The ending of Shutter Island seems ambiguous to many people, but on second viewing, it's pretty clear-cut. Teddy wakes up to the reality that he is actually Andrew Laeddis, though he is warned by Dr. Cawley and Dr. Sheehan that he has regressed into his fantasy world before.
During the ending scene, Andrew and Dr. Sheehan sit down on some steps for a smoke. Andrew was just told that he had made up his entire identity as US Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels in order to escape from the reality that he had killed his wife. Andrew, in short, had realized who he really is.
It turns out that Andrew is actually an inmate at Ashecliffe, and that the film's events up until this point — Cawley's allowing Andrew to play the role of Teddy — were designed to cure his insanity that stemmed from murdering his depressed wife after she drowned their children at their lake house.
Was Andrew faking it at the end of Shutter Island reddit?
Now in the movie adaptation, he likely is faking insanity for the lobotomy at the end, as director Martin Scorsese includes the movie-only line spoken by Andrew/Teddy “Which would be worse: To live as a monster, or to die as a good man?”, suggesting he is lucid.
Was Leonardo DiCaprio really a patient in Shutter Island?
Only Teddy is not a real person but a delusion created by inmate Andrew Laeddis. The ending of “Shutter Island” reveals that DiCaprio's character is a patient himself, committed to the Shutter Island facility after murdering his wife (Michelle Williams) because she went insane and killed their children.
Shutter Island (8/8) Movie CLIP - Live as a Monster or Die as a Good Man (2010) HD
Was he crazy or not in Shutter Island?
However, in a radical twist, we find that Teddy is himself a patient at the asylum. He suffers from Delusional Disorder, creating a false world to escape the dark reality of his past. Shutter Island is one of the many films that present the ethical considerations of psychological treatment to a mainstream audience.
The psychiatrist debriefs Teddy about his Delusional Disorder. The psychiatrist tells Teddy that he has been a patient for over two years. He explains to Teddy that he created fictional characters by using anagrams from his name, and the names of his loved ones.
However, his guilt and pain are still so heavy that he knows he cannot live with them; rather than live with the knowledge of his pain, he chooses to pretend that he is still Teddy Daniels and let them lobotomize him, so that he can finally be free of his burden.
His final words to Sheehan, though, cast doubt over whether Andrew has reverted back to his Teddy persona or not. “Which would be worse: to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?” he says to Sheehan, and when Sheehan calls him 'Teddy' for a final time, Andrew does not respond.
Obvious green screen images when Teddy and Warden are in a jeep coming back from the hidden cave. Obvious green screen images when on the ferry boat and when entering the island on a jeep passing in front of several buildings.
There is no Rachel Solando. There is no Chuck, at least as we see him. It's all a trick on the person we know as Teddy for the entirety of the story, right up until the end. Teddy, not the arsonist of his fantasy, was the one who killed his wife after she had drowned their three children.
Inspired by the history of the Boston Harbor Islands, Bostonian Dennis Lehane published his book Shutter Island in 2003. In this thriller, Lehane created a fictitious hospital island with nefarious happenings.
Cawley explains that Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis, their "most dangerous patient." He was sent to the island after murdering his manic-depressive wife, Dolores. It turns out that Dolores drowned their three children.
However, by Shutter Island's ending, viewers have learned Chuck is actually Dr. Sheehan, Teddy's doctor, who Teddy believed had left the island after Rachel's disappearance. It turns out Teddy is the patient and created a delusion to escape the crime he committed.
He explains that Andrew Laeddis is an anagram of Edward Daniels and that he murdered his wife, Dolores Chanal (an anagram of Rachel Solando), two years before after she drowned their three children during a manic episode. This is the answer of the code "the law of 4" and Laeddis is the 67th patient at Ashecliffe.
Finally, the old woman writes 'run' on Teddy's notebook, not because Ashecliffe is running experiments on its patients, but because she knows that this is Teddy's last opportunity to escape the mental hospital.
Dolores was bipolar, and she killed her children during a moment of mental crisis. Dolores had been living with bipolar for quite a while in Shutter Island, and it turns out that Andrew refused to seek help for his wife, instead deciding to ignore her struggles even when she burned down their apartment.
Teddy (Edward) Daniels is killer Andrew Laeddis (the former name an anagram to disguise the latter), while the woman whose disappearance from the asylum he has been investigating, Rachel Solando (another anagram), is really his wife Dolores Chanal, whom he made disappear.
In Shutter Island's twist of an ending, Dr. Cawley reveals that Teddy is, in fact, Andrew Laeddis. "Edward Daniels" is an anagram of "Andrew Laeddis," and, additionally, Teddy's wife "Dolores Chanel" is an anagram of "Rachel Solando," which explains the "law of 4" note in Rachel's room.
Today lobotomy is rarely performed; however, shock therapy and psychosurgery (the surgical removal of specific regions of the brain) occasionally are used to treat patients whose symptoms have resisted all other treatments.
Teddy/Andrew was incarcerated on the island after he murdered his manic depressive wife Dolores, who drowned their three children. Edward Daniels and Rachel Solando are revealed to be anagrams of Andrew Laeddis and Dolores Chanal, and Andrew attacked George Noyce two weeks ago for calling him Laeddis.
Was Andrew faking it at the end of Shutter Island?
In the end of "Shutter Island," it's revealed that the main character, Teddy Daniels, is actually Andrew Laeddis, a patient at the mental institution. He has been experiencing delusions and hallucinations, which were orchestrated by the staff to help him come to terms with the truth of his past.
Why does Leonardo DiCaprio have a bandaid in Shutter Island?
It is unclear why he wears the band-aid, but it stays with him until nearly the end of the film. He only gets rid of it while taking a shower after John Cawley informs him that he actually showed up on the island alone.
What is the last line of the Shutter Island movie?
The film ends with him being taken to be lobotomized. As the film ends, Andrew utters a line that's nowhere to be found in the original book. “This place makes me wonder, which would be worse,” he says. “to live as a monster or to die as a good man?”
