Saw the movie The Island. The year is 2019 and humankind has been saved some years back from a global contamination. Humans now reside in a huge sealed colony where they live, sleep, eat and work. No one gets to go outside. The colony is administered by a Dr. Merrick. Into this world, wake up the protagonists Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson). They are pretty curious about why their world is so organized and whats happening there. The only surprise in these people’s lives is a daily lottery which picks out some winners. The winners get to go out to a pristine island full of trees and beaches which is supposed to be uncontaminated. So, these humans lead pointless lives, all of them wishing to win that lottery and get off this colony. Is this world quite as it seems?
Nope. The curious L6E soon discovers that the colony residents are being cloned and grown like products for organs! Thats right, there is a normal world outside the colony. In 2019, a biotech firm is offering insurance for organs to their clients by growing their clones and keeping them fed and healthy until the need for an organ comes up. There is no island. Whenever a client needs an organ, the corresponding clone is chosen as the lottery winner, killed and the organ transplanted to the client. The clones are just the life insurance policy of the humans outside.
L6E and J2D escape from the cloning colony and reach the home of Tom Lincoln who is the client for L2E. Meanwhile, Dr. Merrick discovers something surprisingly new – the clones though grown artificially have been gaining the same knowledge patterns as their clients. He orders the mass killing of all these clones. It is now upto L6E and J2D to save the clones.
The Island is quite convincing with the sci-fi story. Very believable that clones could be grown for organs. Isn’t it already possible with animals? I found the story very similar to An Orison Of Sonmi~451, a story from the book Cloud Atlas which I’m currently reading. The Island is much more convincing that its other copies like The 6th Day. The futuristic settings of the movie are good. There are a bit too many product placements though (Puma, Cisco, Nokia, MSN, XBox etc). The chase scenes and action are neat. Good movie.