10 Horror Movie Scenes Everyone Always Gets Wrong

What Everyone Thinks

The ending to Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island has been widely dissected and discussed over the last decade, though the prevailing sentiment among many is that the final moments allude to Teddy aka Andrew Laeddis (Leonardo DiCaprio) actually being sane.

After it appears that Andrew has finally broken free of his paranoid insanity following an elaborate exercise concocted by his doctors, he again refers to doctor Lester Sheehan (Mark Ruffalo) by his delusional persona of Chuck.

But just as it seems that Andrew has slipped back into Teddy mode, he asks Chuck, "Which would be worse, to live as a monster, or to die as a good man?"

This line of dialogue seems to imply that Andrew actually had retained his sanity and simply pretended to have slipped once again, so that he would be lobotomised and forget every awful thing that had happened.

Why It's Wrong

As cut-and-dried as this sounds, it's again a little too simple and straight-forward, and incorrect according to even the original novel's author, Dennis Lehane.

Though Lehane didn't write the film's script, and the film does admittedly deviate from the novel in a few ways, he did consult on the script and gave the production his blessing to include that final quote, which isn't in his original book.

Lehane also stated that, from his perspective, Teddy/Andrew's moment of clarity was simply a "momentary flash," and that he lacked the suicidal tendencies necessary to consciously commit to being lobotomised.

Again, you can invoke Death of the Author if you like, but Lehane has far greater insight into the interior mind of his protagonist than anyone else.