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Predestination Movie Review

Predestination is a 2014 Australian science fiction film directed by The Spierig Brothers and starring Sarah Snook and Ethan Hawke. It’s a twisty tale that is provocative and fun.

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“The one thing that this job has taught me

is that truth is stranger than fiction“

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For his final assignment, a top temporal agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase turns into a unique, surprising and mind-bending exploration of love, fate, identity and time travel taboos. Based on a Heinlein short story, this mind-bending genre flick is the type of time travel movie that I adore – time travel as a concept is inherently problematic and senseless, so if you are to do it, you’d better go full in and deliver a truly crazy story that will stick with you.

Without spoiling anything, the movie piles on twist after twist, all leading to one major twist near the end that changed everything and connected the main characters in a meaningful way. That final twist definitely makes no sense when you really think about it, and deconstructing this plot will undoubtedly not be a good idea for viewers as they are bound to discover numerous plot holes, but I continue to find that exercise in watching films unreasonable. You should just enjoy movies without being obsessed with plot holes as you will always find some, especially in time travel narratives.

But the first twist was particularly effective and it made sense for the story. It was truly provocative in what it presented to viewers. Let’s just say that self-love found new heights here. The other major theme in the movie is gender identity, and in that theme the movie was ahead of its time as it was released before the entire transgender activism spread in the West. It’s very delicately handled here without being too sensational and whether the protagonist is transgender or intersex is an interesting subject for debate.

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Predestination gave us the breakthrough role of Sarah Snook, years before ‘Succession’ premiered. And she was just phenomenal here, instantly establishing herself as one of the most underrated actresses working today. Her performance here is quite complex and layered as she basically got to play a person in two different genders, succeeding in both. Apparently, they used a huge amount of make-up for her male look, which paid off as she was quite believable throughout.

Ethan Hawke was less effective and less memorable here. Not a lot was asked of him in this movie, certainly not as much as they asked of Snook. He was pretty good in the first half of the movie, but in the second half he faltered a bit and was less believable. He was having a bit too much fun in this role as he was too irreverent for the material at hand.

Another issue of Predestination is the structure. The first half with the flashbacks was phenomenal and almost like reading a great book in the amount of details presented to viewers. It painted the whole story and it was so engaging. The second half went fully into SF territory and even some thriller overtones, and that was very well executed throughout, but a bit too rushed as the storyline is so complex that it demanded a longer runtime.

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But the cinematography, score, sound and particularly directing is quite strong for an indie feature. The Spierig Brothers did a great job adapting this older short story to the modern time as they infused it with a brisk pace, leading to an undeniably hugely entertaining watch. It’s an underrated movie that features fantastic dialogue, a great emotional engagement and a strong character study at its center. Plus, its tackling of the causal loop problem is among the best done so far in feature films.