Trivia / Looper

• Ability over Appearance: Gordon-Levitt. Especially blatant considering they had to use prostheses and makeup to make him more like Bruce Willis.
• Ad Lib: A very large, meta example with the plot; due to budget constraints around filming in France, the 2074 setting was restricted to either Shanghai or New Orleans as both were cheaper and easier, and China was chosen on the fly. Even notable with Joe learning French for no real reason, before it's lampshaded through a Creator In-Joke where Abe is really insistent Joe go to China instead, resulting in him changing his mind about France.
• The Danza: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Joe.
• Development Hell: Rian Johnson reportedly started formulating ideas for the movie in 2002, and then spent two whole years writing and finalizing it.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt wore extensive makeup and green contacts to look more like a young Bruce Willis.
  • Emily Blunt dyed her hair a sun-bleached blonde and tanned to look like a farm worker.
• Fake American: Emily Blunt, a Brit, plays the Kansas farmgirl Sara.
• Irony as She Is Cast: A mild example: Joe is shown studying French early on in the movie and isn't very good at it, whereas Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quite fluent in French.
• Reality Subtext: The scene where Abe tells Young Joe he should go to China instead of France actually mirrors the production of the film, in which Joe was going to go to Paris with his gold until the filmmakers learned how much they could get in tax credits and crack the Chinese market if they filmed in Shanghai instead.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The film-makers initially planned to have Joe travel to Paris. They changed it to Shanghai after Chinese investors offered them money.
• Shrug of God: Rian Johnson didn't confirm or deny the theory of Abe being an older Kid Blue, simply saying that he liked the idea.
• Throw It In!:
  • Kid Blue drops his gun while twirling it, which fits with the whole "previously shot himself in the foot" gag; however, it was the only take where Segan messed up, but it was kept in because it was too funny and fitting to leave out.
  • One of the deleted scenes features Jesse, the gat man send to check the farm out, and Sara exploring the basement reached by the door under the stairs before cutting to the escape tunnel starting from there. It was cut for pacing, but they fortunately had a take where the actors forgot to walk back into the room while exploring the noise, which allowed changing the scene to instead involve the secret passage starting from that door.
• Word of God: Rian Johnson answered a few questions on IO9. He notes the irony of him being irked by people saying the movie doesn't make sense after he spent two years working it out; he used to pick apart movies the same way.