This FAQ was last updated March 22, 1996.
Uh, I guess that would be me . My name's Demetri, and I wanted to get a FAQ started, so I started one.
For right now, this FAQ is only at http://miso.wwa.com/~mouratis/12m. As it begins to come together, and after many more contributions (hopefully), it will start getting posted.
There is one excellent one that I know of. The MCA home page for Twelve Monkeys has lots of neat stuff, even a FAQ with four questions answered by David and Janet Peoples. The two entry points that I find interesting are the Main Page , and a lower-level page with an animated picture at the top.
Maybe. Twelve Monkeys was inspired by a short film called "La Jetee". This film was about 30 minutes long, and with a small exception, was shot entirely in stills.
No. It is stated at several points along the way that his job is to simply locate the virus so that a pure sample can be collected. It's even pretty much stated that he cannot change the future anyway; the pure sample will only help the future people vaccinate who is left.
Every once in a while, someone on usenet suggests that the scientists actually are trying to maintain their own powerfull positions, but it seems that given all the attention to sterile procedures, this doesn't seem right to me. No-one can give me evidence in the film to support this theory.
Exactly. The theme of insanity is smeared all over this movie, so it is pretty clear that Gilliam is trying to get us to ask that very question.
Probably not. The poster with the "We Did It" scrawled on it was just referring to releasing the animals from the Zoo.
Yeah, I don't get this. Maybe a bad device to keep things exciting? Perhaps some scenes didn't make the final cut, leaving this thread hanging. Anyone have other theories?
Cole locks himself in the bathroom with the pimp. He removes his own teeth and pretty much leaves the pimp alone. The blood all over his own mouth suggests this, and he holds out the teeth for Railly to see.
There is a parallel between the Monkey send down the hole to find the kid who fell down and Bruce willis being send back to the past. There seems to be another parallel between the time machine and the CAT scan machine in hospital when he tries to escape in 1990.
Rhys Southan Here are some parallels between 12M and Brail from
brm@full-service.Stanford.EDU (Brian R. Murphy):
Cole and Railley go into the department store running from the
police, which is somehow reminiscent of the department store scene in
Brazil, followed immediately by
A van full of men clad in black with a final man pulled into the van
wrapped in some sort of bag-like restraining device. In Brazil it is
Sam being arrested by the police; in 12 Monkeys it is Goines's father
being kidnapped by the animal rights terrorists.
You mention the parellel of Cole being sent to the past to
find the PURE VIRUS and the Monkey with the sandwhich tied
to it being sent down the well to find NOTHING, and Jeffrey
Goins supports you when he rants "We're all Monkeys", and
maybe I'm over analyzing things, but at the party for
Jeffrey's scientist father, one of the guests says after
watching the news "I bet the monkey will eat the damn
sandwhich himself". Could this also be referring to Cole's
not following orders and getting to love the "dying world"
and succombing to the belief that he is in fact crazy with
help from direct input from Dr. Railley and indirect input
from the patients(Jeffrey:"You can't turn back time! You
can't make it be yesterday!" Black Patient from Planet
Ogo:I'm mentally Divergent. Are you mentally divergent
too?")?
When Cole awakes in bed and hears music, sees an idyllic scene,
which is disrupted by the appearance of the scientists humming, this
parallels the final end-of-torture scene in Brazil ("we've lost him").
David Mastroianni Most Likely. For one thing, she is the same age as the woman
on the panel of scientists; otherwise she would appear nearly 40 years
younger on the plane.
People have also suggested that the medieval-looking preacher is a
time-traveler, which might be true. He might
be the Medieval prophet Railley mentions in her lecture.
From what I've learned of viruses (and from my wife who majored in Molecular Biology), exposure is not binary; there are various levels of exposure to a virus, and infection is not guaranteed at all levels.
David Mastroianni Chris Erickson Steve van der Burg offers:
He's born; at 8 years old he goes to an airport and sees a man
killed there; a virus kills most of the population, but he survives
and becomes part of the messed-up society that lives underground; at
40+ he travels back to the airport at the moment when his 8-year-old
self is there, and is killed.
Cole's life looks pretty linear to me.
On the other hand, *we* start to see a loop because we see Cole at
8 and Cole at 40+ at the same time, so we run through his life over
and over in our minds.
It may be that the scientists need him to go after the red-haired
nut so that they can positively identify him as the culprit.
Because Jose didn't really know who spread the virus. In fact, it is
only after Kathryn Railly tells James that he knows.
According to some folks on Usenet, it is a WWI-era revolver.
Then again, where did he get it? Most of us certainly appreciate
the irony of it being from one of the places that James visited.
Because he appears in a WWI picture that she used in her research.
After she is told that the bullet from his leg is circa 1917, she
finds the picture on her wall and begins to go insane.
Then again, when Railly looks at Cole with the fake wig and moustache,
she says "This is how I remember you," which seems to indicate a deeper
explanation.
Good question. The narrative pretty much spoon-feeds us the fact that
the animals have taken back the earth, implying that the virus only affects
humans. The animals may be decendents of the animals
released from the zoo, unless you think that there was plenty of time
to recapture the released animals before widespread infection...
Another perspective is that Cole only imagined them. Remember when
he is waiting in front of the department store for Railly? He sees
those exact two animals (only stuffed) in the windows.
Yes. This is assuredly Cole incorporating things he's learned (in this
case from Railly) into his ever-changing dream. Theories have been posted
to usenet indicating that perhaps he changes small instances of time, and
the dreams reflect this. However, a mini-FAQ by David and Janet Peoples
supports the first theory, and I consider that the canonical answer.
Some have suggested that she just had a wig. However, I think the wig
that she bought at the department store was for James, not herself.
James Pavlovich (pavlovich@sbmm1.ucsb.edu) also offers this:
No. I don't remember them all, but the second time I saw the movie,
I deliberately counted when the ticket agent listed them all. There
were something like eleven.
It certainly seems that way. The
biggest evidence is that Jose says something like "And you took out
your teeth! Why'd you do that, man? You had a full pardon!"
Well, for one thing, Jose tells Cole that if he doesn't do it, then
Jose will kill Railly. Besides, I sort of like the way that even as
the wheels of destiny are closing in on him, he still throws himself
in front of them.
Most likely. For one thing, you can really see the look of distaste
on her face. Also, she probably said she was "in insurance" as a pun; most
people in the newsgroups think she was there as insurance against James'
failing to collect a pure sample of the virus.
Here is some more detail from Eric M. Bram (gradivus@dreamscape.com):
Also, I believe that she succeeded in her task by stealing
one or two of the virus cannisters from the uniplaguer's
carry-on luggage during the flight. My evidence is that the
list of places the uniplaguer was planning to visit during
the 1-week virus incubation period (as listed by the airline
ticket agent) was about 2 cities longer than the list of
"places the plague broke out" memorized by Cole.
For one thing, the newspaper picture showed him with Goines Sr, whom
she knows to be a virologist, since she called him to warn about the
potential danger. Besides, she signed her book at her talk, and he was
babbling about how the human race was doomed anyway, and how a virus
wouln't be all that bad. Truly an apocalypic nut.
A lot of people have figured that everyone in the airport contracts the
virus, so Cole must contract it as a little kid, but his survival means
he's immune, so then the other survivors are probably immune. I don't
buy this though. We don't know that the virus is that easy to catch, I
mean, if it was a cold virus I would be very surprised if everyone in the
airport had contact with it, I just don't think colds move that fast.
When Railly shakes the man trying to get him to tell something
about the wherabouts of James, he doesn't understand at all.
This is probably just because the guy has never heard of anyone
named James, he just thinks he knows "Bob."
Think of it from Cole's point of view:
I thought it was just a wig also, but my SO just pointed out that
she did have the time since Cole had fallen asleep and did not
wake up until near the end of another movie, "The Birds". Note
that they were watching "Vertigo" originally.
About the woman on the plane at the end -- the "insurance"
comment probably didn't refer to "in case Cole fails," but
in the larger sense of insurance for the future to overcome
the plague. The future scientists probably only learned for
sure who the carrier was after seeing what happened to Cole
(whom he was chasing when he died), and must have arranged
her visit afterward.
not@work.org (Kilgore Trout) offers the following:
This movie is deeply involved with psychology -- abnormal, behavioural or whatever. So keep that in mind when you try to understand it.My guess is that James (Cole) is standing near the street preacher who is shouting about the biblical wrathe of JHVH against the city of Nineveh or something. The toothless bum notices Cole's distress at hearing about Jonah. The bum is just a typical street person. He just says to Cole "You can't get away from them. No sir ree Bob." and then he smiles his meaningless toothless grin. The rest is auditory hallucination on Cole's part. He incorporates the voice and the name into his nightmare existence. He is stressed out beyond his limits. He was probably borderline schizo in the first place. Later on, the voice is the voice of his thoughts.
James Cole: Mad Man or Man of the Future???
saddly, probably both...
However, Eamonn McManus
Well, a Web search on the name Arnold Pettybone turned up nothing, and
neither did my (admitedly weak) CDROM encyclopedia.
Eric Johnson says:
Good observation! They are mentioned in the insane hospital
and on the radio, and on T.V., etc. In a National Public Radio
interview, Gilliam said something to the effect of this:
He was sitting on the beach at sunset with 'his girl' and was having
a great time when he started to question whether he was truly enjoying
it, or whether he was manipulated by all the advertisements telling
him that this is what one should enjoy.
Dave Cole (dcole@yallara.cs.rmit.EDU.AU) adds:
dmac@primenet.com (Duncan McAlester) noticed:
Also, sokratys@nando.net (walker) points out:
Rhys also points out Cole sees a statue of an Angel when he and Railly
are shopping for the wig; he has seen this statue when going through
the ruins of that mall in the future, and that the Marx Brothers
film in the asylum is Monkey Business .
vhm@columbia.edu (vaibhav mangrulkar) and Ed Geles
(egeles@eden.rutgers.edu) found this:
Andy Corvin (corvin38@potsdam.edu) says:
Dave Cole (dcole@yallara.cs.rmit.EDU.AU) discovered these:
The only actor that I noticed who had been in a preivous Gilliam
film, was Simon Jones (one of the Scientists - the zoologist I
think). He was the man in Brazil who gave Mrs Buttle a receipt for
her husband, and had a receipt for her receipt.
Finally, james dinkins ...And trevorm@lingua.cltr.uq.edu.au (Matthew S. Trevor) adds:
No clue. Just a touch of the absurd to throw us off?
Yeah, for real.
Scott D Hamilton ( hamiltsd@eckerd.edu ) offers the following:
Someone pointed out that they thought so. Can anyone confirm?
As I recall, the first time Cole hears the voice is after his first
return to the future. He is strapped down after trying to break out
of the asylum, and the next time we see him he is also in a cell, but
in the future. The voice speaks to him there. This is before he
meets the bum.
In his original review Siskel gave the film ** 1/2 stars
(thumbs down) and, in fact, seemed even more negative than
that rating might imply. However, last week he changed his
capsule review saying that he had seen the film a second
time and changed his mind about it. The new rating was ***
(thumbs up). The new rating also applies to the most recent
episode of S&E television program. (Oh, and the original
ratings were from the _Chicago Tribune_, of course.)
Did you notice the song that always accompinied the ad on TV or
radio?? "Sleepwalk". Could this allude to something - ie, doing
something subconsciously (ie, in JC's case, creating an alternate
reality)?
As Cole is arguing/talking with Jose on the escalator in the airport the
announcer on the PA system says "Volunters boarding at Gate 38".
And isn't it amazing how the board of scientists are mirrored by the
board of psychiatrists in the mental institution. The same number of
people (same mix of gender too) separated from him in his chair by a
single long table? The two prision guards, and the two guards in the
institution at the inquiry?
Rhys J Southan
Also, on the PA speaker in the mall, a woman says something
about the "UNDERGROUND parking lot".
did you notice:
the twelve looney guys sleeping in the circle in the insane asylum
refer to the twelve monkeys on the logo?
As Cole is escaping from the asylum in 1990 there is a point
where guards are approaching him on either side. From that angle
there is also a large "DANGER" painted on the wall. Interesting
that shortly thereafter Cole assaults the guards, eh?
Goof: When JC has been shot, and Railly is crouching next to him, he
raises his hand to touch her face. In this first shot, there is no
blood on his hand or arm, but all subsequent shots have blood
showing.
When Jose is talking to Cole on the escalator, Cole catches a
glimpse of a strange-looking man on the opposite escalator.
This is the same man who acted as a security guard reading one of
those weird tabloids as Cole passes him to escape from the
institution.
Actually, the "strange-looking man" is in fact one of the prison wardens
from the future. The implication here is that Cole is being watched very
closely and can't mess up. As Cole says, "This was never about saving the
future. It was always about following orders." (paraphrasing here).
Of course he was supposed to die. James Cole was a Christ figure at the
end of the film. His intitial are JC. He is supposed to follow orders.
He is without sin ("They gave you a full pardon..."), and he is given the
means of his destruction by Jose (Judas).
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