Movie Diary: The Twelve Monkeys

Tags: Terry Gilliam; Destiny; Worldview

I said: Director you can be a little more mysterious, a little more cute

I clicked on this classic movie with excitement, and I was a little disappointed. Can't say I don't like it, it's just that the expectations are too different from reality, and I need to buffer it. In fact, it is the second time to watch this film, but the first time I watched it, I was completely absent-minded or the subtitles were not right and I had forgotten.

Have you ever doubted the realities of your life, before your worldview was determined?

What exactly is the definition of reality, the first rays of sunlight you see when you wake up in the morning? Or was it the first person to see it? Or turn on the TV and hear the first news? What would you do if someone suddenly told you that the reality you've always trusted was fake, or that your future had already been determined?

What governs human behavior, and do those weak radio waves between brain cells determine everything? If from a materialistic point of view, when the universe was formed, all matter was established, and the mode of action of various substances was also determined, then this determined the formation of the universe after this, the milky way of the sun, the earth microbial dinosaur humans, all of which were macroscopically determined by those established conditions at the beginning of the formation of the universe, then you chose eggs or bread this morning, or whether you ate breakfast or not had any impact on the future at all (from laplace's scientific fatalism mentioned in "The Last John Died"), Life is nothing more than a rehearsed play (if the first rehearsal of life is life itself, then what is the meaning of "Life Cannot Bear the Light"), and all the so-called egos are engulfed by the universe, a vast and ruthless organization that strictly adheres to its own laws of operation.

If there really is such a thing as a soul, is reality really the reality of material identity or the reality of spiritual identity? Who can guarantee that our so-called present will not be a nightmare for a psychiatric patient in another dimension, or a program manipulated by others (The Matrix, The Thirteenth Ladder, Soul Shifter City). If I can't wake up in my sleep, isn't the scene in the dream the reality of my reality?

If the course of life is likened to a loaf of bread, and reality is only the one cut by your knife, then who decides where to get the knife from? So what is the difference between the past, the present, and the future?

What are "yes" and "none"? It is a problem both physically and philosophically.

Back to the film itself, to understand this movie, I think we should start with the title. "Twelve" in my understanding represents reincarnation, and monkeys often represent humans, and together they are reincarnated human beings, that is fate. In terms of worldview setting, animals reignite the earth, and animals to humans to animals are a reincarnation. And all the protagonist's actions, including traveling back to the past, are just a further interpretation of the future, like a joke made by fate. We can't help but ask the question Smith asked the Prophet in The Matrix: If you knew I was going to smash the bottle, why did you put it here, or did you put it here so that I could break it? (I didn't check the original text, which probably means so).)

The combination of Lao Bu and Xiao Bu seems to be only this time (not counting lao Boo's cameo in "The Twelve Arhats"), and it feels that their performances are not impressive (except for the part where Pete shows his ass in the madhouse).