Shutter Island: Pause at 37 minutes and 28 seconds, no one heard this shot the first time

Spoilers – Warning, the article below contains potential spoilers. If you do not wish to know its contents, please do not read the following…

Whether it’s a small reference to Jaws Jurassic Park, 2001: A Space Odyssey in Phantom Menace or even an astronomical detail hidden in the starry sky of The Lion King, there are many feature films that deserve one (or more). ) freeze frame(s).

Usually an homage to another feature film or a tribute to the discernment of the most observant viewer, it sometimes happens that these secret elements actually provide real clues to the outcome of their film.

A hint at the end of Shutter Island

That’s the case with Shutter Island, a particularly harrowing psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese in 2010. If you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you do so before reading on, as we prepare to reveal the final reveal of the feature film.

In Shutter Island, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a United States Marshal named Teddy Daniels who is in charge of investigating the disappearance of a patient at a psychiatric hospital on an island off the coast of Boston.

But as we learn at the end of the film, it’s all just a set-up, a giant role-playing game meant to allow Teddy Daniels (an anagram of his real name, which is actually Andrew Laedis) to “finally admit the terrible truth about his past: He killed his wife when she suffocated their children.” .

in 37 minutes and 28 seconds

This tragic discovery, which surprises both the main character and the audience in the last part of the feature film, was still visually announced by Martin Scorsese and, in particular, with a precise hint, hidden in 37 minutes and 28 seconds of the film. .

Indeed, if you press pause on this particular moment on Shutter Island, the scene where Daniels/Ledis is questioning the institution’s patients, you can observe a particularly disturbing detail that finds no immediate explanation in the feature film.

Asked for a glass of water, the patient questions Daniels and drinks it before leaving. But in the close-up (and very brief) shot of him quenching his thirst (see above), the glass just disappeared! The patient’s hand is completely empty, but we see him place the glass on the table in the next shot (see below).

A message to the viewer

Not a blunder in staging (as some might think), this little detail that we don’t always notice when we first watch the film is actually a message addressed directly to the audience: Shutter Island is really happening. From Daniels’ point of view, however, this point of view is completely unreliable.

The character’s reality has changed from ours simply because he is psychologically unstable. Even his traumatized mind tends to erase certain elements, especially those related to water, because it reminds him of his unacceptable past.

Did you notice other similar elements in Scorsese’s film?

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