History Main / TheIsland

* For the film, click [[Film/TheIsland here]].

[[quoteright:330:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theisland.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:330:This movie is a proud advocate of [[HumanResources recycling!]] Almost 90% of it is [[PartsTheClonusHorror reused]].]]

->"''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 EwanMcGregor as [[YouAreNumberSix Lincoln Six Echo]] and 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, he goes back to rescue Jordan and the two escape to the outside world.

Many fans consider this an unofficial remake of ''PartsTheClonusHorror'', since both share far too many similarities to be coincidence. It also seems to have echoes of ''Literature/LogansRun''. Also notable for being one of the ''many'' movies in which SeanBean is a bad guy.

If you are looking for the novel by Elin Hildebrand, click [[Literature/TheIsland here.]]
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!!''The Island'' provides examples of:
* ActingForTwo: Tom Lincoln and Lincoln Six Echo. Technically, Sarah Jordan and Jordan Two Delta, though the Calvin Klein advertisements featuring ScarlettJohansson wasn't specially shot with ''The Island'' in mind.
* AffablyEvil: Dr. Merrick and the original Tom Lincoln.
* {{Aesoptinum}}
* 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.
* CityInABottle
* CloningBlues
* ColorWash: [[BlueOrangeContrast Orange and Teal]] (see poster at top of this page)
* CoolButInefficient
* 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.
* EvilBrit: Dr. Merrick -- he's played by SeanBean, so of course.
* ExpendableClone
* 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.
* LetsMeetTheMeat: Quoted with darkly amusing and unnervingly apt effect by Buscemi's character ''"Well, just because people want to eat the burgers doesn't mean they want to meet the cow."''
* GuysSmashGirlsShoot- Lincoln uses crowbars and hand-to-hand combat to fight while Jordan uses guns. [[{{Chickification}} Even though she was shown to be superior at the]] [[ChekhovsSkill combat simulator.]]
* 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 heartless exchanges like this one:
-->'''Doctor''': You mean you want to destroy $2 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.
* KickTheDog: Dr. Merick 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).
* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:''[[AbrahamLincoln Lincoln]]'' ''[[YouAreNumberSix Six Echo]]'' emancipates the clones.]]
* MyNameIsInigoMontoya
* NamesTheSame: As a 2006 PavelLungin film whose title, ''Ostrov'', translates to ''The Island''.
* NobodyPoops: Averted, as part of a Brick Joke.
* NoSexAllowed: Inside the community of clones. [[spoiler: Subverted in the outside world...]]
* 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. This may also count as an EsotericHappyEnding.
* OhCrap: When it is discovered that the dead Lincoln is [[spoiler: the original Tom Lincoln and not the clone]].
* PeopleFarms
* ProductPlacement: Probably one of the most blatant examples in movie history: why are there ads for KFC and Microsoft in a closed society filled with penniless clones?
** As Michael Bay notes in the [[DVDBonusContent director's commentary]], however, this is not really at all unrealistic, considering society today is awash in advertising. (Also, not ''all'' of this society is closed: the [[PunchClockVillain clones' keepers go home at the end of their shifts]] and presumably have somewhere they can go to [[VillainsOutShopping spend their paychecks]].)
** Also, XBOX.
* PunchClockVillain: Djimon Hounsou's mercenary 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.
* ShoutOut: Someone on that production team has an appreciation for [[SquareEnix Square]]; [[spoiler: the room where Lincoln and Merrick duke it out]] looks suspiciously like a [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII mako reactor]].
* 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; however for the sake of the story they lied.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: SeanBean described Dr. Merrick as this in an interview.
** Dr. Merrick presented himself more or less this way to Albert Laurent, although his rather [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans megalomaniacal boasting]] suggests he's pretty firmly into villainous MadScientist territory.
* YouAreNumberSix