Summary
The underrated 1995 sci-fi gem12 Monkeysfeatures arguably the most realistic portrayal of time travel that’s ever been put on screen. Set in a post-apocalyptic future ravaged by a deadly disease,12 Monkeysstars Bruce Willis as a convict named James Cole, who’s sent back in time to gather information about the mysterious man-made virus that wiped out most of humanity. It was directed by Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam, written byBlade Runner’s David Peoples and his wife Janet Peoples, and it’s a sci-fi reimagining of Chris Marker’s seminal 1962 French sci-fi shortLa Jetée.
There are plenty ofsci-fi movies that deal with time travel, fromTenettoThe TerminatortoBack to the FuturetoAvengers: Endgame, but they usually depict time travel as pure fantasy. They mix in some sci-fi gobbledygook to plaster over the scientific inconsistencies so they can use time travel for its primary purpose as a plot device. Shane Carruth’sPrimerhas been lauded as the most scientifically accurate portrayal of the discovery of time travel, but12 Monkeysis arguably the time-travel movie that feels the most realistic.
Why 12 Monkeys' Version Of Time Travel Feels More Realistic Than Most Sci-Fi Stories
12 Monkeys' time travel is an extremely unreliable process
The time travel in12 Monkeysfeels real becauseit’s not just a plot device; it’s a very volatile, unreliable process that actively stands in the way of the plot’s progression. Whatever the plot requires the time machine to do, it does the opposite, which feels very accurate to how defective early versions of complicated technology tend to be.12 Monkeys’ time-travel processsees Cole being cleansed, put into a plastic chamber, and attached to various clips. He’s then sent through a time tunnel that acts as a sort of railway, literally shooting him into the past.
Butit very rarely works the way it’s supposed to. Cole is supposed to be sent back to 1996, around the time of the outbreak, but he’s sent to 1990 – and then he’s flung back even further to World War I. Even when the time machine does work effectively, the scientists running it can barely control it. Doc Brown’s time machine always goes to the exact date punched into the dashboard (except when it was struck by lightning and went off-course by a century), and the Terminators always appear at the exact time they’re sent to, which feels very convenient.
12 Monkeys: 10 Films To Watch If You Liked Terry Gilliam’s Surreal Time Travel Movie
12 Monkeys is one of the most revered cult classics ever made. Fans of that time travel movie should check out these 10 titles as well.
12 Monkeys' Time Travel Mechanics Don’t Break The Movie’s In-Universe Rules
Unlike Back to the Future and Avengers: Endgame, 12 Monkeys doesn’t break its own time-travel rules
One of the quickest ways for a movie to break the audience’s immersion and unsuspend their suspension of disbelief is to disobey the established in-universe rules.Back to the Futurehas some hints that Marty McFly’s alterations to the timeline were always inevitable and some hints that the timeline changed after his time-traveling adventures.Avengers: Endgameestablishes early on that going back in time and altering things won’t change the future. But at the end of the movie, Steve Rogers goes back in time and changes his future. These inconsistencies hurt the experience of the film with baffling fridge-logic questions.
What makes12 Monkeyssuch a great time-travel movie is that it never breaks its ownrules about time travel. Cole goes back to a pre-outbreak world in the hope that he can prevent the virus from being created and, in turn, prevent the post-apocalyptic dystopia that he calls home from ever existing. But, taking a leaf out of its source materialLa Jetée’s playbook, a tragic twist reveals that some history can’t be changed. The end of the world is inevitable. Everything that Cole knows to be true eventually comes to pass.
12 Monkeysdoesn’t magically undo this heartbreaking rule of time travel for a satisfying conclusion to the story. It doesn’t alter the timeline for an ideal version of the present, likeBack to the Future, or brazenly ignore its time-travel rules to give its lead character a fitting ending, likeAvengers: Endgame.It uses its rules and the fact that they can’t be broken as dramatic toolsto hammer home the tragedy of Cole’s ultimately pointless journey. The closed time loop makes12 Monkeysa deeper narrative experience.
12 Monkeyswas adapted into a TV series that ran for four seasons on Syfy.
12 Monkeys' Timeline Is Complex, But Without Hurting The Story
The time-traveling complexities never detract from the story Gilliam is telling
Despite how complicated the timeline of12 Monkeysgets, it never detracts from the story that Gilliam is telling.12 Monkeysis essentially a two-hander between Willis’ Cole and Brad Pitt’s Jeffrey Goines, an environmentalist mental patient that Cole meets when he’s sent to a psychiatric facility.There’s a lot of complex sci-fi mumbo jumbo going on in the background, but Gilliam never lets that distract from the unique relationshipat the heart of the film.
12 Monkeys
Cast
In 12 Monkeys, convict James Cole (Bruce Willis) travels back in time to learn the origin of a man-made virus that has unleashed worldwide chaos in the future. Terry Gilliam’s 1995 sci-fi movie, which boasts a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, Madeleine Stowe, and David Morse, is based on Chris Marker’s 1962 short film La Jetée and originated a 2013 TV series adaptation.
