Michael Bay's The Island can be summed up in three phrases: escaping from authorities, things blowing up and attractive people in tight white suits. If you don't know anything else about the movie but have an interest in seeing it, then stop reading now -- the less you know about the plotline going into the film, the more enjoyable it is. Don't watch the trailers either, because you'll be able to guess 80 percent of the storyline.
For those still reading, the film opens in a scene reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984. Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) wakes up in a futuristic cell-like bedroom, putting on a white jumpsuit and having his every move monitored by screens and controls throughout a facility. He meets Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) in the main hall where the thousands of inhabitants are wearing the same thing, eating the same food and going to the same menial job of putting nutrients into a supply line.
This is not the way things have always been in the world. There was a world-wide contamination a number of years ago, and the people living in this facility are the survivors.
The only thing that gives the survivors hope is the "Lottery Spin," a random selection of people who get to leave this depot behind and move to The Island, the last uncontaminated spot on Earth. That night, Jordan Two-Delta wins the lottery and is to depart first thing the next morning. Lincoln begins to question his surroundings, wondering whether or not there is more to this world than what is presented to him. He begins to sneak around in highly restricted areas and discovers that the last two people to win the "Lottery Spin" were killed and harvested for body parts for people in the real world who have spent millions of dollars to make an exact clone of themselves.
Lincoln finds Jordan, and together they begin their daring escape from the facility into the real world. Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean) is the evil scientist with a god-complex who orders the clones to be returned at all costs. The next two-thirds of the film becomes your cliche summer action flick, complete with running from authorities, bounty hunters led by Albert Laurent (Djimon Hounsou), cars and buildings exploding, shootouts, horrible product placements and the obligatory bedroom scene which takes place when Lincoln and Jordan get cozy in a building oddly resembling 1920 Commons.
This is not to say that The Island is a bad movie. It's a great futuristic action film that makes for a good summer blockbuster. Don't expect an intellectual classic that questions the ethics of cloning. Do expect fast cars, fight scenes, and Scarlett Johansson in a black bra.
