Stephen Covey once said, "There are three constants in life... change, choice, and principles." If ever there was a sentence that described Rian Johnson's films, it would be that one. Though Johnson is best known for films that play with the tropes of their genre, he also presents the protagonists of said films with choices that fundamentally change them and the world they inhabit. This philosophy is present in his most recent movies, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out, but it really takes hold in the 2012 time-travel thriller Looper.
Looper takes place in a world where time travel has been outlawed, leaving various criminal syndicates in the future to grab their targets and send them back to a point in the past where specialized assassins called "loopers" take them out. One looper, Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is blindsided by the appearance of his older self (Bruce Willis), who has come to the future to kill the younger version of a terrifying mob boss called "The Rainmaker" so that he can save his wife. Young Joe is desperate to find and kill Old Joe, as letting your future self roam free is an automatic death sentence for a looper.
However, the film takes a turn once Young Joe stumbles upon a farm owned by Sara (Emily Blunt), who lives there with her son Cid (Pierce Gagnon). As Young Joe and Sara grow closer, she reveals that she is part of the population that has "TK", or in other words telekinetic powers. Cid inherited those powers, but they are far stronger than anyone else's — and often have a destructive effect when he's upset. Young Joe soon pegs that Cid may be the Rainmaker, and toward the film's end he decides to commit suicide to prevent his older self from killing Sara. He even sums it up in his final speech: "I saw a mom who would die for her son. A man who would kill for his wife. A boy, angry and alone. Laid out in front of him, the bad path. I saw it. And the path was a circle. Round and round. So I changed it."
This is a marked change from Young Joe's initial mission, and the first truly selfless choice he's made in his life. Prior to this, Young Joe was a fairly hedonistic individual. He spent his nights at clubs, hoping to woo dancer Susie (Piper Perabo); he reveals the location of his fellow looper Seth (Paul Dano) when Seth is being chased by the mob in order to keep the silver he collects on the job; he's less than moved by Old Joe's attempts to save his wife. Old Joe even calls him out on it, saying that he's nothing more than a "killer" and a "junkie" and that their future wife helped pull him out of a spiral. (Ironically, Old Joe himself is acting out of a self-serving desire to save his wife.) In contrast, every choice Sara makes is to protect Cid: she threatens to shoot trespassers who come onto her farm and manages to talk him out of one of his telekinetic tantrums. She's even willing to stand between Old Joe and Cid, even though it may cost her her life.
The effects of choice also have a major effect on the narrative of The Last Jedi, as Rey (Daisy Ridley) seeks answers about why Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) has chosen to exile himself at a time when the galaxy needs him most. Skywalker reveals that it's partly due to guilt over the fate of his nephew Ben Solo (Adam Driver); when Ben was younger, Luke sensed a darkness in him and briefly considered killing his nephew in order to prevent it. He immediately decided against this course of action, but Ben woke up and saw his uncle standing above him with a lightsaber and acted to defend himself. Luke blames himself for Ben becoming Kylo Ren, but Rey insists there is still good in him and chooses to try and sway him to the light.
Her efforts are in vain; while Ren kills his master Snoke (Andy Serkis), he chooses to take up Snoke's position as Supreme Leader of the First Order — and kill Skywalker and the Resistance in the process. The film's other heroes make choices that end up having less-than-desirable results. Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) find a slicer named "DJ" (Benicio del Toro) to help them hack into the computers of Snoke's Star Destroyer and stop the First Order from annihilating the Resistance. However, DJ ends up selling them and the Resistance out. Likewise, Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) makes a daring attempt to cripple the First Order's fleet in a battle that actually ends up severely diminishing the Resistance's fleet.
But some of these choices, like Young Joe's sacrifice, end up saving others. Skywalker eventually uses the Force to create an astral projection of himself and faces Ren in a duel, allowing the Resistance to escape. Though he becomes one with the Force, Skywalker is able to give the galaxy a fighting chance — and his actions ignite a legend that gives hope to the people suffering under the First Order's rule. Before the final battle Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) uses a spaceship to go into hyperspeed and cripple Snoke's Star Destroyer, also sacrificing her life for a greater cause. Both events show that heroism is shaped by the choices one makes, and also tie into a legacy of self-sacrifice that stretches all the way back to Obi-Wan Kenobi giving up his own life in Star Wars: A New Hope.
The theme of choice even permeates Knives Out, especially when it comes to Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas). Marta, who is the nurse for renowned novelist Harlan Thrombrey (Christopher Plummer), ends up inheriting his assets, including his impressive fortune. This doesn't sit well with the rest of Harlan's family, who try to convince her to renounce the inheritance. Harlan's son Walt (Michael Shannon) implies that he'll leak the fact that Marta's mother doesn't have a green card to the authorities. Even Meg (Katherine Langford), the supposed liberal member of the family, attempts to talk her into giving it up. She even ends up asking detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), who's been hired to solve Harlan's murder, what she should do. Blanc has a simple response: "Well, I have my own opinions. But I think you should follow your heart." Judging from the final shot, it appears that Marta chooses to keep the inheritance. And with Johnson set to deliver two more Knives Out sequels for Netflix, the protagonists of those films may end up having to make their own defining choices.