12 MONKEYS
US, 1995, 129 minutes, Colour.
Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, Christopher Plummer.
Directed by Terry Gilliam.
This is the kind of film that addicts of the X Files may be drawn to. It is a blend of science fiction and science fantasy with a touch of the apocalyptic. That is, the end of the world as we know it is threatened and we need a saviour to help us. It involves a mysterious future, time-travel (sometimes into mistaken eras) and attempts to change the past (which always involve logical impossibilities - however, they are usually intuitively entertaining).
12 Monkeys is directed by former Monty Python performer who was also their eccentric animator, American Terry Gilliam. Gilliam has his loyal followers (including myself) with such films as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and The Fisher King. The common threads of these films is an exploration of offbeat, even mythic, worlds where eccentric characters explore the meaning of life.
This film has links with all of them and it tantalises the mind and the imagination with its various plot strands. Bruce Willis is the time-traveller (from 2035 to 1990 to 1996 with an interlude in the trenches of World War I). He sustains his role well. Madeline Stowe is a psychologist in the present. Brad Pitt (in an Oscar-nominated performance) enjoys going over the top as an insane rebel also in the present.
Sets, costumes and decor (also Oscar-nominated) are all imaginative and atmospheric, especially in a doomed future where a virus has so contaminated the world where humans can survive only in a sealed underground and animals roam the ruins of the cities. Offbeat but thoughtful entertainment.
1. A film of the future? Apocalyptic interpretation of the world's future? The contrast with the immediate past, the present? The attraction of time travel stories? Travel through time to save the world?
2. The work of Terry Gilliam, his Monty Python films? Brazil, Time Bandits? Baron Munchausen? The Fisher King? His interest in time, time travel, present and future? The world of mythology?
3. The decor and the contrast between present and future? Costumes? The inventions, technological development? Special effects? The musical score?
4. The title, the emblem seen throughout the film? The tradition of monkeys, hearing and seeing no evil? Carrying viruses - and the history of the AIDS epidemic? The army of the twelve monkeys - the symbol for animal liberation? Liberating the world? Revolt? The use of animals throughout the film? The animals roaming the cities of the future - the bear, the lion on the parapet? The animals being liberated from the zoos at the end of the film? Wandering the cities? The relationships between human and animal? Fear, destruction, peace?
5. The introduction to the film and the quotation from the paranoid schizophrenic? The story as coming from a mental patient? Dreams, fantasies, fears and prophecies? The realism of the story? The dream and fantasy of the story?
6. The focus on the young boy at the airport, the close‑up on his eyes? Part of James' memories? The recurrent theme throughout the film? His seeing Katherine, his seeing the man with red hair? The violence, the screams, the shooting? Foreseeing his own death? It recurring in James' dreams throughout the film? Waking up in fear? The puzzle? The sense of deja vu, especially when he met Katherine?
7. In whose mind did the action take place? In James' mind? The variety of clues and leads? Mental illness and the creating of a story? The quotation about the brain being in a mess and producing this kind of story? Sanity and the need for healing? James and his background, madness, memories? His seemingly mad in his return to 1990 and the implausibility of his story? Katherine believing him? The irony at the end with the assistant to the doctor in the plane with his virus and his meeting the woman in insurance who was one of the rulers of the future?
8. The 21st century, the atmosphere of the future, the visual impact of the initial prison, the cells? Dreaming in the cell? The violence? James and his background of violence? Jose - and his also being used as a messenger and time traveller throughout the film? James going to the interrogation? His being a volunteer? Going out into the city, the desolation, the animals, the danger of the virus, the elaborate suit (visualised as an enormous condom)? His capturing the live insects and taking them as specimens? The fear with the bear? The lion? The desolation of the future and his going back to the committee? The need to investigate the future and to go back into the past in order to find out what went wrong and restore health in the future? The volunteers, success and failure? The danger of destruction with tears in the equipment? The volunteers going back into the past, the phone codes, the contact with the future? The ability to time travel?
9. James and his being referred to as Bob? His identity? Bruce Willis and his style? The hero, strength and weakness, bemused? The violent background? His investigation of the desolate world of the future? His going back to 1990 and not 1996? His violence in the world of 1990, the police interrogations, Katherine and her interest, questions? James' needs? The panel and his responses, the story sounding plausible to the audience but sounding mad to the panel? His being put into the institution? The encounters with Jeffrey? Jeffrey and his guide to all the people in the ward? The decision that they were Looneys? James and his outbursts, being sedated? His need to get out? The information about the virus? The link with Jeffrey and his father? Jeffrey and his tantrum enabling James to escape? The irony that James, coming from the future with the story of the destruction of the world, was able to bring back the story of the virus and so bring it into the world of 1990?
10. Katherine and her work, psychology, on the panel? Her skills in the questioning? Her sympathy? Allowing James to make the phone call - and the irony of the black woman answering and not knowing the truth? The disappearance of James? 1996, her book and the book launch? The doctor's assistant and his wanting an autograph? James and his reappearance? The abduction, her fear, in the car, travelling along the roads? Looking at the television and getting the information from the media? Her being tied up? Going through the Philadelphia streets, waiting, the dangers? The alcoholic man? The old theatre, the attempted rape? James killing the attacker? Going to the dinner - James and his meeting Jeffrey, their discussions, the confrontation? Seeing Jeffrey's father? Escaping? The irony of James having been at World War I and his bullet? Katherine removing the bullet, the information from the police? Her staying with friends - and James' disappearance?
11. The background of the television stories about the lost boy down the well - and its being a hoax? The irony of this sub-plot for the whole film?
12. James and his time travel to World War I, seeing Jose, the trenches, the battle, his being shot? His appearing in the photo in Katherine's book? The significance of the bullet?
13. His return to the future, the interrogation?
14. Jeffrey, his madness, Brad Pitt's style and the performance in the initial asylum sequences? His relationship with his father, at the dinner? His followers? The madness? The friends and their shop, the information for Katherine and James? His abducting his father, putting him in the van, the treatment of his father - and turning the animals loose?
15. The build-up to the finale, the doctor, the virus and its being protected? The irony of his assistant stealing the virus? James and Katherine disguising themselves, travelling to the airport, the police and the security? Katherine getting the tickets for the flight? The irony of the assistant being on the same plane? Her trying to catch him, to warn James? The re-enactment of the dream, his being killed? The boy seeing his own death as he returned from the future?
16. The final sequence in the plane, the assistant with the virus? The passenger next to him and her talking about insurance - and being the same actress who played one of the rulers of the future?
17. The apocalyptic themes? World destruction? Viruses in the 20th century? The future - and the need for saviours? The development and abuse of technology? The themes of madness and sanity, dreams and fantasies? The film as an apocalyptic warning?
