The Island
A deep sea fishing boat docks for the night near a seemingly deserted, uncharted island. As the cabin boy, Manuel, serves drinks, a pirate appears and kills the men in gory fashion by axing them to death. Sometime later in New York City, reporter Blair Maynard (Michael Caine), a British-born journalist, convinces his editor to let him investigate the latest vessel missing in the "Bermuda Triangle," claiming that 600 boats have vanished in that area in the last three years. In his office, Maynard is surprised to find his former wife has left their 10-year-old son, Justin (Jeffery Frank), with him for the weekend. Maynard cajoles the reluctant boy into traveling to Florida, promising a trip to Disneyland. However, when Maynard prioritizes the investigation first, Justin accuses him of backing out on another promise. Maynard and Justin arrive in Miami where Justin manipulates his father into taking him to purchase a handgun for him. They stop at a local gun shop where the owner Mr. Baxter (William Schilling) demonstrates a Walther PPK semi-automatic pistol and after testing it at the gun shop's firing range, allows Mr. Maynard into buying it for Justin. Elsewhere, two sailboats stop near the island as night falls. During the night, pirates climb out of the water and attack the boats, killing everyone except for a young girl. The next day, Maynard and Justin visit the Miami docks and learn of the two additional missing boats, which set sail from the island of Navidad. A sailor theorizes that drug smuggling is involved and explains it is common in that part of the ocean. Maynard hires a rickety cargo plane to fly to Navidad, but the plane's wheels do not descend and they crash land. The pilot, Maynard, and Justin escape just before the plane explodes. Later, Justin wanders the beach as Maynard is directed to Windsor (Frank Middlemass), who rents boats. Windsor refuses Maynard's request to take him to the area, but changes his mind upon meeting Justin. The boy is excited to deep sea fish and catches a barracuda. As they head further out and near the island, they see a girl floating near a life raft. Justin reaches for her, but the girl (the same one the pirates captured) pulls him into the water and attempts to drown him. As Maynard moves to rescue his son, a pirate boards the boat and attacks. Maynard shoots and kills the pirate, but the body falls into Maynard, knocking him unconscious as he hits his head on a jagged nail. Maynard regains consciousness on the island at night where he and Justin are prisoners of a band of pirates. The pirates have, amazingly, remained undetected since the establishment of their pirate enclave by the notorious French buccaneer L'Olonnais in 1671. The pirates have a constitution of sorts, called the Covenant, and have a cruel but workable society. They raise any children they capture to ensure the survival of the colony, but kill anyone over the age of thirteen years. When the pirates' leader, Jean-David Nau (David Warner), learns Maynard's name, he declares Maynard's ancestors killed the pirate Blackbeard back in 1714 and therefore, the boy has "good blood." They take Justin away, informing Maynard that the boy is no longer his son. Beth (Angela Punch McGregor), the dead pirate's widow, demands Maynard's death, but Nau determines that she needs a man who can impregnate her, and Maynard is sentenced to that task. Meanwhile, Justin's eyes are pried open with twigs to keep him awake as the pirates rename him "Tubar" and brainwash the boy to reject his father and embrace their way of life. Several days later, Justin practices target shooting with Manuel, the former cabin boy who is now Nau's protege. A gourd is placed in Maynard's hand and Justin shoots it, claiming he could have killed his father if he wanted to. Maynard claims people are searching for them, but Justin rejects his father and insists he is the pirate Tubar. Maynard is shackled and lead about by a chain, but glimpses the combination lock's packaging and gets the code. Late at night, as Beth sleeps, he unlocks his chains and sneaks outside. He sees Justin in another hut, being instructed in the pirates' history. Maynard runs to the beach and dives into the ocean to swim away, but is stung by a large jellyfish and forced to swim ashore. Beth finds him just before the others rush to the beach, and she claims they were bathing. The other pirates do not believe her, so they pull the jellyfish from the ocean and rub the stingers over her nude body as punishment. The next day, as Maynard works alongside Beth, he sees Windsor arrive in a boat. Beth chases Maynard as he runs to warn Windsor, but quickly learns the man is colluding with the pirates. A schooner approaches the island and, as the pirates prepare for battle, Windsor admits he reported Maynard and Justin as lost at sea, and reveals the pirates are an "anthropologist's dream," having preserved their culture by living apart from the world for hundreds of years. However, the pirates' inbreeding has created numerous problems. They need Justin to carry on their leadership, and since Beth is the only fertile woman on the island, they require Maynard's genes to replenish their line. The pirates take Maynard and Justin with them and sail for the schooner. They board the ship, and the gory slaughter begins as the pirates kill all of the young crew and steal anything of value, except for the large supply of cocaine being smuggled inside. Maynard spots a flare gun and places it among Beth's loot. When one of the ship's occupants climbs a mast to escape, Nau hands Justin a gun and orders him to shoot. Justin kills the man before the pirates leave the schooner, blowing it up behind them. At the pirate camp back on the island, Beth finds the flare gun and tosses it aside, but Windsor takes it. Later, in the hut, Beth informs Maynard that she is pregnant. Maynard asks to be set free, but she declines, drags him outside, and demands that they be married. After the wedding vows, Nau declares that he is taking Justin as his son, instead of Manuel, as originally planned. Manuel is furious and leaves camp. Later, as Beth bathes, Manuel frees Maynard and offers to help him leave if he takes Justin with him to warn the outside world about the island. Maynard sneaks to the campfire where everyone is asleep, gags his son, and carries him to Manuel's boat, but when he sets Justin down, the boy runs screaming for Nau. Maynard sets sail, but Manuel had sabotaged the boat by drilling holes in the bottom and filling them with molasses and it sinks, forcing Maynard to swim back to shore. The next morning, Justin asks to lead the hunt for his father, and Nau agrees. As the others search the island, Nau and Windsor observe a US Coast Guard ship arriving offshore to investigate the multitude of cocaine packets floating free from the schooner's wreckage. As Windsor heads to intercept them, he discovers that Maynard spilled gunpowder across the deserted camp. Windsor grabs an ax, but Beth shoots him dead, allowing Maynard to light the gunpowder and destroy the camp along with some of the pirate women, but Beth survives. Seeing the explosion, the Coast Guard sends a boat to investigate, but the pirates attack the men killing them all. Maynard swims toward the Coast Guard ship as Nau, Justin, Manuel and the little girl don Coast Guard life vests and pretend to be the returning landing party. At the ship, a dozen or so pirates hidden in the boat climb aboard and quickly kill all of the crew in a matter of minutes. An officer relays a "May Day" message before he is shot dead. As the rest of the pirates from the island row out to the captured Coast Guard ship and begin to loot and other toss supplies from the ship into their boats, Maynard sneaks on board. He attempts to radio for help only to find the radio destroyed. Now driven mad with frustration and rage, Maynard climbs to the upper deck, discovers a .50 caliber heavy machine gun hidden under a tarp, and opens fire on the pirates scattered on the stern of the Coast Guard ship, ruthlessly slaughtering all of them in a hail of bullets. Nau, Justin, and Manuel hide on the aft deck as the rest of the pirates on deck and in their boats are all gunned down. When the machine gun is empty, Nau orders Justin to kill his father, but he cannot, so Manuel reaches for Justin's gun. As the boys struggle, Manuel is killed. Nau takes the gun and pulls Justin inside the ship, but Maynard finds a flare gun and follows where a climatic cat-and-mouse chase begins. As Nau shoots out the lights and binds Justin with ropes, Maynard fires a flare and sees Justin's location. The boy calls for his father as Nau attacks with a knife, and Maynard shoots a flare at the pirate leader, killing him at last. Maynard rushes to his son as a Coast Guard rescue helicopter arrives on the scene as night begins to fall and the pilot radios the ship's location and of the island as the end credits roll.
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