Twelve Monkeys
The future is history.
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Production
Budget
$29 000 001
Revenue
$168 839 459
Director
Scenario
Janet Peoples
Composer
Paul Buckmaster
Producer
Charles Roven
Actors
Bruce Willis
James Cole
Madeleine Stowe
Dr. Kathryn Railly
Brad Pitt
Jeffrey Goines
Christopher Plummer
Dr. Goines
David Morse
Dr. Peters
Jon Seda
Jose
Christopher Meloni
Lt. Halperin
Joey Perillo
Detective Franki
Short description
In 2035, the survivors of a devastating viral pandemic live in underground communities, cut off from the ruined surface. A prisoner named James Cole volunteers to travel back in time and trace the origins of the disease, hoping to help the scientists of his era find a way to stop it. The mission goes wrong: instead of arriving in the mid-1990s, Cole lands in 1990 and is confined to a mental hospital, where he is treated by Dr. Kathryn Railly and crosses paths with Jeffrey Goines, a volatile patient connected to the shadowy group known as the Army of the 12 Monkeys, which is believed to have released the virus.
Terry Gilliam directed the film, the eighth of the fourteen features he has made, following The Fisher King and preceding Fear of Loathing in Las Vegas. Bruce Willis plays Cole, Madeleine Stowe plays Railly, and Brad Pitt plays Goines, with Christopher Plummer, David Morse and Jon Seda in supporting roles. Janet Peoples and David Webb Peoples wrote the screenplay, and Charles Roven produced.
Released in December 1995, the film cost about 29 million dollars and returned roughly 169 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8 out of 10 from some 677,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.6 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of about 9,400. A critics' rating of 8 out of 10 across 76 reviews sits close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The scenes in the psychiatric hospital were filmed at Eastern State Penitentiary, a closed prison in the state of Pennsylvania.
- Jeff Bridges was considered for the role of Jeffrey Goines.
- Nick Nolte auditioned for the role of James Cole.
- Filming took place from February 8 to May 6, 1995, in Philadelphia and Baltimore.
- During filming, difficulties arose repeatedly due to winter weather conditions and the complex mechanisms used to create a futuristic atmosphere.
- Due to the film's non-linear plot, errors were made frequently, and some scenes had to be reshot. Despite the difficulties encountered during filming, the director managed to stay within budget, with filming lasting only one week longer than planned.
- Production designer Jeffrey Beecroft admitted that filming this movie was difficult, and it wasn't due to a lack of money or time, but rather due to director Gilliam, who went to great lengths not to exceed the budget, as he had been reprimanded for doing so in the past.
- Since the filmmakers were unable to shoot in studios, they found abandoned buildings and architectural monuments where filming was permitted. The final scene was shot at Baltimore Airport and the Pennsylvania Trade Center.
- The film takes place in 1917, 1990, 1996, and 2035.
- Many actors agreed to work for less than their usual fee, just to appear in a Terry Gilliam film.
- The initial slogan proposed for the film was “The days to come are in the hands of man, deprived of them,” but the decision was later changed, as the phrase sounded as if it referred to a man deprived of arms, not of the future.
- For his performance as Jeffrey Goines, actor Brad Pitt received his first Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination.
- American theorist and artist Lebbeus Woods (1940-2012) claimed that the interrogation chair shown in the film bore a striking resemblance to his 1987 work. Following the film's release, Woods even managed to obtain a court injunction against its distribution. He eventually withdrew all his objections, but only after Universal Pictures paid him a six-figure sum.
- The creators of the screenplay were inspired to create the underground "Army of the 12 Monkeys" by an episode from L. Frank Baum's (1856-1919) children's book *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz* (1919), in which characters persuade 12 monkeys to become soldiers in exchange for an unlimited supply of food.
- The reporters shown in the film's news broadcast were, at the time of filming, actually working reporters employed by a news organization.
- Terry Gilliam said that Joseph Melito, who played young Cole, had disappointed him. The boy was cast because of his expressive eyes, but Gilliam felt he was still not right for the role. Another young actor was even present on set, in case Melito struggled with any scene.
- When Kathryn Railly first learns about Cole, she is at a poetry reading, during which quatrains by Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) are recited.
- Katherine first appears in the film during a lecture she is giving at the Walters Art Museum – a public art museum in the suburbs of Baltimore.
- Robert De Niro was offered the lead role in the film, but he declined the offer.
- The film begins and ends with a close-up of young Cole’s eye.
- In one of the shots, a poster for the debut album of rapper Nas, released in 1994, can be seen on the wall.
- Terry Gilliam deliberately made the plot ambiguous. The film contains many hints that Cole is simply insane, and that nothing shown about the future actually happens. This is why the director wanted to end the film immediately after Cole's death, with young Cole looking at Dr. Railly. However, they also filmed a scene in which a female scientist from the future takes a virus sample from Dr. Peters on a plane, thus completing the task entrusted to Cole, as well as a scene with young Cole near the airport. Gilliam wanted to give the film one of these two endings, but ultimately used both.
- Director Terry Gilliam and producer Charles Roven repeatedly argued about how the film should end. Gilliam wanted to end it with a shot of Railly looking at young Cole, while Roven preferred the scene on the parking lot near the airport as written in the script. To dissuade Roven, Gilliam insisted on complex sets with two cranes on top of each other and a sea of parked cars, hoping he would decide it would be expensive and abandon the idea. Roven, however, approved the idea, and Gilliam was so pleased with the result that he used it in the final edit.
- The final scene at the airport was filmed in the Philadelphia Convention Center, but the scene where Cole and Dr. Railly enter the airport building was filmed at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Maryland.
- Towards the end of the film, Cole and Katherine watch "Vertigo" – Alfred Hitchcock's film, which inspired Chris Marker during the filming of “La Jetée”.
- Gilliam gave Willis a list of typical acting clichés that he should avoid while filming "12 Monkeys," including a "steel blue-eyed gaze."
- On the radio, we hear the phrase "This is a report by Roger Pratt." Roger Pratt is the film's cinematographer.
- Brad Pitt, who played the madman Goines, agreed to star for a relatively small fee; at the start of filming, he was still an up-and-coming star. However, "Interview with the Vampire" (1994), "Legends of the Fall" (1994), and "Seven" (1995) were subsequently released, after which the actor achieved superstar status.
- Jeffrey Goines speaks quickly and indistinctly; Gilliam doubted that Pitt would be able to master the fast "tongue-twister" needed for the role. He initially sent him to a speech coach, and then simply forced him to quit smoking – and achieved the desired effect.
- Cole says, "I see dead people." Four years later, this phrase would haunt Willis in the supernatural thriller "The Sixth Sense" (1999) (where it is spoken by a boy named Cole).
- In a cinema endlessly screening Hitchcock films, Catherine puts on a wig and transforms into a blonde. It is known that Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) had a fondness for blonde actresses. At this moment, music from the climactic scene of the film 'Vertigo' (1958) plays. This scene also features a brunette who transforms into a blonde.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
