Podcast | 'Predestination' Episode Recap

Episode Guest

Pete Guither

Time travel stories are consistently plagued by paradox. The question is, which one? 

While the movie Back to the Future explores what is known as the “Grandfather paradox”. The film, Predestination, is a quintessential example of a "bootstrap paradox" (also known as a predestination paradox). This movie traps its characters in a single, closed loop where events only happen because the traveler went back to cause them. 

Or, as Smart Hulk from Avengers: Endgame puts it: “If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past, which can’t now be changed by your new future.”

It’s a narrative structure that demands precision, and Predestination decidedly delivers.

The film is such a faithful adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s 1958 short story, All You Zombies, it could very well be considered a love letter to the source material. This story explores the complexity of one’s identity not only through the lens of age and experience but through gender as well. Whether or not true "free will" exists within a fixed timeline remains the ultimate question left by the film. 

If you’re looking to dive deeper into the world of time-bending cinema, be sure to listen to the entire episode for some of our favorite time-travel flick pics.

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Episode Beverage Pairing

Ingredients for Old Underwear Old Fashioned

• old underwear rye whiskey
• ¼ ounce simple syrup 
• 2–3 dashes aromatic bitters
• 1 orange peel
• an optional luxardo cherry

Stir the mixture gently for 30-45 seconds to properly dilute and chill the beverage.