I would say that this movie is the absolute pinnacle of plot twist cinema. It hits you again and again and again.
I’m about to spoil it for those unaware who may still want to see it because it’s a masterpiece and worth watching regardless.
Now I’m going to go through this movie. I promise you it is worth the read and took me 1 hour to write as concisely as possible without missing major details. Please enjoy.
SUMMARY WITH SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The movie begins with Ethan Hawk walking into a factory, he narrates that he is a time agent whose job is to stop crimes before they happen by going back in time and he has travelled back in time to stop a bombing that will occur, he must also stop this notorious terrorist called the ‘Fizzle Bomber’, he proceeds to start defusing the bomb when the bomber appears and shoots him before running away, he then runs to the bomb to diffuse it but he is too late, it blows up burning his face, as he is screaming in pain another mysterious figure hands him his teleportation device.
Ethan hawke teleports back to his agencies HQ, where he receives reconstructive surgery and is told he will look different and his voice will be different.
The story proceeds to a bar where a man named John starts talking to the bartender who is Ethan Hawke and John tells the Hawke he has the best story he will ever hear.
Proceeding with the story, it begins with a baby called Jane who is dropped at an orphanage. As the years go by Jane excels all round. By 18 she catches the eye of a secretive government agent named ‘Robertson’ who influences her to apply to join a space agency. She proceeds with training but despite being the best candidate she is kicked out for unknown reasons, but Robertson tells her they will meet again.
She moves on and goes to college where she meets the man who she falls in love with but who also impregnates her before leaving her. Then she gives birth and is told she has both male and female reproductive organs but her female organs were damaged in birth then has to get a sex change to become a man then calling ‘himself’ John.
Firstly, though whilst this is going on her baby is abducted from the hospital and Jane/John never lets this pain go. John becomes a writer of confession stories and is upset with his life but wants to kill the man who impreganated him/her.
John then says it has all come around as he has just found out that his male organs have developed and can produce sperm. They celebrate and John asks Hawke if it was the best story he ever heard.Hawke says it is and eventually tells John he works for Robertson, and that he can give John the chance to kill the man who impregnated him.
After some convincing by Hawke, they proceed to travel in time back to when John/Jane were in college. Hawke tells John to go to the college to kill the man who impregnated him when he sees him, and tells John that this same man might be the Fizzle bomber. As John is waiting at the college he bumps into Jane (himself from 20 years earlier) and John realised that he is the man who impregnated himself.
Eventually John is overcome by emotion and has sex with his younger version.
During this time Hawke, travels forward in time to the night that he is at the factory (first paragraph of my summary) where he is shot by the fizzle bomber and blown up. He hopes that he can stop him the second time. However when he finds the bomber they fight and he is knocked out. When he wakes up he hears gunshots and an explosion, he runs towards it and sees himself burning on the floor, his younger version is reaching for his teleportation device and so he walks over and hands it to himself.
Hawke realises that he was the mysterious figure who gave himself the teleportation device.
He starts to question whether he can actually avert bombings or is everything inevitable as, in trying to stop the bomber the second time, the event repeated itself as the ‘fizzle Bomber’ beat up the older version of Hawke and then shot the younger version of Hawke before escaping.
Hawke returns in time to the college where he meets Robertson who tells him that he must abduct Jane’s baby when it is born as part of his Job is to ensure that Jane becomes John and that this history repeats itself so John can become the great agent he is destined to be.
Hawke proceeds to the college where he picks up John who is angry that he never had a choice, and that he himself is the man that he has loathed for 20 years. He admits that the scars on his chest from the sex change have made him very self conscious (Important detail)
They then return to the HQ where John passes out from the mental strain of time travel.
Hawke proceeds to abduct the baby and then travels back in time 40 years with the baby. He then places it on the steps of an orphanage with the name ‘Jane’ beside it. This baby will later become Jane and then become John.
Hawke is told he has one final mission, which is to return to the factory explosion for the 3rd time. This time however Robertson says that he has found evidence of the bomber’s itinerary and his daily movements. Therefore Hawke can catch the bomber off guard and finally kill him.
Hawke is told that his time machine will self destruct after he arrives and he must live his life out after he kills the bomber. However when he arrives the machine does not self-destruct.
Hawke proceeds to a laundromat where he puts his gun to the back of the Fizzle Bombers head. He tells him to turn around and take off his hat.
When the bomber does this Hawke realises that the bomber is in fact an older version of himself.
Hawke asks the bomber why he became what he hated. And the bomber tells him that it was his job.
He explains that Robertson gave him the missions because for every bombing he committed, they would stop a greater terrorist attack or accidental explosion. He explains that by blowing up the factory on that night he kills 10 guards but saves 3,000 people from dying the next day when the factory accidentally explodes.
The bomber tells Hawke that if he kills him, then he will become him as Robertson will soon force him to commit the bombings and that is the reason his time machine didn’t self destruct. Robertson knee Hawke would become the Fizzle bomber but that the greatest mission was to save those thousands of lives. Hawke, believes he has a choice and that history will not repeat itself this time. He shoots the Fizzle bomber and becomes depressed that he has spent his life hunting himself.
He records a message to John which will be opened in 12 years time when John wakes up after passing out. The message tells him to always follow his missions and that he will make a great agent.
Hawke finishes recording the message and posts it.
Once Hawke turns around, he takes off his robe revealing scars on his chest. The same scars that john had.
The audience realises that Hawke is John. They look different as after the factory explosion he needs facial reconstruction.
I hope you enjoyed this, but I promise I have missed out a lot of detail and that it is 100% worth the watch.