12 Monkeys

An intense film about time travel, this sci-fi entry was directed by Terry Gilliam, a member of the comedy troupe Monty Python. The film stars Bruce Willis as James Cole, a prisoner of the state in the year 2035 who can earn parole if he agrees to travel back in time and thwart a devastating plague. ...more

Inspired by Chris Marker's benchmark 1962 short film La Jetee, director Terry Gilliam continues his examination of the real versus the surreal in this mind-bending piece of science fiction. In a vein typical of Gilliam's oeuvre, the film leaps through time almost at will, which produces uneven results. Obviously a play on genre conventions, 12 Monkeys succeeds at creating its various worlds (all with various degrees of grunge and gloom). However, the film spirals off in so many directions it's ...more