Looper (2012)

Looper parents guide

Nothing past what an R promises: moderate sex and nudity, and strong violence.

Scare

Mildly scary

A few tense or eerie moments.

Jump scares

A couple

One or two sudden jolts.

Gore

Light gore

Some blood or injury, briefly.

Violence

Strong violence

Violence is frequent or intense.

Sex and nudity

Moderate

Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.

Language

Moderate

Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is Looper scary?

Only a little. Looper has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.

How gory is Looper?

Light gore and strong violence.

What is Looper rated, and is it OK for kids?

Moderate sex and nudity, strong violence, and some strong language. The R is earned, so not for kids.

What is Looper about?

In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but in 30 years it will have been. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target into the past where a looper, a hired gun, like Joe is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

Cast and crew

More like Looper

• V for Vendetta (2006)Suspenseful · light gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyA masked vigilante wages brisk, gritty warfare against a fascist state, sparking an epic fight for freedom.
• The Terminator (1984)Suspenseful · light gore · brutal violence · emotionally heavyA relentless cyborg assassin hunts a woman across 1980s Los Angeles, sparking a gritty fight for the future.
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)Suspenseful · light gore · brutal violence · emotionally heavyA reprogrammed cyborg protects a young boy and his mother from a relentless, shape-shifting assassin.
• Prey (2022)Tense · graphic gore · brutal violence · emotionally heavyA Comanche warrior faces off against an invisible, technologically advanced alien hunter in a brutal fight for survival.
• Aliens (1986)Properly scary · graphic gore · brutal violence · emotionally heavyA space marine faces an alien horde in a relentless, gritty fight for survival.
• Upgrade (2018)Gritty · graphic gore · brutal violence · emotionally heavyA paralyzed man's AI implant grants superhuman abilities for relentless, gritty revenge in a pulpy, high-octane thriller.
• The Matrix (1999)Suspenseful · late-night trip · brutal violence · emotionally heavyA hacker joins insurgents in a relentless, gritty fight against powerful machines, blurring the line between reality and control.
• Minority Report (2002)Suspenseful · light gore · strong violence · emotionally heavyA cop in a future where murder is foreseen races to outwit a system that predicts his own crime.

Looper is on our Time travel, Dystopias, Noir and neo-noir, Starz and Thriller on Starz lists.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

• “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
• “scary but not gory”
• “a horror movie that's actually scary”