How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from 12 Monkeys.
Quote #1
P.A. ANNOUNCER: Passengers for flight 841 to Rome, come to gate seven.
P.A. ANNOUNCER: Flight 784 for San Francisco is now ready for boarding…Inmate number.
These words open the film. They're a little confusing when you first hear them, but by the end, you'll learn that they signal the beginning of the film's causality loop.
Think of it as a time-traveling Ferris wheel that doesn't stop, and we've just got to jump on if we're going to ride the ride.
Quote #2
COLE: Five billion people died in 1996 and 1997. Almost the entire population of the world. Only about one percent of us survived.
PSYCHIATRIST 3: Are you going to save us, Mr. Cole?
COLE: How can I save you? This already happened. I can't save you. Nobody can. I am simply trying to gather information to help the people in the present trace the path of the virus.
PSYCHIATRIST 2: We're not in the present now, Mr. Cole?
COLE: No. 1990 is the past. This already happened. That's what I'm trying—
Cole's statement is hardline determinism. The past is the past, so he can't change anything that's happened (even if the past is currently his present, right?). Everything will play out as it will, and his actions are simply to see if he can find the information necessary to help the present.
But then…his present would be someone else's past, so…you would think if he were successful someone from the future would time-travel to offer the cure, but…then he wouldn't need to go to the past—ah, brain hurt bad!
Quote #3
RAILLY [on distorted message]: The Freedom for Animals Association on Second Avenue is the secret headquarters of the Army of the 12 Monkeys. They are the ones who are going to do it. I can't do any more. I have to go now. Have a merry Christmas.
ASTROPHYSICIST: Well?
COLE: What?
ASTROPHYSICIST: Did you or did you not record that message?
MICROBIOLOGIST: It's a reconstruction of a deteriorated recording.
We later learn that Railly left this message in the past; however, she only had the information and phone number because Cole went back in time to give it to her. Again, free will takes a backseat in 12 Monkeys as the events seem predetermined to have happened as they will.