Editing 12 Monkeys (section)

== Plot ==
A deadly virus released in 1996 wiped out almost all of humanity, forcing survivors to live underground. A group known as the Army of the Twelve Monkeys is believed to have released the virus. In 2035, James Cole is a prisoner living in an underground compound beneath [[Philadelphia]]. Cole is selected to be sent back in time to find the original virus to help scientists develop a cure in exchange for a reduced sentence. Cole is troubled by dreams involving a foot chase and a shooting at an airport.

Cole arrives in [[Baltimore]] in 1990, not 1996 as planned. He is arrested and incarcerated at a mental hospital on the diagnosis of Dr. Kathryn Railly. There he encounters Jeffrey Goines, a mental patient with extreme [[environmentalism|environmentalist]] and [[anti-corporatism|anti-corporate]] views. Cole is interviewed by a panel of doctors and tries to explain that the virus outbreak has already happened and cannot be prevented.

After an escape attempt, Cole is sedated and locked in a cell but he disappears and awakens back in 2035. He  is interrogated by the scientists, who play a distorted voicemail message that asserts the association of the Army of the 12 Monkeys with the virus. He is also shown photos of numerous people suspected of being involved, including Goines. The scientists offer Cole another chance to complete his mission and send him back in time. Cole briefly arrives at a battlefield during [[World War I]], where he sees another prison inmate who was sent back in time, José. Cole is shot in the leg and gets transported to 1996.

In 1996, Railly gives a lecture about the [[Cassandra metaphor|Cassandra complex]] to a group of scientists. At the post-lecture book-signing, Railly meets Dr. Peters, who tells her that apocalypse alarmists represent the sane vision while [[Human impact on the environment|humanity's gradual destruction of the environment]] is the real lunacy.

Cole arrives at the venue after seeing flyers publicizing it. When Railly departs, he kidnaps her and forces her to take him to Philadelphia. They learn that Goines is the founder of the Army of the 12 Monkeys before they set out in search of him. When Cole confronts Goines, he denies any involvement with the group and says that in 1990, Cole originated the idea of wiping out humanity with a virus stolen from Goines' virologist father, Dr. Leland Goines.

Cole is transported back to 2035, where he reaffirms to the scientists his commitment to his mission and asks to be sent back to complete it. When he finds Railly again in 1996, he tells her that he now believes himself crazy as she had suggested. Railly has discovered evidence of his time travel to the Great War which she shows him, believing he is sane. They decide to depart for the [[Florida Keys]] before the start of the plague.

Cole and Railly learn that the Army of the 12 Monkeys was not the source of the epidemic; the group's major act of protest is releasing animals from a zoo and placing Goines' father in an animal cage. At the airport, Cole leaves a message telling the scientists that they are on the wrong track following the Army of the 12 Monkeys and he will not return. Cole is confronted by José, who gives Cole a handgun and instructs him to follow orders. Railly spots Dr. Peters at the airport and recognizes him from a newspaper as an assistant of Goines' father. Peters is about to embark on a tour of several cities that matches the viral outbreaks chronologically and geographically.

Cole is informed of Peters by Railly, then forces his way through a security checkpoint in pursuit of Peters. Cole draws his gun, then is shot by police. As he lies dying in Railly's arms, she scans the crowd around her. She makes eye contact with a small boy: the young James Cole witnessing the scene of his death, which will replay in his dreams for years to come. Peters, aboard the plane with the virus, sits down next to Jones, one of the scientists from the future, who comments that her job is "insurance". The young Cole watches a plane take off from the ground outside the airport.
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