Looper is one of those smart science fiction movies that supposedly don’t get made anymore, but somehow still do (see Moon). Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a looper, a hired gun whose sole job is to stand in a field at an appointed time and kill the poor schmucks who crossed the crime syndicates in the year 2074 and are sent back in time thirty years. And since the syndicates don’t like to leave any loose ends, loopers are sometimes required to kill their future selves. But when Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) materializes in the field, things go wrong and he manages to get away. The younger Joe must track down his future self before his unhappy Mob boss kills him first.
This is a clever film noir wrapped in a gritty dystopian package. The future envisioned in Looper is almost as grim as that of Children of Men. But like that movie, Looper offers glimpses of life away from the crushing poverty of the crumbling cities. These pastoral scenes become some of the most harrowing in the movie. To say more would give away too much. Part of Looper‘s pleasures is watching the plot veer in unexpected directions.
