Twelve Monkeys

Twelve Monkeys is a science fiction conspiracy theory movie directed by former Monty Python member, Terry Gilliam, and inspired by the short film La Jetée. It deals with problems of time and memory, and features a memorable performance by Brad Pitt as a seriously deranged animal liberationist.

Bruce Willis stars as James Cole, who believes he has been sent to our time from a future in which apocalyptic events (initiated by a group calling itself the Army of the Twelve Monkeys) have killed 90% of humanity and forced the survivors into a bleak subterranean existence; his mission is to study the events leading up to the apocalypse. Alternatively Cole could be just plain insane.

BBFC Certificate: 15

Warning: Spoilers follow

On his arrival back in 1996, Cole is arrested and institutionalised, whereupon he encounters Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt's character) and also meets Dr Kathryn Railly (Madeline Stowe), an expert in insanity related to prophecy. Initially Railly has Cole down as delusional, but as events unfold she begins to take him seriously.

Struggling with his own sanity, Cole, assisted by Railly, strives to unravel the mystery of the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. In the end it transpires that Goines and the Twelve Monkeys were not responsible for the spread of the disease which afflicted mankind but another person altogether...