{"id":15755,"date":"2022-05-20T08:03:45","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T06:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1647160"},"modified":"2022-05-20T08:23:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T06:23:09","slug":"shutter-island-ending-explained-heres-what-really-happened-to-leonardo-dicaprios-character","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/shutter-island-ending-explained-heres-what-really-happened-to-leonardo-dicaprios-character\/","title":{"rendered":"Shutter Island ending explained: Here\u2019s what really happened to Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s character"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Daniel Furn\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 20 May 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Leonardo DiCaprio is no stranger to twisty-turny thrillers, but Shutter Island may be the star\u2019s most mind-bending work yet.<\/p>\n

Released in 2010, Shutter Island saw DiCaprio re-team with longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese for what initially seemed to be a run-of-the-mill detective drama \u2013 before evolving into a psychological thriller with heartbreaking consequences.<\/p>\n

This is all culminates with one of the best plot twists in recent memory and an intentionally ambiguous ending that is still spawning endless theories, debates and examinations to this day.<\/p>\n

While the Shutter Island ending is left open to interpretation in many ways, we\u2019ve picked apart the Shutter Island below, including that haunting final line and several surprisingly convincing Reddit thread theories.<\/p>\n

This may go without saying, but spoilers abound<\/strong> from here on out \u2013 Shutter Island is really a film that should be watched for the first time knowing as little as possible.<\/p>

What happened in Shutter Island?<\/h2>\n

Explaining what exactly happened in Shutter Island is quite the task \u2013 but here\u2019s a concise explanation of the events leading up to that all-important ending.<\/p>\n

The film starts with U.S. Marshal Edward \u201cTeddy\u201d Daniels (DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arriving at the titular island in 1954, where they are to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. The patient in question is Rachel Solando, who was sectioned for drowning her three children, with the only clue to her disappearance a cryptic note found in her room reading: \u201cThe law of 4; who is 67?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fittingly for a psychological thriller, a dark and gloomy storm rolls in which prevents the two men from returning to the mainland for several days \u2013 and the amount of water seems to make Teddy very uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

Teddy and Chuck struggle to get information from the uncooperative staff, with lead psychiatrist John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) refusing to hand over records while Solando\u2019s doctor Lester Sheehan is away on a sudden vacation. They are also barred from areas of the hospital such as the lighthouse and Ward C, which houses the most dangerous patients.<\/p>\n

Teddy soon starts to experience migraine headaches, which trigger visions of traumatic incidents from his past \u2013 specifically his involvement in the liberation of Dachau in World War Two, and visions of his wife Dolores Chanal who died in a fire caused by arsonist Andrew Laeddis. During one of these visions, Dolores explains that Solando is still on the island \u2013 as is Laeddis, with Teddy later telling Chuck that he took the case in an attempt to locate his wife\u2019s killer.<\/p>\n

After reports that Solando has apparently returned, Teddy breaks into Ward C where he encounters George Noyce (Jackie Earle Henley), a patient in solitary confinement who claims that patients are being lobotomised in the lighthouse \u2013 and that everyone on the island is conspiring against Teddy in an elaborate game.<\/p>\n

Teddy interviews Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer) who seems to think that he is her dead husband.<\/p>\n

Reunited with Chuck, Teddy heads towards the lighthouse, only to lose his partner near the cliffs and seemingly spot his body on the rocks. Teddy heads towards Chuck\u2019s corpse \u2013 revealed to just be an optical illusion \u2013 but discovers a cave inhabited by a woman (Patricia Clarkson) who claims to be the real Rachel Solando. She claims that she discovered experiments with psychotropic medicines on the island in an attempt to perfect mind control, and was forcibly committed to the island before she could go to the authorities.<\/p>\n

Solando also suggests that the hospital has drugged Teddy, and will soon concoct a story that he went crazy in order to keep him on the island.<\/p>\n

Teddy returns to the hospital in search of Chuck \u2013 but Dr. Cawley insists that Chuck does not exist and that Teddy arrived on the island alone. A now paranoid Teddy sets fire to Cawley\u2019s car and uses the diversion to flee to the lighthouse as his hallucinations worsen.<\/p>\n

Shutter Island ending explained<\/h2>\n

Shutter Island comes to a heartbreaking conclusion at the lighthouse, where Teddy does not find evidence of experiments \u2013 but instead Dr. Cawley waiting for him there.<\/p>\n

Cawley denies that he has drugged Teddy, and explains that Teddy is experiencing withdrawal symptoms from the anti-psychotic medication that he has been taking for the last two years.<\/p>\n

Cawley explains that Teddy is in fact Andrew Laeddis, the most dangerous patient in Ward C. Teddy\/Andrew was incarcerated on the island after he murdered his manic depressive wife Dolores, who drowned their three children. Edward Daniels and Rachel Solando are revealed to be anagrams of Andrew Laeddis and Dolores Chanal, and Andrew attacked George Noyce two weeks ago for calling him Laeddis.<\/p>\n

Andrew Laeddis took up drinking after the horrors he witnessed at Dachau, which meant he failed to seek mental health for Dolores who burned down their city apartment in a suicide attempt. Instead he moved the family to a lake house, where Dolores\u2019 mental issues led to her drowning the three children.<\/p>\n

Andrew created the Teddy persona as a result of his guilt for not helping his wife sooner, and the events of the film were all part of a role-play designed by Cawley to help Andrew accept reality. Chuck was in fact a hospital staff member called Dr. Lester Sheehan, and a nurse played the role of Rachel Soldano. The \u201creal\u201d Rachel Soldano was a hallucination caused by withdrawal symptoms from his medication.<\/p>\n

Andrew faints and awakens in the hospital surrounded by the hospital staff. He relays the truth they told him when questioned, which satisfies Cawley \u2013 but warns Andrew that it is his last chance or he will be lobotomised.<\/p>\n

However, sometime later on the hospital grounds Andrew refers to Sheehan as \u201cChuck\u201d, and says that they must leave the island. Sheehan looks at Cawley and shakes his head, and Andrew is taken away to be lobotomised.<\/p>\n

However, as he is taken away, Andrew asks Sheehan\u201dWhich would be worse: To live as a monster, or to die as a good man?\u201d Sheehan calls Andrew \u201cTeddy\u201d one last time, but gets no response.<\/p>\n

Did Andrew get lobotomized voluntarily?<\/h3>\n

Andrew\u2019s last line of dialogue, and his failure to respond to being called Teddy, has led many fans to speculate that Andrew had not actually regressed, and was voluntarily submitting himself to a lobotomy so he did not have to live with his sins and the monster he had become.<\/p>\n

Neither Scorsese nor any of the filmmakers have given a conclusive answer. However author Dennis Lehane, who wrote the 2003 novel of the same name on which the film was based, had some opinions, despite the book ending far more conclusively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he asks the question, he does it in such a way that, if he were to say it as a statement\u2026 then there\u2019s no solution here but to stop the lobotomy,\u201d Lehane told MTV<\/a>. \u201c Because if he shows any sort of self-awareness, then it\u2019s over, they wouldn\u2019t want to lobotomize him.<\/p>\n

My feeling was no, he\u2019s not so conscious he says \u2018Oh I\u2019m going to decide to pretend to be Laeddis so they\u2019ll finally give me a lobotomy.\u2019 That would just be far more suicidal than I think this character is. I think that in one moment, for a half a second sitting there in that island he remembered who he was and then he asks that question and he quickly sort of lets it go. That was my feeling on that line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was Andrew really insane?<\/h3>\n

The beauty of this film is how well it works in two ways \u2013 it works as the investigation of a U.S. Marshall, but also makes sense retroactively when it is revealed the whole thing was a ruse. This means the ending could be interpreted either way:<\/p>\n

  1. Andrew had a mental break after seeing his dead children, murdered his wife and then could not accept reality while in the hospital.<\/li>\n
  2. Teddy is mentally sane, never killed his wife and is a US Marshall. He really did meet Rachel Saldano in the cave, everything she said is true and he was lobotomized so he would not tell the world.<\/li>\n<\/ol>

    While the movie never does not quite discount either interpretation with concrete proof, it does tend to lean towards the idea that Andrew really was a patient on the island struggling to accept the death of his family. Andrew never does find any evidence \u2013 even while hallucinating \u2013 of experiments taking place in the lighthouse, and a rewatch will result in several clues that hint towards the plot twist\u2026<\/p>\n

    Shutter Island clues<\/h3>\n

    Throughout the film there are several hints and continuity errors that suggest all is not quite right, and make tragic sense following the big reveal. These include:<\/p>\n