12 monkeys: a modern day dystopia

Reality always ends up surpassing fiction. We would never have thought that this phrase would make as much sense as it does now and, surely, if just a few months ago we had been told that, in the 21st century, we would be experiencing such a critical situation at a socio-health level, we would not have believed it.

Fiction has been surpassed to such an extent that not even dystopia surprises us anymore, not even Charlie Brooker – the creator of Black Mirror– wants to continue with his series. However, despite the circumstances, it never hurts to review those titles that seemed to predict what was coming to us.

From the joy of the 90s, Today we rescued a film that warned of an inhospitable future as a result of a virus: 12 Monkeys (Gillian, 1995).

12 Monkeys: Dystopian Sci-Fi

We have already commented on other occasions that dystopia, as a branch of science fiction, seems to warn us about bleak and inhospitable futures. Futures that, on the other hand, could be a direct consequence of our present if we do not take the necessary actions to avoid it.

So, dystopia becomes an especially prolific genre in the 21st and late 20th centuries, Well, it seems that many predicted the negative consequences of an unprecedented technological advance.

Today, among all these dystopias, 12 Monkeys It seems much more real than expected. That future in which humanity was condemned to live underground as a result of a virus makes more sense today than ever.

The filmmaker Terry Gilliam, who had already tasted the honeys of success with Monty Python, found his inspiration in the French film La Jetée (Marker, 1962) to create the well-known 12 Monkeys.

Bruce Willis especially shines in the lead role, playing a man who, born in the late 80s, He sees how the world he knew ends up disappearing because of a virus. Condemned to live underground with the rest of humans, he will be sent on a series of missions that aim to right the wrongs of the past. That is, understanding the origin of the virus and obtaining samples that allow scientists to make a vaccine.

As the antagonist, we find a very young Brad Pitt who already wanted to break away from the role of “hotties” and gives us a great interpretation of madness. The underworld inhabited by James Cole (Bruce Willis) appears before our eyes as grimy, dark, inhospitable and gloomy..

The staging is as peculiar as the filmmaker behind the film. Time travel frames a film that has never acquired as much relevance as today.

Science fiction is not only machines and space travel, but also trips to the past (or present) from an agonizing and dark perspective. The future could be scary if we don’t act accordingly in the present.

Far from being carried away by special effects, Gilliam opts for an aspect in the key of thrillerin which The protagonist must unravel all the actions that led to what happened in order to obtain a cure or stop its advance.

The representation of madness

There is nothing I like more than 12 Monkeys than his vision of the human species through the walls of an asylum. The character played by Brad Pitt, Jeffrey Goines, takes on special relevance in these sequences. In some ways, subjecting the hero sent from the future, James Cole, to a situation like that of the asylum leaves our species quite exposed.

Likewise, The asylum appears as complete chaos before our eyes, a place that seems to exclude all those people who stray from what is established and that, far from reinserting them, ends up completely separating them from society.

The viewer is perfectly aware that James Cole is sane, but the world doesn’t seem to see him the same way and, as a consequence, they subject him to an environment almost more inhospitable and chaotic than the apocalypse itself.

The exclusion of the “madman” takes me back to Foucault and his History of madness in classical timesa work in which he observes how the “madman” has changed over time and how, in the same way, he has been condemned to exclusion.

There is no solution

Finally, despite time travel and Cole’s multiple attempts to change the past, it seems that Cole’s message 12 Monkeys is clear: There is no solution, not even trying to change the past, since history repeats itself like a cycle.

Humanity, in some way, was condemned to suffer the consequences of the virus. Therefore, the only solution is to look for a vaccine or some drug that can alleviate the disease.

In this sense, the female role in the film is interesting, especially from a current perspective. Dystopia seems to be a genre that has greatly punished women, This is how we see it in The Handmaid’s Tale or in v for Vendetta. Women, as frequently excluded beings, seem to find themselves in a position of greater vulnerability in dystopia.

What happens in 12 Monkeys? That the only relevant female character is Dr. Railly, a psychiatrist who will help Cole in his investigation. What is striking – as we said, from today – is the fact that the character is built around a man. A man who kidnaps her and with whom she eventually ends up developing a love story. But it was the 90s and we are not going to question these types of arguments at a time when these types of stories were the order of the day.

Leaving this question behind, we find ourselves facing a film that walks in despair, that seems to leave us with a bittersweet taste and that ends up telling us that “there is no remedy, there is no solution.” So, humanity seems to be doomed to disaster, to the inevitable of that invisible enemy that has kept us all locked up or, as in the movie, underground.

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