I have been wanting to see The Island ever since it came out in 2005. Not because it looked like it was going to be a great movie, but because it bore a striking resemblance to a book I had listened to on tape called The Experiment. I will go into further details of their similarity below, but I want to warn the reader/viewer that I will be giving spoilers to both the book (The Experiment) and the film (The Island). If you do not wish to read the spoilers, proceed no further.

Warning: spoilers to follow.

In The Experiment by John Darnton, the main characters are clones living on an island off the coast of Georgia. They are not aware of their situation, but as they mature (and they grow from childhood), they begin to realize that things are not as they seem. After escaping to the mainland, they discover that there is a group of people who seek to live forever by using clones to replace failing organs. The plot also advanced down another direction, but the key points to remember are clones as organ farms, an island, and the general desire of people to live forever while keeping their method a secret.

Enter The Island, the screenplay for which was written by Caspian Tredwell-Owen. The film centers around a group of people who have taken refuge from a catastrophe in the outside world that has left all but a single island contaminated. The facility they are in is a holding station while they await being sent to the Island, where they will repopulate the race. A random lottery selects new emigres. Ewan McGregor’s character begins to see through the charade and tries to escape from the facility and discover the truth of their situation. Indeed, all members of the facility are clones, kept as insurance policies for rich people who think the clones are actually vegetative. If the clones escape to the outside world, the operation will be blown open and public disgust would bring it down. The key elements are an island, clones used as organ farms, and people wishing to live forever while the method of their immortality is kept a secret. Can you blame me for thinking the film was based loosely on the book?

And indeed, trying to research this a little more, I found that the makers of The Island had even more trouble, thanks to a movie from 1979 called Parts: The Clonus Horror. A lawsuit was filed for copyright infringement, a judge ruled that it could proceed to trial, and it was settled out of court. The exact terms were sealed, but Wikipedia states there was a seven-figure outcome. Apparently, there were some significant similarities between the two.

So does the film have anything to recommend itself to the casual enjoyer of sci-fi? Surely. Despite some difficulties with plot holes, the action and special effects were quite good. However, the subject matter is so utterly ripe for exploration that it was jarring that it was almost entirely ignored. Also, the difficulties faced by the sheltered clones were so great that the triumphal liberation in the end is unbelievable. Better would have been an ending that resulted in failure for the protagonists (a kind of ending I am notorious for enjoying). Or if the ending must be happy, then perhaps all they had to do was escape to a nearby town where somehow their truth could be exposed — say, to a journalist or something. Insert philosophical exploration along the way.