The Hidden Meanings of: 12 Monkeys (1995) Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.ค. 2023
- Lost Media will return soon to this channel. I'm reuploading these old commentaries from my other channel so you guys still get content while I take a break from making lost media videos for just a short while.
For the next two weeks only, (and I mean these next two weeks only ever) enjoy a few ‘one off’ non lost media special uploads!
In case you don’t know, these are reuploads from my other channel. The titles for these were so poor when I posted them last year that I decided to give them another chance for a new audience.
Original Description:
is there a future?
I’m back! For my first movie review in a very… very long time. 12 monkeys has always been one of those films I’ve wanted to talk about on this channel and now I get the chance to!
This video deep-dives the true meanings of this film and the different and interesting theories it proposes to it’s viewers. It’s a film that makes you think! Which is why I like it.
Coming October 31st is a very very different Sam’s Movies Octoween (in comparison to other years) you’ll have to wait and see what I’ve got for you but I promise it’s as eerie and unsettling as any video I’ve ever posted to this channel. Interesting…
Join me on October 31st as I discuss that mysterious spooky topic!
Sources for this video:
12 Monkeys (1995) original full motion picture score: • 12 Monkeys - soundtrack (all the background instrumental used in this video)
La Jette Film: • Video
• Back to the Future Par...
• The Sixth Sense ..... ...
• Video
• Video
• Back To The Future Gra...
• 4K Business Stock Foot...
These sources above power sam's movies!! Without these clips being posted I miss out on some much needed clips! Although things like stock footage are needed far more for non movie review related Video Essays, these clips are still so important!
![THE TOYS x NONT TANONT - ดอกไม้ที่รอฝน (spring) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pPa1d5cC8M4/mqdefault.jpg)
both 12 monkeys and predestination have the same main message with different story. If you get in the past in order to change events that already had happened, you just gonna end up causing them. This resonates with the following saying : You will meet your destiny on the road that you takes to avoid it.
Donnie Darko says the same thing in a different way too.
Except predestination sucked lol this movie wasn’t so much about trying to change things that happened it was about trying to understand the virus
@@stephengehly2319predestination is a lil bit different with different premises. The moment I realized who his/her mother and father are, and who put him/her in the orphanage, it breaks my mind and soul
@@izzanirfan2534 yeah well it didn’t for me. I’m glad it had an impact for you. I felt like it was pretty convoluted and silly and on the nose. It didn’t make a lot of sense. The kind of shamelessness to have sex with your own previous self and to know that is insanity and it’s just glossed over like it’s normal, that the only person they could love romantically is themselves from the future. That’s crazy narcissistic and the movie acts like it’s normal and even commendable. Makes no sense. The plot technically makes sense but it’s filmed like a stage play, it takes forever for them to be like “whoa she’s not like the other girls she’s tough and smart, she’s a genius because she solved a really basic math problem”. Movie was entirely laughable.
@@stephengehly2319
Most of the viewers who watched Predestination would disagree with you, as shown by the almost identical scores across every movie review website I could find.
I'd also say it's very strange you seem to focus on the fact the main character has sex with themselves as one of the main reasonings behind it sucking. That's clearly more of an ethical standpoint for you rather than an objective take on the film itself.
Man I have so many questions for you where do I even begin...
Explain to me where the movie makes it clear it that it's normal or commendable to sleep with yourself, I'm unsure how you're arriving at that conclusion...
Why does filming a movie like a stage play make it suck?
Any movie dealing with grandfather paradox plotlines are obviously not going to make sense in the traditional sense because it's a theory about time, does that mean Back to the Future sucks too? Also it does make perfect sense within the constructs of the grandfather paradox.
Again not sure how delaying the scenes showing the viewer how smart she is changes anything, if anything It needs to be paced so the viewer isn't spoiled too soon, thus creating a more satisfying payoff.
This is my favorite documentary from 1995 about the year 2020.
It's brilliant!
Wrong. You aren't very observant or watch too much tv lol
I disagree with some aspects of this analysis.
The scientists needed a pure example of the virus for creating an antidote to bring to the future.
Cole was meant to observe and find out about the virus not try and change history because he couldn't.
The scientist on the plane was validation that Cole had won, she was his insurance incase something happened. She basically says that.
The implication is that the pure virus sample was extracted and brought to the future.
I was confused when that scientist on the plane said she work as insurence or somethng like that. I was like "ok you are virus expert and time travel expert in the future yet you work as insurence in the past before the virus?" It doesnt make sense you know. But now I think you make really good point with that. Perhapse Hose done his job and inform the future scientists who was the man with the virus and they make the whole plan to meet that woman scientist with the virus man on the plane. Its mind blowing you know
@@alexg47 took me a long time to work out. I always thought of it as a bit of a twist to the ending.
It's why I love this film. It wants you to work it out. It shows everything and tells you nothing.
5:16 He is far from perfect because he kills someone in self defense?????????????????????????????
Watched 12 Monkeys in the cinema and I love this movie. Still can't believe how much time has passed since. Crazy.
I never really understood why one of the versions of James' flashback-flashforward includes Brad Pitt as the guy who says "Watch it" but he isn't in reality. The guy who says it is the apocalypse nut. Does this mean we are not meant to trust James' flashback? Is he really just projecting the present onto his memories like the psychiatrist says when she's captured in the hotel?
You’re correct. We can’t trust his flashbacks because he’s too obsessed/got it wrong with goines being the perpetrator. He is projecting past events with his memories and trying to force answers that are not at all real.
I think you misunderstand completely. You think only the future can be changed, but the future is just someone elses past, and perhaps everything that will happen in our future is as inevitable as the future that those people "in the past" couldn't avoid either.
It always seemed to me that the movie wasn't just fatalistic about the past, but the future also. You can't change it, even your attempts are just part of the inevitable unalterable chain of deterministic events.
Imagine time was a place. Each moment from the big bang on was a place instead of a time. The whole thing is fixed. Flowing through it just perception. You might be a thread in that tapestry, in fact you are, but everything that you ever do is already predetermined, including your attempts to "make the future."
The past isn't unalterable because it's the past, it's because everything is. The past vs the future is just a matter of perspective. Everything has already happened from the right point of view (the infinite future), you only think you can change the future because you don't see that your efforts are part of what was always going to be.
This is an awesome hot take and this comment is why I love the film. There’s multiple interpretations but I think this one is the most awesome. I did say at the end that I might be completely wrong, I just really wanted to have a red hot go at summarising my thoughts on 12 monkeys. I really enjoyed reading your pov man.
As far as anyone can tell, this is reality. Your sense of agency is merely an illusion your brain produces to make you feel like you're in charge and I suppose so you don't go insane watching this robot meat sack you're trapped in do things all day.
But the future is the present, and wouldn't be the past for anyone... 🤔
I watched this movie when I was 11 years old and I just realized maybe this was the inspiration for Memento and Tenet
Great film and great analysis. I watched the short film La Jetee by Chris Marker (the film that 12 Monkeys is based off of) before I watched this one. I highly recommend that for any fan of 12 Monkeys! It's a must
Thank you. Yes La Jetee is a classic of still shots cinema and stories being told through images. I quite enjoyed it too :)
Great video! I am currently reading the novel and wanted to see what I missed in the movie. This adaption with its great actors and also the music is one of my favorite sci-fi films (that’s why I also wanted to read the book for a deeper dive). Is the series any good? Cheers from Bavaria, Germany and keep up the great work!
Thank you Barry wood! I appreciate this comment. I have not seen the series yet but it seems not bad. Hope it’s nice over there in Bavaria! I want to visit there eventually. Cheers from Melbourne, Australia
Oh wow beautiful Bavaria I have always wanted to visit that part of Germany since I was a kid .
Can you please tell us how different the movie is from the book ?
Maybe, we were watching the last loop, and it changed after that...
It's still one of my favorite films, i really applaud the makers of this film. The movie was based on a french shortfilm La jetée. Nothing special really so the fact that they made such a masterpiece of something so trivial...true artists.
Thank you for this video. I also love this movie, and well...what's there to say. You said it the best in the end. Just let the 12 monkeys exist and people expierience it.
I really appreciate this comment. Thank you :) comments like yours gives me a little reassurance that I did okay with this one.
I always thought His name was James Cole, not Thomas. Nonetheless, good video, one of my all time favorite films, I even enjoyed the SyFy Channels series based upon the original film. It was fine very well and elaborated on which was decent for sure.
No way!!! I had proofed that in the script, the audio recording, the audio editing and visual editing when I made this last year and I STILL didn't pick up on that. I thought maybe madeline stowe's character calls him thomas cole or james thomas cole at one point but maybe not! Well that proves this movie wrong because the version I saw he was thomas cole until somebody went back and changed the past hahahaha. Nah I just got it wrong damn. Good pickup.
I really appreciate this comment cheers for the support :)
It's James , thus the line 'What you gotta do, Jimbo, is take it easy. Relax into things.'
His name is james cole you right 👍
yeah, in the tv series, his name is James Cole.
yeah ... and his wife's name was Char.
The biggest hidden meaning that I never picked up on is that his name is Thomas. They sure hid that well! Haha
Other than that brilliant video 👍
Mandela, creator is from an alternate timeline that merged
To me the Movie tell the story of a schizophrenic man who is walking a tightrope between reality and his alternate reality. We are brought into his thoughts as he struggles with these two conflicting perspectives. Its confusing because, people are purposely led into the idea that he's not insane.
Alright, I’m gonna have to come back and watch this video after I’ve seen the movie. You’ve got me thoroughly interested
Ayyy hope you enjoy the movie! It’s one of my all time favourites :)
I have an interesting question. Is james cole the only person being responsible for the mission or others are also sent back in time and everyone back in time works individually. And finally the scientists can receive messages left by them and make analysis. And what about the supervisor, the guard in the asylum and on the elevator at last, is he also in the mission? Did anyone escape from the mission?
This is a great question. I think you’re right mentioning all these people and their seperate missions. I think that actually is happening on the side and my theory is that by the end of the story (well after that final scene) they all manage to escape back to the present except cole. This movie is so brilliant because it keeps people thinking about it long after the end credits roll.
I think it’s one of the greatest comedies ever made. It’s like taking Nietzsche’s “eternal reoccurrence” idea and showering it with LSD.
Very cool that you laughed a lot during this film too!
What I hated the most was at the airport, the guy that got searched with the virus, clearly stated that he has a bio sample and papers to prove it but the TSA tells him to open it for some fucking reason even tho he said it looks empty when he first saw it.
Like what the fuck man? Why would you ask someone to open something you have no clue about even tho it cannot be hiding anything because it's see throught and after the guy literally told you that it's some kind of bio chemical....
Gilliam is my favourite director, can you please do more Gilliam videos please 🥺
I wanted to do a video about the fisher king. It might be released one day :)
I appreciate this analysis and I think it covers the conventional theory of the film well. However there is an alternative theory that is worth considering.
The past IS changeable, and in fact, changes every time they send someone back. But due to the nature of time travel, no one in the future is aware of the changes. From their perspective, the timeline from the present day backwards is unchanged, because the future (their present) is dependent on that past. Any changes to the past, changes the future, and gone is any knowledge of some other past.
Evidence for this is the voicemail that Cole leaves, which is received in the future, and then his “coworker” is sent back and asks him about it, as if the future is a little different than when Cole was sent back. They should have heard that voicemail already, because he already left that message. Cole’s memory of who he sees in the airport is different than what he ends up seeing, which he attributes to his subconscious, but maybe he DID remember a different version of events. And the ultimate point of the movie is not that the past can’t be changed, but that destiny can’t be changed. The virus will be let out one way or another.
What's the frequency, Kenneth?
What I notice every time I watch the movie is that the future looks very unrealistic, the scientists are presented in a very comedic way, like they are in the comic or imagination of some teenager. The present on the contrary looks very realistic, including the hospital. That made me think that Cole is in reality a patient in this clinic and he only sees the future in his head. However it contradicts his disappearing whitenessed by many other characters and the historical pictures, where he is in.
Moreover, some scenes in the future just repeat the scenes that actually happened in the present - at list how the animals walk around the city. I am confident that it is not a coincidence, rather it is a clue left by movie creator, which also indicates, that Cole projects to his imaginary future what he has already seen
I love these hot takes. Good stuff. I do think you have shared an extreamly viable theory in that James cole (not Thomas 😳) maybe never travelled back in time. His sudden disappearances do tarnish that theory (sure) but who knows he might be just really good at disappearing no matter the situation!
The bullet and photo make this questionable…
When I saw this way back in the day when it was new, it was obvious that you weren't supposed to know for most of the movie if he was insane or really a time traveler. These elements are partly why.
In a timeline where time travel exists, going back in time is always what will be when time is a closed loop. It will only be different in a seperate universe, but that must be a different universe, or the future universe would never have been able to exist. You can never change the present future
Bravo!
Thanks 😊
Wait, what - he's called James, not Thomas
weird mix up I somehow fell into...
@@thelostmediapodcastjust like the movie
Mandela effect of time travel hahahaha@@jamespa7193
James Cole… JC
funny, just watched it again. Couldn't remember what was the plot when I watched it long time ago. 😂
AWESME THX U
very nice video my brother
shame it doesn't get more views though but 15k is good
Thank you! Appreciate it. 15k views will do hahaha
I love your summary at 3.40! lol
such a mind**ck!!!! isn't it
I have to disagree with your interpretation. The show Dark has shown comprehensively that a timeloop existing does not automatically imply infinite repetition. It is just that the differences between subsequent timeloops - when viewed up close might seem so small and inconsequential that you may not pick up that there is a larger movement going on, a progression towards resolution and the end of the time loop. And evidence for that can be found in the last scene , when the scientist sits next to the lunatic in the plane. That appears to be the difference to the previous loop. Which would mean that while the events of the past won‘t be changed, time will continue linearly from this iteration of events on. No more instances of times travel will have happened.
A case can be made that the existence of a time travel device makes the creation of timeloops inevitable but also it makes the resolution of those timeloops inevitable.
Fair enough
Well technically doesn’t this movie just restart infinity times now ?
Time's arrow. The past is what it is, go back in time, it changes nothing because if you do you were always part of the past that has occurred because it has already happened and can't be changed. Even the present is just part of the future's past. It's a matter of perspective.
Who's Thomas?
If they are stuck I'm loop then even future would part of it and obviously you can't change it either
How can you see your self die when you're already dead? If he sees himself die at the airport doesnt that mean he cant be the child. I thought i understood yet i dont lol.
It’s an alternate time travel explanation; cole as a kid could see himself die because it hadn’t happened yet. He can be a child seeing himself die because he’s looking at his older self from the future being shot.
@@thelostmediapodcast
I think you misunderstand the movie completely. You think only the future can be changed, but the future is just someone elses past, and perhaps everything that will happen in our future is as inevitable as the future that those people "in the past" couldn't avoid either.
It always seemed to me that the movie wasn't just fatalistic about the past, but the future also. You can't change it, even your attempts are just part of the inevitable unalterable chain of deterministic events.
Imagine time was a place. Each moment from the big bang on was a place instead of a time. The whole thing is fixed. Flowing through it just perception. You might be a thread in that tapestry, in fact you are, but everything that you ever do is already predetermined, including your attempts to "make the future."
The past isn't unalterable because it's the past, it's because everything is. The past vs the future is just a matter of perspective. Everything has already happened from the right point of view (the infinite future), you only think you can change the future because you don't see that your efforts are part of what was always going to be.
you mean James Cole ?
It's the mandela effect at work. When I watched this and edited it he was called thomas, then the past was altered but I only knew a previous past! Hahahha nah, just a mistake by me
Very helpful. Intelligent analysis. But I don't get why Jimbo dreamt of Jeffrey being shot at the airport instead of himself. All the rest makes sense but this.
And do you believe the antidote worked, James's efforts paid off and the future got saved?
Thank you! I really appreciate this comment. So, I think he thought jeffrey was the leader of the movement to spread the virus. He was convincing himself it was him I think.... and I think the beauty of the film is not knowing if cole's efforts paid off. The future is not already written.
@@thelostmediapodcast Well appreciated here too. Thanks.
The scientist probably got the virus in the plane and brought it to the future.
Nah you explained it well. I don’t think the plot is that nuanced/confusing - I watched it the third time wasn’t a much as a mind f*ck. A conventional time travel movie where the actions from the future dictate the course of the past!
9:01 what film ?
The weird thing is how none of you talk about the reason Cole was given the gun, and be "the hero". The scientists want the end. The gun was given to him in order for the cops to kill him and allow the crazy doctor to get away.
Oh that's interesting. I always had the feeling that there was something wrong about the scientist being there at the end, like someone maybe they were in on it. But never put a lot of thought into that angle.
Perhaps if he hadn't turned when he heard her scream he would have squeezed off the shot
Most confusing? Have you seen 'The Killing of the Sacred Deer' with Nicole Kidman? Most people don't get it but it's a documentary about narcissistic family.
I’ll take a look at that. Sounds interesting :)
😂😂😂😂😂