Looper

Thirty years into the future and some are involved in time travel which has not yet been invented - but it will be soon. It is 2044 and Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a Looper. That is the name for paid assassins whose job it is to kill the targets of organised crime who have been sent back through time from a further 30 years advanced. Loopers are paid in silver for their services but when eventually the victim of their next kill is their thirty years older self they are paid off in gold and their services dispensed with. Joe is faced with this prospect when his thirty years older self (Bruce Willis) arrives through time as his next kill. The Looper is deemed to have 'closed the loop' when he kills off his older alter ego.

I may not have explained this clearly but it is pretty imaginative science fiction. The movie spends about its first third setting up the situation explaining the concept through the use of off-screen commentary. Then we see the interesting situation of both Joe and Old Joe racing around trying to avoid death whilst seeking out their dangerous foes. There are a few twists and turns along the way.

As with most science fiction it is best not to delve too deeply into the logic of the plot. Taken at face value this is an intriguing situation and the movie is well constructed with fine effects that rarely go over the top.

Cs and I enjoyed the movie and comparing opinions at the end we found we had reached the same conclusion about the meaning of the final plot twist.

There is a degree of violence - so common to films nowadays - and as Cs observed 'why is that Hollywood always depicts the future as such a dark, dirty, struggling world'.

Superior science fiction.

★★★★