Looper is a wonderful motion picture. Writer/Director Rian Johnson, much like Christopher Nolan’s Inception, has been penning this script for a long time. The time sure was worth it; Looper is a well-conceived time travel story with minimal logical leaps. On top of that, Looper contains complex, fully realized characters who wander in and out of several moral quandaries; the best compliment I can pay Looper is that it did not leave my thoughts for several days after the movie was over.
In 2074, time travel is invented, but quickly outlawed. Therefore, only the mob controls its use; they send people they want to kill back in time. Looper is a term referring to hitmen who live in 2044 who kill the head-covered time travelers. The name comes from the last kill: their future self, which closes the loop from the future ending the killing contract. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 2044, Bruce Willis in 2074) is one such Looper. In between hits, Joe lives it up in a fast-paced lifestyle of drugs and strippers. Then the fateful last kill arrives; however, old Joe’s head isn’t covered, causing young Joe to hesitate and let old Joe escape. This does not sit well with Joe’s boss (Jeff Daniels), who will close the loop by all means necessary.
To say more would reveal the unexpected turns the plot takes, which are part of Johnson’s bigger efforts to circumvent expectations. For a movie set in the future, some of the big moments take place on a rural farm. The guns they use to kill (a blunderbuss and magnum) are versions of guns we own today, and high-rise buildings in the city are insignificant compared to the poor who live on the streets (credit cinematographer Steve Yedlin for creating this dichotomy). Even the plot of the movie is only half described in the intro above. Any time some sort of cliché is approached in Looper, Johnson rotates the scene in another direction, giving Looper a consistently unique spin.
Time travel in and of itself can be a hassle. Attempts to logically explain it range from absurd (Land of the Lost) to almost incomprehensible (Primer). Paradoxes usually abound; the key is to be consistent and relatively simple to keep questions to a minimum. Looper, even with its title, acknowledges this. Old Joe explicitly references the paradoxes with a conversation probably more meant for the audience than for younger Joe. The consequences for the future selves is shown in a very clever way with disappearing body parts. The less questions addressed about Time Travel, the more time we can focus on the characters and their dilemmas.
Herein lies the strongest aspect of Looper: every character in this movie, whether major (Gordon-Levitt) or minor (Paul Dano) gets at least one scene to shine and unveil depth for their character. Loopers themselves are inherently not good, so there is written complexity in the characters already, and the mobsters that chase the Joes around even get a chance to act very cleverly or for a noble cause. The time spent developing the characters creates an escalating series of gut-wrenching decisions with potentially devastating consequences for all manner of people in Looper. These decisions earn Looper its R Rating; this is much more violent and hurtful than Inception.
Aiding their services to Looper are a top-notch cast top to bottom. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the major character on-screen, and those many hours studying Bruce Willis paid off. While the eye changes helped, Levitt really studied what makes Bruce Willis who he is, and added pieces to his own personality to create a close replica of what a younger Bruce Willis might look like. Willis himself reminds me less of his Die Hard version and more his Sin City character. He is a very morose, determined character whose presence carries extreme weight. He also has some very strong emotional scenes he has to carry wordless by himself. Emily Blunt can chop trees as well as any lumberjack, but can also cut down into your heart with the hand her character is dealt. Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo, and newcomer Pierce Gagnon also provide strong support.
Looper does as its title suggests; by the time it is over, it keeps your head spinning round and round. Partially because is requires lots of thought, partially because you are left in wonder at how it was conceived. Rian Johnson is now a director of a wonderful sci-fi masterpiece on par with movies like The Matrix or Blade Runner. Looper will not only fall on many top 10 lists at the end of 2012, it will also fall on top 10 lists of all-time great science-fiction movies.