Identity Through Mental Divergence

Before analyzing the philosophy of mind in Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys (1995), one must put the film into their own perspective of reality. According to René Descartes, the truth that one exists stems from merely the acknowledgement of personal perceptions to observations (133). By watching the film, people must question reality. Is reality that these events are taking place? Is the act of these events taking place because the actors were physically and mentally at the shoots? Does that mean that the film depicts reality because the actors were in fact there and executed the events that would eventually be laid out in the form of a movie? In the film, James Cole (Bruce Willis) notes that simply because one is different, they may see the film differently, echoing Locke’s theories on distinguishing between the man, the person, and the substance and how that can change perception.

James struggles to find his true sense of reality throughout the film. Essentially, he is sent in the relative past of 1990 to gather research on a viral outbreak that would wipe out most of the human race. While traveling between gaps of time and through his own dreams and memories, James gets lost in the idea that he is “mentally divergent” by escaping one reality and entering a dream-like fantasy, known as the past. The difference, however, is that some divergences are memories and some are physical transportations to the past. John Locke suggests in Of Identity and Diversity that a soul of the conscious mind may be tied to different physical bodies at two different times, and the same man would be (202). He continues to ponder the idea of identity through the confusion of the wandering consciousness due to breaking the tie of thought and physical mass, reflecting the writings of David Hume. One wouldn’t necessarily apply the same memories to the different body they hold, perhaps confusing the consciousness. Eventually James becomes so lost in his different “people” that he simply wants one to be a reality and the others to be forgotten thoughts distinguishing his experiences as madness. Ultimately, James makes the choice for the “past” to be the present time he exists, and the “future” to be a past delusion in his mind. At one point in the film, James states to the scientists of the future, “I am insane, and you are my insanity.”

Building off of the ideas of identity in reality, the film constantly addresses how seeing and hearing is not grounds for truth. From the very start of the film, James’ fellow inmates suggest that both what you see and what you haven’t seen are similar in that the truth will always be held, especially in this oppressive society. This starts with James’ doubts of the reality of this futuristic society and continues as Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt) suggests the ideas of consumerism and capitalism to James. In whatever time James exists, he is being fed what he wants to hear in order to manipulate his actions through the sense of self-awareness and selfishness. The constant advertisement of the Florida Keys metaphorically represents this idea. The only advertisement seen on television is seen through bars, suggesting an almost impossible goal. Going back to Descartes’ ideas of perception of observations defining the self, every character’s motives are clear due to their observations and the identities established early on. This is apparent in the contrasting motivations of both James and Jeffrey, ultimately causing what is said in the film to be inevitable.

At one point near the end of the film, James as well as Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe) quickly change physical appearance, James having a mustache and long hair while Kathryn sports blonde hair. While the only truly explained change is the mustache that James keeps gluing back on, this transformation of the matter of the characters represents Locke’s theories that since the “substance” has changed, the “person” is different yet the “man” is the same. This is reference by the change in Hitchcock’s films in the theater AS the change in the characters’ substance occurs. The change from Vertigo (1958) to The Birds (1963) shows that while the film is different, the same man is still behind them. Although the movies suggest a progression forward in time, the characters take a step back in time, becoming familiar characters in James’ dreams/memories. We then, as an audience, take a step back in time, seeing James as a child at the airport.

Even as an audience, one must decide to which period of time in the film they consider the word “present” to be associated. Ultimately it represents the past and the present. Are the viewers not presently sitting there watching the film? Yet, was the film not created in the past? Even as I write about ideas of the film, I am referring to watching in technically in the past. As the light travels from an object to one’s eyes, and through the time it takes to process the information observed, the event lies in the past. This would mean the present is simply oneself, the awareness of oneself, and the self-existence in which we believe to be true. Ultimately, the film Twelve Monkeys successfully challenges the ideas of metaphysics through time by presenting a complicated case of a mentally divergent character seeking only the understanding of his own identity.