The Michael Bay Retrospective Series - The Island (2005)

Written In October 2013

There have been many great partnerships in cinema. George Lucas and Harrison Ford. Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan. Joel and Ethan Coen. Andy and Larry/Lana Wachowski.

And then there was Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay.

This director/producer duo managed to churn out both Bad Boys movies, The Rock, Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, this was an alliance the likes of which action cinema had never seen before… Until 2005 when they broke up for good, with Dreamworks Studios’ The Island, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. While I said in my last review that the first movie Bay ever directed was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, I wasn’t truthful, Bay had previously directed his 2001 directorial effort Pearl Harbor, but what was special about the former film and this film is that Texas Chainsaw was his the first time he had input on a film he did not direct, and this was the first one where he didn’t have his best buddy Jerry to guide his hand on either chair. As for the two stars involved?

Well, speaking of George Lucas, Ewan was coming off the last film of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Revenge of the Sith. Scarlett Johansson had already been in two critically praised films that year. Sean Penn had already been a bad guy in 2004’s National Treasure, and tried his luck at the mythological film game by playing Odysseus in Wolfgang Peterson’s Troy. Djimon Hounsou, like Scarlett had no real reason to be here either. Well, let’s move on to the plot summary.

The movie begins with McGregor and Johansonn on a boat somewhere in the ocean. The two about to take the other’s hand when Ewan is tackled and thrown overboard by two muscular bald men. We then cut to Ewan emerging from a pool in a dimly lit metallic room with a man saying you are special, you’ve been chosen, The Island awaits you. We see a series images, including an 8 candle on a birthday cake, chemical waste, Ewan on a motorcycle, two signs reading “happy”, flashes of what just happened on the boat we saw, two bald men with green veins on the back, shoulders and scalp, we then see what happened on the boat in rewind ending Ewan laying back on a bed as a blanket covers him and a pillow sliding under his head. Then finally we see Ewan laying peacefully in bed followed by his startled awakening. We see him scanning his room in a panic. His room is blank white with a small table and chairs in front of a window out looking a beautiful view. Ewan looks up and reads a text on a screen on his wall that reads “Good Morning Lincoln Six Echo.” The screen then reads “Erratic REM Sleep Detected”, Lincoln then spies a metallic bracelet on his wrist and pulls something from it. He sits upright on the bed as the computer then tells him to go to a place called the tranquility center. Lincoln then declares he’s fine out of frustration. We see as the opening progresses that Lincoln seems to be forced to lead a very tightly controlled life style. We then find out that Lincoln and many others are part of colony of survivors of some kind of apocalyptic scenario, where only one area of fresh air exists, dubbed The Island. People compete regularly to go to this island in a lottery, the winner this week a gentleman by the name of Starkweather Two Delta (Michael Clarke Duncan). During a scene where Lincoln tries to get bacon with his breakfast but can’t, a woman called Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) manages to sweet talk her way into getting the guy some bacon for him, much to Lincoln’s delight.

Later in the day Lincoln heads down to a therapy session with a doctor by last named Merrick (Sean Bean). During his session Lincoln expresses great frustration over his lot in life, from the fact that he’s forced to eat tofu, doesn’t know what the hell tofu is, is constantly forced to wear white, doesn’t know who washes his clothes, and doesn’t get any answers about this. And just wishes he had more to look forward to than just going to in life than just going to the island. After Lincoln tells Merrick about his dreams and draws him a picture of the boat with the name Renovatio on the paper the doctor places a number small sensors on our lead character’s optic nerve to allow them to see what he does. After some brief time working, Lincoln heads down to sector six for some so-called tech support where we meet a supervisor named Mac (Steve Buscemi). It’s here where we realize that Lincoln does not know what pornography, liquor and god are. Suddenly while talking to Lincoln, Mac has to leave. Lincoln decides to head back to work when he finds a moth, which he takes with him in a matchbox. We then cut to Mac during his job where we see a man being cut out of a plastic bag full of water with a breathing apparatus attached to him. The man is checked out by a doctor and then declared A-OK, a mark is burned into his wrist and a bracelet like the ones Lincoln and the other inhabitants wear. We then pan away toward an entire room full of what appear to be adult sized fetuses in the same water filled plastic bags the unnamed man was in. We pan up to a series of tubes they’re attached to leading up to the tubes where Lincoln was just working. We then cut back to Lincoln’s room where he places the moth in his flower vase, staring it with fascination.

Later we see Jordan and Lincoln having MMA style cage match with holographic versions of themselves. Jordan wins, obviously, because she’s Black Widow. As the night progresses Lincoln tells Jordan about the moth he found, he expresses suspicion over how that can be so. Jordan chastises him for only looking for the bad things in life. A little later, Jordan wins the lottery and Lincoln congratulates her.

Later that night Lincoln has another dream where the same man from his last dreams tells him the spiel about the island while two men with gloves cover his face, with flashes of the boat on the ocean, a hand against his window, and the words “obedient”, “stop”, and “lucky”. Lincoln then wakes up. Lincoln then runs back down to tech support with a supervisor key, he frees the moth then travels up the ladder he found it by. At the end of the ladder he finds a white hallway with a glass door in front of him. Lincoln travels through the hallway and finds a room where a pregnant woman from earlier has just given birth to her child. The woman asks if she can hold her baby, the staff gently reply not yet, they then wrap her ankles in restraints as in they inject a poison into her ivy, killing her quickly. We then watch as one of the doctors hands the baby to an interracial couple with a woman who looks exactly like the one who was just killed. We then cut to another room, where Starkwheather Two Delta is undergoing surgery for his liver to be removed. Starkwheather awakens and tries to make an escape but is intercepted. He pleads for his life in a truly horrifying and gut wrenching scene. Lincoln reacts with intense horror etched on his face. Lincoln then makes a mad run back home. Meanwhile Merrick comes by to oversee the incident where the doctor quickly spots Lincoln on the footage of the incident and tries to catch him.

Lincoln once back at the barracks goes to the female tower and tries to get Jordan to come with him since she just won the island. While escaping the duo encounter a room full of people on operating tables with screens over their heads projecting words and images onto their faces with a recording being played, saying the exact words from Lincoln’s dreams. Once out of harm’s way, Lincoln somewhat gladly asks Jordan is she still think there’s an island. Sometime later, we cut to a black room with atmospheric lighting with the front wall being covered with black and white photos, as Merrick exposits about the idea of what they do exactly is. His business partner then approaches him suggesting that they try to make some sales so as to turn their bad day into a great day. Merrick continues to explain what they do, essentially telling us that they create clones. Merrick then greets Albert Laurent (Djimon Hounsou), a French mercenary who’s been hired to track down Lincoln and Jordan.

Lincoln and Jordan find a bar Mac attends frequently based on the matchbox from earlier, Lincoln upon seeing Mac confronts him immediately. Mac then explains to them they are in fact clones and that whatever things they think they remember are actually imprinted on their minds to give them a sort sense of self. He tells them they’re grown for rich people so that they can live longer. Jordan and Lincoln then conclude that they need to confront their sponsors to hopefully find a way to pull the plug on Merrick. Reluctantly Mac agrees to help. Mac escorts them to train station to LA to meet up with Six Echo’s sponsor Tom Lincoln. He warns them when Laurent’s men arrive only to be shot for his trouble.

Meanwhile Merrick begins to grow concerned over the maturity level of Six Echo given that the word on his drawing, Renovatio, is Latin and none of the clones have ever been imprinted with knowledge of Latin. While trying to look up info on their sponsors, Six Echo and Two Delta are flagged by police for Mac’s murder. Laurent informs Merrick of this who does not take the news well, informing him that when they run DNA tests it’ll tie them back to their sponsors and their entire operation goes up in smoke. He then instructs Laurent to use whatever force needed to make sure they are not taken in by the police. Laurent responds in kind, which prompts an exciting on foot/car chase sequence, ending with the two clones stealing a flight scooter and moving off to safety. In the mean time Merrick confronts another clone called Gandu Three Echo (Brian Stepanek) who was a good friend of Six Echo. When talking, Gandu admits he’s suspicious of what’s going on. Merrick then kills Gandu to keep him from letting anyone else in on his suspicions. During the scene though, we get the hint through Merrick’s dialogue and Sean Bean’s delivery of it, that he may be a clone as well. After this we learn that Six Echo has thirty years worth of actual memories in his brain as opposed to just three. Merrick is not pleased.

Meanwhile, we finally meet Tom Lincoln, where we find out that the man designs vehicles for a living and is something a womanizer, who has hepatitis. After seemingly convincing him to help, Tom calls Merrick and tells him that he’ll turn Six Echo in. Two Delta realizes he’s deceiving them through his facial expression. Six Echo tells her that he’ll go she’ll stay behind. The two Lincoln begin driving to NBC when Laurent catches them, leading to another great but brief action sequence, where Tom’s true intentions are shown to Six Echo. At the end of which the two Lincoln’s scuffle with the original being shot and killed by Laurent in a sneaky move by Six Echo. After this, we cut back to Merrick where it’s revealed that the entire Echo generation and all subsequent ones have the same defect as Lincoln, meaning they’ll have to be recalled and destroyed. Thinking he’s Tom, Merrick’s business partner is informed informs Six Echo of this.

The two clones decide to go help their old friends and begin an assault, with Six Echo coming in as Tom and Two Delta being captured by Laurent. The two quickly make their way through the building with Six Echo heading for Sector Six. In the mean time Laurent confronts Merrick noting that both of their careers deal in killing. Merrick insists it’s more than that, with Laurent remarking the simply wishes to become God. Immediately after, Merrick is informed that Tom Lincoln was killed, not Six Echo. We cut back to Two Delta, who having now teamed up with Laurent, frees the clones who were about to be exterminated. Meanwhile however, Merrick confronts Six Echo, inquiring why he came back when he could have just taken over Tom Lincoln’s life. Six Echo destroys the holographic projector and kills Merrick, while the other clones attempt to confront what in God’s name is going on. The film ends with Lincoln and Jordan reuniting while Laurent nods in acknowledgment of them and credits roll.

I’ll just come right and say it, this film is smart. I hesitate to call it intelligent, because I think the bigger the adjective, the stronger the word is, and I don’t feel the need to use an especially strong adjective here. But grammar politics aside, this is not terrible movie, and that is a relief after watching Armaggedon, Pearl Harbor, and Bad Boys II, one after the other. And while I’d say the performances in general are pretty good, by far the best performance I’ve ever seen in a Michael Bay is the one Michael Clarke Duncan gives. When we first see him on the TV screen expressing such joy and delight at the thought of going to the one last place where you can breath in the air and swim in the ocean. And when we next see him, he’s crying, begging and pleading for his life, screaming that he doesn’t want to die. That’s not only powerful on a basic level of not wanting to die, it’s even more powerful when you realize that this man thought he was going to a paradise and is instead being forced to undergo painful surgery with no anesthesia. Poor guy.

Also, this is one of only two movies I’ve seen Djimon Hounsou in, the other being Gladiator, and I gotta say he does great work here. I gotta say he’s my second favorite character of the movie behind Mac, who I love simply because I love Steve Buscemi. And Sean Bean is fantastic in this film! He’s a great Victor Frankenstein analogue, a scientist who wants to learn the secret to cheating death and in the process winds up killing himself. And the moment where we see the two Ewan McGregors on screen together is great, where we see all the unique similarities and differences between the two.

Overall, this film was a nice relief from the three craptastic movies I’d just endured. I’m giving The Island a 4.5 out of 5.