“It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”
Written & Directed by: The Spierig Brothers
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor
The H-Bomb: In a world where time travel was invented in 1981, a law enforcement agent (Ethan Hawke) is sent back to the 1970’s to stop the “Fizzle Bomber,” an elusive terrorist who will carryout a catastrophic attack in New York. As part of his cover, he takes a job as a barkeep at a hole-in-the-wall tavern. One night, a rather androgynous looking individual (Sarah Snook) comes into the bar and strikes up a conversation with the undercover agent. During the course of their talk, the agent realizes that he shares a connection with this stranger, that they both have ties to the Fizzle Bomber, and that their meeting in that tavern is more than mere coincidence.
That’s about all the plot of Predestination that I dare reveal, because it is one of those twist laden tales where the less one knows going in, the better. A story of paradoxes and paranoia, this movie is a pure mind fuck… literally, I feel like my brain has been penetrated and violated. My hat’s off to Michael and Peter Spierig (Daybreakers), who have adapted Robert A. Heinlein’s short story “All You Zombies” into what is far and away the smartest, most innovative time travel flick since Primer. Imagine Memento mixed with Looper, and that might give you a general idea of what Predestination is.
It is a meticulously plotted piece in which the story is constantly twisting, each revelation is a major Ah-ha moment, and by the end of the film’s brisk 98 minutes, your brain will feel as though it’s been tied into about a thousand knots. Yet, when it is over, everything will be clear. There are points where it seems muddled, confusing, and downright confounding, but ultimately, it does make sense. More astute viewers might be able to anticipate some of the turns the narrative takes, particularly if they pick up on the fact that characters’ faces are being deliberately hidden from us in certain scenes, but I can say with certainty that they will not see the whole picture until the very end, and when it is revealed, it does pack a wallop.
I apologize if my comments veer towards the vague side of things, as previously stated, one cannot say much about Predestination without dumping out spoilers. It is a mystery, not just a mystery of time, really the time travel is just a plot device, but a mystery of identity. What defines us as individuals? What makes us who we are? And do we remain the same on the inside, even if we change dramatically on the outside, or do we become someone else entirely? Again, vague as fuck, I know… though anyone who has seen Predestination might argue that I’ve just revealed way too much.
I don’t think I’d be revealing too much by stating that Hawke is fucking excellent here, as that is kind of a given. He’s always been drawn to challenging material, and this is no different. Even the genre films he’s been a part of, like Daybreakers, or Sinister, are more interesting than most, and here, he once again brings his A-game to the show. Though, the real standout, the real discovery of Predestination is Sarah Snook. I’ve never seen or heard of this talented young Australian before, but holy hell, is she on my radar now. Her dark, multifaceted character proves to be the center of the entire mystery, and Snook embodies her flawlessly. This is the kind of deep, complex performance that will make a star out of her, provided enough people see the film.
And that is my main beef, not nearly enough people have seen, or have even heard of, Predestination, and that is a low down, dirty shame. I know that the indie film market is over-saturated, and that it’s often difficult to separate the trash from the treasure to determine which of the thousands of films floating around out there are actually worthy of your time. This mind-bending puzzle box of a motion picture is most definitely worthy of your time. It is a film that most folks will have to see twice, if not more, in order to wrap their brains around entirely.
Unlike many other twist-heavy thrillers of its ilk, Predestination actually does stand up to scrutiny on second and third viewings. If there’s anything I’d knock it down for, it’s that it fails to answer the biggest question it poses throughout the film, the question that perhaps has no answer… what came first, the chicken or the egg?
