In 1997, 5 billion people will die from a deadly virus, survivors will have to give up life on the surface of the planet, and animals will once again dominate the world. ——Excerpt from an interview with a person with schizophrenic delusions Baltimore County Hospital, April 12, 1990
In 1996, a sudden virus outbreak killed billions of people.
The few remaining human beings can only live underground, and they can live secretly.
In 2035, technology has developed to be able to "travel through time", so scientists decided to send prisoner James back to '96 to investigate the source of the virus.
The only clue is the organization that spreads the virus: the Twelve Monkey Army.
Vague clues, thin manpower, and the difficulty is that James was mistakenly sent to 1990...
Released in 1996 and directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis, Twelve Monkeys is a sci-fi suspense film.
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In 2035, underground prison.
James, a prisoner, was chosen to participate in a volunteer mission.
In order to help humans "return to the ground" attacked by the virus, scientists need a tenacious and determined person to return to 1996, when the virus originated, to participate in the investigation.
However, James was mistakenly teleported to prison in 1990.
James, who learns that the transmission is wrong, is eager to go out and call to deliver the news, but is sent to a mental hospital for shouting "virus" and beating up the prison guards.
There, he meets Jeffrey (Brad Pitt), a psychopath who introduces James to the hospital, has severe bipolar tendencies, and keeps coming up with ideas and words every day.
She also met catherine, a beautiful female doctor, who had always felt a sense of familiarity to James.
No matter how James explained to the doctor about the virus, about future plans, about the Twelve Monkeys and time travel, the hospital was more convinced that he had mental problems.
James had to eat spiders, drooling every day, and mingling with mentally ill people.
Influenced by television news, Jeffrey is an extreme and crazy animal activist who fights for animal freedom.
James also casually echoed Jeffrey:
"Maybe human extinction is self-inflicted."
However, a chorus made Jeffrey seem to have found a confidant, and he took the key to the prison and created an opportunity for James to escape.
But James, who had been given a tranquilizer, did not have enough physical strength to escape, and he was locked up again.
Fortunately, the timely teleportation of future scientists has taken him out of the psychiatric hospital and returned to 2035.
Neil said that he was locked up in a mental hospital and could not be investigated at all, and the only sample of "spider" could not be retained and was eaten by himself.
So the scientists decided to teleport again.
James was mistakenly teleported to the battlefield of World War I, where he was shot and successfully landed in 1996.
By then, Catherine had become a prominent psychiatrist, giving her own lectures in Bretrose Hall.
As soon as Catherine was out, James kidnapped her and asked her to drive to Philadelphia.
On the way, Catherine also discovers James's identity—a patient who evaporated from the hospital six years ago.
"When people die next month, you won't think I'm crazy, and at first people think it's just bizarre fever." Then they will understand, one by one, infected.
James explains to Catherine his mission, the Legion of Twelve Monkeys, and Catherine is initially reluctant to believe it, until she later sees him in old photographs, but is convinced of his time travel experience.
The two investigate and learn by accident that Jeffrey is the leader of the "Twelve Monkeys" and that his father is a Nobel Prize-winning virologist.
James approached Jeffrey and tried to stop it, but was caught off guard by Jeffrey's remarks.
"You were talking to me in the hospital about viruses, about exterminating humanity, and I just told you that my father was a virologist, and you had such a plan!"
Although he understood that this was the sophistry of the mad Jeffrey, James got an important message:
Jeffrey unleashed the inspiration for the virus he casually gave!
"The extinction of mankind is self-inflicted".
Recalling what he said when he was delirious in the hospital, James guiltily believes that he is the culprit who has harmed all mankind.
"Wouldn't it be better if I was really crazy, the world would be safe, I don't have to live underground, there's air, water, stars, I love the world." 」
Under pressure, James began to imagine that he was really a schizophrenic, and if it was, he could stay here forever.
How much he loved the air on earth, so much that he was willing to indulge in this false dream forever.
However, in 1996 he mysteriously disappeared again and was teleported back to his time.
The bullets taken from James's legs, James's prophecies, and the figures left behind in the war all made Catherine gradually believe the news that the virus was coming.
She called Jeffrey's father and asked him to step up the institute's security measures.
Meanwhile, Falling in love with Catherine and James of that era decided to apply back to 1996.
James, who meets Catherine by chance, decides to become a schizophrenic, but is strongly discouraged by Catherine, who knows the truth.
The two decide to save the world together.
Jeffrey's plan began, but the so-called "Legion of Twelve Monkeys" was only to release a group of animals.
Catherine's warning worked, and Jeffrey did not succeed in releasing the virus.
But they forget that the trend of established history can never be changed.
The two were not happy for long, but they met the real spreader of the virus at the airport, Jeffrey's father's assistant.
The man from the future gave James a new assignment and brought a gun.
James ran to the Propagator and tried to shoot him, but the agents who had been pursuing James killed him first.
This is the scene that has always appeared in James's dreams, and he is killed on the spot in front of his and his lover's eyes when he was a child.
It's a cycle where James will cross over and over again, fail again and again, fall in love with Catherine again and again.
Catherine, who was extremely sad, thought of looking around and saw James as a child.
He's still alive and they'll love each other again.
The carrier successfully left, nothing changed, and humanity will usher in the end.
James was alive and doomed to die.
The film was inspired by the 1962 avant-garde science fiction short film, which was so popular with producer Robert Kausberg that he bought the rights to adapt it, so there was Twelve Monkeys.
Interestingly, director Gilliam hadn't seen "The Causeway" until the film was made, but still did "Twelve Monkeys" brilliantly.
In the nearly two years since the sudden arrival of the virus, re-watching this old film from twenty years ago can't help but make people feel very emotional.
The film is permeated with a gray-yellow and dim cold tone, and the standard narrative method of jumping suspense is extremely brain-burning.
The clichéd time-travel plot, loops, and the fatalism of Oedipus and Sisyphus combined.
The plot of the protagonist hates not being able to indulge in illusion is reminiscent of "Inception", the narrative structure of the combination of end and end is very similar to "Former Destination", the underground base is reminiscent of "The Wandering Earth", and the extinction of the extreme animal protector makes people want to reopen "Three-Body Problem".
Excellent works are similar everywhere, but they show their own unique charm.
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