12 MONKEYS

(December 1995, U.S.)

Lately my son is really into watching downloadable TV and movies about time travel. It's no wonder the possibilities of such a concept have been popular in our media culture ever since H.G. Wells first told us story of THE TIME MACHINE. For my generation, we had reruns of THE TWILIGHT ZONE on late night TV, PLANET OF THE APES sequels, and the entire BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy, just to name some examples. By today's standards, I can barely keep up with all the stories out there, on screen and in print, that involve time travel. Really, it's all too much to keep up with, which is why I suppose for the last several decades, I've been very selective about what sort of time travel stories I enjoy.

12 MONKEYS by Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) takes the concept and points out that it can be terribly flawed. Despite its flaws, though, time travel is responsible for attempting to control a deadly virus which was released in the year 1996, wiping out most of humanity. Survivors like James Cole (played by Bruce Willis) in the year 2035 are forced to live underground in the ruins of Philadelphia, and in his time, a group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is believed to have been the ones responsible for releasing the deadly virus. Cole is selected for training and sent back in time to locate the original virus in order to aid scientists in developing a cure. He's haunted by reoccurring dreams involving a foot chase and shooting at an airport.

Time traveling back to Baltimore, he mistakenly arrives in the year 1990 instead of 1996, as intended. He's arrested and thrown into a mental hospital with a sea of crazies. He's diagnosed by Dr. Kathryn Railly (played by Madeline Stowe) and determined to have fanatical environmental and anti-corporatist views (whatever the hell that means). Despite his best explanation of his mission regarding the virus outbreak and the fact that it cannot be changed, he's deemed just another psychotic. He manages to escape through his own time portal, and ends up back in 2035. He's interrogated by the scientists who play for him a distorted voicemail message asserting the connection between the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and the virus. Cole is given another chance to complete his mission and he's sent back in time again, but he accidentally arrives in the middle of a World War I battlefield, and is shot in the leg before being sent back to 1996 again.

During a book signing for her new publication, Dr. Railly meets Dr. Peters (played by David Morse) who speaks of apocalyptic alarmists who represent sane visions while the true lunacy is humanity's gradual destruction of the environment. When Cole and Dr. Railly are eventually reunited, he forces her to drive him to Philadelphia when they learn of the Army's leader Jeffrey Goines (played by Brad Pitt), who was also once in the mental hospital with Cole in 1996, is also the founder, though he denies any involvement and cites that the virus was originated by his virologist father. Meanwhile Dr. Railly discovers evidence of his time travel which she shows him, believing him to be sane. They decide to depart for the Florida Keys before the onset of the plague begins. They soon learn the Army is not the source of the epidemic, but rather an animal rights group whose major act is to release all the animals from the local zoo to create havoc in the streets.

At the airport, Cole leaves a final message with the scientists of 2035, declaring the Army is the wrong direction for the virus and that he won't be returning. Dr. Railly also spots Dr. Peters at the airport, and he's preparing a tour of several cities of the world that match the locations and sequence of the viral outbreaks (in other words, he's the bad guy carrying the virus). Cole's airport dream is now a reality, as he's fatally shot by police while trying to stop Dr. Peters with his own gun. As Cole dies in Dr. Railly's arms, his death is witnessed by a small boy who turns out to be James Cole himself (as a boy).

Because the concept of time travel is so vast with possibilities, it's almost impossible to keep up with all of its theories and conspiracies. 12 MONKEYS takes time travel and explores the nature of memories and their impact on our perceptions of what reality is. Cole's false memories and dreams of the airport shooting are altered every time he dreams it, and it's a complete mental case like Brad Pitt who actually has the false memories. And for ourselves as viewers, our own memories are challenged in not only keeping up with mind-blowing twists and turns, but in completely absorbing what is ultimately an effective and thought-provoking film experience. Like BLADE RUNNER, it's a cold and dark vision of doom and madness, with a hero like Bruce Willis who tries to prevail against the odds of chaos and his own depleted physical condition. Rather than attempting to change the past, as many time travel tales embark on, he instead observes it in order to try and improve the future.

You know, I can't help but wonder if such time travel were possible in real life, what attempts could we make to alter our bleak world today which is currently drowning in its own pandemic fears and chaos of COVID-19? In 12 MONKEYS, there is no hope because the future cannot be changed. I hope we can do better.

Favorite line or dialogue:

James Cole: "It's just like what's happening with us, like the past. The movie never changes. It can't change, but every time you see it, it seems different because you're different. You see different things."