We love a bit of Sean Bean, and another film from the vault of classics has been added to Netflix, Digital Spy reports. Michael Bay’s 2005 sci-fi thriller The Island, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, tells the story of a futuristic facility where hundreds of people live under strict rules, believing the outside world has been devastated by contamination.
But Lincoln Six Echo, played by McGregor, begins to question everything he has been told. After discovering the shocking truth behind the facility and its mysterious ‘Island’, Lincoln and Jordan Two Delta, played by Johansson, attempt to escape and expose the operation to the outside world.
And, of course, for us Yorkshire folk, there’s another reason to give it a watch – good ol’ Sean Bean. Bean plays Dr Merrick, the scientist in charge of the facility, alongside a stellar cast that includes Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi and the late Michael Clarke Duncan.
The film was directed by Michael Bay, best known for blockbusters such as Transformers, and runs for a hefty 136 minutes. It combines the director’s trademark action sequences with a dystopian science-fiction story about cloning, corporate greed and the ethics of creating humans for their organs.
It was considered a box-office flop
Despite its huge budget and impressive cast, The Island struggled commercially when it was released in 2005. The film had an estimated budget of around $126 million and made approximately $163 million worldwide. While that sounds like a lot, its domestic performance was particularly poor, taking just over $35.8 million in the US and Canada.
However, its reception among audiences today paints a somewhat different picture. The film currently holds an IMDb rating of 6.8/10 from around 343,000 ratings, suggesting it has maintained a sizeable audience more than two decades after its cinema release.
It’s also one of those films that feels particularly interesting to revisit now, given how much science fiction has explored cloning, artificial intelligence and questions around what makes someone human since its release.
What is The Island about?
The film is set in 2019 and follows Lincoln Six Echo, one of hundreds of residents living in an isolated, highly controlled compound.
The residents are told that the outside world is contaminated and that the only safe place left is a paradise known as ‘The Island’. Every so often, one resident wins a lottery and is supposedly chosen to travel there.
Lincoln, however, begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right. After discovering the truth about the facility and the fate of those who are selected, he and Jordan escape and attempt to expose the sinister operation.
The result is a mixture of conspiracy thriller, action film and dystopian sci-fi, with plenty of Michael Bay-style explosions and chase sequences along the way.
If you’d like to give it a watch, The Island is now available to stream on Netflix.
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Feature Image Credit: Dreamworks
