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From the very strange mind of Terry Gilliam (Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and all those whack Monty Python animations back in the day) comes this darkly humorous examination of a man (Bruce Willis) who can’t decide if he’s insane or has been sent back in time to help humanity recover from a devastating virus unleashed by terrorist group that killed 97% of us. Brad Pitt co-stars as a fellow lunatic and putative leader of the terrorists.
In the dread future that opens 12 Monkeys (1995) the remainders struggle along underground in a strictly regimented society dependent on a strange steampunk-ish combination of technology with forays to the surface tightly controlled to avoid bringing the virus into their cramped quarters. Scientists have developed a (never explained) method for traveling back in time, though as its still highly experimental only long-sentence prisoners are used as chrononauts. Hence Cole’s (Willis) involvement.
The machinery lacks precision so travelers have been scatted across the centuries (indeed, the film implies the 14th century black death was triggered by one of Cole’s predecessors) and our boy requires several tries before surfacing any time close in 1990–the virus is unleashed in 1996. Naked and incoherent he’s immediately arrested and sent to a local loony bin where he meets Jeffrey (Pitt), who really is off his rocker but understands Cole well enough to help him attempt to escape.
The hospital is also where Cole meets Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe, who looks more appealing here than almost any other film in which I’ve seen her). Though unconvinced by Cole’s story his strange disappearance (the scientists pull him back to the future after his failed escape) inspires her to write a book and softens her response when he reappears in her life days before the virus’ release.
The main block of the film is what transpires from this point, with Cole attempting to convince himself he is insane and the ‘memories’ of the terrible future proof of his disease while Dr. Railly similarly moves towards believing the opposite. Pitt, meanwhile, has been released into the care of his world-famous virologist father but remains less than sane, having used some of dad’s riches to found the Army of the 12 Monkeys.
For me 12 Monkeys is the most successful of Gilliam’s trilogy of future fantasy comedies; it would have to be since I’ve never been able to sit through either Brazil or Munchausen. Roger Ebert once wrote that “[Gilliam's] world is always hallucinatory in its richness of detail” and I would have to agree. The set designs, both in the underground of the future and mid-’90s Philadelphia, are worn-down and dirty and feature unlikely combinations of components, furniture and so on, while Willis’s mental uncertainty, Pitt’s vivid lunacy and Stowe’s growing belief offer complimentary psychology tension. Stowe, whose character clearly represents the audience point of view, is a useful guidepost as the film unfolds.
recommended
