Predestination

Dir: Peter Spierig, Michael Spierig

2014

****

The Spierig Brothers' adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's mind-bending 1959 short story "—All You Zombies—" is refreshingly authentic, with only the title and a slight plot change being the difference. I would have said it was impossible to adapt the story into a film, or at least a film people would bare to sit through but Peter and Michael Spierig have proved me incredibly wrong. The film looks incredible from the very beginning with Ben Nott's stunning cinematography introducing it as a serious contender and a sci-fi thriller to pay attention to. The film wisely begins in medias res but manages not to give the game away then leads to the perfect scene to set the tone for the rest of the story. The film is mind-boggling, utterly unpredictable and incredibly creative, and simply but beautifully narrated by two guys in a bar, somewhere in New York City, one quite evening in 1970. Robert A. Heinlein's original short story, which was published in the March 1959 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine (after being rejected by Playboy magazine) is regarded as a classic in sci-fi literature. It develops themes explored by the author in a previous work: "By His Bootstraps", published some 18 years earlier and some of the same elements also appear later in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985), including the Circle of Ouroboros and the Temporal Corps, but it is —All You Zombies— that is best remembered and what gained the cult following. It was even nominated for the 1980 Balrog Award for short fiction, some 21 years after it was first published, and has had a growing fan-base ever since. The Brothers Spierig decided to leave the story as it is in the book because after lengthy discussions and much time spend trying to work out the possibilities of the story's premise they figured that there wasn't much point, stating "We worked on the logic that if there was a way to pick apart the logic, over that time (50 years) it would have been done by now. We kind of said, 'let's trust the short story and trust that logic', so we stuck very closely to it." You can't really argue with that, and anyway, it's self-confessed science-fiction, if it happens to be proven that events featured are possible, then well done Mr Heinlein. It's a remarkable idea, a little dark in places but profoundly original. It also presents the audience with big physiological and ideological questions without trying to answer them itself, leaving it hanging slightly awkwardly but devilishly so. Ethan Hawke is perfectly cast in a role that keeps you guessing and Sarah Snook is brilliant in what has to be one of the strangest roles an actor could ever be given. The chemistry between the two is brilliant, the script and how they delivered it to each other is the back bone of the film and it works effectively. It's got every element one could ask of an intelligent sci-fi film. Predestination is a stylish thriller approached in the style of classic 50s pulp-fiction by way of Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and a bit of H. G. Wells for good measure. You'll already know the twist but it is a film that definitely deserves repeat viewing.