How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from 12 Monkeys.
Quote #1
COLE: Yeah. [Chuckles]. Yeah, they've got them up on the seventh floor. They hide them up there. They're all messed up in the head. Brains don't work.
JOSE: Hey, you don't know they're all messed up. Nobody's seen 'em. And maybe they're not messed up. That's a rumor. Nobody knows that. I don't believe that.
We're not even ten minutes into the film, and already the theme of madness has dropped in to say hello. Note that the subject is already open for debate, too. Are the previous volunteers insane or not? No one knows, or if someone does know, they sure aren't sharing that information on the inmate wiki.
Quote #2
WASHINGTON: It's a condition of mental divergence. I find myself on the planet Ogo. Part of an intellectual elite preparing to subjugate the barbarian hordes on Pluto. But even though this is a totally convincing reality for me in every way, nevertheless, Ogo is actually a construct of my psyche. I am mentally divergent in that I am escaping certain unnamed realities that plague my life here. When I stop going there, I will be well. Are you also divergent, friend?
Point blank, here's the question Cole has to struggle with: is he mentally divergent? Is his dystopian future a personal planet Ogo?
And don't think you're getting off scot-free either. Movies are all about perspective, and just because you see something one way, doesn't mean it can't be seen another way. How do you know the future you see in the film is real? Perhaps the film forces us to hallucinate with Cole? Perhaps the film—and if you want to really blow some minds, all art—requires us to be mentally divergent to even participate.
Quote #3
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—
PSYCHIATRIST 4: Mr. Cole? Mr. Cole? You believe 1996 is the present then, is that it?
With the exception of Dr. Railly, notice how the psychiatrists don't really give a hoot. Most of them are uninterested in Cole's story, and one guy even enjoys a squirt of breath freshener—showing more concern for his coffee-infused dragon breath than another person's mental well-being.
This scene connects the theme of madness to that of power and suggests that those in power aren't too interested in providing help. This also connects to society as a whole later in the film when we see the mentally ill living unhealthy, dangerous lives on the streets of Philadelphia.