The concept of time travel is perhaps the trickiest topic on which to center a story, and a 2012 film starring Bruce Willis adopted a new approach. However, several iconic Hollywood films have tried, which often leads to the film’s characters explaining how time travel works in their respective stories. It’s very easy for these explanations to confuse audiences, so Willis’ film tried something new. Instead of trying to explain the rules of time travel in the film, Bruce Willis’ character in Looper He stated that he doesn’t want to waste time talking about it.
Looper is a science fiction film written and directed by Rian Johnson. In addition to Willis, the cast of Looper includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Paul Dano. The story of Looper it centers on Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Joe, who is the same person at different stages of his life. When Willis’ Joe is sent back in time from 2074 to 2044 and encounters the younger version of himself, the film gets complicated. However, Instead of over-explaining all the rules of time travel in the world, the older, impatient version of Joe, Willis, ignores it. This apparent excuse is actually an ingenious plot device.
Bruce Willis’ Old Joe Says He Doesn’t Want to Talk About “Shitty Time Travel” on Looper
The time travel element of Looper’s story can be confusing
In Looperyoung Joe works for a crime syndicate. However, in the future, Tracking systems have made disposing of bodies very difficultso the syndicate sends their targets back in time to be killed. Gordon-Levitt plays a killer known as “looper”, but to protect the syndicate, all loopers who live until 2074 will also be sent back in time to be exterminated, which is why Joe comes face to face with his older self in the film.
How this future society works, and specifically how time travel works, can get very confusing very quickly. However, instead of constantly trying to explain how the film’s events are possible, Rian Johnson lays out the film’s rules and then trusts the audience to follow the story without asking too many questions. When older Joe comes face to face with his younger self, he doesn’t want to talk much about time travel either. He admits they could spend all day drawing diagramsbut that would waste both of their time and get them nowhere.
Looper being self-aware about how complicated time travel can be even better
Looper puts characters before its sci-fi elements
Whenever a movie deals with the concept of time travel, certain viewers can’t wait to analyze every detail of the story and point out why certain things don’t make sense. This led many writers to try”to knock” the concept of time travel and writing a science fiction story that makes perfect sense. Such attempts rarely work for writers, as time travel gets so complicated so quickly. So, Johnson not being concerned about explaining the rules of time travel causes Looper a significantly stronger film than many contemporaries of the genre.
At the end of Looperthe audience wants the best for all the characters.
Rather than focusing on the time travel element of Looper history, Instead, Johnson focuses on the film’s charactersand their connections to each other. As a result, Looper is a very moving film, and viewers feel connected to both the older and younger Joe, as well as supporting characters like Blunt’s Sara and her son. At the end of Looperthe audience wants the best for all the characters. The emotional aspect of the story allows viewers to stop focusing on the more confusing elements of science fiction and ultimately makes Looper a very effective film.