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Better Plot Synopsis for Rian Johnson's Sci-Fi Project 'Looper'

by Alex Billington
May 5, 2010
Source: Cinematical

I'm writing about another new plot synopsis today (after Inception) because Rian Johnson's Looper is a film that I am very, very excited about, but it has a complicated plot and we don't know too much about it. With that trade news the other day claiming that Joseph Gordon-Levitt was "in talks" to star in Looper, we learned that the logline THR had used was entirely wrong. So Johnson gave us the short version on Twitter. However, Cinematical (via SlashFilm) just posted a new interview with Johnson where he himself provided a much longer synopsis that definitely gives us a very good idea of what to expect (and it sounds awesome).

"Looper is a time travel movie, set in a near future where time travel doesn't exist but will be invented in a few decades. It's pretty dark in tone, much different from Bloom, and involves a group of killers (called Loopers) who work for a crime syndicate in the future. Their bosses send their targets hogtied and blindfolded back in time to the Loopers, and their job is to simply shoot them in the head and dispose of the body. So the target vanishes from the future and the Loopers dispose of a corpse that doesn't technically exist, a very clean system. Complications set in from there."

I don't know about you guys, but that just sounds frickin' awesome, especially coming from the guy behind Brick and The Brothers Bloom (two of my all-time faves). Johnson seems pretty damn excited, too, adding: "I can't wait to make it, I'm a big sci-fi fan and it's going to be a fun world to play in. Fingers crossed." As far as we know, this is his very next project and he's currently working on pre-production and getting together a cast and everything needed to make a movie. After recently seeing Primer, my mind has been numb thinking about time travel so much, and this sounds like it will be a great time travel movie. Stay tuned for updates!

Explore tags: Hype, Indies, Movie News

http://twitter.com/JOHNSTAMOS John Stamos

Sounds pretty good, but seems oddly familiar?
http://movies.iconocritic.com peloquin

YES! you finally saw Primer Alex...I agree, that film turned my mind into a pretzel, but it was the most accurate time travel story I've ever seen (took 3 viewings to come to that conclusion). If this is anything like a more action -based Primer then it will be phenomenal. So what'd you think of Primer?
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

It was awesome, but so frickin' crazy, hard to understand! I have a better sense of what's going on after looking at those flowcharts online, but it's still a trippy movie. I hope Looper delves into some of those time paradox ideas a little bit at least!
http://movies.iconocritic.com peloquin

I'm sure Johnson will make those paradox ideas a little bit more accessible to the general movie going public. Primer was very complicated and not for everyone.
step

That was my question! (Asking about Looper.) I can't wait for this to get started, I'm excited already.
Sharlto

I thought this was some kind of sequel to Jumper, glad it isnt
Bum Love

If they remove someone from the future who has already existed rather than killing their parents a la Terminator....then they will change the time continuum in ways they never expected. All the series of events triggered by their existence on Earth will change, such that even the murderers (or conspirators) in the future themselves will likely be changed. It would be smarter for the characters to use the method used in Terminator, but this allows the necessary conflicts and originality needed to make it a viable time travel story. Well, at least the talent involved is good.
Hewston

Sounds great - love the resurgence of the more classic sci-fi and Rian Johnson has been nothing short of awesome so far. On a side note Alex, any idea what happened to theplaylist? You source them occassionally so thought you might know something about their recent disappearance.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

#8 - I don't really know exactly what happened, but I guess they had to change the site and start another Blogger account or something. The new URL is: theplaylistnation.blogspot.com.
Hewston

Thanks Alex. Didn't know they had a new site, just thought they'd vanished.
Candy Castle

freakin' awesome!
leinergroove

Brick is in my all time top 20, but the brothers bloom... well... it wasn't even the best movie of that week. The concept of this (Looper) sounds pretty good. In an incredible way, there is still gazillions of stories and variations about the time travel subject...