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‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

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Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#11

Post by dnautics »

sametmax wrote: post #6
eternalban wrote: post #2

The catastrophe in 12 Monkeys is due to the action of a single individual - an ideologue concerned with the "biosphere". The pathology highlighted is ideological thought that justifies mass murder. Love certainly conquers all in this film. It is precisely love (here romantic love) that weaves an unalterable thread through time and binds the two individuals who are absolutely necessary for the future salvation of mank…

I've rewatched the movie recently. Humanity is definitly not saved. The whole quest is shown as being nothing a but a futile yet beautiful slice of life. It's espacially underlined with the scene revealing the origin of the voice mail that was supposedly the only clue of the whole shebang for the future scientists.

Isn't humanity saved? The main character's buddy from prison is able to show up to try to save him because greatly improved the tech; he claims that mc is a hero and things are headed to being solved?

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#13

Post by booleandilemma »

tunap wrote: post #7

While I loved 12 Monkeys story & most of TG's body of work, I must posit "Brazil" is more relevant in our non-fiction world than anything else he has done. I hesitate to note the multitude of similarities to our current state of information retrieval & bureaucracies. Zero Theorem seemed to touch the needle but sorta fizzled out mid-way(IMO). Yes, I did not RTFA.

Do you at least have a 27B/6?

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#14

Post by AJRF »

"I’ve been thinking about 12 Monkeys a lot lately. It seems, these days, as though the human race has passed a Rubicon and is now on a straight path toward the end of days, or at least the end of the social order as we know it."

This feels a little unsubstantiated.

Historically speaking, this is the greatest time on earth to be alive. This pessimism is toxic and unrealistic.

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#15

Post by Thaxll »

dnautics wrote: post #11
sametmax wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've rewatched the movie recently. Humanity is definitly not saved. The whole quest is shown as being nothing a but a futile yet beautiful slice of life. It's espacially underlined with the scene revealing the origin of the voice mail that was supposedly the only clue of the whole shebang for the future scientists.

Isn't humanity saved? The main character's buddy from prison is able to show up to try to save him because greatly improved the tech; he claims that mc is a hero and things are headed to being solved?

The whole thing for that movie is he couldn't save humanity by going back in time.

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#16

Post by tokyodude »

eternalban wrote: post #2

The catastrophe in 12 Monkeys is due to the action of a single individual - an ideologue concerned with the "biosphere". The pathology highlighted is ideological thought that justifies mass murder. Love certainly conquers all in this film. It is precisely love (here romantic love) that weaves an unalterable thread through time and binds the two individuals who are absolutely necessary for the future salvation of mank…

Did you watch some alternate edit? Love conquers nothing in the film.

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#17

Post by DennisP »

AJRF wrote: post #14

"I’ve been thinking about 12 Monkeys a lot lately. It seems, these days, as though the human race has passed a Rubicon and is now on a straight path toward the end of days, or at least the end of the social order as we know it." This feels a little unsubstantiated. Historically speaking, this is the greatest time on earth to be alive. This pessimism is toxic and unrealistic.

Historically speaking, the best time to own Bitcoin was back in January. Things always look great at the top of a bubble.

CO2 is higher than in the past several million years and we're still adding more at our usual pace. We've killed 60% of wild vertebrate life since 1970, wiped out a large percentage of the insect population, and we're continuing the practices that caused that as well. None of this can go on forever.

Almost everybody misses the main finding of the Club of Rome study: if you model a simple assumption that resources get more expensive to extract over time and environmental destruction gets more expensive to deal with, you don't get a gradual decline. You get continued improvement up to a peak, and then it suddenly crashes down.

What's really toxic: enjoying that run up to the peak and assuming everything's fine, instead of buckling down and fixing the problems before it's too late.

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#18

Post by morganvachon »

Cyph0n wrote: post #9

If you’re interested in a more in-depth look at the 12 Monkeys universe, check out the excellent TV series of the same title.

As the article stated though, they aren't really the same story and don't share continuity. The show is good but it's not an adaptation of the film in any meaningful way.

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#19

Post by taeric »

Thaxll wrote: post #15
dnautics wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't humanity saved? The main character's buddy from prison is able to show up to try to save him because greatly improved the tech; he claims that mc is a hero and things are headed to being solved?

The whole thing for that movie is he couldn't save humanity by going back in time.

I thought it was that he couldn't prevent the catastrophe. It is greatly implied that he found the cause and set the future scientists up to get a direct sample of what caused things, possibly reversing it in their time.

What he couldn't do, was get what he wanted. He couldn't save his love, as she was of that time, and it was doomed.

Re: ‘12 Monkeys’: Why Terry Gilliam’s Movie Is Relevant Today

#20

Post by rossdavidh »

So, perhaps the author is correct about the film's ending, but that's not the way I interpreted it when I first saw it. Rather, it seemed to me that the scientist from the future was there to insure that the disease did, in fact, spread, even if Bruce Willis' character stopped the original source from getting on the plane. She was either a carrier (a Typhoid Mary of sorts), or else had her own vial. I thought it suggested that some of the scientists in the future were in favor of the status quo, and wanted to sabotage the plans of the majority of the scientists to alter the past.

But, perhaps my interpretation was overly cynical.

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