When a man enters a hospital claiming to have journeyed back in time from the year 2025 to stop a killer virus from exterminating mankind, a beautiful psychologist decides he might be more than delusional. Terry Gilliam populates this labyrinthine, apocalyptic film with twisted characters and eerie revelations. The film was shot primarily in Philadelphia; Gilliam uses the more dilapidated area of the city to the film's apocalyptic advantage. The film is based on the 1962 French short film LA JETEE.

In this intriguing science fiction film from director Terry Gilliam, penal colony prisoner James Cole must travel back in time from the year 2035 to find the cause of a virus that killed five billion people in 1997.
Cole's trip into the past won't be easy. For starters, he winds up in the wrong year on his first attempt. Once, as he time-travels, Cole ends up a prisoner in an insane asylum in 1990. There, he meets psychiatrist Kathryn Railly and inmate Jeffrey Goines, who could hold the key to the epidemic's spread. Cole later winds up in the middle of a World War I battlefield.
After meeting James for a second time, in another year, Dr. Railly gets further involved in his quest. Although she thinks at first that Cole must be crazy, Kathryn soon starts to believe him and attempts to help.
But James has already started to question his own sanity and tries to figure out if his journeys through time are real or if he's just been imagining everything.

Released theatrically in New York City and Los Angeles December 27, 1995; released nationwide in the USA January 6, 1996. The film went ape at the box office, grossing $57 million domestically.

12 MONKEYS was inspired by Chris Marker's short film LA JETEE. Marker's work, which is now considered a classic, consists almost completely of still photos, with the exception of one moving image.

A presentation of Atlas/Classico.

Shot on location in Philadelphia and Baltimore.

In DTS Sound.

Additional credits: Vincent Montefusco (special effects mechanical and pyrotechnic engineer) and Shirley Montefusco (special effects project manager).

Rated BBFC 15 by the British Board of Film Classification.

Copyright 1995 Universal City Studios, Inc.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.35
Dual Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - English, French
Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish - Optional
Bonus Feature -1. Terry Gilliam - Director/Charles Roven - Producer
Making Of -1. The Hamster Factor And Other Tales Of 12 Monkeys Making Of
Trailer - 1. Theatrical Trailer
Text/Photo Galleries:
Production Notes
12 Monkeys Archives

Bruce Willis: American Actor, THE SIXTH SENSE (1999)
Brad Pitt: American actor/producer, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
Madeleine Stowe: American Actress
Christopher Plummer: Canadian Actor

Terry Gilliam: American Director/Screenwriter

Charles Roven: Producer

Lloyd Phillips: PRODUCER

Paul Buckmaster: COMPOSER

Mick Audsley: Editor

"...Plenty of surrealistic fluorish..."
"...Pitt is terrific....Solving the riddle of 12 MONKEYS is an exhilarating challenge..."
"...A Hitchcockian chase...A crowd-pleasing airport-pursuit pic..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars
"...A near-fractal script,...[an] achingly battered performance [by Willis]...and its own pell-mell momentum....Emotional urgency..." -- Rating: B+
"...An unlikely love story combined with a visionary detective yarn....Mystifying, intriguing..."