Shutter Island Ending Results in Many Questions
Shutter Island Ending Leaves Audiences Guessing About the Latest Scoresese Thiller
Shutter Island, set in 1954 off the coast of Massachusetts, tells the story of U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels played brilliantly by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his partner Chuck Aule played by Mark Ruffalo. Once on Shutter Island they arrive at the eerie and perpetually damp Ashecliffe Hospital. This hospital though is for the worst of the worst of the criminally insane and one of the inmates, I mean patients, has inexplicably escaped from her locked room.
Shutter Island also happens to have a particularly nasty hurricane getting ready to hit the island, so there is no running of the ferry, no returning to the mainland for our heroes. As Shutter Island progresses our perception of reality begins to get twisted into Teddy's perception of his reality. Is he really seeing all the apparitions that appear in Shutter Island? Is Teddy loosing his grip on reality or what really is reality for Shutter Island and for Teddy?
The Shutter Island ending leaves us guessing as to how these questions really get answered, or if they get answered at all. Is Teddy the Shutter Island protagonist or is he a monster pulling the audience into his warped opinion of reality? And what are we to make of the dark and perhaps twisted Dr Cawley, played by Ben Kingsley.
Is there a horrible sinister conspiracy on Shutter Island to produce government-funded, lobotomized inmates that would function to whatever evil ends the doctors have in mind? Or is Teddy really something other than we could have imagined? All these questions and more do not get answered outright in the Shutter Island ending and many people are questioning and debating if this ending was the right one for the Scorsese movie.
The Shutter Island story maze was adapted from the Dennis Lehane novel and the screenplay was written by Laeta Kalogridis. Shutter Island is the fourth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio. So far the Shutter Island mysterious thriller is doing great at the box office bringing in over $14 million on its opening day.
I, for one, will be going back to see Shutter Island again and study it carefully for all the things that I missed in the first viewing to make sure that my opinion of the Shutter Island ending stays the same and just might be correct.
Sources:
http://news.puggal.com/shutter-island-ending-24354/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i5a7bc96eb52f8d10804ae80c1b60255f
Published by Mary Zeiher
Mary is a Certified Project Manager (PMP) and Freelance Writer for the Web. I have over twenty four years of IT experience and twelve years as a Project Manager. I have a passion for writing and continue t... View profile
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32 Comments
Post a CommentTo those people saying that he was made Insane by the doctors, by giving him drugs and changing his cigarettes. Tell me this. When you take the medication it is supposed to suppress the hallucinations as much so that you do not see imaginary friends anymore. When you stop taking the medication your hallucinations will come back. The Doctors took Teddy of his medication for the role play, why? because they wanted him to get to the end of his investigation and see for himself there is no conspiracy. A big clue is, if Teddy was not crazy in the first place, then how the hell did the doctor know what he was seeing in his hallucinations? for that is the first time he has met the doctor and has never told him what he has been seeing.
Teddy is INSANE. This is very obvious throughout the movie. The reason chuck struggled to take his gun from the holster is because chuck has never used a gun before, remember he is just playing his part in the role play. At the end they realise they were not able to get teddy back to reality and thus, he has to be sent for a lobotomy. The whole point the doctor was trying to prove is that with care and kindness a patient can come back to reality and thus he was making one last effort with this roleplay to bring teddy back to reality. Teddy does come back to reality and is thus SANE (at the end) but he chooses to have the lobotomy because he cannot live with his painful memories, so he fakes his insanity.
Teddy is sane! it was all a set up! remember when they first arrive on the island and they say "were goin to have to take your guns, its protocol" As leonardo takes his off, Chuck (his partner)doesnt know how to take out his gun from the holster, which means he was not really a marshall he was a fake!
dude teddy was sane! remember in the VERY BEGINNING where he was sick on the ship. he can't find his cigarettes, and he swears to god he had them. it proves they were trying to brainwash him because remember when he goes to the cave and she says 'atleast tell me your smoking your own cigarettes' he had never met his partner before AND THEY STARTED BRAINWASHING HIM THE SECOND HE WAS ON THAT SHIP. THE CIGARETTES HAD THAT STUFF IN IT AND HE 'LOST' HIS.
IT'S SO SIMPLE, HE'S SANE!
I honestly think that they brainwashed him and his partner. The only reason I think that is because when he was interviewing people in the cafeteria, that lady wrote "RUN" on his paper so obviously that place wasn't trying to help but test on him.
....I wouldn't trust a word that comes from his mouth. For those not believing Loe is insane and the staff are playing a role play game, watch the film as if you know Leo is role playing. The guards have weapons at hand when the boat arrives because Leo is out of his chains, a man known as wife murderer is walking about the place, playing a crazy 'let's pretend' game. I'd have my gun out too. The movie becomes quiet funny when you see it like this. You can see the staff laughing at having to perform this play just for Leo's benefit. A terrific movie and beautifully made, as you'd expect from America's greatest living film maker!
This movie is no harder to work out than A Beautiful Mind. Why all the confusion? Leo's character is experiencing a schizophrenic break of reality. We experience the film from his point of view. We experience reality in a twisted way as that is how Leo's character. He experienced horrific experiences in WW2. He came home, suffered post traumatic stress disorder and used drink to escape. Mean while, his wife sufferes mental illness too, but he misses it because he is far to involved in his own sufferings. Hence his wife kills her kids. Leo's character has had hardship after hardship and escapes his reality and goes 'insane'. The 'conspiracy theories' are a bluff. Think about it, a man risks his life to save the world, but is left on his own by the government once he returns home. That would lead you to think 'they don't care'. It would lead you to feel let down by the people you fought for and would lead to suspicion of them. That is the sole reason for his liking of conspiracies. The m
i think that they really did brainwash his partner and he was lying. Also i thin that he didnt go crazy they made him crazy on purpose so they could kill him and the fact that they killed him they could eep experimenting and i dont really know what the end meant but i think its one of those you have to think about it movies.
its just a movie... move on with your lives
How do you explain him coming to the island on the boat in the beginning?