How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from 12 Monkeys.
Quote #1
P.A. ANNOUNCER: Passengers for flight 841 to Rome, come to gate seven.
P.A. ANNOUNCER: Flight 784 for San Francisco is now ready for boarding…Inmate number.
These words open the film. They're a little confusing when you first hear them, but by the end, you'll learn that they signal the beginning of the film's causality loop.
Think of it as a time-traveling Ferris wheel that doesn't stop, and we've just got to jump on if we're going to ride the ride.
Quote #2
COLE: Five billion people died in 1996 and 1997. Almost the entire population of the world. Only about one percent of us survived.
PSYCHIATRIST 3: Are you going to save us, Mr. Cole?
COLE: How can I save you? This already happened. I can't save you. Nobody can. I am simply trying to gather information to help the people in the present trace the path of the virus.
PSYCHIATRIST 2: We're not in the present now, Mr. Cole?
COLE: No. 1990 is the past. This already happened. That's what I'm trying—
Cole's statement is hardline determinism. The past is the past, so he can't change anything that's happened (even if the past is currently his present, right?). Everything will play out as it will, and his actions are simply to see if he can find the information necessary to help the present.
But then…his present would be someone else's past, so…you would think if he were successful someone from the future would time-travel to offer the cure, but…then he wouldn't need to go to the past—ah, brain hurt bad!
Quote #3
RAILLY [on distorted message]: The Freedom for Animals Association on Second Avenue is the secret headquarters of the Army of the 12 Monkeys. They are the ones who are going to do it. I can't do any more. I have to go now. Have a merry Christmas.
ASTROPHYSICIST: Well?
COLE: What?
ASTROPHYSICIST: Did you or did you not record that message?
MICROBIOLOGIST: It's a reconstruction of a deteriorated recording.
We later learn that Railly left this message in the past; however, she only had the information and phone number because Cole went back in time to give it to her. Again, free will takes a backseat in 12 Monkeys as the events seem predetermined to have happened as they will.
Quote #4
RAILLY: Though injured, the young soldier disappeared from the hospital, no doubt trying to carry on his mission to warn others and substituting for the agony of war a self-inflicted agony we call the "Cassandra Complex."
Cassandra, in Greek legend, was condemned to know the future but to be disbelieved when she foretold it. Hence, the agony of foreknowledge combined with the impotence to do anything about it.
Remember those ancient philosophers who started the age-old debate? A fair share of them were Greeks, and the Greeks explored this theme in their mythologies as well. Cassandra is one example, and the film is tipping its hat to its inspiration.
As in Cassandra's story, 12 Monkeys argues that even if we knew the future, or knew that determinism were true, we couldn't do anything to prevent what would happen anyway.
Quote #5
COLE [sighs]: You were very upset. You're always very upset in the dream. Just never knew it was you.
RAILLY: It wasn't me before, James. It's become me now because of what's happening. [Sighs.] Could you please untie me?
COLE [shakes his head]: No, I think it was always you. Very strange.
Cole's dream does change throughout the film. At one point, he envisions Jeffery Goines boarding the airplane with the virus, but we later learn that it is, in fact, Dr. Peters. What are we to make of this shifting dream?
One theory for solving time-traveling paradoxes is called the self-healing hypothesis. It argues that you can change the past, but this change will set off a chain of events to self-correct the change, ensuring the present remains the same. At one point, maybe Goines was the one to release the virus, but then Cole's meddling in the past caused things to change so Dr. Peters did the deed. Either way, the virus is destined to be released, which, in a word, equals determinism.
Quote #6
JOSE: Ah, hey man. You got a pardon. What do you want?
COLE: Who am I supposed to shoot? Who am I supposed to shoot?
RAILLY: James! James! It's Dr. Goines' assistant. He's an apocalypse nut. I saw him a minute ago; I think he's involved. The next flight to San Francisco leaves from Gate 38. If he's there, I'm sure he's part of it.
And here we come to the end of the causality loop…or is it the beginning? Like so many Greek characters before him, Cole runs right toward his predetermined fate while trying to run away from it. Oedipus and this guy should start a support group.
In trying to stop the virus from being released, Cole is gunned down by security officers. We learn that Cole's recurring dream is actually a memory of his own death, as his younger self witnesses the event. In the end, Cole couldn't escape his fate.