CREDIT: ALAN MARKFIELD
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (foreground) and Paul Dano star in Looper.

What if you were a hired gunmen, who had no choice but to kill each and every person sent to you? What if your targets were sent back through time and all you had to do was aim and shoot? Would you do it without fail, even if the person sent back was your future self? That is the premise behind director Rian Johnson's 2012 thriller Looper.

Joe is a looper — an assassin who waits for his targets to be sent back from the future in order to be killed and disposed of without being traced. One night he learns of a mysterious man from the future known only as The Rainmaker, who is determined to "close all the loops." This involves sending future versions of loopers back to the past where their younger selves assassinate them. When Joe finds himself faced with the task of closing his own loop, he finds himself unable to do it, and when he manages to rendezvous with his future self, whom he let escape, Joe learns that the future Joe has come back in time to kill The Rainmaker.

Does that seem a little complicated? Well, it is, but it is well worth the headache of trying to keep up with the plot.

Stepping into one half of the lead characters is Joseph Gordon- Levitt as the young version of Joe. Gordon-Levitt, who has made his mark in recent years in mega-popular flicks like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, proves once again that he has the chops to make it in the action movie business. What really makes Gordon-Levitt shine in this particular role is the way in which he can play the part of Bruce Willis, who plays Future Joe.

Willis is, as always, Bruce Willis. It seems that long ago he gave up trying to be any particular character and now acts just as you would imagine he would on screen. Luckily for audiences, Bruce Willis happens to be really, really good at playing Bruce Willis in action flicks.

Also notable in the cast is Emily Blunt as Sara, a woman in whom both versions of Joe seeks shelter and protection. Blunt is charming as ever, and has that presence on screen that just makes you feel good.

Paul Dano, Noah Segan and Jeff Daniels also appear as various members of the Looper family.

I suppose what proves to be really interesting in Looper is the way in which the story plays with the concept of time travel, the ethics of assassination and the question of what would happen if you had to kill a version of yourself from another point on the time/space continuum. Intriguing, thoughtprovoking and full of kick-ass action stunts, Looper is a great watch for any fans of time travel. Or Bruce Willis. Or both.

Rating: 4 out of 5