2h 16m
Director: Michael Bay

The Island posits a society where everyone lives in an enclosed environment, earth is contaminated and there are 'lotteries' which allow you to win a place on 'The Island', a beautiful paradise which is Earths last pathogen free zone.

Tom keeps having nightmares where he is on board a luxury boat and then he ends up drowning, he is also frustrated with his tedious existence in the facility where he feels his only purpose is to wait to win the Island lottery. In his dream, he is on the boat with Sarah, his love interest.

Tom is friends with James (Steve Buscemi) who is a maintenance worker which allows him to explore areas outside of the main facility and allows him to discover a live butterfly indicating that the external world is perhaps not contaminated.

There are several moments in the film where it is implied that something darker might be going on. It is quite interesting to hear the various theories and explanations invented by the clones to try to explain their circumstances.

Sarah wins the lottery which motivates Tom to go exploring, he discovers a heavily pregnant woman who was going to the Island having just given birth, euthanized (so the corporation is offering surrogate mothers) and he sees a previous lottery winner running for his life during his organ harvesting.

Tom realises he must save Sarah before they take her away to harvest her organs.

We eventually realise that we have been viewing the world from the perspective of a clone, bred for its organs and kept healthy in a secret facility. The lottery is just a way of plucking clones from the facility once their organs become useful.

It turns out that Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean) has been hatching the clones rather than keeping them in a vegetative state until required which is highly illegal. For this reason, what is initially a chase to re-capture the clones (Sarah's sponsor / client has been seriously injured and desperately needs those organs) quickly turns into an assassination mission when the authorities arrest the clones because Dr. Merrick can't risk being caught. If the authorities discover the clones then Dr. Merrick is in a lot of trouble.

Tom and Sarah make their way to Tom's sponsor's house hoping to leverage his help in escaping from their predicament. The sponsor betrays the clones which ultimately ends in the 2 Toms fighting and Tom (the clone) putting his wrist identifier on his sponsor's wrist to trick the pursuing mercenaries into thinking that the sponsor is the clone. They kill the sponsor.

Tom intercepts a call to his sponsor where he learns that all the clones are to be 'recalled' (killed).
This of course includes un-hatched clones too. Tom feels motivated to help his former compadres.

There are several moments in the film where some kind of telepathic connection between the sponsor and the clone is implied. Tom knows the latin name of the boat that his sponsor owns, how to ride a flying motorcycle and how to drive a car - there is a later scene where a doctor shows that recent brain scans include new memories that the clone has not had.

In the end there is a face-off between Tom (McGregor) and Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean). Given Sean Bean's pedigree for the survival of his characters I'll let you see if you can guess how that turns out.

The clones ultimately escape and we end with Tom's dream on the boat being implied.

In conclusion, I love this film. It does explore the ethics of cloning but there are also obvious parallels between the way that clones are educated (using 'memory imprints') with specific experiences in exactly the same way that all children in the western world are 'educated'. This raises the question of whether westerners are really cattle conforming to the 'education' given to them by society. I wouldn't blame anyone for rejecting that notion because it cheapens our own existence - but I would remind you that truthfully, we are on a piece of rock tumbling through space at 67,000 mph, which raises the question. "what exactly are you worrying about?".



Trailer: