terry gilliam and david people team up to create one of the most intelligent and creative science fiction movie of the 90 . people prove a screenplay with bizarre twist and fantastic idea about the nature of time  i especially love the idea one can not change the past while it a nice counterpoint to so many time travel movie which say otherwise  biological holocaust and the thin line between sanity and madness . gilliam visualize his idea with unique quirkiness and perfection and originality . the story itself be engage represent one man and james cole ( play by bruce willis in a heart warm performance ) travel several decade to the past to retrieve information about a virus that wipe out mankind and leave only a few survivor alive live underground represent with the information he will collect and scientist hope to find a cure so everyone in the future can return to the surface . but because their time travel technology isn not perfect and he end up be sent towards different other past and complicate thing . and from that a brilliant science fiction thriller with shade of film noir ensues a the multiple piece of a huge jigsaw start fit together to form a bizarre narrative involve animal right activist and end of the millennium paranoia and biological weapon and the perception of reality and and the definition of sanity . with such a complex movie and it be easy for gilliam and people to create a mess and but instead twelve monkey be a thought provoking narrative which will please those who like to be challenge and have patience to appreciate some crazy idea . i watch this movie once around 10 year ago . it mark me a lot represent i remember still think about many day after ward while for my young mind this seem quite mind blowing and it be one of the first movie to make me appreciate cinema a something serious and important . i have re watch this movie a few day ago on dvd and it good than i remember it . brad pitt still steal all the scene he in and play jeffrey goines  almost a prelude to his tyler durden character in fight club  a rich kid with some anarchist or non conformist idea who also crazy and and accord to cole and perhaps responsible for the virus . the scene between jeffrey and cole in the madhouse be the best in the movie and pitt eye and voice and quirky mannerism convince you he really a crazy guy lock in a warped logic only he understand . pitt oscar nomination be well deserve . surprising be also bruce willis performance represent his i do not remember very well and but it beautiful and full of sensibility while he play a man who spend almost all his life underground and and when he come to the past you will share his childish fascination with something as simple a breathe the fresh air of the morning or watch the sun go up . cole be a rather ambiguous character and people try to imbue some darkness in him and and he do other disturb thing to other people and to himself represent the scene where he remove his own teeth reveals how far his dementia have go unchecked . ironically cole do not start a a crazy character and but when he start warn everyone about the end of the world and he consider mad and convince it all in his mind and until he arrive at a point when he can not distinguish past from future and reality from fiction . willis spend a lot of time look confuse and insecure and and it work perfectly . one of the fun twist in the narrative be when cole shrink and dr. kathryn railly and find undeniable proof he really from the future and now have to convince him again of his mission to save the world . the screenplay be full with weird twist like this and it keep the movie in a fast pace . their relationship be also well hand and although perhaps a bit compress for time sake . but i enjoy watch cole and railly fall in love and try to escape the authority of the future to live a peaceful life in the past . but then thing end in a tragic or bittersweet climax at an airport and wrap all the piece together and which will blow many mind away . there be two great ending in this movie and a twist in the sense of se7en or fight club and and a more intimate end where railly be crouch next to cole who just be shot and look around for a young james cole who witness his future self die while the two share a brief look and and she smile at him . the twist be brilliant and but i prefer this end for emotional impact . madeleine stowe be very good playing dr. railly and she draw many different emotion from me in her performance . the movie be fill with a sense of fatalism with the idea the past can not be change represent this movie show that in a terrifying way . it remind me of chinatown in that sense and the way jake gittes mess everything up the more he try to help . railly character share that fatalism and the more she try to help cole  first deal with his amadness then help him in his mission  the more theyre suck into tragedy . the twist end with a hopeful note and though and with the feeling cole mission hasn not be in vain . twelve monkey be a great movie to watch if one want to be entertain while it not suppose to be art and although it more artist than many artistic movie . it an unpretentious movie where all element and from music to edit to costume design and etc . and come together beautifully to produce a modern cinema masterpiece .