Syfys 12 Monkeys TV series looks to the past to save a future it, itself, is dooming.
The combined chronometrical energy of these three temporal forces threatens to create a loop in time.
The Simpsonstaught us that you should never change anything from the past because the present will only be worse.
Stephen King tried to stop the Kennedy Assassination over and over in and on11/22/63.
Christopher Reeve tried to go back in time for love.
Captain Kirk went back in time to kill the woman he loved.
Time abhors a vacuum and fills it with the most noxious of alternatives.
Earth could have been sucked into a manmade black hole then.
Now it is threatened by an irreversible time loop.
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A time loop is different from The Time Warp, though just as danceable.
In Gilliams12 Monkeys, James Cole is chosen to go back to a time he feels a connection to.
He has a recurring memory of seeing a women in anguish over the death of a man.
However, Cole only knew about the virus in 1990 because he lived through it 1997.
The survivors inLa Jeteelive underground in the Palais de Chaillot galleries.
They pick the convict because he is obsessed with a memory from before the war.
The scientists try a few times to sling the convict into the past.
Each time they cast their loop wider.
The man meets the woman from his past and they begin to fall in love.
Geeks from tomorrow give the convict a power unit that can regenerate the pasts society.
Having saved the present, the convict is set to be executed.
In each story, the people who propel the subject into the past cast wider and wider circles.
The experimenters are playing god and take bigger and bigger risks.
It even takes longer now to tell the story.
Maybe thats the point.
Perhaps, this time, James Cole will save humanity without having to sacrifice his own life.
There is something about ape movies that seem biblical.
Maybe the drugs trigger something in my collective unconscious.
Im already on record as firmly believing that King Kong died for our sins.
It just has to be.
It is preordained, predicted and foretold as if it was written in the Book of Revelations itself.
If Kong is King of Kings, the army of the12 Monkeyscould be his disciples.
John Connor from theTerminatorfranchise shares initials and goals with Cole.
Another JC caught in a time loop with the future in the balance.
But the future can never be balanced by proxy.
The 1995 film12 Monkeyscame 33 years later.
James Cole is a convict.
He is volunteered for future duty.
You get the feeling that the alternative would be much worse.
Jesus was imprisoned and purged.
The still image, one moment frozen in time, gives more relatable detail than anything more modern.
InLa Jetee, it really looks like it would suck to be him.
Im not saying that Gilliams prison is anywhere near a low security tennis camp.
Livestock kept behind chicken wire have it easier.
But there are so many distractions just because the setting is so vast.
InLa Jetee, Chris Marker creates a stark and ugly place where time stands still.
Every frame is a self-contained universe of encroaching claustrophobia.12 Monkeysis too vast.
Cole is considered crazy and dangerous.
He doubts his own memories.
Is he who he is or the reflection of another trauma?
He is an auteur.
And who better to do it than Bruce Willis?
Every other movie Willis made in the period was great.
He said he would alternate between pay and chops from picture to picture at the time.
He may not be all things to all people, but Willis is an everyman.
If you dont like at least half his movies, then youre the problem.
He feeds every aspect of film, from indie to big budget.
Bruce Willis has tattoos on his head, kind of like a crown of thorns.
His Madonna and his Mary Magdalene.
They speak poetically, even when its translated into subtitles.
While Gilliam waited 33 years to resurrect Inmate 87645.
The upcoming series only sat for twenty years and might not have such lofty aspirations.
He was also an editor on the 1988 slasher classicCheerleader Camp.
Chris Marker was part of the fifties Left Bank Cinema movement.
He also made the filmsA Grin Without a Catin 1977 andSans Soleilin 1983.
In 1985, he profiled the Japanese cinematic master Akira Kurosawa inAK.
Chris Marker movies are usually called essayist, he makes documentaries and mock-docs.La Jeteeis his most fictional movie.
Time rankedLa Jeteefirst in its list of Top 10 time-travel movies in 2010.
In the series Aaron Stanford fromX-MenandNikitaplays James Cole.
Amanda Schull plays virologist Cassandra Railly.
Emily Hampshire play Jennifer Goines.
Kirk Acevedo plays Coles friend Ramse.
Noah Bean plays political insider Aaron Marker, Cassandras lover.
Barbara Sukowa plays Jones, who builds the the time machine.
Tom Noonan is Monkey Face.
La Jeteewas a minimalist masterpiece.
Terry Gilliams12 Monkeyswas a vast and expansive work of fine art.
Im hoping that the Syfy series does for science fiction TV whatTrue Detectivedid for supernatural thriller TV.
