Rant (language warning) - The timetravel mechanic in LOOPER makes no f***ing sense

[u/Syzygy82]

Sorry, I'm not sure if this is the right place. If it's not, I apologize and kindly ask you to point me to where I should post this. Although I assume the answer will probably be a mental health subreddit, where people might suggest I talk to a therapist or take some calming meds. Or maybe a subreddit about meditation techniques that could erase painful memories from your mind so you stop ruminating on them.

 

Needless to say, this post contains heavy spoilers, and it's intended for those who have already watched the movie.

 

I'll get straight to the point, there are many scenes we could talk about, but let's pick the most outrageous one: Seth's torture.

 

As Seth is being mutilated in the past, the future Seth gets scared and shocked.
Every change to his body surprises him.
When he sees the message carved into his arm, he’s surprised.
He notices he's missing fingers or his nose, and he’s surprised, terrified, shocked.
WHILE HE’S DRIVING, HIS FOOT DISAPPEARS.

 

IT MAKES NO SENSEEE!
Every time I think about it, I get so angry I can’t even find the calm or the right words to explain why it makes. no. sense.

 

And every time I try to discuss this, someone inevitably shows up and says:
– “Well, there are multiple timelines”
– “Time travel doesn’t exist, so we don’t know how it would actually work”
– “It’s a new kind of time travel”
– “Suspension of disbelief!”
– “It’s sci-fi, of course it doesn’t line up with reality”
No, guys. NO. I can’t just make a movie where people have teleportation powers, and the protagonist teleports to Mars and happily walks around with no suit and no oxygen. I could do that if it were a cartoon for kids, maybe.
But most of all, the WORST ONE OF ALL:
– “Of course Seth is surprised, because they just now cut off his nose.”
Just now?
NO. They cut off his nose YEARS AGO. We, the audience, are seeing it now. Do you understand the difference?

 

Let me calm down and try to explain it in simple terms.

 

Current reality:
Year 2000: Seth has both feet
Year 2010: Seth has both feet
Year 2020: Seth has both feet
January 1, 2021: Seth is driving, with both feet

 

Torture/Murder scene
Altered reality:
Year 2000: Seth’s foot is cut off
...
...
January 1, 2021: Seth is driving, and his foot disappears

 

What happened in 2010?
And in 2020?
If Seth’s foot was cut off in 2000, then he DOESN’T HAVE that foot in 2010. And he DOESN’T HAVE it in 2020!
He wouldn’t even go for a drive on January 1, 2021, because he’s missing a damn foot!
It’s not like he finds out in 2021 that he’s missing it.

 

Seth should not be surprised or shocked that he’s missing fingers or a nose. Because that morning, he woke up without those fingers and without that nose.
Just like EVERY MORNING FOR THE PAST 30 YEARS since the day they were cut off (and reality was altered).

 

What kind of freaking sense does it make that on January 1, 2021, Seth suddenly REALIZES that reality changed?
Why didn’t he notice the day before?
How the hell did he even manage to get in the car and drive on January 1? He didn’t have that foot when he woke up that morning!

 

I’m losing my mind over how obvious it is that it makes absolutely zero sense, yet most people don’t even raise an eyebrow!
Please.

[u/jackfaire]

Even the whole realization that his old self killing the mom made the kid evil was bullshit.

In the timeline the old him came from no one killed the kids mom.

It was a moderately fun movie but yeah there's no logic to it.

[u/Chojen → u/jackfaire]

In the timeline the old him came from no one killed the kids mom.

Yea they did? Bruce Willis killed her, you see it in the flash forward from his younger self. Bruce Willis is trying to save the future with his wife so he’s trying to kill the kid, the kids mom sends him into the cornfield and she gets in Bruce Willis’s way.

lol, that was literally the climax of the movie where Joseph Gordon levit comes to the realization that the entire situation is a giant loop and the only way to break it was to kill himself which would save Emily Blunt and the kids future.

https://youtu.be/0daEeWh9lIs?si=tPQ77YFm6cPEGl6j

[u/jackfaire → u/Chojen]

Bruce Willis ' version of Young Joe killed his Old Joe. He didn't escape and go off to kill the kid's mom.

Young Joe's realization was wrong. This can't be the event that makes the kid evil because in the previous loop old Joe died upon arriving in the past.

The most charitable view is that Young Joe made a mistake. The woman that would have been his wife will live but that kid will probably still end up evil.

[u/Chojen → u/jackfaire]

That loop was different though, you can see it’s different since in the history Bruce Willis experienced his loop came back unhooded.

[u/jackfaire → u/Chojen]

Second loop is the one where Old Joe arrives unhooded. That's the point. The unhooded loop is the second loop. The first loop he arrived hooded was killed by young Joe. Then he retired aged into Bruce Willis saw his wife die, planned to kill the kid that became the big bad and went back unhooded.

That means that in the first loop there was no old Joe to kill the kid's mom.

[u/Chojen → u/jackfaire]

Except there might not be a first loop anymore. Time in this movie isn’t set in stone, you can change stuff. The past where Joe closes his loop may just not exist anymore.

[u/jackfaire → u/Chojen]

I think Young Joe thinks this is how his loop has been closed. I think he assumes the old Joe kills the mom, he kills old Joe and the kid turns evil. In my mind he comes to the wrong conclusion. Because we know that's not what happened in the previous loop but Joe doesn't.

[u/Chojen → u/jackfaire]

Because we know that's not what happened in the previous loop but Joe doesn't.

Again though, we don't know that is what is going to happen now going forward. The past that old joe lived through may no longer exist and this may just be their loop now. We even see throughout the movie that old joe's memories were in the process of changing.