Since 1996, when the world was attacked by a deadly virus, James Cole, a prisoner who lived in 2035, was forced to become a volunteer. From 2035, he returned to 1996 to trace the causes of the virus spread in that year, so that scientists could find ways to prevent and stop it. But there was an error in time travel, and James was sent to Baltimore in 1990. Psychiatrist Kathryn Railly diagnosed him as suffering from schizophrenia and paranoia, because he described that 5 billion people would die from the virus disaster in six years.

In the madhouse, he got along well with his patient Jeffrey Goins. James offered to help him escape from the madhouse, but failed. When James was locked in a dark room, he was called back by scientists in 2035. There is still a problem with the second time travel. James was transported to the battlefield in World War I and shot, and then transported to 1996 for the third time. The virus originated in Philadelphia, so he found Kathleen and asked her to help him go to Philadelphia to find the culprit: 12 monkeys. They are marked by this strange pattern (twelve monkeys in a circle).

James found Jeffrey, who had turned to support his father to become a celebrity, and found that Jeffrey was the leader of 12 monkeys and was recalled by scientists again. James was pardoned because of the important investigation results, but at this time he was confused because of many time-space trips, mistakenly thinking that everything such as virus was his fantasy, so he pretended to stop 12 monkeys voluntarily, in fact, he made a fourth crossing in order to return to the past.

At the same time, James predicted the little boy in the barn, and Catherine took a bullet from his leg, which made Catherine begin to doubt the truth of James's words. Until she found James in the World War I photo on the photo wall-that's why she thought James was familiar from the beginning. Catherine finally believes that James does not belong to this era and is determined to help him save the fate of mankind.

Extended data:

Creative background:

As the driving force behind the proposal to shoot 12 Monkey, filmmaker Robert Kosberg has always had a soft spot for 1962' s French short film "Dike". In his view, this avant-garde short film is enough to create an extraordinary science fiction feature film. Kausberg persuaded film director chris marks to contact Universal Pictures, who reluctantly agreed to buy the adaptation rights and asked David Webb Peoples and Janet Peoples to write the script.

Producer Charles Roven decided to let terry gilliam direct the film because he thought Csorian's style was very suitable for the nonlinear plot and time travel in the film. Before directing this film, gilliam had just given up a film adapted from A Tale of Two Cities, although the script of 12 Monkey was written by someone else.

Csorian, who has always been happy to write and direct, still fully affirmed the works of the Pierps. He said: "This is a fascinating and ingenious script, which tells a confusing story about time, madness and perception of the world, and discusses madness, dreams, death and rebirth in a fragmented background."

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-12 Monkey