Has some promise but still lackluster

Rating: 8/10 (9 March 2019)

Tonight I watched this 1995 Terry Gilliam sci-fi film, which stars Bruce Willis who plays James Cole, Madeleine Stowe whom plays a psychiatrist named Kathryn Railly, Brad Pitt as Jeffrey Goines, and Christopher Plummer as Dr. Leland Goines, to name the main characters. Cole, a prisoner in a compound in Philadelphia in 2035, living underground like the rest of humanity which was not killed by a virus. He is tasked by a group of scientists of traveling back in time to find the origin of a virus which is traced to a group called the 12 Monkeys.
The first time he travels back is to 1990 (due to scientist error), but he is confined to a mental hospital in Baltimore, meeting Kathryn Railly, and Jeffrey Goines. Not obtaining the information needed, he is whisked back to his present (our future), scolded for not obtaining what is necessary. So he gets a second chance, accidentally traveling to a WWI battlefield in 1917, then traveling to 1996. When there he literally kidnaps Kathryn, and they drive to Philadelphia to find more information about the 12 Monkeys. He then convinces the scientists to let him travel to 1996 again, in part because he wants be with Kathryn, whom has become fond of him. While there he wants to turn himself into the police but Kathryn doesn't let him. He then takes out his teeth to stop the scientists from tracking him. Soon Kathryn buys whigs and disguises for each of them, with them looking like the recurring dream he has.
On the way to the airport to take a plane to Key West, it is clear the the 12 Monkeys are just "wannabe revolutionaries" as he calls it. Instead they want to release animals from cages, Dr. Peters (played by David Morse) is clearly the one who releases the virus to the world. Cole tells this to the scientists of the present (our future) and is given a gun by his fellow prisoner to shoot someone, although it is not clear whom. But as he runs to kill the renegade doctor he is shot by police and fire in the arms of Kathryn. Watching this unfold is apparently a young James who witnesses perversely, the scene of his own death. With that and the virus spreading across the world, the film ends, sitting near a scientist of the future (Cole's present), Jones.
This raises so, so many questions. For one, are the scientists of the future/present complicit in the spread of the virus. If so, that is deeply disturbing. Additionally, while I would say that it is extremely probable he traveled to the past, 80-90% probability this was the case. However, there is a 10-20% chance his "time travel" experience was actually just a cruel experiment by scientists. In the end, I think other time travel movies I watched were much better but I would rate this a 8 out of 10 as it has some promise, although it is a bit depressing as it implies that the future is already written and cannot be changed, a bit like the conception in The Time Traveler's Wife (2009).