Essay on The Island

Submitted By Gaara12478
Words: 911
Pages: 4

The island essay: Dr Merrick and Albert Laurent’s relationship
In the film ‘The Island’, directed by Michael Bay, an important relationship is shown and this is between Dr Merrick and Albert Laurent. Dr Merrick is the creator of a cloning facility and Albert Laurent is a professional assassin, hired by Merrick to retrieve two escaped clones, Lincoln six Echo and Jordan two Delta. This relationship shows us the significances and power of money and shows us later, how beliefs and experiences are more important than money.
We first see Merrick hiring Laurent simply to retrieve the two clones, Laurent is an experienced, successful and professional assassin and is thus in it for the money. Both Merrick and Laurent start off with the same personality, which is what they’re doing is business, Laurent is the highly skilled assassin who kills for a living and is only focused on the job and money, then Merrick is focused on how to protect his wealth and secrets. Money drives them together and Merrick uses this to take control and dominate Laurent, this is shown through and low angle shot to show that Merrick is the dominating one. In the scene where Merrick explains to Laurent that two of his clones have escaped the facility without giving away too much inside information. However Laurent does not ask any questions regarding to the facility and how the clones are produced and appears to be professional and focused at the job. With Merrick not giving out much inside information, it shows us that Merrick does not fully trust Laurent and their relationship is purely driven by money. Furthermore, Merrick refers to the clones as ‘products’. This shows us that Merrick simply views this as a good business and Laurent views this as a business in trouble and needs him to fix it, in exchange for money in his own business.
Merrick and Laurent’s relationship indicates importance through professional interaction. Everything is done and said with urgency showing us the trust Merrick has for Laurent in the job. While meeting for the first time the discussion between the two men leads to Merrick directing Laurent to the fact that “two of his products have escaped”. To this Laurent sarcastically replies “impressive, considering they are vegetated”. This is the first time we see Merrick being practically challenged and after Laurent’s statement, Merrick changes from a fake smile to a serious expression, shown by a close up shot. This scene notifies us that Merrick knows that Laurent knows there’s more to the story even though Merrick is certain that Laurent is highly capable of retrieving the clones, he still keeps his secrets and does not reveal too much about what actually happened in the facility and therefore doesn’t reveal too much information. This scene also shows us that Merrick is not only wealth, powerful and dominates, but he is also arrogant due to him digressing some of Laurent’s questions. His arrogance is further shown when Laurent fails to capture the clones and when they’re talking on the phone; Merrick continues to speak with arrogance due to the fact that he is very worried that if the clones are not brought back to him, his secrets would leak to the public. This conversation highlights the importance of trust that Merrick had on Laurent changing and how Laurent feels to Merrick not giving him enough information to complete his job efficiently.

The change of Laurent’s attitude in there last conversation indicates that Laurent has changed his