Before there was River Song in Doctor Who and before there was The Time Traveler’s Wife, there was 12 Monkeys. Yes, the 1995 sci-fi thriller is known for its bleak take on the future, and the almost doggedly deterministic message that you (probably) can’t escape your own destiny. Jay Gatsby may have believed that you can’t repeat the past, but in Terry Gilliam’s time travel film, you also can’t change it.
Three decades ago, on December 29, 1995, Gilliam’s unique film 12 Monkeys hit theaters. Based on Chris Marker’s 1962 short film La Jetée, Gilliam captured lightning in a bottle. Since 1995, 12 Monkeys has become a cult classic and even spawned an excellent, albeit very different, TV series. But what if we pretend we’ve never seen 12 Monkeys? What will we find when we watch it today? The short answer is that if you put the now-familiar paradox time travel tropes aside, the core of this movie is deeply humanistic and hopelessly romantic.
