12 years ago, an underrated sci-fi film gave us a perfect ending

Looper is a 2012 futuristic science fiction action thriller film written and directed by Rian Johnson. With an ensemble consisting of Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt, Looper takes place in 2044 and introduces an illegal criminal gang called the Loopers. The film’s protagonist, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is classified as a “looper,” a job in which his employers use time travel to send men from the future to the past to be killed, where Joe can properly dispose of their bodies . However, in order to clear up loose ends and cover up the evidence that he was ever a Looper, Joe knows that his future self will one day be sent back to kill. When that day comes, Joe’s future self is prepared and escapes, and the two men fight separately in the past, trying to evade capture and achieve their own personal plans.

The 2012 blockbuster was a box office success, grossing $176 million worldwide. Looper Critics also received high praise, as the sci-fi thriller was nominated for four Saturn Awards, including Best Actor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Best Science Fiction Film, Best Director (Rian Johnson) and Best Editing. The futuristic action thriller was also a favorite at the Critics Choice Awards, as it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Action Film, while also winning Best Science Fiction/Horror Film. More than a decade later, the film is still considered one of the most compelling time travel films in history.

Looper is a captivating story about time travel

Time travel wasn’t invented in 2044, but it was in 2074. Although it was quickly banned, it has been used by criminals for 30 years to eliminate targets by sending them to assassins called “loopers.” Led by a man named Abe (Jeff Daniels), sent from the future, Loopers kill and dispose of victims sent back in time to 2074, and are paid by employers with silver bars attached to the target as payment. Additionally, when a Looper retires, his future self is sent back in time as a routine target, albeit with a gold bullion payment; This event is referred to as “closing the loop.”

The film’s protagonist, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is a 25-year-old looper who lives a fast life filled with drugs and frequent trips to nightclubs. When the day finally comes when he has to close the vicious circle, everything goes wrong as his future self turns out to be harder to kill than expected. When the older version of Joe, portrayed by Bruce Willis, is sent to be slaughtered in the past, he is unwilling to lie down and die. Joe is thirsty for revenge against the “Rainmaker”, the leader of the time travel crime syndicate responsible for killing Joe’s wife before sending him back in time. He escapes and sets out to find the Rainmaker while he is still a child, hoping to prevent him from becoming a criminal boss. To save his own skin, 25-year-old Joe must track down his older self, as those unable to “come full circle” will be executed.

Love is timeless and conquers everything

To save his future wife’s life, older Joe sets out to find children who could be the Rainmaker. However, knowing only the young child’s hometown and age, he is forced to kill anyone who fits the description and is thus forced to execute several children in the town. In a strange twist, 25-year-old Joe locates the teenage version of Rainmaker before his future self. Protected by his telepathic mother Sara (Emily Blunt), Rainmaker is a child telepath who struggles with tantrums and telepathic outbursts.

After Sara learns that Joe’s future self is planning to hunt her child, she allows present-day Joe to stay at her home to protect her. While living there and waiting for his future self to arrive so he can kill him, Joe falls in love with Sara and the two begin a romantic relationship. When the older Joe arrives, the 25-year-old Looper doesn’t just want to protect Sara and her child because he’s fulfilling his obligations to the crime syndicate.

Looper’s ending is more perfect than puzzling

After the theatrical release in 2012 LooperMuch has been said about its time-altering ending. As the futuristic version of Joe chases Sara and the young Rainmaker through a field and prepares to kill them with a shotgun, it dawns on modern-day Joe that Sara’s impending death is the reason her child grows up to be a Rainmaker. As 25-year-old Joe thought in the final act: “Then I saw it. I saw a mother who would die for her son. [I saw] a man who would kill for his wife. A boy, angry and alone. The bad path lay before him, I saw it. And the path was a circle. [that went] round and round. So I changed it.“

At that moment, the 25-year-old Looper turned the gun on himself and ended his life with a shot to the chest, eliminating his future self from existence and finally ending a vicious cycle. Although many have criticized the film’s ending, pointing out that the older Joe could never have gone back in time and wreaked havoc if his younger self had died, the ending makes perfect sense. As Joe realized, Sara’s death would have “caused a path that was full circle,” and instead of letting it unfold, he removed himself (and his older self) from the equation and set a new path for Sara and her son . Furthermore, those who say that Joe wouldn’t be able to travel back if his younger self died are only partly true. What does Looper What makes a film so compelling is that it tells a story that could happen exactly once.

In this story, Joe became a looper in his twenties, grew old and got married. Late in life, as is common for all Loopers, Joe is sent back in time to be executed, although his innocent wife is killed upon his capture. Seeking revenge, the retired Looper escapes execution and sets out to hunt down the Rainmaker before he is fully grown so he can kill him to save his future wife. However, when his present-day version realizes that the child will grow up to be a rainmaker through his vengeful murder, he ends his life and erases his future self from existence.

So, as confusing as it may seem, his older self Was He was sent back in time, and through his quest for revenge, his younger self realized he was creating a path of pain and destruction, so he changed it. Again, it’s not that the story couldn’t unfold that way, it’s just that it couldn’t happen twice Looper an innovative script worthy of its critical acclaim.