04/01/2005 Archived Entry: "Time Travel in Science Fiction - Part 5: Twelve Monkeys"

A third model for time travel is one that was shown in the movie “Twelve Monkeys”. In this film, a character from a future where an apocalyptic plaque has wiped out a large portion of humanity is sent to the past to prevent the plague from being spread in the first place.

The character, James Cole, goes to the past and at the end of the movie is shot in an airport. As he lies dying, he sees in the crowd a young version of himself and remembers that when he was young witnessed a man being shot down in an airport. Upon his death, the old James Cole realizes to his horror that there is nothing that could have been done to prevent the plague and alter the time line.

“Twelve Monkeys” presents time as unbending, unalterable, and absolute. Any changes that could be perpetrated by a time traveler are meant to occur to create the period that the time traveler came from; there is nothing anyone can do or not do to change anyone’s fate.

If Marty McFly existed in the “Twelve Monkeys” time travel model, he could have never prevented his parents from meeting on that fateful day in 1955 because they did meet on that day.

James Cole travels to the past to find out that he cannot change the future; with this model, what does time travel to the future imply? Because the past is unchangeable, we can also assume that the future is unchangeable. If there is nothing one can do to change the present through actions in the past, then it stands to reason that there is nothing one can do to change the future through actions in the present.

This model has a couple of implications. First is that fate and destiny are determined; everything will turn out as it’s supposed to no matter what. Secondly, this implies that all of time exists at once and what we think of as the present is only relative. If the future is fixed, then it follows that it has already existed, for how else could it be determined?

Replies: 13 comments

Hmm...how can you have a Twelve Monkey entry without even mentioning Jeffrey?!...there, I did it for you...:P

Quite a few spoilers in this entry...as if you didn't put up a disclaimer.

Do you really think the Twelve Monkey model is based on an unchangeable timeline? What about the lady at the end (from the future) that meets up with the bio-terrorist on the plane? Maybe certain things are difficult to change, but are still prone to adjustment?

Posted by dAN @ 04/01/2005 03:39 PM EST

that's kind of like in minority report ... he can't change the future. there are some things that are predetermined, we can just take different routes to arrive at them.

so if present is only relative - does this mean that time is just like one big ol' circle? (i like to make pictures of these things in my head)

Posted by melpie @ 04/01/2005 03:40 PM EST

Who's Jeffrey? Brad Pitt's character?

No no, the future and past are unchangeable...just like in Prisoner of Azkahban (or however that's spelt).

Instead of seeing time as a circle, I picture it as a line that you can see the entirety of all at once.

Posted by Rayne @ 04/03/2005 07:00 PM EST

Azkaban. :)

Posted by Andrea @ 04/03/2005 10:31 PM EST

Why did they end up sending James Cole to the past, if time is unchangeable? Didn't his efforts help that lady from the future in locating the bio-terrorist?

I don't see the logic behind an unchangeable time model anyway. You can't say Cole's presence in the past had no effect...

Posted by dAN @ 04/04/2005 10:19 AM EST

his presence had some effect ... but there are some things that are just destiny - they'll happen, one way or another.

Posted by melpie @ 04/04/2005 11:37 AM EST

Its not that he didnt affect anything...its that the changes he made, were supposed to be made by him.

And, they sent him to the past, but they had no way of knowing that the timeline was unchangeable. All they know now is that he failed, and not that he was meant to fail.

Man, talking about this is confusing as hell.

Posted by Rayne @ 04/04/2005 01:49 PM EST

i think the hp: poa example works the best in this. past events happened b/c they had travelled back in time.

Posted by melpie @ 04/04/2005 03:01 PM EST

That doesn't help...it doesn't resolve why Cole would have been sent to the past in the first place...

Posted by dAN @ 04/04/2005 07:14 PM EST

I dont understand why there's a misunderstanding. He was sent to change the past and realizes that it was his fate to be sent to the past.

Posted by Rayne @ 04/04/2005 09:01 PM EST

b/c he was always sent to the past. in the present, the future cole was there. that's how it worked out.

just like in the prisoner of azkaban.

Posted by melpie @ 04/05/2005 09:55 AM EST

I feel very proud of myself. I used to think about time travel a lot as a child, and my thoughts are along the lines of the Twelve Monkeys model. I even abstracted that away to the "Everything is determined, past, present, and future, as soon as the Big Bang happened" idea (the single line vs. the branching river).

All of this as a kid delivering newspapers! I must have been brilliant as a child. Too bad I'm not a child now!

Posted by Joe Drew @ 04/06/2005 09:43 PM EST

I'd be more concerned about the loss of brilliance...:P!!!

Posted by dAN @ 04/07/2005 10:35 AM EST