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The Island 2005 is Michael Bay's Minority Report

September 17, 2025

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#theIsland #MichaelBay #film #review #movies #cinemastodon

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[avatar]by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".


5 Minute Read



As far as my speculation goes, I think, it is safe to assume, the following happened: In 1994 ( before doing Bad Boys ) Michael Bay signed a 10 year contract with Jerry Bruckheimer which expired in 2004 ( after Bad Boys 2 ). Knowing that the contract is about to expire, 2 years prior ( in 2002 ) Steven Spielberg, in an attempt to get on good terms with Michael Bay, added a small reference to Bad Boys into his film Minority Report. And then took Bay under his supervision for the next 10 years. Starting with the 2005 film The Island. And through the Transformers franchise. Bay returned the favor by showing a concept car designed for Minority Report ( Lexus 2054 aka Lexus Minority ) multiple times in the background of The Island. Still that's just a theory. I don't actually know what happened. But it seems plausible.

In any case. The Island is the first collaboration of Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg and the first collaboration of Michal Bay and Steve Jablonsky. Yet it is not the first, and I repeat, not the first collaboration of Michael Bay and Steve Buscemi. That Steve worked with Michael already on Armageddon.

The Island is in many ways similar to Minority Report. Both films are set in future. Both films concern themselves with dystopian concepts, like "privacy". In Minority Report privacy is discussed almost directly, by asking the question of whether it is even a good idea to have a system that can see the future to prevent crime. And it answers "no". The Island's opening scene ( after Lincoln 6 Echo played by Ewan McGregor wakes up ) is about a much more minor intrusion into privacy. He pees and his toilet sends info about his metabolism to the big brother. That later causes him trouble receiving food he wants to eat. Also both films have an inclusion of Lexus 2054 and both films are action films related to Steven Spielberg.

In the both films we have a group of under-privileged people, the rest of the world uses for something they want. In Minority Report those are the precogs. In The Island those are the clones. In both films, the public that benefits from their existence is being lied to about their conditions. Though funny enough, the lie is reversed. In Minority Report the lie is that the precogs live a peaceful life with all the comforts in the world. And that this is their work environment to see the future, while in reality they are in constant drug induced vegetative state, hooked 24 / 7 to a computer. In The Island the clones live a rather nice life ( minus the big brother and the fact that all of them will be murdered at some point to harvest their organs ), yet the public is told that they never reach contentiousness and are constantly in a vegetative state ( making it more "okay" to harvest their organs I suppose ). In both films the under-privilege group is freed, after a portion of the group experiences the world, and witnesses the existence of Lexus 2054.

Directing-wise, by the time Michael Bay did The Island he already reached his directorial maturity. There is Bayhem!, obviously, he was kind of hired for it, but the non-action stuff in the film is rather interesting. Compare for example the chaotic beginning of Bad Boys 2 and the absolute master-class of starting the movie which he demonstrates in The Island. And yes, both The Island and Minority Report start from a vision of a future, by one of the under-privileged people, that is rather horroresque. Steven Spielberg opens Minority Report with blurry images that slowly go into focus. Revealing a rather bazaar, fear inducing sequence of violent events. Michael Bay being Michael Bay opens the movie on the most amazing landscape he could find, with some of the coolest score Jablonsky ever wrote for Bay. Then he jump-scares the audience with a sudden burst of violence creating his version of a horroresque vision-dream. Both visions in both films end with the person seeing the vision, waking up, by emerging from water.

Then like Tom Cruise in Minority Report who rescues a precog Agatha ( Samantha Morton ), Lincoln 6 Echo rescues Lucy... sorry... rescues a different Scarlett Johansson character, called Jordan 2 Delta. In both cases they come together to a third character that thinks that both of them are sleeping with each other.

Only in the Michael Bay version they actually end up having sex. And Michael Bay just about avoided jail time by shooting said sex in a very round about impressionistic way, where the most you can see them do is kiss. Earlier the film confirms that in fact Lincoln six Echo is a 3 year old. And Jordan 2 Delta is a 4 year old. Both artificially cognitively enhanced to be 15 year olds. And the law clearly states that using adult actors as children substitutes is not enough, for it not to be considered "child pornography".

Which, if you think about it, is the first case of something like this that Michael Bay did under the supervision of Steven Spielberg. The other 3 cases were in Transformers films. And you wonder why Luc Besson chose specifically Scarlett Johansson to play Lucy...

Happy Hacking!!!


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[avatar]  Troler c:0


20 have passed since the release of "The Island".

20 + (200)5 = 25

In 2022 BlenderDumbass was 25 years old.

In 2022 there was a pandemic outbreak of monkeypox.

8 years separate the release of the film and birth of J. Y. Amihud.

J. Y. Amihud is pitching "The 8 year olds" to Israel film studios.

"The 8 year olds" includes a sex scene.

"The island" includes a sex scene.

Monkeypox is transmitted through sex.

A pattern is unfolding.

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[icon reviews]Footnote 2011 is a suprisingly good Israeli film

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[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

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Footnote originally הערת שוליים is an Israeli film written and directed by Joseph Cedar. The film is about a very strange dramatic bureaucratic situation, where two professors, a father and a son, are in the same field, and one of them gets a honorary award for his achievements. But the bureaucrats made a mistake and told about the award to the wrong one of them.


#footnote #הערתשוליים #JosephCedar #LiorAshkenazi #Israel #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #jews


[icon reviews]Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are 1994 makes me want a 2 hour long Michael Bay musical

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[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

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In 1994, just before Bad Boys Michael Bay directed a music video for a song "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are" by Meat Loaf ( Michael Lee Aday ), which shows striking resemblance to his 2001 film Pearl Harbor and has some interesting choices that echo throughout his career. Choices that beg for a psycho-sexual analysis.


#meatloaf #music #video #musicvideo #michaelbay #review #movies #film #rock #metal #cinemastodon


[icon reviews]Backdraft 1991 is a HOT film

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[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

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Ron Howard is a hell of a director. He knows how to get the image that he wants. And he knows how to do it so that it will hold up practically forever. His 1991 fire-fighters movie Backdraft is not an exception. The fire sequences are so real and so visceral in this film, despite being done 3 decades ago, that perhaps this film is even better when it comes to planning shots that hold up than his Apollo 13 movie ( where he used real weightlessness to shoot the space scenes ).


#backdraft #firemen #firefighters #fire #movies #cinema #ronhoward #film #review #cinemastodon


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