Played by Bruce Willis, James Cole, the protagonist of the 1995 film 12 Monkeys, is a prisoner in a subterranean post-apocalyptic future who is sent back to the 1990s to put a stop to the deadly bioplague that nearly wiped out humanity. Terry Gilliam's film, which also features Brad Pitt as a crazed animal-rights activist, is a remake of Chris Marker's 1962 short film La Jetée.