Spoiler Review - Shutter Island

Shutter island is an intriguing thriller, it includes a great deal of mystery and suspense. The opening scene itself creates tension and mystery as the two marshals, Teddy and Chuck, arrive on the island. A big mysterious  boat emerges through the fog and heads towards the dark island in the distance, the two marshals are automatically shown as the main characters; Teddy more than Chuck.

From the first scene on the boat Teddy is made out to be ill in some way, he holds his head  frequently and when arriving in the the office he asks for aspirin. The story then starts to unfold as the two marshals arrive at the mental institution, and are told why they are there. A patient named Rachel had mysteriously disappeared from her room, with the door still looked from the outside and metal bars on the window all heads are spinning as to how Rachel did it. The 'dangerous' women needed to be found as she was in the institution for drowning her own children and setting them up around a table like like where still breathing, the marshals get straight to work and start to investigate the institute, staff members and other patients.

While looking around in Rachel's room Teddy finds a hidden bit of paper with 'who is 67' on it this makes Teddy think very deeply as he suspects this is a very important clue. While the two marshals are investigating there are a few different events which make the viewers wonder,  firstly the marshals are denied any access to any records, the nurse of the missing patient is no longer at the institute and has gone on holiday and Teddy also receives a not from a patient while interviewing them. The clear, engraved message 'run' makes mystery fly around, Is the patient just purely mental? How does Teddy react to this message? What is the patient trying to tell Teddy? And most importantly why is Teddy being told to run?

As anybody would Teddy starts to get suspicious, he confronts his partner and the head of the facility but both tell him he is being silly. To add to Teddy's hectic job, his illness increases, he receives dreadful migraines and starts to have what visions, which are portrayed at flashbacks. At this point in the film it is not clear why Teddy is having the flashbacks as not much information is given away, all that is made clear is that Teddy lost his wife in a house fire. One of the main flashbacks teddy has is a long scene of him and his with, it confuses the audience and doesn't make much sense until the end of the film.



Teddy starts to suspect that experiments are being carried out at the institute on the patients, therefore when the storm breaks out on the island and prevents anybody leaving or entering the island, Teddy uses it to his advantage and starts to dig a little deeper. The storm also disrupts the electric board allowing Teddy and Chuck to enter the forbidden 'block c'. The ward was off limits as it held the most damaged and dangerous patients.

Teddy looks around the ward, and tries as hard as he can to get clues as to what is going on in the institution. Shortly after looking in block c Teddy comes across a light in a cave, leading him to investigate a dangerous cliff edge. Teddy arrives in a gloomy fire light cave home to a dirty old woman who claims to be the missing patient, Rachel. The mystery in the story starts to get deeper as Rachel tells Teddy she is no patient but a doctor at the facility, she also clears up Teddy's thoughts about the experiments as she claims that this is the reason she is now stuck in a cave. Rachel explain to Teddy that he is being drugged, and he should stop taking other peoples cigarettes and medication or he will end up stuck on the island as a patient.

Teddy returns to land confused and unsure what to think, but with the migraines and flashbacks occurring more and more frequently he decides to take Rachel's advice and stop taking objects that could contaminate him. For Teddy things only get worse from here, nobody believes a word he says and he starts to be unsure himself, Teddy tries to make a break for it but as people start telling him he came alone and he has no partner Teddy looses his mind. Teddy runs up to the old lighthouse as this is where he suspects they are carrying out the experiments and he believe he will find his partner there, however he has no idea as to what is round the corner.

The lighthouse scene is where the truth comes out, it is very confusing even after watching it. The story line is extremely well thought out and once you know the truth you start to reply the whole film over in your head. As Teddy goes in to the top room in the lighthouse, the main doctor is sitting at a desk, waiting for him. The doctor is calm and patronising where as Teddy is shaking, confused and unsure of what to believe. The doctor tells Teddy that his real name is Andrew, he is the 67th patient at the institution and he has been on the island for two years. The doctor then goes on to explain that the 'marshal' fantasy was all his own idea, the doctor explain that Andrew, or Teddy as we have known him the whole film. committed a crime so terrible he hasn't been able to forgive himself and therefore created a knew version of himself. Teddy then questions as to where his partner has gone, as he doesn't know what to believe anymore. When the doctor can reveal Chuck unharmed Teddy starts to worry, then as Chuck backs up the doctors story Teddy doesn't know what to do, is he really mental? Is he patient number 67?

Teddy loses it and picks up a gun, with his mind all over the place he doesn't quite know what todo. The worry and hurt in Teddy's eyes is emotional, you can feel how upset and confused he is, Teddy then takes a shot at the doctor however when he looks back two seconds later, he is still alive and well with nothing wrong with him, this makes us take the side of the doctor. Teddy then realises that he didn't actually shoot the doctor and takes a look at his gun, he snaps it in half and then it is revealed that it is in fact a toy. The doctor then approaches Teddy with pictures of his children, this shocks Teddy and he puts his head down gives a sad, depressive look, he takes the pictures almost admitting the fact  he is mental, he then has a hallucination his wife and daughter.

The last scene then goes back to Teddy sitting outside the main building with Chuck, like they are marshals again. However Chuck nods to the doctor insinuating that Teddy, Andrew, is in fact one of the patients at the mental institution. The last words you hear Teddy say are 'What would be worse, living a monster or to die a good man' these are very interesting powerful words that are left in our thoughts.



To conclude the film as a whole, i would say the shutter island cast and crew did a fantastic job of creating a on edge, mysterious film with clues to follow and a story to un fold. Shutter Island is a very unique film and i love the story line and the emotion behind each of the characters. If you haven't watch it yet i would strongly recommend it! I would Rate this film 5 Gold stars out of 5, thats how much i enjoyed it. Heres the trailer for a sneak preview.