Looper (2012)

Director: Rian Johnson
Story: Rian Johnson
Cast: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt
Music: Nathan Johnson
Time: 119 minutes
Bottom-line: A terrific first half, a great ending, not so great in the middle

 Rian Johnson’s latest sci-fi action flick promises to be a great entertainer, but it would have joined the other great science fiction films like The Matrix, Back to the Future or The Terminator, if the second half was as good as the first half. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels, Looper is a futuristic film based on time travel.

Levitt as young Joe

Willis as the old Joe

Blunt as Sarah

This film introduces a new concept, similar to that of The Terminator. In 2074, time travel would have been invented, but it will be available only in the black market, used by criminal organizations. If a person in the future needs to be destroyed, the criminal mob sends him/her back in time with their hands tied and face covered, to 2044, where special assassins called ‘loopers’ kill them instantly upon arrival. The victims are strapped with bars of silver, so the loopers are also well paid. In short, loopers kill people who technically don’t exist. But, the harsh condition the loopers have to agree to, is that once they retire, the loopers are sent back in time, to be assassinated by themselves, in an act called ‘closing the loop’.
   Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is one such looper in 2044, who is doing a pretty good job as a looper. A friend of his, Seth, also a looper, comes to his house one night, asking his help to hide. He says he failed to execute the older Seth, sent from the future. Joe reluctantly agrees. Abe (Daniels) is a person sent by the mob as a one-way ticket back through time, to control the loopers in the present. Abe somehow forces Joe to tell the location of Seth, and Joe also confesses. As Joe waits for his next victim, he finds a man whose hands are free and face is unmasked. He realizes, to his shock, that it is himself (Willis), sent back from the future. Before Joe can get over the shock, the older Joe escapes. Immediately, Abe’s men start tracking both Joes. Soon, both Joes meet each other at a café, and the older Joe tells that he has come to kill a certain ‘Rainmaker’, the person who ‘closes the loops’. If the older Joe does kill the Rainmaker, then he would never be sent back in time, and the young Joe would be safe. But of course, until he finds the Rainmaker, the young Joe will be constantly searched for. So, does Joe kill his older self to protect himself, or is the older Joe too smart for the younger one?

What started out as a new type of sci-fi film turned into an action flick that soon became a loose story. By the first half, I mean till the time the viewers understand what happens thirty years after the old Joe is sent back in time i.e. till the part the young Joe becomes the old Joe. The sequence of young Joe becoming old is shown like a second timeline. After that, the scene again switches to 2044, when the old Joe is looking for the Rainmaker. Until the first half, you, as a viewer, are excited as to whether someone would wontedly kill himself, or let the older version escape. In the second half, you become sort of disappointed as everyone takes out their guns and starts shooting others.

All the lead actors have acted well, especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Blunt makes an appearance only from the end of part one, so her role is a comparatively small one, compared to Willis or Levitt. The concepts of a looper are mainly told in the form of voiceovers, so Johnson has done well to bring in the idea of loopers without taking too much of time. Speaking of screen time, the film has a well-paced start, and it goes on that way till the end of the first part. After that, the film loses pace and becomes slow.

Now, I said that this film starts off as a science fiction film, and then turns into an action movie. If you have read my review of The Matrix, you will say, “If you can give that action cum sci-fi movie a 4.5 star rating, why not this?” Well, The Matrix has entertaining action sequences. Here, there is a wee bit more suspense, but no real ‘sequences’ of action: just a lot of gunfire.

The ending of Looper is great, and perhaps the most logical ending anyone can give. Until the end, there is that question of whether the older Joe will get killed, or whether he will kill the future Rainmaker, thereby erase the event of him coming to 2044 itself. By the end, both questions are answered.

To sum up, Looper is a different type of science fiction action film. It may not have such an impact as The Terminator or Back to the Future in terms of time travel, and it may not have as much of action as The Matrix, yet it is a great entertainer all the way. Watch for Willis’ and Levitt’s performances and for a great storyline and a great ending.

My Rating: 4/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 93%