Today’s quick review: Looper. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a looper named Joe, a hitman in the present who helps the criminals of the future dispose of their victims. The victims are tied up and sent from the future to a predetermined location in the present, along with payment. The looper kills the victim, takes the payment, and disposes of the body. The job lasts until the looper kills his future self, “closing the loop” and terminating his contract. Everything proceeds as normal for Joe until he tries to close his loop. His future self (Bruce Willis) gets the drop on him and escapes into the present, intent on changing the course of history. Now it’s up to Joe to kill his future self before he ruins the present.
Looper is a mind-bending time travel thriller. The rules of time travel are such that everything that happens to Joe affects his future self, wherever he is. Memories, scars, and deformities fade into existence in real time, so that if Joe’s employer’s catch him, they can take out his rogue future self with no hassle. This makes Joe a fugitive who is not only trying to chase down himself but to avoid capture and elimination long enough to do so. For his part, Future Joe has grown a lot since the irresponsible days of his youth, but he’s just as stubborn and twice as crafty.
All this boils down to a thriller plot with a few sci-fi twists. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis play off each other well, each bringing to the table a startling amount of loathing for his alternate self. The tone of the movie is somewhat dark: while Joe and Future Joe each have their moments, neither is a particularly sympathetic protagonist, and the enemies they’re up against are cold-blooded killers. The time travel mechanics are explained well enough to understand, but they are still difficult enough to understand that suspension of disbelief is the best way to approach the movie. There are slight sci-fi elements other than time travel, but these are introduced gradually and are not central to the plot. Overall, Looper is an unconventional thriller with a clever premise, a few touching moments, and heavy tension throughout. While not the top of its genre as either a sci-fi film or a thriller, Looper makes for a solid watch that time travel fans will want to check out. 7.4 out of 10 on IMDB.