Speaking to the Huffington Post, here's director Rian Johnson explaining the ending to his film, Looper.
At the end of the film, we discover that the horrible future created by the Rainmaker was in fact brought about by Old Joe [Bruce Willis] going back in time. But that future is prevented thanks to the sacrifice Young Joe [Joseph Gordon-Levitt]makes to save Sarah [Emily Blunt] and her son, who would've grown up to be the Rainmaker. 'But if old Joe never existed, why does Sara still remember him? Why does Sara's son, the future kingpin known as the Rainmaker, still have a gunshot wound that was inflicted by Old Joe?'
Rian Johnson: The approach that we take with it is a linear approach. That was an early decision that I made. Instead of stepping back to a mathematical, graph-like timeline of everything that's happening, we're going to experience this the way that the characters experience it. Which is dealing with it moment-to-moment. And so, the things that have happened have happened. Everything is kind of being created and fused in terms of the timeline in the present moment. So, the notion is, on this timeline, the way that old Joe is experiencing it, nothing has happened until it happens. Now, you could step back and say are there multiple timelines for each moment, and every decision you make creates a new timeline. That's fine. You can step back and draw the charts and do all that. But in terms of what this character is actually seeing and experiencing, he's living his life moment to moment-to-moment in the linear fashion and time is moving forward. And, as something happens, the effect then happens.
Why does Old Joe vanish instead of falling down?
Rian: No, it made sense to me that he would vanish. The second that young Joe kills himself, then he's not going to live to be old Joe in the same way. The same logic by which, if you cut off a finger, then suddenly he has no finger. You take that to the ultimate end, where if you kill yourself and you're not around, then the universe would realize that, catch up with it and he would no longer be there.
If Young Joe shoots himself, thus preventing Old Joe from ever traveling back in time, how does Sarah remember Old Joe?
Rian: And I think you can dive into it and ‑‑ I don't know, it's interesting. Or she would remember him because she had experienced him to up to the point where he turned the gun and shot himself. And whether you think of it as in that moment, where he shot himself, an alternate timeline was created that we now switch to -- that, to me, is largely just semantics. That, to me, is really just how you would go back and graph the whole thing out. What's important is what the experience of these people are in the events that happened in the movie. And that, you have to experience in a linear fashion.
I had a few qualms with the film but not with the ending. I understood pretty readily how time-travel worked in the film and what the ending of the film was trying to accomplish. Overall, it's a film that deserves to be seen and probably at least twice but I don't think it quite lives up to the hype that followed from the film's screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. Stay tuned for my full review that I'll post sometime in the coming days.
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In the year 2042, a mob hitman assassinates targets that arrive from the future of 2072. For him it's just a job... till he receives a new target: himself from the future.
Running Time: 1 hr 58 min
Release Date: September 28, 2012 (USA)
MPAA Rating: Unknown
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Piper Perabo, Han Soto, Jeff Daniels
Directed by: Rian Johnson
Written by: Rian Johnson