Movie scene analysis: Predestination

The movie (Predestination, 2014)

The scene starts at 7:39 and shows the location is Pop’s Place with a close-up of the club’s neon sign. The sign also lets the audience know that Pop’s Place is a bar. The barkeeper, who we later learn works for the Temporal Bureau, notes the time on his watch, and it reads 8:15 on 6th November, 1970 looking up from what he was writing. From the shots taken outside before the bar’s sign is brought into focus, we can surmise that it is evening and thus the time is 8:15 pm. As the Unmarried Mother enters, we are not shown the face until they are at the counter. The barkeeper opens holds open the barrier to the back of the bar while asking the Unmarried Mother what they would like. The Unmarried Mother asks for Old Underwear and tells the barkeeper to leave the bottle.

The barkeeper says “By the look of you I guess you are not celebrating”.

The Unmarried Mother, up until then in shadows, takes of the glasses and asks, “By the look of me? What do I look like?”

It is clear from the tone and the body language of the Unamarried Mother while leaning on the bar and crossing their arms that the demeanor is quite hostile. During their tense conversation at 8:57 into the movie, we learn the barkeeper has been working at the bar for a couple of weeks.

Asked how the business is by the Unmarried Mother, the barkeeper replies it has been quiet since many people are staying at home. The Unmarried Mother enquires if it is due to the fizzle bomber and the barkeeper replies to the affirmative. The Unmarried Mother then says it is as if hiding makes anyone any safer and when asked if he is not worried about the bomber, he replies worrying about every freak show in the subway won’t change anything. The barkeeper then replies that that’s true.

The barkeeper asks the Unmarried Mother if they come to the bar often to which he replies to the barkeeper, “What are you, a faggot?”

The barkeeper asks him what is his problem and the Unmarried Mother replies that he was just joking. The barkeeper tells him that it was not funny and is asked to tell a good joke. The barkeeper tells a lame joke and from there the conversation turn to what exactly it is the Unmarried Mother does. The barkeeper says it is tough to make a living to which the Unmarried Mother asks what does the barkeeper know about tough. He replies about as much as the next guy to which the Unmarried Mother reiterates with, “About as much as an unmarried mother?”

The barkeeper asks what that means and the Unmarried Mother tells him for 4 cents a word he writes confessional stories and the Unmarried Mother is his pen name. On being asked how is the business, he replies “Business is okay. I have a weekly column. I write ‘em, they print ‘em, I eat”. The barkeeper shows the Unmarried Mother a magazine with their publication. The Unmarried Mother is surprised the barkeeper reads their story since they don’t fit the demographic. The barkeeper tells him he has a real hit into the woman angle.

The Unmarried Mother replies he known the woman’s angle, adding that he should. The barkeeper asks if it is because he is married or has sisters to which the Unmarried Mother replies he wouldn’t believe it if he told him.
The barkeeper replies that the job has taught him that truth is stranger than fiction. The Unmarried Mother says he pictures the rest of that bottle he has the best story the barkeeper ever heard to which the barkeeper tells him he will bet him a full bottle and goes to fetch it.

The conversation turns to the fizzle bomber due to the news on the TV. The Unmarried Mother says he hates the name and seems sympathetic to the fizzle bomber. In fact, he says that some people just have to go and the fizzle bomber might be doing the city a favor. They then get back to the story he promised the barkeeper which he starts off with, “When I was a little girl”. The barkeeper is surprised and after some dialogue, the Unmarried Mother goes into a monologue starting with, “September 13th, 1945”. This marks the shift of the scene to a flashback, at 15:11 minutes into the movie.

Analysis of the scene

Narrative forms the main basis of the scene and the movie in general. In fact, given the fact that the scene involves very little action or any other means of carrying the story forward, we can safely say that narrative is the predominant way of moving the story forward in the scene. The story mainly revolves around the two main characters, the barkeeper and the Unmarried Mother, focusing on almost exclusively on their dialogue. The other dialogue of note is between the barkeeper and a customer after the Unmarried Mother sits down which helps the Unmarried Mother to determine that the barkeeper knows the regulars and thus has been working at the bar for some time.

The conversation at the start of the scene lets us know that the Unmarried Mother is quite unfriendly and may have quite a temper or be hostile. When asking the bartender what does he look like, we finally see his face which is quite androgynous as he moves from the shadows to the light. This makes it easier to accept the shift of the story when he says when I was a little girl towards the end of scene. The movement from the shadows to the light also helps us anticipate that we are about to learn something which was previously hidden which happens as the movie goes on.

When the Unmarried Mother asks the barkeeper to tell him a joke, we can see the personal dynamics changing between the two. While uneasy and positively hostile on the Unmarried Mother’s side, it eventually helps to build rapport between the two. This is important since the Unmarried Mother is the narrator of the story. Without him to tell the story, there effectively would have been no movie since the plot is tied with the narration of the Unmarried Mother.

Narration helps in the transition to the next scene as well as the development of the plot since it carries the story forward. The Unmarried Mother then lapses into a monologue towards the end of the scene. The narration then changes from a monologue to voiceover as the scene changes. Narration is important at this part for two reasons. For one, it helps in making the transition to another scene both onscreen as well as in the temporal sense since the audience get to understand we have shifted from 1970 to 1945. Secondly, it is the main device with which the plot and the movie move forwards since the events the Unmarried Mother is narrating form the basis of the movie.