Film / The Island (2005)

"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 Michael Bay set 20 Minutes into the Future starring Ewan McGregor as Lincoln Six Echo and Scarlett Johansson 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 they're all clones that will be used for spare parts as part of a life insurance policy, and those sent off to The Island are killed. When Lincoln starts getting dreams 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 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 Logan's Run and blatant imitations of THX 1138. Also notable for being one of the many movies in which Sean Bean is a bad guy (and dies).

Not to be confused with the 1980 Michael Caine film about pirates.

If you are looking for the novel by Elin Hildebrand, click here.

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This film provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The film, released in 2005, takes place in 2019.
• After the End: Due to an unspecified disaster, Earth is a barren wasteland-or so the clones have been led to believe.
• Anthropic Principle: The entire plot hinges on a colony of sapient clones being kept completely hidden by a MegaCorp, with presumably no government safety or health inspections of the premises ever being carried out despite the company's business being organ harvesting and no whistleblowers ever coming forward despite employees like James clearly being very conflicted about the whole thing. Dr. Merrick has ties to the Department of Defense, but he's apparently keeping them in the dark about the whole thing for fear of losing their massive investment.
• Apologetic Attacker: Tom Lincoln, after he betrays his clone to save his own life, apologises for doing so because he isn't ready to die and requires Six Echo's organs to survive.
• Artificial Outdoors Display: The colony has one projecting a scene of a mountain to the inhabitants, masking its true purpose. Lincoln Six Echo disables it at the end to reveal the truth to them.
• Brick Joke: 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.
• Casting Gag: In Michael Bay's previous Armageddon, Shawnee Smith played a bar girl (credited only as "Redhead") who gets hit on by Steve Buscemi's character. In this film, she plays his live-in girlfriend, Suzie.
• Chekhov's Armory:
  • The Harpoon Guns used by the facility guards. 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. Both Lincolns
  • Lincoln's surfacing Genetic Memory. It's how he figures out how to drive.
  • Lincoln's ability to perfectly imitate his sponsor's Scottish accent. It's how he's able to convince Laurent that he's Tom.
  • The barcodes the clones are branded with. It's what prompts Laurent's Heel–Face Turn when he compares it to his own branding.
  • The power station Lincoln passes through on his escape. It's the one he destroys to shut down the holographic emitters and reveal the outside world to the clones.
• Color Wash: Orange and Teal (see poster at top of this page)
• Cool Car: Lincoln's "real" self designs them as well as boats, which his clone dreams about and are our first clue that something's up.
• Corrupted Contingency: Lincoln Six Echo is a clone of Tom Lincoln created for the purpose of providing backup organs should his fail due to disease. Lincoln tricks the mercenaries hired to retrieve him into thinking Tom is the clone, resulting in them killing him.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The facility staff lie to the clones about their belongings being sent to them later, much like the Nazis did to the Jews in World War 2.
• Escaped from the Lab: The lead couple, escaped from the hospital.
• Evil Brit: Dr. Merrick — he's played by Sean Bean, so of course.
• Expendable Clone: All the clones were created for this purpose alone.
• Eye Scream: Lincoln is injected with microprobes near the beginning of the film, which enter via the eye sockets.
• False Utopia: On the surface, the colony appears to be provide for all of its inhabitants' needs. In reality, it's a place where clones are grown and killed for their organs.
• Faux Affably Evil: Dr. Merrick pretends to be a benevolent leader to the inhabitants of the colony, carefully concealing its true purpose as a farm for organs.
• Fish out of Water: Lincoln and Jordan after escaping, they have no concept of how anything in the real world works.
• For Science!: Dr Merrick's motivation, though he would claim it is Utopia Justifies the Means.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul:
  • Dr. Merrick wears a pair of wire-frame glasses that enhance his creepiness.
  • Tom Lincoln, Lincoln-Six-Echo's genetic donor, wears glasses. He also betrays Lincoln and Jordan when they seek his help so that he can get the replacement liver he was promised.
• French Maid Outfit: While helping the clones Lincoln and Jordan on the outside, James gives them some civilian clothes so they can blend in, their Future Spandex making them stand out like a sore thumb. Rummaging through James's closet, Jordan sees a French maid costume that presumably belongs to his girlfriend Suzie. James has to teach her that certain clothes aren't worn in public.
• Genetic Memory: How Lincoln can drive all the cool vehicles in the movie, and mimic Tom Lincoln's Scottish accent with impeccable accuracy. The whole reason something went wrong with the bad guy's plan is because the Echo generation of clones started to regain the memories of their sponsors, which caused them to move beyond their intended childlike level of intelligence and made them question their environment.
• A Glass of Chianti: Dr. Merrick is seen watching the Lottery in his private abode, drinking from a wine glass.
• A God Am I: Merrick's motive rant near the end of the movie starts heading in this direction, something Laurent is quick to 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?
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Lincoln uses crowbars and hand-to-hand combat to fight while Jordan uses guns. Though she was shown to be better at the combat simulator, perhaps she just likes guns better.
• Hand Wave: 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.
• He Knows Too Much: Gandu Three Echo confronts Dr. Merrick after becoming suspicious and is subsequently murdered.
• Human Resources: It's revealed that 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.
• Insistent Terminology: 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)
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Steve Buscemi plays one, befriending Lincoln and helping him after escaping despite great reservations.
• Karma Houdini: 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.
• Kick the Dog: 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).
• Killing Your Alternate Self:
  • Most of the insurance policy benefactors probably didn't know that they were paying for the creation and slaughter of fully sentient duplicates.
  • Lincoln tricks his pursuers into killing the original Lincoln, after being betrayed.
• Let's Meet the Meat: 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."
• Lifesaving Misfortune: One of the clones has been in the facility 7 years without winning the Lottery and thinks he's jinxed. He doesn't know that the Lottery means the clone will be killed and harvested for their organs to benefit their donors in the real world. In other words, his donor is living such a safe and healthy life up to that point that he hasn't needed the organs.
• Mad Scientist: Dr Merrick, the head of the clone facility, presents himself as charming and with intent of improving and protecting humanity. In reality, he is a heartless Jerkass with a god complex, fully willing to slaughter sentient clones for petty or meaningless reasons.
• Manchild: The clones, both male and female, were deliberately designed by Merrick and his staff to have the emotional and analytical aptitude of a child, as this made them easier to control. One can really see this in Lincoln's childish reactions early in the film to being denied bacon for breakfast or not liking the color of his clothes. It's only when he acquires more memories from his original that he starts to act more like an adult.
• Meaningful Name: Lincoln Six Echo emancipates the clones.
• Military Alphabet: 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.
• Morally Superior Copy: Lincoln's genetic donor, Tom Lincoln, signed on to Merrick's project to replace his failing liver. He's initially unaware that Merrick is actually harvesting organs from sapient clones, but when Lincoln and Jordan reveal the truth to him and seek his help, he tries to turn them in to Merrick's men to save his own life.
• 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.
• Nobody Poops: Averted, as part of a Brick Joke 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).
• Noose Catch: The Corrupt Corporate Executive is hanged by his own grappling hook.
• No Sex Allowed: Inside the community of clones, though to be fair it's more "What is sex?" than "No sex allowed".
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: 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 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.
• Now What?: 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.
• Oh, Crap!: When it is discovered that the dead Lincoln is the original Tom Lincoln and not the clone.
• The Outside World: 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 People Farm where the inhabitants are cloned and harvested for their organs, and discover that the outside world is fine.
• People Farms: Clones are produced so their body parts can be harvested when the originals need them, as part of a life insurance policy.
• Private Military Contractors: Merrick hires a Blackwater Expy to hunt down the clones.
• Product Placement:
  • There are ads for KFC and Microsoft in the cloning facility. Presumably, these ads are for the workers there, not the penniless clones.
  • At the Institute, Everyone Owns a Mac.
• Punch-Clock Villain: The mercenary Laurent rampages across LA in pursuit of Lincoln and Jordan. He ends up helping them after the institute considers his mission completed.
• Released to Elsewhere: Winning a tour to the Island means the clones chosen are going to be killed and their body parts harvested.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: One of the clones, Jones Three Echo, believes that the Lottery is rigged. This is correct, but it's because the donors need the organs, not because of Jones' numerology conspiracy theory.
• Shout-Out:
  • Before the clones are sent to the ovens, the staff lie to them about their belongings being sent to them later. This is very similar to a scene in [1].
  • Someone on that production team has an appreciation for Square; the room where Lincoln and Merrick duke it out looks suspiciously like a mako reactor.
  • Sector 6 is suspiciously reminiscent of Logan's Run.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: When the lead couple kisses for the first time, Lincoln comments on Jordan's amazing tongue thing, but she tells him to shut up and both continue sucking each other's lips.
• The Sociopath: Hinted at, in the case of Dr Merrick. He heartlessly slaughters sentient clones in order to extend the lifespans of rich and famous people. He intends to murder hundreds of clones simply because they begin to gain more curiosity, deeming them 'infected". He also does not view the clones as human or real, only playthings and instruments to feed his god complex.
• Speed Demon: 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.
• Spot the Imposter: Lincoln actually kills his original (in self-defense) by getting the people after him to believe he was the original.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailers spoil that the main characters are in a facility and the "Island" doesn't actually exist.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Dr Merrick's Motive Rant proclaims this as his motivation. Due to his experiments and organ harvesting, he claims he will be able to cure diseases and extend human lifespans. However, it is heavily implied he is motivated primarily by his ego and god complex.
• Walking Transplant: 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.
• You Are Number 6: Downplayed - all the clones have numbers as part of their names, but they also have given names.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Clones used as surrogate mothers are killed after giving birth.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: Doctor Merrick, under the pretense of administering "harmless nice tests", restrains Lincoln Echo Six to a chair and releases micro-sensors on his face, which then enter his body through the eye socket. Merrick even outright denies Lincoln's claim that it hurts. Little surprise he's the Big Bad.
  Dr. Merrick: Micro-sensors will move along your optic nerve. They'll be uploading readings to us over the next 24 hours. Afterwards, you'll pass them through your urine. Now that might hurt." (They did.)
• Younger Than They Look: 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).

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