Looper

Looper Information

Looper is a 2012 American science fiction action film written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film stars Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Emily Blunt. In Looper, time travel is invented by the year 2074 and, though immediately 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. Joe, a looper, encounters himself when his older self is sent back in time to be killed.

Looper was selected as the opening film of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released to positive reviews in Australia on September 27, 2012, and in the US and the UK on September 28, 2012 by TriStar Pictures and Alliance Films.

Plot

In the year 2044, 25-year-old Joseph "Joe" Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works for a crime syndicate in Kansas City as a "looper". Led by a man sent from the future named Abe (Daniels), loopers kill and dispose of victims sent back in time, and are paid with bars of silver strapped to the target, whose face is hidden by a bag. When a looper is retired, the looper's future self is sent back exactly thirty years as his target, but with gold bars. This event is referred to as "closing the loop". Not carrying out the killing is punishable by death.

One night, Seth (Dano), Joe's best friend and fellow looper, tells him that he has failed to close his own loop, and that his future self (Brennan) warned him of a mysterious person called the Rainmaker, who has somehow overthrown the five major crime bosses all by himself and is busy ending all of the loopers' contracts in 2074. Joe reluctantly hides Seth in his apartment's secret floor safe, but the place is searched and he is taken to Abe by Kid Blue (Segan). Given the choice of revealing Seth's hiding place or forfeiting half of the silver he has hoarded, Joe betrays Seth. The syndicate start mutilating him, knowing that the injuries will be propagated to his older self. They cut an address into Seth's arm, then begin removing parts of his body, causing the older Seth to go to the address, where he is killed.

Joe's next target is late. When he does arrive, he is unbound and his head is bare. It is Joe's older self (Willis). Before Joe shoots, the man turns around so the bullet strikes the gold bars strapped to his back. Old Joe throws a bar, then knocks the younger man out and escapes. When Young Joe recovers, he returns to his apartment, where there is a fight with Kid Blue and a Gat Man in which Young Joe appears to fall to his death.

The next secion of the film explores the paradox of time travel, as with Young Joe dead, Old Joe could not have returned and cause Young Joe's Death. Time effectively resets to Young Joe back in the field waiting for Old Joe to appear. This time, Joe does close his loop, his older self's head being covered by a bag. He retires to Shanghai, China, where he falls in love and marries. After his 30 years elapse, Joe is taken to close the loop, but his wife is killed in the process. Overpowering his captors, Joe sends himself back to 2044.

Later, meeting his younger self, old Joe explains he is going to kill the Rainmaker as a child to change the future and save his wife. Joe tries but fails to close his loop. Then Kid Blue and other men working for Abe show up, and a gunfight ensues. Young Joe ends up with old Joe's map, which contains three locations circled on the map and a number.

Young Joe heads to one of the marked places, a farm where Sara (Blunt) and her young son Cid (Gagnon) live. Sara distrusts him at first, but gradually warms to him. When Joe shows Sara the map, she recognizes the number as Cid's birthday along with the code of the hospital where he was born. Joe guesses old Joe is going to kill all three boys born that day, not knowing which one will become the Rainmaker. Joe decides to wait at the farm for his older self.

Joe soon learns that Sara is telekinetic (as is about 10% of the population), and that Sara gave Cid to her sister to raise until she was accidentally killed by Cid.

One morning, Jesse (Dillahunt), one of Abe's thugs, comes looking for both Joes. He returns later and threatens Sara. Cid falls down the stairs and becomes angry, which triggers an extraordinarily powerful telekinetic blast that kills Jesse, revealing that he is the future Rainmaker.

Meanwhile, Kid Blue captures old Joe and takes him to Abe. Old Joe breaks free and kills Abe and many of his men, though Kid Blue is only wounded. Then old Joe heads to Sara's place. While young Joe shoots it out with Kid Blue, old Joe pursues Sara and Cid. Cid creates another telekinetic blast, but before he can kill old Joe (suspended in mid-air), Sara manages to calm him down. Then, telling Cid to run into the cane field, Sara stands in old Joe's line of sight to shield her son. Young Joe realizes that his older self will shoot Sara and fill Cid with the anger which will mold him into the Rainmaker. Too far away to prevent it, he instead kills himself, thus erasing old Joe, saving Sara, Leaving her all the silver and gold from a truck future Joe used to get to the farm and potentially saving Cid from becoming the Rainmaker.

Cast

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe Simmons
Bruce Willis as Old Joe Simmons
Emily Blunt as Sara Rollins
Paul Dano as Seth Richards
Noah Segan as Kid Blue
Piper Perabo as Suzie
Jeff Daniels as Abe
Pierce Gagnon as Cid Harrington
Xu Qing as Old Joe's Wife
Tracie Thoms as Beatrix
Frank Brennan as Old Seth Richards
Garret Dillahunt as Jesse Goldhar
Nick Gomez as Dale Walters
Marcus Hester as Zach Henderson
Dikran Tulaine as Officer Timothy Kennedy, only appears in the deleted scene of both DVDs and Blu-rays

Production

Looper was written and directed by Rian Johnson. After Johnson released The Brothers Bloom in 2008, he re-teamed with producer Ram Bergman, who produced Johnson's previous two films, with the goal of starting production of Looper in 2009. In May 2010, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was cast in one of the lead roles, which he would play after completing Premium Rush. Later in the month, Bruce Willis was also cast. In the following October, Emily Blunt joined Gordon-Levitt and Willis. Noah Segan, Jeff Daniels, and Piper Perabo were cast in January 2011. Filming began in Louisiana on January 24, 2012.

Makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji created the prosthetics that Gordon-Levitt wore in the film so that he would physically resemble Willis. The film's score was composed by Nathan Johnson, Rian Johnson's cousin.

Talking about Looper and time travel in film, Rian Johnson said:

Release

Looper premiered on September 6, 2012 at the opening night of the Toronto International Film Festival. The film was then released theatrically in the United States on , 2012. The film's studio Endgame Entertainment negotiated a deal with FilmDistrict at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2011, for FilmDistrict to release the film in the United States through TriStar Pictures.

The Chinese release of the film reintegrates a substantial number of scenes set in Shanghai that were edited out due to pacing reasons. The move was requested by Chinese production company DMG Entertainment in order to further appeal to Chinese audiences.

Johnson released a free audio commentary on SoundCloud to be downloaded and listened to during the film, with the warning: "Needless to say, this is NOT to be listened to on a first viewing, or before you've seen the film."

Home media

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD in North America on December 31, 2012. The film will also be released on January 28, 2013 in online UK stores and a general release on February 4, 2013. The US iTunes store released the film on December 21, 2012 to own in HD and SD forms as part of an early release deal it has on certain films.

Reception

Critical response

Looper holds a 93% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 241 reviews and an average score of 8.1/10, with the reported consensus: "As thought-provoking as it is thrilling, Looper delivers an uncommonly smart, bravely original blend of futuristic sci-fi and good old-fashioned action." On Metacritic, the film holds an 84/100 average rating based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Barbara Fowler wrote: "Looper can be viewed as the story of a moral journey out of depravity. Joe starts out at the lowest point possible " a ruthless murderer, ready to kill people he does not know for monetary gain; "taking his silver" after each killing evokes Judas Iscariot's thirty pieces of silver. When first offered a chance to morally redeem himself he fails, betraying his friend rather than part with his ill-gotten silver. (?) In the life which he originally lived and which led to his becoming "the old self" in the film, loving Xu and being loved by her had been a purifying experience in an otherwise "dirty" life " but when Xu is killed, Joe regards the end of bringing her back to life as justifying the means of killing innocent children. His younger self, finding love at an earlier age with Sara and Cid, takes at the film's climatic moment the ultimate choice of sacrificing himself in order to save both his beloved and her child, thus finally atoning for his murderous career and achieving redemption".

Toronto International Film Festival

James Mottram of Total Film gave Looper 5 stars out of 5, concluding that it was "the best sci-fi movie since Moon. The best time-travel yarn since 12 Monkeys. And one of the best films of 2012."

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it "an engaging, neatly worked-out time-travel sci-fi thriller", but also criticizing the effects involved in making Gordon-Levitt resemble Willis: "At first, the effect is a bit odd, and you can't quite put your finger on what's off; then it feels downright weird to be looking at a version of Gordon-Levitt who is no longer the actor you've known for a few years now."

Peter Debruge of Variety also gave the film a positive review, writing that writer-director Johnson's "grandly conceived, impressively mounted third feature shows a giddy, geeky interest in science-fiction, then forces it into the back seat and lets the multidimensional characters drive. In a genre infamous for loose ends, this thinking man's thriller marshals action, romance and a dose of very dark comedy toward a stunning payoff."

General release

Kim Newman of Empire magazine gave Looper 5 stars out of 5, writing, "Intelligent science-fiction sometimes seems an endangered species"?too much physics and there's a risk of creating something cold and remote, too many explosions and get lost in the multiplex. Looper isn't perfect, but it pulls off the full Wizard Of Oz: it has a brain, courage and a heart." Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the film an A"? grade, writing, "Looper is a remarkable feat of imagination and execution, entertaining from start to finish, even as it asks the audience to contemplate how and why humanity keeps making the same rotten mistakes." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, writing, "Looper is way inventive but it wears its creativity lightly, like it's no big deal. This is a highflying, super-stylish science-fiction thriller that brings a fresh approach to mind-bending genre material. We're not always sure where this time-travel film is going, but we wouldn't dream of abandoning the ride."

Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, "Loopers heady blend of time travel, gritty action and a jot of romance is such a thrilling and cerebral mind-bender that it will likely have moviegoers gathering outside the theater afterward to hash out details of its intricately constructed universe. Not that that's a bad thing." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, praising the performances of Willis and Gordon-Levitt and concluding, "Lacing tremendously exciting action with touching gravity, Looper hits you like a shot in the heart." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, praising its screenplay and writing, "Looper, a smart and tricky sci-fi story, sidesteps the paradoxes of time travel by embracing them. Most time travel movies run into trouble in the final scenes, when impossibilities pile up one upon another. This film leads to a startling conclusion that wipes out the story's paradoxes so neatly it's as if it never happened."

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ grade, writing, "The time swivels in Looper evoke some of Inceptions fancy temporal tricks (some of which, of course, also involved Gordon-Levitt straddling multiple time zones at once). But it's the glimpses of Children of Men-like societal dystopia that give the movie its real weight". Keith Staskiewicz, also writing for Entertainment Weekly (reviewing the DVD) and also giving a "B+", said, "The film's premise is markedly inventive, and [writer-director Rian] Johnson spends a lot of time making his universe seem lived-in and believable, but he's not just concerned with whiz-bang what-ifs. The showdown of selves illuminates just how little Gordon-Levitt's character has changed over the intervening years, stuck as he is in a feedback loop of drug use and violence despite his pipe dream of moving to Europe. The retro trench coats and firearms also suggest a sort of eternal recurrence, and as Looper's plot gets more complex, its central question simplifies: If we can't fix our mistakes, can we at least make sure we don't repeat the same ones over and over again?"

Richard Corliss of Time magazine gave the film a positive review, calling Looper a "hybrid, mashing Quentin Tarantino and Philip K. Dick into a species of pulp science fiction" and also writing, "A fanciful film with the patina of hyper-realism, Looper is well served by actors who behave not as if they were dropped carelessly into the future but spent their whole desperate lives there." Dana Stevens of Slate gave the film a mixed review, writing, "Looper felt to me like a maddening near-miss: It posits an impossible but fascinating-to-imagine relationship " a face-to-face encounter between one's present and future self, in which each self must account for its betrayal of the other " and then throws away nearly all the dramatic potential that relationship offers."

Audiences polled by the market research firm CinemaScore gave the film a B+ grade on average.

Awards and nominations

Award	Nominees	Result
National Board of Review Award for Best Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actress in an Action Movie	Emily Blunt
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Actor in an Action Movie	Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Action Film
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress	Emily Blunt
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Houston Film Critics Society Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Austin Film Critics Association Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Florida Film Critics Circle Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Online Film Critics Society Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson
Utah Film Critics Association Original Screenplay	Rian Johnson

Top ten lists

The film was included in the following top ten lists for the best films of 2012:

Publication	Rank
ReelViews	1
MTV	3
The Skinny	4
New York Post	8
Total Film	9
The Huffington Post	10
The Atlantic Wire	N/A
Christianity Today	8