12 Monkeys 🎥 1995 Movie Info

Plot Summary

A deadly virus released in 1996 wiped out almost all of humanity, forcing survivors to live underground. A group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is believed to have released the virus. In 2035, James Cole is a prisoner living in an underground compound beneath Philadelphia. Cole is selected to be sent back in time to find the original virus to help scientists develop a cure in exchange for a reduced sentence. Cole is troubled by dreams involving a foot chase and a shooting at an airport. Cole arrives in Baltimore in 1990, not 1996 as planned. He is arrested and incarcerated at a mental hospital on the diagnosis of Dr. Kathryn Railly.

There he encounters Jeffrey Goines, a mental patient with extreme environmentalist and anti-corporate views. Cole is interviewed by a panel of doctors and tries to explain his situation, noting that the virus outbreak has already happened and cannot be prevented. After an escape attempt, Cole is sedated and locked in a cell, but he disappears and awakens back in 2035. He is interrogated by the scientists, who play a distorted voicemail message that asserts the association of the Army of the 12 Monkeys with the virus. He is also shown photos of numerous people suspected of being involved, including Goines.

The scientists offer Cole another chance to complete his mission, and send him back in time again. Cole briefly arrives at a battlefield during World War I, where he sees another prison inmate who was sent back in time, José. Cole is shot in the leg and gets transported to 1996. In 1996, Railly gives a lecture about the Cassandra complex to a group of scientists. At the post-lecture book-signing, Railly meets Dr. Peters, who tells her that apocalypse alarmists represent the sane vision while humanity’s gradual destruction of the environment is the real lunacy.

Meet the Cast