Under closer inspection, the cracks in Terry Gilliam’s Twelve Monkeys become very apparent, but the fi lm is held together by its surprising tenderness – encapsulated in Bruce Willis’ brilliant performance as James Cole, a man tormented by his memories of witnessing a shooting as a child, who is sent through time to stop the release of a deadly virus. The fi nal revelation that the death Cole witnessed was actually his own is the bittersweet conclusion to his story, and lends the fi lm an emotional resonance that Gilliam’s fi lms seldom achieve.