Time traveling is serious business: For every hot tub waiting to transport you to the hair-sprayed ’80s, there’s a gravity drive that can take you to hell and back (and maybe not really “back”). Chance favors the prepared mind, and Hollywood’s time travel excursions have produced a dossier of useful tips for future (or past!) adventurers to live by. Here’s a list of things to remember when you’re skipping through spacetime.

			Essential for:
Character	Movie	Lesson	Survival		Logistics		Etiquette
Marty McFly	Back to the Future	No matter how hot your mom was, you should not sleep with her. Also: Van Halen is timeless.
Kyle Reese	The Terminator	Now if a friend‘s hot mom tries to seduce you in the past, go with it. You’re probably your friend’s father anyway.
Phil Connors	Groundhog Day	The universe really does revolve around you. And watch out for that puddle.
The Time Bandits	Time Bandits	Having a map of every temporal anomaly in the universe does not necessarily mean you know where you are going.
Bill and Ted	Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure	Be excellent to each other.
Donnie Darko	Donnie Darko	Want to relive your youth? Remember: It was awkward.
Friends in the Hot Tub Time Machine	Hot Tub Time Machine	Want to relive your youth? Remember: It was fun.
Hermione Granger	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	It doesn’t matter how much of a grind you are. Using a time-travel necklace just to do homework is lame.
Ash	Army of Darkness	Having a crisis? Find a chain saw.
James Cole	12 Monkeys	If you are a time traveler from a postapocalyptic future you should maybe keep that a secret, because they will throw your butt in the nuthouse.
Fry	Futurama	Do not ditch your closeted gramps at an A-bomb test site and then console his girlfriend by schtupping her, thus becoming your own grandfather.
Spock	Star Trek	Time travel: Good for passing a torch and ensuring the death of your best pal’s true love.
Gil	Midnight in Paris	Whatever time you’re in, there’s a better time somewhere else. Also: Picasso had great taste, and Zelda Fitzgerald was seriously nutso.
Abe	Primer	When traveling through time, you should … er, we mean don’t … or rather … Huh. We have no idea.

Spock: Getty; Others: Everett