The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

• Directed by John Frankenheimer, Richard Stanley
• Written by H.G. Wells, Richard Stanley, Ron Hutchinson
• Stars David Thewlis, Marlon Brando, Val Kilmer
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8tVk61sHsQ

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Val Kilmer and Marlon Brandon seemed to be trying to outdo each other to see who could be the strangest with their roles. It’s hard to say if they are entertaining or too overshadowing, but they are something to see. The rest of the movie is a passable action thriller, and the practical makeup effects are amazing. It’s one worth checking out that still holds up pretty well.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a tiny lifeboat in the Java sea. Edward Douglas narrates that their plane crashes, and the other two men fought each other until a shark ate them both; he’s alone now. He gets delirious from exposure and dreams of being picked up by a ship. A man named Montgomery nurses Douglas back to health. Montgomery says he’s a veterinarian. 

They stop at an island to let Montgomery off; Douglas is expected to travel on with the ship to a later destination. Montgomery says he needs to come onto the island for his own safety. He’s… persuasive. The island is owned by Dr. Moreau, a scientist. 

As he waits in the big house, Douglas is impressed by the Nobel Prize hanging on Moreau’s wall. Then he sees a girl dancing outside, and he’s far more impressed with her; she’s Aissa, who has never been off the island, and refers to Moreau as father. Montgomery says Moreau became obsessed with his animal research, but animal rights activists ran him out of the states; he’s been on this island for seventeen years. Montgomery has been involved for ten years. 

Douglas hears strange noises in the night and goes to investigate. He finds a whole operating theater inside a zoo full of exotic animals. Douglas watches as surgeons operate on a creature giving birth, but the surgeon isn’t human. He runs back outside and Aissa offers to help him. The two of them are chased through the forest by animal men in formalwear. 

They are soon surrounded by a different group of animal men. The first one talks, and his name is Assassimon, who takes them to the Sayer of the Law. They go to a whole compound inhabited by men who look like half-animals. The Sayer of the Law talks about how they all want to do animal things, but now they are men, and they need to behave like it. The Sayer touches Douglas; he’s blind. 

Suddenly, a horn sounds. “The Father! He comes!” Moreau makes an entrance, sitting atop a car, covered in white paint and wearing a veil and white robes. Next to him is a tiny sidekick dressed identically; he’s Majai. He orders Montgomery to hand over his gun to Douglas. Moreau has a device that he wears that sends the animal men into pain convulsions if they get too out of line. 

They all return to the big house, where Moreau’s “children” introduce themselves. Aissa is the only one who looks completely human. Moreau explains that all the people that Douglas has met are animals that have been given human attributes through his experiments. Douglas is not particularly receptive to Moreau’s justifications. 

Moreau and his Mini-Me (the original) play a hilarious piano duet on a full size and a tiny piano. At dinner, the doctor and his guest debate Satan and morality. He’s trying to create a purely altruistic creature, far better than humans. When Montgomery has the cook make a rabbit, Moreau gets all offended. He doesn’t eat meat and neither do any of his animal men any more. He orders the rabbit disposed of and for all who handled it to wash their hands. Aissa mentions that they saw a dead rabbit in the woods, and Moreau asks which creature did it; tomorrow, there’ll be a trial. 

Douglas sneaks out to the boat that night, but is chased away by mutant rats. 

In the morning, the Sayer of the Law, Moreau, and Montgomery put on a trial for Lo-Mai, the animal who killed the rabbit. Lo-Mai charges Moreau, but is shocked by his implant. House dog butler Azazello kills Lo-Mai, which is an even bigger crime, but he says Montgomery gave him the gun. The many animal men are confused when Azazello isn’t punished. The Hyena-Man especially takes it hard, and inspecting the cremated body, learns about the pain-giving implant. He immediately pulls out his own. 

Montgomery gives all the animals a drug that keeps them from retrogressing. Hyena-man doesn’t want his shot. Hyena-man shows Montgomery his paingiver device, and Montgomery tries to shoot and sends Azazello and his dog friends after him when he misses. That night, Hyena-man demonstrates removing the pain device to others. Aissa complains to Moreau that her teeth and ears are growing, but he brushes off that it’s just a chemical imbalance that he can correct. 

Hyena-man and his new gang break into the house and run into Moreau, dressed for bed without his pain giving controller, who offers them cookies. They’re terrified of him, but he’s also clearly nervous as well as he starts playing the piano for them. As he plays and stalls them, Majai sneaks in to hand Moreau his electronic device. Hyena-man asks, “What are we?” and asks if there is no pain, is there no law? Moreau says there will always be law as he pushes buttons, but his smugness vanishes when he realizes they’ve pulled out their pain devices. They attack and kill Moreau, leaving Montgomery in charge. 

Douglas consoles Aissa, who she says is far better than the others. She admits that she’s changing and needs the formula that only Montgomery can give her. Meanwhile, Azazello steals the sleeping Montgomery’s gun. Montgomery does an impressive Brando imitation, but he’s not fooling anybody. He also claims to have destroyed all the serum. Azazello takes Hyena-man and his friends to the armory for more guns. They blow up the boat and the whole dock. “None shall escape.” 

Montgomery seems to be taking his Brando-impersonation a bit overboard, but most of the animals don’t seem to notice or care about the difference; he’s God now. Meanwhile, Douglas searches the lab for serum and finds a bunch of sample jars with his name on them. Azazello shoots Montgomery, who totally had it coming. 

Aissa and Douglas lament over the lack of needed serum. He figures that Moreau was going to use Douglas’s DNA to stop her regression permanently, but nothing can be done now. Hyena-Man’s crew storm the compound and that goes poorly for some of the hybrids when they release the wild animals who attack.

Azazello shows up and his goons attack Douglas and Aissa, and she ends up dead. Hyena-man insists that the Sayer of the Law proclaim him to be the new Law. Hyena-man confronts Douglas, the last normal human, and uses Moreau’s pain-device to make everyone else fall down in pain. Douglas tricks the Hyena-man into killing his own accomplices out of jealousy. There’s soon a major shoot-out, and the whole compound explodes. 

The other animals gang up on Hyena-man and kill him. 

In the morning, Douglas builds a raft to leave. Assassimon wants him to stay with them, and Douglas promises to return. The Sayer of the Law and Majai are there as well, but Sayer says no, don’t come back. They just want to go back to being animals again. 

Douglas gets on his raft and leaves. 

Commentary

I saw this when it came out, and this viewing was better, and shorter, than I remembered it being. 

This version takes place in the “modern day” of 1996. Marlon Brando is the big draw here, and he doesn’t even show up until 29 minutes in and dies 35-minutes later. He’s weird, and according to all accounts, none of his weirdness was in the script. He’s so over-the-top ridiculous that it overshadows the rest of the film. It’s like Brando and Val Kilmer were trying to “out-weird” one another. If you can manage to put aside their performances, the rest of the film is quite good. The makeup and creature effects in this are just outstanding. Hyena-man and Azazello are particularly standout. How this managed to avoid the Academy Award that year is surprising. It’s probably because the film was maligned for other reasons, but at least it looked really good.