Time travel movies are often very confusing, and in many cases that’s the point. One of the things fans love about the sci-fi subgenre is diving into the nitty gritty machinations behind the mythology, but even then, 2014 cult favorite Predestination was almost impossible to predict.
Written and directed by The Spierig Brothers, the sibling duo re-teamed with Ethan Hawke to deliver their second enthusiastically-received collaboration in a row after the popular vampire thriller Daybreakers. With Predestination, the filmmakers continued setting out a stall as a creative duo capable of freshening up a familiar concept in suitably spectacular form.
Hawke’s Agent Doe is a temporal agent, which is effectively a time traveling cop who tries to prevent crimes that happen throughout various points in history. Heading out on the fabled “one last job”, the veteran law enforcement officer seeks to track down and apprehend the Fizzle Bomber, his arch-nemesis who mounts a terrorist attack that claims thousands of lives, but has so far eluded him throughout all of time.
Diving any deeper into specifics runs the risk of giving away spoilers, and you’re much better off going into Predestination without an inkling of how things ultimately pan out. Hopefully, that’s the boat Netflix subscribers have been finding themselves in this week, with the ambitious mind-melter having become the 16th most-watched title on the platform’s global charts per FlixPatrol.
An 84 percent Rotten Tomatoes score highlights the acclaim that greeted Predestination, and there’s a high chance you’ll be left with your jaw on the floor by the time the revelations start coming thick and fast.