Preview

The Complexity Of Life In Michael Bay's Film The Island

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
608 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Complexity Of Life In Michael Bay's Film The Island
This quote describes the complexity of life itself, and accurately portrays the struggle Lincoln Six Echo and Jordan Two Delta face throughout Michael Bay’s film The Island. Everything in the lives of Lincoln, Jordan, and the others of their community is regulated and monitored. They are told of a catastrophe that leaves the world in shambles and completely uninhabitable, and that they are the people who are fortunate enough to be saved and protected. However, there is one place left in the outside world that has not been contaminated, the Island. People are selected ‘randomly’ to go to the Island, where they are promised a life in paradise. These are the “things known,” but these are not enough for Lincoln. He questions everything about his surroundings and discovers his previous perception of reality is nowhere near the truth. In actuality, he and the rest of the community are clones, grown in a lab and paid …show more content…
Throughout the film, music heightens the emotions the viewer feels as s/he discovers the truth about the community with Lincoln and Jordan. The fear, the shock, and the horror are all tangible emotions felt with each new atrocity. Though some stunts are a bit far-fetched, the active storyline keeps the viewer engaged and wondering what fresh horrors the next twist will hold. This work has a clear connection to Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Both works exhibit the artificial production of humans, predisposed to the life for which they are designed, as well as the use of hypnopaedia to condition the residents of the communities in the way the will benefit their superiors. Additionally, the authorities in both works fear unorthodox thinking because, as shown in Michael Bay’s The Island, one unorthodox individual’s thoughts have the power to crumble the societies that they

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    tl guide DoubleHelixb 1

    • 2590 Words
    • 9 Pages

    postulated in Aldous Huxley’s classic Brave New World, but from the point of view of a…

    • 2590 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over a period of time sci-fi authors and composers have presented their texts and films using cautionary tales of our soon to be dystopic society. They use informing techniques to instil the fear of a futuristic dystopic society into the minds of readers and viewers. These authors and composers also bring forth the concepts of conformity, mind-control and censorship. The novel, Fahrenheit 451, written by Ray Bradbury, and the film Gattaca, composed by Andrew Niccol, were not only stimulated to act as cautionary tales but were also influenced by events occurring at the time such as McCarthyism, the post WW2 duration, and the start of eugenics.…

    • 955 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The characters make you feel as if they are portraying their country, getting away from the outrageousness and the terror. Sharing their side of the horrific stories. All distributing the same emotions betrayal and being forced to look the other way. The choreographer immersed herself into the stories of the young people who had overcome the sacrifice of fleeing their country to have freedom in Australia. Cadi McCarthy clearly and successfully got her intent to the target audience (young students) expressing the dreadful descriptions by educating us through contemporary and hip hop…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brave New World is the story of a utopian society and the faults within it. The characters idolize absurd aspects of life. Loyalty is degraded under the belief that everyone belongs to everyone. The characters are trained to avoid feelings like anger and despair in situations such as death. Any problem can be fixed with the consumption of Soma, a drug with similar effects of alcohol. The morals of sleep-learning specialist Bernard Marx stray from the rest of society as he accepts loneliness and monogamy. On a trip to an outside community known as ¨The Reservation,¨ Bernard is greeted by a population who expresses the same beliefs as our normal world. Upon his return to Brave New World, he brings with him John Savage and his repulsive mother, Linda, who has history in the society. Bernard Marx exploits these characters to reveal a harsh aspect of the Brave New World society, which alters his status from quirky and lonely to conventional and popular.…

    • 667 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) is a satirical novel that presents grossly exaggerated and absurd constructs as the norm. This World State is described as the ideal place; it is the best thing that happened for humanity. It is civilized civilization. The World State is full of everything one could ever want: sex without commitment, easy access to drugs, and essentially guarantees a state of being content through conditioning. Moreover, death is no longer something to fear and feelings do not exist in their full spectrum. It is through Huxley’s use of satire and presentation of these ideals that made me aware of how those aspects form my definition of what it is to be uniquely human.…

    • 745 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Of all the works that Aldous Huxley has produced the most intriguing and philosophical one would have to be Brave New World. Throughout his carrier Huxley has written many satirical novels about the flaws of society but none can compare the symbolism and depth that this novel presents. As the above quote suggests the citizens of this futuristic society known as the World State chose to live a life of hedonism devoid of emotions and beliefs rather than suffer any pain. Both Huxley's focus on the tragic flaws of this society and satirical development of the utopian scheme, lead us to believe the hypocrisy of such a utopian state. Furthermore there are many parallels that can be drawn between our way of life and the society portrayed in the book; these parallels include soma, hynopaedic messages and sex. Huxley uses this parallelism to warn us that the path that our society is taking will lead us to damnation.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We’re fascinated by the terrible things character's face and for years now, authors have evaluated and ridiculed the “perfect” society to share their concerns about humanity. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley presents a dystopian, emotionless and controlled world where all individuality is masked by their false understanding of “happiness”. Soma, is their armament against the effects of conflict and the only way to indulge in their inescapable life. True happiness is only possible through the perception and feeling of emotions, soma simply provides a distraction from the truth of a world gone wrong. In fact, it appears the plot, tone and characters from the novel all display examples of soma and the belief that happiness is achieved within.…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In her investigative essay entitled “Alienation in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World,” Josephine McQuail explores the recurring theme of alienation in Huxley’s dystopian classic, touching upon “psychological, sociological, sexual, biological, and even aesthetic” (McQuail 32) alienation for several major characters. She expresses her belief that Huxley’s main message in the novel, “only the alienated individual… can achieve true happiness” (McQuail 31), is flawed. While this claim has its merits, the four main characters of the novel, all iconoclasts in their society, meet some kind of unhappy end, invalidating Huxley’s message. However, all other people but the four main characters-- Bernard, Helmholtz, Mustapha, and John-- are incapable of any emotions besides those conditioned to them.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?” (Bradbury 56). The power-hungry fear of a fireman in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 parallels the protective fear of controlling parents. Books recognized as classics and essential to a high school education are being challenged by parents and administrators for being inappropriate for school aged children. Beloved, by Toni Morrison, is a meaningful book that explores the horrors slavery and its everlasting effects. This book has been challenged by parents, and in some cases taken out of the curriculum, because of its violence, profane language, and is depiction of the “inappropriate topics of bestiality, racism, and sex” (“Banned. . .”). However, Morrison crafted the haunting book to recreate the feeling of those that had endured slavery, attempting to provide insight into an unimaginable, horrific existence. Children must be exposed to this because it is their past; as Morrison explains in the novel, the past cannot be ignored and needs to be understood and appreciated, no matter how harrowing it may be to relive. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World has also received wide criticism for its presence in the education system. In Brave New World, Huxley illustrates a society where all pain has been removed, and people numb their feelings with the drug soma. In removing pain, emotion is also taken out; a life without…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aldous Huxley demonstrates the theme of isolation through foreign and contrasting culture in Brave New World. John, “the Savage”, is abruptly thrown into a new society that has a government dictated by science and that is far different from his own home. Throughout his turbulent journey in the World State, John must maneuver his way through a culture that revolves around science and the perfection of human conditioning, and in process he loses everything he holds dear to him that has any semblance of home.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Society teaches the morally incorrect and socially unacceptable aspects of murder. George Orwell’s “Shooting and Elephant” and Foster the People’s “Pumped up Kicks” address the contrary, the instances in which society leads one to murder. Orwell’s switch from first to second person within “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it” reveals the distance that the murderer puts between himself and his action creating a sense of personal distain; the same sense of detachment is evoked through Foster the People’s dreamily synthesized lyrics. The short clauses without conjunctions “In an instant, in too short a time, one would have thought, even for the bullet to get there” increases the pace just as the murderous act occurs intensifies the guilt suddenly felt. On the contrary, as the chorus begins in “Pumped up Kicks” the music picks up pace with a lighter music layered over the heavy down beat evokes a sense of relief that that the murder will bring after society drove the murderer insane. Both Orwell and Foster the People address varying situations in which murder must occur through their written and melodic choices.…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brave New World intrigued me, even before I began reading because it has been said to be complicated, provocative, and prophetic. In Huxley’s vision of the future, humans are produced the same way consumer goods are produced on an assembly line. It was hard to imagine a world without childbirth, where human reproduction became solely about maximizing efficiency. I felt pity for the students because they felt no positive connotation to the words “parent” and “home”. They no longer had a personal connection to family, feeling no love or emotion at all, which to me is the entire basis of humanity. They feel lucky to be spared all the pain and suffering that come with emotions, and although many of us probably feel it would be easier, with pain comes the understanding of real happiness. Even the traditional taboos about sex have been discarded; children engage in erotic play because they have been conditioned to believe that sex has no emotional or moral…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mississippi Burning

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Racism is a major issue that takes place in the film, it is viewed negatively and the director Alan Parker attempts to show to the audience the downsides and how devastating it is, how unfair it can be. The constant, terrorizing attacks against black people by the KKK in are horrific and cruel. Innocent people are killed and homes are put in flames or destroyed for no other reason than the fact that a group of people are racist against others. Film codes used help to place a negative feel in some of these scenes like the use of fire, symbolising evil towards the racist acts. The music performed as well by the black community show the great amount of sadness the people have to suffer. Many various camera shots/angles and lighting for separate scenes change the feeling and the mood. This use of film convections affect the views and opinions of the viewer’s towards the subject of racism, helping people understand the negative of it.…

    • 693 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Community, Identity, Stability” ( Huxley 1). The dystopian society of the future lives by this motto in everything it does. One of the first things Huxley mentions in his novel is this hypocritical slogan. Community and identity are controlled by the apparent stability that the government has created. There is no true identity or community when the free will of each person is being suppressed. In Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, the author uses John's life into the tribe and sudden submergence in the new world to display that natural human instincts will always outweigh the illusion of happiness and stability.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brave New World

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Fifty years from now the world that we have become so accommodated with will seem odd and unnatural because of our ever-changing society. Even though circumstances between the two communities may seem different, they still revolve around the same basis. In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the society includes many of the same principles that we can see in our everyday life. Even though our world may not seem so closely related to that of Brave New World, many similarities exist. The fact that our worlds share many similarities scares me. Some of the frightening similarities in both civilizations include the rapidly deceasing level of pain tolerance, teaching through technology, and segregation.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays