12 Monkeys (1996)

Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film La Jetée (which is included on the DVD Short 2: Dreams), 12 Monkeys combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering" to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama, 12 Monkeys ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the '90s, boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest performances of Willis's career. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com essential video

Overwrought.

12 Monkeys starring Bruce Willis is a long, dragged-out drama. I wish this film was shorter but the acting is incredible from Willis and Brad Pitt. There is a lot of time travel and strange scenes but people seem to like this movie. This mystery is a mixed bag for me. December 17, 2008

A warning about the Special Edition if you order it from Amazon...

I ordered this item and got a Special Edition case with a DVD that didn't contain any extras, only the movie and no commentary either. So I hope if someone is planning to buy this for the extras, I can warn them that you might not get what you ordered and once you open it to determine if you got the Special Edition with extras or just the regular disc with only the movie on it, you will have problems returning it and getting a replacement is out because you could get the same thing.

I bought this because Amazon was having a sale, but I feel cheated. Not by them, but by the company who made this disc. I am going to write them and see if they can't send me the right item for free. I bought this DVD mainly for all the extras it had and now, I have just the movie in a form I didn't want to buy in the first place and upset I can't re-buy it for fear I will just get another only movie disc in a Special Edition box. What false advertising. Amazon should stop carrying this item if it isn't what it says it is, because there might be some disappointed people come Christmastime. November 27, 2008

Amazing movie, nearly perfect.

I'll try not to explain the contents of the movie, which will be difficult because this one is hard to review without actually defining what happens within.

Suffice it to say, though, that this is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It seems to not get much more than a cult following at this moment, but as time passes there's no doubt in my mind that this will become a classic science fiction psychological thriller of the first order. Bruce Willis is unbelievable in this movie. Brad Pitt is very good, too. The acting is superb.

But, what I cannot stress enough is the absolute necessity of understanding what this film is really intended to do: *spoiler below*

*It's intended to express as best as possible what paranoid delusions are actually really like for mental illness patients. Trust me on that.

Ok, spoiler over, and that's not really much of one as it is. But, if you want to get into a little schizophrenia for yourself this is your movie. It's not for all audiences, though. Those who have genuine mental illness probably should not watch the movie at all. Maybe. On the other hand, maybe it could help them to understand better their own confusions.

Whatever.

The bottom line is that this is a fantastically well developed thriller with science fiction elements. It's totally psychological, and completely and utterly confusing in every way. In the end you are left wondering what you've just witnessed and what has just happened. You really don't know, but you think you do, but you don't. Seriously, the gripping conclusion continues the parallel theme of mental illness along side fantastic sci-fi trek through time.

It's perfectly done. I cannot recommend too many better movies for you. There just are very few that are as good as this one. November 3, 2008

A flawless film

Sci-fi film in which Bruce Willis plays a time traveller who travels back to the year 1990 from a dystopian future to stop a virus that in the year 1996 will wipe out most of mankind and forces the survivors to live underground. However, when he arrives in the year 1990, he is believed to be mad and is placed in a mental institution, under the care of psychiatrist Madeleine Stowe. Stowe also believes that Willis is suffering from mental illness, with paranoid delusions of the end of the world, but then Willis mysteriously escapes from the solitary confinement cell he has been placed in following an attempt to escape the mental institution. Six years later, in 1996, Willis appears again and tracks Stowe down, taking her hostage and forcing her to drive across country to Philadelphia, because he needs her help to stop what he refers to as the `army of the twelve monkeys'. Stowe believes that she has been kidnapped by a dangerous schizophrenic and does not believe his claims, that he is from a future in which most of the world's population has been wiped out by a deadly virus and that he has come to try and stop this virus. But when strange things start happening that verify that Willis is indeed a time traveller, Stowe is forced to put her professional scepticism to one side and accept that Willis is not insane but has been speaking the truth the whole time. Now Stowe tracks Willis down, and is anxious to help him try to stop the virus and the end of the world. But now Willis has become the unbeliever, and has started to doubt his own sanity and wonder whether his memories of time travel and a dystopian future are real or rather the invention of a deranged mind. Ironically, Willis' psychiatrist now has to convince him that he is sane after all, and the stakes could not be higher, because if he does not start to believe this, all will be lost. This film was a quite flawless work of science-fiction imagination, relying on story rather than special effects to make its mark. Bruce Willis is excellent as our bemused hero who doesn't know whether he is sane or crazy and Madeleine Stowe is also faultless as the psychiatrist who at first believes that Willis is mentally ill but slowly becomes a believer. Brad Pitt is also notable as an eccentric animal rights activist that Willis first meets in the mental institution. This film has few if any special effects, even in the scenes set in the future and it is a testament to Willis's acting ability that I found myself empathising with the pain of Willis' character as he joyfully experienced the things that we take for granted - clean air, music, being able to live above ground - in contrast to the horrors of his own time. This film was an exemplar piece of story-telling; with its message about appreciating the world that we have even with its imperfections, a wonderful red herring and an excellent twist near the end of the film that elevated what would have been just an excellent film into an outstanding one. Highly recommended. October 26, 2008

12 Monkeys

Great sci-fi movie to watch. Bruce Willis does a great job playing the part, along with Brad Pitt also. Need to see movie. September 2, 2008

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