Frightening Vision of the Future?

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2012)

"12 Monkeys" is the best cinematic sci-fi I have seen since Blade Runner (1982); and it is no co-incidence that it was scripted in part by the gifted David Peoples who helped write the screen play for Blade Runner. Never mind that time travel to the past is an absurdity. We're forced to rise above that because Gilliam presents time similar to the way Kurt Vonnegut did in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), namely that all time is happening "simultaneously" and especially right now, forever.
We are reminded that time is an illusion. Our experience and perception of time is, as it were, linear, allowing us a comprehension of "time" similar to what two-dimensional creatures might have of three dimensional space. "Time" does not exist. It is a construct from the way we compare events. Notice that when James Cole dies Dr. Railly is not sad because Cole lives on in the person of his younger self, the child at the airport watching his death. This will be the case for eternity.
There are some funny bits in the script. After Cole beats up the pimp to save Dr. Railly, and forces a trade of teeth (to evade the trackers implanted in his teeth), and the cops come, the pimp says, all hurt, "I was attacked by a coked-up whore and a crazy dentist." Another nice touch is to have the virologist father of crazy/visionary Jeffrey Goines sound like a southern politician instead of your usual mad scientist. I also liked it when psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly said, "Psychiatry is the latest religion...I'm in trouble. I'm losing my faith." She's right: psychiatry and clinical psychology in general is a secular religion.