DATE REVIEWED: 11/8/24
TITLE: The Island
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG-13 (This is not suitable for GOD’s children.)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2005 Dreamworks Pictures / Warner Bros. Pictures / Parkes / MacDonald Productions
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie takes place in the future in 2019, when the men and women who survived the “contamination” were said to be chosen but lived as hostages in a high-tech and high-security underground compound called the Merrick Institute. The people were known as agnates, and futuristic machines that analyzed their urine and sleep routines constantly monitored their health. They weren’t allowed to touch each other closely, and security cameras always watched them. They dressed in identical white uniforms while the supervisors wore black uniforms, and they were only allowed to eat specific foods based on the results from their daily health monitor. The agnates had access to exercise machines, pools and bars, as well as children’s books like Dick and Jane that they recited robotically. They slaved monotonous work hours in the labs every day, and were told more survivors from the outside world were regularly found and brought to the Institute for decontamination and then transition into compound society. There was a nightly lottery in which the residents were chosen at random and relocated to the Island, the last bacteria-free place in the world that was considered to be paradise. Starkweather Two Delta was ecstatic to win the lottery even though he had only been at the Institute for six months, whereas most of the other residents had been there for many years. Lincoln Six Echo had been in the compound for three years, and Dr. Merrick summoned him for counseling. Lincoln’s monitors showed that he had poor nutrition, recurring nightmares and too much interaction with Jordan Two Delta, a female who had been there for four years. Lincoln’s dream involved him traveling to the Island on a boat named Renovatio, but he drowned before he could get there. Lincoln always questioned things and was skeptical about his purpose in the compound, and Merrick told him that it was his assignment to repopulate the Garden of Eden while Merrick and the other employees weren’t allowed to enter the lottery and therefore would never go to the Island. Merrick did a synaptic brain scan on Lincoln that involved releasing micro-sensors to painfully crawl into Lincoln’s eye where they would send readings of his brain activity for the next 24 hours. Lincoln’s friend, Jones Three Echo, believed that the lottery was rigged, so he made a chart of the last 20 men that went to the Island. The women were excluded because they were selected for breeding purposes. There was a distraction when Lima One Alpha went into labor and so it was said that they would take Lima One Alpha to the Island to have the infant. Jones used the letters of the names and numbers determine who would be picked next in the lottery, and he figured that it would be him. Lincoln visited his friend James “Mac” McCord, a supervisor in Sector 6 where they wore gas masks to counteract the deadly gases. Mac explained that doctors had the God complex and believed they knew everything, and the definition of God was the being that ignored people’s requests and prayers. Lincoln told Jordan about the flying bug he found in the ventilation shaft when there wasn’t supposed to be any such thing because of the contamination. Lincoln believed it meant the outside world was safe even though they were told that all creatures went extinct in the contamination. Jordan won the lottery that night. Lincoln snuck around after hours and released the bug into the ventilation shaft where he found it. He followed the bug into the hospital upstairs, where he witnessed the doctors delivering a baby and then euthanizing Lima One Alpha afterward so they could give the baby to a mixed-race adoptive couple. Starkweather did not go to The Island and instead was there and he underwent a surgery to extract his organs, and he woke up and ran scared during surgery but he was tackled by security and dragged back to the operating room. The guards believed that Lincoln was part of the medical staff since he wore one of their medical coats, so Lincoln escaped back to the lower level of the compound. Merrick replayed the video footage and discovered that Lincoln had escaped, so the compound was put in contamination lockdown. An announcement went out that Lincoln was contaminated and anyone who touched him would be quarantined so everyone panicked and ran from him. The men and women’s sleeping quarters were separated in different towers, and Lincoln found Jordan before she was taken away to have her organs harvested or for other reasons. Lincoln told Jordan to trust him and he explained that the Island didn’t exist and the people who won the lottery were operated on and then killed. Lincoln and Jordan escaped into the sector 6 basement and were followed by guards armed with laser guns. Lincoln was brutally beaten when he tried to fight off one of the guards, so Jordan knocked the guard out with a wrench to the head. Lincoln and Jordan continued to be pursued, but they found an exit and walked the plank bridge to the outside world. They emerged from Silo 3 into the real world and fled through the Arizona desert. Meanwhile, everyone was told that Jordan was taken to the Island. Wealthy humans visited the compound looking to buy Merrick’s agnates, which he lied to the potential buyers and investors that they were inhuman organisms that were incapable of emotions. They were created in accordance with the 2015 eugenics law with the purpose of replenishing human bodies of any age by harvesting organs from the agnates and giving them to the stinking rich humans (celebrities and athletes and millionaires) and enable them to live 60 to 70 years longer. Albert Laurent, a former member of the French Special Forces and member of Blackhawk Security, was hired to recover Lincoln and Jordan. $120 billion was at stake if the escapees were not recovered, so Laurent and his team of ex-SEALS agreed to do the job for a price. Merrick explained that Lincoln was the first agnate to question why he was at the compound. Jordan’s sponsor, the human who had her created as an insurance policy, was in a coma after a car accident and needed immediate organ transplants from Jordan within three days or she would die. The supervisors kept the agnates’ knowledge of the outside world to a minimum and told them the lie that the world was contaminated so they would be afraid of leaving the compound. The agnates were given games, books and TV to develop their social skills and prevent them from being aggressive. Their sex drive was removed to avoid problems, and they were in a sense like children with the education level of a 15-year-old. Lincoln explained to Jordan that the contamination was a lie and they would be dead if it was true since they were out in the real world and OK. Mac had given Lincoln a matchbox from the Aces and Spades bar in Tucson (real world), so Lincoln and Jordan followed the roadway to that address. Lincoln was told inside the bar that Mac was there so Lincoln burst in on Mac in the bathroom, pulled Mac off the toilet and with his pants down and up against the wall, Lincoln demanded to know why Mac never revealed that he was a human from sector five (the outside world) and why he didn’t tell Lincoln when Mac knew everything going on at the Institute. A regular bar buddy of Mac’s, Mike, came in the men’s room and thought Lincoln and Mac were having a gay moment. Mac decided to help the escapees so he took Lincoln and Jordan to his house where he lived with his girlfriend Suzie, a short-skirted bimbo that Mac dismissed to go get him a six pack at the store. Mac explained that Lincoln and Jordan were identical clones of wealthy and famous people who bought the clones in case they were ever injured and needed the clones’ organs for themselves. Merrick was breaking the eugenics law by harvesting organs from live (cloned) people, so he lied to his customers that they were receiving parts and organs from an unconscious, unfeeling organism so the rich and famous sponsors felt no guilt for killing the clones. Mac explained that fake memories that never happened were implanted in the clones’ heads to make them believe they had lives before the contamination (such as parents and grandparents and learning to ride a bicycle as a little girl), and they were shown images that brainwashed them into thinking they were specialand wanted to go to the island. Each clone was grown inside a womb-like pod, and the umbilical cord was severed and the pod cut open when it was time for the clone to be “born.” Lincoln’s sponsor was a Scottish boat designer in New York named Tom Lincoln, and Jordan’s was a Calvin Klein model in LA named Sarah Jordan. Starkweather’s sponsor, Jamal Starkweather, was a football player. Lincoln and Jordan wanted to find their sponsors and tell them the truth about the goings-on at the Institute, and Mac argued that the ungodly sponsors didn’t care where they got their parts from but he reluctantly agreed to help them. Mac outfitted Lincoln and Jordan with human clothes and gave them cash to use last and a credit card to use for the next 24 hours until Mac reported it stolen so he wouldn’t get in trouble. He advised them that humans would do anything to survive and not to trust anyone. Lincoln passed the micro-sensors in his urine at the train station. Laurent and his men shot Mac dead and followed Lincoln and Jordan, who escaped onto the train to LA. Laurent and his mercenaries searched for the fugitives using the facial recognition on city traffic cameras and tracked them to their current location when they used Mac’s credit card. Lincoln and Jordan called Sarah, and her young son answered the phone and said that his mom was in the hospital. Lincoln and Jordan were the suspects for Mac’s murder, so the LAPD arrested him. Laurent planted a tracker on the police car and followed it, and then the mercenaries’ huge military style armored trucked smashed hard into the police car at an intersection. The mercenaries set off tear gas in the streets and posed as police officers who shot the real police. Lincoln and Jordan escaped onto the back of a big rig, where they dumped giant machinery off the back of the truck onto the highway to stop the mercenaries in their vehicles. That smashed the pursuing cars to pieces and blew them up, so Laurent sent the Black Wasp mercenary on a flying motorcycle to stop the big rig with bullets. The Wasp was injured, so Lincoln and Jordan took his flying bike. They dodged traffic and outran the police cars as the mercenaries shot at them from other flying bikes. Jordan and Lincoln crashed through glass skyscraper (9/11 with planes Twin Towers) and lost the bike, and they found themselves stuck inside the logo on the outside of the building. Lincoln rescued Jordan from falling off, and the hired guns shot at them until the logo plummeted to the ground and took down a helicopter with it. Lincoln and Jordan survived and hid out until it was safe. From California, they went to Tom’s house in New York, where the Scottish born Tom was shocked to see his clone in person. Tom explained that he designed the Renavatio boat and it meant “rebirth,” in Latin, and he paid $5 million to create clone Lincoln. Tom had hepatitis because he was a sex addict and would die within two years without a liver. Lincoln recognized the US President on TV because Lincoln told Tom that he had seen the USA President’s clone at the Merrick Institute. Tom agreed to help Lincoln and Jordan, but he excused himself and then Tom called the Institute and set up a trap so Lincoln would be captured and Tom could use his clone’s liver. Jordan sensed that Tom was up to something, so she stayed behind while Tom and Lincoln left in Tom’s high dollar sports car for the KNBC news studio to tell them everything. However, Laurent’s men surrounded them, and Lincoln sped off with Laurent in pursuit. Tom held a gun to Lincoln’s head, so Lincoln put his clone ID bracelet on Tom and was able to confuse Laurent since they looked identical and the clone could speak in the Scottish accent. They argued about who was who until Laurent shot Tom dead thinking he was clone Lincoln. Lincoln mimicked Tom’s accent to make it more believable. Jordan held a gun to Lincoln’s head when he returned to the house. She realized it was Lincoln, so the two made out and the two clones had sex (Tom told Lincoln earlier that sex was what he was missing out on). Meanwhile, Merrick discovered that the word Renavatio that Lincoln associated with his dream was Latin even though the clones were never imprinted with the Latin language. The test results from Lincoln’s brain scan came in and revealed that his mind grew significantly in his three years at the institute and contained Tom’s memories. Lincoln’s friend, Gandu Three Echo, confided in Merrick what Lincoln told him about the bug and the fake decontamination, so Merrick killed Gandu by injecting him with a needle to the neck. Merrick realized that four generations of Echos might be like Lincoln and have smart human traits, so he ordered for the destruction of all of the Echo clones that meant a $200 million loss. Charlie Whitman, the public relations director at the Institute, sent a message to Tom explaining about the recall. Merrick held a mass lottery to pick out the defective clones, and the board gave the approval for all of them to be euthanized. Jordan served Ben & Jerry’s to the children at the beach, and then she followed the plan and let herself be captured by Laurent and taken to the Institute. Before she could be operated on to remove her organs, she shot one of the guards with a hidden gun and escaped. Lincoln (Tom) was brought to the Institute to be re-scanned so a new clone could be made for him free of charge. Tom (Lincoln) knocked Whitman out and donned a lab boat like Jordan did. They found each other, and then Lincoln went to the Hologram Room. Merrick gave Laurent his check and revealed that Sarah suffered brain damage in the accident and might not recover even with transplants. Laurent believed it was wrong that Merrick planned to harvest Jordan’s organs anyway and then kill her for nothing, so Laurent turned against Merrick. Laurent found Jordan, and the two joined forces and held guns on the guards. The guards were forced to release the lottery winners from the chamber that the clones were locked into to be killed. Tom’s body was brought to the Institute, and the doctors informed Merrick that the client was dead and the clone was on the loose because the clone bracelet was on the wrong wrist. Lincoln shut down the system and the tower started self-destruction. Merrick attacked Lincoln, so he speared Merrick in the neck and strangled him to death as the tower collapsed. The thousands of clones were released into the “real” outside world, and Lincoln and Jordan set sail on the Renavatio boat in New York and the Lincoln clone assumed Scottish Tom’s human identify and happy he was wealthy. This movie had a budget of $126 million and grossed over $162 million at the box office. The movie cover art listed, Jeffrey Lyons, NBC-TV “An enormously entertaining thriller…” Paul Clinton, CNN-Online “Great story, great action, great film!” Clay Smith, The Insider “Explosive, mind-blowing assault on the senses!”