12 Monkeys is a 1995 science fiction thriller film directed by Terry Gilliam from a screenplay by David Peoples and Janet Peoples, based on Chris Marker's 1962 short film La Jetée. It stars Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Plummer. Set in a post-apocalyptic future devastated by disease, the film follows a convict who is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet. It’s an international co-production between the United Kingdom, France, Japan, the United States and Germany.
The film was theatrically released in the United States on December 29, 1995, by Universal Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $168.8 million worldwide against a $29 million budget. At the 68th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (for Pitt) and Best Costume Design. It garnered seven nominations at the 22nd Saturn Awards, winning three: Best Science Fiction Film, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Costumes. Pitt also won Best Supporting Actor at the 53rd Golden Globe Awards.
Plot James Cole is a prisoner in a compound underneath the ruins of Philadelphia. He is selected by scientists for a mission to travel about 30 years into the past, to the year 1996, and collect information on the original strain of a virus that killed 99% of the human population in 1996 and 1997. Cole experiences recurring dreams in which a man is shot in an airport terminal.
Cole is sent back in time and arrives in Baltimore in 1990, not 1996 as planned. He is arrested and committed to a psychiatric hospital on the diagnosis of Dr. Kathryn Railly. He encounters fellow inmate Jeffrey Goines, an outspoken critic of consumerism. Cole tells the hospital doctors he is searching for the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, the group that unleashed the virus in 1996, which is the past. During an escape attempt aided by Jeffrey, Cole is abruptly returned to the future. The scientists attempt to send Cole back to 1996, but he briefly arrives on a World War I battlefield, where he encounters another inmate from the future, José, before being shot in the leg.
In 1996, Railly gives a lecture on the Cassandra Complex where she briefly encounters Dr. Peters, who mentions the destruction of the environment by humanity. After she departs, she is kidnapped in her car and told to drive to Philadelphia. The kidnapper turns out to be Cole. Railly offers him medical help and extracts the bullet from his leg. His investigation leads them to Jeffrey, who they discover is the leader of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and the son of renowned virologist Dr. Leland Goines. Cole is abruptly returned to the future. Railly is told by police that the bullet from Cole's leg was from before the 1920s, which prompts her to identify Cole in a battlefield photograph from World War I that she's gathered during her research. She urges Leland to secure his lab against access by his son. Leland shares his intention to improve the lab's security with his assistant, Dr. Peters.
Cole arrives in 1996 again and finds Railly. He tells her he believes himself delusional, while she says she's not sure any more. Railly leaves a voicemail on a number Cole says was given to him by the scientists. Cole tells her he has already heard her message, played to him by the scientists in the future. Cole and Railly decide to spend the following days together at the Florida Keys. On their way there, they learn that the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is an animal rights organization led by Jeffrey, and their graffiti "we did it" refers to liberating animals from the Philadelphia Zoo, not releasing the virus.
At the airport, Cole records a message on the voicemail number, saying the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is a false lead and that he's not coming back. Railly comes across Dr. Peters at the airport and recognizes him through a newspaper photo alongside Leland. Cole comes across José, who tracked him down after his last message, and hands him a gun. Railly informs Cole of Peters, and Cole attempts to shoot him, but is shot dead by police. As Cole dies in Railly's arms, she makes eye contact with a young boy witnessing the scene. Peters boards his flight and takes a seat beside Jones, one of the scientists who orchestrated Cole's mission. Outside the airport, the young boy who observed the shooting, Cole, watches an airplane take off.
Cast
Production Development
The genesis of 12 Monkeys came from executive producer Robert Kosberg, who had been a fan of the French short film La Jetée (1962). Kosberg persuaded that film's director, Chris Marker, to let him pitch the project to Universal Pictures, seeing it as a perfect basis for a full-length science fiction film. Universal agreed to purchase the remake rights and hired David and Janet Peoples to write the screenplay. Producer Charles Roven chose Terry Gilliam to direct, because he believed the filmmaker's style was perfect for 12 Monkeys nonlinear storyline and time travel subplot. Gilliam had just abandoned a film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities when he signed to direct 12 Monkeys, though Gilliam felt the script was "too complex" to take on.
The film represents the second film for which Gilliam did not write or co-write the screenplay. Although he prefers to direct his own scripts, he was captivated by Peoples' "intriguing and intelligent script. The story is disconcerting. It deals with time, madness and a perception of what the world is or isn't. It is a study of madness and dreams, of death and re-birth, set in a world coming apart".DVD production notes
Universal took longer than expected to approve 12 Monkeys, although Gilliam had two stars (Willis and Pitt) and a firm budget of $29.5 million (low for a Hollywood science fiction film). Universal's production of Waterworld (1995) had resulted in various cost overruns. To get 12 Monkeys approved for production, Gilliam persuaded Willis to lower his normal asking price.Gilliam on Gilliam, Christie, Gilliam, pp.226–230 Because of Universal's strict production incentives and his history with the studio on Brazil, Gilliam received final cut privilege. The Writers Guild of America was skeptical of the "inspired by" credit for La Jetée and Chris Marker. Gilliam said that he had not seen La Jetée when he made 12 Monkeys.Gilliam on Gilliam edited by Ian Christie. Faber and Faber, 1999. Page 73. In 2003, Marker said he felt the film was "magnificent".
Casting Gilliam's initial casting choices were Nick Nolte as James Cole and Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey Goines, but Universal objected. Other actors were suggested for the roles included Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise, but Gilliam rejected the choices. Gilliam, who first met Bruce Willis while casting Jeff Bridges' role in The Fisher King (1991), believed Willis evoked Cole's characterization as being "somebody who is strong and dangerous but also vulnerable". Gilliam later stated that he wasn't originally interested in casting Willis because of the actor's mouth.
Gilliam cast Madeleine Stowe as Dr. Kathryn Railly because he was impressed by her performance in Blink (1994). The director first met Stowe when he was casting his abandoned film adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities. "She has this incredible ethereal beauty and she's incredibly intelligent", Gilliam said of Stowe. "Those two things rest very easily with her, and the film needed those elements because it has to be romantic."
Gilliam originally believed that Pitt was not right for the role of Jeffrey Goines, but the casting director convinced him otherwise. Pitt was cast for a comparatively small salary, as he was still relatively unknown at the time. By the time of 12 Monkeys release, Interview with the Vampire (1994), Legends of the Fall (1994), and Se7en (1995) had been released, making Pitt an A-list actor, which drew greater attention to the film and boosted its box-office standing. In Philadelphia, months before filming, Pitt spent weeks at Temple University's hospital, visiting and studying the psychiatric ward to prepare for his role.
Filming
Principal photography lasted from February 8 to May 6, 1995. Shooting on location in Philadelphia and Baltimore (including the Senator Theatre) in winter was fraught with weather problems. There were also technical glitches with the futuristic mechanical props. Because the film has a nonlinear storyline, continuity errors occurred, and some scenes had to be reshot. Gilliam also injured himself when he went horseback riding. Despite setbacks, the director managed to stay within the budget and was only a week behind his shooting schedule. "It was a tough shoot", acknowledged Jeffrey Beecroft, the film's production designer. "There wasn't a lot of money or enough time. Terry is a perfectionist, but he was really adamant about not going over budget. He got crucified for Munchausen, and that still haunts him."
The filmmakers were not allowed access to sound stages; thus, they had to find abandoned buildings or landmarks to use.Terry Gilliam, Charles Roven, DVD audio commentary, 1998, Universal Home Video. The exteriors of the climactic airport scene were shot at the Baltimore–Washington International Airport, while the interior scenes were shot at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (formerly Reading Terminal). Filming at the psychiatric hospital was done at the Eastern State Penitentiary and Girard College. Some shots took place in abandoned motels in Camden, New Jersey. 12 Monkeys was shot in the 1.85:1 format rather than anamorphic.
Design Gilliam used the same filmmaking style as he had in Brazil (1985), including the art direction and cinematography (specifically using Fresnel lenses). The appearance of the interrogation room where Cole is being interviewed by the scientists was based on the work of Lebbeus Woods; these scenes were shot at three power stations (two in Philadelphia and one in Baltimore). Gilliam intended to show Cole being interviewed through a multi-screen interrogation TV set because he felt the machinery evoked a "nightmarish intervention of technology. You try to see the faces on the screens in front of you, but the real faces and voices are down there and you have these tiny voices in your ear. To me that's the world we live in, the way we communicate these days, through technical devices that pretend to be about communication but may not be".
The art department made sure that the 2035 underground world only used pre-1996 technology, to depict the bleakness of the future. Gilliam, Beecroft and set decorator Crispian Sallis went to several flea markets and salvage warehouses looking for materials to decorate the sets. The majority of visual effects sequences were created by Peerless Camera Company, which Gilliam founded in the late 1970s with Kent Houston, the film's visual effects supervisor. Additional digital compositing was done by The Mill, while Cinesite provided film scanning services.
Music The film's score was composed, arranged, and conducted by English musician Paul Buckmaster. The main theme is based on Argentine tango musician/composer Astor Piazzolla's Suite Punta del Este.
Themes
Thematic elements
In the biographical novel Gilliam on Gilliam, director Terry Gilliam described the film as "very much about the twentieth century's inundation of information and about deciphering what among all this noise and imagery is useful and important to our lives"; these themes are expressed in conflicts between the protagonist and antagonistic elements in the relative 'past' and 'future'.
References to time, time travel, and monkeys are scattered throughout the film, including the Woody Woodpecker cartoon, Time Tunnel (1969), playing on the TV in a hotel room, the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business (1931) on TV in the asylum, and the subplots involving monkeys (drug testing, news stories and animal rights).
Allusions to other films and media