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.
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.
In 1954, U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his new partner Chuck Aule travel to Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island, Boston Harbor, to investigate the disappearance of Rachel Solando, a patient of the hospital who had previously drowned her three children.
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.
SHUTTER ISLAND Breakdown | Ending Explained, Easter Eggs, Hidden Details & Things You Missed
Why does the woman write run on Teddy's notepad?
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.
Andrew's last line of dialogue, and his failure to respond to being called Teddy, has led many fans to speculate that Andrew had not actually regressed, and was voluntarily submitting himself to a lobotomy so he did not have to live with his sins and the monster he had become.
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.
The ending reveals that Teddy's partner "Chuck" is actually his doctor, Lester Sheehan. As part of the roleplaying exercise, Sheehan pretends to be Teddy's partner so the former can keep an eye on him.
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.
Shutter Island is a film that shows so many evidences of hallucination experienced by the main character, Teddy Daniels. Teddy Daniels had bad experiences in the past which lead him to change his identity in order to forget his past.
So, finding the cave, was in itself a manifestation of Teddy's own mind using "survival instincts" and the rats were most possibly, remnants of his past life during his days at the German Camp, where he may or may not have been a part of and witnessed mass shooting and the pile of the corpses laid alongside the path.
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.
What did George tell Teddy while they were in Ward C?
Teddy & Chuck get into building C. Teddy finds George Noyce, He tells Teddy that the only way he can save Noyce is to forget his wife and Laeddis. Noyce tells him that Laeddis is no longer in C building, but that they have taken him to the lighthouse, where they are planning to do a lobotomy on him.
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.
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.
To keep quiet for the sake of all those he could still save if the results of the roleplay are a success. "Shhh. Keep quiet. You can't run from what you've done, but that's okay."
Shutter Island is essentially about Andrew falling into a delusion that he is a better man who didn't kill his wife and that his time on the earth has meaning because he's looking for a way to avenge her rather than live with the guilt of having killed her.
It involves breaking the connection between the frontal lobe and the thalamus. While lobotomies caused some people with mental illnesses to become calmer, they also frequently caused significant changes in personality, such as apathy and social disinhibition.
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.
Climax: Teddy/Andrew finally remembers that his wife burned their apartment and drowned their three children—and that he shot her. Climactic Moment: Teddy/Andrew speaks to “Chuck” in ambiguous terms that seem to indicate he has relapsed into his delusions—which leaves no other option for him than a lobotomy.
Teddy begins to face reality when he meets the woman he believes is Rachel Solando. In the cave, she prods him to reflect on his time on the island, but he doesn't quite put the pieces together until he meets George Noyce in the lighthouse.
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.
Peddocks Island, which sits in Boston Harbor off the coast of Quincy, was chosen as the setting for this intimidating introduction to Shutter Island. There's a ferry wharf on the island's northeastern corner, and from there you can see the remains of Fort Andrews that appear on-screen in the film.
