Predestination (2014): A Clever Surprise in Disguise – Editorial

Some movies just get you. You only need to see them once. Not only because the movie was simple, but also because of the narration, the characters and sometimes what I call the ‘Surprise’. It is where a movie builds up questions in the audience mind up to a certain point and reveals the answer hiding in plain sight all along. The best example is Bruce Willis’ Sixth Sense – one of the best psychological thrillers ever made. Predestination starring Ethan Hawke is (not) that kind of a movie. It has time travel in it and as a standard movie rule, time travel is one of the most common confusing things. Not in this movie. In a single sentence, there’s a box that has an analog clock which can be used to set destination in time.

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[Spoilers Ahead!] A top secret agent/barkeep starts a conversation with a writer in a bar. The writer bets that he can tell an incredible story and starts telling his own story which seems incredible. The writer who now is a male (John), actually, was born female (Jane) who was left at an orphanage. Life was extremely tough for her and she overcomes all her challenges by being tougher. She was recruited by a Secret Government Agency where she excels every test she takes and was left impregnated by a man in the middle of training. The agency throws her out and her baby gets snatched from the ward. That’s not it. It turns out that Jane had two set of organs in her and due to severe blood loss during childbirth, Doctors remove the female organs and she becomes John, the writer who was telling this story.

The barkeep asks John if he’d kill the guy who impregnated her if he can guarantee his escape using the time machine. Turns out that the barkeep is looking for the infamous ‘Fizzle Bomber’ who’s terrorizing the city with random bombings that claimed more than 100 people’s lives. The Fizzle Bomber was none other than the man who impregnated Jane. Jane (now John) travels back in time to the date where she met the guy and waits to kill her where she meets herself back in time. The story goes on a roller coaster ride of little surprises along the way and when you think you’ve figured the story, the climax hits you like a ton of bricks when you are completely not expecting it.

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The clever confusion created by Predestination is based on a paradox of time travel but if you watch closely enough, the movie will make sense and even makes you feel smarter for understanding such a complicated story. So turn on your laptop, log on to Netflix this weekend and watch Predestination if you have a couple of hours to kill this weekend.

Images via Stage 6 Films