5. Looper (2012)
Rian Johnson’s Looper is a little complex to describe. Set in a near future where the far future has discovered a means of travelling into the past, the technology is employed only by criminals when they want a person to be killed discreetly. The “present-day” (or as close to it as Looper gets) assassins are known as Loopers, and they earn their money effectively by killing people who don’t exist in their own time period.
The realization that his final job is to kill his older self brings about complications for Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), when Old Joe (Bruce Willis) breaks free and escapes with a plan to kill his wife’s future murderer. Learning that his target is an unassuming child with telekinetic powers, young Joe sets out to protect the boy from himself. As its name implies, Looper‘s story is a self-contained one, but the world is establishes is truly fascinating.
The notion of a criminal empire spanning decades using time travel as a means of getting away with murder is brilliant. Johnson’s world-building is excellent, and Looper teases multiple other stories that would make perfect spin-offs. A sequel following the Rainmaker alone would be an exciting prospect, but sadly, Looper seems doomed to be one of those standalone movies that deserved to have started franchises but ultimately failed.