| Director | Martin Scorsese |
|---|---|
| Budget | $80 million |
| Box office | $294.8 million |
In 1954, U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule travel to Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island in Boston Harbor. They are investigating the disappearance of Rachel Solando, a patient of the hospital who had killed her three children by drowning.
The staff, led by psychiatrist Dr. John Cawley and his colleague Dr. Jerimiah Naehring, appear uncooperative. The marshals learn that Dr. Lester Sheehan, who was treating Solando, left the island on vacation immediately after Solando disappeared. Teddy experiences migraines and flashbacks of his time as a U.S. soldier in the liberation of Dachau, as well as vivid dreams of his wife Dolores, who was killed in a fire in their building set by pyromaniac Andrew Laeddis. Teddy tells Chuck he took this case to find Laeddis, whom he believes is a patient. Solando suddenly resurfaces, but believes Teddy is her husband.
Teddy breaks into the restricted Ward C to find Laeddis, but meets patient George Noyce, who acts as if he knows Teddy. Noyce says the doctors experiment on patients and lobotomize them in the lighthouse. He warns Teddy that everyone will deceive him and not to trust his partner Chuck.
Teddy and Chuck climb the cliffs toward the lighthouse but are separated. Believing he saw Chuck's body on the rocks below, Teddy climbs down but finds a cave where a woman claiming to be the real Rachel Solando is hiding. She reveals she is a former psychiatrist who discovered clandestine experiments on mind control at the facility, and was forcibly committed to silence her. She warns that Cawley and Naehring will use Teddy's war trauma to feign a psychotic break, so they can have him committed. Teddy returns to the hospital. When he asks about Chuck, Cawley insists that Teddy arrived at Shutter Island alone.
Convinced that Chuck has been taken to the lighthouse, Teddy is intercepted by Naehring, who attempts to sedate him. Teddy overpowers him and breaks into the lighthouse to find Cawley waiting for him. Cawley tells him that Rachel Solando never existed and that Teddy has not been drugged but is experiencing withdrawal from chlorpromazine, a neuroleptic medication he has taken for the past two years.
Chuck arrives and reveals that he is Dr. Sheehan. Cawley reveals that "Teddy" is really Andrew Laeddis, a former U.S. Marshal incarcerated at Ashecliffe for killing his manic depressive wife Dolores Chanal after she drowned their three children. Andrew failed to seek treatment for Dolores when she burned down their apartment. He instead moved his family to a lakehouse where Dolores carried out the killings. As a result of his guilt, Andrew became delusional and created the alternate persona of Edward Daniels. The "investigation" of Rachel Solando was an elaborate roleplay, supported by hospital staff, to help Andrew play out his delusion so he might break out of it and return to reality. Overwhelmed, Andrew faints.
Awakening, Andrew recounts the truth, satisfying the doctors that he is lucid. Cawley notes they had achieved this state nine months ago but had quickly regressed. He warns that this will be Andrew's last chance, and if he lapses again, he will be lobotomized due to his violent conduct toward the guards and other patients, such as Noyce.
Some time later, Andrew relaxes on the hospital grounds with Sheehan. Appearing delusional, he calls Sheehan "Chuck", and says they must leave the island. Sheehan signals to a watching Cawley, who orders the lobotomy. Andrew asks Sheehan if it would be worse "to live as a monster or to die as a good man". A stunned Sheehan calls Andrew "Teddy", but the latter does not respond and leaves peacefully with the orderlies for his operation.