Roswell Fanatics

suie wrote:The last movie I saw at the cinema was "Shutter Island" and it was pure genius. I haven´t heard much of the story before and that turned out to be the best way to approach it. Leo was great and the outcome was quite surprising. Also the lack of music before something unexpected or scary happened got me pressed into the seat more than once. I can highly recommend it.

9/10

RosDude wrote:I enjoyed the outcome as well, although I saw it coming. But to be fair, I'm usually pretty good at guessing plot twists. My sister says it's why she hates watching movies with me lol.

The answer is that Teddy and Laeddis are the same person and he is delusional.
The key to the movie is in the motifs/symbols of fire and water.
Water (including blood which contains water) represents reality or at least Laeddis's sanity attempting to break through the delusions
The reality is that Laeddis shot and killed his wife (covered in blood) because she drowned their children (a true flashback). Because he cannot mentally deal with his guilt and anguish he suffers a mental breakdown in which he becomes the persona named Teddy.
- clues - in the beginning of the moview Teddy is shown to be sick of the water ("so much water" could also be reworded as "so much blood") (he is sick of water because subconscioiusly water is associated with the reality that his wife drowned his kids), in a vision blood covers the false missing patient (this representative of the fact that she is a real person and is actuallly a staff nurse playing a role), blood covers the German officer (this confirms that Laeddis was in the past a soldier, he was involved in the liberation of the death camp and that he did let the officer suffer by moving the gun (a true flashback)), he asks his wife why she is wet (this is a clue that his wife did not die by fire or that his mind is attempting to break through the delusion), at the bottom of the cliffs the ocean water washing over the rocks reveals that Chuck's body was just an illusion or dillusion possibly caused in part by the white coloring of the rocks, water dripping down from the ceiling causes Teddy to wake up from a dream, Teddy has to swim to the lighthouse (symbolizes his return to sanity and the knowledge that he killed his wife and ultimately his children because he ignored his wife's depression)

Fire represents delusions.
The delusion is that his wife died in a fire caused by a person named Laeddis (the fictional staple faced Laeddis) .
- clues - in his visions at least the ones that support his delusion he associates his wife with fire or flame (burning apartment, in the cell with Noyes (lit matches), the car explosion), his conversation with Noyes is also a delusion because it is associated with the burning matches (in reality Noyes had never been transferred out of the asylum to a regular prison and was a fellow patient whom Laeddis/Teddy violently attacked because Noyes had called him Laeddis which Laeddis in his delusional state cannot accept because to accept his true name would be to accept the knowedge that he killed his wife because she drowned their children because he ignored her depression/insanity), the burning cigarette on the cliff is a clue that the body of Chuck at the bottom of the Cliff is an illusion or delusion as revealed by the ocean waves washing over the rocks showing no body and white coloring of the rocks which may have contributed to the illusion or delusion), the fire in the cave is a clue that the discovery and conversation with the missing patient/doctor in the cave is a delusion, the flame and fire in the vision of staple face Laeddis is a clue that staple face Laeddis does not exist is part of the delusion)

other clues - Teddy/Laeddis remarks that the guards at the gate are very tense - they are tense because they know that Teddy is Laeddis and that he can be violent
- Laeddis in his delusional state and prior to incarceration in the insane asylum was a US marshall and therefore had no problem in removing his firearm/holster to give to the guards whereas Chuck who in reality was Laeddis primary psychologist and not a US marshall had no experience with firearms/holsters and therefore bungled in his efforts to remove the holster from his belt.
- Teddy at first believes that he is shooting the psychiatrist and sees blood splatter but the psychiatrist is uneffected which is the final straw in the totality of the inconsistancies of what is occuring in his delusional state and Laeddis finally realizes that the delusion cannot explain what is occuring arround hiim and forces him to confront the reality that the gun is actually a plastic toy, that he created the Teddy persona, that his wife did not die in a fire set by staple face Laeddis and that it was he who killled his wife and through his inaction with regards to his wife's depresssion/insanity his own children..

I am sure there there are more clues but based on the above - in the majority of the movie Laeddis is delusional and has created the Teddy persona which the Staff (also using other patients) decides to use an experimental therapy where they faciliate the delusion in the hopes that in working through the delusion in the real world, i.e. the environs of the ferry and shutter island, that the patient himself realizes that the delusion cannot explain everything that is happening arround him (there are too many inconsistencies) and breaks himself out of the delusion.

In the end he questions whether it is better to live a monster or die a good man. This implies that Laeddis has regained his sanity but he cannot live with the knowledge that he killed his wife and ultimately his children through his inaction regarding his wife's depression (i.e. live a monster) Therefore, he decides to act as if his delusional state relapsed thereby requiring the lobotomy so that he no longer remembers himself or what he did (i.e. die a good man).

Earth2Mama wrote:Yeah, D-Wars ... wasn't his finest.

valentinebaby wrote:

Earth2Mama wrote:Yeah, D-Wars ... wasn't his finest.

They could've at least had him take off his shirt to make it semi-worth seeing.