Fantasy Island (2020)

Director: Jeff Wadlow · Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Adventure, Mystery

The enigmatic Mr. Roarke makes the secret dreams of his guests come true at a luxurious tropical resort. When the fantasies turn into nightmares, the visitors must solve the island’s mystery to escape with their lives.

Narrative Score

Experimental 5-axis narrative score — not a critic rating.story3ending2visual3acting5expect2

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Full Plot & Ending Explained

Intro

Five guests arrive at Fantasy Island after winning an all-expenses-paid contest: Gwen Olsen, Patrick Sullivan, stepbrothers J.D. and Brax Weaver, and teenager Melanie Cole. They are greeted by Mr. Roarke, who promises each of them a fantasy tailored to their deepest desire: Gwen wants to revisit the life she gave up, Patrick wants to become a hero like his late father, J.D. and Brax want a wild party lifestyle, and Melanie wants revenge on her former bully Sloane Maddison.

Turning Point 1

At first, the island seems to grant each wish exactly as promised. Gwen is placed into an alternate domestic life with her former boyfriend Allen Chambers and a daughter, Patrick is dropped into a wartime scenario where he meets Lieutenant Sullivan, J.D. and Brax are welcomed into a mansion full of partying guests, and Melanie is given access to Sloane so she can humiliate her. Very quickly, however, each fantasy turns unsettling and begins to behave like a trap rather than a dream.

Turning Point 2

Melanie discovers that Sloane was not there willingly but was kidnapped and brought to the island. She helps Sloane escape from a masked surgeon called Dr. Torture, and the two flee into the woods. Around the same time, Patrick learns that the commander he meets in the war zone is his own father, who had died in real life, forcing Patrick to confront the emotional core of his fantasy.

Turning Point 3

Melanie and Sloane are attacked again, and a man named Damon intervenes and kills Dr. Torture. Damon reveals that he was once offered the chance to see his dead daughter again, but his fantasy became a nightmare that trapped him on the island. He explains that the island’s powers come from spring water beneath a glowing rock in a cave, and the three of them take some water and head back toward the resort for help.

Turning Point 4

Gwen wakes up believing she has achieved the life she always wanted, only to realize that the fantasy is hollow and that the island is forcing her to relive a version of her past with Allen. As the situation worsens, Mr. Roarke admits that the island can only keep working if each guest’s fantasy is fully completed, and Gwen finally confesses the real fantasy she wants: to save her neighbor Nick Taylor, who died in a fire that she blames herself for.

Turning Point 5

Back at the mansion, J.D. and Brax’s party fantasy collapses into a hostage situation when a drug cartel connected to the property takes control. Their carefree getaway becomes a survival struggle, tying their storyline into the same supernatural breakdown affecting the others. The island’s fantasies are no longer personalized escapes but escalating nightmare scenarios that force every guest toward the truth of what they regret.

Ending

Roarke ultimately reveals that he also has a fantasy: the island has brought back his deceased wife, and he cannot bear to lose that miracle. Gwen persuades him to redirect her fantasy toward saving Nick instead of reliving her rejected proposal, and the guests use the island’s spring water and the truth about the island’s power to push toward escape. In the end, the illusion breaks, the guests survive the island’s collapse, and Roarke is left confronted by the consequences of trying to preserve his own impossible wish.

Cross-checked against Wikipedia and other public film references. View on Letterboxd ↗ The Narrative Score above is an experimental 5-axis rating, not a critic score.