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12 Monkeys: How to Time Travel Without Actually Improving Anything

 

 

Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys is a visually captivating and thematically rich film that follows a time traveler on a desperate mission to uncover the origins of a virus that decimates 90% of Earth's population. The film stars Bruce Willis at the height of his career, with a young Brad Pitt delivering a standout performance that earned him critical acclaim and solidified his status as a rising star in Hollywood. Set in both the past and present, the movie offers a gritty and bleak portrayal of humanity, exploring how quickly and easily scientific advancements could lead to the destruction of the world as we know it.

 

 

(Spolers)

 

 

12 Monkeys begins with a cryptic opening card stating that in 1997, a virus wipes out 5 billion people, forcing the survivors to live underground while animals reclaim the Earth. James Cole (Bruce Willis), a prisoner in this dystopian future, is selected to travel back to 1996 to gather information about the virus in its early stages, with the hope of retrieving a pure sample to help the scientists develop a cure. However, a mishap sends James to the year 1990, where he is quickly arrested and confined to a mental institution.

 

At the institution, James meets Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), a psychiatrist who dismisses his claims of being from the future, and Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), the eccentric son of a renowned virologist. Realizing he’s in the wrong year, James attempts to escape with Jeffrey’s help but fails. Eventually, he is sedated and placed in solitary confinement, only to suddenly vanish and mysteriously vanish, being pulled back to his own time. 

 

Waking up in the future, James find the scientists are dissatisfied with his initial efforts, and send him back again. Due to a miscalculation James finds himself in the  trenches of World War I, where he is shot in the leg before finally arriving in 1996. This time, James seeks out Dr. Railly, who is giving a presentation on the Cassandra Complex, a psychological phenomenon where accurate predictions of disaster are ignored. After kidnapping her, believing she can help him find the virus’ origin, they head to Philadelphia, where James suspects the 12 Monkeys, an activist group, is responsible for the outbreak.

 

James discovers that his former fellow patient, Jeffrey Goines, is the leader of the 12 Monkeys. When James confronts Jeffrey about his plans, Jeffrey reveals that the inspiration for the group's actions came from their conversations back in 1990. Jeffrey then forces James to flee, and as the authorities close in on him for the kidnapping of Dr. Railly, he is abruptly pulled back to the future.

 

After another frustrating debriefing with the scientists, James persuades them to send him back one final time. He reunites with Dr. Railly, who now believes his story, and they plan to escape to the Florida Keys. As they head to the airport, the 12 Monkeys group executes their plan, releasing all the animals from a local zoo and locking Jeffrey Goines' father, the virologist, in a cage. Realizing that the 12 Monkeys were not responsible for the outbreak, James leaves a message on a voicemail system used to communicate with the future, informing the scientists of this discovery.

 

At the airport, Dr. Railly recognizes that the virologist’s assistant is the true culprit, intending to travel the world to spread the virus. James tries to stop him but is tragically shot by the police, fulfilling the recurring flashback that has haunted him. The film concludes with the virologist’s assistant boarding a plane and striking up a conversation with a fellow passenger—one of the future scientists—who cryptically identifies herself as working in “insurance.”

 

 

 

I'm a sucker for dystopian '90s sci-fi, so 12 Monkeys is a must-watch for me. The movie does a great job of stylizing the past and present differently while maintaining a similar aesthetic, giving it that raw, lived-in, dirty feel. The storyline is also pretty unique—unlike most time travel narratives where characters try to change the future, here they’re just gathering information on the virus, before it mutates, to try and make a vaccine for the people still alive in 2035. While I appreciate the concept, I’m not entirely sold on the execution. For example, in the final scene why would the future scientists need to be on the flight as "insurance" if there's no real concern that the virus would let loose? And why have insurance for something that wipes out 5 billion people? 

 

I also enjoyed the way the film blurs the lines between James (Bruce Willis) questioning his sanity and trying to figure out if everything is real. However, I think they could have leaned into the idea of James being crazy a bit more—similar to how Shutter Island handles its protagonist's mental state, as there was never any real doubt for me that James actually did come from the future. Overall, the movie is a fun watch, and despite some plot holes (time travel movies are so tough to avoid plot holes with), I definitely recommend it.