Looper

Year: 2012

Director: Rian Johnson
Screenplay: Rian Johnson
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels
Running Time: 118 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, thriller, time travel
In the year 2044 time travel is still thirty years aways from being a reality. However, mobsters in the future use the technology to send their victims back in time to 2044 where they are immediately executed by hit-men known as "Loopers". If a Looper survives long enough he too is sent back in time to 2044 to be killed by his younger self, this is called "closing the loop", and if a Looper fails to kill his future self for whatever reason then the consequences for both of them are severe. Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is a Looper and a drug addict who has ambitions for a better life in France. However, one day Joe discovers that it is his turn to close the loop when his future self (Willis) is sent back for him to kill. However the older Joe escapes and soon younger Joe is on his trail desperate to kill him and make things right. Joe's boss, Abe (Daniels), a gangster from the future living in the past, sends every man he has to dispose of both versions of Joe.
This is an intriguing time travel film which has a fascinating take on the idea of the the temporal paradox which has been a mainstay of time travel stories right from the start. There are obvious influences of The Terminator (1984) and 12 Monkeys (1996), which also starred Bruce Willis. The future Joe hopes to change the past to influence the future. There is also the intesting concept of how you would react if you came face to face with either your younger self or your older self. One of the key scenes in the film being a discussion between the future and the present versions of Joe in a diner, where the older Joe refuses to discuss the complexities of time travel on the grounds that it makes your head hurt. Another key scene occurs when another Looper doesn't kill his future self and ends up being captured and tortured. The torture is depicted as the future version runs, old scars start appearing, his facial features become increasingly disigured and limbs start disappearing and his personality starts changing as the memories of the torture begin to assert themselves.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with prosthetics to make him more convincing as a young Bruce Willis, carries the film with a great performance marrying toughness, cockiness and emerging sensitivity, while Bruce Willis is as lost and confused as he was in 12 Monkeys but this time with a horrible moral dilemma to contend with. Emily Blunt is also impressive as the young single mother on whose farm young Joe takes refuge.

This is a dark film with a shocking twist that probably very few mainstream film-makers would have the courage to pull off. It also features an impressive depiction of a depressing, post-economic crash, noirish world. With recent films such as Moon (2009), Inception (2010) and Source Code (2011), intelligent science-fiction is in great shape at the moment and this is one of the best examples of the genre.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis in Looper

Source Code

Year: 2011
Director: Duncan Jones
Screenplay: Ben Ripley
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Running Time: 93 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, thriller, action

Summary: Captain Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal), a decorated US airman deployed in Afghanistan, wakes up to find himself on a morning commuter train heading towards Chicago with no memory of how he got there. Also the woman sitting opposite him, Christina (Monaghan), despite him having no memory of her, seems to be convinced that he is a friend of hers, a teacher named Sean Fentress. When Stevens looks in the mirror he sees a completely different face staring back at him. Eight minutes after he wakes up the train is destroyed by a bomb.
Stevens awakes to find himself strapped into a pod-like capsule. A military woman, Colleen Goodwin (Farmiga), informs him that he is part of an exerimental program called "Source Code", which allows the participant the ability to take over someone else's body in the final eight minutes of that person's life. The train that Stevens awoke on was destroyed in a terrorist attack earlier this morning. His mission is to keep going back into the Source Code to find out as much information as possible about the bomb and who planted it within the eight minute period, in order to prevent a nuclear device being detonated in downtown Chicago, causing the deaths of millions.
As he keeps going back in to the Source Code, Stevens begins to fall in love with Christina, however he has been told that, since it is technically only a simulation and not actual time travel, it is impossible to use Source Code to change the past. However, while Stevens frantically tries to influence the past, the secretive nature of Goodwin and the other military officers make him feel increasingly concerned about what is happening with his present.

Opinions: This film kind of plays as a blend of Groundhog Day (1993), Inception (2010) and the television series Quantum Leap (1989 - 1993), the influence of the show is acknowledged in the film by a key voice cameo being given to Scott Bakula, the star of Quantum Leap. The film is also similar in some respects to the film Deja Vu (2006), which also dealt with a person being sent back in time to prevent a bomb attack.
The film works on a number of different levels. The first level being the thriller element of trying to discover the bomb and the identity of the bomber on a crowded train within the eight minute "window". The second level being Stevens' present, strapped into an unpleasantly claustrophobic, dimly lit, locked capsule, all whining motors, faulty electronics and malfunctioning temperature controls. He frequently demands explanations and answers from his superiors but they constantly either dimiss him or just try to fob him off. The third level is Stevens' burgeoning love for Christina, even though he knows that she is dead and he has to relive her death over and over again.
Director Duncan Jones, who made his name with the critically acclaimed film Moon (2009), has a good feel for science-fiction and handles the action very well. The cast are brilliant with Jake Gyllenhaal providing a strong lead, and Michelle Monaghan engaging as Christina. Vera Farmiga also does great work with the very difficult role of Goodwin. Appearing mostly on a monitor screen in Stevens' capsule, she appears initially as a stiff, buttoned down antagonist whose role is mainly to argue with Gyllenhaal and to explain the plot. However, as the film goes on she becomes increasingly affecting and sympathetic.
The script is well-written and manages to be complex while still being comprehensible. There are plot holes and there are elements that don't make sense, but these won't really matter until well after the film is over. The film maintains interest and delivers frequent surprises. It's an above average science-fiction thriller.



Michelle Monaghan and Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code