In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent
into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day
learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future
self for assassination.
Director: Rian Johnson Writer:
Rian Johnson Stars:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Bruce Willis,
Emily Blunt |
See full cast and crew »
Storyline
In the year 2044, a man working for a group of killers called "Loopers"
(they work for the mob and kill people who are sent blindfolded back in
time from the year 2074 by their bosses) recognizes a victim as himself.
He hesitates resulting in the escape of his older self.
To
begin, Looper is a sci-fi film set in the future, dealing with the
implications of time-travel, although it is very much a film about the
past. The film is all about the past, how it affects the present and the
future and how it drives people with the majority of the film building
characters and establishing plot.
Anyone
looking for an action film will be sorely disappointed because this is
first and foremost a writer's film, focusing on plot, character and
dialogue. As mentioned above, the brunt of the film falls on
development, more so than action set-pieces and CGI. The portions of the
city and the near future Johnson has created, whilst some may see as
unoriginal, I see as tributary. A lawless country split socially in
half, poverty on one side, excess on the other, the world Johnson has
manufactured carries an air similar to that of Alfonso Cuaron's Children
of Men, a comparably important sci-fi film in the struggle to build the
credibility of the genre in the realm of modern cinema.
Not only
is the film intelligent, it also acts as a courier for Johnson, a
director of hit (Brick) and miss (The Brothers Bloom) repute following
his sophomore outing.
If you support intelligent science fiction
in the intellectual vein of Inception and Primer, Looper is a film
sitting firmly in the middle of the two. Break the box office with this
film and bring intelligence back to film-making.