The Predestination Paradox
A mind-blowing idea with an equally justified explanation.
It was around midnight yesterday, 12.30 am to be precise. I had had enough of the day and was about to hit the bed, but just when I thought I didn’t need any more stress on my limited cranium capacity, I came across this insane, quirky movie that would keep me hooked for the next 2–3 hours, despite being only 97 minutes long.
As you must have guessed, “Predestination” is the movie I’m talking about. For the impatient, instant-dopamine fanatics who can’t wait for more that 30 seconds to know everything, here’s the storyline- Time Travel mystery. For more details, you’d have to watch the entire movie yourself. Sorry, I am not that ‘spoiler guy’ you are looking for.
The sci-fi action thriller is not you typical ‘complex-terminology-with-sophisticated-gadgets’ type of movie. Don’t worry, I won’t scare you with its chart ratings and all the statistics and numbers. That’s boring, plus I don’t write something that I myself would not read.
The fact that this isn’t a Hollywood movie and hails from a country like Australia itself is fascinating to me. I’m not generalising here, it’s just that I hadn’t known Australia as a movie hub till date. But what is more intriguing and what keeps it a class apart from most time-travel and sci-fi contemporaries is its unique approach and depiction of the Predestination Paradox. I shall be emphasizing on this very idea here.
A Predestination Paradox refers to a phenomenon in which a person travelling back in time becomes part of past events, and may even have caused the initial event that caused that person to travel back in time in the first place.
Now I can’t hep you skip to the good part here, but in simpler terms, take this instance- the time traveller goes back in time in order to change something, but his or her actions inadvertently lead to the exact situation that inspired the time traveller to have gone back and changed things. Thus, nothing ultimately changes. His present is the exact result of this effort of his to change the past, and this will be the exact reason that will shape his future. It is a loop that one cannot get out of, even after knowing anything. Sounds strange right? Well it’s more of a Dr. Strange type (and that rhymed!).
Any action of the time traveller may seem rational apparently, but is instead a predestined one, just waiting to occur at the right time. What is more fascinating is that it is not a hypothetical term limited to fiction, instead it is a real-world phenomenon. While the time-travel part can be considered an element of fiction in the modern-day context, who knows, it could be a real thing in the future because of the same fictional consideration prevalent today!
Other movies with instances of the Predestination Paradox include the Terminator series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Interstellar, to name a few.
The movie Predestination, however, gives this theory its best definition and portrayal. The whole idea amazes me and as I research more about it , my curiosity gets even higher, and so does my admiration towards science fiction in general. The Spierig brothers deserve all the credit in understanding this and creating this beautiful movie with equal appreciation to Ethan Hawke for playing the protagonist role effortlessly. Also thanks to my friend Sangeet who had recommended this movie a year ago. I can finally strike off the name from my list of recommended movies(or rather pending, forgotten movies).
If you’re even slightly fascinated by the idea after reading this piece, or if you’re into science fiction or thriller movies in general, I’d highly recommend you to watch the movie. You won’t be disappointed, I promise. Also, this isn’t any promotional or marketing blog for the movie (although I wish it was).
Another highly recommended thing would be to let me know how you felt about this blog, maybe clap on it (it’s the ‘Medium’ version of a like) or leave a comment below. You could also give me a few other movie recommendations aligning with these genres.
Thanks for reading this far. Have a nice day!
