For a movie, the degree of discussion about the plot can often determine its fate to a certain extent. For films like the Twelve Monkeys, when everyone’s focus is on whether the director and screenwriter are going to tell a future science fiction story or a story about a mentally ill person, their other efforts seem meaningless.
But this does not deny the fun that this film's discussion on the plot brings us. According to the clues given to the audience at the beginning of the film, James Cole was a criminal in 2035, who went to the surface of the earth as a volunteer to search for clues. The earth was heavily infected by a deadly virus in 1997, 50 billion people died, and the remaining 1% went underground to find a way to eliminate the virus. And the surface of the earth has become the territory of animals. The title of Twelve Monkeys comes from the consensus of scientists and others in 2035. Everyone thinks that the WE DID IT they identified under the LOGO is their victory declaration. After James Cole completed an excellent task, he constantly traveled through time and space through the time machine. He was supposed to be sent to 1996. Before the virus spread, he was sent to the post-1990 World War II period by mistake. In 1990, he was sent to a mental hospital with what was considered crazy at the time, where he met Dr. Kathryn Railly and Jeffrey Goines. During World War II, a bullet left there became important evidence that later convinced Raily of him. Jeffrey Goines had left the mental hospital in 1996 and served his father, a virologist. This coincidence led James Cole to believe in the relationship between the twelve monkeys, Jeffrey Goines, and the deadly virus. Railly went from the original suspicion to the final conviction, which became an important reason for James Cole's reluctance to go back to the future. And history cannot be changed, and every step they take is toward the final outcome. In the end, the twelve monkeys just wanted to release all the animals in the zoo, and the virus was done by the assistant of Jeffrey Goines' father. At the same time, there is a not very solid evidence supporting this sci-fi clue, the prophet Cassandra, only mentioned in the film by Kathryn Railly in her speech. After her speech, the assistant had hoped to discuss with her.
If we start from the second important picture. Kathryn Railly and James Cole met for the first time, and James Cole was completely mentally ill. Everything is his imagination. The broadcast of recruiting volunteers in the underground prison and the broadcast in the airport were originally connected by a single lens. The bears and lions he saw when he went to the surface of the earth to gather intelligence in 2035 were propaganda posters and sculptures on the wall in 1996. The sterilization treatment received underground is the same as that of a mental hospital. Others pointed out that the number and gender of doctors in mental hospitals and future scientists are the same. The statement that grabbed James Cole was the first time that James Cole was really challenged. He thought he was from Org, and when he no longer thought about that planet, that world ceased to exist. Many people doubt that the person carrying the box in James Cole's dream has always been Jeffrey Goines, until he finally became the assistant. This may not be easy to explain to James Cole who came out of the world of science fiction, but from the perspective of a mentally ill person, James Cole and the assistant have never met, he may only have the image of Jeffrey Goines in his memory.
Whether the film blends between reality and James Cole’s fantasy world or the real future world, it is enough to illustrate the screenwriter’s success in this regard. The only problem is that in the last scene, James Cole became two people. A child, an adult who is still sick or completing a task, if history cannot be changed, then does the dead attach the soul to the living? This is not science fiction, it is already a myth.
All the laying and coincidences in the film undoubtedly illustrate the film's success in screenwriting, but the actors are also not to be ignored. As a tough guy, Bruce Wills doesn't have many outstanding acting skills. When he was sent by mistake in 1990, he was too much like a mentally ill person in prison, rather than an insightful prophet. His classic line said to Kathryn Railly, I'm insane, and you're my insanity, it's really not good enough. Brad Pitt is just the opposite. This guy, who is unambiguously positioned as a mentally ill person from start to end, brilliantly interprets the violent, hyperactive, and emotional multi-faceted nature of a mentally ill person. Seeing his eyes are one big and the other small, his fingers are placed in his mouth, and he keeps jumping around, even when he is wearing an evening gown. But by his mouth, we hear a lot of the film is important sentence, There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion. And You know what crazy is? Crazy is majority rules. Take germs, for example.
In addition to the dream The faint brilliance of that scene of the film, all other sections of the film are surrounded by a dirty, dull color. To some extent, this has shaped the film into a tragic story. There is also the song "what a wonderful world" inside.
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