Before Sarah Snook was battling for control of Waystar Royco, she was dealing with time travel in the 2014 movie Predestination, which is now streaming on Netflix (and was immediately added to our Best Netflix movies list).
Despite not being a hot ticket for moviegoers (it made less than $5 million at the worldwide box office), the sci-fi movie has been well-regarded by critics (“Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes) and viewers (75% positive rating on RT). I remember I was definitely enthralled by it when I initially watched it on-demand around the time of its release. You now have the chance to weigh in yourself as you can watch Predestination on Netflix (US only).
Based on the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein and written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, Predestination follows an agent of the Temporal Bureau (Ethan Hawke) as he attempts to stop a terrorist known as the Fizzle Bomber. This leads him to a bar in 1970 New York, where he meets John (Sarah Snook), who tells the agent his whole story — how he was born a girl, fell in love with a mysterious man that abandoned him, got pregnant, at which point the doctor’s discovered that he was intersex and performed a hysterectomy, meanwhile, the baby was abducted. The agent then offers to help John get answers to his past, which will in turn help out with his own mission.
If the plot description alone sounds crazy, you’re not wrong. Predestination is a wild ride, with plenty of twists and turns that I had to think about for a while before getting a complete grip on it. And yet, the complexities didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie, and clearly, others felt the same way as evidenced by the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes scores.
One of its strongest elements is the two main performances by Hawke and Snook. Hawke is always a reliable actor, and this role gave him opportunities to explore some complex ideas, resulting in one of his more unique and interesting performances. But Snook is the star of the show, four years before she truly broke out with her Emmy-winning role on Succession. Snook plays John and Jane (their identity before the hysterectomy), though her performance as John is incredible and nearly unrecognizable.
I don’t want to say too much for fear of giving away key plot details that will be better served by just watching the movie itself. But, if you want a little more evidence as to why Predestination is worth a watch, check out the trailer right here:
Predestination is now available to stream on Netflix. It is also streaming for free on Pluto TV and available via digital on-demand platforms.
