Looper

[lety]

Pay attention to every single minute of Looper. Sorry, I don't mean to sound so bossy but it's important in order to get the most out of writer/director Rian Johnson's intricate plot that you never allow your mind to wander. This is a time travel story with a unique twist, a sci-fi action thriller that's smart, complicated, and that actually follows through on plot twists guaranteed to make the audience uneasy.

Johnson takes the story in a completely unexpected direction and then rather than find an easy route out, he ventures into territory that few would approach in a major studio release. No further explanation can be made nor any hints dropped about the specific twist that's sure to divide the audience as that would spoil the film, but suffice it to say very few films would attempt this. The fact it doesn't completely alienate the audience - it will have some moviegoers heading to the aisles (that happened in the preview I attended) - is due to Johnson's storytelling skills and a cast that's fully committed.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Dark Knight Rises, 500 Days of Summer) stars as Joe, a drug-addicted hired killer working as a Looper. It's 2044 and while time travel hasn't yet been invented, in 2074 it's available but outlawed. Joe works for Abe (Jeff Daniels), assassinating targets sent back from '74. The targets are sent from the future to a specific spot in a remote cornfield where Joe stands ready to shoot them the second they arrive. Each victim is strapped with silver bars as payment for the job, and each body is then cremated. It's actually a smart idea given that many of the victims haven't even been born when they're murdered in 2044.

 

However, there's a change at the top of the organization in 2074 and the Loopers in 2044 are all having their circles closed, meaning their future selves are being sent back for them to murder. In doing so, the 2044 version is retired from looper service to live out the next 30 years knowing exactly when their death will come. Retiring a looper is normally a rare event, but with the change in management, loopers are being kicked out of the service at an ever-increasing pace. And not every one wants to kill their future self...

When it comes time for Joe's loop to close, his future version (played by Bruce Willis) is unwilling to go quietly. And by failing to kill his future self, 2044's Joe becomes a wanted man alongside his 2074 version.

[johnstyle]

Looper is a 2012 American science fiction action thriller film written. In the film, time travel is invented by the year 2074 and, though immediately outlawed, is used by criminal organizations to send those they want killed into the past where they are killed by "loopers", assassins paid with silver bars strapped to their targets. Joe, a looper, encounters himself when his older self is sent back in time to be killed.