It News: Time-travel fantasy ‘Looper’ may be most creative of its genre

Time-travel fantasy ‘Looper’ may be most creative of its genre

Posted: Friday, October 5, 2012
By Michael Huckaby / movie reviews

“Looper” is a gripping and stylish time-travel fantasy, perhaps the most creative of this genre ever made. Written and directed by Rian Johnson (“Brick”), the futuristic storyline is cleverly contrived, explaining just enough to make the narrow concept plausible.
Unlike most thrillers, the compelling movie includes romance and an emotionally powerful thread exploring flawed characters fighting to regain their humanity.
The opening introduces Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) standing in a Kansas cornfield. He checks his antique pocket watch and then stares at a tarp spread out before him. Suddenly, a hooded and hog-tied man materializes on the tarp. Joe coolly blows him away, removes several silver ingots (his pay) taped to the body, wraps the corpse in the tarp and dumps it in a nearby incinerator.

The year is 2044, the United States has collapsed and the world is in a brutal depression.
And as the result of disease, one in 10 people have developed minor telekinetic powers.
As Joe’s narration reveals, time travel will be invented in the 2070s and immediately outlawed. Having found murder victim disposal impossible in the future, crime syndicates clandestinely procured time machines and routinely send targets back in time.
Joe is a “Looper.” Along with Seth (Paul Dano), Kid Blue (Noah Sagan) and others, he works for Abe (Jeff Daniels), a gangster from the future who has taken over nearby decaying Kansas City.
With nearly 1000 ingots stashed away, Joe is wealthy, owns a fabulous sports car and can afford Suzie (Piper Perabo), an expensive but sympathetic showgirl.
The ironic catch is that by 2074, a “Looper” is often considered a security risk and will be sent with gold ingots back to 2044 to be killed by his younger self. Known as “closing the loop,” the assassin can then look forward to 30 good years.
All goes well until Joe makes the mistake of helping Seth, who is on the run for a major screw-up. Abe, who enjoys dropping hints about the future, sends back Old Joe (Bruce Willis) without a hood. Young Joe hesitates, Old Joe escapes and Abe unleashes a manhunt for the two, including Kid Blue on a hover-cycle.
This leads to the two Joes meeting. At a nearby diner, they grab a booth and chat, while being served by Beatrix (Tracie Thoms). Of course both Joes are thoughtful and know that the younger has the ultimate advantage.
Young Joe can kill his older self but Old Joe can’t eliminate his younger self without vaporizing.
Later, when Young Joe is desperate for another meeting, he carves Beatrix on his forearm, and the letters gradually appear as scars on Old Joe’s arm.
Old Joe reveals his story. When he retired to China, The Rainman, a shadowy syndicate enemy, followed and murdered his wife (Summer Qing). Old Joe is bent on eliminating him in the present, thus saving her life.
A clue leads Young Joe to the farmhouse of Sara (Emily Blunt), the wood-chopping mother of schoolboy Cid (Pierce Gagnon), a telekinetic. Meanwhile, Old Joe mistakenly commits a heinous murder.
The stunning finale takes place at the farm. Turning in an outstanding performance, Blunt’s stalwart Sara offers Young Joe love and an opportunity for redemption.