"Before there was River Song in and before there was The Time Traveler's Wife, there was 12 Monkeys. Yes, the 1995 sci-fi thriller is known for its bleak take on the future, and the almost doggedly deterministic message that you (probably) can't escape your own destiny. Jay Gatsby may have believed that you can't repeat the past, but in Terry Gilliam's time travel film, you also can't change it."
"For those who may not remember, the premise of 12 Monkeys is almost too simple when described outright: Following a deadly global virus in the future, a prisoner named James Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time from 2035 to gather data about the virus, in order to create a vaccine in the present. However, because this is a time-travel movie, things don't go to plan, and Cole briefly ends up in WWI, as well as in 1990, before finally landing in 1996."
"Along the way, he meets and falls in love with a psychiatrist named Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe). Early in the film, she assumes he is clinically insane, and in 1990 he's briefly committed to a mental institution with certified wackjob, Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt). At the time of the film's release, much was made about Pitt's wonderfully over-the-top performance as Goines, but in retrospect, the true brilliance of the film is the dynamic between Stowe and Willis."
12 Monkeys is a 1995 sci-fi thriller that frames a bleak, deterministic view of time travel around a human story. A future prisoner, James Cole (Bruce Willis), is sent from 2035 to gather viral data to help create a vaccine, and his missions misplace him in WWI, 1990, and 1996. He meets psychiatrist Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), whose view of him shifts from clinical disbelief to emotional connection. Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) provides an extreme, attention-grabbing performance. The film balances grim futurism with a quietly romantic, humanistic core and later inspired a different TV series.
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