“Oh, wouldn’t it be great if I was crazy? Then the world would be okay.” This is a question the lead character, James Cole, asks himself during Terry Gilliam‘s brilliant 1995 film 12 Monkeys. The film is written by David Peoples & Janet Peoples, however Chris Marker also receives a writing credit because it was his 1962 French short film, La Jetée, that this screenplay was inspired by. I have yet to see La Jetée, so I have no basis for comparison between the two films, but from what I’ve read, the basic plot points are the same.
Cole, our hero, is played by Bruce Willis and is living in a post-apocalyptic future where people are “volunteered” to go up to earth, away from their underground shelter and investigate the world, which is now run by animals. Cole, eventually is selected by the people that now oversee “the survivors” as someone that can help them in a more long term solution, maybe even find a cure for the virus that killed the humans in the years 1996-1997.
