Predestination 4k

[Placido Teofilo]

In March 1975, an agent, while trying to stop a bombing in a public building in New York City, is caught in a gunfight. The bomb detonates causing severe burns to the agent. Someone unseen helps him grasp his time-travel device, which he uses to retreat to his employer's facility in 1992. His mission is considered a failure because the "Fizzle Bomber", the unidentified serial-bombing fugitive he confronted, remains uncaptured and would strike again another day, ultimately killing over eleven thousand people.

The agent recovers from his injuries, his face and voice altered by facial reconstruction surgery and vocal cord damage. Citing the dangers of the extensive usage of time travel during his career, his superiors force his imminent retirement. His doctor diagnoses him with symptoms of psychosis and depression but does not disclose this.

The agent is sent on his final mission. Working undercover in 1970 New York City as a bartender, he converses with a customer who writes true confession articles under the pen name "The Unmarried Mother". The reticent customer begins telling his own life story after much prompting.

In 1963, Jane fell in love with a man by a chance encounter, briefly finding happiness before the man deserted her one day. Robertson finally revealed to Jane that SpaceCorp was a front to recruit elite operatives with no family ties for a secret government agency, but Jane became disqualified again due to being pregnant by her lover. While performing a Caesarean section, doctors discovered Jane was intersex. As a result of a forced hysterectomy due to birth complications, Jane underwent gender reassignment through a series of extensive surgeries. Amidst all this, her baby was abducted by an unidentified person. Resenting her lover for ruining her life, Jane adopted the name John and eventually relocated to New York City.

The agent offers John the chance to take revenge on his lover scot-free, in return for John taking over the agent's job. The agent time travels with John to Cleveland in 1963, admitting that he works for Robertson's secret agency, the Temporal Bureau, which uses time travel to prevent crimes. Following instructions for finding Jane in the past, John unwittingly falls in love with his younger self and realizes that the agent set him up to become Jane's lover. Despite knowing that their love is doomed, John cannot bring himself to break off their relationship.

Deviating from his mission, the agent illegally time travels to March 1975 to pursue the Fizzle Bomber once more. The Fizzle Bomber beats him in combat, leaving him to witness, and help, his earlier burned self. The agent expects to be executed, but Robertson excuses him, against the Bureau's protocols.

Continuing his mission, the agent takes Jane's baby, born from her self-fertilization by John, back in time to the Cleveland orphanage in 1945. Thus, Jane, John, and their baby are the same person, a predestination paradox.

The agent returns to 1963 and convinces John to leave Jane at the preordained time, inducting John into the Temporal Bureau in 1985 and completing his mission. Robertson extols the importance of John's future role at the Bureau as a unique operative with no ties to the past or future. The agent still regrets his failure to stop the Fizzle Bomber, but Robertson credits the Fizzle Bomber for motivating the Bureau's growth and success.

The agent retires to New York City in 1975 shortly before the March attack. He decommissions his time-travel device as instructed, but the device remains operational. He also finds that Robertson gave him an exact location and time where the Fizzle Bomber will be found. There, he discovers that the Fizzle Bomber is his future self, who claims that his bombings averted greater death tolls in alternate futures. The Bomber also claims that Robertson set up this path for him. Vowing that he will not become the Bomber, the agent guns down his older self.

John's surgical scars are shown on the agent's body, confirming that Jane, John, the agent, and the Fizzle Bomber are all the same person. Robertson knowingly orchestrated this agent's existence, responsible for both his own conception and death. On a tape recording left for John, the agent contemplates whether the future can be changed.

Ethan Hawke was selected for the lead role, while Wolfhound Pictures and Blacklab Entertainment collaborated to produce the film.[9] Hawke explained in November 2014 that he is a longtime fan of the science fiction genre, but he prefers its human elements, rather than special effects:

Whether it's Robert Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, H. G. Wells or whoever ... that kind of mind-bendy science-fiction where you can really attack themes in a new way. And when I read Predestination it was like: "What the f*** did I just read?!"[7]

Arclight Films had bought the international rights to the film,[9] and on 18 May 2012, Tiberius Film attained the German rights to the film from Arclight.[10] On 23 May 2012, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the American and some international rights to the film.[11]

On 28 February 2013, Snook signed on to star in one of the film's lead roles,[13] followed by Taylor, who joined the cast of the film on 13 May 2013. Also in 2013, Pinnacle Films secured the Australian and New Zealand distribution rights to the film.[14]

On 19 February 2013, pre-production was scheduled to begin on 25 February 2013, while shooting was scheduled to begin on 8 April 2013 in Melbourne, for a duration of six weeks.[15] By 13 May 2013, filming was underway.[14] Filming predominantly took place at the Docklands Studios Melbourne facility, located approximately 1.5 km (0.93 mi) from the Melbourne city centre.[16] Some scenes were shot at the Abbotsford Convent, located in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford, the foyer of 333 Collins Street, the University of Melbourne old quad, and at the RMIT Design Hub.[8]

In regard to Snook, the Spierig brothers explained to the media that they always seek to cast a lesser-known actor in their films. Michael Spierig later compared Snook's acting ability to that of fellow Australian actress Cate Blanchett. They also said that they prefer to film in Australia, with its rebates and incentives, but will film in any geographical location.[8]

Predestination's global premiere was held on 8 March 2014 at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, US.[17] The film was then selected for the opening night gala of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), held at the Hamer Hall venue on 31 July 2014 in Melbourne, Australia. The MIFF promotional material described Predestination as a "distinctive blend of sci-fi, noir and crime fiction with a Bukowskian streak."[18] The Sydney premiere of the film, which also featured a live Q&A session with the directors, occurred on 6 August 2014 at the Palace Verona cinema.[19]

The film went on general release in the United Kingdom on 13 February 2015.[7] Following the release of two trailers, and a seven-minute excerpt that was published on 3 December 2014, Predestination premiered on 9 January 2015 in the United States.[20]

Variety magazine's review of the film called it an "entrancingly strange time-travel saga" that "succeeds in teasing the brain and touching the heart even when its twists and turns keep multiplying well past the point of narrative sustainability."[17] In anticipation of the MIFF opening night's screening, the Sydney Morning Herald's National Film Editor Karl Quinn called Snook's performance a "career-making role". In terms of the plot, Quinn states that it is "intriguing" even though it could "unravel at the slightest tug on a thread of loose logic."[23]

The lead character was variously described as transgender or intersex in different media articles.[24] Hawke told The Guardian that the narrative is relevant to all people: "There's something about Predestination that actually does get at identity, for me".[7]

Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul.[1] Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby God's omniscience seems incompatible with human free will. In this usage, predestination can be regarded as a form of religious determinism; and usually predeterminism, also known as theological determinism.

Some have argued that the Book of Enoch contains a deterministic worldview that is combined with dualism.[2] The book of Jubilees seems to harmonize or mix together a doctrine of free will and determinism.[3]

There is some disagreement among scholars regarding the views on predestination of first-century AD Judaism, out of which Christianity came.[citation needed] Josephus wrote during the first century that the three main Jewish sects differed on this question. He argued that the Essenes and Pharisees argued that God's providence orders all human events, but the Pharisees still maintained that people are able to choose between right and wrong. He wrote that the Sadducees did not have a doctrine of providence.

Biblical scholar N. T. Wright argues that Josephus's portrayal of these groups is incorrect, and that the Jewish debates referenced by Josephus should be seen as having to do with God's work to liberate Israel rather than philosophical questions about predestination. Wright asserts that Essenes were content to wait for God to liberate Israel while Pharisees believed Jews needed to act in cooperation with God.[5] John Barclay responded that Josephus's description was an over-simplification and there were likely to be complex differences between these groups which may have been similar to those described by Josephus.[6] Francis Watson has also argued on the basis of 4 Ezra, a document dated to the first century AD, that Jewish beliefs in predestination are primarily concerned with God's choice to save some individual Jews.[7]

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