Time travel is one of the most dangerous tools a writer can use in science fiction. When done poorly, it leads to tangled timelines that lose any semblance of stability. Looper jumped right into the genre September 28.
Sometime in the future, time travel will be invented- and then outlawed. This doesn’t stop crime syndicates from the 2070’s from using it to murder people and dispose of the body. The targets are sent through time to the 2040’s to be assassinated by people called loopers. It’s viciously simple- the target from the future appears in a remote location at a designated time, bound and blindfolded. The assassin is waiting for the target and kills him immediately.
When loopers are no longer needed, their future selves are sent to the past to be killed: an act called “closing the loop.” Once a looper kills his future self, he lives until he grows old and is sent to the past to be killed by a younger self. Failing to kill one’s future self is punished by death.
The plot centers around Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a looper who botches the closing of his loop. His future self (Bruce Willis) escapes, and Young Joe has to go after Old Joe but avoid the men who are coming to exact punishment.
Through a conversation the Joes have after striking an uneasy truce, we learn that Old Joe intentionally sent himself back because his wife had been killed on the orders of a mysterious man only known as the Rainmaker. Old Joe thinks that if he can kill the Rainmaker as a child, his wife won’t be killed in the future.
The movie plays with viewers’ minds in much the same way the 2010 movie Inception does. Where Inception used dreams, Looper uses time travel. We’re treated to a scene in which Young Joe burns his own arm, spelling out a message, which then becomes a scar on Old Joe’s arm.
Looper is definitely a thinker. While it presents interesting time travel paradoxes to think about, it has plenty of action. Between the car chases, shootouts, and tense manhunts, it’s an exciting watch. If you happen to miss the showing in theaters, just wait until time travel is invented.