Shutter Island questions -- spoilers!

OK so I saw the other threads for this movie, but one was mainly just hype from before it came out or opinions on it, and the other mainly focused on the twist ending. I mean this thread to be basically an FAQ on the movie's events.

I'd like to know what exactly occurred in reality in the movie?
I've heard conspiracy theories of all sorts, saying nothing happened; Teddy just dreamed it all, or Teddy was right, they really were performing experiments, the hospital really did perform lobotomies in the Lighthouse, and about a million other ones.



Here's what I do know, what I think I know, and what I don't know but would like to know.

Fact: Leonardo DiCaprio's Teddy Daniels shot his wife in the Spring of 1952 when he discovered she drowned their 3 children. As a result, he's been housed in Ashcliffe, in Ward C with their most dangerous criminally insane offenders. I think in that second to last scene where Teddy confesses his murder and admits his identity in front of Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, and Ted Levine, we are meant to interpret that as fact.

Fact: Teddy Daniels is definitely not a marshal, at least not any more. If he were, he would have the authority to get any information he wants. Yet Kingsley's Dr. Cawley and Sydow's Dr. Naehring don't allow him access to patient's files or the staff's information. He should be allowed in doctor meetings, yet when he interrupts one, Naehring gets pissed off and asks why is he here? Also, the gun that he is so sure is his is a toy.

Fact: Dr. Cawley really did orchestrate an elaborate, island-wide role-play to get Teddy to realize he is Andrew Laeddis. Throughout the film, characters look to Cawley for guidance on how they should respond to Teddy's questions and actions. Also, Levine's Warden openly says, 'they think they can fix you, but I know you're true nature is violence and you won't change.' Or something like that. Later, when Teddy meets George Noyce, Noyce clearly says, 'this whole thing's a charade set up specifically for you'.


Theory: Teddy was drugged or fell asleep and was brought to the ferry in the opening scene to be awakened in his fantasy, and thus set the role-play in motion. There's a shot of some unlocked handcuffs hanging in the boat, so I assume Teddy was chained and drugged, then his cuffs were removed before he woke up.

Fact: Rachel Solando did not exist. She was a character played by the nurse (Emily Mortimer); we know she's the nurse acting and not a patient because we see her attending to Teddy in that second to last scene when he admits his identity, and she's wearing a nurse's uniform. She acts so weird in her cell when Teddy interrogates her because Cawley coached her to act like his wife to jog his memory. Teddy's visibly shaken after he hugs her and immediately gets migraines because his brain is rejecting reality. Also, when the guards are supposed to be looking for the escaped Rachel Solando, they're just skipping rocks or sitting around chatting-(because they know she doesn't exist.)

Fact: The guards, orderlies, and nurses were in on the charade. When Teddy first arrives on the island, the guards clench their guns tighter and stare at him nervously. The deputy says they're all "on edge." Later, when Teddy's investigating the nurses and orderlies, the head nurse takes his questions as a joke, and everyone responds to the things he says with laughter.



Theory: At least two of Ashcliffe's real patients were in the role-playing. The 'normal' woman who axed her husband and the young man with sexual inadequacy issues. They both seem legitimately crazy, even when not in front of Teddy, so they're not just acting crazy. When the woman asks Chuck for a glass of water and scribbles 'RUN' in his notepad, I think she was breaching the charade and telling Teddy is what his best opportunity to escape. When asked if she knew Laeddis, she said no very uncomfortably. A sane person wouldn't have had trouble just saying no, but she felt weird saying she didn't know the man she was talking to because she's crazy. More were probably in on it as well, since they smiled at him so eerily when he first arrived. One crazy lady even says 'ssshhh' as if she's saying don't give away the secret. Of course, she's crazy and is actually gesturing at the person the secret is supposed to be kept from.

Fact: There was no one hiding in the caves on the side of Shutter Island. It's definitely not Rachel Solando, since we know she doesn't exist, and it isn't anyone else either. Patricia Clarkson's character says essentially everything Teddy wants to hear. I think it's just Teddy rationalizing things to himself, or reassuring himself he's not crazy.

Fact: Cawley was not drugging Teddy with the pills and cigarettes. He gave him painkillers when he got migraines and regular cigarettes because his got wet in the rain. We know Teddy used to be on a cocktail of drugs, and went off them for the role-play. He was feeling acute effects of withdrawal, not the effects of psychotropic drugs.

Things I Don't Know: Were lobotomies performed in the lighthouse or not? The movie strongly suggests no throughout, but in the end when we clearly see the lobotomy tools and Teddy's walking off for the operation, the camera slowly pans up to the lighthouse, as if that's where they're going. Noyce also seems pretty convinced they perform lobotomies in Ashcliffe, and he seemed to be right about everything else; but he is a paranoid schizophrenic. It's also just the final shot of the film and since the lighthouse was such a significant symbol throughout the movie, it would be a haunting ending. IDK.



A weird thing happened in the axe lady's interrogation scene: When she drinks the glass of water she requests, we see her bring her hand to her mouth without the glass. The next shot is a rapid cup to her placing the empty cup down on the table with her other hand. What happened to the water? Did she drink it? Was there any?

Did the hurricane really hit? Was there a storm? We see Teddy and Chuck walk through a storm in many scenes, so I would assume there was a storm. We also see severe hurricane damage and overhear the doctors wondering what they would do in case of a flood or if the gates mechanically unlock with a power failure. They are talking about this before Teddy enters the room, so I assume this conversation is real. But in the lighthouse scene in the end, Cawley says something like, 'we've heard it a million times-the rule of 4, Andrew Laeddis killed my wife, 'the storm...' suggesting these things were all part of Teddy's fantasy. So was that part of his fantasy as well? Or was it part of his fantasy, but it also really did storm that day? Also, weren't the grounds perfectly clean in the final scene. In previous scenes there were tree limbs all over, broken stones, and random hurricane disaster.

There's also a LOT more, but I can't think of all of them. I'm really having trouble piecing together the story cohesively. Some things seem to make sense in one scene, then contradict itself in another.

Has anyone seen the movie enough to offer some good interpretations?

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It's not explained well enough in the film, but if I remember correctly, in the book they did drug Teddy and place him on the boat. Given that the film is almost identical to the novel, I'd assume that that's what the filmmakers intended for you to believe. Either that or they wanted you to use your imagination.
I think it's intentionally ambiguous. But, maybe they performed lobotomies on patients who they believed needed them such as Teddy, and not as mad doctor experiments as Teddy believes throughout most of the film.
With all of the tricks that the film pulls, it's impossible to know for sure, but I think that was just a flaw in the editing.
I think it was real. I believe Cawley referenced the storm as a reason not to send Teddy back on the ferry. I doubt that the doctors could elaborate an entire storm for Teddy either.
I've seen the movie once and read the book twice now, and I'm having trouble remembering some of the alleged subtle clues that many are theorizing about, but your post has got me wondering about a few things and wanting to watch it again.

He was a paranoid schizophrenic...am I giving too much away?

Yeah, a lot's left open to interpretation, but to me the clearest facts are:

• He really is crazy, and the account given by Ben Kingsley's character at the end is accurate.
• He clearly imagined a good deal of the more incredible events.
• Lobotomies are performed in the Lighthouse, but out of sad necessity rather than callous indifference for experimentation.
• He really is cured at the end of the film (or, at least, vaguely aware of the truth), but chooses ignorance and impotence over the painful truth.

I think #2 explains a lot. If something really extreme is happening -- like the storm -- I feel pretty safe assuming that it's exaggerated by his own mental state, though probably not invented out of whole cloth. That's what he does, after all: he doesn't invent things, he tweaks the things he sees in reality to make his fantasy more believable.

Also, a lot of the actions in the movie just seem like a stretch. Of course, with the premise of a hospital-wide conspiracy or role-play, that's to be expected.

But would a responsible doctor as good as Cawley really let Teddy run rampant for three days? He even lets him put his life in danger on several occasions: In the beginning Teddy and Chuck search near the cemetery for Rachel Solando in a terrible storm, with trees nearly falling on them. Later, he lets Teddy climb up the side of the island on steep rocks. He also lets him run around unsupervised in Ward C. That's debatable, since he kind of runs ahead of Chuck and beats that prisoner. But why did the officer tell Teddy to stay back when he and Chuck helped get the patient to the infirmary? Would Chuck really leave Teddy alone in the violent prisoners ward with the gates open and insane patients running around? Also, Cawley said himself Teddy is the most dangerous patient they have their. Would he put others at risk letting him walk around?

Also, if the two patients Teddy did interview in the beginning were really patients, why would Cawley trust them to go along with the role-play? That's just dangerous because these patients are unstable and unpredictable. Maybe they were actors too, since we know Rachel Solando was a staff member posing as a crazy person.

Lastly, it's not very important, but I'm 100% sure the cup of water incident was not an accident. Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese are too skilled at detailing lucidity in shots; they don't keep in shots on accident. People look at a lot of Scorsese films and say the continuity editing is terrible, that it's choppy-in one shot Leo will be holding a cigarette in his hand and in the next he'll be exhaling smoke without ever bringing the cigarette to his lips. But these aren't so much errors as they are intentional jump-cuts. Schoonmaker and Scorsese don't always necessarily edit on action or for perfect continuity. They often link shots together for effect.

And accidentally filming a shot of the woman gesturing taking a drink of water without a glass doesn't really make sense. What, did they say 'action' and she just brought her hand up without the cup and they didn't notice? And why make such a point of her placing the glass back on the table, empty. This is done in a very deliberate shot that's not really incidental to the rest of the scene. So, why do this? Maybe just for eerie effect or to show she's really crazy? Maybe it's how Teddy sees things in his fantasy, sometimes things don't line up or make sense?

I don't know, I'm pissing in the wind here.

But the whole concept behind lobotomies was eventually discredited in the real world, so they never were a "sad necessity" but little more than crude butchery by essentially driving an icepick-like object through the upper inside corner of the eye socket in the skull and into the frontal lobes of the brain. How could such a callous "operation" ever improve one's mental state?

There were pyschiatrists and medical doctors who questioned and outright opposed the operation even at the height of its limited acceptance.

I really appreciate you starting this thread. It's better than a review of the film! I thought from just watching the television ads this would not be a film I'd enjoy, and after reading this thread I know my gut reaction was right.

Yeah, they were discredited even in their time, but I don't think that's what Yoda's point was. The medical field, as Dr. Cawley says, was at a state of war in the time the movie took place. Half the doctors chose medication, and half chose these surgeries. Medication did not work for Teddy, and Cawley tried the role-playing thing, so the hospital said the only remaining option was a lobotomy. Dr. Naehring and the Warden both strongly supported this.

It wasn't so much a sad necessity as an option that seemed like the only other alternative at the time. It was painted as a necessity in the movie.

Wait, then you didn't see the movie? You really should, it's probably the best movie of the year thus far. It's only competition really is Toy Story 3.

Even if you think the movie's outlandish or the ending is gimmicky, the ride is most of the fun anyway. Scorsese directs with such noirish style and a flare for classic Hollywood aesthetics. And DiCaprio's performance is hands down the best of the year.

That is the most curious plot point in the film, but the dangerous situations surely weren't planned. If I remember correctly, in the book Cawley states that he wanted to call the whole thing off after Teddy climbed down the cliff. The staff never intended for the situation to get out of hand like it did. I think they just made the mistake of underestimating Teddy.
The theory that they weren't patients is the most likely one. They could've just been masquerading staff. They got one of their nurses to play the part of the escaped girl.
I must've just prematurely dismissed it as a technical error. If it was intentional, I think it was just another lead to Teddy's insanity.

Bah, the film had some of the most misleading ads I've ever seen. Being the classic film fan that you are, I actually think you would enjoy it. The plot's a stretch for sure, but it's inconsistencies (if you can call them that)--big as they seem to be--are fun to theorize about. Plus, it's a wonderful homage to film-noir and classic Lewton-esque scare flicks.

In the film, they don't do it to improve his mental state; they do it as a form of permanent sedation, because he has a history of violence.

The factual history of the procedure would be beside the point, anyway, since the important distinction within the film is that they're not indifferent to his plight, or performing the procedure to satisfy some perverse experiment, but because they genuinely think it necessary.

Had seen a movie long ago called Madhouse. The movie has Lance Henriksen.

Found this really similar to it.. I thought I was the only one who thought so, until I found a similar thread on IMDB.

Has anyone else seen the movie?

Yes i have, and yes i have to agree with you, it does share some similarities with Shutter Island. The whole being locked up in a mental facility.

"Which would be worse, to live as a monster, or die as a good man ?"

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Even Session 9 was a bit similar.

"Lighthouse is a symbol of light, truth, hope, guidance to the truth, safety, and final resolution for those who are misguided or seeking harbor. It is the perfect ending for a movie that started with him arriving in an impossible fog/delusion. Basically the movie is saying through many twist and turns (twisted stairs, wrong rooms), detours, and the final confrontation (acknowleging the truth rather than denial) the truth is finally revealed and only then peace is obtained."

I saved this comment from Youtube a while back and really liked it.

I agree completely. Here I am on this year's old thread commenting ha ha. I just re-watched this film after a long time. Shutter Island and Session 9, for some reason, both just nail the atmosphere for me. Session 9 and shutter Island are two of my favourites. I love both films (and the book Shutter Island). I think if you allow the directors to guide your imagination and immerse yourself in both films the pay offs are hauntingly beautiful.

Regarding the water.

He found his dead children in water, thus he has an inherent fear of water and the acknowledgement of it might bring back the reality that he is constantly blocking. Watching the scene there are numerous perspectives of the interview. From his perspective there is no water, he blocks it out. From her perspective there is water. From ours, we see yet another perspective. Scorsese plays with our minds making us question what we just saw. The entire story takes place in a mental asylum, so this fits perfectly with the theme of the film.

I mean for crying out loud, she drinks the "glass" with her right hand (nothing there) and puts it down with her left (glass appears). The first shot is from his perspective, we are sitting across from her. The second shot is her perspective, from over the shoulder. The third is our perspective, a full shot of the table and them. Her perspective she finishes the water and the glass is empty. When she leaves, it's from our perspective and the glass is full.

Scorsese playing with the audience.

He does a similar thing about perspective in Wolf of Wall Street when Leo needs to drive home and tries to crawl down some stairs. His perspective there are many steps, ours it's only a few.

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I have it now playing in the background but noticed two things that reminded me of this thread. Specifically the hand the glass of water was it. I'm just putting this out in case anyone cares.

When first entering the gate, the guard directs them to the primary wards. First the male ward then he says, "and over to your right is the female ward." Or similar. The point is that the ward was to their left and not their right.

Later, during the German camp flashback in which he finds the german officer on the floor with a gunshot wound to his face, the soldier is reaching for the fallen gun with his left hand hand suggesting that he was holding it with his left hand when he shot himself. But the exit wound was on the left side of his face which imlies he shot from the right to left.

I haven't seen this movie in a very long time but these two scenes in context of the glass of water question has me interested again. Surely this was all intentional.

Anyway. Gotta continue the watch now.