# Twelve Monkeys (1995)



## Dave (Mar 6, 2001)

Twelve Monkeys (1995).

Directed by Terry Gilliam.

Starring Bruce Willis.

http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0114746

Another of my Top Five Films- hang on that makes about 10, top five films now!

A lethal virus has killed five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and living beneath the surface. A convict, James Cole, reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to gather information about the origin of the epidemic (that he's told was spread by a mysterious "Army of the Twelve Monkeys") and locate the virus before it mutates so that scientists can study it. Unfortunately, this technology is experimental and he is photographed on a First World War battlefield, and then turns up in 1990, six years earlier than required, and is arrested and locked up in a mental institution. Here he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly, a psychiatrist, and Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert.  In 1996, he kidnaps Railly, using her to find the 12 Monkeys, a group of revolutionists that may be about to release the virus into selected cities. Hunted by the authorities for murder and kidnapping, and refusing to return to the future because he is in love with Railly, Cole discovers the real truth. Donâ€™t you just love films you donâ€™t understand until youâ€™ve seen them a few times.


----------



## markpud (Mar 15, 2001)

yeah another great film 

Nice touches include the use of a voice mail system to leave messages to be picked up in the future...

And right at the end "I'm in insurance"...


----------



## ewlyn (Apr 10, 2001)

Has anyone seen Le Jette (sp?) which the film is based on?  It's an amazing, amazing film.  I saw it for the first time in a film class when I was in college.  The entire film is made up of black and white photographs... and then smack in the middle is about 5 seconds of real film footage.  It totally blew me away and is highly recommended if you can find it.


----------



## Dave (Apr 10, 2001)

I have heard about it, but not seen it.
Where would I be able to see it shown?


----------



## Chilly (May 25, 2001)

*klk*

was that brad ptt at the beginning in the loony hosptal?


----------



## Dave (May 25, 2001)

Yes, Brad Pitt is in it. He was trying his bit to be taken as a serious actor, instead of just a hearthrob.


----------



## Chilly (Jun 5, 2001)

*huh*

dint work bu the looks  of it!!

iffat
:alienooh:


----------



## Dave (Jun 5, 2001)

To be fair, I think he did a good job of being a raving looney!


----------



## Chilly (Jun 6, 2001)

*hy*

yeh it was ok but people still only saw him as a  sex symbol


----------



## neXus_6 (Feb 15, 2002)

he won an oscar for best supporting actor in this movie!


----------



## Chilly (Mar 20, 2002)

*hey*

he did? wow! lol


----------



## neXus_6 (Mar 22, 2002)

*NOT a never ending film! *spoiler**

Prepare to be confused with my professional time travel talk! 
Okay, people go on about this a never ending film like Groundhog Day but it's not!
Remember, Cole listened to Dr Railly's voice mail message in the future but he he didn't know it was her because he's not gone to 1996 and told her yet! He still get's the message because it already has happened. (well, actually he has. sort of. not yet. she did it in 1996 and they're in 2035 or something-get it?)
Now, at the end Cole tells them in 1996 as a voice mail message that the 12 Monkeys were nothing to do with the virus. so they get the message and send Jose back to give him a gun but Cole gets shot.
The point is this: they should of got that message ages ago! they got Dr Railley's message before we get to the scene so they should of got Cole's too! AND they know that the 12 Monkeys didn't start that virus!!! 
I'm so clever, aren't I?


----------



## rde (Mar 23, 2002)

There's hardly a time travel film in existence that doesn't have some sort of - let's be generous and call it a paradox - therein.
I still get a headache explaining the big hole in Back to the Future. So I don't bother any more.


----------



## Dave (Mar 23, 2002)

Working those out are some of the appeal of Time Travel films, but I can't see an alternative explanation for what you said.


----------



## rde (Mar 23, 2002)

(I'm entering nerd mode here - be warned)

There's a fascinating thing (for me, anyway) about time travel, and it's the assumptions made with regard to causality. Twelve Monkeys, for example, has a fixed timeline; the future isn't changed by actions in the past. Causality, however, is a major part in the Back to the Future movies (which, once upon a time, I actually _liked_! No, I don't understand it either).

Bizarrely, the problems of causality have best been tackled on television (I'm discounting books, here. There'd be no competition if I included them). Remember that episode of Voyager with Kurtwood Smith? Pretty good by any television standards; by Voyager standards, it was off the scale. Then there's the episode of the third season of Farscape (its name eludes me) which shows that time can be elastic. Good ol' Farscape; you can always rely on it to do something slightly different.

There's probably a point to all this. But I can't remember what it was. Something to do with attitudes and assumptions, I suppose. Sorry for wasting your time.


----------



## Dave (Jul 18, 2002)

It seems stange that there aren't some better Time Travel films. As you say, books and TV series have shown some interesting Time Travel paradoxes, but in films we have the choice of it being played for laughs, a simple excursion of some kind, or else someone making a change and someone else (usually some kind of time cop) having the job of reversing it. 'A Sound of Thunder' may be a little different.


----------



## Dave (Jul 19, 2002)

> _Originally posted by neXus_6 _
> *he won an oscar for best supporting actor in this movie! *


Actually, he was only nominated for an Oscar, but he did win a Saturn Award for Twelve Monkeys.


----------



## Tabitha (Jul 20, 2002)

Definitely my favourite Gilliam film - Brad Pitt was incredible!


----------



## Tabitha (Jul 20, 2002)

*Twelve Monkeys*

Ohhh, time travel really hurts my brain!


----------



## Dave (Oct 2, 2003)

Just watched this again, it does make more sense the more you see it. 

When Dr Kathryn Railly is first seen and paged at the Art Gallery, her phone has a Star Trek communicator ringtone.

*La Jetee*
Video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7113165152671062793
Script
http://www.godamongdirectors.com/scripts/lajette.shtml


----------



## Dave (Jun 28, 2006)

*Re: NOT a never ending film! *spoiler**



> _Originally posted by neXus_6 _
> *The point is this: they should of got that message ages ago! they got Dr Railley's message before we get to the scene so they should of got Cole's too! AND they know that the 12 Monkeys didn't start that virus!!!*


Actually, I never realised how many people from the future they had sent back. There was the man who died in 1916, the evangelist, the man who pulled his teeth out and the guy sent back to give Cole the gun at the end. 

They should have had time to realise that the 'army of the twelve monkeys' did not release the virus, but with all these other people sending back messages and the message from Railley being so garbled, maybe it took longer to decifer it.

After Cole was shot and died, why didn't Railley phone the number again and tell them the real story? Why didn't they send someone else earlier to eliminate the Dr. Peters?

You could argue that this is a film where the timeline is fixed. The future is pre-destined and no one can change it. 

On the otherhand, the woman that sits next to Dr Peters on the plane who says 'I'm insurance' is the astrophysicist from the future. Cole said to Railly that the next step would be for them to send a scientist in order to assist the people of the future to obtain a strain of the original virus to develop a cure. So Cole's mission seems to have succeeded after all. Then again, "in insurance" may mean that the scientist is there to ensure the disease's spread. It is still an open ending.


----------

