The Island (2005)

A man living in a futuristic sterile colony begins to question his circumscribed existence when his friend is chosen to go to the Island, the last uncontaminated place on earth.

Director:

Michael Bay

Writers:

Caspian Tredwell-Owen (screenplay), Alex Kurtzman (screenplay)

Stars:

Scarlett Johansson, Ewan McGregor, Djimon Hounsou

1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ewan McGregor	...	Lincoln Six Echo / Tom Lincoln
Scarlett Johansson	...	Jordan Two Delta / Sarah Jordan
Djimon Hounsou	...	Albert Laurent
Sean Bean	...	Dr. Bernard Merrick
Steve Buscemi	...	James McCord
Michael Clarke Duncan	...	Starkweather Two Delta / Jamal Starkweather
Ethan Phillips	...	Jones Three Echo
Brian Stepanek	...	Gandu Three Echo
Noa Tishby	...	Community Announcer
Siobhan Flynn	...	Lima One Alpha
Troy Blendell	...	Laurent Team Member
Jamie McBride	...	Laurent Team Member
Kevin McCorkle	...	Laurent Team Member
Gary Nickens	...	Laurent Team Member
Kathleen Rose Perkins	...	Laurent Team Member

Storyline

Set in a dystopian future, a group of people work in a facility, essentially as slaves. They do have an incentive though - a regular lottery is held and one of them gets to leave the facility and its restrictions and move to The Island, a paradise. Lincoln Six Echo is one of the workers in the facility and he is infatuated with Jordan Two Delta. His life is fairly uneventful and mundane until Jordan Two Delta gets selected to go to The Island. Then Lincoln starts to discover the truth about the facility and The Island.

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Plot Keywords:

year 2019 | island | clone | same actor playing two characters simultaneously on screen | actress playing dual role | 

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Taglines:

Your time will come...

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Genres:

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

M

Did You Know?

Trivia

The underground compound design is based on ideas regarding bunkers made to keep the president and other government officials alive after an attack for up to two years. That bled into the story too as the company is meant to be in business with the Pentagon studying how to clone an army.

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Goofs

When the security team are returning Jordan Two Delta to Merrick, the pilot of the Helicopter is the same one who was killed earlier in the film when the giant R logo crashed into a previous helicopter, causing it to explode and plummet to the ground.

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Quotes

[first lines]
God-Like Man: You're special. You have a very special purpose in life. You've been chosen. The Island awaits you.

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Connections

Referenced in Eden (2014)

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Soundtracks

Siboney
Written by Ernesto Lecuona & Dolly Morse (as Theodora Morse)
Performed by Connie Francis
Courtesy of Universal Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

A direct rip-off

This movie is a direct rip-off of the 1979 film The Clonus Horror. Here is the IMDb plot summary of that movie.

"Plot Summary for The Clonus Horror (1979) A young man escapes from a government run project called Clonus only to find out that Peter Graves (Jeff Knight) a candidate for Presidency is a conspirator to keep Clonus a secret. Top government officials are aware of it and support the super secret project, because they are cloning themselves to live longer and better lives, at the expense of their clone counter-part, who is no more than a "slave" as far as human rights are concerned. The ethical and moral values are explored as the escapee (Tim Donnelly) known as Richard returns full circle back to Clonus, only to find his girlfriend lobotomized for government security purposes."

It is surprising the creators of The Clonus Horror have not filed a lawsuit. The Island also rips off heavily from The Matrix and Logan's Run, both of which are much superior films.

Directed by Michael Bay, The Island stars Scarlett Johansson (LOST IN TRANSLATION) and Ewan McGregor (STAR WARS) as Lincoln Six Echo/Tom Lincoln and Jordan Two Delta/Sarah Jordan.

Unlike the Clonus Horror, this movie has product placements for the following products, and they are VERY OBVIOUS: Aquafina, Puma shoes, Cadillac, MSN, X-Box, Johnny Rockets. Much of the movie has the philosophical depth of a commercial.

You may remember the joke in This Is Spinal Tap about the amplifier with a volume knob that goes to 11. The volume on this movie is 49.

There are the obligatory car chases and the two stars are wasted in this bombastic mess.

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 July 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

La isla

Filming Locations:

Cook Bank Building, Rhyolite, Nevada, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$126,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,409,070, 24 July 2005

Gross USA:

$35,818,913

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$162,949,164

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dreamworks Pictures, Warner Bros., Parkes/MacDonald Image Nation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

136 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1