Lehane`s inspiration for the hospital and the island was Long Island in Boston Harbor, which he had visited as a child with his uncle and family during the 1978 snowstorm. [7] Teddy regroups with Chuck and they climb the cliffs to the lighthouse, but are separated. When Teddy sees Chuck`s body on the rocks, he investigates but only finds a cave in which a woman is hiding who claims to be the real Solando. She states that she is a former psychiatrist who discovered experiments to develop mind control, but was violently engaged. She says Cawley and his assistant, Dr. Naehring, will use Teddy`s war trauma to fake a psychotic fracture so they can commit it. Teddy returns to the hospital and is welcomed by Cawley. When Teddy asks where Chuck is, Cawley insists that Teddy has no partner, that he arrived alone on the island. Shutter Island was filmed primarily in Massachusetts, with Taunton being the filming location for World War II flashback scenes. [8] The former industrial buildings of the Whittenton Mills complex in Taunton recreated the Dachau concentration camp. [9] The former Medfield State Hospital in Medfield, Massachusetts, was another important site. Cawley`s office scenes took place late in the evening on the second floor of the chapel.

Lights were projected through the windows to give the impression that it was daylight. The team painted the hospital`s brick walls to look like plywood. This served the dual purpose of acting as a backdrop and blocking the scenery of a view of a local road. The crew wanted to shoot in the former Worcester State Hospital, but demolition of the surrounding buildings made that impossible. The stone cabin next to Leach Pond in Borderland State Park in Easton, Massachusetts, was used for the cabin scene. [10] The film uses Peddocks Island as the backdrop for the island of history. East Point, in Nahant, Massachusetts, was the location of the lighthouse scenes. The hurricane-hit scenes of Teddy and Chuck were filmed on the Wilson Mountain reservation in Dedham, Massachusetts.[11] [12] Filming ended on July 2, 2008. [13] The staff, headed by psychiatrist John Cawley, appear uncooperative. The marshals learn that Solando`s doctor, Lester Sheehan, left the island on vacation immediately after Solando`s disappearance.

Teddy experiences migraines, flashbacks of his experiences as a soldier in the U.S. Army during the liberation of Dachau, and vivid dreams of his wife Dolores, who died in a fire by arsonist Andrew Laeddis. Teddy explains to Chuck that he accepted the deal to find Laeddis because he believes he is on the island. Solando suddenly reappears and tricks Teddy into a blocking station, where he meets patient George Noyce. He claims that doctors are experimenting on patients, some of whom are taken to a lighthouse to be lobotomized, and warns Teddy that everyone is cheating on him. When Andrew wakes up later, he calmly tells the truth and satisfies the doctors. Cawley notes that they had reached this state nine months earlier, but Andrew quickly refused. He warns that this will be Andrew`s last chance and that if he falls again, he will be lobotomized.

Some time later, Andrew relaxes with Sheehan on the hospital grounds. Andrew seems delusional and again refers to Sheehan as “Chuck” and says they have to leave the island. Sheehan signals to Cawley, who orders Andrew to lobotomize. Andrew asks Sheehan if it would be worse “to live like a monster or die like a good man?” A stunned Sheehan calls Andrew “Teddy”, but he does not react and walks peacefully with the caregivers. In 1954, Federal Field Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) arrive at Shutter Island, a treatment center for mental offenders outside Boston, in search of an escaped murderer. Haunted by previous images of Nazi concentration camps and visions of his deceased wife (Michelle Williams), Teddy has another, more personal reason to visit the island. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that there could be much more sinister things and that Doctors Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Naehring (Max von Sydow) could be involved in some sort of vile experiment. But even if Teddy can find evidence, will he ever move away from the island? Critics` consensus: This may not be one of Scorsese`s best works, but the joyfully uninhibited thrill of Shutter Island represents the director in his most unbridled form. Teddy is a restless soul who wants to be a good man more than anything.

As his story unfolds, we see that he has had a traumatic life. But we also see how he struggles to hold on to what he knows to be good in his heart, even if it means his own downfall. The audience is constantly guessed by reality, while the plot slowly leads to a simple and final question that perfectly puts all the parties in their place. And while not truly spiritual in nature, this last moment makes a powerful and empowering statement about a man`s overwhelming thirst for good—while his chin is deeply immersed in all the worst evils humanity can inflict on itself. Shutter Island was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 8, 2010 in the United States[46] and August 2, 2010 in the United Kingdom. [47] The British version consisted of two editions – a standard edition and a limited steel edition. [48] For the tenth anniversary, Paramount Pictures released a 4K+ Blu-ray Steelbook on February 11, 2020. Convinced that Chuck has been taken to the lighthouse, Teddy goes there, but meets Naehring, who tries to sedate him.[49] Teddy overpowers him and enters the lighthouse, only to discover Cawley waiting for him.

Teddy confronts Cawley and reveals his encounter with Solando, believing that Cawley is experimenting on him. Cawley denies that Solando ever existed and insists that Teddy was not drugged, explaining the tremors as a withdrawal from chlorpromazine, an antipsychotic Teddy has been taking for two years.