Macbeth and Time Travel in Looper

Till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane

Proving once again that, if you look hard enough, you can find Shakespeare in just about anything, Adam Sternbergh at the New York Times has an interview with Looper director, Rian Johnson, where Johnson mentions Macbeth as inspiration for his sci-fi flick:

"[Macbeth is] ...a kind of time-travel story itself, insofar as the main character is told, right at the start, what the future holds, and that knowledge affects all his subsequent actions, 'right up to the fact that Macbeth does all these horrible things to retain this vision of what the future could be,' Johnson says."  

You'll want to read the interview for more of Johnson's sources, including Casablanca. (Amy and I both saw Looper this weekend and thought it fantastically entertaining.) Sadly, thanks to the recession, my "hipster" neighborhood is already starting to resemble the urban dystopia shown in the film. You can read more about Looper and its portrayal of income inequality at Ed Champion's Reluctant Habits. --Kim