Tagline: Plan Your Escape.
The Island movie storyline. Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) is a resident of a seemingly utopian but contained facility in the mid-21st century. Like all of the inhabitants of this carefully controlled environment, Lincoln hopes to be chosen to go to the “The Island”—reportedly the last uncontaminated spot on the planet. But Lincoln soon discovers that everything about his existence is a lie.
He and all of the other inhabitants of the facility are actually human clones whose only purpose is to provide “spare parts” for their original human counterparts. Realizing it is only a matter of time before he is “harvested,” Lincoln makes a daring escape with a beautiful fellow resident named Jordan Two-Delta (Johansson). Relentlessly pursued by the forces of the sinister institute that once housed them, Lincoln and Jordan engage in a race for their lives to literally meet their makers.
The Island is a 2005 American science fiction-thriller film directed by Michael Bay, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. It was released on July 22, 2005 in the United States, and was nominated for three awards, including the Teen Choice Award.
The film cost $126 million to produce. It earned only $36 million at the United States box office, but earned $127 million overseas, for a $162 million worldwide total. The original score for the film was composed by Steve Jablonsky, who would go on to score Bay’s further works. It was also the first film directed by Bay that was not produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
Island Formation
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 Walter F. 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.”
Parkes adds, “We’re living in a time when scientific advancements are happening at hyper-speed; it’s a geometric progression, so the story became less astounding the further we pushed it into the future. Given the developments we’ve been hearing and reading about in the news, it’s entirely conceivable that this could happen in 15 or 20 years or so. We’re not saying it’s going to happen to this degree…but it’s technically possible.”
Caspian Tredwell-Owen asserts, “Human cloning is going to happen, it’s inevitable. Someone is going to do it—legally or illegally—it is just a question of who does it first. Science is fueled by curiosity, but to a certain extent, it is also fueled by demand, and the demand is there. We can already grow human organs in bits and pieces outside of the body, but what if you could have a duplicate, an exact match, who could give you any organ or part of his body without any apparent ramifications?”
When the original screenplay for “The Island” was brought to the attention of producer Walter F. Parkes and executive producer Laurie MacDonald, they had already been trying to develop a very different story about human cloning. Parkes offers, “What immediately intrigued us about this script was that, instead of taking the perspective of a researcher or outside observer, ‘The Island’ took 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.”
“We felt strongly that the reveal had to happen through the eyes of our main character, Lincoln, because the audience would be so closely tied to him,” says screenwriter Alex Kurtzman. “Through Lincoln, they will know early in the first act that something feels wrong…and today’s audiences are very savvy, so they will probably jump to the worst possible conclusion. But, that said, the revelation happening from Lincoln’s point of view is stunning.”
His partner, screenwriter Roberto Orci, agrees. “Seeing it through his eyes is the reason it comes as a shock, even if you think you know. The first half hour or so of the movie commits itself to this other reality, and you might expect it to continue in a linear way and assume you know where it’s going, but you don’t. That was all Caspian, and it’s brilliant because the audience shares in the discovery.”
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.’”
Parkes says there were several reasons Michael Bay was the only director considered to helm “The Island.” “He has the focus, the drive, the creativity, the confidence, and the technical expertise to handle a production this size, so it was a perfect match. This movie came with huge production challenges—many locations, hundreds of extras, massive sets, digital effects, physical effects… just about everything. There is a very short list of directors who are capable of dealing with all of that without being buried by it.
I mean, there are a lot of people who understand digital effects or know how to do a chase scene, but the challenges can be so great that they get in the way of the sheer exuberance of the scene itself. Michael can do it all—he literally knows everybody’s job on the set—and he just exudes a certain kind of energy from the director’s chair…not that he ever sits down,” Parkes laughs. “In a lot of ways, he’s like a big kid with a wonderful sense of playfulness. It set a tone and brought great energy and excitement to the set, which I think translates to the film. It’s a very infectious thing.”
“I think Michael is a great director,” producer Ian Bryce states. “He’s a gifted artist with an amazing eye; he really knows how to shoot, and he shoots fast. In many respects, he’s a producer’s dream, because he comes in prepared and ready to go, and he can get through an enormous amount of work in a day. For me, it was a terrific experience working with him.”
From the moment he came onto “The Island,” Bay knew he had to balance two different approaches to the film. “I wanted to make a fun, enjoyable summer movie, but there is also a very human core to the story that deals with the whole question of, if we could have a clone, would we? We definitely did not intend to beat people over the head with it, but I wanted to give audiences a taste of the moral question…and then take them on a ride.”
Island Inhabitants
The juxtaposition of an action-packed futuristic thriller and a contemplative drama that poses a moral question being raised in today’s news was an aspect of the film that intrigued actor Ewan McGregor and drew him to the role of Lincoln Six-Echo in “The Island.” “I’m always looking for something different, and this was a big American action film, but with something at the heart of it, which isn’t always the case,” McGregor says. “I thought the exploration of human cloning taken to extremes was really interesting in and amongst a full-on action film, and it’s the kind of role I haven’t really done before.”
McGregor continues, “I play a guy called Lincoln, and he lives in an ordered, regimented society, where everything is decided for them—what they wear, what they eat, where they work… Everything is controlled by someone else. They have been told that the outside world has been contaminated, except for one beautiful paradise, which is The Island. Periodically, there is a lottery and if they win, they will go to The Island, where their job is to repopulate the planet…which is nice work if you can get it,” he smiles. “They believe they are living to go to The Island, and whereas everyone else seems to be fairly satisfied with that, my character is the one who rocks the boat a bit and starts asking questions: Why are things this way? Who decides?”
Parkes reveals that, unbeknownst to Lincoln, his full name, Lincoln Six-Echo, indicates that he is a fifth-generation, or echo-level, clone; and science, in its endless pursuit of progress, had unwittingly given his generation what might actually turn out to be a fatal flaw. “Lincoln and others like him are blessed—or perhaps cursed—with a very dangerous character trait in this particular world: curiosity. So now, he has become the squeaky wheel.”
“They’ve made different generations of clones, and the echo generation they made a little too good,” Bay expounds. “There is genetic DNA imbedded in Lincoln’s memory, and he’s starting to have dreams that are making him more restless. He wishes there were something more; he just doesn’t know what. Ewan is a very talented actor, and he also has an innocence about him, a childlike quality that made him perfect for this role.”
Lincoln’s curiosity turns to suspicion when he finds a living clue that all is not what it seems. He goes on a fact-finding hunt that leads to a far more terrible truth than he could have imagined. McGregor says, “Lincoln discovers it’s all a huge lie. The people who win the lottery don’t go to The Island. The Island doesn’t exist. When his friend Jordan is chosen to be the next to go, Lincoln knows he has to get her out of there.”
Jordan is Jordan Two-Delta, a fellow resident of the facility, who shares a close friendship with Lincoln, although she does not share his more suspicious nature. Scarlett Johansson, who stars as Jordan, observes, “Jordan is very sweet and innocent. She knows nothing other than the containment she’s been living in, apart from the world that she was told has been contaminated.”
Bay notes, “Jordan is completely passive about the restrictions on her life. She believes there is an island, but she has a bond with Lincoln that makes her go along with him when he tells her, ‘There is no island; you have to trust me.’”
Johansson adds, “Jordan is shocked, but every instinct tells her to go with him, so she does. She trusts him more than as a friend. They are attracted to each other—not really physically; it’s more of a soulful connection. They don’t know anything about sexual intimacy. They are totally naïve because they have been living in a kind of plastic bubble with no knowledge of the outside world. It’s a wonderful love story in a way, because it shows that, against all odds, people who are supposed to come together, will.”
Johansson says that the development of her character’s relationship with Lincoln is only one of the things that brought her to “The Island.” “I am a big fan of genre movies, and when I read the script, I was excited to know what was going to happen next. I really wanted to work with Ewan and Michael, too, so all of those elements made me want to do this movie.”
Bay remarks that casting Scarlett opposite Ewan was based largely on instinct. “Once we had Ewan, we knew we had to find someone who was not only a good actress, but would pair up well with him. I hadn’t met Scarlett before, but I knew she was a very fine actress. Sometimes you have to take a gamble when you try to find a good onscreen pairing, but Ewan and Scarlett ended up having great chemistry.”
When we meet Lincoln, Jordan and their fellow residents, they are watching a recorded message from a former inhabitant named Starkweather, who is elated to have been chosen to go The Island. Later, it is seeing Starkweather’s actual fate that opens Lincoln’s eyes to the truth behind the lie. Starkweather is played by Michael Clarke Duncan, who states, “My character sets things in motion. One minute he’s saying ‘I’ll see you on The Island,’ and then he wakes up on an operating table. He sits up and just starts running for his life. He’s scared to death and he’s thinking, ‘Where am I? You told me I was going to The Island. This can’t be it.’”
Duncan only worked on “The Island” for two days, but Michael Bay, who had previously directed him in “Armageddon,” made sure they were memorable. “Mike will tell you I tortured him for those two days,” Bay laughs. “I made him run, I made him cry, I made him be strapped down on that table for like eight hours, until he was saying, ‘You get one more take,’ and I’d say, ‘Come on, Mike, give me five more.’ I just love messing with him.”
“Michael Bay is a piece of work,” Duncan counters. “The few days I was there, he was always thinking of something new to do to me. Actually, I give him a hard time, but I really think he is one of the greatest directors of our time.”
The inhabitants of the sterile, contained facility have no way of knowing that they are living deep beneath an uncontaminated outside world…or that above them is a complex known to that world as Merrick Biotech. The residents only know the name Merrick as that of the man who seems to take a somewhat benevolent, albeit intrusive, interest in their health and well-being.
In fact, Merrick’s only interest in the residents, or “agnates,” as they are called, is in protecting his extremely valuable investments until they become due. He has seen to it that the outside world is as unaware of the agnates—at least as being awake and aware— as the all-too-conscious agnates are of them.
Cast in the role of Merrick, Sean Bean explains, “Merrick is deceiving his paying clients that Merrick Biotech is cloning organs that lie in a vegetative state, in compliance with the eugenics laws set in 2015 to govern human cloning. But Merrick learned that organs kept in that condition failed, so the agnates are conscious, which is highly illegal.”
Despite this, Parkes states, “Merrick is a brilliant man who believes he’s ultimately doing the right thing. Like the best villains, he is not evil, just terribly misguided. In his soul, he thinks he is improving humanity by pushing science to its very limit.”
Bean agrees that Merrick’s motives, while questionable, are not wholly amoral. “He is a pioneer in his field, and he believes what he is doing is for the good of people. I think he’s a likable chap, although there is a clinical air about him…quite cold and businesslike. I found him to be an interesting character.”
“Sean Bean is very cool, but he’s got that sophisticated thing about him,” Bay comments. “He played Merrick as polished, but not evil. It is in his performance that you really see that Merrick is a guy who believes he is doing right.”
The only person in the institute whom Lincoln truly trusts is a worker named McCord, who has befriended Lincoln and occasionally even sneaks him contraband, like liquor. “McCord is one of the few people around who makes the mistake of fraternizing with the ‘products,’” Bay notes. “He feels guilty about what’s going on in this facility. He knows it’s not right, but he does his job anyway, because it’s the only job out there.”
From the start, Michael Bay had only one name in mind for the part of McCord: Steve Buscemi, with whom he had worked on “Armageddon.” “Steve is the man,” says Bay. “He literally was the part; it was totally geared for him. He brought humor to the role, which was great because he had a lot of exposition to get out, but Steve is the type of guy who can humanize anything. He is just one of the finest actors out there.”
Buscemi offers, “It’s fun working with Michael because he’ll throw things in at the last minute or ask me to come up with something on the spot. We always get what’s in the script, but he’s not afraid to try something new or different, so you never know what to expect.”
When Lincoln and Jordan make their daring escape, Lincoln knows he has only one place to turn for help, and seeks out McCord. Buscemi relates, “He is desperate for answers, so he tracks McCord down. But McCord knows it means really big trouble that they are out in the real world because no one on the outside is supposed to know they exist. It also means McCord is dead if he’s caught with them. It’s a huge problem, but, on the other hand, he can’t not help them. To him, they are human beings, too. So, against his better judgment, he decides to help them, even though he is putting his own life in danger.”
McCord is correct in his assumption that the agnates are being hunted down and that anyone in the way is in mortal danger. Merrick, however, cannot turn to the authorities for help for fear his own illegal activities would be exposed. Instead, he enlists the services of an elite security squad, headed up by Albert Laurent, played by Djimon Hounsou.
“I wanted real badasses to be chasing them,” Bay asserts. “Through my films, I’ve worked with a lot of Navy SEALs and other special forces guys. Some of them go on to be independent contractors, which means they get paid more and get to play by what they call ‘big boy rules.’ That was the tack I wanted to take with Laurent and his team.”
Hounsou remarks, “Laurent was in the French special forces, but now he’s pretty much a mercenary. To him it’s just business, so he’s comfortable with the job he has to do. His mission is to catch the agnates or eliminate them at all costs, because the implications of what could happen if they’re discovered are unimaginable.
Unfortunately, Merrick forgot to brief him on some of the issues about these two escapees and what they are capable of. When he finds out the truth, Laurent starts to feel conflicted about it, because he realizes they are dealing with human beings here.”
Producers Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald have had a long history with Hounsou, which began with his first major role in “Amistad” and continued in “Gladiator.” Parkes notes, “To watch this extraordinary actor develop before our eyes has been great. It’s interesting because he has such a commanding physical presence and he’s playing such a badass here, which is completely at odds with who he is as a person. Djimon is one of the sweetest people on the planet. The fact that there is a conflict between the toughness of his character and the sensitivity of the man inside is part of what makes Laurent so intriguing onscreen.”
Hounsou and the other actors playing Laurent’s security team were aided by veteran Special Ops technical advisor Harry Humphries, a former Navy SEAL and warfare specialist who had previously lent his expertise to several films, including the Michael Bay-directed “Pearl Harbor,” “Armageddon” and “The Rock.” Mixed in with the professional actors were current and former members of the military and law enforcement agencies, who added authenticity to the film’s crack security unit.
Island Hopping
“The Island” takes place in two distinct worlds—the regimented, monochromatic, manufactured world of the institute’s residential facility, dubbed Centerville by the filmmakers, and the colorful, unpredictable world outside. Every aspect of the production was deliberately crafted to reflect the disparate natures of these two milieus.
Director of photography Mauro Fiore says that he and Michael Bay discussed how to modify the lighting and the camera work to convey the division. “The underground environment is artificially lit, so we wanted it to feel very clinical…much more about white light, lacking in color. But when the agnates discover the outside world, there is an oversaturation of color because they are experiencing the sun and nature for the first time. We wanted to maintain that contrast with the camera as well. In the beginning of the film, we are in this controlled environment, so our approach was to not move the camera in any chaotic way and to keep it more formal and objective. Later, as we get into the outside world, the approach was much more kinetic and subjective, using more hand-held cameras.”
Filming on “The Island” began in fall 2004 in the deserts of California and Nevada, where Lincoln and Jordan first emerge from the containment facility into the world above. Walter Parkes offers, “Michael liked the idea that when the characters first escape from their confinement, they are in an inhospitable world—not one that’s been destroyed by pollution, but in no way welcoming. It gives us a two-step reveal. First they come out and realize they are able to breathe the air, but it is still the threatening landscape of the southwestern desert. Then, when they get to Los Angeles, they are like kids in a candy store. It’s a world they could never even have imagined.”
During post production, visual effects supervisor Eric Brevig and the effects team from Industrial Light & Magic would embellish the barren desert landscape. They digitally added 100-foot wide intake fans that keep the secret facility below ventilated, as well as the futuristic mag-lev train, which transports Lincoln and Jordan to Los Angeles.
The desert locations served as the backdrop for the first of many sequences involving the talents of frequent Michael Bay collaborator Alan Purwin, the film’s aerial coordinator, and his team of fellow pilots. Purwin’s helicopters were used both on camera by Laurent’s security team in their pursuit of the escaped agnates, and off camera to provide the dramatic air-to-ground and air-to-air aerial photography. The black choppers in Laurent’s unit, called Whispers, marked the film debut of the state-of-the-art Eurocopter EC120, one of the quietest helicopters ever made, which is equipped with the latest in hi-tech gadgetry and can easily cruise at speeds of 150 miles per hour.
After a week of desert filming, the cast and crew relocated to Detroit, Michigan, which doubled for the Los Angeles of the not-too-distant future. Producer Ian Bryce says, “We scouted all over the country to find a city that could ‘play’ Los Angeles, and found Detroit to be the closest aesthetic match to downtown L.A. in terms of the architecture. The city was also very flexible and gave us a great deal of cooperation and control.”
Bay adds, “Detroit is reminiscent of Los Angeles, and they were amazing enough to let me shut down eight blocks at a time and control the streets for as long as I needed to. I really liked shooting in Detroit…except for the cold,” allows the Los Angeles bornand- bred director.
Beginning several weeks ahead of the main company’s arrival in Detroit, the design team redressed areas of the city, fitting them with appropriate signage and other trappings of a near-future urban metropolis.
Production designer Nigel Phelps observes, “Detroit has a classic, timeless look, which made it a perfect canvas. We brought in all of the slightly futuristic foreground elements, like traffic lights, bus stops, etc., to make it look just ahead of contemporary. The idea was that we could then digitally juxtapose all of our futuristic architectural designs on top of the existing buildings.”
Brevig says, “Obviously, our real world isn’t in the future, so I still needed to augment reality with buildings and transportation devices that don’t yet exist. But instead of creating it all in the computer, if you can start with a real photographed background, you always end up with a more realistic result.”
One of the movie’s key scenes was shot at the former site of the Michigan Central Station, a circa 1913 Beaux Arts Classic train station designed by the legendary architectural firm of Warren & Wetmore. Abandoned since 1988, the historic building served as the setting for the climactic confrontation between Lincoln Six-Echo and his “sponsor,” Tom Lincoln, both portrayed by Ewan McGregor.
Ewan McGregor reveled in the chance to play the two different roles, and despite their being physically identical, the actor had some thoughts on how to make them distinct individuals. “One idea I brought to the table was for Tom to be Scottish, while Lincoln, because he’s been brought up in an American society, would have an American accent. I also wanted Tom to be different from Lincoln in his attitude. Tom is rich, arrogant and selfish. Every picture in his apartment is of himself. He is the opposite of Lincoln, who seems to be quite sensitive.”
“We made Tom Lincoln a real smarmy guy,” Bay confirms. “I loved how Ewan kept working on his characters to give them completely separate personalities.”
Once again, visual effects came into play in making the pivotal scenes between Lincoln Six-Echo and Tom Lincoln work seamlessly onscreen. Brevig explains, “Usually when you have one actor playing two characters, you try to keep them from appearing to touch each other because it’s very difficult to do. So, of course Michael blocked it so that one Lincoln is holding the other Lincoln’s wrist, which would be hard enough, but the camera is dollying all over while they’re doing this.” Nevertheless, he acknowledges, “I knew it would be more believable to the audience if we could make this work, so I came up with a method—using motion control cameras and very precise choreography—to allow one Lincoln played by Ewan to be holding onto the other Lincoln, also played by Ewan, and it’s all happening right there in front of you.”
Michael Bay expounds, “Motion control is where you have the camera on a track and it’s timed so each take is identical. We did it once with Ewan playing one role, and again with him playing the other. You see the shadows cross and the eye lines match, and it’s not done with any kind of 3D effects; it’s sheer timing.”
Being a rich playboy of the futuristic western world, Tom Lincoln would naturally indulge in the best of everything, including his modes of transportation. Creating a car that reflected his wealth and personality, however, proved to be one of the filmmakers’ biggest challenges. “We kept designing cars, and I kept throwing them out,” Bay remarks. “We just weren’t getting the quality I wanted.”
Working in Motor City, the director took advantage of his connections with some of the top car designers in the world. “I have a good relationship with GM from my other movies, and I’ve also done commercials for them, so I asked them what concept cars they had. They showed me some stuff and, of course, I went for the most expensive concept car they had in the shop: the Cadillac CIEN. It’s a beautiful gull-wing…one of a kind. I have no idea what the final tally on the cost was; they stopped counting when they got to seven million. I personally gave them my word that I would guard that thing with my life, so you’d see me on the set, ‘Get that stand away from that car! Move that light back!’ One crew member started to get in with muddy feet and I was like, ‘Dude! Did you not hear me say it is a seven million dollar car?!?’”
End at the Beginning
The final weeks of principal photography were spent filming the interior scenes of the movie, most of which take place at the beginning of the film in the containment facility known to the filmmakers, cast and crew as Centerville. A seamless blend of enormous practical sets and computer-generated surroundings, the underground city consists of three many-storied residential towers framing a common work and play area called the Central Atrium.
Production designer Nigel Phelps says, “We wanted Centerville to look like something the military might have once built to house up to 100,000 people in the event of some catastrophe. Then, prior to the start of our story, it was converted into this futuristic spa-like environment, where the inhabitants believe they are living on the surface and have no idea it’s really an underground ex-military facility.”
Phelps researched military and modern engineering projects to design a credible underground city. “Michael had a great book on enormous underground structures, which was very influential. I also looked at the design of North Sea oil rigs, which are these amazing looking structures, with concrete towers several hundred feet high before they are submerged. I was basically looking at any buildings that were massive in order to make our environment more believable.”
Phelps designed Centerville in concrete, glass and steel, with clean lines and hard edges and almost completely lacking in color, firmly establishing the contrast between the controlled atmosphere of the facility and the chaotic world Lincoln and Jordan would eventually face outside. The agnates can see the blue sky through the windows, unaware that what they are looking at is merely a holographic projection to sustain the illusion that they are living on the surface.
The production designer also worked closely with costume designer Deborah L. Scott to carry over the design scheme to the uniforms worn by the residents and staff. Scott offers, “I couldn’t put too much color into that setting, or it would take away from the stark architectural look that Nigel had going on. My job was to create costumes that would blend in. If we had put somebody in there dressed in bright yellow or red, we’d have ruined the overall palette of what we were trying to create. But rather than just being solid white, the uniforms have small splashes of colored fabric and pattern lines, which give them a graphic element.”
Recognizing that the same costume had to be worn by different actors as well as the hundreds of extras, Scott acknowledges, “The agnate costume is not the easiest thing to wear. We had a lot of people looking at us like, ‘White stretch? Are you kidding?’ It was a big challenge to come up with a design that looked good on so many different body types. We ended up deciding on a simple, clean unisex design that is slightly body conscious, but has a functional feel.”
The sets that comprised Centerville were constructed at Downey Studios, an 80- acre former NASA/Boeing aerospace facility, which is now the largest filming space to be found in the Los Angeles area. Five months in the making, the sets occupied both of the studio’s vast buildings, with the largest set, the Central Atrium, erected in the cavernous 627,000-square-foot Building One. Bay comments, “I told Nigel that, instead of having everything broken up into different sets, I wanted it all to connect so it would appear even bigger and longer. It turned out to be the largest set I’ve ever filmed on. I was actually intimidated to shoot on it because it was five football fields long, and I had no idea how we were even going to light it.”
The Atrium’s Nutrition Plaza, where the agnates gather to eat, was built in the 65,000-square-foot water tank—the largest in North America—which is located in Building One and was obviously emptied for the duration of filming. Merrick’s office was specifically designed to reflect his position, right down to the carefully chosen Picasso on the wall. “He is a brilliant businessman,” Bay observes. “I wanted him to have impeccable taste. He is catering to the very wealthiest people in the world, and he has to pose a very spit-and-polished image.”
Downey Studios’ somewhat smaller Building Two was the site of two of the more elaborate and futuristic sets: the Incubation Silo, which housed the incubating agnates; and the Foundation Room, where the newly “born” agnates are implanted with memories of lives that never were. Except for some extras in the Foundation Room, the agnate bodies—some seen in various stages of development—were created by renowned creature effects artist Greg Nicotero and his team at KNB EFX Group. In producing the bodies, Nicotero took some inspiration from the recent California Science Museum exhibit, “Body Works: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies.”
In the film, we witness an agnate’s “birth,” which takes place in the Product Extraction Room. Bay was very specific about the attitude he wanted conveyed during this revealing moment. “I wanted it to be as if the birthing process was being done by truck drivers. I wanted it to feel mundane, just like it’s any other job that someone does every day. I once asked Caspian (Tredwell-Owen), ‘Give me your theory on what this movie is about.’ I loved what he said: ‘We all eat meat, but we don’t want to know what goes on in the slaughterhouse.’ That’s what I wanted this scene to be about.”
Walter Parkes remarks, “This movie is not intended to be a serious exploration of the moral issues surrounding cloning, but even when you try to avoid them, you can’t. They permeate every scene and, in the end, that’s okay.”
Michael Bay reflects, “When we met about this movie, the first thing I said was that I want people to leave the theatre thinking, ‘If I could have a clone, would I?’ It’s one of those questions we all thought about in making this film. We all want to live longer; it’s human nature… But at what price?”
The Island (2005)
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi, Noa Tishby, Siobhan Flynn, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ethan Phillips, Kathleen Rose Perkins
Screenplay by: Caspian Tredwell-Owen
Production Design by: Nigel Phelps
Cinematography by: Mauro Fiore
Film Editing by: Paul Rubell, Christian Wagner
Costume Design by: Deborah Lynn Scott
Set Decoration by: Rosemary Brandenburg
Art Direction by: Jon Billington, Sean Haworth, David Sandefur, Martin Whist
Music by: Steve Jablonsky
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, sexuality and language.
Distributed by: DreamWorks Pictures
Release Date: July 22, 2005
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