Read Rian Johnson’s Original Treatment For LOOPER
In 2002 Rian Johnson wrote a four page treatment called Looper. It was intended to be a short, something Rian and his friends could shoot quickly and easily. It's small and it's personal and it's pretty much perfect. You can see the structure of Looper, the movie, in there, but this is far more stripped down.
What I like is that while the ending is essentially the same - young looper commits suicide - the method and the meaning are different. In this short treatment the young looper lets his older self shoot him, and he's not saving time or stopping the Rainmaker from being created. He's simply saving the life of the woman he's supposed to meet in five years, the woman who will change his life and who will die the day he gets thrown back in time. In the movie, the older Joe is trying to save her and keep her, but in this treatment he knows the only way to save her is to have never met her. It's moving.
