12 Monkeys(1995)

Plot Summary

• James Cole (Bruce Willis) is a convicted criminal living in a grim post-apocalyptic future. In 1996-97, the Earth's surface was contaminated by a virus so deadly that it forced the surviving population to live underground. In 2035, James Cole is a prisoner living in an underground compound beneath Philadelphia. Cole is sent to the surface periodically to collect biological samples to ascertain the condition of the planet.To earn a pardon, Cole allows scientists to send him on dangerous missions to the past to collect information on the virus, thought to be released by a terrorist organization known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. If possible, he is to obtain a pure sample of the original virus so a cure can be made. Cole is troubled with recurring dreams involving a chase and a shooting in an airport.On Cole's first trip, he arrives in Baltimore in 1990, not 1996 as planned. He is arrested for creating a public nuisance and doesn't have any ID on him. Cole is hospitalized in a mental institution on the diagnosis of Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madelline Stowe). Cole claims that he lives underground and says that he is supposed to be in 1996, which is the "past" for him.There, he encounters Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), a fellow mental patient with fanatical animal rights and anti-consumerist leanings. Cole is interviewed by a panel of doctors and tries to explain that the virus outbreak has already happened and cannot be prevented. He says that the virus will be released by the Army of the 12 Monkeys in 1996, and by 1997 only 1% of the human population would survive. He says that he was sent to the wrong time and begs to make one telephone call to sort this all out. Cole tries unsuccessfully to leave a voicemail on a number monitored by the scientists in the future. But the number was not being monitored in 1990.After a failed escape attempt, Cole is restrained and locked in a cell, but then disappears, returning to the future. Back in his own time, Cole is interviewed by the scientists, who play a distorted voice mail message which gives the location of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and states that they are responsible for the virus. Cole says that he did not leave the voicemail as he was in the wrong year. He is also shown photos of numerous people suspected of being involved with the virus, including Goines.The scientists offer Cole another chance to complete his mission and send him back in time. Cole briefly arrives at a battlefield during World War I, where he sees another prison inmate who was sent back in time, José. Cole is shot in the leg and gets transported to 1996.In 1996, Railly gives a lecture about the Cassandra complex (a psychological phenomenon that describes when someone's accurate predictions of a crisis are ignored or dismissed. The term comes from the Greek mythological figure Cassandra, who was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but was cursed so that no one would believe her) to a group of scientists. At the post-lecture book-signing, Railly meets Dr. Peters, who tells her that apocalypse alarmists represent the sane vision while humanity's gradual destruction of the environment is the real lunacy.Cole arrives at the venue after seeing fliers publicizing it. Cole kidnaps Railly and sets out in search of Goines, learning that he is the founder of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. When Cole confronts Goines, he denies any involvement with the group and says that in 1990, Cole originated the idea of wiping out humanity with a virus stolen from Goines' virologist father, Dr. Leland Goines.Cole is transported back to 2035, where he reaffirms to the scientists his commitment to his mission and asks to be sent back to complete it.After Cole disappears, Railly begins to doubt her diagnosis of Cole when she finds evidence that he is telling the truth, including a photograph from World War I in which Cole appears. Cole, on the other hand, convinces himself that his future experiences are hallucinations, and persuades the scientists to send him back again. Railly attempts to settle the question of Cole's sanity by leaving a voice mail on the number he provided, creating the message the scientists played prior to his second mission. They both now realize that the coming plague is real and make plans to enjoy the time they have left. They decide to depart for the Florida Keys before the start of the plague.Cole and Railly learn that the Army of the 12 Monkeys was not the source of the epidemic; the group's major act of protest is releasing animals from a zoo and placing Goines' father in an animal cage. At the airport, Cole leaves a last message telling the scientists they are on the wrong track following the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, and that he will not return. He is soon confronted by Jose (Jon Seda), an acquaintance from his own time, who gives Cole a handgun and instructions to complete his mission. Railly spots Dr. Peters (David Morse) at the airport and recognizes him from a newspaper as an assistant of Goines' father. Peters is about to embark on a tour of several cities that matches the viral outbreaks chronologically and geographically.Peters is about to embark on a tour of several cities around the world, which matches the sequence (memorized by Cole) of viral outbreaks. Cole, while fighting through security, is fatally shot as he tries to stop Peters. As Cole dies in Railly's arms, she makes eye contact with a small boy - the young James Cole witnessing his own death; the scene that will replay in his dreams for years to come.Peters, aboard the plane with the virus, sits down next to Jones (Carol Florence), one of the scientists from the future, who comments that her job is "insurance". The young Cole watches a plane take off from the ground outside the airport.

Storyline

• James Cole, a prisoner of the state in the year 2035, can earn parole if he agrees to travel back in time and thwart a devastating plague. The virus has wiped out most of the Earth's population and the remainder live underground because the air is poisonous. Returning to the year 1990, six years before the start of the plague, Cole is soon imprisoned in a psychiatric facility because his warnings sound like mad ravings. There he meets a scientist named Dr. Kathryn Railly and Jeffrey Goines, the mad son of an eminent virologist. Cole is returned by the authorities to the year 2035, and finally ends up at his intended destination in 1996. He kidnaps Dr. Railly in order to enlist her help in his quest. Cole discovers graffiti by an apparent animal rights group called the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, but as he delves into the mystery, he hears voices, loses his bearings, and doubts his own sanity. He must figure out if Goines, who seems to be a raving lunatic, holds the key to the puzzle. Claiming to be a time traveller from the distant 2035, James Cole--a delusional patient hospitalised in a 1990 mental institution--feels compelled to carry out his important mission: to save the world from a devastating virulent agent capable of annihilating billions. However, as Cole's psychiatrist, Dr Kathryn Railly, senses that there is more to him than meets the eye, a fateful encounter with another inmate--the unhinged, Jeffrey Goines--will trigger a string of unfathomable events, balancing between the past and the present, sanity and insanity. Now, all clues point to the extreme activist group known only as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys; nevertheless, is the reality Cole so eloquently describes, indeed, true, or is it only a disturbing but subjective hallucination? — Nick Riganas Bruce Willis stars as a prison inmate from the future who is sent back in time to stop a deadly virus from decimating the world's population. Also starring Brad Pitt in an Academy Award-nominated performance as a patient in a psychiatric hospital, this modern sci-fi classic was directed by Terry Gilliam (Brazil, The Fisher King) and is a loose remake of Chris Marker's landmark 1962 short film La Jetée. An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict, James Cole, reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic (who 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 Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990, six years earlier than expected, and is arrested and locked up in a mental institution, where he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly, a psychiatrist, and Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert. — Giancarlo Cairella <vertigo@imdb.com> 2 more See all