The Island

”The Island”

SUMMARY

The movie ”The Island” is a movie about cloning, rights, and what it means to be human. It takes place in the future, presumably in 20 or 30 years.

The two main characters are clones; one called Lincoln Six-Echo and the other called Jordan Two-Delta. They reside in a facility owned by a man named Dr. Merrick, together with many other clones. They believe that the outside world is contaminated and that the inhabitants of the facility are the sole survivors. That is the lie of which they have been convinced by Dr. Merrick. The truth is that Merrick is the owner of an ”insurance company” in which the buyer pays a great deal of money to have a clone created, so that if anything were to go wrong, like a bad liver or a heart attack, the vital organs needed could be supplied from the clone. The buyers are told that the clones are in a constant vegetative state, when they are in fact, alive and living.

The clones have organized routines for every day and they are not supposed to ask questions. Lincoln Six-Echo, however, asks questions. He senses that something is wrong, and after some poking around he discovers the truth. He escapes the facility with his closest friend, Jordan Two-Delta, but they are hunted by Dr. Merrick's men until they find Tom Lincoln, the ”owner” of Lincoln Six-Echo. They ask him for help with spreading the news about what is really going on in Merrick's facility. He betrays them and turns them in, but Merrick's men shoot him, thinking he is Lincoln Six-Echo. The two clones journey back to the facility to rescue the remaining clones. After some struggle they succeed, killing Dr. Merrick and freeing the clones.

THE CLONES' LIFE IN THE INSTITUTE

One of the key things that enables Dr. Merrick and his security personal

to control and run the Merrick Institute, is the organization of the clones' everyday life. The clones follow a structured program every day, because that is what they have been taught. If any of the clones were to resist the system, as Lincoln Six-Echo does, the institute and Merrick's entire franchise would come crashing down.

One could say, that the clones are taught to live as a collective, not as individuals. Every single aspect of their everyday lives are controlled by Merrick and his security officers. Every single thing they do contributes to the good of the whole. An example of this, is the clones' work. Every clone has a job in the facility, that somehow helps it run. Lincoln Six-Echo for example, works in a lab where he is to insert nutrients into tubes. What he doesn't know, is that the tubes actually run to where the clones are created, to feed the clones that have not yet been ”born”.

Many parts of human life that we recognize as normal, have been totally eliminated from Merrick Institute, to simplify things. For example, the clones have no knowledge of alcohol, or sex. If a male and female clone come in close proximity, they are immediately separated.

Another important aspect of the clones' life, one that motivates them and makes them happy, is ”The Island”. The main purpose of the clones' life (or so they are told) is to wait to win ”the lottery” in which the main prize is a lifetime on ”The Island”. They believe that the Island is the last place on Earth that has not been contaminated. For them it is a type of paradise, a Garden of Eden. The reality, however, is that the winners of the lottery are in fact selected, when their human ”owner” is in dire need of a vital organ. The ”winners” have the organ in question removed, and are then executed.

ESSAY: CLONING

The ability to create an exact duplicate of a living being. Cloning. It is a very interesting topic, one of the most controversial in the world.

It is my opinion that every human being has a life, a biological mother and father, memories, abilities and disabilities, likes and