12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys is a 1995 American 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.
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 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
A deadly virus released in 1996 wiped out almost all of humanity, forcing survivors to live underground. A group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is believed to have released the virus. In 2035, James Cole is a prisoner living in an underground compound beneath Philadelphia. Cole is selected to be sent back in time to find the original virus to help scientists develop a cure in exchange for a reduced sentence. Cole is troubled by dreams involving a foot chase and a shooting at an airport.Cole arrives in Baltimore in 1990, not 1996 as planned. He is arrested and incarcerated at a mental hospital on the diagnosis of Dr. Kathryn Railly. There he encounters Jeffrey Goines, a mental patient with extreme environmentalist and anti-corporate views. Cole is interviewed by a panel of doctors and tries to explain his situation, noting that the virus outbreak has already happened and cannot be prevented.
After an escape attempt, Cole is sedated and locked in a cell, but he disappears and awakens back in 2035. He is interrogated by the scientists, who play a distorted voicemail message that asserts the association of the Army of the 12 Monkeys with the virus. He is also shown photos of numerous people suspected of being involved, including Goines. The scientists offer Cole another chance to complete his mission, and send him back in time again. Cole briefly arrives at a battlefield during World War I, where he sees another prison inmate who was sent back in time, José. Cole is shot in the leg and gets transported to 1996.
In 1996, Railly gives a lecture about the Cassandra complex to a group of scientists. At the post-lecture book-signing, Railly meets Dr. Peters, who tells her that apocalypse alarmists represent the sane vision while humanity's gradual destruction of the environment is the real lunacy.
Cole arrives at the venue after seeing flyers publicizing it. When Railly departs, he kidnaps her and forces her to take him to Philadelphia. They learn that Goines is the founder of the Army of the 12 Monkeys before they set out in search of him. When Cole confronts Goines, Goines denies any involvement with the group. He says that in 1990, Cole originated the idea of wiping out humanity with a virus stolen from Goines's virologist father, Dr. Leland Goines.
Cole is transported back to 2035, where he reaffirms to the scientists his commitment to his mission and asks to be sent back to complete it. When he finds Railly again in 1996, he tells her that he now believes himself crazy, as she had suggested. But Railly has discovered evidence of his time travel to the Great War, which she shows him, thinking he is sane. They depart for the Florida Keys before the start of the plague.
Cole and Railly learn that the Army of the 12 Monkeys was not the source of the epidemic; the group's major act of protest is releasing animals from a zoo and placing Goines's father in an animal cage. At the airport, Cole leaves a message telling the scientists that they are on the wrong track following the Army of the 12 Monkeys, and he will not return . José confronts Cole, gives him a handgun, and instructs him to follow orders. Railly spots Dr. Peters at the airport and recognizes him from a newspaper as an assistant of Goines's father. Railly informs Cole about Peters.
In pursuit of Peters, Cole forces his way through a security checkpoint, draws his gun, and is shot by the police. As he lies dying in Railly's arms, she scans the crowd around her. She makes eye contact with a small boy: the young James Cole, witnessing the scene of his own death, which will replay in his dreams for years to come. Peters, aboard the plane with the virus, sits down next to Jones, one of the scientists from the future, who comments that her job is "insurance". The young Cole watches a plane take off from the ground outside the airport.
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. 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".
Universal took longer than expected to approve 12 Monkeys, although Gilliam had two stars and a firm budget of $29.5 million. Universal's production of Waterworld had resulted in various cost overruns. To get 12 Monkeys approved for production, Gilliam persuaded Willis to lower his normal asking price. 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.
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, 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. 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, Legends of the Fall, and Se7en 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
lasted from February 8 to May 6, 1995. Shooting on location in Philadelphia and Baltimore 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. 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. 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, including the art direction and cinematography. 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. 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.