Before Jaws the Revenge Michael Caine had to escape Peter Benchley’s The Island

“You'll never know what the sea will cough up.” – Blair Maynard (Michael Caine)

The Island doesn’t have the greatest of reputations, reportedly even Michael Caine won’t even talk about it, and we don’t even know if he bought any property with his pay for it.

We do know that Caine and its director, Michael Ritchie, were both nominated as part of the very first Razzie awards for their efforts, something that would happen to Caine again with Jaws The Revenge (1987).

It’s also a film I’d wanted to see for years, so was suitably intrigued to finally journey to The Island.

The familiar Universal Pictures globe, a Zanuck/Brown production, based on the book by Peter Benchley. This could be Jaws, but it isn't. It's The Island, which was released in 1980.

Wonderfully, we also get a Percy Rodriquez narrated trailer, he also famously did voiceover duties on the classic Jaws trailer.

To back up Chief Brody's theory that it's only an island if you look at it from the water, that's exactly what the first shot of this film shows us.

There's no Scheider this time, or Shaw like there was in The Deep (1977), another Benchley screen adaptation in the wake of Jawsmania. This time we get future Jaws The Revenge star, Michael Caine, fresh off the upturned boat of Beyond The Poseidon Adventure (1979).

The island looks suitably ominous, almost as if King Kong (1933) could live there or the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park (1993). We then see a chartered fishing boat with a man whose reel is screaming out. It's hard not to think of Quint and whether it is a shark. It's a marlin, with a huge chunk missing out of it. Where's Matt Hooper when you need him?

Cue creepy abandoned shipwreck, like something out of Scooby-Doo. The boat drops anchor near the island when the men on the boat are taken out in a gory fashion, all hatchets in the head and stomach, which is more akin to Friday the 13th (1980), so is quite the initial shock.

Enter Michael Caine in New York, a reporter wanting to investigate 600 boat disappearances down in Florida, plugging into that Bermuda Triangle vibe of the late 1970s, which is where the boat in the opening was from.

His young son in in the office as well, so he tags along for a ride after the promise of stopping off at Disney World, before they pull off to a gun shop and the son squeezes off some rounds (setting something up for later). Caine's American son is clearly at ease with firearms (thanks to his Gramps) and we learn Caine’s character can also handle himself as he was in Korea. Caine actually was.

Back to the island and two more boats drop anchor, at least this time one of them has a gun. Unfortunately the same fate befalls them, the build-up is all suitably creepy and certainly puts you off from any sailing trips.

Caine and his son travel to the island by cargo plane, obviously doing some early research for his part as Hoagie. Especially as the plane lands with no wheels down, one blown up plane later and they are stuck on the island.

Intentional or not, Jaws related references abound with Caine telling his son they are going to catch a Barracuda and the boat they want to hire is called a mako.

After catching a barracuda on the small boat Caine even sys to his son: "Next time we'll get a big boat, we'll even catch some monsters."

They then spot someone in the water, a young woman from the earlier boat. The son goes to save her, but she pulls him in and attempts to drown him, panic ensues and as Caine is trying to save his son someone then climbs aboard the boat with a knife. Caine shoots him dead but is knocked out in the scrap.

Caine then wakes up tied to something and is surrounded by what looks like modern day pirates. This has all gone a bit The Wicker Man (1973), complete with familiar faces such as Don Henderson (Star Wars) and David Warner (The Omen), as Caine and son are on trial in a kangaroo court, where all those gathered all talk less sense than Stanley Unwin. This island clearly does not mean friendship.

Caine eventually escapes, swimming off into the night, leaving his brain washed son, until he is attacked by a jelly fish and ends up back up on the island. Captured again.

At the very end the pirates take on the might of the US coast guard, with devastating results, but thankfully Caine manages to swim aboard – him staying wetter than he ever did in Jaws The Revenge - and finally deliver some well-earned payback.

Michael Caine losing his shit at the end is brilliant, we all feel the same way, and it is almost like something out of The Wild Bunch (1969). It's then just his son, him and David Warner in a game of cat and mouse below deck.

Next year dad, just take him to Disney World., like you said you were going to do. Just don't take him on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Like with The Deep, if you go in expecting another Jaws you’ll be disappointed, but the film kept my interest in just seeing how Caine and his son might escape and make it off The Island and was suitably unnerving and a genuinely interesting premise with Friday The 13th style moments thrown in for good measure in this modern-day pirate tale.

Flawed, but never dull, I enjoyed Caine’s transformation and determination to do anything to get his son back, and that in some ways shocking ending see’s Caine’s character pushed over the edge. You can’t beat an angry Michael Caine in this boy’s own adventure yarn that is as much an intriguing escape movie as it is modern day pirate adventure.

Apart from Jaws sequels with characters based on those created by Peter Benchley, this is – to date – the final big screen adaptation of any of his books. There had almost been a big screen version of The Beast directed by John Carpenter, but that ended up as a two-part mini-series in 1996, and Benchley’s White Shark was adapted as Creature in 1998.

Words by Dean Newman

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