The film begins with onscreen captions explaining that a medical breakthrough in 1952 has permitted the human lifespan to be extended beyond 100 years. Subsequently, the film is narrated by 28-year-old Kathy H. as she reminisces about her childhood at Hailsham, as well as her adult life after leaving the school.
The first section of the film depicts the young Kathy, along with her friends Tommy and Ruth, spending their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. Gradually, it is revealed that the children are imprisoned on the school grounds and that the film is set in an alternate twentieth century different from our own. At one point, one of the teachers is fired after telling the pupils of their fate: they are destined to provide donor organs for transplants, and will die before they can fulfill their potential. Tommy is emotionally fragile, and Kathy falls in love with him, but Ruth then steals him from her.
In the second section of the film, the three friends, now teenagers, are rehoused in cottages on a rural farm. They are permitted to leave the grounds if they wish, but are resigned to their eventual fate, apparently seeing it as inevitable. At the farm, they meet former pupils of similar schools to theirs. It is revealed that Kathy and the others are all clones, and are fascinated by the idea of finding the original people that they were "modelled on". From the others at the cottages, Kathy and her friends hear rumours of the possibility of "deferral" - a temporary reprieve from organ donation for clones who are in love and can prove it. Tommy becomes convinced that the art gallery at Hailsham was intended to identify clones who have a soul. The relationship between Tommy and Ruth becomes sexual, and jealousy causes Kathy and Ruth to break their friendship. The lonely Kathy applies to become a "carer" - a clone who is given a temporary reprieve from donation as a reward for supporting and comforting donors as they are made to give up their organs. She has become a carer by the time she hears that Tommy and Ruth have split up.
In the third and final section of the film, Kathy is working as a carer some years later. She has watched many clones gradually die as their organs are donated; their deaths are referred to as "completion". She meets Ruth, who is frail after two donations. They find Tommy, who is also weakened by his donations, and drive to the sea. There, Ruth admits that she did not love Tommy, and only seduced him because she was afraid to be alone. She is consumed with guilt, and has been searching for a way to help Tommy and Kathy. She believes that the rumours of "deferral" for couples are true, and has found the address of 'Madame' the enigmatic french woman who would visit the school and select which works of art would be worthy to go into the gallery. Ruth dies on the operating table shortly afterward. Tommy explains to Kathy that he has been creating art in the hope that it will aid deferral. He and Kathy drive to visit the Madame, who, it transpires, lives with the headmistress of Hailsham. The women tell them that there is no such thing as deferral, and that Tommy's artworks will not help him.
The film ends with Tommy dying on the operating table, and Kathy left alone, knowing that her donations will begin in two weeks. Contemplating the ruins of her childhood, she asks in voice-over whether her fate is really any different from the people who will receive her organs: after all, "We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through or feel we've had enough time."
The first section of the film depicts the young Kathy, along with her friends Tommy and Ruth, spending their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. Gradually, it is revealed that the children are imprisoned on the school grounds and that the film is set in an alternate twentieth century different from our own. At one point, one of the teachers is fired after telling the pupils of their fate: they are destined to provide donor organs for transplants, and will die before they can fulfill their potential. Tommy is emotionally fragile, and Kathy falls in love with him, but Ruth then steals him from her.
In the second section of the film, the three friends, now teenagers, are rehoused in cottages on a rural farm. They are permitted to leave the grounds if they wish, but are resigned to their eventual fate, apparently seeing it as inevitable. At the farm, they meet former pupils of similar schools to theirs. It is revealed that Kathy and the others are all clones, and are fascinated by the idea of finding the original people that they were "modelled on". From the others at the cottages, Kathy and her friends hear rumours of the possibility of "deferral" - a temporary reprieve from organ donation for clones who are in love and can prove it. Tommy becomes convinced that the art gallery at Hailsham was intended to identify clones who have a soul. The relationship between Tommy and Ruth becomes sexual, and jealousy causes Kathy and Ruth to break their friendship. The lonely Kathy applies to become a "carer" - a clone who is given a temporary reprieve from donation as a reward for supporting and comforting donors as they are made to give up their organs. She has become a carer by the time she hears that Tommy and Ruth have split up.
In the third and final section of the film, Kathy is working as a carer some years later. She has watched many clones gradually die as their organs are donated; their deaths are referred to as "completion". She meets Ruth, who is frail after two donations. They find Tommy, who is also weakened by his donations, and drive to the sea. There, Ruth admits that she did not love Tommy, and only seduced him because she was afraid to be alone. She is consumed with guilt, and has been searching for a way to help Tommy and Kathy. She believes that the rumours of "deferral" for couples are true, and has found the address of 'Madame' the enigmatic french woman who would visit the school and select which works of art would be worthy to go into the gallery. Ruth dies on the operating table shortly afterward. Tommy explains to Kathy that he has been creating art in the hope that it will aid deferral. He and Kathy drive to visit the Madame, who, it transpires, lives with the headmistress of Hailsham. The women tell them that there is no such thing as deferral, and that Tommy's artworks will not help him.
The film ends with Tommy dying on the operating table, and Kathy left alone, knowing that her donations will begin in two weeks. Contemplating the ruins of her childhood, she asks in voice-over whether her fate is really any different from the people who will receive her organs: after all, "We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through or feel we've had enough time."
Memorable Quotes For Never Let Me Go :
Kathy: I come here and imagine that this is the spot where everything I've lost since my childhood is washed out. I tell myself, if that were true, and I waited long enough then a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy. He'd wave. And maybe call. I don't know if the fantasy go beyond that, I can't let it. I remind myself I was lucky to have had any time with him at all. What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.
Miss Lucy: None of you will go to America. None of you will work in supermarkets. None of you will do anything, except live the life that has already been set out for you. You will become adults, but only briefly. Before you are old, before you are even middle aged, you will start to donate your vital organs. And sometime around your third or fourth donation, your short life will be completed.
[turns away]
Miss Lucy: You have to know who you are, and what you are. It's the only way to lead decent lives.
[turns away]
Miss Lucy: You have to know who you are, and what you are. It's the only way to lead decent lives.
Kathy: It had never occurred to me that our lives, which had been so closely interwoven, could unravel with such speed. If I'd known, maybe I'd have kept tighter hold of them and not let unseen tides pull us apart.
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You should talk more about his animals... what they mean and the importance that each of them has UNIQUE AND DIFFERENT characteristics then the other animals. How he unknowingly depicts his hope for change, that each of them would be able to lead their own and separate lives apart from the one that has already been chosen for them. Just a thought.
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