In Episode 92 of the Crooked Table Podcast, Robert Yaniz Jr. brings Adam Barnard of Screen Fever back to the show to discuss writer/director Rian Johnson’s 2012 sci-fi thriller Looper.

After winning indie cred with Brick and The Brothers Bloom but before he became a target of online vitriol for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Johnson brought a wholly original vision of the future to life. Set in a grimy underworld where time travel has become primarily used by criminals looking to cleanly dispose of their kills, Looper stars Joseph-Gordon Levitt as Joe, a hitman of sorts who runs into his biggest challenge yet when his older self (Bruce Willis) escapes death. Now caught up in race against time, young Joe must apprehend his future self before he realizes a deadly mission with the potential to disrupt the entire timeline.

Although Looper was a box office hit, the film has been sorely absent from the mainstream discussion regarding modern sci-fi. Released amid a particularly busy time for Gordon-Levitt (who also appeared in The Dark Knight Rises, Premium Rush and Lincoln that year), the film also helped catapult co-star Emily Blunt to further stardom, paving the way for her roles in genre fare like Edge of Tomorrow and this year’s A Quiet Place.

So hop in that tin can of a time machine, strap in and let’s travel back to 2012 for an in-depth (and super-sized!) discussion of Looper.