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A Self-Centered Universe
Looper and Geocentrism

Rian Johnson's Looper made quite the splash when it was released in the Fall of 2012. Garnering rave reviews and sparking much debate, it was one of the most talked-about films of the year. Yet most of this dicussion, from both fans and critics, ignored the most interesting aspect of the film: That Looper is a very clear rejection of the heliocentric model (in which Earth revolves around the Sun) in favor of Geocentrism (which placed the Earth at the center of the cosmos).

Looper essentially dramatized the geo/helio-centric debate in its characters. On one end of the spectrum you have geocentrism, which is given a pretty clear analogue in the form of Young Joe. Young Joe is a character who sees himself as the most important element of the world, and really only views others in their relation to him. The other loopers are the same way. Paul Dano's character, Seth, even verbalizes this mentality early in the film when he orders a vagrant to "Walk wide around" his bike. His stance is clear: he and his possessions are the center of the world, around which other people and things move. Johnson's camera even illustrates this in a scene where Young Joe walks into a club. The camera follows him and starts rotating upon its center axis. That center axis: Young Joe. He is living what amounts to a "geocentric life."

On the other side you have the characters of Sara and Old Joe, each living apparent heliocentric lives. Old Joe's motivations are solely the protection of his deceased wife of the future. To him, she is the center of the universe, and all other things, including himself, revolve around her. On the same token, Sara defines herself entirely as the caretaker for her young son, Sid - a powerful telekinetic whose abilities will prove incredibly dangerous if he is not taught to control them. For her, Sid is the central point around which all things revolve.

With these characters, Johnson creates an allegory for the rise of the heliocentric model in our own world. Both characters explicitly represent the coming of the new world within the narrative. Old Joe is literally from the future, and Sara is the mother of the biggest evolutionary leap in human history. They also both adhered to a more geocentric lifestyle in their pasts before altering their own perspectives towards heliocentrism. Old Joe was very much the same as Young Joe, while Sara was living on her own, partying and drinking every night as her sister raised her child. Presently, though, they both feel they were mistaken to have lived that way.

This is where Looper starts to form its argument. Over the course of the film it is slowly made clear that neither of these two characters are being honest with themselves. Selfless as they may believe their actions to be, they are in truth acting entirely out of their own self-interest. Old Joe's devotion to his wife comes to be understood as an evolution of his own selfishness. There is the pivotal scene at the diner where Young Joe offers to alter the future by avoiding his future wife. Such an action would indeed save her life, but Old Joe refuses. His interest is not simply to save her, but to save her for himself. His seemingly selfless devotion is revealed to be more about possession. While he believes his world to be a heliocentric one, it is in fact quite geocentric.

Sara is subject to a similar revelation. She talks a great deal about how Sid is all that matters to her, but when Sid gets agitated and his telekinetic abilities start to surface her reaction is to flee and protect herself - in one instance by hiding in a large safe, in another by leaving the house entirely. While she does want to care for Sid, her own self-interest is shown to take precedence when push comes to shove. Again, her heliocentric view of her life is an illusion. Her life is in truth geocentric.

Young Joe, on the other hand, becomes more and more central to the story being told. It is through his interaction with Sara that she reaches a place with Sid where she can finally help him control his telekinesis. It is for his benefit that old Joe kills Abe and all his gat-men. And in the closing moments of the film, he realizes that it is through his own action that all conflict within the world can be ended. As his narration states, he sees a circle, a loop. A loop with him at the center of it: Sara and Sid travelling one direction, and Old Joe travelling the other. In a sense, he truly is the center of the universe, with two distinct entities orbiting around him on a collision course. And with his final sacrificial act he eliminates that conflict by removing himself from the equation.

Johnson's message seems clear. Like Sara and Old Joe we are fooling ourselves by believing our universe is heliocentric. It is a fallacy, and our belief in it doesn't make it true, it merely masks the reality of our situation from us. The geocentric truth.