February 12, 1995: 12 Monkeys Offers Optimistic View of City’s Future

February 12, 1995: 12 Monkeys Offers Optimistic View of City’s Future
As the cast and crew of the film 12 Monkeys began its first day of shooting in Center City, Mayor Ed Rendell yesterday praised its makers for their optimistic view of Philadelphia in the year 2020. “With its vision of wild animals roaming our deserted, virus-ravaged streets, this film offers real hope for the future,” he said, looking on as workers affixed fake cobwebs to City Hall. “But [director] Terry Gilliam and his writers are merely showing us the possibilities. The question for us is, ‘How do we get there?’ ”

February 12, 1995: 12 Monkeys Offers Optimistic View of City’s Future

Gilliam, director of such films as Time Bandits and Brazil, insisted that the upbeat version of Philadelphia depicted in the sci-fi epic was attainable. “I know that Philly’s been in steep decline for decades, but things can be turned around,” he said, watching the Universal film’s star, Bruce Willis, don an airtight HAZMAT suit for a scene in which he explores the city’s filth-encrusted surface. “I think it’s entirely possible that a few hardy souls will survive underground here [in 2020], subsisting on canned goods and recycled urine. Why not?” David Peoples, who wrote the screenplay with his wife, Janet Peoples, agreed. “We wanted to offer a ray of hope; to show that things will get better [for Philadelphians],” he said of the sanguine script. “I just worry that people might think we’re being overly optimistic.”

According to longtime Point Breeze resident Gregg Jordan, 61, Philadelphia would never see the cheerful bliss envisioned in 12 Monkeys. “I’ve been living here for fifty years, and things have just been going down, down, down,” he said of his neighborhood, which has been devastated by drugs, unemployment, and a breakdown in familial bonds. “I’d take what they’re predicting in that movie… but I just don’t think it’s gonna happen.” Rendell respectfully disagreed. “The dark days of Frank Rizzo and Bill Green are a thing of the past,” he said, smiling as he gazed at a sooty gray sky. “When the virus is released, we will have survivors. I can feel it.”