The reason I became a reader of science-fiction and eventually a writer of that genre is due to the work of Robert A. Heinlein. A grand master of the form his works influenced the arts and sciences for decades. Despite being a best-selling and ground breaker author very few of his works have been adapted successfully into films. The Puppet Masters became a mediocre film fatally damaged by a third act that abandoned the source material for cheaply ripping off other films. Starship Troopers practically ignored the source material and where it didn’t it engaged in a malicious misreading in favor of the director’s favorite obsessions. Given this background I approached Predestination with a healthy sense of apprehension.

Adapted for the screen and directed by the Spierig brothers a pair of Australian filmmakers Predestination overcomes Heinlein’s troubled history with adaptions to become not only the first film to faithful to the source material but a movie that also works well in its own right.

It’s difficult to discuss the plot of Predestination without an abundance of spoilers. This is a time travel film and one needs to go into the viewing with an open mind towards the crazy world of time paradoxes.

Ethan Hawke, returning to work with the Spierig brother again following their partnerships with the novel vampire film Daybreakers, is an agent with basically a time police agency. Hawke’s character is leaping through time in pursuit to another time traveller who is leaving a trail of nasty explosions in his wake. This entire cop and bomber plot is the invention of the filmmakers, yet they fold it into the narrative from the short story in a seamless and tonal consistent manner.

Sarah Snook plays in effect several parts, principally she plays a man who writes confession stories and drinks away his life nursing a grudge over the person who ruined her life. Hawke and Snook’s writer character form an unusual partnership with staggering implications.

The original story ‘All you Zombies…” was written many decades ago and of course its portrayal of the future has become horribly dated. Following in the footsteps of Zack Snyder and his adaptation of the graphic novel ‘Watchmen’ the Spierig brothers do not attempt to ‘update’ the setting or characters, but rather the entire story takes place in an alternate time-line where history, particularly space-travel, followed a different course. This works very well for me, but I’m not sure how many casual audience members would follow this construction.

A low budget film, Predestination, never got a full theatrical release; this is a shame. I think the brothers have shone again that they are able to realize amazing visions with limited resources. Especially in dealing with a film that jumps over 40 years of period, from 1945 through 1985, they pull it all off with style and realism. This is a film that is going to become part of my collection. I urge you all to view it at least one.