Looper is a film unlike any other I have seen in quite some time. Written and directed by Rian Johnson, it’s a highly original science-fiction thriller that makes a human connection to its audience.
The year is 2044 and Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) makes his living as a “looper.” Enemies of the crime syndicate to which he is under contract are sent via time travel from the future and arrive before him. His task is to assassinate them, collect his payment in the form of silver bars strapped to the body, and dispose of the remains, thus eliminating all evidence of their existence. Joe normally kills without question, but things get muddled when his future self (Bruce Willis) appears as his next victim, and he finds himself unable to pull the trigger.
Sci-fi films often have a certain inaccessibility because they are too far-removed from reality. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) features bioengineered humans, flying cars, and off-Earth colonies, even though it takes place only thirty-seven years into the future. As splendid and visually-stunning as such films are, we can’t help but feel somewhat detached from the characters, who inhabit worlds that have vast differences with our own daily experiences.
Looper overcomes this problem by making its future rather similar to the present-day. Whereas movies like Blade Runner assume an explosion of scientific advancement over a relatively short timespan, Johnson’s film treats the process as a more natural evolution. There are clear progressions, but there’s nothing that seems like too far a leap from what we have today. Instead of becoming preoccupied with dazzling technological wizardry, we are more wired-in to the human stories that are the movie’s focus.
Of course there is the development of the time machine (invented in 2074), but while it may give rise to the events that unfold, beyond that it doesn’t play a very central role in the film. There is no pontification about how the process works, leaving more room for the story itself. “I don’t want to talk about time travel,” Joe is told by his older counterpart, “because if we start talking about it then we’re going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws.”
And there are plenty of those to go around. Early on, Young Joe sells out a friend and fellow looper who has gone rogue in order to keep his stash of silver. His mentality of self-preservation at all costs is turned upside-down when his older version becomes the target. He knows he has to kill Old Joe, or else he will be hunted down by his boss’ henchmen.
But Old Joe has a much harder dual responsibility. The first is protecting his own life. The second, infinitely more difficult burden, is to make sure that Young Joe doesn’t die, which would lead to Old Joe vanishing from existence. Both find themselves caught in impossible situations.
Making it believable that two actors were the same man thirty years apart was key. Looper could have very easily used the time-tested method of split-screen photography, having a single performer play both roles. But it would have come off as a distracting contrivance. Instead of falling back on this, the film relies on impeccable casting and makeup. Willis is just shy of twenty-six years older than his co-star, a gap that is roughly the same as that of their characters. The two have similar facial features, which are enhanced by prosthetics worn by Gordon-Levitt.
As Young Joe, Gordon-Levitt is the hotshot blazing through life in the fast lane. A loner who puts himself in front of all others, he never cares about the consequences of his actions. Willis plays Old Joe as a man that has become tired of these fly-by-night habits and whose only desire is to live out the remainder of his life in peace. Ideologically the two are worlds apart, and yet they are one and the same. Their differences show that a man can and will truly change over the course of his lifetime.
Looper does a whole lot more with its $30 million budget than most other films have accomplished with quadruple the funding. It’s a brilliantly refreshing departure from the predictable action and sci-fi vehicles that have seemed to become the norm as of late.
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