Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Looper's Violence, Morality, and Mind-Melding With Bruce Willis

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment/Alan Markfield

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Looper

He garnered national attention at a young age playing an alien posing as teen in 3rd Rock from the Sun and infiltrated the human subconscious as a dream architect in Inception. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is no stranger to science fiction, and he's put on one of his most interesting performances to date in Rian Johnson's latest film, Looper.

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Set in 2042, the film takes place in a world where time travel exists and it's under the control of the mob. Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a "looper," or a hit-man who kills people sent back in time when the mob wants to get rid of a person before he becomes a problem.

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment/Alan Markfield

Jeff Daniels as Abe, a gangster from the future in charge of tying up the mob's loose ends.

The backdrop of the story is an almost Orwellian dystopia. Johnson has done a tremendous job of creating a futuristic society still grounded in a familiar reality. It's eerie how possible Johnson's tomorrow-land feels.

It's usually your past that comes back to haunt you, but for Joe it's his future. After disobeying protocol, he ends up face to face with himself 30 years from now, played by Bruce Willis. When he can't tell which version of himself is the bad guy, things start to escalate.

"There's a lot of moral ambiguity in it, and I think that's realistic for the way the world is in real life. No one is black or white, everyone's a shade of grey, and while it's a convenient and often crowd pleasing device to have heroes and villains, that's not really the way the world is," Levitt said while promoting the film in Miami earlier this month.