Theorizing and Analyzing 12 Monkeys

Terry Gilliam’s critically acclaimed (and a fan favorite) film 12 Monkeys(1995) is another take on a dystopian futuristic world, but with Gilliam’s trademark sardonic wit and fantasy imagery. The world is set in 2035, where everyone is forced to live underground because of a deadly virus that has wiped out more than half of the population. The tale is of a convicted man named Cole (Bruce Willis) who is sent back in time 40 years to find a way to get knowledge of the virus before it hits the people. In return, Cole is free from prison. But it all goes wrong when he ends up in 1990 Baltimore, and is mistaken for a mental patient and sent to an asylum. Inside, he meets a wacky environmentalist (Brad Pitt) and kidnaps the doctor who diagnosed him (Madeleine Stowe) for help. During all this, he is haunted by a reoccurring dream of a shooting at an airport.

The film was heavily influenced by Chris Marker’s 1962 classic short La jetee (also about a post-apocalyptic world), and has become a cult classic for the sci-fi and Gilliam groups over the last decade and a half. 12 Monkeys(1995) also gained plenty of attention from critics and during award season in spring of 1996, with nominations for Terry Gilliam’s direction (which he would win from the Berlin International Film Festival), and Brad Pitt’s supporting acting from the Academy Awards themselves (12 Monkeys(1995) is sometimes referred to as Pitt’s breakthrough film into A-list status).

All of the films and novels we have gone over in class so far this semester have taken place in a rather pessimistic, dystopian society. I’ve argued once that for a story to take place in the future, for it to be successful storytelling, it has to be less than great. If there were to be a utopian society to set your tale, where would the dilemma be? In 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, the world is turned upside down by the government’s control and brainwashing. Same as with Planet of the Apes, though the world is lead by animals, instead of humans. And with Gilliam’s 12 Monkey’s people aren’t only unhappy/emotionless, there are some dead.

The ex Python has made a knack for combining fantasy like themes with a sarcastic humor mixed in with the characters over the years in his films. As previously exampled with Time Bandits(1981) and Brazil(1985). Both films feature grown adults as the leads, trying to escape the world they live in through imagination (unlike say, Planet of the Apes, where the main character tries to escape his new found surreal world, for the norm again).

Now, to use an internet term: ‘Spoiler alert!’ The ending of 12 Monkeys(1995) has Cole running from the ‘twelve monkeys’ through an airport (just like in his visions) and is shot and killed. Not exactly a happy ending. Just as it seems with the endings to the other stories we’ve discussed. For Planet of the Apes, the lead is lead back to the apes in some form (as the film’s ending is different from novel’s). In 1984, the lead practically gives up and let’s Big Brother ‘love him.’ And in Fahrenheit 451, the city is gone, but the two characters decide to beginning rebuilding with that they can (making it a slightly optimistic farewell).

I guess what can be figured in the end about these futuristic, dystopian tales, is that the authors/creators all seem to have the same outlook on government control. If we become more technologically advanced in the future, it could be an easy possibility to controlling us in more simple forms, and lead us to want to rebel and/or separate for lack of our own individuality. There is still a bigger threat of dystopia over utopia with more government control allowed