Overview: Following the commercial and critical success of The Fisher King, Terry Gilliam next feature would turn to science fiction and a screenplay by Janet and David Peoples (Blade Runner, Unforgiven) inspired by Chris Marker’s classic short film La Jetée.

In 1996, a deadly virus is unleashed by a group calling themselves the Army of the Twelve Monkeys, destroying much of the world’s population and forcing survivors underground. In 2035, prisoner James Cole (Bruce Willis, Die Hard) is chosen to go back in time and help scientists in their search for a cure.

Featuring an Oscar-nominated turn by Brad Pitt (Fight Club) as mental patient Jeffrey Goines, Twelve Monkeys would become Gilliam’s most successful film and is now widely regarded as a sci-fi classic. Arrow Films are proud to present the film in a stunning new 4K UHD restoration.

Blu-ray Verdict: Terry Gilliam might not be as well known and appreciated as the Spielberg’s, the Kubrick’s and the Scorsese’s of our world, but he certainly has the same status as those directors, especially in the world of movie making business itself.

Just look at all those big name actors who are always willing to play in his movies, for a very small payment, also often in some quite small and odd roles, like Robert De Niro in Brazil and Brad Pitt in this movie.

Gilliam movies are not easy to place in one corner. They often have surreal elements of pure chaos but they are yet made with an incredible eye for detail and precision.

12 Monkeys is above all things a science-fiction movie, but unlike any that you have ever seen before. It doesn’t use any fancy effects or futuristic looking places. It’s instead more set in the present time and the futuristic elements from the movie are all far from looking settling.

Furthermore, it’s a filthy and depressing future, which also helps to bring you close to the main character. It certainly is one of the essential science-fiction movies from the ’90s.

It is also a very visually rich movie (even more so now we have this delicious 4K UHD restoration here on Blu-ray), that is very imaginatively put together. But no, the movie is not just purely style over substance. It also has a really great storyline, one that takes an original approach on time traveling.

It also doesn’t progress as you think it might, or even should, the story always in constant motion and development. Indeed, it provides the movie with some great moments, as well as a great and unforgettable ending, that makes the overall movie perhaps even better.

It stars Bruce Willis in the main lead, but in a role like you have never seen him in before. It’s perhaps his most emotional and involving of roles. It also stars Brad Pitt in a totally crazy role, before he had reached the true status of a big Hollywood celebrity (the movie has already began production and signed on Pitt before the release of movies such as Se7en and Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles).

It still is perhaps the best role Pitt ever played and it also earned him his first Oscar nomination.

It is also, in my humble opinion, Terry Gilliam’s best movie to date and it is also most certainly still his best known one and commercial most successful film to date also; despite the fact that this is not really a mainstream movie and is definitely not of his usual filmmaking style, shall we say. This is a Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Brand new restoration from a 4K scan of the original negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Terry Gilliam
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 stereo soundtracks
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by Terry Gilliam and producer Charles Roven
The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys, feature-length making-of documentary by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe (Lost in La Mancha)
The Film Exchange with Terry Gilliam, a 1996 interview with Gilliam and critic Jonathan Romney, recorded at the London Film Festival
Appreciation by Ian Christie, author of Gilliam on Gilliam
The Twelve Monkeys Archives
Theatrical trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gary Pullin

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