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Predestination (OT I guess)

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A

Admiral Woofington

Member
DC0EkV3.jpg


Didn't see a thread for it and I feel more folks should know about it. Watched this movie with my buddies recently. It was a really fun sci-fi time travel movie and the most fun I've had piecing things together with friends while watching it. If you liked Primer you will probably like this as both are nonconventional really well done time travel films. Sarah Snook acted her heart out and had a great role, and of course Ethan Hawke continues to be underrated.

I can't recommend it enough. You can watch it through Amazon and other means if you're interested.

Plot synopsis:
The life of a time-traveling Temporal Agent. On his final assignment, he must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time.
Click to expand...

Which IMHO doesn't do it justice. It's so much more with a very heartfelt story as well.


7VYDKkg.jpg
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IMDb score of 7.5

Rotten Tomatoes score of 80%

International Trailer
 
J

jond76

Banned
Really neat movie. Some of the paradoxes don't quite gel with me, but overall it definitely is worth a watch for time travel fans.
 
B

broadwayrock

Member
You can predict the plot twists in this a mile off, but it is really refreshing to see a genre film that focuses on characterisation. Its almost like it was made in the 60s/70s.
 
megamerican

megamerican

Member
Big surprise for me. They telegraph a little too much where the story is going, but it doesn't really detract from the movie. It's actually quite touching, and the two leads each give a great performance.

I'll admit that last line got me.
 
W

Wasteman

Banned
The problem is the film is that the twist is what makes it somewhat good. For the first 40 minutes I was ready to turn it off for being terribly paced, boringly shot and just overall dull. The twist kept me going when it all started to fall into place but it's a gimmick. I don't see myself watching it again.
 
M

maquiladora

Member
A great story (thanks to Robert A. Heinlein) with good actors but it felt quite low budget, unimaginatively filmed and overall a missed opportunity.

In the hands of a greater filmmaker it might have been something really special.
 
L

liquidtmd

Banned
Thought the performances by Hawke and in particular Snook were fantastic. A rock solid dark underbelly of a B-Movie sci-fi tale that deserves praise because of the talent.

Usually this kind of flick would stew with TV style actors and delusions of granduer. The story and tone knew exactly what it was, no more no less. Gritty noir.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
What a coincidence, I just finished watching this right now, did a search on GAF only to find one thread about it, and it was created yesterday, heh.

I really liked the film, but can't claim that I got everything... I kept pausing it throughout and rewinding little bits for things to make sense, but the end was a total mindfuck. Need to read up on it and try to put the pieces together.

Time travel is my favorite plot device, and I like Ethan Hawke a lot, so this was a no brainer for me, and it didn't disappoint.
 
P

plasmawave

Banned
I really enjoyed the movie. It has stellar performances.

However, I think there's one HUGE plot hole in the story.

How come she didn't notice herself looking at lot like her boyfriend day by day and not suspect something was up?
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
plasmawave said:
I really enjoyed the movie. It has stellar performances.

However, I think there's one HUGE plot hole in the story.

How come she didn't notice herself looking at lot like her boyfriend day by day and not suspect something was up?
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supposedly we can assume it was because it had been a while and it was a quick fling. Plus prior to that moment she didn't know of time travel so the thought never crossed her mind
 
P

plasmawave

Banned
Admiral Woofington said:
supposedly we can assume it was because it had been a while and it was a quick fling. Plus prior to that moment she didn't know of time travel so the thought never crossed her mind
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Time travel may not have crossed her mind, but surely she must have freaked out after seeing herself in the mirror for the first time as a male and saw her boyfriend's face there. And I doubt she'd forget his face with the kind of grudge she holds against him.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
Ok, I read this entire page Predestination (2014) Explained and holy shit there was some more to it than I originally got (dem time travel paradoxes, eh)... but there's one thing I'm still not clear on:

As John/Jane has no beginning or end and is the source of his own birth, he is his own father, mother, and grandfather. This paradox in time means that Hawke’s very future depends upon him going back to the past as the proverbial “grandfather”, and ensuring John gets his younger female self, Jane, pregnant so he can drop the child, his “granddaughter”, off at the orphanage in 1945, where she could grow up to become them. Hawke is forced to repeat the process over and over again inside an endless loop, or else cease to exist.
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Why does Hawke's
existence rely on him taking the baby?

Fake edit: I guess because:

By subsequently killing the Fizzle Bomber in the Laundromat Hawke ensures he will continue the cycle by becoming him over time, and that his (now the Fizzle Bomber) actions will eventually cause John to become Hawke and give him the reason he needs to travel back in time to stop him (Fizzle Bomber). Thus, the loop sustains its succession of events and remains unbroken for the cycle to start over again. This is all necessary because despite their sadness over the decisions they make, if either Jane/John/Hawke/Fizzle make any decisions other than the ones that they were predestined to make then their very existence would be nullified. In this way, they all depend on one another to make the same choices they make throughout the movie in order to exist, making the character a chicken and egg time paradox from beginning to end.
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Yeah, as much as I love time travel, it's always a headache to think about :p
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
plasmawave said:
Time travel may not have crossed her mind, but surely she must have freaked out after seeing herself in the mirror for the first time as a male and saw her boyfriend's face there. And I doubt she'd forget his face with the kind of grudge she holds against him.
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Saw these in a thread on imdb:

She stopped looking into mirrors when she was still at the orphanage. When she looked in the mirror after the surgery, she was younger, still in "transition" and didn't look quite as haggard as the "John" in the bar yet
.
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"Strange, every time I looked at my new appearance I was reminded of that bastard who ruined my life. Some messed up irony I guess." <---- This line explains it in the movie
.
Click to expand...

Jane states that every time she looks in the mirror, she sees him. People who are brokenhearted often complain about seeing reminders of that person everywhere. Being Jane was now a man, she assumes that seeing him in her own reflection is her mind playing tricks on her because of the hurt, anger, & confusion.

No rational person would see that reflection & jump to the conclusion that she must have figured out a way to come back in time & seduce herself. LOL
Click to expand...
 
J

jond76

Banned
My biggest hurdle is if John is the fizzle bomber, and the time agency knows about it, why do they insist that the cycle continues? Johns whole mission is to stop the fizzle bomber, so if he simply doesn't move the baby or changes any other of countless decisions, the fizzle bomber ceases. The only thing I can gather is I remember the last John in the Laundromat stated that he was saving lives by being the bomber. So I guess that as terrible events unfolded, he would travel to that time and set off a bomb that would cause less damage, disrupting the plans for the bigger catastrophe.

But, there is always the news of the Biggest Bomb Yet, supposedly by the fizzle bomber... what purpose does that serve?
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
jond76 said:
My biggest hurdle is if John is the fizzle bomber, and the time agency knows about it, why do they insist that the cycle continues? Johns whole mission is to stop the fizzle bomber, so if he simply doesn't move the baby or changes any other of countless decisions, the fizzle bomber ceases. The only thing I can gather is I remember the last John in the Laundromat stated that he was saving lives by being the bomber. So I guess that as terrible events unfolded, he would travel to that time and set off a bomb that would cause less damage, disrupting the plans for the bigger catastrophe.

But, there is always the news of the Biggest Bomb Yet, supposedly by the fizzle bomber... what purpose does that serve?
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Where did you get that the agency
knows that John is the bomber? I don't think they do. As far as they know John retired in 1975 and his time machine was decommissioned. But the machine failed to decommission and he didn't report it, so he keeps using it illegally to "prevent future deaths" as the Fizzle Bomber.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
I need more time travel movie recommendations. I've seen:

The Terminator
Back to the Future
Primer

... Geez I can't remember others from the top of my head!
 
S

starchild excalibur

Member
I liked the film primarily because of the main character's backstory that was recounted during the first half hour - a segment that some critics of the film actually seemed to find as the weak link. It's really a film that benefits from the strengths of these characters first and foremost. From a plot perspective it has issues.

I'm pretty dumb when it comes to figuring stuff out, but the
obvious masking of people's faces early on in the film immediately sets you up to wonder whether they're the same character. Especially combined with the fact that his face got burned off and the explanation that his voice would sound a little different.

Also, the whole essentially giving-birth-to-yourself thing over and over just distracted me and felt like a huge plot hole to me. Maybe it's because I don't know everything about gender re-assignment, but when he announced "And I'm no longer shooting blanks" I was like "Really?" It just felt convenient to the explanation of the story. As well as the fact that I don't get how having your female sex organs removed necessitates that you go under full gender re-assignment especially when she had expressed no interest until then about becoming a male and the procedure obviously upset her greatly.

I liked the film overall. It's really a film that hinges a lot on Sarah Snook's performance, which was incredible and immediately makes her one to follow. But I definitely agreed with one review that suggested that a lot of the story seems to be set up simply to deliver the biggest twist they can deliver by the end of it.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
True Savior said:
Triangle
Looper
Twelve Monkeys
The Time Traveler's Wife
Los cronocrímenes
Time After Time
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I've seen Looper and Twelve Monkeys (forgot to mention them, and I've been meaning to rewatch TM for a long time, I barely remember anything from it). I'll check the others out, thanks!

Also interested in any good movies that have a time travel element to them, without being the center focus of the plot, for example: Star Trek (2009), Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Midnight in Paris, Howl's Moving Castle.

Edit: and Donnie Darko.
 
R

robertsan21

Member
really didnt enjoy this movie. The girls who played a boy, yikes she was horrible and it just felt so awkward when she tried acting boyish.
 
S

SCULLIBUNDO

Banned
Definition of a movie that sucks beyond the first watch. Unfortunately for me, I went in having already read the original short story so there was nothing else there.
 
T

The Last Wizard

Member
This is based on all you zombies iirc, I was recommended the story after reading the man who folded himself.
Gonna read the short story before I watch this.
 
N

Naked Snake

Member
robertsan21 said:
really didnt enjoy this movie. The girls who played a boy, yikes she was horrible and it just felt so awkward when she tried acting boyish.
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Ironic when everyone is calling it Oscar worthy performance.

Scullibundo said:
Definition of a movie that sucks beyond the first watch. Unfortunately for me, I went in having already read the original short story so there was nothing else there.
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Heh, I watched it again today (saw it first time yesterday). Still enjoyed it.
 
P

-Pyromaniac-

Member
I really liked this movie. It was not what I expected AT ALL. I also enjoyed how tastefully they handled the theme of gender/identity. Some of the twists are predictable but they still had umph. Good flick.
 
Y

YesNOnoNOYes

Member
I enjoyed this movie. It came out of nowhere, and I thought it was one of those low budget titles that I could just let play and ignore in the background but I ended up watching it raptly from beginning to end.

Very neat little gem.
 
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