12 Monkeys: Difference between revisions

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[[File:12-monkeys-7_7474.jpg|frame|Do I have something in my eye?]]

''12 Monkeys'' is an Academy Award-nominated 1995 science fiction film directed by [[~~Terry Gilliam (Creator)|~~Terry Gilliam]] and written by [[David Peoples|David and Janet Peoples]]. The film was inspired by the French short film ''[[La Jetee|La Jetée]]''. It stars [[Bruce Willis (Creator)]], [[Madeleine Stowe]], and [[Brad Pitt]], who won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor; Pitt was also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

''12 Monkeys'' is an Academy Award-nominated 1995 science fiction film directed by [[Terry Gilliam]] and written by [[David Peoples|David and Janet Peoples]]. The film was inspired by the French short film ''[[La Jetee|La Jetée]]''. It stars [[Bruce Willis (Creator)]], [[Madeleine Stowe]], and [[Brad Pitt]], who won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor; Pitt was also nominated for an Academy Award in the same category.

There is a chance that James Cole is not insane. His paranoid ravings about a post-apocalyptic future in which the world has been ravaged by a deadly virus might be true, and the Army of the Twelve Monkeys might be real. The only trouble is, if Dr. Kathryn Railly accepts this, she will have to accept a terrifying truth: [[The End of the World As We Know It]] is coming... very soon.

There is a chance that James Cole is not insane. His paranoid ravings about a post-apocalyptic future in which the world has been ravaged by a deadly virus might be true, and the Army of the Twelve Monkeys might be real. The only trouble is, if Dr. Kathryn Railly accepts this, she will have to accept a terrifying truth: [[The End of the World as We Know It]] is coming... very soon.

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* [[Bedlam House]]

* [[Broken Aesop]]/[[Space Whale Aesop]]: Because airport security makes you open all your containers, mankind will be wiped out by questionably-motivated scientists.

* [[Can't Take Anything ~~With~~ You]]

* [[Can't Take Anything with You]]

** With the exception of the bullet in his leg.

** It seems the rule is you can't take anything that is ''external'' to your body. Cole also gets the spider he swallowed back to the future just fine.

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*** {{spoiler|The ending actually implies that the council in the future had full knowledge of everything that had already occurred, and that James Cole's mission was to ensure the past unfolded like it was supposed to. The fact that Cole says, 'This isn't about the virus anymore is it? This is about following orders' when Jose appears to give him the gun in the airport after Cole leaves his final message (revealing that The Army of the Twelve Monkeys had nothing to do with the virus), along with the councilwoman meeting the man with the virus on the airplane, introducing herself as someone who does 'insurance', seems to indicate that the council had access to all the information from the beginning, and were simply using Cole the entire time}}

* [[Dueling Stars Movie]]: [[Bruce Willis (Creator)]] vs. [[Brad Pitt]].

** One could argue that this is more of a retroactive example, as Pitt (while having found recent acknowledgements for his roles in ''[[Interview With a Vampire]]'' and ''[[Se7en]]'' ), wasn't nearly as big a star as Bruce ''[[~~Die Hard (Film)|~~Die Hard]]'' Willis at the time of the film's release.

** One could argue that this is more of a retroactive example, as Pitt (while having found recent acknowledgements for his roles in ''[[Interview With a Vampire]]'' and ''[[Se7en]]'' ), wasn't nearly as big a star as Bruce ''[[Die Hard]]'' Willis at the time of the film's release.

* [[Dull Surprise]]: Bruce Willis, which is very well [[Justified Trope|justified]] by his character being either heavily sedated or emotionally traumatized for most of the movie. In addition, it provides a perfect contrast for [[Brad Pitt]]'s [[Large Ham|maniacal bombast]].

* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: [[Brad Pitt]]'s nervous and rapid speech was aided by [[~~Terry Gilliam (Creator)|~~Terry Gilliam]] not letting him smoke during shooting.

* [[Enforced Method Acting]]: [[Brad Pitt]]'s nervous and rapid speech was aided by [[Terry Gilliam]] not letting him smoke during shooting.

* [[Generic Graffiti]]: The Army of the 12 Monkeys tags the walls around their base with graffiti shaped like a ring of 12 monkeys.

* [[Go Among Mad People]]

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* [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]: During Dr. Railly's speech she briefly shows an etching of a man from the 1100s proclaiming the end of the world in 1996. Later on when James in 1996 you see that man preaching on the side of a street corner. Also another example is a phone message heard by Cole in the 'present' is later found out to be made by Dr. Railly.

* [[Mad Oracle]]: It's implied that many such oracles were actually time travellers who landed in the wrong era.

* [[Meanwhile in ~~The~~ Future]]

* [[Meanwhile in the Future]]

* [[Mind Screw]]: For the viewer, although by the end it becomes comprehensible. Also, for James, {{spoiler|who starts to think he really is insane and that he imagined traveling from the future. It's mentioned that this happens to all time travellers.}} Finally, for {{spoiler|Katherine, first as she starts to realize that James must have come from the future, and later when she starts to "remember" things that never actually happened (when they put on the disguises and she says he looks familiar.)}}

* [[Misanthrope Supreme]]: The villains, who engineer a lethal virus.

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* [[Red Herring]]: {{spoiler|The Army of the Twelve Monkeys didn't release the virus.}}

* [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog]]

* [[Shout Out]]: Cole and Railly attend a Hitchcock movie marathon just before they go to the airport.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Cole and Railly attend a Hitchcock movie marathon just before they go to the airport.

* [[Significant Monogram]]: James Cole.

* [[Stable Time Loop]]