A really great movie. Time Travel stuff is at its best when it tells personal stories like this one. It is also best when everything spins out of control and the timeline is just a mess afterwards.
This movie makes me proud of Australian cinema.
Minor Spoilers:
The ending is a bit of a dud moment. I don't think the reveal was as dramatic as they intended. I would have liked to see the moment Ethan Hawke turned into Old Ethan Hawke and the movie seemed to be setting that up, but just never showed it.
A really intelligent time travel movie with a crazy script. The movies goes to weird extends where you get to make love to yourself, give birth to yourself and even kill yourself. My mind got fucked at the end of the movie, but there were moments you could expect whats happening. Overall a wonderful piece of work and an excellent mind bending movie! 8/10
i always forgive when time travel doesn't make sense, for obvious reasons. but was a bit bummed that basic biology was ignored too. still, fascinating, dynamic and mind-blowing. an enjoyable ride.
1h of transgender issues in the 70s and yes... was bored. May be good at the end, I don't know.
I got to say that I have not been mind fucked by a movie like that in such a long time..
It is the kind of movie that mid way you would say "I do not understand anything", and by the end of the movie you would say.. "Fucking Hell, Now I get it. I Wish I didn't but I do"
I am just scared from the way that they keep upping the plot twists and endings of movies that at some point in time you would be watching a movie and then you would realize that it has all been a trick and that you are actually not watching a movie at all..
Another thing that below me away through out the movie was the performance of Sarah Snook. While still not over her creepy performance in Jessabelle. She really took me by surprise with her performance.. I have not seen before someone who can say so much with just their eyes.. I can tell that the 28 year old Aussie is going places after this..
On Rotten Tomatoes, The film has a "certified fresh" score of 82% based on 71 reviews with an average rating of 6.8 out of 10.
The critical consensus states "Fun genre fare with uncommon intelligence, Predestination serves as a better-than-average sci-fi adventure and offers a starmaking turn from Sarah Snook."
On Metacritic The film also has a score of 68 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews"
If you are ready to be mind blown all the way, watch it but make sure to not miss anything cause it will add to the inevitable sense of "What the fuck was that? that you already going to get when you watch it attentively.
This has to be the most paradox Timetravel movie I've ever seen.
It's not that shocking because it is, after all, a movie about timetraveling...
But the whole Idea behind it is totally perverted! I mean, come on:
The main character is a hermaphrodite. He starts as a woman and later on in life he becomes a man.
He goes back in time, fucks his female self and impregnates himself with himself.
Yes, you read that right: He is the baby he has with himself.
MIND = BLOWN
What the hell was the director smoking?
An interesting film, which doesn't focus so much on time travel itself, but rather on the paradoxes that can arise when it occurs. I discovered the mystery behind everything in the first half of the film, but some loose ends were left unanswered.
"It's never too late to be who you might have been."
What a unique movie. Starts off slow, then gets weird, then picks up and is awesome, then when it ends I am like "what just happened?!"
I've seen this film 3 times now and I'm still enjoying it just as much. It's very faithful to Heinlein's short story and expands the universe in a very clean way to make a film. I recommend it!
Nice. I wish my head would stop spinning.
Maybe not as complex as it once was in a world post Dark and Tenet, but still an interesting sci-fi film that requires attention from the viewer. The idea at the core is really intriguing, even with it using a lot of tropes that are often found time travel stories. Sometimes the directors find a fresh way of presenting those ideas (e.g. the tech-noir vibe during the bar scenes), while other ideas feel more contrived (e.g. revealing that a mysterious character actually turns out to be one of the main characters from a different point in time, which has become a really overused trick in movies like this). The directing is generally pretty good, though it’s overreaching a little bit with its limited budget. Some of the period detail, time travel effects and sets have a Syfy channel feel to them, and the score is also pretty generic. Moreover, there’s too much exposition, some of which is handled rather inelegantly (e.g. narration; forced dialogue). Ultimately, what pulls the film together for me are the strong performances (especially the meaty role that’s given to Sarah Snook), unique plot twists and tight pacing. It probably won’t become a classic, but there’s a lot to like here.
6.5/10
Although the beginning was horribly cliché, like a generic noire spy film, it quickly changed once it got to the bar scene, turning into some of the best writing and storytelling I've seen in a movie in a long time.
The dialogue between the bartender and the drinker felt completely natural, and the "A guy walks into a bar" joke made me laugh
The level of immersion and flow in the story being told by The Unmarried Mother made me forget they were still in the bar where they were trying to prove their story was the craziest. I completely went into the flashback story
The bootstrap paradoxes just kept piling up, which I liked, and while I was watching, I didn't notice any obvious plotholes with them, maybe because bootstrap paradoxes themselves are plotholes by definition. Either way, I really liked how well they fit together
What I liked the most is how well they tie the sequences of events together, gradually revealing why everything happened, why everything was happening, and why everything will happen. Even at the end, at that inevitable moment where he even explains how to resolve the paradox, I was still in suspense about what he might do, and had no idea which direction it would go, but once it happened, everything made sense, and I realized it couldn't be any other way
And yes, I wrote this review spoiler-free, except for this last comment: That ending can't be any other way, because it closes the time loop, and also "tiles" the movie, meaning you can watch the movie over and over again, where the ending feeds into the beginning, and the sequence of events makes perfect sense, because that's how closed time loops work.
Fricken awesome quality writing.
Enjoed the conversation at the bar a lot. But what comes after is too much time explaining the movie
It's never too late to be who you might have been...
a never ending loop...predestination is one of those mind boggling movies that will leave you thinking about it...acting was on point... I really liked the bar narrative scene....the story is obviously a fantasy..though you can wrap your head around the time travels but the paradox of what comes first will really make you scratch your head...
AMAZING, wholly original sci-fi movie. Made on a low budget but doesn't feel like it at all.
"What if I could put him in front of you? The man that ruined your life. If I could guarantee that you'd get away with it, would you kill him?"
Incredibly creative and well-thought out film, with a complex plot, that's hard to follow at times, great performances and pristine direction.
I was more engrossed in the Unmarried Mother's back story than the actual time hopping shenanigans.
I like this movie and for all time have surprise
How is that none is talking about this movie? I didn't see it when it came out, but I'm surprised I stumbled on it rather than having it adviced by someone as "This is a cult" because it instantly became one for me.
Its main and maybe only defect is the verbosity of the first half. A more inventive way to narrate the protagonist past would have benefit the pace of the movie, which after an intriguing start, sit down before the mind-blowing of the second half. As soon as you sense that the sci-fi component is finally coming the trip begins and all the plot twists are thrown to you with perfect timing. While the end credits roll my only regret was that I feel like I've seen too much of the protagonist's past and not enough of its future.
Anyway it is a really well played story, with hints left parsimoniously during the premise: I predicted almost every plot twist but always just few minutes before they unveiled. And at the same time is highly rewatchable to appreciate the detailed construction of the time-paradox, which has no flaws apart from its itself existence, like all the good paradoxes.
A serviceable trippy time romp.
I've always really liked movies about time, and this one is no exception, it made knots in my brain!
If you like to be surprised and think about parardoxes this film is for you ^^
Only downside, it's a very slow movie ...
Slow for the first half of the movie, then gets better and better, ending is really good....
Film in a nutshell: You should go and love fuck yourself.
A closed/casual loop life.
All this cyclicity just so John could become the bomber and a human fixed point in time.
Purpose is great and all but John/Jane stays eternally lonely, craving the emotional enrichment of companionship. Their eldest self begs him to stay at the films end... will always beg him to stay... it's the saddest thing.
I did enjoy the film, but wasn't the mind fuck I expected. I found the time travel easy to follow. It was quite predictable and was pretty obvious to me where the plot was going pretty early on. But was nice to see my prediction be true (rarely the case when i guess what happens).
That being said, I think this is one of the better uses of time travel in a movie so I was pretty happy about that.
I’ve read about this movie a lot and heard it recommended countless times on the internet. So maybe I had too high expectations going in. Not a bad movie at all, but nothing as exciting as I was hoping.
The problem lies in the plot. While it starts from a very interesting prospective, it quickly gets itself tangled in a series of twists that are complicated just to be complicated. It seems like they tried to put a plot twist after the other, but the only effect, at least for me, was to make the whole plot predictable.
That aside, the director did a very good job. I appreciated the way the movie looked and felt. Considering there’s a lot of talking, the whole thing felt quite dynamic and upbeat.
Great job by the cast as well, especially Sarah Snook, who delivered the most solid performance of the movie.
In conclusion, I hoped for more. I would still recommend this one to fans of the time travel genre. The cast is great and does a fine job. That plus a short runtime makes Predestination a quite entertaining movie night choice.
6.5/10
For such a complex plot, this sure was very predictable and almost underwhelming.
He's him, I mean her, i mean the baby. This really makes time travel a lot more depressing.
The trailer made this look like a kind of bog-standard time travel action movie, which I was happy to watch, but it ended up being so much more than that. An interesting, different story, even if the reveal in the middle makes some of the last of the movie fairly predictable. It's still a movie that will stick with me a long time and means I'll now watch anything with Sarah Snook in it. The range they asked of her was almost unfair and she just absolutely shone.
Unexpected, different, surprising. Interesting idea.
Great movie, but having watched Dark before this movie, I feel like that series has executed the same basic time travel concept better and more in-depth than Predestination.
I can't really hold that against the movie because it's older than Dark, and being a 90min movie it simply doesn't have as much time. But unfortunately it did significantly limit my enjoyment, because the concept wasn't new to me at all and I could see the twist coming from miles away.
With that being said, I can totally see first-time viewers having a similar mind-fuck watching Predestination as myself when watching Dark. Also, the cinematography and writing is pretty good and ultimately it's still an entertaining movie even without the surprise mind-fuck of the twist. For these reasons, it's still worth 7/10 for me.
I don't know what to think of this time travelling film... The story on itself blows the mind of the people who are uncapable of understanding what the heck is going on.
Towards the end of it I was thinking "this is disgusting" and right after "it bloody makes sense !!!"
The whole thing is crazy. And I know I will watch it one more time :joy:
Meeting one person after the other and understanding what happens, who is who, who did what, why they did that, the reason of all of it, and recapitulating from the beginning and you realise the craziness, how twisted it is... I love it
To those who don't understand it, it's like The Matrix, you have to watch it several times to understand.
Very interesting take on time travel and a special unit to stop horrendous crimes with time travel. Complex interwoven plot that you can draw your own conclusions in a continuous time loop or not?
Wow a very surprising film and I liked it, reminded me a little bit of the film minortiy report. Also left me a little confused, thinking how was that possible but best not think about it too much, time travel is a mind blow subject if you’re trying to make sense out of a paradox ha
This was an okay adaption of a short story. It's super faithful but in this case it hurts the overall product. The conciseness of the short story is what made it work so well. Here we have a story that doesn't work as well visually in the first place and then you throw in an unnecessary side plot to make it a movie and you end up with a film that's dark to hide what becomes obvious in the light and pacing that doesn't work and the only parts that work as what's in the original short story (All You Zombies).
This is a masterpiece: The loop of a lifetime only possible because of a destiny written in time.
It's a must see movie. It embodies so many questions that when they will be answered you will be dizzy, but it's all worth it. It's so damn close to perfection you can almost feel it. I loved it so much.
I didn't understand exactly what was going on but i have to say i am impressed.I liked a lot of things about this movie and i reccomend it to everyone..
what a mindfuck movie, focus in each details
I definitely loved the unique direction it took, and it was extremely unexpected, but there were still a couple of plot points that really bothered me. Go watch it, it's very interesting to say the least.
This messes up time for you.
When you break down the plot and understand: she fucked herself and had a child lolol
My brain hurts a little. Time travel is crazy. Still pretty entertaining movie overall.
Jesus Christ, did this blow my mind... Wonderfully directed adaptation of Heinlein's original story, loved it!
@swnndn Time travel is paradoxical, but there are solutions which allow for this. The simplest one is that every time you time travel you enter an alternative timeline which is entirely unrelated to the one you came from. You can then set up a scenario where it seems like Jane / John are their own parents, but they are actually different versions of Jane / John from different timelines that give birth to a new version of Jane / John.
This movie does give the impression that it's in a consistent time loop, but I don't remember it explicitly stating that there are only one timeline. Minute Physics on YouTube has a video that explains a theoretical solution for this as well, but its a bit more complicated to wrap your head around.
Brilliant movie that handles time travel like a pro. Everything, the acting, the framing device, is perfectly crafted and closes every lose end with a strange and bizarre bow. Some plot twists are a little predictable but they are still immensely satisfying.
@swnndn it's explained well here btw: http://www.astronomytrek.com/predestination-2014-explained/
Good movie. Really keeps you guessing. At first I thought it would be "another one of those 13 in a dozen" time traveling movies, btu this one was quite different from the average one, it really stands out from the bunch.
Well, this is a pretty entertaining and refreshing scifi movie. If you manage to overlook just one but HUGE hall in the logic of the script, you may enjoy it more.
Absolutely amazing...the best mindfuck ever!!
If I'd known it was based on a short story by Heinlein I would have watched it sooner.
The story starts confusing; part may have been I did not get this story was written by Heinlein in 1958 so you'd have to step in his mindset of what he thought the future would look like. But halfway the parts were starting to fit together. I wasn't as much surprised as some of the other reviewers but was more impressed by the way it all "fits together".
After watching the movie I started questioning who am I. Complete mindfuck.
An intriguing film based on a short story, it is rare to find a time travel film that brings something different to the genre. It is therefore difficult to review without giving some of the plot details away and this is a film best seen knowing as little as possible about it. The first half of the film has little to do with time travel on the surface as someone recounts their life story to a barkeep. Essentially an extended flashback, this on its own is beautifully played by Snook and it is almost a shame the film's introductory scenes clue the audience in to potential surprises as the flashback works by itself as an emotional and fascinating character study. But the revelations when they come are still worthwhile for their resonance to the overall story, though anyone paying attention may well work out certain beats to the plot. In addition, while there are certainly paradoxes galore, the film embraces them and makes them central to the story it is trying to tell. Well worth a look.
An absolutely stunning movie! one of the few movies which holds the tension!
Mind bowing wild ride! More than once I asked myself "wtf is going on?"
Under-the-radar, concept-driven science fiction with a heavy dose of suspense. Ethan Hawke plays a decade-leaping "temporal agent," dedicated to stopping the spree of a mysterious mass bomber who wipes out several blocks of New York City in the late 20th century.
Along the way, he randomly stops by a bar in 1978 where he settles in to share stories with a down-on-his-luck patron and the plot seems to derail. It's strange, confusing pacing that sets aside the core concept in lieu of a very long, seemingly-unrelated aside, but naturally there's more here than meets the eye. That digression is an intriguing one, albeit in a completely different vein than the advertised premise, and tucks neatly into the endgame during the film's chaotic, full-throttle closing act.
Fans of Total Recall and Inception will find themselves mesmerized by the percussive power of its late plot twists, even if they are made a hair less ambiguous than I think was really necessary. These are some pretty big swings, and they'll probably turn off a good portion of the audience, but I enjoy that kind of risk-taking and it feels like they transform what had been a mediocre also-ran into something much closer to the remarkable. Flawed but daring, those last ten minutes are a helluva rush.
Total mind-bender! Excellent performance by Ethan Hawke & Sarah Snook.
Wow this movie BLEW MY MIND! Excellent pacing, excellent editing and EXCELLENT ACTING! I couldn't find one flaw with this movie, except that it made my brain fart.
really liked it, but I wish it would have been less predictable, didnt achive the fight club level in that regard. Still a good recommendation.
Pretty good, the hole idea is good and it's not just a movie about time traveling, maybe is a little bit crazy and morbid and I was like wtf?! at the end when all the pieces started to fit... I read it's based on a short novel so I guess I'll have to read it 'cause this was really crazy, and I'll have to see this movie again too.
This is when you pick one of the many many awesome novels in the sci-fi literature! If only they could do this more often! This was a short novel by Robert A. Heinlein, written in the 50s and they did an amazing work for the big screen!
Pretty good mindfuck! Have to watch it a second time at least to understand it.
The lingering question is how may people would he have saved if he hadn't have shot him and let the bomb go off that killed 11,000? And him then knowing all those years that he wasn't going to save them due to his own inability to trust himself in that moment when he had all along up until now.
Starts very slow, and when it starts and you thing that now we getting somewhere it ends,oh well it was ok just was hoping something more, would be much better with real ending at least.
One of the great time travel movie. At first it seems like the story is going nowhere and believe me every little thing matters. If you love time travel then I'm sure you are gonna love this movie.
It's a circle that never get solved and still creates questions to be asked.
A paradox to end all paradoxes.
Time travel sure is freaking complicated!
This movie starts weird...at the beginning you're not really sure if you put on the right thing, since it looks like just like a weird drama. However, later on, all the small and insignificant details starts to fit all together and when the movie finally spins in the time travel area you get powerfully caught up in the story and you're going to be afraid to know how's going to end.
If you liked Primer, you will love this movie.
i dont know how to feel about this movie. Time traveling captured my curiosity to see the movie while beating time is something peculiar. actually the scenes that they were travelling back and front in time had amazing features. Ethan Hawke,Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor had an excellent perfomance and fit to his role. Classic environments and scenes from the past were accurate too.. i love movies that intence me to think and belive me this movie actually shake my mind..
This is WAY deeper than Adele.
Shout by swnndnBlockedParentSpoilers2014-12-26T07:39:08Z— updated 2017-01-01T21:39:52Z
Edit: guess I didn't like the which came first, the chicken or egg story.