LOOPER

US, 2012, 118 minutes, Colour.
Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels, Pierce Gagnon, Qing Xu, Garret Dillahunt.
Directed by Rian Johnson.

Almost at once, Joseph Gordon- Levitt’s character, Joe, explains what a Looper is and we see vividly how he works. It is 2044 in a futuristic Kansas where gangsters prevail and people live in fear. We also learn that time travel had not been invented but in the 2070s it had and been banned – one of the effects was that it was used as an underground (perhaps more ‘undertime’) by the new mafia to send victims back to 2044 where loopers await their arrival, shoot them and then burn their bodies while they keep the silver bars that accompanied those to be killed.

Joe has no qualms about his profession. He dresses in a dapper suit and tie style, has been secreting silver for himself, is a man about town. However, he is dependent on eye drops which enhance his perceptions. When his close friend, Seth (Paul Dano) confides that his future self has returned and he could not bring himself to kill him, Joe hides him but is summoned by his boss and patron, Abe (Jeff Daniels as a persuasive heavy) to betray Seth.

Then, Joe’s older self arrives in the form of Bruce Willis. To kill or not to kill. In the meantime we have been shown how Joes has survived the thirty years from 2044, gone to China, met his wife, is still addicted to his eye drops, but has been attacked so that the Rainmaker (the ruthless boss of the future) can close Joe’s loop by sending him back to his death.

We are also introduced to Sarah (Emily Blunt) who lives on a corn farm with her son, Cyd. Younger Joe takes refuge with her from Abe’s shooters. Since the older Joe has brought a mysterious number and a map back from the future, Joe is able to work out what his older self’s mission is – (shades of The Terminator movies) to kill the child who will grow into the Rainmaker.

This leads to some tense and some action sequences as older Joe confronts Abe and his henchman and then pursues Cyd – leading to the younger Joe having to make some moral decisions.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt? has become one of Hollywood’s most dependable character actors (Inception, 50/50, Dark Knight Rises). Emily Blunt is effective in a strong and different action role. We have seen Bruce Willis do this kind of this before, but he does it well.

The production design is imaginative for a dingy future. There are some moments of special effects, especially the rising of the characters and the corn to be suspended in the air at the end. Speaking of the end, it is very quiet, almost imperceptible after the drama and the action.

1. Science fiction? Futuristic films? Time travel? The combination?

2. The United States in 2044, the city, expanding, yet the squalor, the streets, the clubs? The countryside, the cornfields? The country homes? The musical score?

3. The future, violent, the nature of society, the role of gangsters? The move to the world of 2072?

4. The title, the explanation, the closing of the loops? The different selves of the Loopers? Present and future? In the future, the destruction of the Loopers? The sending of gangster victims to 2044, the Loopers killing them? The possibility of obliterating memories? Lives? Alternate futures?

5. The plausibility of the plot, time travel and its consequences? The two selves?

6. The special effects? Cid and the explosions? The slow motion? People and things suspended in the air?

7. Joe and his narration, his role as a Looper, his explanations, the killings, the visuals of the transfer of the victims to the present, his shooting them, destroying them? Keeping the silver? The explanation of his feelings? Abe, in charge, choosing him to be a Looper? The comment on his clothes, ties, being dapper? His apartment? His dependence on the eye drops, the continued use? Even into his middle age? The club, the girls, the relationship with Suzie, being a working girl? Seth, close friend, driving with him, watching the Loopers’ lives being closed, his comments that they had few brains? Kid Blue and his competitiveness with Joe? Seth, his story about meeting his older self, letting him go, his arrival at the apartment, his pleading, the shooters at the door, Joe and his choice, hiding Seth in the cellar with the silver? His being summoned to Abe, his being forced to sell out Seth? The issue of the silver? His choice to go to France – and Abe’s advice for China, the future? His character and choices?

8. Seth’s story, as a Looper, seeing his older self arrive, allowing him to live? The older self and his escape, at the barbwire fence, his melting limbs, trying to get to the address, his death and disappearance?

9. Joe’s story, the older Joe appearing, his escape, the issue of life and death, his mission about the Rainmaker?

10. Joe, his French, the woman at the diner? The older Joe coming to the diner to meet his younger self? Their talk, guns, confrontations, explanations? Their being pursued by the shooters?

11. Abe, his appearance, from the future, his control? Destroying the Loopers? Kid Blue, his inability to bring in Joe? His shooting his feet, the injury to his hands? His capturing the older Joe? Abe, control, the final confrontation, his death?

12. The older Joe, the map, the number and its meaning, the three children born in the hospital at the same time? His going to the house, tracking the child and killing it? His surprise at finding Suzie’s house, the baby, his being captured by Kid Blue, his escape? His determination to pursue Cid?

13. Joe, his hiding from his pursuers, in the cornfields, the encounter with Sara? Sara, her chopping the tree stump, alert, her love for Cid, living alone? Her fear of the beggar, mute and deaf? Joe intervening? The explanations, Sara and her giving birth to Cid, her life in the city, her sister looking after the baby? His not saying she was his mother? Joe and playing with Cid, the tension, Sara and the mathematics, the hatred, Cid and his screams? Apologies? Joe, the relationship with Sara, the frog alert? Jesse and his visit, the questions? Joe and his bond with Cid, their talk?

14. Jesse and the house, the interrogation of Sara? Joe and his hiding behind the sofa, Cid on the stairs, enabling them to get out of the house? His intense scream, getting out of the house, the explosion?

15. The older Joe, the massacre of the gangsters at the club and its destruction? Abe’s death?

16. Sara and Cid escaping in the van, Joe in the centre of the road, his pursuit of Sara and the boy? Sara standing her ground, Joe shooting through her, Cid escaping? His scream, everybody in midair, the corn in midair? The younger Joe, his observation, narration, his decision that the mother could help the child not to be the future monster? Changing the future, shooting himself? The older Joe disappearing?

17. The dramatic effect of the very peaceful ending – too peaceful for such a film? Comments that this was intelligent futuristic science fiction?