I just finished watching 'Bodies' and we have to agree on one thing:
Timecrimes is the only proper time travel movie ever made.
Spoilers below...
Every other movie either tries to take time travel seriously (Primer, Minority report, Travelers) and fails by creating paradoxes or takes it lightly (Back to the future, Hot tub time machine, Groundhog day) and is not a real SciFi movie. Timecrimes is the only perfect loop and hence the only movie that avoid paradoxes. And what a loop at that. The reveal is just perfectly timed giving away each detail step by step. You basically figure it out together with the protagonist and watch him change his decisions as he realizes what's going on. The loop is the entire point of the movie and that's the only proper way to do it.
Bodies was close but of course they had to add a happy ending there and break the loop in the last episode which was pretty weak.
The entire point of the movie was that they didn't knew who started the pandemic and were travelling back in time to try and figure it out. The scientists on the plane next to the guy who created the virus means that they did figure it out now, right? Or was is supposed to just be a huge coincidence?
It's been a long time since I've seen 12 Monkeys. My impression has always been that the end was meant to be tragic. That they were so close to being able to figure it out (the one person having actually been there at the time), but ultimately they never did, and never prevented it because it always happened. The scientists in the future are so focused on the 12 Monkeys group that the person that actually released the virus sits comfortably in their blind spot.
Oh, my interpretation was that after what we see in the movie, they now know the 12 monkeys is not the cause and get to the real terrorist to stop him.
Iirc, the future government (? I guess) weren't trying to find the source to stop the release, but to get a pure sample to study so as to cure the disease in the future. The lady on the plane was there to get the sample.
I (same as the other user) thought that Bruce Willis manages to send a message saying that it's not 12 Monkeys and that's how they figure out it's the guy on the plane.
Also, the scientists in the future wait for a message on the answering machine. The message on the machine changes based on what Bruce does in the past so it's clearly not a perfect loop. Actions in the past influence the future so you're back to paradoxes.