There are several scenes that absolutely would have to stay if I made it into a movie. First is the beginning scene of Teddy and his dad on a boat. This scene establishes Teddy's life-long fear of the ocean. Although this really doesn't mean much in the long run, it's still pretty important in Teddy's characterization. While even without this scene you could still establish this fear when Teddy get's sea sick on the ferry to Shutter Island, you really wouldn't be able to translate the severity. Someone whatching the ferry scene with the opening boat scene would think "That guy is traumatized by the ocean". Someone whatching the same scene without the opening boat scene would think ".......". Because to them he's just sea sick . There's nothing really important about that unless he had french fries from a potatoe farm in Chernobyl.
The next scene that would have to stay is when Teddy cracks the "Law of 4" code. This has to stay for reasons I shouldn't have to explain. But, lucky you! I will anyway! First off, this is pretty much their only clue in finding Racheal Solondo. If leave out the solving of the code (or even the entire code itself) you would loose a major part of the quest for the lost patient. Racheal also leaves other clues around the island so those would probably make less sense as well. Not to mention Teddy's code breaking skills are pretty important to his characterization. They're not neccesarily essential but they are rather good to know.
The last scene that definatley has to stay is Teddy's encounter with Noyce. I'm gonna try to not give away too much. this causes a pretty major turning point in the book. This scene iself really isn't that important but it gets Teddy thinking. But just to give some insight, my reaction was this:
A part you would probably have to cut out are Teddy's dreams. Maybe not cut out all of them completely, but they would have to be significantly shortened. Keep every part of all the dreams would not only be time consuming, but also rather boring and possibly even a little confusing. Although there is a lot of symbolism in his dreams, there really isn't alot that is important. You would probably whatch them and think "What's the point?", because there really is none.
Another part you would have to cut out is when Chuck and Teddy "escape" from Ashecliffe. The only parts you really need from this whole ordeal is (SPOILER ALERT) Teddy loosing Chuck and Teddy finding the real Racheal Solondo. Just about everything else is just filler. It really doesn't add much to the scene or the story line in general. So cutting out most of it would save a lot of time and you really wouldn't miss much.
