Is there a cave on that island?

Plato wrote the allegory of the cave. In this allegory, Plato describes a situation in which prisoners had been shown a particular image (shadows projected on the wall by fire), and this was their only interpretation of the world. It goes further to explain that if a prisoner managed to escape this cave and saw the light outside, they would have a completely new understanding, and know that the previous images were false.



I am going to take the allegory and apply it to something else. Have you ever seen the movie The Island?  If not, here is a short synopsis.

The clones are the prisoners in Plato's allegory. They have been taught that the world is not safe, and that they must stay underground in the facilities where they live. The only other place that is available to go is "The Island" which is a paradise that people get to go to when they win the "lottery." The clones don't know anything of the outside world, and have no reason to believe that they are being lied to in any way, or to think that life isn't bad as it is.

The shadows cast on the wall are the lies that clones are led to believe. The fact that the world outside is unsafe, that they could go to "the island", and even that they are safe in the facility they live in. Their entire lives are these shadows, and it's all lies that they have been led to believe.

The puppeteers are the doctors and company that run the cloning facility. The doctors engineer the clones, and then engineer and promote the lies that clones believe. The company that runs the facility casts the biggest shadow of all. They have the dirtiest secret that the clones are only meant to die to keep other people alive.

The fire would be the infrastructure and vision of the island.In the movie, the clones are shown pictures of the island several times, and this "fire" helps promote the lie that the island exists and that the clones could go there. The infrastructure is the facility in general. Firstly, it is massive, and built like a fall out shelter (I'm thinking the Fallout series video games). It is in the middle of the desert, the perfect place to be if you are trying to make people believe the earth is in bad condition. Would any clone escape, they would see the desert outside, and have a confirmation that the world is unsafe outside.

The sunlight is actually seeing the society. Seeing that the world is more or less fine, and that things aren't what you've been led to believe. Furthermore, the information that you are a clone in the first place, challenges everything that the clones have been taught. Then, finding out that "going to the island" is actually going into the operation room, and having your perfectly healthy vital organs cut from your body and implanted into the original you, flips your world on it's back.

The movie itself is decent. The fact that it is inline with the cave is what makes it interesting. What would you do if you found out you were a clone, and had been lied to your entire life? What would you do if somebody told you that?