12 MONKEYS (1995) | Time Travel, Madness, and the End of the World (High)

Why do Terry Gilliam’s movies always feel just a little… off?

In this episode, we get into why the film still feels so unsettling and alive, from its warped visual language to the way it turns time travel into something tragic, paranoid, and psychologically unstable.

We talk about Gilliam’s direction and why his surreal style is such a perfect fit for James Cole’s fractured point of view, the film’s blend of post-apocalyptic sci-fi and time-loop storytelling, Brad Pitt’s unhinged and funny performance as Jeffrey Goines, and the role reversal between Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe as the story keeps shifting its sense of reality. We also dig into the airport memory, the Army of the 12 Monkeys misdirect, the movie’s layered rewatch value, and the small details that make it feel so strange and specific.

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Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/movie-highlow/id1894669466

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