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A troubled sci-fi classic that spawned a surprisingly good TV show bends time on streaming

Critically acclaimed, successfully sued, and questions about the leading man's resemblance to a butthole.

12 monkeys
via Universal

Terry Gilliam has never been one to do things the easy way, with the filmmaker regularly running into trouble on many of his productions, only some of which is directly caused by his famously bullish nature. The Monty Python alum isn’t exactly near the top of studio wish-lists for star studded genre films, then, which is a shame when he proved he could pull it off with 12 Monkeys.

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A $169 million tally at the box office makes it the highest-grossing release of Gilliam’s directorial career by far, with identical Rotten Tomatoes scores of 88 percent from critics and crowds underlining its instant classic status. Brad Pitt also landed an Academy Award nomination for his efforts, while Bruce Willis was solid in the lead role despite Gilliam being hesitant to cast him because he thought the Die Hard icon’s mouth looked too much like an asshole. No, seriously.

12 monkeys
via Universal

In the end, the temporal tamperer has cemented its place as one of the modern era’s most visually striking and ambitious efforts, and it even spawned a remarkably solid TV series that ran for four seasons. The small screen 12 Monkeys is generally regarded as being a great deal better than it had any right to be and an unexpectedly worthy successor, but it’s the feature-length original that’s folding time on streaming.

As per FlixPatrol, the intergalactic tale of existentialism that was successfully sued to the tune of a high six-figure sum by an architect who found their designs used without permission has become one of the top-viewed titles on iTunes, but don’t sleep on the episodic adaptation either if 12 Monkeys leaves a lasting impression.