Looper

[pxib]

Seems like a missed opportunity to ruminate on some existential questions, which is what I thought the movie would be about. Is yourself from the future any different from just any other random person?

Indeed. They touch on it a bit, but I think there's a fascinating movie just in:

"Wow I was such a loser when I was young. This kid is responsible for every mistake I've ever made."
"Wow I am such a loser when I'm old. Everything I wanted to accomplish in my life and I wind up as this guy?"

[Margalis]

Yeah. It's weird because apparently the inspiration for the movie was the idea of a young man and his older self squaring off, but that's a minor part of the movie as whole.

As I said before, the fact that the guy who goes back in time meets himself in the past is almost incidental. He's not going back in time to kill himself or to protect himself, and them meeting doesn't have a lot of psychological ramifications. The specifics of how Willis is defeated only work because of their relationship, but if JGL just like set off a bomb that killed Bruce Willis and himself together it would be basically the same movie.

I suppose it's not fair to hold what the movie isn't against it, but there definitely is an interesting movie to be made about meeting your future self and clashing with them.

Here's a random thought: the way the ending works JGL sacrifices himself to stop the creation of the Rainmaker - to stop the kid from turning evil. This should also prevent his future Asian wife from being killed I would assume. So what if instead of killing himself primarily to help the kid he did it primarily to help his wife. (That he doesn't actually know) It's the same ending with a different perspective - he's a fuckup and is going to meet this woman who rehabilitates him, and in killing himself he helps her and also in some way fulfills the wishes of his future self.

Maybe I like that better just because I found the kid really annoying.