Russia and America Dumped 420 Life-Sentenced Prisoners on a Deserted island in The Artic

Welcome back to Movie Recaps.  Today I will show you an action, thriller film from 2008, titled Terra Nova.  Spoilers ahead!

Watch out and take care. On the cold hills of a deserted island, Zhilin is  trying to find a safe spot to camp. He walks for miles until he slips and falls into a freezing  river, but after floating away for a while, he manages to climb out and continue his journey. 

When he gets too tired to keep going, he stops to rest against a big rock, grabs a flower to eat,  and begins thinking back to how all this started. Zhilin is in jail for life for the assassination  of six men, when one afternoon, he's taken to see the prison governor, who asks him what he dreams  of. He isn't the only person going through this, various of his fellow prisoners are also being  called to the governor's office and are asked the same question.

Moryak says he wants to see the  sea, Yakut wants to witness the war against China, Obezyanka won't speak, Obezyan wants to work in  this prison and be a governor, Tolya wants to follow the progress of the space station and Sipa  wants to see women again, but Zhilin's answer is never shown. The governor tells them they've been  selected to be transferred to a penal colony, and shortly afterward, all prisoners are boarded  into a ship. Just like in the actual prison, the prisoners are divided into groups and put into  cells, although Obezyan acts like he is the boss and even kills a man to take his bed.

When the  hatch is finally closed and the boat takes off, the prisoners start panicking, thinking this has  all been a trick to let them die at sea. As the men begin getting violent, Zhilin remembers a  conversation he had with Sipa back in prison. Sipa has some severe mental issues and would  always draw on the wall and talk nonsense, but that day, he mentioned Heaven and Hell not  having any seats left and a third purgatory-like place being prepared for people like them.

Zhilian  had thought it was more of his usual nonsense back then, but he's starting to see the merits of it  now. After a while, everyone calms down and tries to spend the trip chitchatting and eating, but  in the middle of the journey, a gang escapes from one of the cells, looking for their compatriot.  Obezyan pretends to negotiate at first only to kill the man they're looking for, causing a riot  to start: prisoners on both sides begin hitting and killing each other through the bars except  for Staryy, an old man that stays behind praying.

The fight doesn't last long though, the guards  quickly arrive and after stopping them with a warning shot, they throw a sleeping gas grenade  to knock them all out. Eventually, they make it to a deserted island, where the prisoners  are put into numbered handcuffs and left at the beach so they can listen to what Mr Olafson  and Marta, the heads of the "Terra Nova" project, have to say. Since the death penalty has become  illegal in all countries, prisons have been running out of space to hold such a large number  of criminals, which is why the Russian government has offered this land to start this project,  funded by some international organizations.

Starting today, the prisoners are colonists  living under their protection, and everything they need to survive is being provided, including  food that should last three months. A satellite will be watching them all the time, and there  also are some communication buoys around. They have the possibility to take a boat to  one of them to press the red button and say what they need, if a green light appears,  that means the request has been accepted.

Obezyan isn't happy about the idea of being  recorded 24/7 so he throws a big rock in protest, but the guards quickly make him stand back with  some warning shots. Marta clarifies that the buoys can also be used to ask to leave the project  by saying their name and the reason why they want to leave. If they do, they'll be returned to  prison.

By putting the buoys on the sea instead of on the beach, they make sure that the decision  is thought twice before risking getting on a boat. Before leaving, the guards drop a bunch of keys  on the sand, explaining they are numbered to match their handcuffs. The prisoners rush towards them  and start fighting over them while Zhilin and Sipa stay safely behind, only grabbing the keys  that the others drop.

Staryy also decides to stay behind and watch how a gang forms a line  around the keys to keep their rivals out and a group goes to the crates the guards left to pick  up some weapons and attack the crowd with them. Eventually, Ali's gang takes control of the  situation. Ali gets a jacket and good shoes for himself and Staryy before choosing a man to send  out on the boat, but as soon as he grabs someone, the group takes the chance to attack and the  fight starts again.

Dozens of men die in the fight - Moryak kills Ali with a rock,  Obezyan kills Staryy also with a rock, and the three men that get on a boat to reach  the buoy fall to the sea and die drowning. All the remaining prisoners go to the  warehouse and begin distributing the supplies, and Obezyan takes advantage of the tools found to  get his cuffs open by force. Zhilin packs a bunch of supplies in a bag and grabs himself a jacket  while listening to Sipa say there is no way the food will last three months, then he leaves  the area to survive on his own and hopefully find a way out of the island, taking us back to  the beginning of the story.

Zhilin explores the island until he finds an area with no snow and a  rocky formation that will provide some shelter, so he decides to sit there while looking at a  picture of his family that he's kept hidden in his prison uniform. He misses them terribly, and falls  asleep with tears in his eyes. Sometime later, he wakes up when he hears some squealing: turns  out the supplies were filled with rodents, and they are now eating through his food and bag. 

When it starts raining, Zhilin finds shelter under the rock formation he saw before, getting a  fire going for warmth and heating some water. After it stops raining, he catches a bird and  roasts it over the fire, that's when Sipa finds him. As he chitchats with him, he tries to steal  his knife, but Zhilin sees him and takes it back.

Sipa offers some salt he had with him and his help  in exchange for some meat, which Zhiling accepts, so Sipa goes to pick up more wood and sees the  family picture on Zhilin hung on the rocks, which makes him blow a kiss at Zhilin's wife. Afterward,  they share the bird, and when they're done eating, Sipa walks to the edge of the cliff, explaining  he doesn't jump because he's too afraid. He asks Zhilin why he won't die either, and  Zhilin explains it's because of his family: they're dead and he wants to be buried next to  them, which can't happen if he dies on the island.

The two men fall asleep, and when Zhilin wakes  up, he finds Sipa has stolen the picture to use it as inspiration for his debauchery. Furious,  Zhilin beats him up and pushes him off the cliff, but Sipa doesn't die because he doesn't fall into  the ocean, he drops on a hill right underneath. But even after this disagreement, the two of  them travel together as they explore the island: Sipa easily amuses himself with the trash he finds  in the water while Zhilin tries to fish, but the only living being they find in the water is some  sort of aquatic centipede, which freaks Sipa out.

While looking around, Zhilin is shocked to  suddenly find part of a seaplane among the rocks. It only takes going a bit farther up the hill to  find the entire plane, which gives him a bit of hope because he used to be a pilot and would be  able to fly it. However, two men aren't enough to move it, so for now, they go back to their  shelter.

Zhilin starts a fire with some matches he had grabbed at the warehouse, but there's  something in them that creates a very toxic smoke. He moves away from the fire and drags a sleeping  Sipa with him, who at first won't wake up. It takes a few shakes from Zhilin for him to  finally regain consciousness, but his mouth only continues to spout nonsense, and Zhilin realizes  the cold will kill them any minute now.

The two men decide to go back to the base and see if they  can steal some coal. Back in the base, life hasn't been easy for everyone. Obezyan and his gang are  in control and keeping a routine while sharing the supplies, and Obezyan even asks them to call him  Governor.

But they keep anyone that isn't in their team inside the barracks - they only allow them  to come out to have a walk in an enclosed area, similar to real prisons, while Estonets yells at  them from the watchtower. When they're sent back, they need to run because whoever is last gets  killed to be used as food later. Zhilin and Sipa manage to reach the coal box and find the  remains of a fire.

After walking for so long, they're almost freezing, so they can't help laying  down next to the fire and falling asleep. But Sipa wakes up quickly when he hears some noises: the  gang is coming over with their latest prisoner for roasting. He runs to hide behind a rock, but  Zhilin is still out there, so he comes back out to rescue him, but he isn't fast enough and Obezyan's  men find them and capture them.

The two of them are taken back to base, where Obezyan tries to  decide what their punishment will be for having run away with supplies when they arrived. Yakut  tries to remind them that they were on their side during the ship fight, causing Estonets to insult  him for trying to meddle. Yakut replies by hitting him, and this causes the whole gang to team up  to hit him in return, earning Yakut a place in the barracks with Zhilin and Sipa.

They walk  around for a while and when Estonets announces it's time to return, Zhilin stays behind, but Sipa  comes back from him and drags him inside with him. They can only watch as the last standing man is  captured and tied to a pole, begging for some water as his last wish, so Sipa takes pity on him  and brings a cup to his lips before he is killed. Later, before going to sleep, the group discusses  the possibility of rebelling.

They're unsure because it may be dangerous, but Shram convinces  them is worth trying. The next morning, Tolya shows Obezyankat that he's installed a secret trap  in his workshop to catch any potential thieves. After the group takes his daily walk, Estonets  tries to get them back inside to get the usual game going, but only two men run: the rest stand  back and come together while Yakut throws a rock at Estonets to shut him up.

Zhilin walks up to  Obezyan and offers him a deal: if he lets them go to the buoy and ask for food, he'll tell him the  location of the plane he found. Obezyan accepts and opens the gate to let them out. While Tolya  and Zhilin go with two other men on the boat, Obezyan asks his men if they know anything about  Zhilin, and that's how he learns he was a pilot, that his family died in a plane crash, and he  went to jail for killing flight dispatchers at the airport with a rifle.

This crime was classified as  "murder in a state of severe emotional agitation", which Obezyan thinks means Zhilin has a guilty  conscience. As soon as the boat is far enough, he orders the group to go back to the barracks,  canceling his deal. Yakut tries to confront them, but he's immediately killed, so Obezyan grabs one  more man before declaring the game is on again.

The group can only run back to the barracks since  a fight would be a very idea because Obezyan's men are armed. Meanwhile at sea, one of the men falls  off the boat, but they catch him just in time and drag him back up. Tolya reaches the buoy and asks  for help, but it's broken, and not even his tools will help.

They go back to the shore and Zhilin  tells Obezyan that food is on its way, but Obezyan doesn't believe him because there wasn't a green  light of confirmation. Tolya reminds him of the existence of the plane, but Obezyan doesn't  believe that's true either, but it inspires Obezyanka to move around with his arms open like  one. Obezyan finds this distracting and grabs him by the neck, so Tolya uses the chance to come at  him from behind and kill him.

Two other members of his group, Amurbek and Arzhanov, kill the rest of  their gang and watch Estonets run away before they can catch him as well. They ask Zhilin what to do  next, and he asks them to free the men from the barracks because he swears food is coming and they  just didn't see the light because it was broken. The men are skeptical about this and remind him  now they have plenty of bodies to feed on later, but Tolya thinks they should be buried. 

Zhilin reminds him about the plane as well, so Amurbek and Arzhanov finally accept. They  free the prisoners and tell them they'll be waiting a few days for the food to arrive, but  they won't be using each other as food anymore, so everyone needs to stay calm and cooperate.  They'll also send a group to rescue the plane, which they'll put in a hangar they'll  build and slowly repair it to escape later.

Suddenly, Sipa interrupts their plans claiming  there's no satellite while writing an SOS message using sand and three bodies. Sometime later,  Estonets returns to the base, and because of the new rules that say they need to keep the  peace, they decide to ignore what he's done to them for now and share their food with him anyway.  Zhilin guides a group of men towards the plane, and their moods greatly increase when  they see he's been telling the truth.

Together they take it apart for easier  transport and carry the pieces back to base. Eventually, Marta arrives at the island with a  bunch of guards. They use gas to keep the men away, but they do allow Zhilin come to talk to her  and discuss the list of things they've requested.

She's confused on why they're asking for gas,  and he explains it's for the generators, which are supposed to be wind-powered but they don't  work during the polar night. In truth, they want the gas for the plane. Zhilin takes the chance to  ask why they didn't answer Sipa's SOS message, and Marta explains their satellite is of the infrared  kind - they see heat.

So they can locate people and stoves but not words. She also wants to know  what people were doing so far away from the base some days ago, and he tells her they were fishing.  They don't believe him because there's no fish in the area, so he lies again and tells them they've  been eating those centipede-like creatures, which she finds very shocking.

They also want to know  how many of the original 206 colonists are left, which Zhilin finds suspicious because they should  be able to tell with their satellite. He tells them 87 are left, and many are sick, but nobody  wants to abandon the project and return to jail. Before Zhilin leaves, Marte tells him he  has the right to one personal request, so he gives her a few sheets of paper  asking her to provide the group well.

Once the guards have left the new supplies, Zhilin  and his men try the gas in the plane hidden in the hangar and happily confirm it does work.  Afterward, they watch a new group of American prisoners arrive as the guards and Marta leave  the island. These prisoners have a leader too, a very large man that Zhilin tries to shake  hands with.

The man doesn't take it - in fact, he hits Zhilin, which triggers a fight between  both sides. The encounter is brutal and nobody hesitates to go for the kill, so Sipa drags  Zhilin with him to hide him in the workshop. One of the Americans tries to follow them, but  he falls on Tolya's trap and instantly dies.

Arzhanov goes up against the American leader and  gets overpowered, but before he can get killed, Amurbek cuts in and kills the big man instead  as the buildings around them catch on fire. All this is being watched by the heads of the project.  When they realize the situation is finally out of control and that over 40% of the colony has been  killed, Marta calls the central office and is told to proceed with Code Naked Island, which sends  a bunch of guards to the island that shoots all the reminder prisoners while Marta burns Zhilin's  letters.

Luckily, a few men are still alive thanks to having hidden in the mountains or the hangar:  Zhilin, Sipa, Arzhanov, and Tolya. Together they push the plane out, but when they're about to  board it, Sipa tells them goodbye and runs to the hills so he can jump into the ocean, not  afraid anymore. The remaining trio gets in the plane and Zhilin manages to make it take off  safely, although the guards shoot at them on the way.

His two companions die, but Zhilin isn't hit  by the bullets, so he flies away into his freedom.