Looper
2012 · Directed by Rian Johnson
Original language: English
- action
- thriller
- science fiction
The story
In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.
What it’s like
Hazy, sun-bleached Midwestern daylight alongside grimy, low-lit interiors, with a washed-out palette of dusty ochres, cold blues and sickly neon in the city scenes. Rian Johnson frames with a steady, unshowy hand: tight two-shots in diners and bars, long unbroken takes that let rooms and faces breathe, and an occasional flash of brutal, sudden violence that lands hard and quick before the camera settles again. The score is a restrained, pulsing electronic hum that swells in the chase and drops to near-silence in the quiet moments. The mood is melancholic and tense, a slow-burn sci-fi noir with an undercurrent of dread, moving at a deliberate pace that rewards patience. Intensity is moderate to high: frequent gunfire and a few gruesome, abrupt killings, drug use, and sustained dark themes of violence and self-loathing, with no gore for its own sake. Its people are compromised and hardened, and the story tracks a man slowly confronting who he has become. It suits a late, unsettled night in, for viewers who like thoughtful, morally grey science fiction rather than escapism or anything gentle.
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