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The Island | 2005 | PG-13 | - 5.7.5

Sci-fi thriller about a large community of people who live in an enclosed and protected compound while preparing to go to The Island -- which they think is the only place on Earth that has not been contaminated -- when their names are drawn in a lottery. One of them (Ewan McGregor) has frequent nightmares and begins to ask questions about why they are there, and who chose them to be there and why. He soon discovers that everybody who's there is a clone used to harvest organs and body parts as needed. With his best friend (Scarlett Johansson), he tries to escape and confront those who purchased him. Also with Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean and Steve Buscemi. Directed by Michael Bay. [2:13]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A man and a woman kiss, one says, "the tongue thing is amazing," they continue to kiss, the woman pushes the man back against stairs, and we see them in bed kissing, caressing (we see their bare shoulders) and rolling back and forth on top of each other; one asks, "Why haven't we tried this before?"
 A woman wearing skimpy shorts and a low-cut top (revealing cleavage and bare thighs) dances while men watch. A woman wears a very short skirt and low-cut top that reveals cleavage and bare thighs. A woman wearing a bikini top jogs by, and pictures of women wearing tiny bikinis hang on a wall. A woman's top pulls up and reveals her bare abdomen, and a woman wears a short skirt that reveals bare thighs. A lamp made in the shape of a woman has a skimpy top (revealing cleavage and bare abdomen) and a hula skirt that sways.
 A man walks into a public restroom and sees two men pressed against each other against a wall and he makes the assumption that they are having a sexual encounter.
 A man and a woman kiss in a couple of scenes. A man and a woman touch each other's arms and look into each other's eyes, and a man and a woman hug.
 A man explains to another man that he has a disease caused by having sex with many partners. A man asks a man if he has ever had sex before. A man tells a woman that, "they are going to hack you up," then looks at her and says, "that'll be a shame."

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man lies on an operating table, a doctor prepares to operate, a surgical saw whines, and approaches the man's chest -- a trickle of blood pours down his chest; the man begins to look around, he pulls tubes off his face, sits up and runs out of the room (we see that his chest is very bloody), he runs down the hallway, and he is shot in the back of the legs with taser hooks (we see the hooks pull the skin on his legs) and pulled along the floor (he leaves blood streaks on the floor) while screaming, "I don't want to die." A woman in an operating room holds a bloody organ in her hand, then places it in a bag where it is sealed.
 A man is shot in the back with a taser hook, he falls on the floor, he is pulled back, and two men fight with punches and kicks, and slam each other around; one man is grabbed around the throat, and he shoots the other in the neck with a taser hook (we see blood seep). Huge fans begin to break away from their housing, a fan crashes through a walkway where the two men are fighting, and they both dangle from the cable that's attached to the hook in the neck of one of them (he thrashes and struggles and then dies).
 A man is strapped into a chair by metallic clamps and another man releases tiny organisms (they look like spiders) that crawl up into the man's eye (the man struggles and complains of them hurting).
 We see many liquid-filled sacks with people inside attached to umbilical cords and some people appear to have transparent skin that shows red veins. We see a large, liquid-filled sack with a person inside, a tube is pulled out and blood trickles down the plastic; the sack is punctured by a man with a knife, the liquid pours onto the floor, we see a man covered with slime, and a mask is put over his mouth, while he gags and gasps; he is then branded on the wrist and a metal bracelet is placed over the brand.
 A woman in a delivery room is strapped to a table, she is given an injection and we see her hyperventilate and thrash and then she is still; a doctor covers her with a plastic sheet (a man lifts the sheet off her face and we see that she is dead). A man is injected in the neck, he yells, thrashes, flails and then lies still.
 Many liquid-filled sacks are cut open, the people inside the sacks thrash, twitch and die. Many people strapped onto tables are given injections, they flinch and twitch and die.
 A man is shot in the chest (we see blood on his shirt), he falls to the ground and we see him zipped into a body bag. A man is shot in the chest, he falls over a stair railing and falls hard onto a glass bar that breaks. A man is shot in the leg (we see blood on his pant leg).
 A man and a woman hide in a tool shed, and a man with a gun follows them; the woman uses a nail gun to shoot the man in the hand (we see his hand nailed to the door that he was trying to open and it is covered with blood), and then the man hits him with a crowbar knocking him out.
 Many people go into a large room (it is an incinerator) with a metal door, the door is closed, we see flames and hear people screaming; two people hold guns on the men outside the incinerator, the door is opened, and people come out smoldering and coughing.
 A large truck crashes into a car tearing it in half and presumably killing the two people riding in the front of the car (we do not see them); two other people run and they are shot at.
 A man and a woman are chased by security people with guns, the two are shot at while other people run and scream, and the two crawl through vent shafts; ball bearings spill on the floor, one security guard slips on them and hits his head on a pipe, another is hit in the head with another pipe, and the woman hits another one with a wrench while he is kicking and punching the man.
 A man and a woman speed on a flying vehicle, traveling among cars and elevated trains: they are chased by men in other flying vehicles and are being shot at; one flying vehicle crashes into a train (the vehicle explodes), another vehicle nearly flies into a helicopter, and the man and the woman crash through a glass window, speed through an office, fall out the other side of the building, and the vehicle crashes to the ground -- the man catches onto a ledge and the woman nearly falls to the ground.
 Two people are chased by men in a truck: they hide on the back of a speeding truck, the truck crashes into cars, large metallic train wheels are freed from the back of the truck, they crash onto the highway hitting cars and causing them to flip and burn, one is cut in half, and another truck is hit, it flips and it crashes.
 A man and a woman are shot at by police as they hide on a large letter on a sign on the side of a building: the letter begins to pull away from the building, the two hang on to it as it falls, a helicopter crashes into the letter, and it explodes and falls to the ground; the man and the woman fall, they are caught in a net and get to the ground uninjured.
 Two people on a flying vehicle chase a speeding truck, trying to shoot out its tires; the truck stops, a man on the back of the truck hits one of the people on the flying vehicle with a metal pole knocking him off, and the other flies into a road sign. People in a car are chased by helicopters and trucks.
 A man holds a gun on a man who drives fast through traffic, the man driving bites the hand of the other man (he screams), they are chased by a helicopter that shoots at them, the car crashes, the men get out of the car, and one tackles the other holding him on the ground; then one man hits the other with the gun, and other men come with guns pointed at both men.
 A woman holds a gun on a man, a woman holds a gun on another man who grabs the gun away from her. A man hits another man on the hand with a gun. A man and a woman are surrounded by armed police, they are held at gunpoint, pushed down onto the hood of a car, handcuffed and arrested.
 A man sits on a toilet in a public bathroom stall (we see his boxers around his ankles), another man breaks the door open, picks the man up and slams him into a wall (we see the man's pants still around his ankles). A man swings a golf club at another man.
 A man begins an autopsy and we see the dead person on the table. A man and a woman have cuts and scratches on their foreheads. We see a brand on a man's hand and he talks about the abuse he endured as a child. A rattlesnake lunges at a man.
 A man and a woman use virtual reality to fight with punches and kicks, and they each hit each other in the face and body; the man spits out a tooth and the woman touches her nose as if it is actually bleeding. A man punches a projection screen in an elevator, yells in frustration and he is approached and questioned by two security officers when he gets off the elevator.
 A man has nightmares in several scenes that include frightening sequences of being grabbed off a boat, and pulled into water by men with blue veins showing through their skin; he also sees someone being zipped into a body bag in another nightmare sequence.
 A man tells a woman that, "they are going to hack you up." We see many, many people strapped onto tables watching video screens, and some people jerk and twitch. A pregnant woman falls to the floor holding her stomach (she is starting to go into labor).
 A man urinates and small metallic spider organisms pass from his body (he grimaces and we see the spiders scampering in the urinal). A man urinates and we hear the trickle.

LANGUAGE 5 - 2 F-words, 4 sexual references, 3 scatological terms, 1 anatomical term, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (freak, loser, idiot), 5 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - People drink alcohol in a bar, and two men drink what we are led to believe is alcohol.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Cloning, organ harvesting, greed, curiosity, betrayal, nightmares, the American Dream, fear of death, defiance, lotteries, philandering, aging, eugenics, God complex, having a soul, consciousness, environmental catastrophes, trust, survival.

MESSAGE - Any life (real or cloned) is one that deserves to exist. People will do anything to survive.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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