Looper: When Killing Yourself is Part of Your Job

What is a Loop? It is a maneuver thanks to which you close a curve (that is if you are flying a plane). It is applied in other contexts as well.  In the one presented in this sci-fi thrilller the term Loop is applied to Time traveling but with a twist.

It is the year 2044 in Kansas in a U.S. that has entered a deep social and economic depression. As a result, crime has widespread and many young people dream of becoming criminals themselves to have a priviledged life. Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is enjoying that kind of life already for he is a hired killer who works for crimelords of the future. It happens that in 2074 time travel is discovered but the use of that technology is also strictly forbidden and also if you have enemies to get rid off there is no way to "dispose" of the bodies because of some kind of advanced tracking technology. In order to solve  that problem, crime bosses use their own time travel machines to send their victims thirty years into the past to a moment and place when and where there is one killer such as Joe who just shoots the victim and disposes of the body. The payment usually arrives with the victim as silver bars attached to his or her back. Joe is then a "looper" and there are many more like him. Sadly this easy life usually terminates with their contracts in a very chilling way: if the looper is still alive in 2074 he is sent back in time to get killed by his younger self, this time with gold bars to enjoy those "last" thirty years. 

That is the premise of the movie. The conflict begins when Joe's contract is terminated. Since the victims are usually sent with a hood that covers their heads, loopers never know who they are killing, but this time the victim arrives without a hood and Joe in horror discovers that is his old self (Bruce Willis) who manages to escape. Later on both Joes gather together. Their lives are in danger because the crime factions of the future have agents in the past to enforce their own law and now both are targeted to die.  Joe's older self tells Joe that in the future he is in love and gets married, but this lovely life is over when the thirty years are up so agents are sent to force him to time travel. He managed to get rid of them but time traveled anyway because his wife got killed so his purpose now is to murder in the present the newest crimelord in the future called Rainmaker who is closing all the loops. At this point in the timestream Rainmaker is only a child and Joe's older self has narrowed the possibilities to only three. He intends to kill three children to make sure Rainmaker's timeline is eliminated so his wife is not killed. His only problem is himself, that is Joe's younger self who now wants to fulfill his contract no matter the cost.

This is a very interesting movie and I like several things about it. I like the fact that future science is presented in a very believable way: the future looks very much like our present, in fact many artifacts seen there do not have that pristine appearance of Star Trek, several looked old or worn out like common machines these days. Has anyone noticed besides that our cities were not that different thirty years ago either? 

The action does not let anyone down, either. The fact that no great catastrophes have affected the world but that of the stupid management of our resources is also another great detail and the careful use of time paradoxes that explain many things in the movie is also a plus. The actors are wonderful , besides Willis who is not new in Sci-Fi thrillers and Gordon -Levitt, there is Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and child actor Pierce Gagnon who is Cid, the future Rainmaker. The ending is bittersweet but logical though in itself creates a final paradox that remains unexplained. 

As a movie is a consistent product that will entertain equally those who love action, fantasy and science fiction but it is definitely not a family film. It is one of those movies that keeps you focused but if you need to go to the restroom and come back there will already be many things you will not understand. There is besides one extra element that I neglected to mention before and that is the presence of mutants that could be puzzling to some of you, but really it makes perfect sense as the action progresses. I personally enjoyed this movie though I accept there are flaws here and there.

Four stars out of five for this one.