Question: There are marked similarities between Cole's present day asylum and his future world, such as the showers he receives, and the scientists/doctors. What is the significance of these parallels? Do they have a hidden meaning?
Question: What does the French soldier scream at Cole before he shoots him?
Answer: Cole is screaming "Stop!" so you can't hear what the soldier is saying. If you mean all of it, it's in the line of asking what he is doing there, calling the captain to have a look, ask him where his clothes are, and telling him to speak French.
Question: Throughout the movie, Bruce willis has a tattoo visible just above his ear. Was this added for the movie or is it real? if it is real, what does it say?
Answer: The tattoo is for the movie. It is his prisoner identification.
Question: My idea was that the plot is a time loop and Cole was sent back to find a pure sample of the virus, so they can make a cure in the future and then tried to stop the pandemic but fails. That's what I thought it was about. But I've heard this crazy theory however that the scientists that send Cole and the others back are in fact responsible for releasing it and are preventing Cole from trying to prevent the pandemic in the past by keeping an eye on him and force him to follow his orders. Is that it?
Answer: No, they really want to find a cure. Why else would that female scientist travel back to the hot zone at the very end? Why would they send people back if they wanted them to fail? It was the crazy 1990s lab assistant who released the virus.
Answer: It is meant to draw similarities between the treatment of the mentally ill and convicted felons. Quite often, even today, the mentally ill are housed and treated in facilities that are little better (for quality of life or prospects of rehabilitation) than prisons.