The Monkeys are Coming!

The film “Twelve Monkeys” combines a dystopian future in which the world is ridden with a deadly virus and time travel in order to formulate extremely complex ideas about mental illness. The movie poses questions of insanity, delusions, and morality.

The first shot of Cole post time travel he is inside what resembles a jail cell. Curled up in a fetal position, eyes wide with fear and tears, drool dripping from his mouth and chin; he a perfect depiction of insanity. In reality, he likely would be considered insane. Any person who has been through what Cole has experienced would be insane. His mind is not in normal working order, but whose would be? However, despite his insanity, Cole is not delusional. The first scene of the movie lets the audience know that Cole did in fact come from the future. Later on in the movie Cole begins to question his mental state, coming the conclusion that he is actually ‘mentally divergent’ and imagined the entire world ending in the future scenario.

Did Cole actually believe that he was mentally insane? After he returns to the past and runs into Kathryn he informs her that he “knows” now that he is mentally ill. At this point, Kathryn believes that he is not mentally insane due to Coles predictions of the future coming true. Multiple times after this, Cole and Kathryn question their sanity and come to the conclusion that they will be happy if they are insane because then the world will not be destroyed by a deadly virus. Cole returned to the past because he loved Kathryn. Naturally, he did not enjoy the future (his present time) in the slightest. Was that why he allowed himself to believe that he was, as he called it, mentally divergent? Was it easier for Cole to believe that he had a mental disorder than to accept the challenge ahead of him and the fate of the world that he experienced already before? During the brief period that Cole and Kathryn accepted themselves to be insane, Kathryn made a phone call. Cole knew what she had said before she had a chance to tell him, despite him being way out of hearing distance, which confirmed that they were in fact not crazy. Did Cole know all along that he was not mentally insane? Perhaps this is why Cole appeared not shocked or afraid, but disappointed. He wanted something so badly that he allowed himself to believe that he had imagined the world ending.