50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

When we think of Bruce Willis, we often picture that NY cop in the grotty vest with the machine gun, but the action star made a helluva name for himself in sci-fi across his four decades on screen. Among his best films in the genre are familiar titles like The Fifth Element, Twelve Monkeys, Unbreakable, Surrogates, and, of course, Looper.

Looper punts us into 2074, where crime syndicates send the people they want to disappear back in time to be slain by contract killers in the past. Willis stars opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe, an assassin from the future who has seen too much and been around too long, and so is sent back in time to be killed by - of all people - his younger self. What the crime bosses don’t reckon on, however, is Joe’s capacity for self-preservation, even when facing himself. And, far from a fixed loop, this version of time travel allows for things that happen in the past to actively modify the future (remember Marty fading away in Back to the Future? Yeah, that), meaning Joe really can rewrite his history.

It's a smart and pacey film from writer-director Rian Johnson, whose sci-fi career was sadly cut short following the backlash to his next film, The Last Jedi. Looper ignores many of the established “rules” of time travel flicks, and manages to get the best out of a late-career Willis and a barely recognisable Gordon-Levitt.