Predestination

A time-traveling agent must find a way to catch a serial bomber.

 

Based on the short story -All You Zombies- by acclaimed American science fiction writer Robert Anson Heinlein, this interesting and dramatic sci-fi thriller has a narrative that keeps moving around time (as is often the case with movies that deal with time travel) and a great deal of twists and turns. The majority of the story takes place between the forties and seventies.

 

Hawke plays a man who works as an agent for an organisation that uses time travel in order to prevent crimes before they are committed. Someone called the ''Fizzle Bomber'' has carried out numerous atrocities and the agent and his associates are determined to end the bombings. Following an event that nearly cost him his life, the agent ends up as an undercover bartender during a mission in New York City in 1970. A man walks in and as the two of them chat, he ends up telling the agent his rather extraordinary and tragic life story. Their meeting will end up changing both their lives.

 

Basically, the story of this feature could be separated into two parts: approximately the first half consists of the man in the bar revealing his story and the second half is about trying to catch the bomber. Although on the surface this is a science fiction thriller, it is actually more of a drama. It is a film about self-discovery, about loss, about romance, about struggle and about making difficult decisions. The customer's story contains a lot of emotion and a surprising revelation. After his story is told, the movie moves back into sci-fi territory, with plenty of time traveling, tension and life-or-death situations. There action is limited, which is not a bad thing as the movies gets the viewer's attention with its creative screenplay that contains an intriguing plot and quite a few plot twists.

 

Hawke delivers a strong performance as a seasoned time-traveling agent, however Snook deserves a lot of praise for her work, (spoiler alert) as she convincingly portrays two characters, one of which is male and the other female.

 

Since the narrative keeps moving through various decades of the twentieth century, the clothing often changes and it looks great thanks to costume designer Wendy Cork. Special credit also goes to the amazing work by makeup effects artist Steve Boyle.

 

The feature benefits significantly by the tense and dramatic music, which is a great contribution by Peter Spierig.

 

This is a sci-fi feature that, instead of action, focuses on character study. It aims to tell a story about painful experiences and making sacrifices for the greater good and it is worthy of recognition.

Watch Predestination Online at the UK Film Review VOD.