Looper is a film about time travel, whose plot is, by design, unstuck from the constraints of linear time and normal cause and effect. We humans are largely incapable of fathoming the nature of cause and effect in a circular universe of infinite dimensions, and some of the best parts of Looper are the tongue-in-cheek demands that the audience stop trying to understand it, because it’s impossible. “We’d be here all day making diagrams with straws!”
But of course, with any popular movie, while it’s not necessary, it’s fun to try to create that proverbial straw diagram. The closest I ever came to understanding time travel was hooking up a video camera to the TV and filming myself watching myself masturbate watching myself masturbate watching myself- MIND EXPLOSION! DINOSAUR ATTACK! Luckily, there are people at Wired much smarter than me who can handle such things. Spoilery Looper plot infographic below.
Regardless of how we classify it, the key question Looper presents is: Can modifying the past significantly affect the future, or are some outcomes inevitable? While some aspects of the film clearly indicate that we can change our futures by changing our pasts, the open question we’re left with is whether Joe really is able to successfully alter a probable future? [Wired]
You get all that? I’m still trying to figure out what’s going on. Personally, I really liked the part where Cyd was all “HNNNNGGGGGG!!!!” and Emily Blunt was all “NOOOO!!!!” and then Cyd was like “HNNNNGGGGGAAAAUUUGHGHOOOOOOGGGHHH” and that one bad dude’s guts shot out like blaow! That was rad.