re: Watched Looper again

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And JGL is really, really overrated.

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JGL was slightly overrated. Now, it's become so hip on this board to hate him, that he's becoming quite underrated.

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Not sure what the comment about society is supposed to mean, but if killing people is the only use the mob can think of, they're dumbasses.

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I mentioned society because they created a whole world in the movie, and it was one that was almost literally falling apart. So the fact that society is barely hanging by a thread would indicate that organized society would have a real problem harnessing the technology. And it's not like mobsters are Rhodes scholars.

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Theres no way any of that happens if he is kidnapped and tortured in the present. None of that would have a chance of happening.

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Why is there no chance? Not only is there a chance, we KNOW it happened. We see the mobsters abduct him and we see him on the operating table. They will keep him alive in a vegetative state until it's time to murder him, which is wonderfully horrifying. It makes perfect logical sense within the rules set up by the movie. they even show us all the important parts of it happening.

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Yes, I know HOW it works and what they are doing. I'm not stupid. My question is how would two guys with no knowledge of each others' method OF doing it, do it in exactly the same way, with he little arrow down the wrist? They wouldn't. The film makers could have changed that up a bit, but didn't. 'Twas stupid.

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There is a literary concept called foreshadowing. It's intentionally the same way because they need it to be the same thematically to be a "loop". If you can figure it out, so can they. It's not like we've created some unknowable conundrum here.

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That's just it. The movie picks and chooses which parts of the story and characters change as a result of temporal interference. As cited above, JGL kills himself, Bruce disappears but everything else remains unchanged. One loop. Two loops red loop. Blue loop. More than just those specific things would change.

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Well, the movie doesn't show us every thing in the entire world that changes or stays the same because who really gives a shite? It's irrelevant to the story. Fill in the blanks however you would like. Really, the only important loop is JGL's. We've been following his journey, so it is the only story, thematically, that matters. Well, his and the kid's, and his future is now unknowable. but being the generally positive sort, I think the calming influence of having his mother not murdered before his eyes will lead him to not become the Rainmaker. but then, the future is unknowable, and we are not gods.

I hate over-explaining in movie, but also hate nit picking in the place of genuine criticism. I blame it on those the Problem With X videos. It replaces a series of nitpicks for genuine engagement with the material.

You call it a stupid premise, but you haven't even engaged with the premise yet. Aside from tackling the issue of destiny and the like, it asks the fundamental question: what makes us, well, us? JGL and Willis are ostensibly the same person, but they are not. Time alters us and we become different people. It's about the nature of self.

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Yes, I know HOW it works and what they are doing. I'm not stupid. My question is how would two guys with no knowledge of each others' method OF doing it, do it in exactly the same way, with he little arrow down the wrist? They wouldn't. The film makers could have changed that up a bit, but didn't. 'Twas stupid.

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What makes you think JGL didn't know the method used by the mobsters?

At one point, his voiceover explains the concept of "letting your loop run" or something and explains that it's really bad. Meaning, it's happened before so the method of tracking down the escaped future self is probably pretty well known. That past version that was trying to hide in JGL's apartment seemed to know what was in store for him.

Exactly. Thank you.