History Film / TheIsland

[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theisland.jpg]]

->''"You're special. You have a very special purpose in life. You've been chosen. The Island awaits you."''

''The Island'' is a 2005 film by Creator/MichaelBay set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture starring Creator/EwanMcGregor as [[YouAreNumberSix Lincoln Six Echo]] and Creator/ScarlettJohansson as Jordan Two Delta. They live in a tightly controlled facility for "survivors" from a vague disaster that rendered the Earth uninhabitable except for "The Island", a paradise on Earth. Periodically, survivors "found" in the outside world are brought in, needing to learn basic skills like reading, while others "win the lottery" and get to go to the island.

It turns out [[TomatoInTheMirror they're all clones]] that will be [[PeopleFarms used for spare parts]] as part of a life insurance policy, and those [[ReleasedToElsewhere sent off to The Island]] [[TheCakeIsALie are killed]]. When Lincoln starts [[GhostMemory getting dreams]] [[GeneticMemory from his original]] he gets curious and stumbles across a harvesting procedure. Caught, he manages to escape but goes back to rescue Jordan, and the two escape to the outside world.

Many fans consider this an unofficial remake of ''Film/{{Clonus}}'' since both share far too many similarities to be coincidence (in fact, the director of ''Clonus'' sued and won an out-of-court settlement). It also seems to have echoes of ''Literature/LogansRun'' and blatant imitations of ''Film/THX1138''. Also notable for being one of the ''many'' movies in which Creator/SeanBean is a bad guy ([[spoiler:and [[ChronicallyKilledActor dies]]]]).

Not to be confused with the [[Film/TheIsland1980 1980 Michael Caine film about pirates]].

If you are looking for the novel by Elin Hildebrand, click [[Literature/TheIsland here.]]
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The film, released in 2005, takes place in 2019.
* AfterTheEnd: Due to an unspecified disaster, Earth is a barren wasteland-or so the clones have been led to believe.
* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: The colony has one projecting a scene of a mountain to the inhabitants, masking its [[PeopleFarm true purpose]]. [[spoiler:Lincoln Echo Six disables it at the end to reveal the truth to them.]]
* BrickJoke: Dr. Merrick injects microprobes into Lincoln near the beginning of the film, and says that he will pass them through his urine. Later Lincoln is seen standing in front of of a urinal, groaning, while you can hear something going CLINK CLINK CLINK in the urinal.
* ChekhovsArmory:
** The Harpoon Guns used by the facility guards. [[spoiler:Merrick later uses one in an attempt to kill Lincoln later in the film, only for Lincoln to turn the weapon against the doctor.]]
** Jordan's ability to recognize that Lincoln is lying. [[spoiler: Both Lincolns]]
** Lincoln's surfacing GeneticMemory. [[spoiler:It's how he figures out how to drive.]]
** Lincoln's ability to perfectly imitate his sponsor's Scottish accent. [[spoiler:It's how he's able to convince Laurent that he's Tom.]]
** The barcodes the clones are branded with. [[spoiler:It's what prompts Laurent's HeelFaceTurn when he compares it to his own branding.]]
** The power station Lincoln passes through on his escape. [[spoiler:It's the one he destroys to shut down the holographic emitters and reveal the outside world to the clones.]]
%%* CityInABottle
%%* CloningBlues
* ColorWash: [[BlueOrangeContrast Orange and Teal]] (see poster at top of this page)
* CoolCar: Lincoln's "real" self designs them as well as boats, which his clone dreams about and are our first clue that something's up.
* CorruptedContingency: Lincoln Six Echo is a clone of Tom Lincoln created for the purpose of providing backup organs should his fail due to disease. [[spoiler:Lincoln tricks the mercenaries hired to retrieve him into thinking Tom is the clone, resulting in them killing him.]]
* EscapedFromTheLab: The lead couple, escaped from the hospital.
* EvilBrit: Dr. Merrick -- he's played by Creator/SeanBean, so of course.
* ExpendableClone: All the clones were created for this purpose alone.
* EyeScream: Lincoln is injected with microprobes near the beginning of the film, which enter via the eye sockets.
* FishOutOfWater: Lincoln and Jordan after escaping, they have no concept of how ''anything'' in the real world works.
* GeneticMemory: How Lincoln can drive all the cool vehicles in the movie, and mimic Tom Lincoln's Scottish accent with impeccable accuracy.
* AGlassOfChianti: Dr. Merrick is seen watching the Lottery in his private abode, drinking from a wine glass.
* AGodAmI: Merrick's [[MotiveRant motive rant]] near the end of the movie starts heading in this direction, something Laurent is quick to [[LampshadeHanging call him on]].
-->'''Merrick:''' In less than two years I will be able to cure children's leukemia. How many people on Earth can say that!?
-->'''Laurent:''' Well, I suppose just you and God. That is the answer you were looking for, right?
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Lincoln uses crowbars and hand-to-hand combat to fight while Jordan uses guns. Though she was shown to be better at the [[ChekhovsSkill combat simulator]], perhaps she just [[TriggerHappy likes guns better]].
* HandWave: When Merrick explains the whole concept behind the compound to the mercenary leader, the first thing that is asked is why not just clone braindead templates, and Merrick explains that the mindless bodies didn't develop right for some reason while aware clones did.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Gandu Three Echo confronts Dr. Merrick after becoming suspicious and is subsequently murdered.
* HumanResources: It's revealed that [[spoiler:the "survivors" who are being groomed to repopulate the eponymous Island are really the clones of rich and famous people, used for organ donations and giving birth.]]
* InsistentTerminology: All the workers in the compound refer to the clones as "products", and think about them this way as well, leading to some cold exchanges like a doctor saying, "You mean you want to destroy $200 million worth of product?" (i.e. ''kill'' thousands of ''sentient humans'')
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Steve Buscemi plays one, befriending Lincoln and helping him after escaping despite great reservations.
* KarmaHoudini: Dr Merrick is briefly shown once speaking with the Institute's board of directors and investors. We never see what becomes of them after the entire cloning operation is busted wide open, even though their money keeps the whole sordid business running.
* KickTheDog: Dr. Merrick gets to do this repeatedly, mostly to create dissonance between things he says (e.g. telling investors that their spare parts do not come from sentient humans) and what he does (heartlessly killing a clone ''who actually likes being there'' while praising him for the human trait of curiosity).
* KillingYourAlternateSelf:
** Most of the insurance policy benefactors probably didn't know that they were paying for the creation and slaughter of fully sentient duplicates.
** [[spoiler: Lincoln tricks his pursuers into killing the original Lincoln, after being betrayed. ]]
* LetsMeetTheMeat: Quoted with darkly amusing and unnervingly apt effect by [=McCord=]: ''"Well, just because people want to eat the burgers doesn't mean they want to meet the cow."''
* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:''[[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]'' Six Echo emancipates the clones.]]
* MilitaryAlphabet: The clones have this as part of their names, although it apparently takes place in a future where Golf and Hotel have been replaced by the more sci-fi-sounding Gamma and Halo.
* MorallySuperiorCopy: Lincoln's genetic donor, Tom Lincoln, who signed on to Merrick's project to replace his failing liver, turns out to be fully aware of what the cloning project is doing yet he continues to participate willingly. When Lincoln and Jordan seek his help, he tries to turn them in to Merrick's men to save his own life.
%%* MyNameIsInigoMontoya
* {{Naytheist}}: James [=McCord=], who introduces the concept of religion to the clones:
-->'''Lincoln Six-Echo:''' What's "God"?
-->'''[=McCord=]:''' Well, you know when you want something really really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God's the guy who ignores you.
* NobodyPoops: Averted, as part of a BrickJoke where Lincoln passes the microprobes injected into him at the beginning of the film. Also, he collars [=McCord=], who's "taking a dump in a can" (slang that he obviously doesn't understand).
* NooseCatch: The CorruptCorporateExecutive is hanged by his own grappling hook.
* NoSexAllowed: Inside the community of clones, though to be fair it's more "What is sex?" than "No sex allowed".
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: [[MadDoctor Dr. Merrick]] claims that the reason he kills the sentient clones on the island so that can be used for organ donations and giving birth is to help the world cure various diseases and advance the field of science. In reality, though he's motivated by a raging [[AGodAmI god complex]] and belief in his own superiority. Best exemplified by the fact that the clones he cuts up for their organs aren't even supposed to be sentient, the rest of the world believes them to be braindead because Merrick lied about them being sentient which is why they permit them being used as organ donors in the first place.
* NowWhat: All right, the good guys win. But where will they go and what can they do with no legally recognized ID, no previous contact with civilization, and little to no knowledge of the world outside? Good question.
* OhCrap: When it is discovered that the dead Lincoln is [[spoiler: the original Tom Lincoln and not the clone]].
* TheOutsideWorld: The first act takes place in an underground bunker, inhabited by people who believe the world has been devastated by some vague disaster, with their bunker and a paradise-like place called 'The Island' from which no-one ever returns to be the only remaining bastions of human civilization. The protagonists, Lincoln and Jordan, escape the bunker when they learn that it's a PeopleFarm where the inhabitants are cloned and harvested for their organs, and discover that the outside world is fine.
* PeopleFarms: Clones are produced so their body parts can be harvested when the originals need them, as part of a life insurance policy.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Merrick hires a Blackwater {{Expy}} to hunt down the clones.
* ProductPlacement:
** There are ads for KFC and Microsoft in the cloning facility. Presumably, these ads are for the [[PunchClockVillain workers there]], not the penniless clones.
** At the Institute, EveryoneOwnsAMac.
* PunchClockVillain: The mercenary Laurent rampages across LA in pursuit of Lincoln and Jordan. [[spoiler: He ends up helping them after the institute considers his mission completed.]]
* ReleasedToElsewhere: Winning a tour to the Island means the clones chosen are going to be killed and their body parts harvested.
* ShoutOut:
** Someone on that production team has an appreciation for [[Creator/SquareEnix Square]]; [[spoiler: the room where Lincoln and Merrick duke it out]] looks suspiciously like a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII mako reactor]].
** Sector 6 is suspiciously reminiscent of ''Literature/LogansRun''.
* ShutUpKiss: When the lead couple kisses for the first time, Lincoln comments on Jordan's amazing [[BuffySpeak tongue thing]], but she tells him to shut up and both continue [[{{Fanservice}} sucking each other's lips]].
* SpeedDemon: Tom Lincoln describes himself as such, which is why he got into the business of designing vehicles. Lincoln himself is implied to have inherited this trait from Tom given his reaction to seeing a motorbike in motion for the first time.
-->'''Jordan''': What was that?\\
'''Lincoln''': I don't know. But I want one.
* SpotTheImposter: [[spoiler: Lincoln actually kills his original (in self-defense) by getting the people after him to believe ''he'' was the original.]]
* WalkingTransplant: Customers are told that their "health plans" are brainless vegetables -- this ''was'' the original intention, but that's not how things go in practice, and the facility ends up using sentient clones. The company lies about this and pretends everything is as advertised.
* YouAreNumberSix: Downplayed - all the clones have numbers as part of their names, but they also have given names.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Clones used as surrogate mothers are killed after giving birth.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: Lincoln and Jordan (and presumably the rest of the clones) are ''significantly'' younger than they look in terms of how long they've been alive. While meeting with James at his home, he says that Lincoln is 3 and Jordan is 4 based on their "generation" (indicated by the NATO code word at the end of their designations).
----