Did anyone understand that movie 12 monkeys with Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis?

Question

I dont understand it and I watched it 3 times! I didnt understand the end either can someone please explain this movie to me so I can try to watch it again and actually get it!!!!!

Answer 1

I actually rewatched 12 Monkeys yesterday, so I think I might be able to help. Here's the basics:

James Cole, as a boy, saw a shooting at an airport in 1996. It remained the most vivid memory of his life. Shortly afterwards, a viral plague swept over the world and killed 98% of humanity. Cole and other survivors moved down underneath the surface of the earth. Acting on the basis of a pieced-together phone message recorded just before the plague struck that blamed a group called The Twelve Monkeys for the virus, scientists and engineers in the near-barren future created the technology to send humans back and forth in time to collect more information and possibly find a way to make the earth habitable again.
James Cole, now a rebellious adult, is "volunteered" for the time-travel project, and is sent back, accidentally, to 1990, six years too early. Mentally shocked and disoriented by his time trip, Cole is sent to a mental facility, where he meets Brad Pitt's character, the brilliant but psychotic son of a famous chemical and biological corporate giant. Cole also meets a psychiatrist, (played by Madeline Stowe), who is fascinated by his insistance that he comes from Earth's devastated future. Before she can learn more, Cole is called back into the future (he has a monitor in a molar so he can be tracked).
Cole is once more sent back to the past--once more with a glitch--he materializes in the middle of a World War One battlefield, and is wounded in the leg by a bullet--he ricochets from this time, finally, into 1996---he re-meets and kidnaps the psychiatrist--he needs her help and her driving ability---and begins to see the signs of a radical activist group called The Twelve Monkeys! The psychiatrist, now completely unsure of who Cole is or if he really is crazy or really from another time, decides to leave a message on the phone that Cole says will last to the future---half-laughing, she leaves a goofy message on the phone telling about The Twelve Monkeys causing a plague (since that's what Cole has been obsessing about) ---when she tells Cole, he tells her the exact words of the message she left---it's the message that the future put back together which started his pilgrimage in the first place!
Nobody now knows how the plague started--was it The Twelve Monkeys?--Or?
Cole has had to kill at least twice to survive, and has the police after him for kidnapping the psychiatrist--she is now on his side, and beginning to fall in love with him----They decide to get the heck away, buy disguises, and head to the neartest airport. While on the way, they learn that The Twelve Monkeys (led by Cole's old acquaintance at the care facility) have not stolen a deadly virus, but have released all the captive animals in the local zoo!
Arriving at the airport, and trying to dodge security teams looking for them, the psychiatrist recognizes another passenger in line: a colleague of the chemical/biological bigwig that she met at a conference earlier in the film, who was taliking to her about the apocalypse--the end of the world---He is carrying a laboratory specimen container, and she guesses (correctly) that it contains the deadly virus, and that he is about to travel the world spreading it----she alerts Cole, who dashes through the crowds after the colleague with a drawn revolver---airport security draw their weapons and kill Cole before he can shoot the man with the virus. The psychiatrist runs to Cole's side and holds him. Meanwhile, the young boy who will grow up to be James Cole the time traveler from the future, watches his future self die in the psychiatrist;s arms. She recognizes him and tries to smile reassuringly...but it is too late...James Cole's life has come full circle, the plague will now come, and the cycle will turn forever, like the circle of the Twelve Monkeys....

Answer 2

Bruce Willis hands down. Brad Pitt isn't that good.

Answer 3

the point i got was as a boy he seen a man get shot at an airport (him) the 12 monkeyes was a name given to brad by( him )in the loony bin .the hole movie was (him) trying to stop the viris spread that messed up the world. close but not close enough .time travel and history changes but in the end it still happened.brads dads research was the key to stop it yet brad didnt know anything about what bruce(him)was trying to stop the 12 monkeys was what brad did and bruce(him)got in right yet was to late to stop it ..i hope this helped cause this movie is out there...

Answer 4

It has been awhile since I saw the movie. Just what don't you understand about it? If I remember Bruce Willis went back in time to stop a plague. He ends up getting killed in the end. If I remember he sees his grown up self get killed when he is a child.

Answer 5

i've watched it twice and still don't understand it, but i think it's like a flashback style of movie, like jacobs ladder, don't get up for popcorn or a trip to the bathroom 'cuz you'll miss the most important part.

Answer 6

well, Cole... was sent to the 'past' to asure the virus was going to happen (for reasons unknown to us the scientists wanted it that way), that's why the shooting he remembered happened again (alas, the time line didn't change), and that's why the cientist madwoman appeared in the plane next to the virus-guy (not to stop him, remember the time line didn't change)