If you haven’t seen the movie Looper yet, stop reading now. Or rather SPOILER ALERT!!!
We good? Good.
As a refresher: the movie’s premise is that in the future,
the mob controls time travel. The main character works as a hit man for
them—people are sent back in time and he whacks them with a gun. He is what is
known as a “Looper”. Eventually he knows that his future self will be sent back
and it is his responsibility to kill future him—thus closing the loop*.
Time travel isn’t the point of the movie. There is even a
scene in the movie that admits that the whole time travel thing is a bit
wishy-washy. So what I’m about to say isn’t a critique of the film or the filmmakers—I
enjoyed the movie quite a bit.
But the time travel is a bit wishy-washy.
For the purposes of this movie, let’s assume that time is
linear**. I don’t have a problem with the time travel, but in how it’s done.
Here’s why: Energy cannot be destroyed; it can only be
redistributed. That redistribution usually happens in one of two ways—slowly
through degradation over time, like a decaying body, or violently through a
sudden release, like an explosion. It doesn’t just disappear suddenly.
Therefore, if the mob sends a person—a mass of
energy—backwards on the timeline, then they need to send an equivalent mass
forward into the future***. That way the energy is balanced on the timeline and
therefore you and your future self could exist in and at the same time—just
like the mass sent into the future, let’s say a sack of potatoes, would
co-exist with its future self (if it still existed). However, since your two
selves now exist at the same time as individuals, the actions you take on
yourself would unlikely have a bearing on your future self.
So the ending, to me, is a bit wishy-washy. Or maybe it’s this blog post that’s wishy-washy****?
*Got all that? Of course you did. You watched the movie or
else you wouldn’t be reading this far.
**Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.
***The movie doesn’t seem to have this mechanic in place, as
far as I can tell.
****In the future, I will probably wish I could go back in time and change this post.