SummaryIn Looper, time travel exists, but it is illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they send their target 30 years into the past, where a “looper” – a hired gun, like Joe – is waiting to mop up. Joe is doing good as a looper until the day the mob decides to “close the loop,” sending back Joe’s futur... Read More
Directed By:Rian Johnson
Written By:Rian Johnson
Looper
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
84
User score
Generally Favorable
7.6
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
84
95% Positive
42 Reviews
42 Reviews
5% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Sep 27, 2012
100
So what's left for the audience to hook into? Only pounding action, elegant style, steady-state suspense, marvelous acting and, despite that droll pooh-poohing every now and then, haunting explorations of youth, age and personal destiny. It's a lot to claim for a sci-fi thriller, but I was blown away by Rian Johnson's Looper.
Oct 1, 2012
90
For all its mayhem, runs like a mad and slightly sad machine, whirring with hints of folly and regret, and the ending, remarkably, makes elegant sense to a degree that eludes most science fictions. How to describe it, without giving anything away? Scrambled, but rare. [1 Oct. 2012, p.84]
User score
Generally Favorable
7.6
80% Positive
1128 Ratings
1128 Ratings
14% Mixed
193 Ratings
193 Ratings
7% Negative
97 Ratings
97 Ratings
Jan 20, 2026
10
I’ve never really explained it to anyone, but if I were to ever write a story, I always wanted a twist where my future self comes to my past self to give me a chance.260312 (5.0)This story felt like a fragment of that very idea, and seeing it play out in the theater back in 2012 left me truly stunned. It’s one thing to imagine a concept, but it's another to see it executed with such narrative precision that it resonates with your own creative daydreams. A perfect 5.0 for a film that felt like it reached into my mind and brought a personal "what if" to life on the big screen. It was an incredibly surprising and validating experience, making it a definitive highlight of my 2012 cinema visits—a rare moment where my own imagination felt mirrored by a masterpiece.
Mar 31, 2020
10
Incredible editing, great acting and fantastic storyline. It has one most beautiful endings to a movie with so much depth and meaning. Incredible watch, highly recommend.
Sep 27, 2012
88
An indie-inflected popcorn movie with major brains, brilliant acting and a highly satisfying payoff, Looper is the first must-see movie of the season.
Sep 26, 2012
83
The time swivels in Looper evoke some of Inception's fancy temporal tricks... But it's the glimpses of Children of Men-like societal dystopia that give the movie its real weight, and distinguish Johnson's third feature as a marked step forward.
Sep 24, 2012
80
If high-toned futuristic time-travel pictures with a splash of romance float your boat the way they do mine, you'll have yourself a time.
Sep 27, 2012
75
The casting is carefully considered, as well, from Willis, whose Old Joe is even more dangerous than Young Joe, to Emily Blunt, who goes American this time and plays a young mother with a winning warmth and vulnerability.
Sep 28, 2012
50
Looper felt to me like a maddening near-miss: It posits an impossible but fascinating-to-imagine relationship...and then throws away nearly all the dramatic potential that relationship offers. If someone remakes Looper as the movie it could have been in, say, 30 years, will someone from the future please FedEx it back to me?
Dec 11, 2019
10
This movie did the impossible, it made me like Joseph Gordon Levitt. For some reason, that guy always seems like such a poser twerp, but doing a Bruce Willis impression he was brilliant. Also, Bruce Willis was as good as at his best I often forget what an amazing actor he is until rewatching something like The Sixth Sense, against type as a selfish bad guy of sorts. for a budget of $30m, it looks like a much more expensive movie. Rian Johnson is a master of craft, creating a plausible future with the bare minimum of tech and effects. I was most amazed when a pickup truck with a vacuum hose on the back was passably futuristic.
Aug 8, 2021
6
I have mixed feelings toward this movie. Looper was well edited, and suspenseful. The acting was solid, and I enjoyed the futuristic/dystopian world they created. The music fit the mood perfectly, the cinematography was also great. The problems start with the movie's plot. There are some plot holes and inconsistencies in the story, because the way time traveling was portrayed. It was impossible even on a theoretical level. I wish they didn't ruin up the time travel, because that part was meant to be a key element, but it just made the plot confusing and senseless at some points. Other than that, the movie was quite well made.
Dec 9, 2019
6
It’s an excellent movie, but just didn’t quite do it for me. Dragged on quite a bit, and they tried to make a weird side plot with telekinetic people that didn’t really play a role. Classic future time traveling ending that I’ve seen before.
Feb 20, 2013
3
Kudos to Rian Johnson for a creative and tricky screenplay, but the problem with Looper is that's all there is to the movie. The pacing is agonizingly slow, the performances are uninspired and there is little for viewers to grasp onto in order to connect with the film. There are lots of ideas but nothing to really think about. Perhaps a different director would have yielded more satisfying results.
Feb 3, 2013
3
Good movie, horrible unnecessary ending so many other possibilities that should have been explored. This movie has it's own time travel rules. I really don't know what else to say.
Production Company:
- TriStar Pictures
- FilmDistrict
- Endgame Entertainment
- DMG Entertainment
- FilmNation Entertainment
- Ram Bergman Productions
Release Date:Sep 28, 2012
Duration:1 h 59 m
Rating:R
Tagline:Hunted by your future. Haunted by your past.
Website:
Awards
Golden Schmoes Awards
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Critics Choice Awards
• 1 Win & 5 Nominations
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 4 Nominations
