12 monkeys movie review rotten tomatoes

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In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet. In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet. In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

• Terry Gilliam
• Chris Marker
• David Webb Peoples
• Janet Peoples
• Bruce Willis
• Madeleine Stowe
• 772 User reviews
• 212 Critic reviews
• 75 Metascore
• 11 wins & 25 nominations total

• Kathryn Railly

• Jeffrey Goines

• Astrophysicist …

• Microbiologist

• Detective Franki

• Policeman No. 1
• Policeman No. 2
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Terry Gilliam was afraid that Brad Pitt wouldn't be able to pull off the nervous, rapid speech. He sent him to a speech coach but in the end he just took away Pitt's cigarettes, and Pitt played the part exactly as Gilliam wanted.
• Goofs In the first surface scene, the bear shot is reversed and, thus, it manages to completely inhale the condensation of its breath.

Jeffrey Goines : There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion.

• Crazy credits The film is introduced by the typing sound and sight of what are apparently excerpts from Dr. Kathryn Railly's notes on James Cole.
• Alternate versions There are two releases of the film, by different companies, one from Arrow Video (released both in the US and UK) and the US Blu-ray by Universal. The Arrow release of this film contained a mistake in a scene about 40 minutes in. Bruce Willis's character is interrogated and the tracking shots and close-ups of the researchers questioning him are duplicated. This error was spotted by fans, who contacted Arrow Video to point it out. Arrow admitted the misprint, vowing to correct it (a similar problem was discovered in Arrow's 4K release of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer). Arrow issued this statement: "Sadly, we have identified a fault on our 12 Monkeys UHD disc (FCD2191/AV380), where at approximately 41 minutes some footage is briefly repeated with no interruption to the soundtrack. This error was not spotted by the producers, the facility that carried out the work or the filmmaker who approved the restoration. The fault was traced to the initial 4K data when one of the scanned reels contained some overlap in content and this wasn't flagged in the initial conform. We are continuing to review our workflow processes to prevent these issues from happening in the future. Please hold on to your copy and we will follow up with further information as soon as possible. Sorry for the inconvenience, we look forward to resolving this for you soon."
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: From Dusk Til Dawn/Eye for an Eye/12 Monkeys/Two If by Sea/Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)
• Soundtracks What a Wonderful World Written by Bob Thiele , George David Weiss Performed by Louis Armstrong Courtesy of MCA Records

User reviews 772

• BA_Harrison
• Feb 28, 2021
• Why did Cole eat the spider he found in the mental hospital?
• Why was the camera focus out in this film so often? Was it the directors choice? I found it distracting.
• What is the story (or theories) behind the raspy voice that talks to Cole in the various timelines? He seems to usually be in Cole's head, but is in the form of a homeless man in 1996. Is he simply Cole's subconscious or something else?
• January 5, 1996 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Twelve Monkeys
• Eastern State Penitentiary - 2124 Fairmont Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (interiors: asylum in 1990)
• Universal Pictures
• Atlas Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $29,000,000 (estimated)
• $57,141,459
• Jan 1, 1996
• $168,839,459

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 9 minutes

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• Universal Pictures

Summary Between sanity and madness, fantasy and reality, the past and the future, comes an adventure beyond imagination from Terry Gilliam, the acclaimed director of "The Fisher King." Penal colony prisoner James Cole (Willis) must travel back in time from the year 2035 to find the cause of a virus that killed five billion people in 1997. (Unive ... Read More

Directed By : Terry Gilliam

Written By : Chris Marker, David Webb Peoples, Janet Peoples

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Bruce Willis

Madeleine Stowe

Kathryn railly.

Jeffrey Goines

Joseph melito.

Michael Chance

Vernon campbell, h. michael walls.

Simon Jones

Carol florence, astrophysicist, jones.

Bill Raymond

Microbiologist, ernest abuba, irma st. paule, joey perillo, detective franki, bruce kirkpatrick, policeman no. 1, wilfred williams, policeman no. 2, rozwill young, nell johnson, frederick strother, l.j. washington, critic reviews.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Terry Gilliam's violent dystopian masterpiece.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

A scientist releases the plague that nearly destro

James beats several people to death. There are als

Although relatively clear of sexual content, the f

Some strong language.

Characters drink and smoke, but more upsetting are

Parents need to know that this is a disturbing dystopian film that addresses the near eradication of human civilization by a virus. Characters drink, smoke, get in fights, evade the police, and kill one another. There are also upsetting scenes of mental institutions and jails as well as a graphic scene depicting WWI…

Positive Messages

A scientist releases the plague that nearly destroys civilization.

Violence & Scariness

James beats several people to death. There are also several scenes with guns and knives, including a disturbing scene that takes place in WWI trenches.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Although relatively clear of sexual content, the film has quite a bit of non-sexual nudity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink and smoke, but more upsetting are scenes in which James is tranquilized in jail and the mental hospital.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this is a disturbing dystopian film that addresses the near eradication of human civilization by a virus. Characters drink, smoke, get in fights, evade the police, and kill one another. There are also upsetting scenes of mental institutions and jails as well as a graphic scene depicting WWI trenches. James Cole is repeatedly sedated, and images of him drooling and nearly catatonic are featured at several points. The movie raises lots of complex moral questions. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (9)

Based on 3 parent reviews

A Really, Really good movie that needs no Common Sense for Age: It's Rated R

Smart, interesting dystopian sci-fi can be confusing and provocative, what's the story.

12 MONKEY'S futuristic plot follows convict James Cole ( Bruce Willis ), who is "volunteered" to go on a mission back in time to 1996 to seek information pertaining to the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, a group believed to be responsible for releasing the deadly virus that nearly wiped out the earth's population. Time travel turns out to be an inexact science though, and Cole is inadvertently sent to 1990, where he is institutionalized for insanity and meets Kathryn Railly ( Madeleine Stowe ), a sympathetic psychiatrist. While in the mental institution, Cole meets Jeffrey Goines ( Brad Pitt ) the lunatic son of a well-known scientist. Whisked back to the post-apocalyptic present, Cole realizes that Goines is the leader of the Army of the 12 Monkeys. He asks to return to the past, where he again encounters Railly and further investigates the events leading to the release of the deadly virus, growing increasingly paranoid about surveillance by authorities, both in his present and in the past he is visiting.

Is It Any Good?

Few directors have visions as ambitious as Terry Gilliam 's; while cinematically rich, this is more than just a feast for the eyes -- it's a sharply written, well-acted piece of cultural commentary.

Acting throughout the film is exceptional. Although at times skeptical or downright terrified, Stowe makes her character's alliance with James Cole seem reasonable. In the lead, Bruce Willis really demonstrates why he has managed such a long career; he is utterly charismatic on-screen. Gilliam's artistic vision is really allowed to develop in the film, and as a result, the film provides some very interesting commentary on the proliferation of media outlets.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the boundaries between the sane and insane. Why is James Cole viewed as "sane" by some characters and "insane" by others? Similar questions could be asked about other characters, including Kathryn Railly and Jeffrey Goines. The film also deals extensively with issues of surveillance. Who is being watched in the film and why? Who is monitoring characters? How does this monitoring impact the characters and their actions?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 1, 1995
• On DVD or streaming : May 10, 2005
• Cast : Brad Pitt , Bruce Willis , Madeleine Stowe
• Director : Terry Gilliam
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 130 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence and language
• Last updated : February 24, 2022

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Time Out says

In 1996, a virus kills five billion people. 'This already happened,' James Cole (Willis) explains to Dr Railly (Stowe) in 1990. He knows because he's been there. Six years and a matter of minutes after he vanishes from a padded cell, Cole is back in his psychiatrist's life. He must trace the contagion, but he needs Railly's help to track down former patient Goines (Pitt), whose environmental action group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, may be behind the disaster. With its shifts in tone and style signposted by Pitt's buggy loony-toon and Willis's movingly bewildered introvert,

Terry Gilliam

's apocalyptic fantasy is even weirder than it sounds. Less a Terminator -type action pic than a spectacularly disorienting inaction movie, with Cole as a helpless Cassandra hooked on an image from his own past, hoping against hope that he may in fact be crazy...the film's a terrible mess, but a terribly beautiful, tender mess. The screenplay by Janet and David Peoples ( Blade Runner , Unforgiven ) takes off from Chris Marker's 1962 short, La Jetée , but soon spirals into more pressing millennial obsessions (insanity, chaos and ecological catastrophe), before a vertiginous Hitchcockian make-over in the last reel. Gilliam gives the material a lunatic poetry of his own, but remains impervious to the requirements of narrative pacing.

Release Details

• Duration: 129 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Terry Gilliam
• Screenwriter: Janet Peoples, David Webb Peoples
• Madeleine Stowe
• Christopher Plummer
• Bruce Willis
• Joseph Melito

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Season 1 – 12 Monkeys

Where to watch, 12 monkeys — season 1.

Watch 12 Monkeys — Season 1 with a subscription on Hulu, or buy it on Vudu, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

The nonsensical time travel in 12 Monkeys makes it less watchable than its original source material, but the high quality execution and cool characters are top-notch.

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Aaron Stanford

Amanda Schull

Dr. Cassandra Railly

Kirk Acevedo

Barbara Sukowa

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Emily Hampshire

Jennifer Goines

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Twelve Monkeys Review

01 Jan 1995

129 minutes

Twelve Monkeys

Terry Gilliam makes films, not videos. The downside of that is that most of his films look murky and feel slow when shrunk into a box for home consumption, and his tendency to fill dialogue scenes with people shouting at each other is also a trial for the most well-balanced surround sound home entertainment system. However, Twelve Monkeys is a rare film not because of its top-lined performers or even its visual dazzle but its plot, and so this plays much better as a rental re-run than it has a right to. If you saw it theatrically you might even find it worth another look now that you know the ending, so you can see just how much of the Möbius strip time-travel storyline adds up.

Taking a Twilight Zone-ish nugget from Chris Maker’s classic short

La Jetée, screenwriters David and

Janet Peoples throw us into the mind of Cole (Willis), a bald loser in a futuristic underground hellhole who is sent back to the 1990s to locate a sample of the virus which will wipe out most of humanity in our immediate future. However, as he is whipped back and forth between World War I, 1990, 1996 and the future, Cole fixates not on his mission but on psychiatrist Kathryn (Stowe), who manages to convince him that it’s all a delusion.

The horrible irony is that as soon as Cole starts trying to rationalise all the science fiction stuff as a neurosis, Kathryn turns up physical evidence that suggests it’s all true. Meanwhile, loony animal activist Goines (Brad Pitt, who seems to have been maintaining Dennis Hopper’s brain cells) is planning a major coup of some sort, and that deadly virus is nestled in Goines’ dad’s laboratory, just waiting to be set loose.

Gilliam is a past master at nightmare futures and bizarre images, and post-Terminator viewers will be able to follow the story — the realisation of just what the woman from the future is doing on the plane in the last scene is a kicker — but the strength of Twelve Monkeys is its heart. Willis finally proves he can really act in a daring knockout of a performance — which ranges from terrifying violent outbursts to a childish, touchingly desperate nostalgia for

“20th century music”.

Though initially disorienting, Twelve Monkeys really gets it together at the half-way point and then becomes masterly, transcending its apocalypse nuttery with a last-minute realisation, cued by an all-night Hitchcock festival, of what perception might be for. A single misstep might be the use of Louis Armstong’s Wonderful World, which seems like a borrowing — along with supporting player Simon Jones, aka Arthur Dent — from The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

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By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Even when Terry Gilliam’s latest leap into the wild blue of futuristic fantasy is at its most confounding, you leap along with him. Such is the seductive power of his twisted imagination. Whether it’s Monty Python, Brazil, Time Bandits or The Fisher King , Gilliam guarantees a thrilling ride. 12 Monkeys is no exception. Bruce Willis, in an eruptive performance of startling emotional intensity, stars as Cole, a prisoner tagged for an experiment that may get him killed.

The year is 2035. Nearly 40 years earlier, a killer virus spared only 1 percent of the planet’s population. In a lab located under the city of Philadelphia, scientists prepare to wrap the naked Cole in condomlike latex and zap him back to 1996 to find out how to reclaim the earth. Above ground the city is uninhabitable, except by the wild animals who roam deserted skyscrapers and department stores. Gilliam, along with the gifted cinematographer Roger Pratt and production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, fashions a disturbing and dazzling lost world.

Credit is also due to screenwriters David Peoples ( Unforgiven , Blade Runner ) and his wife, Janet, who took Chris Marker’s evocative 1962 short film La JetTe and enriched it with their own stirring vision of a future haunted by the past. When Cole travels back in time, he is immediately institutionalized and put in the care of psychiatrist Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). Cole is befriended by a patient, Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), an animal activist and the nutjob son of a medical researcher (Christopher Plummer) whose virus experiments on lab creatures drive Jeffrey into a foaming frenzy. Pitt is terrific, finding a mad fire in a character that is miles from movie-star glamour.

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Through Jeffrey, Cole first learns about the army of the 12 Monkeys. It would be unfair to give away more, except to say that the plot kicks in when Cole kidnaps Kathryn, played by the gorgeous Stowe with fierce intelligence and a passionate heart. Her growing belief in a man who doesn’t trust his own sanity sparks an unexpectedly moving love story. Cole is haunted by a recurring dream of a young boy at an airport. The boy stands transfixed as a man with a suitcase rushes past him, followed by a blond woman who weeps by the man’s side after the police gun him down. The tenderness of the woman as she kisses the dying man’s bloody hand deeply affects Cole and the boy.

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This dream is the soul of the film. Gilliam returns to it three times, adding more details until the dream links all the pieces in the puzzle, which includes the remarkable David Morse as a researcher with more than a passing interest in Kathryn. Cole’s confusing of illusion and reality suggests Alfred Hitchcock’s masterwork Vertigo , in which a mentally unbalanced James Stewart tries to turn Kim Novak into a reincarnation of the woman he loves, who has died. Cole and Kathryn hide in a movie-revival house showing Vertigo. The 1958 film, now yellowed with age, shows Novak in the Muir Woods using her finger to trace the small space on the rings of a cut redwood that encompasses the years of her life. Bernard Herrmann’s haunting Vertigo score plays over the dialogue between Cole and Kathryn as they leave the theater in an attempt to carve out their own small space in life. Rarely has one film referenced another with such poetic grace. Like Vertigo, 12 Monkeys rewards multiple viewings. You might say it even demands them. For all the fun, fright and hypnotic romance that Gilliam delivers, he digs deepest into fatalistic themes that usually scare away the crowds at the box office. Go with Gilliam anyway. Solving the riddle of 12 Monkeys is an exhilarating challenge.

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Where to Watch

Bruce Willis (James Cole) Madeleine Stowe (Kathryn Railly) Brad Pitt (Jeffrey Goines) Joseph Melito (Young Cole) Jon Seda (Jose) Michael Chance (Scarface) Vernon Campbell (Tiny) H. Michael Walls (Botanist) Bob Adrian (Geologist) Simon Jones (Zoologist) Carol Florence (Astrophysicist) Bill Raymond (Microbiologist) Ernest Abuba (Engineer) Irma St. Paule (Poet) Joey Perillo (Detective Franki) Bruce Kirkpatrick (Policeman No. 1) Wilfred Williams (Policeman No. 2) Rozwill Young (Billings)

Terry Gilliam

In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

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Twelve monkeys.

1995 Directed by Terry Gilliam

The future is history.

In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly, and patient Jeffrey Goines, the son of a famous virus expert, who may hold the key to the mysterious rogue group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.

Bruce Willis Madeleine Stowe Brad Pitt Christopher Plummer David Morse Jon Seda Christopher Meloni Joey Perillo LisaGay Hamilton Matt Ross Annie Golden Michael Chance H. Michael Walls Bob Adrian Bill Raymond Ernest Abuba Nell Johnson Rozwill Young Joseph Melito Frank Gorshin Aaron Michael Lacey Vernon Campbell Simon Jones Carol Florence Irma St. Paule Frederick Strother Charles Techman Rick Warner Anthony 'Chip' Brienza Show All… Bruce Kirkpatrick Wilfred Williams Joilet Harris Drucie McDaniel John Blaisse Louis Lippa Stan Kang Pat Dias Felix Pire Karl Warren Joseph McKenna Stephen Bridgewater Ray Huffman Charley Scalies Paul Meshejian Kevin Thigpen Jann Ellis Michael Ryan Segal Korchenko Robert O'Neill Harry O'Toole Chuck Jeffreys Barry Price John Panzarella Janet Zappala Lisa Talerico Tiffany Baldwin C.J. Byrnes Tom Detrik Joe Gerety Bonnie Loev Raymond Mamrak Allelon Ruggiero Thang Sal Mazzotta Bart the Bear Donald Faison Richard Stanley

Director Director

Terry Gilliam

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Mark Egerton Andrew Bernstein Philip A. Patterson

Producers Producers

Charles Roven Kelley Smith-Wait Mark Egerton Lloyd Phillips

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Robert Cavallo Gary Levinsohn Robert Kosberg

Writers Writers

Janet Peoples David Webb Peoples

Original Writer Original Writer

Chris Marker

Casting Casting

Margery Simkin Mikie Heilbrun

Editors Editors

Mick Audsley Dan Gane Brian Ufberg

Cinematography Cinematography

Roger Pratt

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Peter Norman Kyle Rudolph Craig Haagensen

Lighting Lighting

Chuck Finch

Production Design Production Design

Jeffrey Beecroft

Art Direction Art Direction

William Ladd Skinner Kevin Ishioka Robert LaPrell Tim Galvin

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Crispian Sallis Kate Bartouldus James Kelley

Special Effects Special Effects

Russell Hurlburt Russell Hardee James Healy Shirley Montefusco David Acord Beecher Tomlinson Paul Kocar Thomas Lockey Joseph P. Mercurio Gary Pilkinton

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Kent Houston

Title Design Title Design

Penny Causer

Stunts Stunts

G. A. Aguilar Steve Martin David S. Lomax Ronald O. Jaynes Bill Anagnos Douglas Crosby Chuck Jeffreys Sandy Alexander Paul Couch E.J. Evans John Copeman Steve Santosusso Brian Smyj Elliot Santiago Terry Jackson

Composer Composer

Paul Buckmaster

Sound Sound

Imogen Pollard Jack Stew Jason Swanscott Peter Joly Ian Wilson Jay Meagher Ted Swanscott Diane Greaves

Costume Design Costume Design

Julie Weiss

Makeup Makeup

Allen Weisinger

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Christina Bartolucci Christine Beveridge William A. Kohout Peggy Nicholson

Universal Pictures Atlas Entertainment Classico Twelve Monkeys Productions

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English French

Releases by Date

08 dec 1995, 01 feb 1996, 08 mar 1996, 10 apr 1996, theatrical limited, 29 dec 1995, 05 jan 1996, 28 feb 1996, 06 mar 1996, 09 mar 1996, 14 mar 1996, 20 mar 1996, 21 mar 1996, 22 mar 1996, 28 mar 1996, 29 mar 1996, 04 apr 1996, 05 apr 1996, 12 apr 1996, 18 apr 1996, 19 apr 1996, 03 may 1996, 07 may 1996, 09 may 1996, 10 may 1996, 23 may 1996, 31 may 1996, 29 jun 1996, 02 dec 1996, 08 feb 2011, 14 oct 2019, 01 nov 1996, 17 mar 1999, 08 aug 2001, 24 apr 2008, 24 sep 2009, 20 oct 2009, 11 nov 2009, 05 dec 2023, 22 jun 2002, releases by country.

• Theatrical 13
• Theatrical M
• Premiere Brussels International Festival of Fantasy, Thriller & Science Fiction Films
• Theatrical 14
• Theatrical 13+
• Theatrical 12+
• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical K-16
• Theatrical TP
• Physical DVD
• Physical Blu-Ray
• Physical 4K UHD
• Premiere Berlin International Film Festival
• Theatrical 16
• Theatrical T
• Premiere B-15
• Theatrical B-15

Netherlands

• TV 16 Net 5
• Physical 16 DVD
• Physical 16 Blu ray

New Zealand

• Theatrical M/12
• Theatrical NC-16

South Korea

• Physical 15 VHS; The release day in November is not known.
• Physical 15 DVD
• Physical 15 Blu-ray

Switzerland

• Premiere R New York City, New York
• Theatrical limited R
• Theatrical R

129 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by maria ★★★★ 4

i'm not crazy... he says right after eating a spider

Review by Nakul ★★★★ 13

About an hour into Twelve Monkeys, Bruce Willis says , 'All I see are dead people '. Did he like have a sixth sense??

Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★ 16

absolutely beside myself to realize that the 1995 science-fiction time travel film 12 Monkeys accurately predicted the greatest historical event of my lifetime, the 2009 balloon boy hoax. truly terrific performance by brad pitt. lovely to see bruce willis give a shit. love madeleine stowe's slow progression into full psychosis. really could've thrown it all away and made the whole movie balloon boy, though.

Review by liam f ★★★★★ 2

tag yourself: I'm Brad Pitt compulsively giving everyone the middle finger for no particular reason

Review by k. 23

monke lovers please dont be fooled there are 0 monke in this movie 😒🐒‼️

Review by DirkH ★★★★★ 28

I didn't really intend to, but after watching La Jetee yesterday I felt the need to watch the film it inspired so much again. And watching it with the powerful imagery of La jetee fresh in the back of my mind, I think Gilliam's film just possibly got a bit better. Even though I didn't think that possible.

I feel 12 Monkeys is one of the greatest Science Fiction films ever made and it certainly ranks among Gilliam's very best. It is a film that creates a perfect mixture of visual flair, intrigue, drama and Sci-Fi conceit. It simply excels on all levels a film should work on.

The first viewing of this film is arguably the best as the…

Review by Grooveman ★★★★★ 1

"I was attacked by a coked up whore and a fuckin' crazy dentist!"

My favorite Gilliam film.

Review by persia 🍒 ★★★★ 2

Crazy environmentalist Brad Pitt is the hottest Brad Pitt AND I STAND BY THAT

Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 1

"All I see are dead people."

Review by Mario 🟠🟢🔵 ★★★★ 2

Brad Pitt. That's it. That's the review.

Review by 🎃🔥Mr. Like🔥🎃 ★★★ 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 90% Metacritic Metascore: 74 IMDB: 8.0

Release Date : 05 January 1996 Distributor : Universal Pictures Budget : $29M Worldwide Gross : $168.8M OSCAR Nominations : 2

#9 -  Coronavirus 108 First Viewing Ranked 

Jefferey Goines : "There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion."

SYNOPSIS: In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

In 2027 James Cole is a prisoner living beneath the streets of Philadelphia with some of the very few survivors of a virus that wiped out most of mankind back in 1996. Somehow these people living under the streets have invented time travel. OK…

Review by cinemacl🎃wn ★★★ 19

An intriguing portrait of a dystopian future, an insane meditation on madness and an interesting take on the idea of time travel, reality & memories, Twelve Monkeys must've been one of the most creative examples of science-fiction filmmaking when it was released but looking back now, it doesn't feel as impressive anymore despite the innumerable twists & turns it has to offer.

The story is set in a future in which almost all of humanity has been annihilated by a deadly virus and has forced the remaining survivors to live beneath the surface. The plot concerns a convict who's sent back in time to collect more data on the man-made virus, which seems to be connected to a mysterious organisation called The…

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12 Monkeys Cast Interview | EXCLUSIVE

Based on the classic sci-fi thriller, 12 Monkeys is now a thrilling adventure series starring Aaron Stanford and Amanda Schull.

We're kicking off 2015 by traveling to the future and back with 12 Monkeys stars Aaron Stanford and Amanda Schull . Inspired by the movie, which commemorates its 20th anniversary next year, the highly anticipated series 12 Monkeys debuts on Syfy and tells the provocative story of a time traveler from a decimated future in a high-stakes race against the clock. Utilizing a dangerous and untested method of time travel, he journeys from 2043 to the present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will all but annihilate the human race.

Aaron Stanford (X Men: The Last Stand, Nikita) stars as time-traveler James Cole. He received critical acclaim for his feature film debut in Tadpole opposite Sigourney Weaver and Bebe Neuwirth. His other varied credits include Winter Solstice, Woody Allen's Hollywood Endings, Spike Lee's 25th Hour; X-Men 2 and X-Men 3 and the remake of The Hills Have Eyes. Amanda Schull (Suits, J.Edgar) stars as Dr. Cassandra Railly. Honolulu-born Schull is an accomplished actress as well as a technically skilled ballet dancer. She brought both talents to her motion picture debut, starring in Sony Pictures' Center Stage. She has had memorable recurring roles on the CW's One Tree Hill and Pretty Little Liars.

We recently caught up with both actors for an exclusive interview. The duo explains exactly how the show differs from the popular movie it is based on, and how they found their own characters outside of what has been portrayed before. Take a look and learn more about 12 Monkeys before it debuts this Friday night on Syfy:

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Terry Gilliam's ambitious "12 Monkeys" was co-authored by David Peoples , who wrote " Blade Runner ," and it has the same view of the near future as a grunge pit - a view it shares with Gilliam's own " Brazil ." In this world, everything is rusty, subterranean, and leaks. The movie uses its future world as a home base and launching pad for the central story, which is set in 1990 and 1996, and is about a time traveler trying to save the world from a deadly plague.

The traveler is Cole ( Bruce Willis ), who in the opening shots lives with a handful of other human survivors in an underground shelter put together out of scrap parts and a lot of wire mesh. The surface of the planet has been reclaimed by animals, after the death of 5 billion people during a plague in 1996.

Cole is plucked from his cage and sent on a surface expedition by the rulers of this domain, who hope to learn enough about the plague virus to defeat it. Later, he is picked for a more crucial mission: He will travel back in time and gather information about the virus before it mutated. (The movie holds out no hope that he can "stop" it before it starts; from his point of view, the plague has already happened, and so the future society is seeking treatment, not prevention.) Cole lands in 1990, bruised, bleeding, and dripping sweat and mucus from every pore (a large percentage of Bruce Willis' film career has been spent in this condition). He's thrown in jail, and assigned a psychiatrist, Dr. Kathryn Railly ( Madeleine Stowe ), who believes he's delusional when he says he's a visitor from the future ("You won't think I'm crazy when people start dying next month"). He pulls off an inexplicable jail break and reappears in her life in 1996, kidnapping her because he needs help in finding 12 monkeys in Philadelphia that have the virus in its "pure" form before it mutated, later that year, into a killer of humans.

Cole discovers that a mental patient named Jeffrey Goines ( Brad Pitt ), whom he met in 1990, is an animal rights activist with a father ( Christopher Plummer ) whose laboratory may be harboring the deadly virus. Does Jeffrey want to unleash the virus, returning the earth to the animals? Or does his father, or another member of the team . . .

All of this is just the plumbing of the plot. What the movie is really about is its vision. The decor looks cobbled together from the debris of the 20th century. Cities are either scabby Skid Rows or towering skyscrapers. Scientists still work in laboratories that look like old postcards of Thomas Edison inventing. Bizarre killers and villains are hurled at Cole and Railly, and there are many bloody fights. Gradually the psychiatrist comes to believe, after Cole makes a series of accurate predictions, that he may be from the future after all.

The movie is not, however, a straightforward action thriller.

Much of the interest comes from the nature of the Cole character. He is simple, confused, badly informed, exhausted and shot through with feelings of betrayal. Nothing is as it seems - not in his future world, not in 1990 and not in 1996. And there is another factor, one hinted at in the opening shot of the movie and confirmed in the closing: He may have already witnessed the end of the story.

The plot of "12 Monkeys," if you follow it closely, involves a time travel paradox. Almost all time travel movies do. But who cares? What's good about the film is the way Gilliam, his actors and his craftsmen create a universe that is contained within 130 minutes.

There are relatively few shots in this movie that would look normal in any other film; everything is skewed to express the vision.

Gilliam's "Brazil" was praised by a lot of critics, but I didn't get it, even after repeated viewings. "12 Monkeys" is easier to follow, with a plot that holds together and a solid relationship between Cole and Railly. But even here, Gilliam allows the anarchic flywheel of madness to spin: The Brad Pitt character, spewing compulsive visions of paranoia and dread, is a powerful influence, suggesting that logic cannot solve the movie's problems. And other characters - those in charge of the subterranean future world, as well as the conspirators around the Plummer character - behave like villains pumped in from an H.G. Wells science-fiction fantasy. Wild overacting takes place on bizarre sets that are photographed with tilt shots and wideangle lenses, and we begin to share the confusion and exhaustion of Cole. Like him, we're wrenched back and forth through time, and dumped on the concrete floor of reality.

One of the most intriguing sequences is completely arbitrary.

Cole and the woman hide out in a movie theater playing Hitchcock's " Vertigo ," and later, in their own lives, replay the movie's key scene, with the same music on the soundtrack. What is Gilliam doing here? He's not simply providing a movie in-joke. The point, I think, is that Cole's own life is caught between rewind and fast-forward, and he finds himself repeating in the past what he learned in the future, and vice versa.

I've seen "12 Monkeys" described as a comedy. Any laughs that it inspires will be very hollow. It's more of a celebration of madness and doom, with a hero who tries to prevail against the chaos of his condition, and is inadequate. This vision is a cold, dark, damp one, and even the romance between Willis and Stowe feels desperate rather than joyous. All of this is done very well, and the more you know about movies (especially the technical side), the more you're likely to admire it. But a comedy it's not. And as an entertainment, it appeals more to the mind than to the senses.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

12 Monkeys (1996)

Rated R For Violence and Language

130 minutes

Brad Pitt as Jeffrey Goines

Madeleine Stowe as Kathryn Railly

Bruce Willis as James Cole

Christopher Plummer as Dr. Leland Goines

Directed by

• Terry Gilliam

Screenplay by

• David Peoples
• Janet Peoples

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