Why don't the scientists of future get Cole's last message?

Why don't the scientists of future get Cole's last message? - Female Engineer in Space Station

In 12 Monkeys (1995), Cole makes phone call to say this:

Maybe you just clean carpets. If you do, you're lucky. You're gonna live a long, happy life. But if you other guys are out there, if you're picking this up, forget about the Army of the Twelve Monkeys. They didn't do it. It was a mistake. Someone else did it.The Army of the Twelve Monkeys is just a bunch of dumb kids playin' revolutionaries. Listen. I've done my job. I did what you wanted.

Why are the scientists from the future not able to get this message? Or do they and I missed it?



Best Answer

They did receive the message. When the terrorist guy gets on the plane at the end of the movie, the woman he sits down next to is the woman scientist whom Cole interacted with several times in the future (Dr Jones, IIRC.)

The implication is that they received his message and sent her back to actually stop the guy once they realized Cole had been killed.

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Here's the same woman, singing to Cole with a group of other scientists in the future after a successful time jump (the background is just a painting, in case you don't recall this scene):

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Alternatively, perhaps Cole really is crazy and this woman is just someone who lives in the same city that he saw walking around and incorporated into his fantasies, and she's on the plane by pure coincidence. We never actually see Cole travel through time in the movie (IIRC, it has been a while.) The scenes set in the future could all be in Cole's head. In that case, the folks on the other end of that phone call really do only clean carpets.




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What does the ending of the 12 Monkeys mean?

The past can't be changed, we can only prevent for the future. In spite of the ambiguity in its ending, a key message of 12 Monkeys is that the past is fixed and can't actually be changed. We know that Cole witnesses his own death as a child, and always ends up at this point in 1996.

Why did Dr Peters release the virus?

Peters is the true main antagonist of the 1995 film 12 Monkeys. He is the lab assistant of Jeffrey Goines's father that responsible of unleash the deadly virus that wipes out humanity as he believes humanity is a disease for the Earth.

Who is the boy in the Twelve Monkeys?

Prisoner Cole (Old Cole) in 12 Monkeys In 2035, Cole is a prisoner. They don't explain what leads him to become a prisoner. But they give him the opportunity to go back in time and help them getting details on where the original strain of the virus emerged.

Does 12 Monkeys have an ending?

Jennifer explained that "Time" knows it owes this to Cole, because of everything that he did to save the future. So in 12 Monkeys' final scene, Cole reunited with Cassie, and the two characters - like everyone else - got to live "happily ever after".






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