Shutter Island



Shutter Island is a 2003 novel by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River and The Given Day and a writer on The Wire.

In 1954, US Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule are assigned to investigate the disappearance of multiple murderess Rachel Solando, who is a patient at Shutter Island's Ashecliffe Hospital, a mental hospital for the most violent of the criminally insane. It is revealed that Andrew Laeddis, the man responsible for Daniels' wife's death, is incarcerated there as well.

As the marshals investigate further, they begin to uncover hints that Ashecliffe Hospital may be home to a living nightmare of Nazi-esque experimentation on unwilling patients.

But of course, all is not as it seems...

The novel was adapted into a movie by Martin Scorsese in 2010, with Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy Daniels and Mark Ruffalo as Chuck Aule.

Perhaps one of the most heavily symbolic novels/films in years, to the extent that it will screw with your mind HARD.

": I'm genuinely sorry about that ... I never wanted to leave you feeling betrayed ... You have to believe me. ...
 * Arc Words: "Why you all wet, Baby?"
 * All Germans Are Nazis: Teddy automatically assumes that the German doctor working in the asylum is some kind of Josef Mengele, continuing his experiments on American soil.
 * A Storm Is Coming: Said by the captain of the boat at the beginning of the film.
 * Bedlam House: A very good example of
 * Crusading Widower
 * The Fifties: A very grim portrayal of the time period, bordering on Crapsack World. Cold War, McCarthyism, fresh memories of Nazi atrocities, rampant crime and general paranoia form the zeitgeist.
 * Framing Device: The novel is presented as Dr. Sheehan's desire to set the record straight at last.
 * Go Among Mad People
 * It's Personal: Teddy takes on the case specifically because of its link to his wife.
 * Lighthouse Point: The lighthouse at the end of the island, that the staff says contains the septic system, but others say contains a lobotomy lab.
 * Locked Room Mystery: How did Rachel Solando escape? "It's as if she evaporated straight through the walls."
 * Meaningful Name: Toward the end of the book, Dr. Cawley remarks on the irony of how Teddy  Say it five times fast.
 * Only Sane Man: Teddy believes he is one.
 * The Precious Precious Car: Teddy blows up Dr. Crawley's beloved car in order to create a diversion.
 * Room 101: Teddy assumes the lighthouse is one.
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: Teddy's got nightmares and perhaps a drinking problem because of his WWII experience.
 * The Shrink: In Teddy's eyes, the psychiatrists are the evil version of this trope.
 * Through the Eyes of Madness:.
 * Tomato in the Mirror:.
 * Tomato Surprise: The missing Dr. Sheehan turns out to be.
 * Twist Ending: One that would make M. Night Shyamalan proud.
 * Unreliable Narrator:.
 * US Marshal
 * Was It All a Lie?: And a decidedly cruel, sad version of it, because for once.
 * You were my friend. I trusted you ... You were my friend, . Oh, I'm sorry,."

The movie contains examples of

 * Anti-Villain / : Dr. Cawley.
 * Big No: DiCaprio's character gets a pretty good one.
 * Blast Out
 * Catapult Nightmare: A few.
 * Despair Event Horizon:
 * Did Not Do the Research: While "Arbeit macht frei" was on the gate at Dachau, the sign we see belongs to Auschwitz. Although,
 * Also, the liberation of Dachau and the subsequent massacre occurred during the spring; in the film it is snowy.
 * Driven to Madness:.
 * Epiphany Therapy: Cruelly Subverted.
 * Eye Scream: 'If I sink my teeth into your eye right now do you think you can stop me before I blind you?'
 * Don't forget the description of a lobotomy, which
 * Note that a real lobotomy doesn't actually damage the eyeball, as this is gently pushed sideways to clear a path to the orbital fissures at the rear of the eyesocket. Still extremely creepy, even discounting the brain damage.
 * That said, sticking an ice pick through the orbital fissures to reach the frontal/temporal lobe isn't going to be a good thing for the optic nerve. And then if they botch it (which they will do... It's brain surgery with an ice pick and guess work) you get damage to those areas, and god forbid they dig too far down and hit the corpus callosum. Say bye bye to communicating hemispheres.
 * Actually, lack of a corpus callosum isn't nearly as damaging as a frontal lobe lobotomy. Cutting the corpus callosum remains a highly used surgery to treat intense epilepsy.
 * Fake American: British actress Emily Mortimer as American Rachel Solando
 * Film of the Book
 * Foreshadowing:
 * Also
 * In addition,

"As opposed to:"
 * Gory Discretion Shot: Most assuredly not always present, but still packs a wallop at
 * Herr Doctor: Played with. Dr. Naehring is undeniably German (although played by a legendary Swede), but his accent is much lighter than required by the trope.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Jack Dawson and Stan are investigating an insane asylum run by Xavier Finch, where Antonius Block works. Oh, and Rorschach is also an inmate.
 * Casey Jones is a mad arsonist.
 * He used to be a former priest turned Los Angeles homicide detective.
 * And he shot Dr. House.
 * And he made a clock that runs backwards.
 * Buffalo Bill Sinestro Captain Stottlemeyer sans mustache is also the very disturbing Warden.
 * Homage: The film is absolutely crawling with them, in particular Alfred Hitchcock/Vertigo.
 * The crooked angles in the lighthouse are a homage to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a German film told from the perspective of an asylum patient.
 * Key parts of the plot and overall theme may be an homage to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as well.
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight:
 * I Know You Know I Know: A somewhat meta-example; any sufficiently Genre Savvy viewer should be able to spot the obvious twist a mile away, but the way the film plays out makes one constantly question whether or not that's just what the filmmakers want you to expect.
 * Infant Immortality: Brutally Averted. Along with the dead children at Dachau, Rachael Solando killed her three children by drowning them.
 * Ironic Echo: "Why are you all wet, baby?"
 * "I gotta get off this rock, Chuck."
 * Manly Tears: Teddy sheds these a lot, almost to the point of being The Woobie.
 * Nietzsche Wannabe: The Warden.
 * Although
 * One Dialogue, Two Conversations:


 * One-Scene Wonder: The inmates interrogated by Teddy give one hell of a performance, particularly Jackie Earle Haley.
 * In the one scene in which he has any dialogue, Ted Levine delivers a gripping Character Filibuster on how violence is a gift from God.
 * Significant Anagram:
 * Tentative Light in the movie.
 * There Are No Therapists:
 * Tomato in the Mirror: Carried over from the novel.
 * Trailers Always Spoil:
 * Twist Ending: A truly nasty one, too.
 * Weapon Stomp: Done very nastily.
 * Wham! Line:
 * Windmill Crusader:.
 * Windmill Crusader:.
 * Windmill Crusader:.
 * Windmill Crusader:.