Twelve Monkeys

Name: Twelve Monkeys
Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller
Released: January 5, 1996
Duration: 129 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe

1996

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 516 Ratings

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8.6

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8.6	User Score Universal acclaim based on 516 Ratings

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12 Monkeys

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Movie Details & Credits

Universal Pictures | Release Date: January 5, 1996 | R

Starring: Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe

Summary: Between sanity and madness, fantasy and reality, the past and the future, comes an adventure beyond imagination from Terry Gilliam, the acclaimed director of "The Fisher King." Penal colony prisoner James Cole (Willis) must travel back in time from the year 2035 to find the cause of a virus that killed five billion people in 1997. (Universal)

Director: Terry Gilliam

Genre(s): Sci-Fi, Mystery, Thriller

Rating: R

Runtime: 129 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Marc Savlov

Gilliam keeps the audience guessing, and in doing so creates a startlingly effective rumination on the nature of sanity and madness cloaked in the shroud of a sci-fi thriller. Read full review

100

Peter Travers

Gilliam, along with the gifted cinematographer Roger Pratt and production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, fashions a disturbing and dazzling lost world. Read full review

Rick Groen

For all his daring, the brazen creator maintains control - there's aesthetic order in the disorder, and calculated reason in the madness. Seldom has it felt so good to seem so lost. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

That Terry Gilliam managed to make Twelve Monkeys into a clever, complex, and poignant success is as astonishing as it is satisfying. Read full review

Peter Stack

A grandiose cinematic invention, cleverly turning the present-day urban American world on its ear. Read full review

Desson Thomson

In a movie in which time travel is used to rectify the past, it's too bad scriptwriters David and Janet Peoples didn't go through the time/space tunnel to work on that first draft again. Read full review

Emanuel Levy

Gilliam's work is long on sensibility, short on sense. Read full review

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User Reviews

DogeGamer2015

Jan 17, 2021

Es una de las mejores películas de ciencia ficción en la historia del cine; es tensa, dramática y la actuación de Bruce Willis es grandiosa.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

tarcotti

Mar 20, 2012

I love this film, its artistic enough to be slightly confusing and has fantastic visuals and eerie music. A note to Max P...if its too confusing then, you just aren't bright enough to understand it. And really, its not hard to understand at all. Not if you watch it all the way through.

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

OneWhoKnows

Aug 25, 2010

Since I see most reviews are spot on here, I will simply say "ditto".

ALSO, another in a long line of my favorite movies that require you to THINK! (A lost concept in movie making). IT IS BRILLIANT!!!

15 of 17 users found this helpful152

konk

Jul 2, 2011

One of my favourite time-travelling based sci-fi movies (Together with "Back to the future" being the funny approach); with a very catching end (a "real" end, considering many actual movie endings which are more like "stop filming, because time is up")

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

KrissTolliday14

Sep 2, 2016

A busy film designed to make you think whilst also developing the future. Twelve Monkeys is certainly ahead of its time and the influence can be seen on mind bending films today. The usual Gilliam techniques are used on a script that potentially was designed for a very different visionA busy film designed to make you think whilst also developing the future. Twelve Monkeys is certainly ahead of its time and the influence can be seen on mind bending films today. The usual Gilliam techniques are used on a script that potentially was designed for a very different vision however it is Gilliam's uniqueness that makes this film stand out, let alone the fact that the cast members wanted to work with him whatever the cost. In most cases that was for very little. Gilliam's style combined with the solid a-list cast and performances make the potentially messy plot become overlooked. The absurdity of the narrative makes for intrigue and works with the time-jumping story telling. In hindsight it is definitely the perfect script for a director such as Gilliam. The score can feel out of place, the emotional development of the two leads relationship doesn't feel deep enough and there is a slight lull in the middle however this is a film that must be seen to see classy performances from actors at the start of long careers and a narrative that leaves questions open for you to answer yourself on either a second viewing or in discussion down the local.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

chads.

Aug 12, 2007

The best time travel movie i have ever seen. very interesting, well acted, and an overall entertaining and good movie. Pick it up.

0 of 0 users found this helpful

MaxP.

Jul 10, 2007

This film was both too confusing and broing and as for the ending, its a joke, pathetic. if you are going to find out who the killer is then make it a big character not some ginger haired idiot.....A failure for Gilliam, on a kinder note the only reason i give this a 2 is for Brad Pitts This film was both too confusing and broing and as for the ending, its a joke, pathetic. if you are going to find out who the killer is then make it a big character not some ginger haired idiot.....A failure for Gilliam, on a kinder note the only reason i give this a 2 is for Brad Pitts unbelievable acting, his best peice to date, too bad the movie was rubbish!… Expand

0 of 6 users found this helpful

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31	#31 Best Movie of 1996
9	#9 Most Discussed Movie of 1996
32	#32 Most Shared Movie of 1996