Hi, Movie Recaps here.
Today I will show you an action, sci-fi, thriller film from 2005, titled The Island.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
The year is 2019, and Earth is too contaminated to support life.
Survivors are brought into an isolated compound, where they are governed by a strict set of
rules.
Everything from their diets to their education is monitored and controlled, and they must
wear bracelets to be kept track of.
The residents aren't allowed to stand too close to each other, and they aren't taught
curse words, violence, money, or intimacy either.
Every week the lottery is drawn and a resident gets chosen to go to The Island, the only
pathogen-free area left in the world.
Lincoln Six Echo is one of these residents.
He's been having strange dreams lately, which include seeing himself on a boat with his
friend Jordan Two Delta mixed with weird memories, a voice mentioning The Island, and seeing
himself drowning.
One morning, after the computer tells him he needs to report to Tranquility Center for
a wellness test, he takes the elevator and watches a recording of Starkweather Two-Delta
telling everyone how happy he is that he's going to The Island after only six months
of being in the compound.
This angers another resident that has lived there for seven years, causing him to hit
the elevator screen.
It's a small outburst, but it's still enough to make the security guards appear when they
get off the elevator to scold him.
After having breakfast with Jordan, Lincoln goes to Dr. Bernard Merrick's office, where
he notices Merrick had been looking at Jordan's profile.
Merrick proceeds to explain he's called Lincoln over because he's become too close to Jordan
and he's been having nightmares.
Lincoln tells him about his dreams and even draws the boat he's seen with impressive accuracy,
calling it "Renovatio".
He also starts making questions about the food and the clothes, expressing a wish to
have more going in his life than just waiting to go to The Island.
Merrick tells him his purpose is to repopulate Earth and that he'd like to run some special
tests to monitor his cerebral activity.
He takes Lincoln to a lab and inserts tiny probes in his brain through his eyes, these
little machines will send their readings to Merrick and Lincoln will pass them through
his urine after twenty-four hours.
Afterward, Lincoln goes to the labs where he works on feeding the nutrient lines, which
he finds incredibly boring.
Work is interrupted, though, when a pregnant woman's water suddenly breaks.
Her name is Lima One Alpha, and she'll be going to The Island next thanks to the baby.
Tired of being there, Lincoln removes a chip from his computer and pretends it's fried,
this gives him an excuse to get a key to go to the lower levels and visit a technician
friend of his, James "Mac" McCord.
Lincoln likes chatting with Mac because he tells him and shows him things he doesn't
have in the facility, like alcohol and pictures of naked women.
After Mac is called to go back to work, he reminds Lincoln not to tell anyone of their
conversations and leaves.
Something very surprising appears in front of Lincoln then: a moth, which he catches
and puts inside a match box.
Meanwhile, Mac goes upstairs into the facility to fix some broken equipment and watches how
a human body is extracted from a strange-looking bag filled with a slimy liquid.
The doctors come to check on him and after declaring him a fine product, they burn a
mark on his wrist, put on a bracelet, and send him to the facility.
Behind this lab, there's an area with hundreds of bodies in bags in various states of development
connected to the tubes Lincoln works with.
Later that night, Lincoln has a drink with Jordan and asks her if she's sick because
he saw Merrick looking at her file.
She denies it and asks him about his own health, he tries to pass it off as fine but Jordan
knows how to tell if he's lying.
Lincoln decides to tell her about the bug he found by the ventilation shafts, which
raises many questions about the state of the contamination.
Lincoln thinks there's something wrong, but Jordan just tells him he should concentrate
on the good instead of the bad before they leave to watch the lottery.
The winner turns out to be Jordan, which saddens Lincoln because she won't be around anymore.
After another night filled with nightmares, Lincoln decides he needs to investigate.
Using the key he never returned, he goes down to the technician levels and frees the moth
next to the ventilation shaft so he can follow it out.
He climbs some stairs and pushes up a panel that allows him to enter an area of the facility
he's never seen before.
After stealing and putting on some scrubs not to call attention, he enters a room and
finds a window that lets him look at Lima at her newborn child.
The doctors don't let Lima touch her kid, they put the baby away in a crib before tying
her up and injecting her with some chemicals that instantly kill her.
The baby is taken to a couple waiting in another room, and the wife looks just like Lima.
Shocked and disgusted, Lincoln touches Lima's body to confirm she's truly dead, then sneaks
into the reception, where he sees two guys are here to pick up Jamal Starkweather, the
football star; the receptionist tells them he's still being operated on.
The procedure is actually being done on Starkweather Two-Delta, who wakes up in the middle of it
to find out he's being cut open so they can remove his organs.
Starkweather pushes the doctors and the machines off him and runs out of the room, entering
the hallway Lincoln is hiding in.
Security guards appear and shoot Starkweather on the legs to make him fall, then they drag
him back into the operation room as he cries for mercy.
After a guard checks on him without suspecting anything, Lincoln rushes back into the tunnel
he came through.
Afterward, Merrick visits the guards to watch the recording of the incident on the security
cameras.
He notices Lincoln hiding in the hallway; he can't see his face but his bracelet is
clearly visible, which means they have a product on the loose.
Guards are sent to find him.
Lincoln hurries to Jordan's room, where she's getting ready to leave for The Island.
He drags her away with him as he explains that Lima and Starkweather are dead and there's
no Island.
The guards start chasing them after the computer identified Lincoln's face on the recording,
and the entire facility hears an announcement telling them to stay away from him because
he's been contaminated.
Lincoln and Jordan continue to run while dodging the guards' shots and make it to the door
that takes them to the lower floors, which they are able to open because Lincoln still
has the key.
In the basement, they use various tools they find around to trip the guards or even knock
them unconscious as they escape.
One of the guards actually puts up a fight and kicks Lincoln into the ground, but Jordan
knocks him out with a wrench.
The pair then climbs into a ventilation shaft and after some crawling around, they fall
into a room where hundreds of bodies are tied to stretchers and are being brainwashed by
recordings about The Island.
The guards arrive as well, and so the chasing re-starts.
Lincoln and Jordan hide behind the stretchers before rushing to the door when the guards
are turned around.
After running through some abandoned hallways, they find an elevator and take it to reach
a tunnel that seemingly connects the facility with the outside world, but as soon as they
cross to the middle, they find out all the beautiful landscapes are just a hologram and
they still are on facility grounds.
They enter a new building, which houses the computer keeping up the hologram, and go through
a door that takes them through a different tunnel.
This one does lead them to the outside world, and Lincoln and Jordan emerge in a desert.
Meanwhile, Merrick is meeting with potential rich clients to sell them his product: clones
of themselves they can use for organ harvesting, surrogate motherhood, and other important
purposes.
However, he isn't completely honest, he tells the clients that the clones are kept in a
vegetative state and never achieve consciousness; he doesn't consider them human.
After the man in charge of public relations takes over the presentation, Merrick meets
with Albert Laurent, a mercenary and former gendarmerie operative who runs a security
company with former SEALs.
Since Laurent promises total confidentiality, Merrick explains two of his products have
escaped because they aren't kept in a vegetative state, tests have shown that if the clones
don't regain consciousness and live a normal life, the organs fail.
Laurent accepts the mission and sends his men after the fugitives while Merrick tells
him about them.
Jordan is needed immediately because her sponsor needs her organs, and Lincoln is the first
clone to ever question his environment.
They know very little about the outside world, everything they're taught is carefully designed
to manage aggression and reinforce simple social skills.
The drive to procreate and have intimacy is simply eliminated.
Lincoln and Jordan have spent hours running around, so they stop to rest at some old ruins,
where they finally understand the contamination tale was a lie, otherwise they would already
be dead.
When they see a sign that marks Route 39, Lincoln takes out his match box and notices
it has the same route number on it, so they decide to take that road, eventually making
it to a bar.
Communicating with the barman is difficult, but they manage to learn Mac is currently
in the bathroom.
Lincoln goes after him and drags him away from the throne, angry for having been lied
to.
Mac points out security will be looking for them, so he makes Lincoln let go of him after
promising he'll tell them everything if they let him take them to his place.
They take Mac's truck and go to his house where they meet his wife, Mac tells her they're
coworkers.
After he sends her away to the store, Mac explains to Lincoln and Jordan that they are
clones of people in the real world and they are kept ignorant so that they never question
their environment or history.
The childhood memories they have are fake and implanted by a programmer; Lincoln is
actually three years old, and Jordan is four.
Merrick keeps them in a secret bunker because he's breaking hundreds of laws, and he doesn't
want the sponsors to know about it.
This gives Lincoln an idea: they find their sponsors, tell them the truth and take Merrick
out of business.
Mac thinks it's a terrible plan, but accepts to help anyway.
He searches the names of their sponsors on the internet, they are Tom Lincoln from L.A.
and Sarah Jordan from New York.
He also lends them some clothes before getting them in his car, where he gives them some
cash and his credit card which he's reported as stolen so nobody knows he's helping them.
The group makes it to a train station, where Lincoln goes to the bathroom and passes the
tiny probes Merrick had inserted in him the previous day.
It's too late, though, because Laurent and his team have been using these probes to track
them down and now they know their location.
Mac gets the clones train tickets and tells them to look for their sponsors on the information
directory before leaving them for a moment to find them a map of L.A.
It's then that he notices the mercenaries mingling in the crowd so he tries to warn
Lincoln and Jordan, which causes an agent to shoot him.
Lincoln and Jordan run out of the station through a side door and hide in an old maintenance
building, where they find a crowbar and a nail gun to defend themselves.
When one of the mercenaries finds them, they nail him to the door before running away and
boarding the train.
While the mercenaries track Mac's credit card, Merrick meets with one of his doctors to show
him Lincoln's boat drawing, pointing out the name is in Latin, which is a language they've
never taught to the clones.
Worried, Merrick asks the doctor the speed up the results of the readings the probes
got from Lincoln.
The mercenaries are waiting for Jordan and Lincoln at the station, but when the train
arrives, the pair leaves the building through the back so they cannot be seen.
Together they make it to L.A., where they find Jordan's face promoting perfume on a
poster as well on a tv ad that shows her kissing a man.
The security cameras on the street follow them around as they approach a public information
directory where they try to call their sponsors.
Lincoln's isn't listed but Jordan's is, and a little kid picks up saying his mom is sick
and was sent to the hospital.
When he looks at the camera, he thinks Jordan is his mother, and Jordan is shocked to see
how much the kid looks like her.
Because they've been using the "stolen" credit card, the cops find them and catch them before
the mercenaries do.
Lincoln gives them his name so they can look up his profile, this allows him to peek at
the computer and learn his sponsor's address.
Meanwhile, Laurent's men shoot a tracker on the police car to follow them and retrieve
the clones before the cops run a DNA test.
They send a truck to crash against it, allowing Lincoln and Jordan to escape as more cops
arrive and open fire on the mercenaries.
Lincoln and Jordan run through various buildings as they are chased and eventually they jump
onto a sixteen-wheeler truck that is carrying heavy machinery pieces.
When the truck reaches the highway, they start unleashing these huge pieces to stop the cars
that are following them, but a special glider bike manages to pass through and shoots the
truck, making it stop.
When the biker comes closer, Lincoln knocks him off with an iron bar, then he and Jordan
steal the bike and drive away.
They ride the bike through the city, dodging various train tracks and even entering a building
by crashing through its windows.
The pair get stuck on the building's logo, and after Lincoln pulls Jordan up, they try
to hide from the mercenaries' shooting.
The fire damages the huge metal logo and causes it to fall, hitting the mercenaries' helicopter
on the way down.
It lands on a construction site nearby, which is filled with safety nets that offer the
clones a safe landing.
A construction worker helps them escape while the cops arrive.
Back in the facility, Merrick discovers there's another clone asking dangerous questions,
and after killing him, he asks the guards to check all the clones from the Echo population.
A few hours later, the doctors bring Merrick the results of their tests.
Comparing Lincoln's old scans to the ones the probes took, they learn he's been regaining
his sponsor's memories.
All generations from Echos to the latest one have the same defect that makes them curious,
so Merrick orders the doctors to dispose of all those clones, even if it loses them money.
They'll be handing mass lottery winnings to make it look like all the problematic clones
are going to The Island as well.
After spending the night hiding away, Jordan and Lincoln take a taxi to his sponsor's house.
His cloned eyes allow him to open the lock on the door and inside, he finds pictures
of himself riding cars, planes, and even the boat from his dream.
They're suddenly attacked by Tom, Lincoln's sponsor, but he pulls back when he sees a
copy of his own face.
After being told what's going on, Tom takes off their bracelets and offers them new clothes
while he tells them about his life: he designs vehicles for a living and has hepatitis, which
is the reason why he paid for a clone.
Lincoln and Jordan ask him to help them expose Merrick, and Tom pretends to accept.
But when he goes to his room with the excuse of getting his shoes, he calls the institute
and tells them there are two clones are in his house.
When he comes back, Jordan can tell he's lying and tells Lincoln, who tells her to wait in
the house while they go out.
They take one of Tom's cars, which Lincoln is able to drive because he has the same fingerprints,
but they're ambushed by the mercenaries when they reach a red light.
Tom pulls a gun on him but Lincoln doesn't care, he presses the accelerator and drives
away as cars are coming at them from all directions, a helicopter starts shooting at them as well.
Lincoln takes the car into an abandoned building and tries to escape, but Tom jumps on him
to make him stay and points his gun at him again.
Laurent comes closer with his own gun but he doesn't know who to shoot, Lincoln takes
the opportunity to pretend he's Tom.
After arguing over who is the clone, Lincoln puts the bracelet on Tom's wrist, convincing
Laurent he's the clone and making him shoot him.
Afterward, Lincoln tells Laurent he won't tell anyone about the clones and lies about
Jordan's location; Laurent believes him and takes the real Tom's body back to the institute.
Lincoln returns to Tom's house, where Jordan threatens him with a gun she's found around
but quickly pulls away when she realizes he isn't Tom.
After reuniting, they kiss and make love.
Some hours later, they receive a call from the institute, saying they will be getting
rid of all products with defects and will be starting over, for which "Tom" should come
over so he can give them a new DNA sample.
Lincoln talks things out with Jordan, deciding that while they could escape on Tom's boat
and have a normal life, they'd rather go back and save their fellow clones.
They think of a plan to get into the facility and destroy the hologram so everyone can see
the truth; Lincoln dresses up as Tom and calls the institute to ask them to pick him up while
Jordan goes out and use the credit card so the mercenaries can track her and capture
her.
When Laurent finds her and sees the burned mark on her wrist, he starts to reconsider
things.
At the institute, Jordan is taken to an operating room so they can harvest her organs for her
sponsor, but she takes out a gun she kept hidden in her clothes, shoots the guard and
takes the keys and robe from the doctor before escaping.
In the hallway, she reunites with Lincoln, who also had knocked out his guide and stole
a medic's robe, but they separate again soon afterward when they see the clones being taken
away.
Jordan decides to follow them while Lincoln takes the keys and goes to shoot down the
hologram.
Meanwhile, Laurent is talking to Merrick and shows him he was branded during the rebellion
his father fought at.
He dislikes the idea of people being treated as less than human and thinks Merrick considers
himself a god.
In the labs, doctors are doing an autopsy on who they believe to be Lincoln but discover
he is actually Tom because the bracelet is on the wrong wrist, so the security alarm
is raised and the guards start searching for Lincoln.
Laurent, however, has changed his mind so he searches for Jordan and together they follow
the clones that are being sent out, threatening the guards until the clones are freed.
Lincoln makes it to the hologram room but he's unable to get to the computer because
it's protected by bulletproof glass, so instead, he tries to overload the machine with steam
pressure.
As he pulls down the switches, he's shot by Merrick, but Lincoln retaliates by whipping
a chain from the floor around Merrick's ankles, giving him an opening.
Merrick jumps on him as he tries to escape and they get into a fistfight that is interrupted
by the machine exploding; Lincoln tries to run away again and Merrick stops him with
his gun, which he puts down to choke Lincoln with his own hands.
This proves to be a mistake because Lincoln takes the opportunity to steal the gun, shoot
Merrick on the neck and then start to choke him in return.
The two of them fall off the railing when the building continues to collapse, Lincoln
saves himself by holding on to a wire, but Merrick dies when the wire around his neck
strangles him.
All the clones of the facility see the hologram go down and run outside, where they get to
see the real world for the first time in their lives.
Jordan and Lincoln reunite with a kiss, and by sharing a look, they silently thank Laurent
for helping them find freedom.
Sometime later, the couple finds happiness on the boat, just like Lincoln's dreams.