The ending of the movie Shutter Island

SPOILERS: The ending of the movie Shutter Island

SPOILERS

The ending of Shutter Island

Teddy Daniels is a patient on the island, and his doctors have created a vast role-play game thae includes every staff member and some of the patients to allow him to play out his belief that he is a US Marshal searching for a missing patient. (This isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds — watch it again and you’ll see a lot of the guards not particularly happy about looking for someone who doesn’t exist).

Teddy is refusing to accept the fact that he killed his wife after she murdered their children and has become delusional and violent. The role-play was the last effort to force him to accept his crimes or he would be lobotomised. The final moment suggests he has finally understood it — but pretends he hasn’t, in order to be lobotomised, to avoid living with grief.

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