Looper was selected as the opening film of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released to positive reviews in Australia on September 27, 2012,[4] and in the US and the UK on September 28, 2012 by TriStar Pictures and Alliance Films.
Plot
In the year 2044, 25-year-old Joseph "Joe" Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) works for a crime syndicate in Kansas City as a "looper". Led by a man sent from the future named Abe (Daniels), loopers kill and dispose of victims sent back in time, and are paid with bars of silver strapped to the target, whose face is hidden by a bag. When a looper is retired, the looper's future self is sent back from exactly thirty years in the future as his target, but with gold bars. This event is referred to as "closing the loop". Not carrying out the killing is punishable by death.
One night, Seth (Dano), Joe's best friend and fellow looper, tells him that he has failed to close his own loop, and that his future self (Brennan) warned him of a mysterious person called the Rainmaker, who has somehow overthrown the five major crime bosses all by himself and is busy ending all of the loopers' contracts in 2074. Joe reluctantly hides Seth in his apartment's secret floor safe, but the place is searched and Joe is taken to Abe by Kid Blue (Segan). Given the choice of revealing Seth's hiding place or forfeiting half of the silver he has hoarded, Joe betrays Seth. The syndicate starts mutilating him, knowing that the injuries will be propagated to his older self. They cut an address into Seth's arm, then begin removing parts of his body, causing the older Seth to go to the address, where he is killed.
Joe's next target is late. When he does arrive, he is unbound and his head is bare. It is Joe's older self (Willis). Before Joe shoots, the man turns around so the bullet strikes the gold bars strapped to his back. Old Joe throws a bar, then knocks the younger man out and escapes. When Young Joe recovers, he returns to his apartment, where there is a fight with Kid Blue and a Gat Man in which Young Joe appears to fall to his death.
The next section of the film explores the paradox of time travel, as with Young Joe dead, Old Joe could not have returned and cause Young Rainmaker's Death. Time effectively resets to Young Joe back in the field waiting for Old Joe to appear. This time, Joe does close his loop, his older self's head being covered by a bag. He retires to Shanghai, China, where he falls in love and marries. After his 30 years elapse, Joe is taken to close the loop, but his wife is killed in the process. Overpowering his captors, Joe sends himself back to 2044.
Later, meeting his younger self, old Joe explains he is going to kill the Rainmaker as a child to change the future and save his wife. Young Joe tries but fails again to close his loop. Then Kid Blue and other men working for Abe show up, and a gunfight ensues. Young Joe ends up with a corner of old Joe's map, which contains one of three locations circled on the map and a number.
Young Joe heads to the marked place, a farm where Sara (Blunt) and her young son Cid (Gagnon) live. Sara distrusts him at first, but gradually warms to him. When Joe shows Sara the map, she recognizes the number as Cid's birthday along with the code of the hospital where he was born. Joe guesses old Joe is going to kill all three boys born that day, not knowing which one will become the Rainmaker. Joe decides to wait at the farm for his older self.
Joe soon learns that Sara is telekinetic (as is about 10% of the population), and that Sara gave Cid to her sister to raise until she was accidentally killed by Cid.
One morning, Jesse (Dillahunt), one of Abe's thugs, comes looking for both Joes. He returns later and threatens Sara. Cid falls down the stairs and becomes angry, which triggers an extraordinarily powerful telekinetic blast that kills Jesse, revealing that Cid is the future Rainmaker.
Meanwhile, Kid Blue captures old Joe and takes him to Abe. Old Joe breaks free and kills Abe and many of his men, though Kid Blue is only wounded. Then old Joe heads to Sara's place. While young Joe shoots it out with Kid Blue, old Joe pursues Sara and Cid. Cid creates another telekinetic blast, but before he can kill old Joe (suspended in mid-air), Sara manages to calm him down. Then, telling Cid to run into the cane field, Sara stands in old Joe's line of sight to shield her son. Young Joe realizes that his older self will shoot Sara and fill Cid with the anger which will mold him into the Rainmaker. Too far away to prevent it, he instead kills himself, thus erasing old Joe, saving Sara, leaving her all the silver and gold from a truck future Joe used to get to the farm and potentially saving Cid from becoming the Rainmaker.
