By Geno McGahee
Michael Bay gets a lot of shit but he’s been involved in a lot of good films. Flicks like BAD BOYS and THE ROCK are classics and his “more is more” approach to filmmaking is always fun to watch. In 2005, the Bay film “THE ISLAND” was released, mixing the action sequences he’s known for with some mystery and fantasy.
Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) lives in a community that is heavily guarded and controlled. He’s been having strange dreams that he cannot explain and visions of some odd things. He is forced to dress in white, just like everyone else, and believes that he is locked into this bunker because there was a disease that took out humanity and they can only be safe by staying there.
To the thousands living in the community, there is a lottery that will send a lucky member to a place called “the island”, which is supposedly a paradise where they can live out the rest of their days. Lincoln Six Echo begins questioning everything and is finding his way out to meet up with James (Steve Buscemi) and these discussions make him even more suspicious about his surroundings.
While in the community, Lincoln builds a relationship with Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), but any touching is forbidden with proximity violations. Jordan wins the lottery and is going to get a trip to the island, but Lincoln smells a rat and starts to explore, discovering that there is an organ harvesting operation going on and that there is no island. It’s all a lie. I felt so bad when I saw Starkweather Two Delta, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, trying to survive the evil surgeons as they cut into him. They drag him away as he cries and screams and nobody did anguish better than Duncan. For a big guy, he had this kindness always coming out. I wanted him to live here and I wanted him to live in THE GREEN MILE too. Sadly, Duncan died in real life too. That’s three times sad.
Lincoln convinces Jordan to run off with him and escape and they do, but when they discover that the human race is fine and that they’ve been locked from society, they have a hard time acclimating to it. They find James and he reveals that they are clones, creating for harvesting organs and that they have real life counterparts out there that paid for their creation. Lincoln becomes convinced that if he finds the person he was based on, and they realize that they are just like any other human, that it will fix everything.
Albert (Djimon Hounsou) is hired by Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean), the founder of the cloning company, to take down the two escapees and this leads to a lot of great action sequences. When you watch this, you can see so many similarities to BAD BOYS and THE ROCK and even TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE in the approach to the scenes. Bay certainly has a style and he implements it here.
Lincoln and Jordan find Tom Lincoln, also played by McGregor, the man that commissioned the clone and it’s pretty awesome to watch McGregor play a totally likable character and then play a douche. The matter doesn’t go as planned, as Tom proves to be a total dickhead, but it gives Lincoln the opportunity to infiltrate the company and try to free the other clones.
THE ISLAND reminds me of films like SOYLENT GREEN and it’s a very good watch. I’m usually not into the futuristic stuff, but this was an exception. This film checked all the boxes. It was interesting, intense and fun. The only thing that I had hoped for was a more spectacular death for the bad guy in this, but you can’t have it all. Overall, I highly recommend it.
