Time travel is the kind of science fiction concept that exists in a lot of stories but seems to add a metric ton of baggage to each one. Some examples follow hard and fast rules, while others treat the timeline with a bit of open curiosity.12 Monkeysis an enigma in many ways, including the way it handles its unique time travel system.
12 Monkeyswas the second time travel movie by beloved director andMonty Pythontroupe member Terry Gilliam. The film was an impressive hit at the box office and a favorite among critics, securing a Golden GlobeAward for Brad Pitt. Its legacy is substantial, it’s still counted among the best films of its two stars, and it received a sequel season that ran for four seasons.
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How Does the Time Travel Work in12 Monkeys?
Unlike a lotof other sci-fi films,12 Monkeysdoesn’t feel the need to sit the audience down for a lecture on general relativity. It’s not interested in hard science. Instead, it explores the deeply personal experience of a person who finds himself outside of time. However, time travel is still a key part of the story.12 Monkeysstarts in 2035, a post-apocalyptic future in which most of humanity is forced under the cities they used to live in. A prisoner named James Cole is tasked with going back in time to prevent the release of the plague thatwiped out most of humankind. Before he’s sent back, he suffers from bizarre nightmares that predict a grisly fate.
The machine that sends Cole back in time doesn’t have a name. It’s a plastic tube, filled with a bunch of wires and clips that connect to the person inside. The capsule is then raised into a large metal cylinder which seems to shoot it into the past. It’s like a railgun that fires a human being into a different time. The details aren’t terribly clear, but the machine is unfinished and experimental. It sends Cole to the wrong time twice, first landing him six years before his intended target and then landing him on afar-away battlefield 80 yearsearly. Time travel in12 Monkeysis fairly simple. It’s a causal loop that demonstrates the downfalls of the concept.
James Cole fails toprevent the release of the virus. He is sent back with bad information, the time machine doesn’t do him any favors, and he winds up causing much of the problem himself. By accidentally traveling back to 1990, he gives Jeremy Goines the idea of wiping out humanity with a stolen virus. He later discovers that the Army of the 12 Monkeys isn’t responsible for the virus. Instead, Cole finds the guilty party after it’s already too late. He tries to kill the culprit, but the police intervene, and he dies trying to save the world. Cole’s nightmares come to fruition, as his younger self watches him die. Going back in time did nothing to change the futurebecause of the causal loop. They’ve always gone back in time, meaning that the events that followed occurred as a result of that time-displaced individual.
Was12 MonkeysInspired By Another Movie?
12 Monkeyswas inspired by Chris Marker’s 1962 French short filmLa Jetée. Gilliam’s film borrows many concepts directly from the earlier piece.La Jetéealso takes place ina post-apocalyptic futurein which citizens are forced to hide beneath the city. Instead of a virus, this world was ruined by the Third World War. An unnamed prisoner is tasked with traveling through time. Most of the people who have attempted to travel through time were unable to withstand the trauma. The prisoner can survive time travel thanks to a formative memory, a moment in which he saw a beautiful woman and a dying man at Orly Airport. He’s able to travel through time and meet the woman of his dreams. He then travels to the future to find a power source and save the city. The prisoner realizes that he’ll be executed after he completes his mission. He gets the chance to escape, but he chooses to return to the memory that changed his life. One of his jailers follows him and kills him at the familiar airport. The prisoner discovers that the death that he saw as a boy was his own, forcing the story into a tragic loop.
La Jetéefollows the same structure and features the sametwist as12 Monkeys, but that doesn’t make Gilliam’s classic a ripoff. The 1995 film adds a lot to the narrative and cements the story as a sci-fi blockbuster.12 Monkeysis about time, but it’s also about madness, perception, futility, and a lot more. The film doesn’t spend too much time on how its machine works, but it demonstrates plainly how time travel can go wrong.
