We want time travel! When do we want it? Well that’s irrelevant! Except in Looper; the newest action packed offering from TriStar pictures and Film District starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, and Bruce Willis.
First off I have to say the opening sequence is action packed and perhaps a bit unsettling but makes perfect sense as we flash back. I am getting ahead of myself so let me slow down a bit.
Looper takes place 30 years into the future in 2044 and 2074 so technically speaking the movie’s set in both 30 and 60 years from now! How’s that for a timeframe?
Oddly enough while I’ve made a big deal out of the time travel, director Rian Johnson a very unassuming kind of nerdy in that nice guy you want to have as a friend to do your homework type of way who’s first feature was ‘Brick’ which also starred Gordon-Levitt made time travel a background character. Rather like Terminator as he mentioned in the interview.
When Johnson was asked if he’d tapped in to previously existing time travel concepts he stated, “Absolutely. We would have been foolish not to, but we’ve also kind of created our own concept of it as was needed for our story line.”
During our interview Gordon-Levitt confirmed that time travel in this film was a little bit different than we are normally used to seeing but not completely and that it played as sort of a spring board into the human story elements of the film.
To kind of explain what is happening in this Sci-Fi thriller in this near future epic, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) serves as a “Looper,” a hit man tasked with killing and disposing of criminals who have run afoul of the mob.
These victims come from 30 years in the future where time-travel exists but is illegal. The mob, however, employs it to transport their victims into the past since getting rid of a body is apparently just that much tougher in 2074.
In the 2074 Looper world rife with homelessness, poverty, and just generally economically depressed conditions if you screw up with the Mob they zap you back to 2044 where Joe will eliminate and dispose of you with the same emotion as the kid at Subway prepares sandwiches. So for 2044 Joe it kind of goes something like Kill, dispose, kill, (Yawn) dispose, repeat as needed.
The absolute worst thing that a Looper can do is let their “loop” get away because that brings all kinds of trouble to the table, and every Looper knows that eventually the mob will shut down their loop by sending the looper’s future self, back for him to kill.
It’s actually rather like committing suicide but getting another 30 years after to live mind boggling sort of thing. Joe’s troubles begin when his older self, played by Bruce Willis is sent back to close the loop and almost immediately escapes death.
What we discover is that Joe from 2074 has his own personal mission and that is to find a single mother named Sara (Emily Blunt) and her genius yet troubled little boy, Cid played incredibly well by five year old, Pierce Gagnon. All I am willing to say about that is that a serious dilemma for both Joe’s is to figure out the life he can make for himself in 2044 or the one in 2047.
Emily Blunt I must say is a great casting choice to play the mother of Cid who is seeking a better life by moving onto a farm with her young child who will later become the “Rainmaker”
Jeff Daniels plays the extremely dark uber bad guy of 2047 known as Rainmaker. I can’t stress enough just how mind blowing it was to see Jeff Daniels play this role, but he was incredible and certainly stole the scenes he was in.
A notable albeit darkly humorous scene in the film is when both Joes are sitting in a diner having a discussion about exactly what it is they want over plates of steak and eggs.
I can’t discuss this and not mention the fact that when I first saw the trailer I was wondering where in the hell Joseph Gordon-Levitt was. The make-up they did on him was pretty damn amazing as he didn’t look anything like himself! To say I was highly impressed would be an understatement.
I won’t go into the obvious question of repetitiveness of the whole space time continuum sort of thing
“Looper,” a TriStar Pictures and FilmDistrict release, is rated R for strong violence, language, some sexuality/nudity and drug content. Running time: 119 minutes. We give Looper a green light. Looper opens Friday September 29 2012.
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