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12 Monkeys

by David Webb Peoples and Janet Peoples, directed by Terry Gilliam
In the year 2035, with the world devastated by an artificially engineered plague, convict James Cole is sent back in time to gather information about the plague’s origin so the scientists can figure out how to fight it.
— Michael Main
If you can’t change anything because it’s already happened, you may as well smell the flowers.
DEBUT
12 Monkeys (premiered at an unknown movie theater, New York City, 8 December 1995).
VARIANTS
1 English variant
TRANSLATIONS
Translations to French
PRIOR WORKS
inspired by La jetée written and directed by Chris Marker (1962)
DERIVATIVE WORKS
  1. 12 Monkeys, Season 1 written by Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett, et al., directed by multiple people, (SyFy, USA, 16 January 2015 to 10 April 2015).
TAGS(SPOILERS!)
Time Periods Timeline Models
  • Single Static Timeline: To me, the film has many conclusive scenes demonstrating that the world consists of a single, static timeline with no chance of actually changing the past (e.g., the phone message that Katheryn records). The scientists realize that this may be the case, but at the very least they want to get a sample of the original, unmutated virus so they can bioengineer a cure for their own time. At the end, the “insurance” that Jones mentions implies that she has come back to obtain a sample of the virus just in case none of the other plans work out.
Time Travel Methods
  • Time Tethers: Little is shown about the time machine, but Cole appears to be shot to another time and later retrieved.
Themes
  • Causal Loops: In La jetĂ©e, the prisoner is selected because he has a vivid memory of the past, and his travel to the past causes that vivid memory. In 12 Monkeys, young Cole similarly has a vivid memory of the past, but he does not seem to be selected for that reason, so there is no causal loop. However, at one point, Cole believes that his contact witj Jeffrey in the past is the cause of the pandemic, and that would have been a causal loop had it been true. There may have been some actual causal loops, but if so, they were minor.
  • Nude Travel
  • Precognition, Premonition, or Prediction: I don’t know how Kathryn’s premonition that she already knew Cole fits in with the other time travel.
  • Reincarnation: Cole and Kathryn watch Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak wandering among the redwoods in Vertigo while Novak talks of a past life.
  • Reporting Back via a Time Capsules or Other Prearranged Systems: voicemail to the carpet cleaner
  • Self-Visitation: Cole’s younger self sees old Cole.
Real-World Tags Fictional Tags Groupings
TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)
  1. From underground Philadelphia, 2035 ⋙ to Baltimore, April 1990. Note: This is Cole’s first trip through time, intended to go to 1996, but hitting too early. He returns from within a locked cell, which puzzles his jailors.
  2. From underground Philadelphia, 2035 ⋙ to a French battlefield, October 1917. Note: I think that Cole was briefly in the Great War—just long enough to get shot—before landing in his intended target time of 1996. JosĂ© was back in 1917, too, and at least one of them was also preaching the end of the world back in the 14th century.
  3. From an unknown time ⋙ to Baltimore, November 1996. Note: Cole finds Kathryn quickly, and the race to find the origin of the virus begins.
  4. From an unknown time ⋙ to 2035. Note: Cole is pulled back to the future while wading in a stream.
  5. From underground Philadelphia, 2035 ⋙ to late 1996. Multiple round trips. Note: The movie flips between Cole in 2035 and Cole in 1996, possibly because of multiple round trips.
  6. From underground Philadelphia, 2035 ⋙ to late 1996. Note: At the end of Cole’s final trip, he ends up at the Philadelphia airport, along with JosĂ© and others from 2035.
INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)
  • In the credits: Inspired by the film “La JetĂ©e” written by Chris Marker