PREDESTINATION chronicles the life of a Temporal Agent sent on an intricate series of time-travel journeys designed to ensure the continuation of his law enforcement career for all eternity. Now, on his final assignment, the Agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. Written by
Plot Synopsis:
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The film begins with a temporal agent attempting to apprehend an infamous terrorist known as the 'Fizzle Bomber', who planted a bomb in a building attempting to kill hundreds of people. The agent succeeds in containing the bomb but is severely injured when his face is partially exposed to the resulting explosion. The Fizzle Bomber manages to escape and the temporal agent returns to his timeline (in the future) using a coordinate transformer field kit (a time machine) with the help of an unknown person.
Returning to the future, in 1992, the agent awakens to find that he has undergone facial surgery to save his life. Doctors grafted on new skin and reconstructed the agent's face and throat as they were badly damaged. It is revealed during this time that the agent works for a mysterious organization, known as the Temporal Bureau, that sends temporal agents through time to prevent major crimes that would cost the lives of thousands of people and that the Fizzle Bomber is the only criminal to elude them thus far; the Fizzle Bomber is also responsible for killing 11,000 people in New York in 1975.
Once the agent is healed, he is ordered to embark on a final mission before he is decommissioned from the agency. The agent accepts the mission, uses his coordinate transformer field kit (which is disguised as a violin case) to travel back in time to 1978, and works as a bartender in New York. The bartender seemingly awaits the arrival of a particular customer who he starts chatting with. This customer, a man, is referred to as the 'Unmarried Mother' since he writes confession magazines, many of them presumably from the point of view of an unmarried mother.
The Unmarried Mother and bartender start talking and the Unmarried Mother wagers a bottle of liquor if his story is enough to shock or surprise the bartender. The bartender agrees and the Unmarried Mother tells the bartender of his past. The Unmarried Mother explains that he was originally a girl and was taken into an orphanage on September 13, 1945, when she was left at the orphanage doorstep. She was named 'Jane' by one of the workers at the orphanage.
The Unmarried Mother recounts events in his life when he was a girl, saying that he envied children with parents and felt he was different somehow. He also states that he was quite gifted and was very good in all scientific fields and was physically strong, being able to fight boys. The Unmarried Mother tells the bartender that she wanted to join the space corps to help and service astronauts in space as she wanted to go to outer space herself and enlisted. Jane excelled in all the tests set for her by the space corps, but she was disqualified during the selection process as doctors found a medical anomaly during her physical, revealing that Jane has an inter-sex condition were he/she has two sets of sex organs: male and female. The doctors do not tell Jane this, however, and she tries to move on with her life.
Jane eventually goes to night classes in Cleveland to work on her demeanor and charm, but accidentally stumbles into a stranger on her way home on April 3, 1963. The two begin talking and soon start a relationship together. The Unmarried Mother tells the bartender that the two fell in love and that she believed she had met the only person who she truly cared about, but eventually the stranger left Jane and never came back. Emotionally distraught, Jane is approached by Mr. Robertson, thought to be one of the recruiting officers at the space corps, who tells Jane that he actually works for a different organization that could use someone with her intelligence and physical abilities and offers her a chance to join.
Jane is about to accept his proposition, but falls pregnant from when she was with the stranger. Jane eventually gives birth to a baby girl, but a C-section is required to successfully remove the baby. One of the doctors whoim performed the operation then tells Jane that during the operation they had to surgically remove her uterus and ovaries, but since they found male sex organs intact, they surgically reconstructed Jane into a man. Jane's child is kidnapped by an unknown man. Jane is completely reconstructed into a man with further operations. The Unmarried Mother explains that as life went on, he became a writer and started writing confession stories under the pen name 'The Unmarried Mother'.
The Unmarried Mother concludes the story and asks if he has earned the bottle of liquor. The bartender almost gives him the bottle, but quickly reveals that he knows the Unmarried Mother's new male name which is 'John' and other details in John/Jane's life. John eventually follows the bartender into a secure basement underneath the bar. The bartender tells John that he actually works for Mr. Robertson, and that the organization Mr. Robertson was referring to was the Temporal Bureau.
The bartender then offers John the chance to kill the man who ruined "his" life, with no repercussions as long as he agrees to be recruited into the Temporal Bureau afterwards. John accepts and they travel back in time to April 3, 1963, in Cleveland, Ohio. The bartender arms John with a gun to confront the man who seduced, impregnated, and abandoned Jane, telling him exactly where and when to find him.
John is directed to Cleveland College, but when he gets there he accidentally meets Jane, his younger female self, while the bartender/temporal agent looks on from a distance and eventually uses his time machine to travel into the future. The agent ends up in the exact same building in New York in the beginning of the film, only he arrives a few minutes earlier than his former self to stop the Fizzle Bomber. He spots the Fizzle Bomber and fights him, but is incapacitated in the ensuing fight. He then wakes to the sound of an explosion and gunfire and realizes that his former self (from the beginning of the movie) has been injured and he wasn't able to stop the bomber. He is revealed to be the man who helps his former self reach his time machine in order to get back to the Temporal Bureau in 1985.
The temporal agent uses his time machine to travel back to March 1964 where he meets with Robertson. The agent managed to grab some evidence from the bomb used by the Fizzle Bomber and hands it over to Robertson. It is shown that Robertson and the agent are actually having their conversation in the hospital ward where Jane's child is born. The temporal agent/bartender then kidnaps the child and takes the baby girl back in time to the same orphanage that Jane grew up in, in 1945. The temporal agent soon returns to 1963 to retrieve John and reveals to him his mission and why he set John and Jane together.
The temporal agent explains that he, John, Jane and the child are all the same person that exist through a predestined time paradox. He tells John that he needed John to meet with Jane in order for her to become pregnant and give birth to a child who would eventually grow up to be them. If the temporal agent had not kidnapped the child and transported her back to 1945, or if he had not set up John and Jane, none of them would exist. John states that he doesn't want to leave Jane, but the temporal agent insists it has to be.
The temporal agent takes the Unmarried Mother, John, to the Temporal Bureau in 1985, to ensure his own existence so that he could prevent the crimes to come, and is decommissioned. Robertson also gives the temporal agent a file containing new leads recovered from the evidence he gave Robertson. The temporal agent/bartender/future John, then returns to his own timeline to live out a normal life as best he can in 1975 New York. He then deactivates his time machine, but it encounters an error and does not deactivate properly. The agent/future John soon deduces where to find the bomber using the leads given to him by Robertson.
The agent eventually finds the bomber in a laundromat store. To the agent's shock he sees that the Fizzle Bomber is actually him in the future. The Fizzle bomber states that he saved more lives than he has taken as a result of his actions and that Robertson is setting them up. The Fizzle Bomber, seemingly insane, says that if the agent kills him the agent will become him as it is a repetitive cycle, but if the agent loves him again when he was Jane and John, then they can break the cycle. Disgusted with his future self, the agent decides to kill the Fizzle Bomber.
The movie ends with the agent overlooking the time machine stating that he knows for sure that Jane, John and himself were the best things that have happened to him in his life and that he misses his past selves dreadfully.
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menzies97
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I feel like sometimes great movies don't get enough recognition, films like Prisoners, Enemy, or Predestination.
This film impacted me heavily, and it kept me thinking and thinking about it for a week after I saw it. Ethan Hawke gave a great performance, which keeps me wondering why he ever agreed to do "The Purge", but the real standout is Sarah Snook, who is breathtaking in her role.
One of the best things about this film was that when I thought it was going in one direction, it took a hard right hand turn. Not many movies make me doubt myself like that. The direction was clean and solid, the cinematography was immaculate, and the special and visual effects were outstanding. Everything about the look of the film was perfect.
My only complaints are that the movie's first act was a little slow. However, as the film progresses into the second and third act, the long first act is absolutely necessary. If it was a little shorter, it would've worked so well.
Confusing? Yes. Enjoyable? Big time.
If you can see Predestination, definitely do so. 8/10
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Riona33 from Gold Coast, Australia
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Sadly I had to travel to an old and tiny cinema to see this movie as it didn't play in the major cinemas on the Gold Coast...after watching this movie i have absolutely no clue why.
I truly enjoyed every minute of this film, all of the actors did a great job, especially Ethan Hawk. I did see some of the plot lines coming and still got a bit of a surprise in how they delivered those plot lines...if you get a chance and like a sci-fi with brains then go and watch this!!!
I would definitely not compare it to looper (just to add to the end) yes looper and predestination are about time travel, but thats were it ends... :)
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g_babic from Australia
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This is not just classic sci-fi it is almost a classic Greek play: Fateful and tragic. That's the parting feeling. But it delivers so many genres on any level you care to enjoy it. To me the strength of this film is the characters—every day people like ourselves—seeing themselves in an extraordinary light. As time-travel stories go there are none of the paradoxes of other such films to frustrate you. The elegant, thought-provoking symmetry of the original short story is respected beautifully—but hats off to the directors for expanding it into a study of human self-identity. In my opinion the best sci-fi only uses fantasy (within the realms of possibility) to explore humanity in ways that a grounding in known reality cannot, and this film offers viewers a 'what if' so believably presented they can put themselves in that situation and question themselves in a way they normally never would. The only paradox here is the very real inescapable self of all of us and yet being so many different people throughout our lives. You will benefit from seeing this film.
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cashton-859-438869
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"Predestination" is an incredibly original and creative film, employing what may seem like 'common' aspects of the science-fiction genre, and putting a darker, grimmer twist on them. Time travel is handled quite well in this Australian film, focusing less on the effects of travelling back (and forth) in time than other sci-fi films. "Predestination" uses decidedly odd pacing, beginning with a 'bang' and following that up with almost an hour of subdued plot. But oddly enough, these moments of -almost- pure dialogue and occasional flashbacks never become boring, but rather deepen the film's characters and their back-stories. The cast performances are what really make this movie 'shine'. Ethan Hawke, as usual, delivers an almost flawless performance as the unnamed lead, and Sarah Snook, an Australian newcomer, surprises with her wide range of acting abilities. Overall, the third feature film by the Spierig Brothers is a surprisingly original, daring, and genre-bending film.
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moneyminder from Nicaragua
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A must watch for anyone who enjoys a mind bending, soul imploding film. Although the first scene is action packed, not much is understood as to the who's and why's. After that, and for only a few minutes, the movie seemed slow and without direction. Soon after it becomes intriguing, suspenseful, and where the direction of the film is going (although not yet understood). The Director was able to clearly explain the unexplainable at the very end of the movie. So, for those that sometimes walk out of a movie not understanding what happened, I can assure you that will not be the case here. I give many kudos to the original writing, screen writing, directing, and acting. This movie will be ranked as one of my all time best films ever.
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Greg (gregmoroberts@yahoo.com) from Oakville, Ontario
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Brilliant. Thought-provoking mind bending brilliance.
Coming under the radar and screening on Tuesday night as part of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival schedule, Predestination stars Ethan Hawke (Sinister) in a film that caught us off guard and sent us home with the reality of just witnessing one of the best films of the year.
Ethan Hawke plays a character without name who is a time-travelling agent for a secret agency that uses their ability to transport to specific dates as an opportunity to stop crime. Hawkes character (known as The Bartender) is on the tail end of his career. And on his final assignment, he is tasked with stopping the "Fizzle Bomber", a terrorist that exploded a bomb in New York City in 1975 that killed over 11,000 citizens. The bartender had a chance to stop the bomber once before but failed and now after a recuperating after his final jump, he jumps from 1960's through the 70's, 80's and 90's to achieve his final objective.
The time travel machine used to jump is basic and brilliant in its simplicity – a violin case where the adjustment of the numbered and lettered locking mechanism determines the date to which one will travel. It is during an early jump that Hawkes character finds himself in the 1960's acting as a bartender in a small dive bar. It's here where he meets the character played by Sarah Snook (again, no name is given for the character just the description "The Unmarried Mother"). The two main characters begin a conversation that is part Tarantino part Mamet in its delivery and genius. The Unmarried Mother begins to weave a tale so unbelievable that it's mesmerizing to hear it unravel. The bartender does not seem as overly surprised at the details and at the conclusion of the anguishing story, he offers the Unmarried Mother an opportunity to go back in time to face the person which caused her such grief.
The time jump of the two characters sets the timeline path for a story that goes in directions that will be completely unseen. By the time the Unmarried Mother meets her oppressor and the Bartender confronts the Fizzle Bomber the directing duo of the of Spierig Brothers (Peter and Michael) have laid out a complex plot of intersecting stories best described as a "snake eating its own tail." Ethan Hawke has worked with the Spierig Brothers before with 2009's Daybreakers which this reviewer thought was a well above average tale of vampires in a futuristic world. But with Predestination the collaborative efforts of the brothers and Hawke have created a brilliant time travel science fiction film that betters Rian Johnson's Looper in its vision and execution.
Predestination is a movie where washroom breaks are not recommended. Every detail of the story circles back to the wonderful final reveal. It's a film that commands attention and then rewards the viewer for the courtesy.
When the year finally comes to a close, we will have screened over 200 films released in 2014. Predestination is sure to be on our list of Top 10 when the tallies are constructed.
www.killerreviews.com
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(lustigit)
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Interesting and captivating with a new twist to the classic formula. Great cinematography and excellent acting contribute to this refreshing Sci-Fi/Time Travel film.
Rising actress Sarah Snook with a stellar performance is backed by solid performances of both Hawke and Taylor.
Such movies usually suffer from failed attempts at originality and complexity boarding on confusion. This movie avoids both by not trying to surprise and shock the viewer but rather act more as a mystery novel - unfolding with precision, letting the viewers participate in the events and discoveries to come. Much like a good old Agatha Christie book would successfully do.
The Spierig brothers keep getting better with each movie and this is a great step forward in what seems to be a promising career.
There is nothing new under the Time Travel sun but the delivery is excellent which makes this movie worth watching - at least twice, as any good Time Travel movie requires.
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Jqn_Hgar from Tunisia
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it's been a while since i've been this satisfied with a movie, it's compelling, thought provoking and extremely clever film that keeps you guessing to the last frame.
excellent storytelling thanks for the great work from the directors/writers despite the low budget they pulled out a great movie with good production values, sets, costumes and special effects.
powerhouse performances from the two leads Ethan Hawke as usual is a very serious actor though he haven't been in any good movies in the past few years but you can see that he's making a comeback with this one as well as this years magnificent BOYHOOD but his performance in PREDESTINATION is a very strong one because he had to handle such a very complicated character, same thing goes for Sarah Snook.
the less i say about the plot the better, this is the kind of movies where you have focus throughout the whole runtime of it trying to figure out where is it going and any detail that you miss might ruin the whole experience for you but hey don't worry there's an explanation for everything here.
this movie is one of this years' personal favorites as well as the indie of the year so far (still have to see BIRDMAN).
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JÄÂnis Locis from Latvia
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Anyone who loves mindfuck movies and movies incredibly hard to understand at the end, will love this one. The beginning seems kinda weird, and what the director does with the beginning is planting a seed of thought into the minds of the viewers, i bet you 10 people will have 10 different outcomes thought through while watching the movie from the start. The plot twists and the originality of the movie were fantastic, haven't seen anything quite like that in a movie. The fact that all the movies main characters, except Robinson is the same person is hard to believe and extremely well thougth through and displayed for the viewers. Were else have you seen a movie which can lead to you having sex with you, giving birth to you, then bringing yourself back to 1963 to break up the relationship between yourself and yourself and taking yourself as a baby back in time and toping it all by killing yourself? Awesome plot, great idea and something very original and amusing.
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Troy_Campbell from Sydney, Australia
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Twisty, turny and mind-bending, one viewing won't be enough for this time travelling head scratcher. Two plots – one revolving around Ethan Hawke's temporal agent seeking to stop a terrorist, the other following the life of a precocious orphan who isn't quite like everybody else – are intricately and intelligently woven together to not only build tension but to explore provocative themes to spoiler-y to mention here. In fact, Predestination is one of those movies its hard to say much of anything about. It's such a meticulously drip-fed thriller – slowly and superbly unravelling as each and every minute of the runtime ticks on – that the real joy here is unwrapping and grasping (or attempting to any rate) what it is you're actually witnessing. In his second collaboration with Aussie filmmakers the Spierig Brothers, Hawke is in career-best form as the veteran time traveller on the brink of burning out, whilst relative newcomer Sarah Snook (born and bred South Australian) is outstanding in a complex and demanding role that has rightly grabbed the attention of Hollywood. The Spierig's also demonstrate their diversity in both the writing and directing departments, going from the enjoyable but tonally lightweight splatter-fest Daybreakers to this altogether more mature, thematically heavy and narratively elaborate sci-fi saga that still manages to maintain a high excitement level. This year's Looper or Inception.
When John Doe sits down at the manual typewriter for the first time, beside the typewriter there is a copy of "Stranger in a Strange Land " by Robert Heinlein, who is the author of the original short story, All You Zombies, on which the screenplay for the film is based.
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(At around 8 mins) When Ethan Hawke looks at his watch, his real birthday is shown.
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The picture of the Crosby Shoes building in the beginning of the movie is actually a picture of the exploded reactor number 4 from Chernobyl Power Plant which erupted on 26th of April 1986.
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An additional Heinlein reference - when John is at the store purchasing the typewriter, the saleswoman is holding "the moon is a harsh mistress" - also a Heinlein story.
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This story is told by Dr. Michio Kaku, on October 28, 2009 at Queensborough Community College. As the mother of all time travel stories on his "The World in 2030" lecture. You can find the video on web.
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If you look closely at the newspaper article text in the beginning of the movie the paragraphs are the same for each article, only the headlines changes.
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Ethan Hawke and Spierig brothers have previously worked together on Daybreakers
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Some scenes were filmed at the Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, Australia.
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This is The first Spierig brothers film in 5 years following Daybreakers which followed a 6 year gap between their first film Undead.
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Many lines of dialogue in the film are copied faithfully from Robert Heinlein's source story.
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When Jane enters the bar and starts her story, her lighter doesn't work. The bartender then lights her cigarette. He has the same lighter, denoting they are the same person.
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At the beginning of the movie when he sees his new face for the first time he says "I've changed so much. I doubt my own mother would recognize me.." and laughs, which is ironic since he/she is his/her own mother.
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When Jane, now John, reapplies to Space Corp as an astronaut, the doctor who examines him closely resembles Robert Heinlein, the author of the short story source for the film, and is listed as Doctor Heinlein in the credits.
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At the end when Ethan goes back to the bar, the owner is arguing at the Jukebox. As Ethan says, "I quit", the song playing is "I'm my own grandpa", alluding to his character throughout the movie. This song is also referenced in the short story in which it is based on.
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The bartender's attempted joke about "What comes first, the chicken or the egg" Is foreshadowing the relationship between himself, John, and Jane.
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Sarah Snook spent 4 and a half hours every morning in the make-up chair being turned into John.
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Based on Robert A Heinlein's story "All You Zombies".
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At the end of the movie, John Doe says via inner dialogue "The snake that eats it's own tail, forever and ever. I know where I come from. Where do all you zombies come, from?" A clear reference to the inspiration for the story "All You Zombies"
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When the main characters meet for the first time in the bar, Ethan Hawke's character has the "LADIES" bathroom sign shown behind him. (foreshadowing that they are both 'ladies')
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In the early bar scenes when Ethan Hawke is talking to John, each time the camera looks at Ethan, the angle changes slightly. Sometimes the "Gentlemen" restroom sign is over his head and sometimes it's "Ladies", foreshadowing the final plot twist.
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The Fizzle Bomb timer discovered at the bomb site is a Sparkfun Arduino Pro Mini 328, which as shown (with some connections destroyed) could serve its intended purpose.
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Noah Taylor's third appearance as a "supervisor" of a time traveler. He played similar roles as tech support Edmund Ventura in Vanilla Sky (2001), and Dr. Carter in Edge of Tomorrow (2014).
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The Jukebox plays "I'm My Own Grandpa" several times, foreshadowing the plot twist at the end.
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When Jane's baby is snatched, John describes the snatcher having a "face shaped face like yours and mine" this is foreshadowing that they are the same.
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At the bar, the Barkeep tries to tell a chicken or egg joke to the Unmarried Mother then doesn't. In essence, the entire movie is based on this
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time travel|time machine|temporal agent|actress playing male role|loner|terrorism|year 1975|baby|gay slur|mission|orphanage|bartender|shootout|nonlinear timeline|undercover agent|secret government organization|time paradox|deception|orphan|intersex|surprise ending|time loop|blood splatter|female nudity|older version of character|multiple actors for one character|gender reassignment|drunkenness|disfigurement|media coverage|reference to ian fleming|year 1992|college student|college|male frontal nudity|looking at self in mirror|hysterectomy|reference to abraham lincoln|rain|young version of character|telling a joke|reference to ernest hemingway|close up of eyes|shot in the shoulder|voice over narration|year 1964|male rear nudity|gender bender|year 1985|year 1970|year 1963|year 1945|urination|bare chested male|existentialism|first love|surrealism|suitcase|hat|neo noir|character repeating someone else's dialogue|person on fire|bandaged face|burn victim|burnt face|antique store|kidnapping|writer|typewriter|abandoned apartment|wheelchair|slow motion scene|nurse|doctor|pregnancy|hospital|vomit|tough girl|laundromat|punched in the face|beating|fistfight|tape recorder|wine cellar|jukebox|newspaper clipping|news report|bar|cleveland ohio|new york city|blood|shot to death|shot in the chest|death|murder|held at gunpoint|pistol|plastic surgery|scar|explosion|bomb|flashback|revenge|race against time|storytelling|government agent|secret agent|no opening credits|meeting future self|one word title|based on short story|training|transgender|terrorist|bomber|hermaphrodite|sex change|written by director|independent film|title spoken by character|brawl|near future|grenade|sex on a desk|pool table|cigarette smoking|revolver|
AKAs Titles:
Certifications:
Australia:MA15+ (2014) / Canada:14A (Ontario) / Canada:13+ (Québec) / Germany:12 / Hong Kong:IIB / Ireland:15A / Japan:R15+ / Netherlands:12 / Philippines:R-16 / Portugal:M/14 / Singapore:M18 / South Korea:15 / UK:15 / USA:R
Movie Details:
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