predestination

Director: michael spierig,peter spierig

Actor: ethan hawke,sarah snook,noah taylor,madeleine west

Data Published: Fri Jun 13 2014

Genres: Action,Drama,Sci-Fi,Thriller

Key Words: time travel,temporal agent,time machine,time paradox,in love with oneself

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2397535/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination_(film)

Description: Predestination is a movie starring Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, and Noah Taylor. 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...

Plot: The film begins in medias res as a time travelling agent is trying to disarm a bomb that explodes and burns his face. Someone approaches and helps him to grasp his time travelling device, which then transports him to a hospital in the future. While the agent is recovering from facial reconstruction, it is revealed that he has been trying to prevent the attack of the so-called "Fizzle Bomber" on New York in 1975. After his recovery, he receives his last assignment. The agent moves to 1970 New York. As a bartender, he starts a conversation with one of the customers. The customer, John, writes true confession articles under the pen name "The Unmarried Mother." This pseudonym is explained by his own life story, which he tells the bartender. Born female, the customer grew up as "Jane" in an orphanage. She excelled in her studies but had difficulty fitting in. Jane decided any children she had would be raised in a proper family, and thus avoided relationships. As an adult she applied for a program called "Space Corp," which promised women the chance to go to space while providing astronauts with intimate R&R, but she was later disqualified because of a medical condition which had never before been revealed to her, but which greatly interested a man named Robertson. Jane later bumped into a man who said he was waiting for someone. The two eventually fell in love with each other, but one day, the man disappeared. In time, Robertson approached Jane, revealing that Space Corp was really a part of the Temporal Agency, and this agency now wanted to recruit her. They broke off contact when it was discovered that Jane was pregnant with her ex-lover's baby. While performing a Caesarean section, doctors discovered Jane was intersex, with internalized male sex organs, as well as female sex organs. Complications during the birth forced them to remove her female sex organs, and as a result, she had to undergo a gender reassignment and begin living as a man. Furthermore, the baby was stolen by a mysterious man. Ever since, John has been living a bitter life, writing fiction as "The Unmarried Mother." The agent offers to take John back in time to the day that Jane met the man who would later become her lover and leave her, so John can take revenge and kill the man for ruining his (Jane's) life. In return, John will take over the agent's job for whatever duration he wishes. The agent reveals his time-travel device, and the two jump to that day in 1963. John intends to kill his past lover prior to the moment when the lover first meets Jane. While waiting, John encounters Jane, and as they begin talking, John realizes that he is the man who later becomes Jane's lover. The baby born from this "self-fertilization" is stolen by the agent, who uses the time machine to take the baby to the orphanage, 18 years earlier in 1945. Therefore, Jane, John, and their baby are the same person, revealing a predestination paradox. The agent goes to 1975 New York, where he helps the burned man from the beginning of the film. The agent returns to 1963, a few months after he dropped John off. He convinces John that John must leave Jane behind, and he uses the machine to take them both to the Temporal Agency. John now takes over the agent's job, so the agent can retire in 1975 New York, close to the day of the Fizzle Bomber's attack. Upon arrival, the agent's time-travel device does not decommission itself as planned and can still be used. He has been ordered to check a launderette at the moment the Fizzle Bomber will be there. The Fizzle Bomber turns out to be the agent's own future self, now suffering from psychosis as a result of excessive time travel. The Fizzle Bomber insists that his actions have saved and will save more lives than the lives lost, and that they ultimately lead to the reinforcement of the Temporal Agency. He tries to convince the agent that the only way to end the cycle is for the agent to spare the bomber's life, unlike the Fizzle Bomber did in his past as the agent. The agent denies he will ever become the Fizzle Bomber and kills his future self. The film finally reveals that in 1975, John is the man who travelled to New York and was burned while disarming a bomb. His subsequent facial reconstruction significantly changes his appearance, and it is now clear that Jane, John, the agent, and the Fizzle Bomber are the same person. This agent's creation was orchestrated by Robertson to create an agent who has no ties to time. This "perfect" temporal agent was responsible for both his own conception and death; he has driven the predestination paradox to its limit.