Finally got round to watching one of the more interesting concepts for a movie that I have / heard in a long time. Looper is a 2012 science fiction action-thriller film written and directed by Rian Johnson, and starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt with supporting roles from Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo & Noah Segan. The movie uses the concepts of time travel.

Well let’s go through the basis of the movie: time travel has been invented by the year 2074. It is outlawed, is used by criminal organizations to send those they want killed into the past where they are killed by “loopers”, assassins paid with silver bars strapped to their targets. A target, whose hands are tied behind his band and with a sack covering his head, is sent to the year 2044 where the assassin waits at the appointed time and immediately shoots him dead with a gun. The body is then disposed off. When a looper is “retired,” the looper’s future self is sent back thirty years as a routine target for themselves, but with gold bars as a payment and closing the contract. This event is referred to as “closing the loop.” The assassin on realizing that his time is up will retire to spend his earned money for the next 30 years until he is picked up and killed in the very same manner.

In Kansas city Joe works for one such crime syndicate, which is led by Abe, a man from the future. Joe’s friend Seth, who also has kinetic ability, discovers his older self but cannot bring himself to kill him, thus failing to close the loop. Old Seth warns him that a mysterious person with super telekinetic powers called the Rainmaker has killed off all 5 crime bosses in 2074 and is also closing all the contracts of the loopers. Joe hides Seth in a secret hatch at his apartment but when faced with losing half his saved income is forced to give up Seth to Abe by one of his men, Kid Blue. Seth is mutilated by Abe’s men which has the same immediate effect on Old Seth, who is killed. Joe waits for his next target, who is unusually late. When he arrives, Joe finds an untied and bare headed man – his older self! Stunned Joe struggles to shoot and Old Joe gets the upper hand, deflecting a shot with the gold bars on his back and knocks out Joe. We then cut to an alternate time line; here Joe shoots the victim, Old Joe, as he was bound and had his head covered. On seeing the old bars, he understand that his time is up and he retires to Shanghai and spends the next 30 years enjoying the fruits of his labour, marrying a local woman. 30 years later they come for him but kill his wife in the process. Before his captors can tie him up and send him to the past, Old Joe overpowers them and goes to the past untied and knocking out Joe as we saw earlier. Confused? Don’t be!

Returning to his apartment, Joe fights with Kid Blue and a goon, only to fall off of a fire escape and black out. Old Joe sees this and drags his younger self to safety. Later they both meet up at a cafe and Old Joe tells Joe about what happened to his wife and about the Rainmaker. As Kid Blue & more men start shooting at them, the two Joe’s separate and Joe finds a piece of Old Joe’s map on which a location has been marked with a number. Going there Joe finds Sara, a young single mother of a 10 year old precocious boy named Cid. As they get to know each other, Sara recognizes the number as Cid’s birthday and the number of the hospital he was born in.  Joe guesses old Joe is going to kill all three children born that day, not knowing which one will become the Rainmaker. As Joe waits it out he bonds with Cid (who believes Sara to be his aunt and that his real mother is dead) and Sara. Old Joe kills one of the boys born on the same day and the next child happens to be a girl – born to a stripper that Joe used to have sex with. After a couple of days one of Abe’s thugs comes to the house and talks to Sara as Cid hides Joe. The thug suspects something and comes by later and threatens Sara. Cid falls down the stairs and becomes upset, which triggers an enormous telekinetic blast that kills Jesse, revealing that Cid is a telekinetic of extraordinary power, and the future Rainmaker. As this happens, Kid Blue manages to capture Old Joe but the later overpowers his captors killing everyone, including Abe but Kid Blue who is injured, and makes his way to the farm.

At the farm the two Joe’s talk but Kid Blue intervenes until he is killed by Joe, while Old Joe shoots at Cid wounding him. Enraged Cid starts a causes a massive blast, lifting all the grass into the air along with his mother & Old Joe but Sara is able to calm him down, making him stop. Old Joe readies his gun to kill the boy but Sara comes in the way. Realizing that Cid loses control when he gets angry and that his mother’s death will only aggravate him into becoming the Rainmaker, Joe shoots himself dead thus erasing Old Joe. Sara & Cid are saved and potentially The Rainmaker does not come into existence.

What a concept but there’s some question I found lacking an answer. We don’t get to really see the Rainmaker or his motivations. And why not kill the targets in 2074; why send them to the future? Why kill off the assassins?  stuff like that. Still found the movie a blast to watch. 8 outta 10!