Den framtida världen i "12 Apor" är inte bara en dystopi, det är en cacotopia, den värsta möjliga världen. Regeringen (som det finns) verkar fungera i stor utsträckning genom den totala förtrycket av medborgarnas rättigheter.
We live underground! The world belongs to the fucking dogs and cats. We're like moles or worms.
Även om forskarna (identifierad i manuset som astrofysiker, ingenjör, botaniker, mikrobiolog, zoolog och geolog) verkar representera något av ett styrande råd, är realiteten att de också kommer att lida långa termiska effekter av underernäring, vitaminbrist, depression, social fobi, posttraumatisk stress och paranoia:
originalskriptet ger oss lite mer inblick i deras skildring:
COLE'S POV: Walls hidden by old headlines, articles, maps, charts...a blackboard covered with elaborate, sophisticated formulae...surfaces heaped with cracked monitors, gerry-rigged computers held together with string, lasers lost in tangles of cable, ancient tube amplifiers, a dilapidated cardboard reconstruction of a city, stacks of moldering books and tattered computer printouts...and, seated at a long conference table, staring at COLE, six SCIENTISTS: an ASTROPHYSICIST, ENGINEER, BOTANIST, MICROBIOLOGIST, ZOOLOGIST, and a GEOLOGIST. They represent a "modern" science where brilliant new ideas interface with crude, outdated, patched-together technologies.
Och förklarar också varför de sjöng till Cole, de firar sin prestation :
Crowded around COLE'S bed, the SCIENTISTS are concluding a ragged, out of tune, rendition of "BLUEBERRY HILL."
SCIENTISTS : ---found my thrills on Blueberry Hill...
Seeing he's awake, SCIENTISTS break off the song and applaud.
SCIENTISTS : Well done, James! Well done! Nice going! Congratulations! Good for you!
BOTANIST : During your "interview," while you were..."under the influence," you told us you liked music!