Wonkette Movie Night: 12 Monkeys

'There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion.'

It is 2035, and prisoner James Cole has been volunteered for time travel experimentation. Sent into the past to discover the origin of a deadly pathogen that has destroyed most of the people on the planet and forced the remaining inhabitants underground. If they can find how it started, the scientists believe they can find a cure.

Because they don’t have the whole time traveling thing perfected, they need James to go back to 1996. just before worldwide devastation is unleashed in the form of a manmade virus. But they send him to 1990 instead, which lands him in a poorly run mental hospital as traveling through time has scrambled his mind a bit. He had expected to land in 1996 where a system was in place for him to leave a message for the future.

Those in the future believe the release of the virus was a plot from a radical animal rights group, the 12 Monkeys. The leader of that group is a fellow patient, Jeffrey, that James meets in the 1990 insane asylum. James also meets Kathryn, a psychiatrist whom he recognizes from his dreams.

As Kathryn confronts James about what she believes are delusions he says:

All I see are dead people.

Which, oddly, is very close to a line in a future Bruce Willis movie, The Sixth Sense. But the dead people James sees are in the future, which he has once again been thrust into as the scientists in 2035 try to get him back to 1996; going back and forth through time leaves James teetering on the edge of sanity.

Teetering on the edge of insanity, doesn’t that feel familiar?

Feeling like the past is present, James lands back in 1996. He has the knowledge of what is going to happen to the world but is distracted by the memories of the way things used to be. Damn the flick is hitting close to home.

He is torn between a past that no longer exists or fighting for a future he cannot be a part of. And yet time is still in control. Or at least our understanding of it as James possibly confronts his younger self. That is what is entertaining yet full of contradictions when dealing with time travel in movies. And it is also what 12 Monkeys delivers, a view of time that just may be plausible.

12 Monkeys was inspired by the 1962 short film, La Jetée by Chris Marker. “Marker’s La Jetée is one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made, a tale of time travel told in still images.”

12 Monkeys stars Bruce Willis, Madeline Stowe, Brad Pitt, Jon Seda, Christopher Plummer, Carol Florence, Christopher Meloni, Frank Gorshin, and David Morse. Directed by Terry Gilliam.

12 Monkeys is available for free with ads on YouTube. $3.99 in the usual places.

To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules, go to WonkMovie.

The animated short is Monkey Moon, created by Emmanuel Gatera, Eric Villeneuve, and Antoine Rouleau.

Next week’s Movie Night selection is Jurassic Park in honor of Sam Neill who we lost on July 13. Sam has 2 films still coming in 2027, Godzilla x Kong: Supernova and The Last Resort.

Jurassic Park is available for free on OKRU. $3.99 in the usual places.

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