“Predestination” was already released in the US in 2014 and in early 2015 the film only came to Germany on DVD and not in the cinema. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why the adaptation of a short story by visionary sci-fi author Robert A. Heinlein is still an insider tip in Germany.
TELE 5 shows “Predestination” on May 9, 2023 at 8:15 PM. The excellent science fiction film with Ethan Hawke is therefore available for a month (so until June 8) in the media library of the TV channel. “Predestination” was included – also on the 8:15 pm broadcast – uncut! Because despite the FSK-16 seal on the German DVD and Blu-ray, the film itself is approved for 12 years and older.
“Predestination”: gripping science fiction
Ethan Hawke plays a time-travelling agent for a mysterious institution that prevents attacks throughout history. But a bomber has caught him again and again, maiming him so brutally in the last meeting that he needs a new look. In 1970s New York, we meet the cop again as a bartender. He seems to be undercover here – to really stop the assassin this time? Along the way, he strikes up a conversation with a lonely drinker: John (Sarah Snook) begins his captivating life story with the words “When I was a girl…”
Robert A. Heinlein, who is known, among other things, for the template for “Starship Troopers”, wrote the short story “All You Zombies” on which “Predestination” is based in one day – already in the summer of 1958. But the science fiction thriller by brothers Michael and Peter Spierig (“Daybreakers”) is incredibly timely – but above all sensationally captivating.
Tension mainly due to strong characters
A fast start makes it clear that action will also come here, but the greatest tension arises from the relationship between the characters – above all, of course, between Ethan Hawke as a bartender and Sarah Snook, who has finally received the attention. she earns through the series “Succession”. . The conversation, repeatedly interrupted by flashbacks to John’s earlier life as Jane, constantly raises new questions. Again and again you try to put the puzzle together yourself, there are always new twists and possibilities – until the last minutes.
But “Predestination” is not one of those thrillers that lives only on its final twist. It’s not just the way to get there, but especially the many questions that enthrall you outside the film and also when you watch it repeatedly with knowledge of the final punch line that makes this film so extraordinary. It turns out to be an ingenious move not to release the audience with a consistent, logical resolution, but taking the classic chicken-and-egg problem of time travel stories by the horns in all its contradictions.
There are strong 4 stars in the FILMSTARTS review. The author of these lines was so impressed and blown away by “Predestination” that he even awarded half a star more, for a total of 4.5 stars.