Shutter Island

The movie Shutter Island is about a U.S. Marshall named Teddy Daniels who investigates a mental institution for a missing patient. As he investigates the island and patients he believes that the mental institution planned for his visit and is trying to admit him into the institution by using his post-war trauma. The institution tries to accumulate as many patients as possible to surgically experiment with them in a lighthouse on the island. After he uncovers the truth he attacks the lighthouse to look for his partner and eventually leave the island. At the lighthouse he realizes that his partner has been his psychiatrist since his 2 – year stay at the mental institution. Teddy Daniels is one of the institution’s most violent and delusional patients. The majority of the movie is Daniels hallucinations. We see a flashback of Daniels coming home from work and realizing that his wife drowned his three children. In the flashback he shoots his wife after realizing that she is mentally ill herself. Daniels created this alternate reality in his mind on Shutter Island because he wanted to deny that the woman he loved killed his children.
Shutter Island had a similar twist to Fight Club because the main character ended up being mentally ill. However the twist in Shutter Island was clearly foreshadowed throughout the movie, unlike that of Fight Club. The twist in Fight Club was more shocking because it was so unexpected. The background music in Shutter Island helped create a lot of suspense for the audience. The ending for the movie could’ve been interpreted various ways. After Daniels came to terms with reality, the next day he spoke to his psychiatrist like he was his partner again and the ward decided that a lobotomy was Daniels’ last resort. One interpretation could’ve been that Daniels regressed back to his alternate reality and denial. However I think Daniels intentionally pretended like he regressed back, so his psychiatrist would tell the institution that he hasn’t improved. So he wanted the nurses to take him away because his last line was “Would you rather live a monster or die a good man.” He accepted reality and couldn’t live with it so he decided to die.