The Late Show: "12 Monkeys"

Join the Late Show's countdown to extinction with this brain-scrambling, paranoia-inducing bit of Apocalyptic cinema from Terry Gilliam!

It's the film that showed the world Bruce Willis had more big-screen depth than "yippee ki yay, m~~~~~~~~~~r" and that Brad Pitt was more than a set of abs (not that that was really troubling Brad all that much, probably). Inspired by pioneering French filmmaker Chris Marker's short LA JETEE, Gilliam shows us a wintry world of the future where all humanity has… Show more been forced to take refuge underground after a deadly virus has swept the planet.

Willis stars as Cole, a man sent back from this bleak future on a mission to bring back a pure sample of the virus in order to find a cure. Ricocheting back and forth from future to present-past, Cole dizzyingly uncovers even greater mysteries about the events leading up to the bio-apocalypse -- and about his own fate.

Along the way he meets up with a sympathetic psychiatrist (the always gorgeous Madeline Stowe), and with a twitchily brilliant Mr. Pitt as a mental patient and social agitator with grand schemes.

Satisfyingly twisty-turny with compelling performance and ingenious visuals, director Gilliam managed no small feat in crafting a genuine sci-fi masterpiece of the early '90s. (George Bragdon)

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