After being in a pandemic in 2020 with the Covid-19 virus, we can't help it if we try to watch films with this theme. Here in 12 monkeys, it relates a deadly virus was released in 1996, wiping out 98% of humanity, forcing the survivors to abandon topside and live underground. An army called the 12 Monkeys was supposed to have made this happen.
Sometime in the future 2035, we find prisoner James Cole (played by Bruce Willis) living below ground like the rest of the remaining humans. He was tasked to obtain samples from topside to check if the virus has subsided and he was a keen observer, which the authorities liked. They liked this trait of James that they trained him for an advanced mission, of travelling through time and gather information in the past.
He was first sent in 1996 however he was wrongfully sent to the year 1990 where he was arrested and sent to a mental institution. This is where he met Dr. Kathryn Railly (played by Madeleine Stowe) for the first time as his psychiatrist. this was a brief moment for James as he was returned in 2035 to be interrogated by the present scientists of what happened in 1996. Realizing they made an error, they sent him back but this time he was sent during World War I. This was much shorter experience for him, but meaningful, he was shot in the leg then sent to proper 1996.
During 1996, he meets up with Dr. Railly again and he abducts her. He asks to be taken to Philadelphia where he thinks the army of the 12 monkeys are based. There they found out that Jeffrey Goines (played by Brad Pitt), a former co-patient of James in 1990, created the army of the 12 monkeys. James now thinks that Jeffrey was the one who spread the virus knowing that the latter's father is a well know virologist.
James confronted Jeffrey hoping to stop him but he failed and was pulled by to 2035 again. In his disappearance, Dr. Railly was intrigued by James' stories that she pieced together and slowly believes him. The story about a local incident and the bullet that was found in James' leg. In his absence in 1996, Dr. Railly reached out to virologist Dr. Goines (played by Christopher Plummer), Jeffrey's dad, warning him about the 12 monkeys. He flatly dismissed Dr. Railly's story but nevertheless was alarmed by it so he asked his staff Dr. Peters (played by David Morse) to step up their security.
Dr. Railly then proceeded to the home base of the 12 monkeys, hoping to find Jeffrey when suddenly James arrived. During this time, James wanted to be arrested, Dr. Railly prevented him by hiding him from the police, explaining to him later that she believed him.
They decide to travel to the Florida Keys, and while they are on their way to the airport, they learned from the news that 12 monkeys' plan all along was to free the animals in the zoo and placed Dr. Goines in one of the cages there. Thinking that the world would be saved as the 12 monkeys did not spread the virus, they felt relieved.
James made a recording that reports 12 monkey's were not the source for the virus and they should do another investigation and that he would not want to return to 2035. Minutes after he made that recording, a colleague from the future hands him a gun and instructs him to just follow orders.
Meanwhile Dr. Railly spots Dr. Peters in the airport and learns that he works for Dr. Goines and she thinks he is the source of the outbreak. James then breaches through a security checkpoint hoping to catch up with Dr. Peters but he was gunned down by the police. Both was not able to stop Dr. Peters from boarding his plane and releases the virus in multiple cities around the world.
When we are served a time travel film, we are setting ourselves up with a mind boggling array of scenarios that we must focus on and piece together so as we can understand the movie. We first had a chance to watch this in 1995 and boy we were confused as hell. Maybe our mind wasn't that mature enough to handle this kind of a movie so we thought of watching it 25 years later.
True enough, we understood it now except for the ending, we will discuss more of this ambiguity later. Going back to the film, its like the other movies of this genre, Source Code (2011) and Deja Vu (2006). Everytime he gets sent back, he learns something new and uses that new information to continue his investigation, to find out where the army of the 12 monkeys and gather information so they can get a sample of the unmutated virus.
The main premise of his mission was to get information where they are and report it to 2035 where a scientist will be sent back in 1996 to collect that unmutated virus sample. With all the twists and turns we lost track of this premise and being do gooders that we are, we were hoping that James and Dr. Railly would be able to stop the virus from spreading. But this is not that kind of a movie so the ending showed they didn't stop the virus, but instead we find a scientist from the future (that's what we think) was with Dr. Peters on the plane.
All we know is that James was able to accomplish his mission, he was able to find out who had the virus all along. His death in 1996 must have, (we state must have as this was not mentioned properly) alerted the 2035 people that it was Dr. Peters all along was the culprit.
The ending was a vague one, showing Dr. Peters on the plane sitting with a (2035 scientist?) a lady who works in insurance. We are then forced to make our own conclusions as to how the story ends.
We think that 2035 scientists did not want to stop the virus from spreading. Their goal was to find that 1996 original virus so they can create a cure in the future. Giving earth and humanity a fresh start. With 98% of humanity gone, the 2% can start a new life and eradicate the ills of 1996 society. This is our take with the ending.
That being said, except for the ending, the rest of it is a good movie to watch. Bruce Willis is up to his exceptional self as the time travelling guy but we can't help but seeing his Die Hard character, John McClaine. This time however he did not shoot bad guys and jumps from tall buildings and blowing up helicopters and shit. He showed us that he could act like a person from the future, who we would think he's crazy.
Madeleine Stowe is awesome as the psychiatrist, she did pretty well in this movie. A surprise for us is the inclusion of Brad Pitt here as the leader of the 12 monkeys, Jeffrey Goines. Wikipedia considers 1995 as his breakthrough year although he merely is a supporting cast here. He shined here as that delusional character and although incoherent in some parts, he was able to show us how insane must his character be. Owing us to believe that he is that insane. For us though, during this time, we didn't know Brad Pitt then except for that movie, Interview with the Vampire with Tom Cruise. With his less role here, we didn't remember him when we first watch this. So we were surprised to find him in this movie.
Christopher Plummer was relegated to a minor role here, and we were hoping to see much of him when we saw the credits before watching this and boy we were disappointed. We wanted him to really act however he had few moments in the film. Not that it damaged the film in whole, it was still handled very well by both Stowe and Willis. Actually replace Plummer with anyone the movie will still have the same effect on us.
The story is well laid out, even with the time jumps, one can easily follow the story. With great leading actors, they played it out even better. Just be careful with the ending though as you might get another interpretation of it so don't hold our take as biblical. We encourage that you think about that ending and make sense of it in your own way.
Currently being shown in Netflix so go ahead and watch this one. Who knows, there are time travelling individuals with us right now, trying to make sense of this pandemic that we are having.
