Shutter Island

In 1954, U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, arrive on Shutter Island, off the Massachusetts coast, to investigate the case of Rachel Solando, a woman who mysteriously disappeared from Ashecliffe Hospital. Ashecliffe Hospital is an institution for violent people who suffer from severe mental illness. It is the only landmark on the entire island, which is why Rachel’s disappearance is so puzzling. Shortly after arriving on the island, Teddy and Chuck meet Dr. Cawley, the head of Ashecliffe Hospital. Dr. Cawley treats Teddy and Chuck kindly, but they quickly get the feeling he is not being straightforward with them. He will not grant them access to important files that would help solve the case and many of his answers are evasive. Furthermore, when Teddy and Chuck examine Rachel’s ward, which looks more like a prison cell, they determine it is almost impossible she could have escaped on her own. They wonder whether Dr. Sheehan, Dr. Cawley’s colleague who recently left the island, could have taken her with him back to the mainland.

Hoping to find clues, Teddy and Chuck interview several other patients at the hospital who were in group therapy the night Rachel disappeared. None of them prove useful, though Teddy suspects someone has coached them to answer in a specific way. Teddy gets fed up with the way Dr. Cawley and his staff are treating him and threatens to leave the island. However, he does not follow through on his threat and instead spends time walking with Chuck around the island. Chuck is suspicious that Teddy knows more than he is saying. Teddy admits that he came to the island for reasons beyond Rachel Solando. He believes that somewhere on Shutter Island, perhaps in the closely guarded Ward C, there is a prisoner named Andrew Laeddis. According to Teddy, Andrew Laeddis was a pyromaniac who murdered Teddy’s wife, Dolores. He wants to find Laeddis, though he is not sure what will happen when he does. Additionally, Teddy reveals that he wants to investigate the island because he thinks Dr. Cawley and his team are performing inhumane experiments on their patients.

After wandering around the island in a storm, Teddy and Chuck return to Ashecliffe Hospital and discover that Dr. Cawley and his men found Rachel. Teddy briefly speaks with Rachel and notices that she looks different from the picture in her file. After talking with Rachel, Teddy goes to Dr. Cawley’s office for a meeting. While there, he experiences an extreme migraine. Dr. Cawley gives him some pills to help, which put him to sleep for a couple hours. While asleep, Teddy has terrible dreams about Rachel and Dolores. Rachel originally came to Ashecliffe Hospital because she murdered her children and, in his dream, Teddy helps her kill them. Teddy wakes up from his dream and sees Dr. Cawley watching over him. Dr. Cawley tries to ask Teddy about his past, but Teddy clamps up and refuses to say anything.

The next day, the storm intensifies, so Teddy and Chuck take some time to explore parts of the island they know they are not supposed to see while Dr. Cawley and his staff are busy training to secure their facilities. In particular, they journey to Ward C and go looking for Andrew Laeddis. Although they do not find Laeddis, Teddy comes across George Noyce, a patient who warns Teddy he will never get off the island. Teddy knows about Noyce because he read his case file before coming to the island. He thinks Noyce is one of the patients Dr. Cawley and his team have been experimenting on.

After having little luck at Ward C, Teddy and Chuck decide to make their way to the island’s lighthouse. They know Dr. Cawley is keeping something important inside because he keeps armed guards outside, but they do not know what. However, on their way there, they get sidetracked because Teddy notices a rock formation, which he believes contains a hidden message from Rachel. He goes to check it out and leaves Chuck behind. Then, when he returns to his former spot, he discovers Chuck is missing. He worries that foul play is afoot, and his fear intensifies after he sees what he thinks is Chuck’s body at the bottom of a cliff. However, when he goes to look for Chuck, he finds he was mistaken; the body he thought he saw was merely an illusion. Since he still has not found his friend, Teddy walks along the beach. Eventually, he spots a cave with light coming out of it. Assuming it must be Chuck, he climbs into the cave. There, he finds a woman who says she is the real Rachel Solando. She tells Teddy that she was once a doctor at Ashecliffe Hospital. However, her colleagues had her institutionalized after she refused to go along with their morally questionable experiments. She also warns Teddy that Dr. Cawley and his team will never let Teddy leave the island. Additionally, she tells him not to trust Chuck.

Teddy returns to Ashecliffe and tells Dr. Cawley he plans to leave the island the following day. He also asks him if he has seen Chuck. In response, Dr. Cawley says he does not know anyone named Chuck and claims Teddy came to the island alone. After the conversation, Teddy returns to his room and asks an orderly to tell him what is going on. Although the orderly will not give a definitive answer, he warns Teddy that he must get off the island before it is too late. He also tells Teddy when and where the next ferry will arrive so he can sneak on. Teddy almost manages to escape but decides to turn back when he learns that Dr. Cawley might be holding Chuck in the lighthouse. Not wanting to leave his partner behind, he swims to the lighthouse and sneaks inside. There, he finds Dr. Cawley by himself.

Dr. Cawley tells Teddy that the man he has been searching for—Andrew Laeddis—is Teddy himself. Meanwhile, “Teddy” is merely an alter ego he made up to hide his guilt and shame about his past criminal actions. Teddy does not believe Dr. Cawley, but Dr. Cawley points out that the name Teddy Daniels is an anagram for Andrew Laeddis. Similarly, Rachel Solando is an anagram for Dolores Chanal, Teddy’s wife’s full name. All of the crimes Teddy ascribed to Rachel were actually committed by his wife, Dolores. She was mentally ill and drowned their children. After discovering their dead bodies, Teddy/Andrew shot and killed her, which is why he came to Shutter Island.

Additionally, Dr. Cawley informs him that everything he has experienced on the island is essentially a giant performance. Over the past several years, Andrew has told Dr. Cawley the story of everything that has happened in the novel up to this point. As such, Dr. Cawley decided to stage Andrew’s delusions in hopes it would shatter them. As proof, he brings out Chuck, who is actually his partner Dr. Sheehan. Dr. Sheehan apologizes for fooling Andrew and promises they were only trying to help him. Although Andrew denies everything at first, he eventually admits that everything Dr. Cawley is saying is true. Dr. Cawley appreciates Andrew’s revelation but warns him that if he cannot continue to live in reality rather than a world of delusion, he will receive a transorbital lobotomy. Andrew promises he has changed for good this time, though Dr. Cawley is doubtful.

The next day, Andrew wakes up thinking he is Teddy Daniels again. He talks to Dr. Sheehan, who he calls Chuck, and asks if he should be worried about Dr. Cawley. Chuck tells him there is no need to worry, though as he does so, Dr. Cawley and several orderlies make their way over to Teddy, presumably to bring him in for his lobotomy.