Bruce Willis hurtles across space-time in Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys, a delirious time-travelling, mind-melter based on Chris Marker’s hugely influential 1962 featurette La Jetée. In the post apocalyptic future of 2035, after most of humanity fell victim to a man-made virus, prisoner James Cole (Willis) is sent back in time to gather information in the hopes of a future cure. Believing that the virus was engineered by a terrorist group called the Army of the Twelve Monkeys and suspecting the involvement of a certain mental hospital patient Jeffrey Goines (Brad Pitt), Cole gives chase, with the unwilling help of psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly (Madeleine Stowe), to uncover a greater conspiracy – plagued all the while by prophetic dreams of a terrible fate.

Something of a sister film to Brazil, Terry Gilliam treats David (Blade Runner) and Janet Peoples’ La Jetée-inspired script with the widest lenses, the Dutchest angles and his meticulous design direction – future, present and past are all thick with grunge, dilapidation and sparks of gonzo flare. As Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe grapple with sanity and truth throughout this wild head trip, Brad Pitt is already well in the deep end giving a particularly memorable, frenetic and frenzied Oscar-nominated performance. One of our favourite Gilliams, 12 Monkeys’ overwhelming atmosphere of doom, madness and chaos makes it one of the more evocative and interesting sci-fi stunners of the ‘90s.