Looper 10 Years Later: Looking Back At Rian Johnson's Time Travel Thriller
Ten years ago, Looper took the sci-fi world by storm. It grossed over $176 million against its $30 million budget, received wide critical acclaim, won and was nominated for numerous awards, and hit several top 10 lists for 2012. It was inventive, through-provoking, and mind-bending, but the question is — does it stand the test of time and deliver the same impactful experience as it did a decade ago?
Written and directed by pre-Star Wars Rian Johnson, Looper features a star-studded cast that includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, and Bruce Willis and is set in a dystopian future where crime syndicates have discovered time travel and send their targets back to 2044 to be disposed of by contract killers known as 'loopers.' At one point, the assassins have to 'close the loop' by killing their older selves, for which they get paid in gold and live off the remaining 30 years in relative prosperity. The story focuses on a looper, Joe (Gordon-Levitt), whose older self (Willis) escapes the execution and tries to change the future.
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There have been many time travel movies before and after Looper, from Back to the Future to 12 Monkeys, Primer, Edge of Tomorrow, and, most recently, Last Night in Soho. However, few films achieved the same level of impact and originality as Johnson's twisted sci-fi thriller. Here's what makes it an outstanding and relevant experience even ten years later.
Interestingly enough, Looper's protagonist is not such a good guy. He's a hired killer who's been doing his job since a very young age and who doesn't hesitate to betray the ones close to him to save his own skin. And though somewhere under the layers of
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