12 Monkeys

Name: 12 Monkeys
Released: 1995-12-27
Cast: Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, Christopher Plummer, Frank Gorshin

12 Monkeys

R
2h 9m
1995

88%

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Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to save the human race from a deadly virus that has forced mankind into dank underground communities in the future. Along his travels, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) and a mental patient, brilliantly portrayed by Brad Pitt, who may hold the key to the mysterious rogue group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease. Believing he can obtain a pure virus sample in order to find a cure in the future, he is met with one riddle after another that puts him in a race with time. This sci-fi masterpiece from the genius mind of Terry Gilliam is a modern-day classic.

Director:

Terry Gilliam

Producer:

Charles Roven

Writer:

David Peoples, Janet Peoples

Cast:

Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, Madeleine Stowe, Christopher Plummer, Frank Gorshin, Jon Seda, Ernest Abuba, Bill Raymond, Simon Jones, Bob Adrian, Carol Florence, H. Michael Walls

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

88%

Critics Consensus: The plot's a bit of a jumble, but excellent performances and mind-blowing plot twists make 12 Monkeys a kooky, effective experience.

Reviews

Spin

Michael Atkinson

The movie contemplates the circularities of time, apocalypse culture, and movies themselves... That shouldn't seem like some kind of pop miracle, but it does.

Soothing in its inevitability, Melancholia without the really heavy devastation...

It is only the latest in a parade of movie downers intent on convincing us that the future will be a bleak world that is either devoid of water and gas, or one in which we've blown ourselves up with atomic power. Enough.

The great Terry Gilliam's dystopic (of course!) vision of a future where we can't tell what's real or not seems disturbingly prescient.

The received wisdom is that science fiction is always, when you get right down to it, about the period in which it is written, but in the grim Spring of 2020... 12 Monkeys looks startlingly prescient, even if the dates are wide by a decade or two.

July 14, 2021

FULL REVIEW