have suddenly appeared around the globe, "Arrival" follows an expert linguist (Amy Adams) as she attempts to decipher the aliens' communication system, and in the process uncovers a shocking and unsettling truth about the way these creatures relate to humankind. The aliens essentially perceive time, and communicate about time, very differently than humans, giving those they communicate with a new understanding of their own lifespans and futures. 

Unlike "Primer," it's a big-budget, grand-scale story, but it asks similar questions. If you knew your own future, what would you do? Would you change anything? Would it still be worth it? "Arrival" ponders all of these mysteries and more, in jaw-dropping fashion.

Set in one location and starring a small theater troupe, 2020's "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" takes the low-budget, DIY spirit of "Primer" and pushes it in an entirely different direction. The film follows the owner of a small cafe (Kazunari Tosa) who goes upstairs to his apartment one night after closing and finds that the computer monitor in his home and the TV screen in his cafe are showing the same events two minutes apart. By placing the two screens together, he and his friends are able to see into the future ... but only by two minutes.

Like "Primer," this is a film made quickly and on a tight budget, but built so solidly on a clever premise that the budget really doesn't matter much. Unlike "Primer," it's a full-on sci-fi comedy, exploring what happens as the cafe owner and his friends start to play with the rules of the strange loop they've discovered in time. But if you love the way "Primer" plays with the genre's tropes in its own independent way, you will definitely be interested in how "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" does its own thing with classic ideas.

The time travel elements of "Donnie Darko" are much more obscured by the overall plot than those in "Primer," but Richard Kelly's turn-of-the-millennium indie darling shares some of the same sci-fi DNA with the time travel classic. Like "Primer," "Donnie Darko" is an independent sci-fi drama released in the early 2000s, centering on a shocking discovery that unfolds in ways the protagonists do not expect. It has elements of time travel, but it largely focuses on the teenage Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) coming to the understanding that the strange apocalyptic visions he's having are not just delusions, but signs of something much darker on the horizon for him, his family, and his community. 

A melting pot of 1980s and 1990s pop culture and sci-fi storytelling, it's also one of those films that refuses to hold the audience's hand (and may have bombed at the box office as a result). Like "Primer," it presents things at its own pace and in its own way, leaving the audience to draw conclusions at the end.

Known previously for his indie mystery and caper films, Rian Johnson ventured into uncharted territory with "Looper," a sci-fi action movie set in the near future that does everything bigger than "Primer." But the films still share a certain gritty aesthetic, not to mention loads of thematic similarities.

Johnson's film follows an assassin named Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who's called a "looper" because he murders targets sent back to him from the future and will eventually "close his loop" by murdering his own future self in exchange for a heavy payout. Knowing this fate gives Joe a certain focus on the goals he has for the rest of his deliberately limited life, but everything changes when the aged version of Joe (Bruce Willis) comes back, prevents his own assassination, and reveals that the future has become a doomed landscape thanks to the arrival of a devastating new crime boss. Together, Joe and his future self must work to try to save the future not just for them, but for those around them.

Like "Primer," "Looper" is a film that deals with what happens when past and future versions of the same person walk in the same landscape, encounter each other, and shift each others' fates. It packs much more of an action movie punch, but it's got the same big ideas.

Another independent drama released around the same time as "Primer," Christopher Nolan's "Memento" does not fall into the sci-fi genre, but it does play with time in a lot of fascinating and sometimes confusing ways that make it somewhat similar to other time travel films on this list. Gritty, lofty, and full of moral quandaries, Nolan's film follows a man with short-term amnesia (Guy Pearce) as he tries to find his wife's killer, using a complex system of written notes, tattoos, and other reminders to keep him on track.

Of course, despite this system, the film's protagonist is still subject to the manipulation of others, and "Memento" becomes a film that's not only about how memory fails us, but how memory can be shifted and reformed by those around us. It's a remarkable, deeply compelling twist on a detective story, a great early piece from Nolan, and a must-watch for "Primer" fans because of the ways in which it toys with the perception of time from one man's perspective.

Released six years after "Primer," 2010's "Monsters" marks the directorial debut of Gareth Edwards, who went on to make films like "Godzilla," "Rogue One," and "The Creator." LIke all of those films, it's packed with ambition, but unlike those films, it's done on a very small budget, which brings it closer to "Primer" territory.

Set in a world where a space probe carrying alien life has crashed on Earth, rendering much of Central America an "infected zone" crawling with massive, deadly monsters, the film follows two people (Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able) who have to push through this infected zone to get to the other side. That makes it a road movie, as well as a film about two people who don't necessarily like each other very much but who are forced to work together. It's also, if you really want to boil it down, a film that is to kaiju stories what "Primer" is to time travel, and makes a great companion piece.

"Primer" is known for a lot of things, but it's especially beloved among science fiction fans for its twisty narrative, use of time travel as a means to manipulate the past and the future, and exploration of how awareness of your own alternative selves can change everything.

But if you thought "Primer" was just a little too simple, or you're just on the hunt for something even more complex, you'll definitely want to check out "Predestination." Starring Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, and Noah Taylor, this 2014 film by the Spierig Brothers goes places that "Primer" is never able to go, and then just keeps going until its knockout ending.

It begins as the story of a time traveling law enforcement agent of sorts (Hawke), who is attempting to chase down a bomber who's creating tragedies through time. Along the way, he meets a person with a strange past (Snook) whose life becomes inextricably tangled with his own. To say anything else would be to spoil a truly wild ride, but if you love twisty time travel thrillers, you should go ahead and consider "Predestination" an essential.

Before he directed epics like "Jurassic World," Colin Trevorrow came together with screenwriter Derek Connolly for this delightful 2012 indie dramedy, based on a real newspaper classified ad in which a man advertised that he was seeking someone to travel in time with him.

Set in Washington state, "Safety Not Guaranteed" is more than just a forgotten Aubrey Plaza sci-fi comedy. It follows a man named Kenneth (Mark Duplass) and a young journalist named Darius (Plaza), who answers Kenneth's ad as part of a secret plan to get the bigger story for her reporter boss (Jake Johnson). Along the way, a bond forms, and Darius begins to question if Kenneth is more than an eccentric loner, and really does possess the secret of time travel.

Like "Primer," the film focuses on what's essentially the invention of time travel technology, and the early exploration of its implications by a small group of people. If you like that kind of grounded exploration of these tropes, it's certainly a film for you. It's also a great emotional counterbalance to "Primer," as it emerges as something lighter and warmer.

Another sci-fi film from the 2000s with a clever, low-budget approach to time travel, Nacho Vigalando's "Timecrimes" is flat-out exhilarating. It's the story of an ordinary man named Hector (Karra Elajalde) who encounters what appears to be a masked killer in the woods, but soon learns from a scientist that this masked man is actually an alternate version of himself. Desperate to stop what seems to be a potentially deadly loop of events, Hector is hurled into a world of time travel antics that, like "Primer," is initially small-scale, but quickly grows into something bigger.

If you love the complexities of "Primer" but want something with just a little more bite, even to the point that it sometimes verges on horror, 2007's "Timecrimes" is a great film to check out. It asks many of the same questions, but propels its narrative in a much more kinetic direction right from the start. Plus, if you're collecting low-budget sci-fi from the 2000s like "Primer," it's another must-see.