Download Free-Will versus Predetermination

Free-Will versus Predetermination:
Hollywood’s Portrayal of a Timeless Question
Tiffany Farnsworth
ENG 105
Online
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John Anderton rolls a ball towards Danny Witwer, who catches it just as it’s about to fall
off a table. “Why did you catch that?” “Because it was going to fall.” “You’re certain?” “Yes.”
“But it didn’t fall. You caught it…The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn’t change
the fact that it was going to happen.” The preceding dialogue was from the 2002 movie Minority
Report. Minority Report is one of the many movies released over the last decade that have been
designed not only to entertain their audiences, but to also cause them to think. Ever since man
began to think and question, the problem, or paradox, of freewill versus predestination has
always bothered humankind. Now, not only is this issue being discussed in philosophy books,
but it has emerged in popular culture through the media of film.
The film Minority Report uses the concept of a “pre-crime” division in order to portray
this theme. It takes place in the year 2054, during a time when man has utilized science in order
to prevent the act of murder from ever occurring. This is made possible through the use of
advanced technology with the capability of viewing images of future murders. These images are
output by three brain-damaged humans referred to as “precogs,” who are able to transmit the
image of the murder, the name of the future victim, the perpetrator, and the time of the future
offense. Pre-crime officers then analyze the images to determine the location of the murder, and
a unit is sent to prevent it if from occurring. The would-be perpetrator is immediately arrested
and locked away for the alleged future murder seen in the precog images. The very system of
pre-crime automatically poses the question of whether or not the person would have actually
committed the crime had they not been stopped. In the film, the pre-crime division proclaims
itself flawless—a perfect system. Yet this “perfect” system implies that humans lack the freewill to change their fate. With the creation of pre-crime, a person’s life became automatically
predestined. However, the eventual closure and defeat of pre-crime shown at the end of the film
leads the audience to believe there is hope. John Anderton possessed the free-will to change his
fate, but he did so by knowing his future. Herein lays the inevitable paradox of free-will versus
predetermination. The film is constructed to imply that free-will prevails, but is it truly free-will
if you changed something because you knew exactly what the outcome of your choice would be?
The following year another sci-fi thriller made its way to the big screen that again dealt
with a free-will versus predetermination question. The 2003 released movie Paycheck built its
storyline around a reverse-engineer who is hired to spend the next three years of his life working
on a top secret project with the promise of an eight-digit paycheck upon completion. The only
drawback is that every memory he creates in those three years will be erased from his mind the
moment he finishes. After completing his assignment and being brought immediately in by the
FBI on suspicion of espionage, the main character realizes he has created something terrible. His
only hope to fix what he has done is an envelope he sent himself with 20 seemingly unconnected
objects he collected before his memory was erased. He soon realizes that what he created was a
machine with the ability to look into the future. When he built the machine, he used it himself to
look into the future, allowing him to see what would happen if he allowed the machines use.
Now he must embark on a quest to change the future, to escape predetermination. Like Minority
Report, free-will again triumphs when he changes the future and destroys the machine. But this
triumph is again dependent on the fact that knowing your future empowers you with the ability to
change it.
“Change one thing, change everything.” This was the tagline for the movie The Butterfly
Effect, released the following year in 2004. This film, along with the 2001 cult film Donnie
Darko, moves away from the high-paced action of Minority Report and Paycheck into a darker
realm of drama, dealing with the more catastrophic risks you run by attempting to change your
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fate. These two films also expand on the exploration of free-will and predetermination by
incorporating the concept of time travel into the plot, and its implication on this concept.
The Butterfly Effect revolves around Evan Treborn, who as a child blocked out harmful
memories of his life. As he grows older, he discovers a way to not only retrieve these lost
memories, but to actually send himself back in time to the day of their occurrence. With each
attempt to change the destiny of himself and those closest to him, unforeseen and often horrific
consequences occur. Unlike the characters of Minority Report and Paycheck, Evan attempts to
change destiny without knowing the future. All he knows is that maybe if something in his past
is changed, he can prevent his childhood friend from committing suicide. But without a way to
know what to change, his attempts all end in disaster. His journey entirely revolves around freewill over predestination, and presents a negative and dark view of the subject.
Along with The Butterfly Effect, Donnie Darko is a very dark, mysterious, haunting, and
disturbing film dealing with the concepts of time travel, and changing the outcome of your
future. The film centers around the principal character of Donnie, who escapes death in the
beginning of the movie. He is told, however, that survival was not his destiny, and if he lives the
universe will collapse and be destroyed in thirty days. Armed with this information, Donnie
struggles with the knowledge of his inevitable fate and knowing he must find a way to go back
in time and prevent his life from being saved. The film uses the question of free-will versus
predetermination to imply that a human’s future is predestined, and altering it will result in the
destruction of mankind.
Not all movies are made purely for entertainment value. In my paper, I plan on using the
aforementioned movies in order to demonstrate how the film industry uses movies to portray
philosophical and theological questions to their viewers; in this case, specifically the question of
free-will versus predetermination. I will also demonstrate that just as different philosophers hold
different beliefs on the subject, the movie industry tends to portray this theme in two separate
ways: humans either possess free-will and are able to change their destiny, or their futures are
predestined and any attempt to change their fate will result in disastrous consequences. By
comparing the action packed sci-fi movies Minority Report and Paycheck, to the darker dramas
Donnie Darko and The Butterfly Effect, I will show how these films are used to make their
viewers ask the ultimate question: Can knowing the future change our actions, or are we doomed
to unalterable destiny?