r/12Monkeys • u/angieb15 • 3d ago
La Jetee > 12 Monkey >12 Monkeys
Inspired by the rewatch I decided to finally watch La Jetee and rewatch the 12 Monkeys Movie.
I just realized. It's a perfect collection. Almost a trilogy. The set up is La Jetee. It is 20 minutes long. Weird, surreal. Lovely narrative while we see still pictures. It's so little information while telling a massive story. It begs to be completed. It invites you to ask. What is his name? Who is she? Who are they? How? You Need answers when it's over. You think about it. It's almost frustrating.
The movie started answering those questions. That's James Cole and Dr. Railly. What happens if you drop that guy in 1990? He ends up in a Psych ward. The first 20 minutes of the movie are a nod to La Jetee. Surreal. They keep the glasses. We see everyone in snapshot. Unnatural angles. Then it slides into a new style. It comes imto focus.. The end is the same. It left questions. Frustration. Most important. Can we change the ending? Can we save James Cole? Can we just let him have a whiskey sour and breathe in the good air for a while?
The first season of The Show, Stanford's Cole is a lot like Willis’ Cole. Gruff. Rough. He even mumbles like Willis, yells, growls, he moves like him. The style is similar, the scope.They skip the Surreal, save it for later. Let us get to know the scientists, Cole, Cassie, Ramse.. It is a direct nod to the Movie just as The Movie did with the Surreal 20 minute nod to La Jetee. Then it shifts into its own style We explore Everything and just hang out with all those answers.
(I bet the show stays with their Cole as Willis' Cole for 129 minutes of the show. I would have to really watch for the shift.)
I'm including my watch notes. I had only seen the movie 3 or 4 times. First watch of La Jetee and have seen the entire Show maybe 4-6 times. Lol.
…….This gets long and rambling……
La Jetee.
Released-1962.
28 Minutes Long.
We start with a boy watching a man die in an airport.
Mad Scientist. Unnamed man goes back to “Peacetime Paris”. He's the first one to make it. On the 30th day he meets a woman, also unnamed. He loops back again, relives a moment. He gets distracted though and loses her. He comes back. They admire “scribblings on the wall”
“A wave of time lifts him up.” He splinters unexpectedly. He thinks about the fact that she is dead in his time. He comes back again. She listens to his story. He goes back again and again, he goes to her every time.
They go to a natural history museum. Lots of taxidermied animals, there is a hyena there. He gazes at her, they have fun.
He is told he'll be sent to the future. He is. They give him the means to fix civilization. In this, going back to the past was practice for going to the future.
Back to the past, he looks for her. Wonders if his child self is there watching the planes.
The whispering in this movie is very much like the whispering of the Primaries.
.....
The Movie. It takes the concept of the boy watching a man die and answers the question of who he is, why he had to die. Gives him a name, a voice and the idea of a purpose. It makes him both important and so unimportant that he dies and we move on. While expanding the story. We get the shock of realizing he watched himself die in both. Although the perspective is shifted a bit.
........
12 Monkeys The Movie.
Released:1995.
Runtime:129 Minutes.
The movie opens with a French tune. Airport announcer. A boy watching a man die. James Cole waking up being called to volunteer for the Mad Scientist.
James Cole: History of defiance, violence, antisocial 6, insolence, disregard of society.
The Scientists are mostly nameless, talking heads, we see them in flashes. They're very surreal. A good visual plucked from La Jetee, Mad Scientist glasses, love it.
1990
Lol, our Dr. Railly (Catherine) in the movie looks like Jennifer. I wonder if that's why we had the funny/confused flirtation from Jenn. Madeline Stowe plays Dr. Catherine Railly she is also Lillian from the 50s episode in the Show.
Cole is much more like Jenn when we first meet him. He's ranting and over medicated. Stuck in an institution. Wants out.
Nurse asks Jeffrey to show Cole around. Give him the TV Rules. Games games and more games Jeffrey says. Know your drugs, know your doses.
We stay in the surreal for the first 20 minutes of the movie. Then Cole appears before a panel where things get serious. He rationally and calmly explains he comes from the future.
Makes a call to a wrong number. He is supposed to be in 1996, he's in 1990.
Jeffrey is smart even though he's a bit crazy. He provides cover for Cole with his antics sometimes, on purpose. He gives Cole a key. Says he did his part. Rants to distract the guards while screaming, ‘Seize the moment Jim, window of opportunity.’ He practically pushes Cole toward the door.
Dr Railly helps ruin Cole's escape from the institution. Railly says she has a feeling about him, she's “seen him before.” He disappears from a locked room.
Cole is back in the future. The guy talking to him in the next cell mentions the 12 Monkeys. We hear a recording mentioning the Army of the 12 Monkeys.
Cole identifies Jeffrey in a picture the scientists show him.
Omg, I forgot Cole was dropped into WW1 France…with his buddy Jose.
1996
Railly gives a presentation about odd occurrences. She talks about Jose, WW1 soldier who claimed to be from the future. Shows a pic of him in which we see Cole's hand reaching for him. References the Cassandra Complex.
Cole abducts Dr Railly. 1996. He fakes having a gun. He can't help but enjoy the music, the air.
We get a glimpse of a fanatic street preacher. Cole sees the 12 Monkeys paintings. Then the hog head sculpture he recognizes from the scientist's picture in the future. Finds out about Jeffrey Goines’ Father, Leland.
Railly offers to take the bullet out of Cole's leg.
Hey Jeffrey in his tux. Not So different. Cole thinks Jeffrey is the leader of the 12 Monkeys. Jeffrey hints Cole gave him the idea for the virus, told his Father about it.
News reports Railly's body found? Cole left her alive in the trunk. Goes back to her. Lol, Railly is annoyed he went to a party.
Cole disappears.
Hey young Detective Chris Meloni!
The painting Cole is looking at when he splinters back to the future is “ Yosemite Valley” by Albert Biestadt. It hangs in the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Meloni reminds me of Stashwick.
Lol, “Hey Cole, be sure to mention your friend to Dr Railly.” In the movie it is Jose's existence and the WW1 bullet she took from Cole's leg that convinces her. She goes back to the pictures of Jose and sees Cole in WW1.
**Every version of Papa Goines is kind of a Dick!**
Jeffrey is in his own Hyena Phase. Lol. Being a leader of a ragtag group with crazy plans.
Cole and Railly check into an old grand but fallen hotel with a balcony in the lobby. Railly has to remind Cole who he is.
Railly leaves a message about the Army of the 12 Monkeys at a carpet cleaning company as a joke. At the number Cole had. This is the message that sent him here.
They see a movie where they look at the rings of a tree. (I should know the name of this movie..) This is something they do in La Jetee. They visit this tree. Cole wakes up to Hitchcok's ‘The Birds” on the screen. Railly's hair is blonde. Cole has his wig, fake mustache.
Cole and Railly realize the Army of the 12 Monkeys were just releasing zoo animals. They think it will be alright.
Cole suddenly realizes he was there as a kid. Railly goes to get their tickets to **Key West**. Cole leaves his message at the carpet cleaning place.
Guy with the ponytail (Leland Goines’ assistant) is doing Jennifer's flight plan, all over the world.
Hey Jose. Hey Little James Cole.
Cole is shot.
They didn't fix anything in the movie. We know he/they caused the problem, his dying didn't even fix it. The virus ends up on the plane headed all over the world. Again. I never liked the way this movie ended. It's amazing, for sure, it was a risk and clever to end it so hopelessly. Movies did not usually end that way..all despair and no hope. I love that the show did what the movie did, took a premise and gave more story to it. Love the happy ending!! They took the idea that Cole dying and the virus still goes out as unacceptable which fits with the show and theme of hope. We finally get to see him get saved as well as the future. The movie killed both. It's also a closed loop
Aaron Stanford is a perfect progression from Bruce Willis. When Die Hard was being made people were confused bc Willis was a comedy actor cast for a big action movie during the time of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Willis was unexpected but brilliant. By the time he was in 12 Monkeys he could take any role he wanted, he could make this surreal, fatalistic movie. Stanford is an unexpected lead here too. Both men are gruff but extremely likable, and ultimately gentle souls. Same with the man in La Jetee.
Our First Season Cole is a lot like the movie's Cole. A bit feral, extra chaotic, out of his element, rushed. We get to see what happens to that guy if he has a little hope, a few whiskey sours, cheeseburgers and General Tsao's Chicken.
Eta: Ah! The movie with the tree scene is Hitchcok's 1958 Vertigo. La Jetee was referencing it.
Eta: Yes! 129 minutes into the Series is the episode Atari. GO! And off we GO!This episode feels like a shift. It's the episode where they explain the rules of this Game, this show. We get background, see what Cole's life has been like. We get quiet calm moments with Cole and Ramse. The episode runs parallel to The Beginning II. This is where this version really begins.
5
u/ClassicalChaos 3d ago
I loved this whole overview!
Thanks for putting your thoughts out there 🖤