By 2044, the United States has suffered economic collapse, causing severe social decay and growth in organized crime. In addition, a mutation has occurred in 10% of the population giving them telekinetic powers. Time travel is invented in 2074, but is immediately outlawed. Tracking technology has rendered it nearly impossible to dispose of bodies secretly, so crime bosses send their targets back to the past where they are killed by "loopers": assassins paid with silver bars strapped to the victim. When crime bosses want to end a looper's contract (called "closing the loop"), the looper will kill his future self and get paid with gold bars instead of silver. Failing to close the loop is punishable by death. The assassin's only weapon is a breech loading blunderbuss, a crude but powerful firearm that is only effective over a very short range. In 2044, Joe Simmons (Gordon-Levitt) is a looper for a mafia company in Kansas. His boss Abe (Daniels) was sent from the future to manage the loopers and also owns a club that Joe frequents, and where he spends time with Suzie (Perabo), a showgirl. Abe controls his own group of hired muscle, the "Gat Men", including the insecure Kid Blue (Segan), who is desperate to prove himself to Abe. One night, Joe's friend Seth Richards (Dano) who also works as a looper visits him and tells him that he was supposed to close his own loop, but hesitated. Before Seth's future self escaped, he mentions the Rainmaker, a very powerful man who has taken ...