Deserted Island: Difference between revisions

These islands come in four main varieties.

 

* Castaway Island: A larger island with enough flora and fauna for [[Robinson Crusoe]] and his [[Robinsonade|marooned imitators]] to strut their stuff.

 

The typical [[Desert Island]] is full of [[Jungle Japes]], involving [[Bamboo Technology|bamboo devices]], coconuts and [[Polly Wants a Microphone|parrots]].

 

Grammatical note: these are more classically referred to as [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/desert desert islands] (see definition 2). This does not, in fact, imply that they are dry places.<ref>This is also not the same definition of "desert" that shows up in the oft-misspelled "just deserts". "Desert," it seems, used to get around a lot.</ref>

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Battle Royale]]'', and therefore ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', take place on deserted islands where classes of high school students are dumped with explosive collars and forced to kill each other until only one is left. {{spoiler|Two still survive in [[Battle Royale]], but nobody has escaped a game yet in [[Survival of the Fittest]].}}

 

* ''[[Tintin]]'' has ''multiple'' desert islands, all of which fit one or more tropes to a T:

** The Monster Island in ''[[Tintin/Recap/The Shooting Star|The Shooting Star]]'' is a [[Baby Planet|sinking asteroid of bare rock]] full of [[Fungus Humongous|giant mushrooms]] & [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|scaled-up animals]];

** The Castaway Island in ''[[Tintin/Recap/Flight 714|Flight 714]]'' is an [[Ancient Astronauts|Alien Landing Strip]] hidden in a volcano!

* Frequently used in old adventure strips in ''[[The Beano]]'' a good example being the strip The Shipwrecked Circus.

 

 

* ''[[The Blue Lagoon]]''

* The [[Tom Hanks]] movie ''[[Cast Away]]''

* The protagonists of ''[[Deep Rising]]'' end up on one in the ending, only to hear the roar of yet another monster somewhere inside.

 

* ''[[Babysitters Club]] Super Special 4: Baby-sitters' Island Adventure''. The island was somewhere off the coast of Connecticut.

** This island, to be clear, is on Lake Michigan, within relatively easy reach of Chicago if you know how to avoid rocky shoals or something. Its desertedness is justified by magic, namely the fact it's a [[Genius Loci]] and isn't very friendly.

* Daniel Defoe's ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]''.

* ''The Invention of Morel'', by Adolfo Bioy Casares, in which a nameless narrator falls in love with a holographic woman on a deserted island and is slowly driven mad by the machinery that is creating the holograms. Supposedly one of the inspirations for ''[[Lost]]''.

* Justified in the [[Harry Potter]] stories, as islands populated by magical creatures are sometimes made Unplottable as part of [[The Masquerade]].

* The titular ''[[Nim's Island]]''. It's portrayed as a kid-friendly paradise. Most of the time.

* In [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]'s ''[[The Monster Men]]'', Professor Maxon chooses one to restart his experiments. (Conveniently away from the law.)

* The Isles of Syren in ''[[Septimus Heap]]'', which also double as [[Town with a Dark Secret|Islands with a Dark Secret]].

 

* ''[[Lost]]'' takes place on a "deserted" island that's about as deserted as [[New York City]].

* ''[[Gilligan's Island]]''

* Many seasons of the [[Reality Show]] ''[[Survivor]]'' have used this setting, and it has come to be associated with the series.

 

* "''[[The Police|Just a castaway, an island lost at sea-oh, another lonely day with no one here but me-oh]].''"

 

* In ''[[Philoctetes]]'', the eponymous character was stranded by Odysseus on one of these for years. Others did anchor off of it from time to time, but no one would take Philoctetes off the island in spite and ''because of'' the fact that he was crippled.

 

* ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire|Pokémon Emerald]]'' has Faraway Island, a deserted island in the middle of the ocean that has nothing of interest, except for {{spoiler|[[Game Breaker|Mew]]}}.

* All of these are present in the ''[[Monkey Island]]'' series.

* ''[[Harvest Moon]]: Island of Happiness'' has your character stranded there with a few other survivors. In a bit of a subversion, other ships DO find them, and there are, in fact, at least two other people already living on the island. The main point of the game is to fix the island up so that it can become populated.

 

* Parodied in ''[[Adventurers!]]''; after Khrima {{spoiler|accidentally shatters the Crystal of the Kildracks}}, Ardam and Karn end up on one of these. Ardam mentions that he'd often thought about being on a deserted island, but he always hoped it would be one ''without'' Karn. He also makes a fishing rod to give Karn something to do, but Karn sees it as a minigame and nearly covers the island in fish. But soon enough {{spoiler|it turns out it wasn't an island, just ''a movie set of an island'', but the movie set part was [[Behind the Black]]}}, which just ticks Ardam off.

 

* Done in the [[Woody Woodpecker]] short ''Fair Weather Fiends''.

** Parodied with the episode of ''Lisa On Ice'', where Lisa imagines being sentenced to "Monster Island" for having failed gym class in the second grade.

*** [[Subverted Trope|Luckily]], Monster Island is a [[Non-Indicative Name]]. {{spoiler|[[Double Subversion|It's really a peninsula.]]}}

* An episode of ''[[Family Guy]]'' has Peter, Joe, Cleveland, and Quagmire become stranded on a lone island after being shipwrecked, causing their friends and family back home to believe they had died in the storm. The guys pass the time by playing the "who would you rather do" game and at one point, try to start an orgy to satisfy their sexual urges. Naturally, a cruise liner passes by when this happens and everyone stops to take a look as if it was part of the tour.

 

* These can often be found. Unlike fictional islands, the climate of desert islands can vary since some of them can be found near the polar regions.

** And survival on a deserted island is generally even more problematic than it is made out. Most islands that people can survive on, have people living on them.