The Island

(The Island)

Lincoln Six-Echo and Jordan Two-Delta are among the hundreds of residents of a contained facility in the mid-21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, everything about their day-to-day lives is monitored, seemingly for their own good. The only way out—and the hope they all share—is to be chosen to go to the The Island, reportedly the last uncontaminated spot in the world following an ecological disaster that took the lives of everyone on the planet…except them.

Recently plagued by unexplained nightmares, Lincoln is restless and increasingly questioning of the restrictions placed on his life. But he is unprepared for the truth when his growing curiosity leads to the terrible discovery that everything about his existence isa lie, that The Island is a cruel hoax…and that he, Jordan and everyone they know are actually more valuable dead than alive. With time running out, Lincoln and Jordan make a daring escape to the outside world they’ve never known. Once they are away from the prying eyes of the institute, the innocent friendship the two shared begins to deepen into something more. But with the forces of the institute relentlessly hunting them down, Lincoln and Jordan have one overriding mission: to live.

DoctorSF's Words

When the filmmakers first embarked to THE ISLAND they might have thought they were creating a futuristic, science fiction actioner about human cloning that bordered on the impossible. However, following recent revelations in the news, producer WalterF. Parkes only half-jokingly acknowledges, “It turns out we were making a contemporary thriller.” In fact, reality is so quickly catching up with what was once unimaginable that the timeframe was moved up from the late 21st century in which screenwriter Caspian Tredwell-Owen had first set his story. Director/producer Michael Bay states, “We needed to bring it way back to, say, 20 years in the future. It’s a much scarier premise if it’s right around the corner, and it makes it much more accessible.”. THE ISLANDtook the point of view of the clones themselves. That struck us as a great way to tell the story in a much more emotional and personal way, because on one level, this is about science gone awry, but it is also about seeing the world through these innocents’ eyes.”.

The original screenplay first came to director Michael Bay on a very direct route, via DreamWorks principal Steven Spielberg. Bay recalls, “Steven called me up one night and said, ‘I am sending you a script; you have to read it tonight.’ I didn’t get it until about 11:00, and it was 140 pages long, but I read it in one sitting and finished it about 3:00 in the morning. I really liked it, and called later that morning and said, ‘I’ll do it.’” A Los Angeles native, Bay graduated from the prestigious film program at Wesleyan University, and then studied at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design. He directed BAD BOYS (1995) and BAD BOYS II (2003), THE ROCK (1996), starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage, ARMAGEDDON (1998) starring Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck and the epic PEARL HARBOR (2001). For the movie he hired great actors. In 1996, TRAINSPOTTING (1996) brought Ewan McGregor international acclaim and many awardsis an award-winning actor, who is known for both his versatility and eclectic choice of roles. He is perhaps best known to today’s film audiences for his portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas’ second blockbuster STAR WARS trilogy. He most recently reprised the role for the final film in the franchise, REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005).

Besides the scotish actor, Scarlett Johansson, has segued from being an award-winning child actress to one of the most sought-after leading ladies in the industry. A three-time Golden Globe nominee, she gained her latest nomination earlierthis year for her work opposite John Travolta in the independent drama A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG (2004). In 2004, she earned dual Golden Globe nominations: one for the title role in GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (2003) and a second for her performance in Sophia Coppola’s sophomore film, LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003).