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Home / Movie Quotes / Shutter Island Quotes – ‘This place makes me wonder.’

Shutter Island Quotes – ‘This place makes me wonder.’

by MovieQuotesandMore.com

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Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley, Ted Levine, John Carroll Lynch, Elias Koteas

OUR RATING: ★★★★☆

Story:

Psychological mystery thriller directed by Martin Scorsese. The story follows U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio), who along with his new partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), are investigating the implausible escape of a patient from Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital, an insane asylum located on a remote, windswept island. The patient appears to have vanished from a locked room, and there are hints of terrible deeds committed within the hospital. As the investigation deepens, Teddy begins to doubt everything, his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

 

Our Favorite Quotes:

‘Sanity's not a choice, Marshal, you can't just choose to get over it.’ - Dr. John Cawley (Shutter Island) Click To Tweet ‘Wounds can create monsters.’ - Dr. Jeremiah Naehring (Shutter Island) Click To Tweet ‘Which would be worse, to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?' - Teddy Daniels (Shutter Island) Click To Tweet

 

Best Quotes


 

[first lines; after being sick, Teddy washes his face and looks in the bathroom mirror]
Teddy Daniels: Pull yourself together, Teddy! Pull yourself together.
[looking out the bathroom window]
Teddy Daniels: It’s this water. It’s a lot of water!


 

Chuck Aule: You okay, boss?
Teddy Daniels: Yeah, I’m fine. I just, uh, I just can’t stomach the water.
[looks at Chuck]
Teddy Daniels: So, you’re my new partner?
Chuck Aule: That’s right.
Teddy Daniels: Not the best way to meet, with my head half way down the toilet.
Chuck Aule: Doesn’t exactly square with Teddy Daniels, the man, the legend, I’ll give you that.
Teddy Daniels: The legend? What the hell you boys smoking over there in Portland, anyway?
Chuck Aule: Seattle. I came from the office in Seattle.


 

Chuck Aule: So how about you? You got a girl? Married?
Teddy Daniels: I was.
[flash back of his wife giving him a tie]
Teddy Daniels: She died.
Chuck Aule: Jesus, I, I, don…
Teddy Daniels: Nah, don’t worry about it. There was a fire at the apartment building while I was at work. Four people died. It was the smoke that got her not the fire, so that’s important.
Chuck Aule: Sorry boss.
Teddy Daniels: Where are my goddamn cigarettes.
Chuck Aule: Well here, have one of mine.
Teddy Daniels: Could have sworn they were in my jacket before I…
Chuck Aule: Government employees will rob you blind.


 

Teddy Daniels: Give you a briefing about the institution before you left?
Chuck Aule: All I know is that it’s a mental hospital.
Teddy Daniels: For the criminally insane.
Chuck Aule: Yeah, if it’s just folks running around hearing voices and chasing after butterflies they wouldn’t need us.


 

Ferry Captain: We’ll be casting off as soon as you two are ashore. I’d appreciate it if you would hurry up about it.
Teddy Daniels: Why?
Ferry Captain: Storm’s coming.


 

[Teddy shows McPherson the Marshal badge on his belt]
Deputy Warden McPherson: Never seen a Marshal’s badge before. I’m Deputy Warden McPherson. Gentlemen, welcome to Shutter Island. I’ll be the one taking you to Ashecliffe.


 

Teddy Daniels: You boys seem a little on edge, Mr. McPherson.
Deputy Warden McPherson: Right now Marshal, we all are.


 

[noticing the electric barbed wire around the edges of the institution]
Teddy Daniels: Electrified perimeter.
Chuck Aule: How can you tell?
Teddy Daniels: Seen something like it before.


 

Deputy Warden McPherson: The red brick building on your right is Ward A, the male ward. Ward B, the female ward, is the one your left. Ward C, is that building on the bluffs, an old civil war fort, the most dangerous patients are housed there. Admittance to Ward C is forbidden without the written consent and physical presence of both myself and Dr. Cawley. Is that understood?
Teddy Daniels: You act like insanity is catching.
Deputy Warden McPherson: You are hereby required to surrender your firearms.
Teddy Daniels: Mr. McPherson, we are duly appointed Federal Marshals and we are required to carry our firearms with us at all times.


 

[when Teddy and Chuck are reluctant to hand over their guns]
Deputy Warden McPherson: Gentlemen, you will not get through this gate with your firearms.
[reluctantly Teddy hands over his gun. Chuck struggles to get his gun out of his holster but finally releases it and hands it over]


 

Teddy Daniels: When did she escape, this prisoner?
Deputy Warden McPherson: I’m afraid Dr. Cawley will have to fill you in on the situation. Protocol.
Chuck Aule: Correctional Officers at a mental institution, that’s a weird site if you don’t mind me saying.
Deputy Warden McPherson: It’s the only facility of its kind in the U.S, even the world. We take only the most dangerous, damaged patients. Ones no other hospital can manage, and it’s all due to Dr. Cawley. He’s created something real unique here.


 

Deputy Warden McPherson: Dr. Cawley’s been consulted numerous times, by Scotland Yard, MI5, the OSS…
Teddy Daniels: Why?
Deputy Warden McPherson: What do you mean?
Teddy Daniels: What do intelligence agencies want to consult a psychiatrist about?
Deputy Warden McPherson: I guess you’ll have to ask him.


 

[after McPherson leaves Teddy and Chuck in Cawley’s office]
Chuck Aule: He had a lot to say about you.
Dr. John Cawley: McPherson’s a good man, he believes in the work we do here.
Teddy Daniels: And what would that be exactly?
Dr. John Cawley: A moral fusion between law and order and clinical care.
Chuck Aule: Pardon me John, a what between what and what?


 

[Teddy’s looking at old paintings of mental patients on Cawley’s office wall]
Dr. John Cawley: Those paintings are quite accurate. It used to be the kind of patients we deal with here were shackled and left in their own filth. They were beaten, as if whipping them bloody would drive the psychosis out. We drove screws into their brains, we submerged in them in icy water until they lost consciousness or even drowned.
Chuck Aule: And now?
Dr. John Cawley: We treat them, try to heal, try to cure. And if that fails at least we provide them with a measure of comfort in their lives, calm.
Teddy Daniels: These are all violent offenders, right? They’ve hurt people, murdered them in some cases.
Dr. John Cawley: In almost all cases, yes.
Teddy Daniels: Then personally doctor I’d say screw their sense of calm.
Dr. John Cawley: My job is to treat my patients not their victims. I’m not here to judge.


 

Teddy Daniels: So this female prisoner…?
Dr. John Cawley: Patient.
Teddy Daniels: Excuse me, patient. One Rachel Solando, escaped sometime in the last twenty four hours?
Dr. John Cawley: Last night, between then and midnight.
Chuck Aule: Is she considered dangerous?
Dr. John Cawley: You could say that. She killed all three of her children. She drowned them in the lake behind her house. She took them out one by one, held their heads under until they died, then she bought them back inside and arranged them round the kitchen table. She ate a meal there before a neighbor dropped by.
Teddy Daniels: And what about the husband?
Dr. John Cawley: He died, on the beaches of Normandy. She’s a war widow. She starved herself when she first came here. She insisted the children weren’t dead.
[Cawley shows Teddy photos of Rachel]


 

Teddy Daniels: Sorry doctor, you don’t happen to have an aspirin do ya?
Dr. John Cawley: Prone to headaches, Marshal?
Teddy Daniels: Sometimes, but today I’m a little more prone to sea sickness.


 

Dr. John Cawley: Rachel still believes the children are alive. She also believes this place is her home in the Berkshires.
Teddy Daniels: [laughing] You’re kidding me?
Dr. John Cawley: Never once in two years acknowledged that she’s in an institution, she believes we’re all delivery men, milk men, postal workers. To sustain the delusion that the children never died, she’s created an elaborate fictional structure. She gives us all parts to play in that fiction.
Teddy Daniels: So you searched the grounds yet?
Dr. John Cawley: Warden and his men scoured the island. Not a trace. What’s more disturbing is we don’t know how she got out of her room. It was locked from the outside and the only windows barred. It’s as if she evaporated straight through the walls.


 

[to Cawley]
Teddy Daniels: Seriously doctor, how is it possible that the truth never gets through to her? I mean, she’s in a mental institution, right? Seems like something you’d notice from time to time.


 

[to Teddy]
Dr. John Cawley: Sanity’s not a choice, Marshal, you can’t just choose to get over it.


 

[to Cawley after finding Rachel had left her shoes in her room]
Chuck Aule: She left here barefoot? Come on doc, she couldn’t get ten yards in that terrain.


 

[examining the note Teddy’s found hidden underneath the floor board in Rachel’s room]
Dr. John Cawley: Ah, this is definitely Rachel’s handwriting. I’ve no idea what the law of four is though.
Teddy Daniels: It’s not a psychiatric term?
Dr. John Cawley: No, I’m afraid not.
Chuck Aule: [Reads note] Who is 67? Fucked if I know.
Dr. John Cawley: I have to say that’s quite close to my clinical conclusion.
Teddy Daniels: Think it’s just random scribblings?
Dr. John Cawley: No, not at all. Rachel’s smart, brilliant in fact. This paper could be important.
[goes to grab the note from Teddy]
Teddy Daniels: Excuse me doctor, but we’re going to have to hold on to this.


 

Dr. John Cawley: Last night there were seven men sitting at the base of those stairs playing stud poker, yet somehow Rachel managed to slip past them.
Chuck Aule: How? She turns invisible?
Teddy Daniels: Doctor, we’re going to need access to the personnel files of all the medical staff. The nurses, the guards, the orderlies, anyone who was working that…
Dr. John Cawley: We’ll take your request under consideration.
Teddy Daniels: This is not a request, doctor. This is a federal facility and a dangerous prisoner…
Dr. John Cawley: Patient.
Teddy Daniels: Patient, has escaped now. You will comply or you…
Dr. John Cawley: All I can say is I’ll see what I can do.
Teddy Daniels: Doctor, we’re going to need to speak with the staff. Do you understand?
Dr. John Cawley: I’ll assemble them in the common room after dinner. If you have any further questions feel free to join the Deputy Warden in the search.


 

[checking the rocks near the shore of the island]
Deputy Warden McPherson: It’s eleven miles to the nearest land and the water’s freezing. Current was strong last night, tide pushing in, she’d had drowned or crushed on the rocks and her body would have washed back up on shore.
Teddy Daniels: What about those caves down there? Have you checked them?
Deputy Warden McPherson: No way she could get there. The base of those cliffs are covered in poison ivy, live oak, sumac, thousand plants with thorns as big as my dick. You said yourself, Marshal, she’s got no shoes.


 

Teddy Daniels: What’s that tower?
Deputy Warden McPherson: It’s an old light house. The guards already searched inside it.
Teddy Daniels: What’s in there? More patients?
Deputy Warden McPherson: Sewage treatment facility.


 

[staff are gathered in the common room where they are being questioned by Teddy and Chuck]
Glen Miga: Sir, I didn’t see nothing.
Teddy Daniels: You were, and you were at your post all night?
Glen Miga: Yeah, but I didn’t see a thing.
[Glen looks down, making no eye contact]
Teddy Daniels: Glen. Glen. Tell me the truth.
Glen Miga: I maybe went to the bathroom.
Dr. John Cawley: What? You breached protocol, for Christ…
Glen Miga: I wasn’t gone for more than a minute.


 

[to the staff]
Teddy Daniels: Let’s all just back up. Miss Solando was put in her room for lights out. Does anyone here know what she did before that? Anyone?
[nobody answers]
Teddy Daniels: Come on! Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?
Nurse Marino: She was in a group therapy session.
Teddy Daniels: Huh. Anything unusual occur?
Nurse Marino: Define unusual.
Teddy Daniels: Excuse me?
Nurse Marino: This is a mental institution, Marshal, for the criminally insane. Usual isn’t a big part of our day.
Teddy Daniels: I will rephrase. Did anything happen last night, during group therapy that was more, let’ say, I don’t know, memorable than…
Nurse Marino: Normal?
Teddy Daniels: Exactly.
Nurse Marino: No, sorry.


 

Teddy Daniels: Did Miss Solando say anything during group therapy?
Nurse Marino: She was worried about the rain and she hated the food here.
[all the staff laugh]
Nurse Marino: Complained constantly, last night included.
Teddy Daniels: So you were there, was there a doctor present?
Nurse Marino: Yes, Dr. Sheehan led the discussion.
Teddy Daniels: Dr. Sheehan?
Nurse Marino: Yes, he was running the session. He’s Rachel’s primary, the psychiatrist who directly oversees her care.


 

Teddy Daniels: We’re going to need to speak with Dr. Sheehan.
Dr. John Cawley: I’m afraid that won’t be possible. He left on the ferry this morning. His vacation was already planned, he’d been putting it off too long.
Chuck Aule: You’re in a state of lock down. A dangerous patient has escaped and you let her primary doctor leave on vacation?
Dr. John Cawley: Well, of course. He’s a doctor.
[the staff laugh]
Teddy Daniels: Do you have phone number for where he’s gone?


 

Dr. John Cawley: I’m afraid I have evening rounds in the wards, but I’ll be having drinks and a cigar at my house around nine if you care to drop by.
Teddy Daniels: Good, we can talk then, right?
Dr. John Cawley: We have been talking, Marshal.


 

[in Cawley’s house]
Chuck Aule: Nice music. Who is that, Brahms?
Teddy Daniels: No. It’s Mahler.
Dr. John Cawley: Quite right, Marshal.

See more Shutter Island Quotes


 

Dr. John Cawley: Your poison, gentlemen?
Chuck Aule: Rye, if you got it.
Teddy Daniels: Soda on ice please, thanks.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Oh, you don’t indulge in alcohol? I’m surprised. Isn’t it common for men in your profession to imbibe?
Teddy Daniels: Common enough. And yours?
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: I’m sorry?
Teddy Daniels: Your profession, doctor, psychiatry?
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Yes?
Teddy Daniels: I always heard it was overrun with boozers and drunks.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Not that I’ve notices.
Teddy Daniels: What’s that, ice tea in your glass there?
[Cawley and Naehring laugh]
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Excellent, Marshal. You have outstanding defense mechanisms. You must be quite adept at interrogations, hm?


 

Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Men like you are my specialty, you know? Men of violence
Chuck Aule: Now, that’s a hell of an assumption to make.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: No assumption, not all. You misunderstand me, I said you are men of violence. I am not accusing of being violent men, that’s quite different.
Teddy Daniels: No, please, please, edify us doctor.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: You both served overseas?
Chuck Aule: Not much of a stretch doc, for all you know we were both paper pushers over there.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: No, you were not.


 

Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Since the school yard, neither of you has ever walked away from a physical conflict. No, not of course you enjoy it but because retreat isn’t something you’d consider an option.
Chuck Aule: We weren’t raised to run doc.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Ah, yes, raised. And who raised you, Marshal?
Teddy Daniels: Me? Wolves.
[Cawley and Naehring laugh]
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Very impressive defense mechanisms.


 

Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Do you believe in god, Marshal?
[Teddy looks at Naehring and laughs]
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: No, I’m quite serious.
Teddy Daniels: Das glaube ich.
[translation; ‘I believe it’]
Teddy Daniels: You ever, uh, seen a death camp, doctor?
[Naehring shakes his head]
Teddy Daniels: Ein konzentration lagger?
[translation; ‘a concentration camp’]
Teddy Daniels: No? Ich war dabei, bei der Befreiung von Dachau. Ihr english, lhr english ist sehr gut. Fast Perfekt.
[translation; I was at the liberation of Dachau. Your English is very good. Almost Perfect]
Teddy Daniels: His English is very good. You hit the consonants a tad high though.
Chuck Aule: You’re a German?
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Is legal immigration a crime, Marshal?
Teddy Daniels: Oh, I don’t know, doctor. You tell us.


 

Teddy Daniels: No, listen we’re going to need those files on Dr. Sheehan and the rest of the staff as well.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: No personnel files will be released to you. Period
Teddy Daniels: We’re going to need those files.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Out of the question.
Teddy Daniels: Bullshit! Out of the question! Bullshit! Just who the hell is in charge here, anyway huh? Huh?
Dr. John Cawley: Dr. Naehring acts as liaison to our board of overseers. He relayed your request and it’s been refused.
Teddy Daniels: Refused? They don’t have the authority to refuse.
[looks at Naehring]
Teddy Daniels: And neither do you, sir.
Dr. John Cawley: Marshal, continue your investigation and we’ll do all we can to help.
Teddy Daniels: This investigation is over. We’re going to file our reports and we’re going to hand it over to, um…
Chuck Aule: Hoover’s boys.
Teddy Daniels: Hoover’s boys, that’s right. We’re taking the ferry back in the morning. Come on, Chuck.


 

Chuck Aule: Hey boss, are we really packing it in?
Teddy Daniels: Why?
Chuck Aule: I guess, I don’t know, I just never really quit anything before.
Teddy Daniels: We haven’t heard the truth once yet, Chuck. Rachel Solando didn’t slip out of a locked cell barefoot without any help. I think she had a lot of help. Maybe, Cawley’s sitting up in his mansion right now re-thinking his whole attitude. Maybe in the morning…
Chuck Aule: You’re bluffing?
Teddy Daniels: I didn’t say that.


 

[Teddy’s dreaming of his wife in an apartment standing in front of a window holding a whiskey bottle]
Dolores Chanal: I found a whole stack of these, Teddy. Jesus, are you ever sober anymore?
Teddy Daniels: I killed a lot of people in the war.
Dolores Chanal: Is that why you drink?
Teddy Daniels: Are you real?
[the whiskey bottle in her hand disappears]
Dolores Chanal: No. She’s still here.
Teddy Daniels: Who? Rachel?
Dolores Chanal: She never left.


 

[in Teddy’s dream Dolores walks over to the living room bay window and looks out the window]
Dolores Chanal: Remember when we stayed in the cabin in the summer, Teddy? We were so happy. She’s here, you can’t leave.
[Teddy comes up behind her and put his arms around her waist]
Teddy Daniels: I’m not going to leave. I love you so much.
Dolores Chanal: I’m just bones in a box, Teddy.
Teddy Daniels: No.
Dolores Chanal: I am. You have to wake up.
Teddy Daniels: I won’t go. You’re here…
Dolores Chanal: I’m not. You have to face that. But she is, and so is he.
Teddy Daniels: Who?
Dolores Chanal: Laeddis. I have to go.
Teddy Daniels: No! No! Please, please, I need to hold on to you. Just a little bit longer…
Dolores Chanal: Oh god, please. You have to let me go.
Teddy Daniels: I can’t.
[Teddy tries to hold on closer but Dolores disappears into ashes]


 

[calling out to Cawley]
Teddy Daniels: Doctor, doctor, doctor, we need to interview the patients who were in Rachel’s group therapy session.
Dr. John Cawley: I thought your investigation was finished?
Teddy Daniels: Well, it’s not like we can take the ferry.
[he points to the storm going on outside seen through windows]
Teddy Daniels: Now was Rachel receiving any other treatment for her illnesses?
Dr. John Cawley: Do you know the state of the mental health field these days, gentlemen?
Teddy Daniels: No, not a clue doctor.
Dr. John Cawley: War. The old school believes in surgical intervention, psycho surgery, procedures like the trans orbital lobotomy. Some say the patients become reasonable, docile. Others say they become zombies.
Chuck Aule: And the new school?
Dr. John Cawley: Psycho pharmacology. A new drug has just been approved called Thorazine, which relaxes psychotic patients, you could say tames them.
Teddy Daniels: And which school are you, doctor?
Dr. John Cawley: Me? I have this radical idea that if you treat a patient with respect, listen to him, try and understand, you just might reach him.


 

Dr. John Cawley: Rachel Solando was on a combination of drugs meant to keep her from becoming violent, but it was only a intermittently effective. The greatest obstacle to her recovery was her refusal to face what she had done.
Teddy Daniels: Was? Is there a reason you keep referring to your patient in the past tense, doctor?
Dr. John Cawley: Look outside, Marshal. Why do you think?


 

[Teddy and Chuck are interviewing the patients]
Teddy Daniels: Next up is Peter Breene. Assaulted his father’s nurse with broken glass, nurse survived with a face permanently disfigured.
Chuck Aule: I can’t wait.


 

[Teddy and Chuck interview patient, Peter Breene]
Peter Breene: She’d smile at me. She was so sweet, but you could see it in her eyes, she liked to be naked, to suck cock.
Chuck Aule: Okay, Mr. Breene.
Peter Breene: And then she asked me if she could have a glass of water, alone, in the kitchen, like that’s no big deal?
Teddy Daniels: Why was that a big deal?
Peter Breene: It was obvious. She wanted me to pull out my thing so that she could laugh at it.
Teddy Daniels: Mr. Breene, we need to ask you some questions, okay?
Peter Breene: When I cut her she screamed, but she scared me. What did she expect?
Teddy Daniels: Interesting, but we’re here to talk about Rachel Solando, okay?
Peter Breene: Rachel Solando. Do you know that she drowned her own kids? She drowned her kids. This is a sick fucking world we live in, I’ll tell you that. But you know what, they should be gassed. All of them, the retards, the killers, the niggers. You kill your own kids? Gas the bitch!


 

[Teddy’s starts to scratch his pencil in long lines on his notepad]
Teddy Daniels: That nurse, maybe she had kids, huh? A husband, just trying to make ends meet, with a normal life. And it says in your file that you tore her face off, didn’t you? Congratulations, no more normal for her, not ever again, no. Do you know what she was afraid of?
[Teddy keeps scratching his pencil]
Teddy Daniels: You.
Peter Breene: Could you stop that! Please!
[Teddy continues scratching is pencil more loudly]
Peter Breene: Stop that! Please! Stop!
[Teddy then pounces on Breene grabbing hold of him]
Teddy Daniels: Do you know a patient named, Andrew Laeddis? Do you?
Peter Breene: [terrified] No! No! I want to go back. I want to go.
[the orderlies come and take Breene away]


 

[Teddy and Chuck are interviewing another patient]
Bridget Kearns: Well, I’ll never get out here. I’m not sure that I should.
Teddy Daniels: Excuse me for saying this, Miss Kearns…
Bridget Kearns: Mrs.
Teddy Daniels: Mrs. Kearns, but you seem quite normal. I mean in comparison with the other patients here.
Bridget Kearns: Well, I have my dark days. I suppose everybody does. The difference is most people don’t kill their husbands with an axe.
Teddy Daniels: Ah.
Bridget Kearns: Although personally I think if a man beats you and fucks half the women he sees and no one will help you, axing him isn’t the least understandable thing you could do.
Chuck Aule: Maybe you shouldn’t get out.
Bridget Kearns: [laughs] What would I do if I did? I don’t know the world anymore. They say there are bombs that can reduce whole cities to ash and, uh, what do you call them, televisions, voices and faces coming from a box. I hear enough voices already.


 

Chuck Aule: What can you tell us about Rachel?
Bridget Kearns: Um, not much. Uh, she keeps to herself. She believed her kids were alive, she thought she was still living in the Berkshires and we were all her neighbors. The milkmen, postmen…
Teddy Daniels: Delivery men. And Dr. Sheehan was there that night?
Bridget Kearns: Yes, uh, he talked about anger.
Teddy Daniels: Tell me about him. What’s he like?
Bridget Kearns: Uh, he’s okay, nice, um, not hard on the eyes as my mother would say.
Teddy Daniels: Did he ever make a pass at you?
Bridget Kearns: No, no. Dr. Sheehan’s a good doctor, he would never. Um, could I have a glass of water, please?
Chuck Aule: No problem.
[Chuck gets up and goes to get the water, Bridget then quickly grabs hold of Teddy’s notebook and scribbles something on it and shoves it back to him]


 

Teddy Daniels: I just have one more question for you Mrs. Kearns, did you ever meet a patient named Andrew Laeddis.
[her face becomes frozen]
Bridget Kearns: No. Never heard of him.
[she gets up and walks away]


 

Chuck Aule: Who’s Andrew Laeddis? You asked every one of those patients back there about him, who is he?
[Teddy doesn’t answer]
Chuck Aule: What the hell boss, I’m your partner for Christ sake.
Teddy Daniels: We just met, Chuck. You’ve been on the beat for a long time, you’ve got a duty, you’ve got a career. What I’m doing, it’s not exactly by the book.
Chuck Aule: I don’t give a damn about “by the book”, boss. I just want to know what the hell is going on?
Teddy Daniels: When this case come over the wires, I requested it. Specifically. Do you understand?
Chuck Aule: Why?
Teddy Daniels: Andrew Laeddis was the maintenance man over in the apartment building where my wife and I lived.
Chuck Aule: Okay.
Teddy Daniels: He was also a firebug. Andrew Laeddis lit the match that caused the fire that killed my wife.


 

[walking in the heavy rain out in the compound]
Chuck Aule: What happened to Laeddis?
Teddy Daniels: He got away with it. Laeddis got away with it and then he disappeared. About a year ago I open up the paper and there he is. Ugly looking son of bitch, huge scar from his right temple down to his left lip. Eyes different colors, it’s not the type of face you’d forget. He burned down a school house, killed two people. Said voices told him to do it. First he went to prison then he got transferred here.
Chuck Aule: Then what?
Teddy Daniels: Then nothing. He vanished like he never existed, no record what so ever. Pretty sure he’s not in Ward B, that leaves Ward C.
Chuck Aule: Or he could be dead.
Teddy Daniels: So could Rachel Solando for that matter.
Chuck Aule: Lot of places to hide a body here.
Teddy Daniels: Only one place no one would really notice.
[they come to stand in front of a graveyard]


 

Chuck Aule: That patient, Bridget Kearns, when she sent me for water she said something do you back there, didn’t she?
Teddy Daniels: No.
Chuck Aule: Come on, boss?
Teddy Daniels: She wrote it.
[Teddy hands Chuck his notebook, he opens it and see the word ‘RUN’ written on the page]


 

Chuck Aule: So if Laeddis is here, what are you going to do about it?
Teddy Daniels: I’m not here to kill Laeddis.
Chuck Aule: If it was my wife I’d kill him, twice.
[Teddy chuckles]


 

[flash back to Dachau]
Teddy Daniels: When we go through the gates at Dachau, the SS guards surrendered. The commandant tried to kill himself before we got there, but he botched it. Took him an hour to die. When I went outside, I saw all the bodies on the ground, too many to count. Too many to imagine. So yeah, the guards surrendered. We took their guns, we lined them up.
[flash back shows Teddy and the other soldiers start shooting at all the guards killing all of them]
Teddy Daniels: It wasn’t warfare, it was murder. I’ve had enough of killing. That’s not why I’m here.


 

Teddy Daniels: After Laeddis vanished, I started doing some checking on Ashecliffe. A lot of people know about this place but no one wants to talk, you know, it’s like they’re scared or something. You know this place is funded by a special grant? From the House of American Activities Committee.
Chuck Aule: HUAC? And how exactly are we fighting the Commies from an island in Boston Harbor?
Teddy Daniels: By conducting experiments on the mind. At least, that’s my guess.
Chuck Aule: And you think that’s going on here?
Teddy Daniels: Like I said no one would talk, right? Till I found somebody who used to be a patient here. Guy’s name is George Noyce, nice college kid, socialist. He gets offered some money to do a psyche study, guess what they were studying?
Chuck Aule: Toothpastes.


 

Teddy Daniels: So he starts seeing dragons everywhere. He almost beats his professor to death. Ends up here on Ashecliffe, Ward C. They release him after one year, right? What does he do? Two weeks on the mainland he walks into a bar, stabs three men to death. His lawyer pleads insanity, but Noyce, Noyce, he stands up in the courtroom and he begs the judge for the electric chair. Anywhere but a mental hospital. Judge gives him life in Dedham prison.
Chuck Aule: And you found him?
Teddy Daniels: Yeah, I found him. Well, he’s a mess. But it’s pretty clear from what he tells me, they’re experimenting on people here.
Chuck Aule: I don’t know boss. How do you believe a crazy guy?
Teddy Daniels: That’s the beauty of it. Crazy people, they’re the perfect subjects. They talk, nobody listens. I stood at Dachau, I mean we saw what human beings are capable of doing to each other, right? For Christ sakes, we fought a god damn war to stop them, and now I find out that maybe happening here, on our soil? No!


 

Chuck Aule: So what are you really here to do, Ted?
Teddy Daniels: I’m going to get the proof and I’m going to go back and I’m going to blow the lid off this place. That’s it.
Chuck Aule: Wait a minute, you started asking around about Ashecliffe, wait for a chance to get out here and then suddenly they need a U.S. Marshal?
Teddy Daniels: Yeah, I got lucky. There was a patient escaped, it was a perfect excuse.
Chuck Aule: Nah, nah, nah boss, luck doesn’t work that way. The world doesn’t work that way. They got an electrified fence around the septic facility. Ward C is inside a civil war fort. A chief of staff with ties to the OSS, funding from HUAC. I mean Jesus Christ, everything about this place stinks of government ops. What if they wanted you here?
Teddy Daniels: Bullshit!
Chuck Aule: You were asking questions.
Teddy Daniels: Bullshit. Bullshit!
Chuck Aule: Bullshit. We came here for Rachel Solando. Where one shred of evidence she even existed?
Teddy Daniels: There’s no way they could have known I would have been assigned to this case. There’s no way!
Chuck Aule: While you were looking into them, they were looking into you. All they had to do was fake an escape to get you here and now they have you. Now they have us both, here, now!


 

[McPherson’s found Teddy and Chuck in the old church by the graveyard]
Teddy Daniels: How about that? They found us, huh?
Chuck Aule: It’s an island, boss. They’re always going to find us.


 

[to Chuck]
Teddy Daniels: We’re getting off this Goddamn island. You and me. Come on.
[Teddy runs out into the storm to see McPherson in his patrol car]


 

[the doctors are all having a meeting in the hospital boardroom]
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: That’s why I must repeat my insistence that all Ward C patients be placed in manual restraints.
Dr. John Cawley: If the facility floods, they’ll drown. You know that.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: That would take a lot of flooding.
[Teddy and Chuck sleep into the back of the room quietly]
Dr. John Cawley: We’re on an island in the middle of an ocean during a hurricane. A lot of flooding seems like a distinct possibility.


 

[referring to the patients]
Dr. John Cawley: Where are they going to go? Hm? They can’t just hop a ferry, scoot over to the mainland and wreak havoc.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: You’re quite right. They’re far more likely to wreak havoc right here on us.
Dr. John Cawley: If they’re manacled to the floor they’ll die. That’s twenty four human beings. And you can live with that, can you?
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Frankly if it were up to me I’d put all forty two in Ward A and B in manual restraints as well.


 

[interrupting the doctors meeting]
Teddy Daniels: Excuse me. Excuse me…
Dr. John Cawley: Marshal…
Teddy Daniels: I’m sorry, doctor. I just have one quick question.
Dr. John Cawley: Yes, I’ll be with you in a moment.
Teddy Daniels: We spoke this morning about Rachel Solando’s note…
Doctor: The law of four, I love that.
Teddy Daniels: You said you had no idea what that second line could refer to, correct?
Dr. John Cawley: Who is sixty seven? Yes, I’m afraid I still don’t. None of us do.
Teddy Daniels: Uh-huh. Nothing comes to mind? Nothing?
[looks over to all the doctors sitting around the table]
Teddy Daniels: Because I believe I just heard you say there are twenty four patients in Ward C and forty two patients in Wards A and B, which means a total of what, sixty-six patients in this facility?
Dr. John Cawley: That is correct, yes.
Teddy Daniels: Well, it seems to me Rachel Solando is suggesting that you have a sixty seventh patient, doctor.
Dr. John Cawley: But I’m afraid we don’t.


 

Dr. John Cawley: Didn’t McPherson tell you the good news?
Teddy Daniels: No. What’s the good news, doctor?
Dr. John Cawley: Rachel’s been found. She’s here. Safe and sound.


 

[in Rachel’s cell, Teddy and Chuck watch Rachel with Cawley beside her]
Chuck Aule: Not a mark on her.
[to Cawley]
Rachel 1: Who are these men? Why are they in my house?
Dr. John Cawley: Police Officers, Rachel. They have a few questions.
Teddy Daniels: Ma’am, there’s been a citing of a known communist subversive in this area, passing out literature.
Rachel 1: Here? In this neighborhood?
Teddy Daniels: Yes, I’m afraid so. Now, if you could tell us what you did yesterday, where you were, it would really help us narrow down our search.
Rachel 1: Yes. Um, well, I made breakfast for Jim and the children and then I packed Jim’s lunch and he left. And I send the children off to school. And then I decided to take a long swim in the lake.
Teddy Daniels: I see. And after that?
Rachel 1: Um, after that, I thought of you.
Teddy Daniels: I’m sorry ma’am. I don’t know what you’re taking about.
Rachel 1: Don’t you know how lonely I’ve been, Jim? You’re gone, you’re dead. I cry every night.
[she starts crying]
Rachel 1: How am I supposed to survive?
[puts her arms round Teddy and stars sobbing]


 

[holding a sobbing Rachel in his arms]
Teddy Daniels: Rachel, it’ll be all right. I’m so sorry, but everything’s going to be all right, okay?
[she suddenly jumps out of his arms]
Rachel 1: I buried you! I buried an empty casket. You’re body rigged down, lumps of flesh flashing into the sea eaten by sharks. My Jim’s dead, so who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are you?! Who are you?! Who are you?!
[attacks Teddy and the orderlies grab her, pushing her away from Teddy]


 

Dr. John Cawley: I’m sorry about that. I didn’t want to interrupt, I thought she might tell you something. We found her down by the lighthouse skipping stones. We’ve no idea how she got out, but I’m going to have to ask you to go down into the basement. There’s food, water, cots. It’s the safest place to be when the hurricane hits. Are you all right? You look pale.
Teddy Daniels: I’m fine. It’s just, uh…
Chuck Aule: Boss, you okay?
Teddy Daniels: It’s so Goddamn bright, isn’t it?
Dr. John Cawley: Photosensitivity, headaches sometimes. Marshal, are you having a migraine?
Teddy Daniels: I’ll be all right.
[Teddy then reels, almost falling, Chuck catches him]
Chuck Aule: What’s wrong with him?
Dr. John Cawley: Take these Marshal, couple of hours you’ll be clear as a bell.
Chuck Aule: What’s wrong with him?
Dr. John Cawley: He’s having a migraine. Imagine someone sawed open your head, filled it with razors and shook it as hard as they could. Take the pills, Marshal.
Teddy Daniels: No. I don’t want the pills.
Dr. John Cawley: It’ll stop the pain. Marshal, take the pills.
[Teddy takes the pills]


 

[Chuck and Trey drag Teddy to one of the cots in the basement. Teddy notices a uniformed guard staring at him]
Teddy Daniels: Who is that?
Trey Washington: Him? That’s the Warden. Don’t you worry about him. All right?
[Trey and Chuck put Teddy’s legs up on the cot helping him to lie down]
Teddy Daniels: Looks like an ex-military prick.
Trey Washington: You know I ain’t going to argue with you on that one.
[Teddy almost smiles and then falls asleep]


 

[Teddy’s dream; he’s in Dachau he comes across frozen corpses, his eyes catch the corpse of a dead woman and her child, the dead women changes to Rachel Solando and then suddenly the little girl’s eyes open and she sits up]
Little Girl: You should have saved me. You should have saved all of us.


 

[Teddy’s dream; he’s in Cawely’s house, a man is sitting in a wing chair with his back to Teddy, when Teddy gets close to him he sees that it’s a man with a scar on his face and he has different colored eyes]
Laeddis: Hey buddy! Hey!
Teddy Daniels: Laeddis?
Laeddis: Yeah.
[Laeddis light a match and looks at it]
Laeddis: Very pretty. No hard feelings, right?
[Teddy has a cigarette in his mouth and Laeddis leans close to lights it]
Laeddis: No hard feelings.
[Laeddis opens his coat revealing a whiskey flask]
Laeddis: Little something for later. Because I know how much you need it.
[Laeddis changes to Chuck holding the whiskey flask]
Chuck Aule: Clocks ticking my friend. We’re running out of time.


 

[Teddy’s dream; at Cawley house, he hears a woman scream, he turns to see Rachel Solando splattered with blood]
Rachel 1: Give me a hand here?
[he looks down to see three dead children at her feet, two boys and the girl from Dachau]
Teddy Daniels: I could get into trouble.
[he picks up the girl and carries her]
Little Girl: I’m dead.
Teddy Daniels: I’m so sorry.
Little Girl: Why didn’t you save me?
Teddy Daniels: I tried, I wanted to, but by the time I got there it was too late.
[Teddy’s by the edge of a lake, Rachel joins him as he puts the girl into the lake, the two boys are also floating in the water]
Rachel 1: See? Aren’t they beautiful?
[Teddy watches as the girl sinks into the water, she stares at him. her mouth open as she sinks. Teddy then bolts upright waking from his dream]


 

[Teddy’s woken up from his dream, he looks around and sees everyone asleep, he then hears someone come in through the nearby door. It’s Dolores looking dripping wet from the rain]
Teddy Daniels: Why are you all wet, baby?
Dolores Chanal: Laeddis isn’t dead. He isn’t gone. He’s still here
Teddy Daniels: I know.
Dolores Chanal: You need to find him, Teddy. You need to find him and you kill him, Teddy.


 

[Teddy and Chuck emerge from the hospital to find the storm has put everything into chaos]
Teddy Daniels: You think the whole electrical system is fried?
Chuck Aule: I’d say it’s a good possibility, yeah.
Teddy Daniels: The electronic security, fences, the gates, the doors.
Chuck Aule: Nice day for a stroll don’t you think? To Ward C for example. Maybe we’ll run into Andrew Laeddis.


 

[to Chuck, referring to Ward C]
Teddy Daniels: The guy I told you about, George Noyce, he told me this is where they keep the worse ones. Guys even the other inmates are scared of.


 

[walking in one of the corridors in Ward C, Teddy and Chuck run into a guard]
Ward C Guard: First time on Ward C, huh?
Chuck Aule: Yeah.
Teddy Daniels: Yeah, yeah. We heard stories.
Ward C Guard: Trust me son, you haven’t heard shit.


 

[in Ward C Teddy and Chuck get close to an iron gate, they hear screams echoing]
Teddy Daniels: He’s here. Laeddis. I can feel him.


 

[a Ward C inmate has caught Teddy and he’s strangling him]
Inmate: Listen to me. Listen, I don’t want to leave here, all right? I mean, why would anybody want to? We hear things here about the outside world. About atolls, about H-bomb tests. Do you know how a hydrogen bomb works?
Teddy Daniels: [chocking] With hydrogen, with hydrogen!
Inmate: Huh, that’s funny.
[Chuck is looking for Teddy through the gates]
Chuck Aule: Boss?
Inmate: Other bombs explode, huh! But not the hydrogen bomb. It implodes, creating an explosion of the thousandth, the millionth degree. Do you get it?
Teddy Daniels: Yes! Yeah!
Inmate: Do you?
Teddy Daniels: I get it! I get it!
Chuck Aule: Let him go!
[as Chuck finds them Teddy slams back with his heel and attacks the inmate]


 

[Teddy hears a man whisper as he’s walking past the prison cell in Ward C]
George Noyce: You told me I’d be free of this place. You promised. You lied.
[Teddy lights a match to see better and gets close to a cell where a man is sitting on his cot with his face hidden in shadow]
Teddy Daniels: Laeddis? Laeddis?
[the man laughs]
George Noyce: That’s pretty damn funny.
Teddy Daniels: Your voice…
George Noyce: Don’t you recognize it? After all the talks we had? After all the lies you told me?
Teddy Daniels: Let me see your face.
George Noyce: They say I’m theirs now. They say I’ll never leave here. Your match is about to go out.
Teddy Daniels: Let me see your Goddamn face now!
George Noyce: Why? So you can lie to me more? This isn’t about the truth.
Teddy Daniels: Yes it is. It’s about exposing the truth.
George Noyce: It’s about you! And Laeddis. That’s all it’s ever been about. I was incidental. A way in.
Teddy Daniels: George Noyce? No, it’s not possible. You can’t be here…


 

[George comes closer to Teddy and shows him his face which looks like he’s been beaten]
George Noyce: Do you like it?
Teddy Daniels: Who did this to you, George?
George Noyce: You did.
Teddy Daniels: What the hell do you mean?
[George knocks the match out of Teddy’s hand]
George Noyce: [angrily] All your talk! All you fucking talk! And I’m back in here because of you.
Teddy Daniels: George, how did they get you out of Dedham, huh? How did this happen? I’m going to find a way to fix this. You understand me?
George Noyce: I’ll never get out now. I got out once. Not twice. Never Twice.


 

Teddy Daniels: Just tell me how they got you here?
George Noyce: They knew! Don’t you get it? Everything you were up to. Your whole plan. This is a game. All of this, it’s for you. You’re not investigating anything. You’re a fucking rat in a maze.
Teddy Daniels: George, you’re wrong. You’re wrong.
George Noyce: Really? Been alone much since you got here?
Teddy Daniels: I’ve been with my partner.
George Noyce: You never worked with him before, have you?
Teddy Daniels: He’s a, he’s a U.S. Marshal.
George Noyce: You never worked with him before, have you?
Teddy Daniels: George, look I now people. I trust this man.
George Noyce: Then they’ve already won.


 

George Noyce: [sobbing] You fuck. They’re going to take me to the lighthouse. They’re going to cut into my brain. And I’m only here because of you!
Teddy Daniels: George, I’m going to get you out of here. You’re not going to the lighthouse. You’re not.
George Noyce: You can’t dig out the truth and kill Laeddis at the same time. You got to make a choice. You understand that, don’t you?
Teddy Daniels: I’m not here to kill anyone.
George Noyce: Liar!
Teddy Daniels: I’m not going to kill him. I swear to you. I swear.
George Noyce: She’s dead. Just let her go. Let her go.


 

[suddenly Dolores emerges from behind George]
Dolores Chanal: Tell him, Teddy. Tell him why.
George Noyce: You got to do it. There’s no other way. Let her go.
[Teddy stares in shock at Dolores as she walks towards him, ignoring George]
Dolores Chanal: Tell him about the day you brought me my locket.
George Noyce: You got to do it.
Dolores Chanal: How I told you how my heart was breaking and you asked me why
George Noyce: She’s fucking with your head!
Dolores Chanal: And I told you it was from happiness.


 

George Noyce: She’s going to kill you. She’s going to kill you. You want to uncover the truth? You got to let her go.
Teddy Daniels: I can’t.
[shouting at Teddy]
George Noyce: You have to let her go!
Teddy Daniels: I can’t! I can’t!
George Noyce: Then you’ll never leave this island.
Teddy Daniels: Dolores…
[Dolores has vanished]


 

George Noyce: He’s not in this ward. He was transferred out of here. If he’s not in Ward A, then there’s only one place he can be.
Teddy Daniels: The lighthouse.
[just as about Teddy turns to leave]
George Noyce: Hey. God help you.


 

[after getting out of Ward C]
Teddy Daniels: What happened to you?
Chuck Aule: What do you mean?
Teddy Daniels: Where were you?
Chuck Aule: After we got that guy in to the infirmary, I took a little detour, to patient records. Did you ever find Laeddis?
Teddy Daniels: No. No, I never found him.
Chuck Aule: Well, I got the next best thing. His intake form. The only thing in his file. There’s no session notes, no incident reports, no photograph. Just this. It was weird. Here take a look.
Teddy Daniels: I’ll look at it later.
[Chuck is looking suspicious]
Chuck Aule: What’s the matter, boss?
Teddy Daniels: I’ll look it over later, that’s all.


 

Teddy Daniels: I’m going to that lighthouse. I’m going to find out what the fuck is happening on this island.


 

Chuck Aule: What are we doing? We got the intake form. It’s proof there’s a sixty seventh patient which they said repeatedly he doesn’t exist.
Teddy Daniels: I’m getting to that lighthouse. You understand?
Chuck Aule: What the hell can I say to you to stop you.
Teddy Daniels: Why would you want to, Chuck? Why?
Chuck Aule: Because climbing down there when it’s dark, is a thin step short of suicide. That’s why.
Teddy Daniels: Okay, maybe you better sit this one out then.
Chuck Aule: You brought me into this, boss. And now we’re trapped here. On this rock. On this island. With no one to rely on but each other, and now you’re acting like…
Teddy Daniels: Like what? Like what? How am I acting?
Chuck Aule: What the hell happened back there in those cells, Ted?


 

Teddy Daniels: What do you think the weather’s like in Portland, Chuck?
Chuck Aule: I’m from Seattle.
Teddy Daniels: Seattle. I’m going on. Alone.
Chuck Aule: I’m going with you, boss.
Teddy Daniels: I said alone.
Chuck Aule: [reluctantly] Fine.
[Teddy sets off to find a way to the lighthouse]


 

[after losing Chuck on the rocks, Teddy enters a cave at the bottom of the rocks and he sees a woman inside]
Rachel 2: Who are you?
Teddy Daniels: I’m Teddy Daniels. I’m a cop.
Rachel 2: You’re the Marshal.
Teddy Daniels: That’s right. Would you mind taking your hand from behind you back, please?
Rachel 2: Why? Why?
Teddy Daniels: I want to make sure that what you’re holding won’t hurt me.
[she brings her hand forward, she’s holding a knife]
Rachel 2: I’m going to keep this, if you don’t mind.
Teddy Daniels: Fine by me.


 

Teddy Daniels: You’re Rachel Solando? The real one?
[Rachel nods her head]
Teddy Daniels: Did you kill your children?
Rachel 2: I never had children. I was never married. And before I was a patient at Ashecliffe I worked here.
Teddy Daniels: You were a nurse?
Rachel 2: I was a doctor, Marshal.


 

[Teddy looks at her cautiously]
Rachel 2: You think I’m crazy?
Teddy Daniels: No. No, no I…
Rachel 2: And if I say I’m not crazy. But that hardly helps, does it? That’s a Kafkaesque genius of it. People tell the world you’re crazy and all you’re protests to the contrary just confirm what they’re saying.
Teddy Daniels: I’m not following you. I’m sorry.
Rachel 2: Once you’re declared insane, and anything you do is called part of that insanity. Reasonable protests are ‘denial’. Valid fears ‘paranoia’.
Teddy Daniels: Survival instincts are ‘defense mechanisms’.
Rachel 2: You’re smarter than you look, Marshal. That’s probably not a good thing.


 

Teddy Daniels: Tell me something?
Rachel 2: Yeah?
Teddy Daniels: What happened to you?
Rachel 2: I started asking about these large shipments of Sodium Amytal and opium-based hallucinogens.
Teddy Daniels: Psychotropic drugs.
Rachel 2: I asked about the surgeries too. You ever heard of a trans orbital lobotomy? They sap the patient with electric shock, then go through the eye with an ice pick, pull out some nerve fibers. Makes the patients much more obedient. Tractable. It’s barbaric. Unconscionable.


 

Rachel 2: Do you know how pain enters the body, Marshal? Do you?
Teddy Daniels: Depends on where you hurt.
Rachel 2: No. It has nothing to do with the flesh. The brain controls pain. The brain controls fear, empathy, sleep, hunger, anger. Everything. What if you could control it?
Teddy Daniels: You mean the brain?
Rachel 2: Recreate a man so he doesn’t feel pain. Or love. Or sympathy. A man who can’t be interrogated because he has no memories to confess.
Teddy Daniels: You can never take away all of man’s memories. Never.
Rachel 2: Marshal, the North Koreans used American P.O.W’s during they’re brain washing experiments. They turned soldiers into traitors. That’s what they’re doing here. They’re creating ghosts to go out into the world and do things sane men, sane men never would.
Teddy Daniels: To have that kind of ability, that kind of knowledge, that would take years…
Rachel 2: Years of research. Hundreds of patients to experiment on. Fifty years from now, people will look back and say here, this place, is where it all began. The Nazis used the Jews, Soviets used prisoners in their own gulags. And we tested patients on Shutter Island.
Teddy Daniels: No they won’t. No.


 

Rachel 2: You do understand that they won’t let you leave.
Teddy Daniels: I am a Federal Marshal, they can’t stop me.
Rachel 2: I was an esteemed psychiatrist from a respected family. It didn’t matter. Let me ask you, any past trauma’s in your life?
Teddy Daniels: Yes. Why would that matter?
Rachel 2: Because they can point at some event in your past and say that’s the reason you lost your sanity. So that when they commit you here, your friends and colleagues will say ‘of course he cracked. Well, who wouldn’t after what he’d been through.’
Teddy Daniels: They can say that about anyone. Anyone at all.
Rachel 2: The point is they’re going to say it about you.


 

Rachel 2: How’s your head?
Teddy Daniels: My head?
Rachel 2: Any funny dreams lately? Trouble sleeping? Headaches?
Teddy Daniels: I am prone to migraines. Yes.
Rachel 2: Jesus. You haven’t taken any pills, have you? I mean even aspirin?
Teddy Daniels: The aspirin…
Rachel 2: Jesus. And you ate the food in the cafeteria and drunk the coffee they gave you? You tell me at least that you’ve been smoking your own cigarettes.
Teddy Daniels: No. No. No, I haven’t.
Rachel 2: It takes thirty-six to forty-eight hours for neuroleptic narcotics to reach workable levels to the bloodstream. Palsy comes first. First the fingertips then eventually the whole hand.


 

Rachel 2: Seen any walking nightmares lately, Marshal? Huh?
Teddy Daniels: Tell me what goes on in that lighthouse? Tell me?
Rachel 2: Brain surgery. The ‘let’s open the skull and see what happens if we pull on this’ kind. The ‘learned it from the Nazis’ kind. It’s where they create the ghost.
Teddy Daniels: Who knows about this? On the island I mean, who?
Rachel 2: Everyone.
Teddy Daniels: Ah, come on! The nurses, the-the-the orderlies? They couldn’t possibly know.
Rachel 2: Everyone.


 

[shaking Teddy awake]
Rachel 2: You can’t stay here. They think I’m dead, that I drowned. I’m afraid if they come looking for you they might find me. I’m sorry, but you have to go.
Teddy Daniels: I’m going to come back for you.
Rachel 2: I won’t be here. I move during the day and new places every night.
Teddy Daniels: But I could come get you, get you off this island.
Rachel 2: Haven’t you heard a word I’ve said. The only way off the island is the ferry, and they control it. You’ll never leave here.
Teddy Daniels: I had a friend. I was with him yesterday, but we got separated. Have you seen him?
Rachel 2: Marshal, you have not friends.


 

[Warden has found Teddy walking on the compound and he’s driving him back to the hospital]
Warden: Taking a leisurely stroll, were we?
Teddy Daniels: I was, uh, just looking around.
Warden: Did you enjoy God’s latest gift?
Teddy Daniels: What?
Warden: God’s gift.
[points to the sky]
Warden: The violence. When I came downstairs in my home and I saw a tree in my living room, it reached out for me like a divine hand. God loves violence.
Teddy Daniels: I hadn’t noticed.
Warden: Sure you have. Why else would there be so much of it? It’s in us. It’s what we are. We wage war, we burn sacrifices and pillage and plunder and tear at the flesh of our brothers. And why? Because God gave us violence to wage in his honor.


 

Teddy Daniels: I thought God gave us moral order.
Warden: There’s no moral order as pure as this storm. There’s no moral order at all. There’s just this; can my violence conquer yours?
Teddy Daniels: I’m not violent.
Warden: Yes, you are. You’re as violent as they come. I know this because I’m as violent as they come. With the constraints of society we’re lifted. And I was all that stood between you and me? You would crack my skull and eat my meaty parts. Wouldn’t you? But Cawley thinks that you’re harmless, that you can be controlled. But I know different.
Teddy Daniels: You don’t know me.
Warden: Oh, but I do.
Teddy Daniels: No, you don’t. You don’t know me at all.
Warden: Oh, I know you. We’ve known each other for centuries.


 

[Warden stops the jeep outside the hospital and leans close to Teddy]
Warden: If I was to sink my teeth into your eye right now, would you be able to stop me before I blinded you?
Teddy Daniels: Give it a try.
Warden: That’s the spirit.


 

[Teddy refers to the doctors, nurses, orderlies and patients that have just emerged from the conference room]
Teddy Daniels: Big meeting?
Dr. John Cawley: Oh yes. Apparently there was an unidentified man in Ward C yesterday. He subdued a highly dangerous patient quite handily.
Teddy Daniels: Is that so.
Dr. John Cawley: It seems he had a long conversation with a paranoid schizophrenic, George Noyce.
Teddy Daniels: This Noyce, you said his name was? He’s, uh, delusional ?
Dr. John Cawley: Oh extremely. He can be quite upsetting. As a matter of fact two weeks ago a patient got so wound up by one of Noyce’s stories that he beat him up.


 

Dr. John Cawley: So you’re taking the ferry?
Teddy Daniels: Yes, absolutely. I think we’ve gotten all we came here for.
Dr. John Cawley: ‘We’, Marshal?
Teddy Daniels: Speaking of which, have you, have you seen him doctor?
Dr. John Cawley: Who?
Teddy Daniels: My partner, Chuck.
Dr. John Cawley: You don’t have a partner, Marshal. You came here alone. You know, I’ve built something valuable here, and valuable things have a way of misunderstood in their own time. Everyone wants a quick fix, they always have. I’m trying to do something, people, yourself included, don’t understand and I’m not going to give up without a fight.
Teddy Daniels: I can see that.
Dr. John Cawley: So tell me again about your partner.
Teddy Daniels: What partner?


 

[Teddy is trying to find a way to sneak out of the hospital when he runs into Naehring]
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Marshal. You going somewhere?
Teddy Daniels: Uh, just heading out to the ferry. So…
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Oh, I’m afraid, I’m afraid it’s the other way.
Teddy Daniels: Oh.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: If you wait a moment I’ll find you someone who can take you to the dock.
[Naehring gets an injection needle from his pocket and Teddy grabs it from him]
Teddy Daniels: What’s this, doctor? Huh? What’s this?
[Teddy holds Naehring against a wall with the needle pointed at him threateningly]
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: It’s just, it’s just a sedative. A precaution.
Teddy Daniels: Ah, precaution.
[Naehring starts to laugh]


 

Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: What are you going to do? Kill me? Marshal.
Teddy Daniels: You don’t think you deserve it?
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: For what? Hm? Provoking you? Well, forgive me. What doesn’t provoke you? Remarks? Words?
Teddy Daniels: Nazis.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Well, that too. And of course memories. Dreams. Did you know that the word trauma comes from the Greek for wound? What is the German word for dream? Träume. Ein ist träume. Wounds can create monsters. And you are wounded, Marshal. And wouldn’t you agree, when you see a monster you must stop it?
Teddy Daniels: Yeah. I agree.
Dr. Jeremiah Naehring: Yes.
[Teddy suddenly stabs Naehring in the arm with the injection]


 

[Teddy’s found a car outside the hospital, he gets into the passenger seat]
Dolores Chanal: What are you doing, baby? You got to get to the ferry.
Teddy Daniels: No. No. No.


 

Teddy Daniels: If the world thinks Chuck is dead, then he’s perfect for their experiments. There’s only one place they’d take him.
[looks over to the lighthouse]
Dolores Chanal: You go there and you’ll die.
Teddy Daniels: He’s my partner. If they’re hurting him, if they’re holding him against his will, I’ve got to bring him out. I can’t lose anyone else.
Dolores Chanal: Don’t go, Teddy. Please. Please don’t do this. Don’t go.
Teddy Daniels: I’m sorry, honey. I love this thing because you gave it to me.
[he looks down at the tie he’s holding in his hand]
Teddy Daniels: But the truth is, it is one fucking ugly tie.
[he stuffs the tie in to the petrol tank of the car, sets it on fire and runs like hell]


 

[Teddy breaks into the top room in the lighthouse, he sees Cawley sitting behind a desk]
Dr. John Cawley: Why’re you all wet, baby?
Teddy Daniels: What did you say?
Dr. John Cawley: You know exactly what I said.
[Teddy goes round checking the room with his rifle in hand]
Dr. John Cawley: The rifle’s empty by the way.
[Teddy checks the rifle chamber and sees it’s empty]
Dr. John Cawley: Have a seat. For God’s sake dry off, you’ll catch cold.
Teddy Daniels: All right.
Dr. John Cawley: How badly did you hurt the guard?
Teddy Daniels: I don’t know what you’re talking about.


 

[Cawley makes a radio call]
Dr. John Cawley: Yes, he’s here. Have Dr. Sheehan take a look at your man before you send him up.
Teddy Daniels: So, Dr. Sheehan came in on the ferry this morning?
Dr. John Cawley: Not exactly. You blew up my car. I really loved that car.
Teddy Daniels: Sorry to hear about that.
Dr. John Cawley: Tremors are getting pretty bad. How are the hallucinations?
[suddenly Teddy hears Dolores]
Dolores Chanal: Get out of here, Teddy. This place is going to be the end of you.
Teddy Daniels: Not bad.
Dr. John Cawley: They’ll get worse.
Teddy Daniels: I know. Dr. Solando, she told me about the neuroleptics.
Dr. John Cawley: Did she now? And when was this?
Teddy Daniels: I found her, doctor. In a cave out by the cliffs, but you’ll never get to her.
Dr. John Cawley: I don’t doubt it. Considering she’s not real.


 

Dr. John Cawley: You’re delusions are more severe than I thought. You’re not on neuroleptics. You’re not on anything as a matter of fact.
Teddy Daniels: Then what the fuck is this?
[Teddy holds out his hand which is trembling]
Teddy Daniels: Huh? What the fuck is this?
Dr. John Cawley: Withdrawal.
Teddy Daniels: Withdrawal? From what? I haven’t had a Goddamn drink since I’ve been on this island.
Dr. John Cawley: Chlorpromazine. I’m not a fan of pharmacology, but I have to say in your case…
Teddy Daniels: Chlorpromo… What?
Dr. John Cawley: Chlorpromazine. The same thing we’ve been giving you for the past twenty four months.
Teddy Daniels: Ah, so for the past two years, you’ve had somebody slipping me drugs in Boston? Is that it?
Dr. John Cawley: Not Boston. Here. You’ve been here for two years. A patient of this institution.


 

Teddy Daniels: After everything I’ve seen here, doctor, you really think you can convince me I’m crazy, huh? Do you know the kind of people that I deal with every day? I’m a U.S. Marshal for God’s sakes.
Dr. John Cawley: You were a U.S. Marshal. Here’s a copy of the intake form. You broke into Ward C for proof of the sixty seventh patient. If you’d gotten into the main land you could have blown the lid off this place.
Teddy Daniels: Wai…wait…
Dr. John Cawley: Somehow, you couldn’t find time to look at it. Well, read it now. Go ahead.
[Cawley holds out the paper and Teddy takes it and reads from the form]
Teddy Daniels: Patient is highly intelligent. Highly delusional. Decorated army veteran. Present for the liberation of Dachau. Former U.S. Marshal. Known proclivity for violence. Shows no remorse for his crime because he denies the crime ever took place. Highly developed and fantastical narratives which preclude facing the truth of his actions.
[he stops reading and throws the paper back at Cawley]
Teddy Daniels: I’ve had enough of this bullshit. Where’s my partner? Huh? Where’s Chuck? Where is he?


 

Dr. John Cawley: Let’s try this another way. You’re wife’s maiden name was Chanal? Am I correct?
Teddy Daniels: Don’t you even talk about her. Don’t you even say…
Dr. John Cawley: I’m afraid I have to.
[Cawley pulls the sheet off an easel, written on it is; Edward Daniels – Andrew Laeddis; Rachel Solando – Dolores Chanal]
Dr. John Cawley: Notice anything these four names have in common? It’s your rule four. Andrew, what do you see?
Teddy Daniels: If you’ve done anything to my partner, doctor, that is a violation of…
Dr. John Cawley: Focus, Andrew! What do you see? The names have the same letters. Edward Daniels has exactly the same thirteen letter as Andrew Laeddis. The same as Rachel Solando and Dolores Chanal. The names are anagrams for each other.
Teddy Daniels: Your tactics. They’re not going to work on me.


 

Dr. John Cawley: You came here for the truth. Here it is. Your name is Andrew Laeddis. Sixty seventh patient at Ashecliffe is you, Andrew.
Teddy Daniels: Bullshit.
Dr. John Cawley: You were committed here by court order twenty four months ago. Your crime is terrible. One you can’t forgive yourself for, so you invented another self.
Teddy Daniels: All right. Let’s get down to the facts…
Dr. John Cawley: You created a story in which you’re not a murderer, you’re a hero. Still a U.S. Marshal. Only her at Ashecliffe because of the case and you’ve uncovered a conspiracy so that anything we tell you about who you are, what you’ve done, you can dismiss as lies, Andrew.


 

Teddy Daniels: My name is, Edward Daniels.
Dr. John Cawley: [frustrated] I’ve been hearing this fantasy for two years now. I know every detail. Patient sixty seven. The storm. Rachel Solando. Your missing partner. The dreams you have every night. You were at Dachau, but you may not have killed any guards. I wish I could let you just live in your fantasy world. I really do. But you’re violent. Trained. Dangerous. You’re the most dangerous patient we have. You’ve injured orderlies, guards, other patients. Two weeks ago you attacked George Noyce.
Teddy Daniels: No. No. I’m fucking on to you, doctor. You had Noyce beaten.
Dr. John Cawley: Of course I didn’t.
Teddy Daniels: Give me one reason why I would even touch him?
Dr. John Cawley: Because he called you Laeddis. And you do anything not to be him. I have a transcript of the conversation you had with Noyce, yesterday. ‘This is about you and Laeddis. That’s all it’s ever been about.’
[Teddy takes the transcript]
Teddy Daniels: No. He’s saying this is about me and Laeddis.
Dr. John Cawley: When you asked him what happened to his face he said and here I’m quoting again, ‘you did this’.
Teddy Daniels: No, he meant that it was, it was my fault.
Dr. John Cawley: You almost killed him.


 

Dr. John Cawley: The Warden and the board of overseers are determined something be done. It’s been decided, that unless we can bring you back to sanity now, right now, permanent measures will be taken to ensure you can’t hurt anyone ever again. They’ll lobotomize you, Andrew. You understand?
Teddy Daniels: Yeah, I understand. I understand just fine. if I don’t play along, with your little game here, Dr. Naerhing is going to turn me into one of his ghosts. But what about my partner? You’re going to tell me the U.S. Marshal’s office that he’s a defense mechanism?
[just then Chuck opens the door and enters the room]
Chuck Aule: Hello, boss.


 

[shocked at seeing Chuck]
Teddy Daniels: What the fuck is going on here? Hm? Huh? You working for him?
I’m sorry. There wasn’t any other way. Someone had to stick with you, keep you safe.
Teddy Daniels: You mean watch me, huh? Watching me every minute. Who are you? Who are you? Tell me?
Chuck Aule: Don’t you recognize me, Andrew? I’ve been your primary psychiatrist for the last two years. I’m Lester Sheehan.
Teddy Daniels: I told you, I told you about my wife. I…
Dr. Lester Sheehan: I know.
Teddy Daniels: I climbed down a cliff to get you. I trusted you. I risked everything to come in here after you. Everything!
Dr. Lester Sheehan: I know, boss.


 

Dr. John Cawley: I swore before the board of overseers that I could construct the most radical, cutting edge role play ever attempted in psychiatry and it would bring you back. I thought that if we let you play this out, we could get you to see how untrue, how impossible it is. You had the run of the place for two days. Tell me, where are the Nazi experiments. The satanic O.R.’s?
[Teddy can’t answer and sits down]
Dr. Lester Sheehan: Andrew, listen to me. If we fail with you, then everything that we’ve tried to do here will be discredited. Everything.


 

[Teddy’s got hold of his service gun and is pointing it and Sheehan and Cawley]
Teddy Daniels: [shouting] My name is Edward Daniels. This one’s loaded, I can tell by the weight.
Dr. John Cawley: I see. And that’s your firearm, Marshal? You’re sure?
Teddy Daniels: My initials are on the side. There’s dent on the barrel from when Philip Stack shot at me. You’re not going to fuck with my mind on this one, doctor!
Dr. John Cawley: Then blast away. Because that’s the only way you’re ever getting off this island.
[Teddy fires at Cawley, his blood spatters on the wall behind him]
Dr. John Cawley: Andrew, please don’t.
[Teddy looks at Cawley, who is alive and unhurt]
Teddy Daniels: My gun!
[Teddy notices the gun is just plastic and breaks it in half]
Teddy Daniels: What did you do to my Goddamn gun?
Dr. Lester Sheehan: It’s a toy, Andrew.


 

Dr. Lester Sheehan: We’re telling you the truth. Dolores was insane, manic depressive. Suicidal. You drank. Stayed away. Ignored what everyone told you. You moved to that lake house after she purposely set your city apartment on fire.
[suddenly Teddy attacks Sheehan]
Teddy Daniels: You liar!
[Cawley tries to stop Teddy from chocking Sheehan]
Dr. John Cawley: Andrew! Andrew! Stop! Stop!
Teddy Daniels: All you’ve done is lie!
Dr. John Cawley: Andrew. Andrew, your children. Andrew, your Children.
[Cawley shows Teddy pictures of his dead children]
Dr. John Cawley: Simon. Henry.
Teddy Daniels: I never had any children.
Dr. John Cawley: You’re wife drowned them at the cabin by the lake. And here, the little girl, the one you dream of every night.
Teddy Daniels: I never had a little girl.
Dr. John Cawley: The one that tells you over and over that you should have saved her, saved them all. Your daughter. Her name was Rachel. Are you going to deny that she ever lived? Andrew, are you?


 

[Teddy sees Dolores, looking wet coming towards him]
Dolores Chanal: I’m so sorry, baby. I told you not to come in here. I told you, this would be the end of you.


 

[Teddy’s flashback; Dolores is outside behind their cabin, sitting in the Gazebo by the water rocking back and forth on the porch swing]
Teddy Daniels: Dolores?
[Dolores gets up and walks towards him, she’s soaking wet]
Teddy Daniels: Baby, why’re you all wet?
Dolores Chanal: I’ve missed you.
[she kisses him]
Dolores Chanal: I want to go home.
Teddy Daniels: You are home. Where are the kids?
Dolores Chanal: They’re in school.
Teddy Daniels: It’s Saturday, honey. School’s not in on Saturday.
Dolores Chanal: My school is.
[Teddy steps back with horror, he glances up and notices something floating in the lake]
Teddy Daniels: Oh, my God! Oh, my God!
[he runs towards the lake and jumps into the water to get to the body of his daughter, Rachel]
Teddy Daniels: Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God, no!
[he tries to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation]
Teddy Daniels: Come on! Come on!
[she’s not breathing, he knows it’s too late and breaks down crying, he then notices the bodies of his two sons and grabs hold of them]
Teddy Daniels: [sobbing] No! No! Please, God! Please, God, no! No!


 

[Teddy’s laid out the bodies of his children on the shore, he’s sitting by them numbly. Dolores comes up to him]
Dolores Chanal: Let’s put them at the table, Andrew. We’ll dry them off. We’ll change their clothes. They’ll be our living dolls. Huh? Tomorrow we can take them on a picnic.
Teddy Daniels: If you ever loved me, Dolores, please stop talking.
[Dolores starts to cry]
Dolores Chanal: I love you. You set me free.
Teddy Daniels: Baby…
Dolores Chanal: We’ll give them baths.
[sobbing silently]
Teddy Daniels: I love you, baby.
Dolores Chanal: I love you too.
Teddy Daniels: I love you so much.
Dolores Chanal: I love you so much. I love you like…
[a gun shot is heard and then Dolores slumps back onto the ground, Teddy is sobbing hard and touches the blood pouring from her stomach]


 

Dr. Lester Sheehan: Andrew. Andrew, can you hear me?
Teddy Daniels: Rachel. Rachel. Rachel.
[Teddy wakes up to find Cawley, Sheehan and a nurse, the woman that we thought of as Rachel 1]
Dr. Lester Sheehan: Rachel? Rachel who?
Teddy Daniels: Rachel. Rachel Laeddis. My daughter.
Dr. John Cawley: Why are you here?
Teddy Daniels: Because I killed my wife.
Dr. John Cawley: And why did you do that?
Teddy Daniels: Because she murdered our children. She told me to let her go.


 

Dr. Lester Sheehan: Who’s Teddy Daniels?
Teddy Daniels: He doesn’t exist. Neither does Rachel Solando. I made them up.
Dr. Lester Sheehan: Why?
Dr. John Cawley: We need to hear you say it.
Teddy Daniels: After she tried to kill herself the first time, Dolores told me she had an insect living inside her brain. She could feel it clicking across her skull, just pulling the wires, just for fun. She told me that. She told me that but I didn’t listen. I loved her so much.
Dr. John Cawley: Why did you make them up?
Teddy Daniels: Because I can’t take knowing that Dolores killed our children. I mean I killed them because I didn’t, I didn’t get her help. You know. I killed them.


 

Dr. John Cawley: Here’s my fear, Andrew. We broke through once before, nine months ago. And then you regressed.
Teddy Daniels: I don’t remember that.
Dr. John Cawley: I know. You reset, Andrew. Like a tape playing over and over on an endless loop. I’d hope that what we’ve done here would be enough to stop from ever happening again, but I need to know you’ve accepted reality.
Teddy Daniels: You came after me? Huh, doctor? You tried to help me when no one else would.
[he pauses for a moment]
Teddy Daniels: My name is Andrew Laeddis. And I murdered my wife in the spring of fifty two.


 

[Teddy’s sitting on the hospital steps]
Dr. Lester Sheehan: How we doing this morning?
Teddy Daniels: Good. And you?
Dr. Lester Sheehan: Can’t complain.
Teddy Daniels: So what’s our next move?
Dr. Lester Sheehan: You tell me.
Teddy Daniels: I got to get off this rock, Chuck. Get back to the mainland. Whatever the hell’s going on here, it’s bad.
[Sheehan looks over to Cawley, Naehring and the Warden and shakes his head]


 

[last lines]
Teddy Daniels: Don’t worry partner, they’re not going to catch us.
Dr. Lester Sheehan: That’s right, we’re too smart for em.
Teddy Daniels: Yeah, we are, aren’t we. You know, this place makes me wonder.
Dr. Lester Sheehan: Yeah. What’s that, boss?
Teddy Daniels: Which would be worse, to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?
[Teddy gets up and walks towards Cawley and the orderlies]
Dr. Lester Sheehan: Teddy?


 

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