UK Poster For Rian Johnson’s Looper
When it was first hitting theaters, Looper quickly became one of the fall movies sci-fi fans were clamoring to see. After all, it had Bruce Willis, time travel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and ultimately Bruce Willis fighting a younger version of himself played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
What wasn’t there to love? This is the very stuff that got sci-fi action enthusiasts to the theaters.
And in anticipation of Rian Johnson’s film opening, Looper promotional material began trickling in, including this poster from the UK.
The Looper poster is simple and creepy, and most surprisingly, doesn’t prominently feature any of the main players. Their names are all there, but instead of famous mugs, there’s a bleak brick wall and a peek at a cool, old-timey time machine. Also, when you look through the time machine door, there’s something unidentified inside.
Before Looper came out, this poster was leading viewers down a mysterious path around what time travel was all about in this world. And what exactly was that in the safe/ machine? It becomes rather clear once the movie gets going, crystallizing at least how (if not why) time travel is used in the context of this movie.
Does Bruce Willis eventually need to dismiss the idea, off-the-cuff admonishing the idea of explaining time travel with the salt and pepper shaker? Sure, they skip over that part. But those seeing this Looper UK poster didn’t know that at the time. For all anyone knew, the whole movie would only be about time travel and this weird contraption.
In the future of Looper, time travel is possible but illegal. But that doesn’t stop the mob from using it to make enemies disappear. They send people back in time and have an assassin “take care” of them.
These hitmen are called Loopers. Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is one of these hired guns, and when his employers send a future version of Joe (Willis) back—a move called “closing the loop”—the shit hits the fan.
Looper also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels, Piper Perabo, and Noah Segan in what ends up being a pretty involved story about the future and also character redemption.
Rian Johnson ended up making one of the best time travel movies ever with Looper, mostly because he worried less about the logistics and more about the characters. This is where Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis (as each other) really win the day.
But as far as this Looper was concerned, the whole story was wrapped in the mystery of time travel and the possible financial implications. After all, that’s a shit ton of gold sitting in the safe. Right?
