2 hours 11 minutes, USA 1995
Director: Terry Gilliam; Producer: Charles Roven; Screenplay: David Webb Peoples and Janet Peoples, based on the screenplay for the film La Jetée by Chris Marker; Photography: Roger Pratt; Production Design: Jeffrey Beecroft; Editing: Mick Audsley; Music: Paul Buckmaster.
Stars: Bruce Willis (James Cole), Madeleine Stowe (Dr. Kathryn Railly), Brad Pitt (Jeffrey Goines), Christopher Plummer (Dr. Leland Goines), Jon Seda (Jose), Frank Gorshin (Dr. Fletcher), Bob Adrian (Geologist), Simon Jones (Zoologist), Carol Florence (Astrophysicist), Joey Perillo (Detective Franki), David Morse (Dr. Peters), Harry O'Toole (Louie).
Already heralded as one of the finest science fiction dramas in recent years, and compared to Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Twelve Monkeys arrives on British shores with rave reviews from the states, three Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe award for Brad Pitt. However, it is no Blade Runner but still proves itself to be a very efficient thriller at the top end of its genre.
The year is 2035 and 99% of the planet's population has been wiped out by a mysterious virus, leaving the animals to take over the world. The survivors have been forced underground and, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, have finally perfected a time travel procedure. James Cole (Bruce Willis), a mentally unstable prisoner with recurring nightmares about a murder in an airport, is selected to carry out a dangerous experiment: to travel back to the year 1996, when the virus first appeared, and locate the mysterious Army of the Twelve Monkeys, thought to be the organisation responsible for the virus. His mission would be to gather as much information as possible so that a cure could be created back in the future. However, the experiment goes wrong and Cole finds himself in 1990 and committed to a mental institution under the watchful eye of Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), a learned psychiatrist with a special interest in "The Cassandra Complex", a theory she has generated concerning people who believe they can predict the future but are cursed to never be believed. Whilst in the hospital, he is befriended by Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), the disturbed son of a Nobel virologist (Christopher Plummer). However, faced with an even bleaker future, Cole sets out to escape from the hospital and track the virus to its source, whilst all the while battling with his own sanity and that of those around him.
The plot of Twelve Monkeys is very confusing and, to be honest, more than a little absurd. Somehow, though everything seems to work quite nicely to produce an intelligent little thriller which, whilst not living up to its hype is still a diverting couple of hours. Former Monty Python man Terry Gilliam (who also directed Brazil and The Fisher King) once again returns to his pet themes of battling with insanity and blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, endowing the story with his striking visual style. One of the most disturbing sequences comes at the beginning of the film when, whilst gathering animal specimens on the surface, an encapsulated Willis encounters a lion, roaring majestically from the roof of a disused government building. This trademark surrealness, created by mixing the ordinary with the surreal is a constant marker throughout the movie and gives the viewer a feeling of uncertainty of the boundaries between past and future. Special note should go to cinematographer Roger Pratt who shoots the film from such strange angles as to disorientate the viewer even more than the plot of screenplay ever could and add to the overall feeling of discomfort, and to costume designer Julie Weiss, who was Oscar-nominated for her inventive usage of plastic. The screenplay, by the excellent David Peoples (who also wrote Blade Runner and Unforgiven) is a perfectly understated and thoughtful adaptation of Chris Marker's original story from the short film La Jetée and suits the tone and mood of the film well. Nobody gives any grand, dramatic speeches - in fact, some characters are intentionally cold and clinical (such as the futuristic scientists who jump Cole around time but only appear to him as animated body parts on a video screen), as is the futuristic production design of Cole's prison home - a place filled with metallic surfaces and writhing cables which almost seem to be alive.
Bruce Willis himself gives his best performance for a long time as Cole - a rather uncomfortable man, unsure of the state of his own mind and tortured by dreams of the past. Willis plays Cole as a very withdrawn person, non-trusting and introverted but who is willing to seize his opportunity of freedom with both hands but who begins to doubt reality when the people he has contact with refuse to believe his story. On the other hand, though, there is Brad Pitt as Jeffrey Goines. Rather than accepting another pretty-boy Hollywood hunk role, as he could have done very easily, Pitt plays Goines as twitching lunatic, complete with unusual facial tics and maniacal speaking voice, but to whom there is more than meets the eye. Our perception of Pitt's character changes as the movie progresses - at the outset he seems to be nothing more than an amusing loony with a nice line in witty remarks, but as we find out more about his past, and more importantly his future, it becomes apparent that Jeffrey will play an important part in the creation of the future society. Madeleine Stowe, best known for her roles as action hero love interests in films like The Last Of The Mohicans, Stakeout and Blink gives a good, if bland performance as Cole's psychiatrist. She is the only who ultimately believes Cole's incredible story, but this is really only a mechanism for giving Cole a friend - her character never seems to have the emotional empathy that a true psychiatrist should have. This is not a criticism of Stowe in particular - it's just a poorly written part. One major gripe that I would have with the film is the utterly abysmal musical score by Paul Buckmaster - a simple, repetitive ditty played on what sounds like a Bomtempi keyboard. Twelve Monkeys certainly takes some staying with, especially if you're not a fan of the genre, and even if you're a fan of the lead actors because they're playing so much against type. However, with a disturbing but satisfying (if a little predictable) ending Twelve Monkeys is a chilling, frightening commentary on the possibilities of the future and is well worth a look.
A film review by Jonathan Broxton 1996