''Survival Island'', also known as ''Three'', is a 2005
erotic thriller survival film written and directed by
Stewart Raffill
Stewart Raffill is a British writer and director.
Biography
Raffill was born in England and grew up near Stratford before immigrating to the US and working in the motion picture industry. His writing and directing work in film and TV spans ...
and starring
Billy Zane,
Kelly Brook
Kelly Ann Parsons (born 23 November 1979), known professionally as Kelly Brook, is an English model, actress, and media personality. She is known for her modelling work in the UK, and in the US for her role as Prudence on the NBC sitcom '' On ...
, and
Juan Pablo Di Pace
Juan Pablo Di Pace (born 25 July 1979) is an Argentine actor and singer. He began his career in the United Kingdom, performing in a number of musicals and appearing in films like ''Survival Island'' (2005) and ''Mamma Mia!'' (2008). He later move ...
.
Plot
Jack and Jennifer are a wealthy couple who are
yachting
Yachting is the use of recreational boats and ships called ''yachts'' for racing or cruising. Yachts are distinguished from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. "Yacht" derives from the Dutch word '' jacht'' ("hunt"). With sailboats, t ...
in the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
during
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
. One of their crew is the handsome Manuel, who is cursed by his angry ex-girlfriend Maria as he prepares to leave on the yacht. He is clearly bothered and has a difficult time fulfilling requests for the crew and guests. After Captain Richards confronts him, Manuel quits and throws down a rag as he storms out of the
galley
A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...
. The rag lands on a gas flame and causes the entire yacht to catch fire. Captain Richards is unable to control the blaze with a fire extinguisher so they abandon ship. Their lifeboats are capsized by a storm later that night and everyone becomes separated.
Washing up on a deserted island, Jennifer is completely alone until she sees the body of Captain Richards in the water. As she attempts to
resuscitate him, Manuel appears and also unsuccessfully tries to revive him. They bury his body and under Manuel's guidance, set out to build a hut for shelter and find food. Two days later while fishing near a reef, Manuel finds Jack alive and brings him back to Jennifer and their hut.
Although Jack is grateful at first, he eventually suspects Manuel of having desires on his wife and declares the man his enemy, promising to ruin his life once they get off the island. This puts Jennifer in the uncomfortable position of her loyalty to Jack conflicting with the realization that they both need Manuel's help to survive. A proud man, Jack insists that he can provide for them both, but it quickly becomes apparent that he cannot. Jack and Jennifer's relationship starts quickly deteriorating.
Jack steals Manuel's goggles to go fishing one day and when Manuel discovers this, he threatens to kill Jack. Jennifer attempts to get him to calm down. As the two exit the water after fighting, Manuel pins Jennifer down and starts to
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
her as a way of getting revenge on Jack, but she soon stops resisting and the act becomes
consensual
Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions as used in such fields as the law, medicine, research, and sexual relationships. Consent as und ...
. Afterwards, Jennifer feels remorse despite having enjoyed the encounter and Manuel confesses his love for her. When Jack returns, Jennifer accidentally hints at him what had happened and he furiously rejects her.
While fishing another day, Jack finds a boat on the ocean floor. He drags it to shore and attempts to repair it. That night, Manuel and Jennifer go for a midnight swim as Jack watches them from a distance. As they start having
sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...
, she gives him the idea of stealing the boat while Jack is out fishing so they can get away together from the island. The following morning, they manage to steal the boat and sail, however they do not get far before the boat begins to sink and they realize that Jack's plan all along was for them to take the boat and
drown
Drowning is a type of suffocation induced by the submersion of the mouth and nose in a liquid. Most instances of fatal drowning occur alone or in situations where others present are either unaware of the victim's situation or unable to offer as ...
. They are forced to swim back to the island and to Jack, who attacks the now-exhausted Manuel with a spear and kidnaps Jennifer. Manuel rescues her that night but gets wounded in the process and becomes sick.
The next day, Jack tracks down the pair and finds them on top of a branch of a tree. He throws one of his spears to a now-weakened Manuel, who loses his balance and falls to the ground. Before Jack could kill him, Jennifer pins Jack to the ground, attempting to kill him with his own knife. Manuel picks up a heavy rock with which to crush Jack but he loses his balance again and falls backward, impaling himself on one of Jack's spears. Simultaneously, Maria performs a
voodoo
Voodoo may refer to:
Religions
* African or West African Vodun, practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups
* African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo
** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...
ceremony and impales Manuel's
effigy
An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...
on a spike.
One year later, a yachting family drops anchor near the island and explores it, discovering Jennifer asleep in her hut. She, still somewhat distraught over Manuel's death, leaves with them, but does not mention that Jack, who she has been forced to live with and depend on since Manuel's death, is also on the island. Jack, who is fishing, sees her leaving on the yacht and calls out, but Jennifer, who had also stolen his lighter so he could not make any more fires, finally exacts revenge on him by ignoring him and the family inside the boat cannot hear him. Jack is abandoned on the island and his eventual fate is left ambiguous.
Cast
*
Billy Zane as Jack
*
Kelly Brook
Kelly Ann Parsons (born 23 November 1979), known professionally as Kelly Brook, is an English model, actress, and media personality. She is known for her modelling work in the UK, and in the US for her role as Prudence on the NBC sitcom '' On ...
as Jennifer
*
Juan Pablo Di Pace
Juan Pablo Di Pace (born 25 July 1979) is an Argentine actor and singer. He began his career in the United Kingdom, performing in a number of musicals and appearing in films like ''Survival Island'' (2005) and ''Mamma Mia!'' (2008). He later move ...
as Manuel
* Maria Victoria Di Pace as Maria
* Todd Collins as Bill
* Gabrielle Jourdan as Gail
*
Gary Brockette
Gary "Tex" Brockette (September 13, 1947Ancestry.com. Texas Birth Index, 1903–1997 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. Original data: Texas. Texas Birth Index, 1903–1997. Texas: Texas Department of State Healt ...
as Captain Richards
* Isabelle Constantini as Maggie Richards
Production
The film was produced during 2003 and was originally set for cinema release under the title ''Three'' in 2004.
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
started in April 2004 at
Eleuthera
Eleuthera () refers both to a single island in the archipelagic state of The Commonwealth of the Bahamas and to its associated group of smaller islands. Eleuthera forms a part of the Great Bahama Bank. The island of Eleuthera incorporates the ...
in the Bahamas and lasted for seven weeks. In 2005,
Billy Zane and
Kelly Brook
Kelly Ann Parsons (born 23 November 1979), known professionally as Kelly Brook, is an English model, actress, and media personality. She is known for her modelling work in the UK, and in the US for her role as Prudence on the NBC sitcom '' On ...
unsuccessfully challenged the film's producers to remove Brook's nude scenes from the movie.
Release
Theatrical
''Survival Island'' went on
limited theatrical release
__FORCETOC__
Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
on 3 May 2006 in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
before being released to DVD on 21 August 2006. The cinematic release lasted for just one week in many cinemas.
Home media
''Survival Island'' was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
on 15 August 2006. It was also released theatrically in a number of European countries under its original title, ''Three''. Actors Billy Zane and Kelly Brook met during the course of filming in 2004 and later became engaged. In 2005, Zane and Brook unsuccessfully challenged the film's producers to remove Brook's
nude scenes
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scen ...
from the movie. However, the eventual DVD release kept these scenes intact.
Reception
Critical response
''Survival Island'' received mostly negative reviews. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics.
''Three'' as it was known in the UK suffered from poor reviews, gaining a rare one-star rating on the BBC Movies website. Robert Hanks of ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' said "
'Three'' isan unholy amalgam of ''
Lord of the Flies
''Lord of the Flies'' is a 1954 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. Themes ...
'', ''
The Blue Lagoon'' and ''
The Admirable Crichton
''The Admirable Crichton'' is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie.
Origins
Barrie took the title from the sobriquet of a fellow Scot, the polymath James Crichton, a 16th-century genius and athlete. The epigram-loving Ernest is p ...
'' ... At odd moments it rises to risibility, but mostly it is just dull". In a review for ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'', Adam Smith described the film as "appalling". Anna Smith of ''
Time Out'' criticized the film's tone in her review saying, "the dramatic score and writhing sex scenes imply an erotic thriller, but the camera treats pneumatic Brook like the subject of a cheap porno and the plot bears little resemblance to either genre. As the survivors bicker and allegiances change, it’s hard to fathom their motivation or to glean what allegiances we, the audience, are expected to make". ''
Total Film
''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched ...
'' rated it one star out of five, while Patrick Mullen of ''
Medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
'' gave the film a rating of 3/10.
Accolades
Wins
*
Golden Trailer Awards
The Golden Trailer Awards are an American annual award show for film trailers founded in 1999. The awards also honor the best work in all areas of film and video game marketing, including posters, television advertisements and other media, in ...
:
Golden Trailer –
Trashiest (2006)
References
External links
*
*
{{Stewart Raffill
2005 films
2005 thriller drama films
2000s erotic drama films
2000s erotic thriller films
2005 independent films
Adultery in films
American erotic thriller films
American thriller drama films
American erotic drama films
American independent films
British erotic thriller films
British thriller drama films
British erotic drama films
British independent films
English-language Luxembourgian films
2000s English-language films
Films about survivors of seafaring accidents or incidents
Films set in the Caribbean
Films set on uninhabited islands
Films directed by Stewart Raffill
Films about rape
2000s survival films
Films scored by Richard Harvey
2005 drama films
2000s American films
2000s British films