Cole and Dr. Railly face off with the Army of the 12 Monkeys when both discover the Night Room - an off-site, black ops lab that houses the virus that will one day destroy the world.
Utilizing a dangerous and untested method of time travel, James Cole journeys from 2043 to the present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will all but annihilate the human race.
Cole is a convicted criminal in a post-apocalyptic future where the Earth's population is forced to live underground after a deadly virus. In a bid to earn a pardon, Cole uses the imperfect science of time travel to help collect information on the virus released by the Army of the Twelve Monkeys.