In 1996, a deadly virus decimated the Earth's population. The survivors had to take shelter underground, and a group called the Army of the Twelve Monkeys were allegedly behind the outbreak of the virus. Jump forward to 2035, and James Cole (Bruce Willis) is a prisoner in an underground compound who's chosen to travel back to 1996 with a cure to save humanity. However, he is erroneously sent back to 1990 instead, when after trying to tell authorities he is from the future to save humanity from the impending virus, psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) diagnoses him as a paranoid schizophrenic and has him sent to a mental hospital. There he meets anarchic legitimate patient Jeffrey Goines (an Oscar-nominated Brad Pitt), whose late father Dr. Leland Goines (Christopher Plummer) may have held the answer to stopping the virus. Cole now fails an escape attempt but then returns to 2035, before finally arriving in 1996. From there he kidnaps Dr. Railly and forces her to take him to Philadelphia to hopefully find the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, or a trace of Dr. Goines.
In true Terry Gilliam form, this movie is very weird; however, alongside his less mainstream works like Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, it's actually conventional, at least visually. It's far more cerebral than either of those ones, which are both visually and narratively postmodern and outlandish. I'm not sure Gilliam is as well-suited to science fiction as he is to fantasy, which tends to be more spontaneous, but kudos to him nonetheless for diversifying here and his direction patiently unravels the very technical and esoteric themes in this narrative that are very characteristically SF. Husband and wife David and Janet Peoples' notably smart and lucidly plotted screenplay, based on the 1962 French film La Jetee, meshes well with Gilliam's understanding interpretation of it, and Roger Pratt's photography and Mick Audsley's editing combine to keep everything flowing evenly. Finally, Willis, Pitt and Stowe each make their characters jump engagingly to life and collectively form a strong trio of anchors through the narrative.
I don't think it's quite good enough to have inspired a TV adaptation, nor is it as brilliant as Gilliam's previous effort, 1991's The Fisher King, but 12 Monkeys is nonetheless a refreshingly brainy mainstream science fiction thriller that demands you pay attention to its maze-like structure, and amidst this interminable real-life pandemic it may have acquired even more relevance still. 9/10.
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