50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Ethan Hawke has made a name for himself across pretty much all genres this century, and while he may be better known for his horror output or drama work with the likes of Richard Linklater, he slots neatly into pretty much anything - including the Spierig brothers’ Predestination. 

Predestination sends Hawke’s unnamed US Temporal Bureau agent back in time to prevent the Fizzle Bomber attacks, but the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimeys soon set in, and things go topsy-turvy. The film uses the agent's changing appearance (a prerequisite of being a clandestine operative), the inherently splayed nature of his actions across time, and his gradually disassembling psyche to bring him face-to-face with something like fate. And fate comes in the form of John/Jane (Sarah Snook), a transgender columnist recruited by the government and who turns out to be the agent themselves…

Adapted from Robert A. Heinlein's short story “All You Zombies”, Predestination is an Oedipal meditation on the dire consequences of time travel. It drives its narrative along the single timeline theory, and admirably, if unsettlingly, refuses to let things pull themselves up by their bootstraps.