Matt Adcock’s film review: Looper

“I work as a specialised assassin, in an outfit called the Loopers. When my organisation from the future wants someone to die, they zap them back to me and I eliminate the target from the future. The only rule is: never let your target escape...even if your target is you…”

What would you do to save a life? How far would you go to change future history?

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Say for example you could take out an evil murdering crime lord when he was still a kid – before he’d even had chance to rise to power?

These are the kind of moral questions that sharp, slick sci-fi thriller Looper brings to the party. Moral questions – and guns, lots of guns!

Meet Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), he’s a Looper, a hit-man who kills those beamed back to him from the future.

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Life is good with a typical day seeing him off a mark in the morning, then grab some steak and eggs at his favourite diner before going out on the town in a lavish clubbing life which would make many Premiership footballers look tame in comparison.

But then his fellow Loopers start to find their future selves coming back as targets – it looks like someone in tomorrow wants them all dead.

And sure enough Joe’s older self (Bruce Willis) arrives but is somehow ready for Joe and manages to overpower him – setting off a manhunt where both of them are the targets.

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You see Abe (Jeff Daniels), the boss of the Loopers doesn’t take kindly to any targets escaping and the punishment is death for Looper and target.

So why has future Joe been sent back? Can he possibly be the key to taking down the ‘Rainmaker’ – a telekinetic uber powerful crime lord who has taken complete control of the future.

How far will he go in his Terminator-inspired preventive strike – the Rainmaker is only about seven years old at this point – and which, if either, Joe can survive?

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Possible mother of the future Rainmaker is Sara (the lovely Emily Blunt) – she and Joe (current time) just might fall for each other too, which is likely to add a wrinkle to the already complex plot.

Everything comes together in a superb slice of sci-fi action that brings whoops of appreciation from the audience and effortlessly delivers cult cool iconic status.

It’s been a long time since Bruce Willis kicked this much ass – this is a ‘must see’ movie!