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This article is about the in-universe location. For other uses, see Plastic Beach (disambiguation).

Plastic Beach (also known as Point Nemo) was the former studio and secondary home of Gorillaz after the abandonment of Kong Studios during Phase 3. Due to the Black Clouds destroying the island, Murdoc faked his own death and traveled to Hawaii (which was just a room with Hawaiian-themed wallpaper). The island was abandoned prior to the music video for The Lost Chord, where Leee John, featured as a massive sea monster, uses his laser eyes to obliterate it.

Location[]

07 1600-1200

An aerial view of Plastic Beach.

Plastic Beach is allegedly located at the coordinates (48° 52′ 36″ S, 123° 23′ 36″ W) which is 2,688 kilometers off the coast of Southern Chile. It's called the furthest point from any other landmass by Murdoc. The islands location is considered by geographers and cartographers as a "point of inaccessibility", since there is no existing records of accessible landmass.

The Island[]

Plastic Beach was created after various discarded items floated in the ocean and stuck to one another to conglomerate into one large landmass in the Pacific, held together by "a sticky gloop of oil and tar from a million of untold disasters".

Murdoc claims to have purchased the island with the insurance money from Kong Studios and then painted the thing "bright pink", though it's really more of a pinkish brick color, after which he built his own playboy-like mansion atop of it. Much like an iceberg, most of the island is submerged underwater, and closer to the structure's bottom is a large underwater area, where 2-D resides.

According to Murdoc, Plastic beach looks "almost idyllic" from far away, though as one draws closer, it becomes apparent that the island is just clustered trash.

Speaking on the Singles Collection XFM radio show (November 27th, 2011) Murdoc reveals he had left Plastic Beach because the attack by the pirates "wrecked" it.

At the end of The Valley of the Pagans music video, the band members crashed into the ocean in their Stylo car near the island through a inter-dimensional portal.

Plastic destroyed 2

Sea monster destroys Plastic Beach

The island made its last appearance in the video for The Lost Chord. As the band members look upon their former home, a large sea monster resembling a Kraken rises up from the ocean and severs the peninsula containing the lighthouse from the main island with laser beams. Turning its attention to the main structure, the monster shoots several more lasers and the building is engulfed in an explosion. The island is left a smoldering ruin as the monster returns back underneath the ocean and the lighthouse sinks shortly after.

Trivia[]

  • The DVD featured with the special edition version of the Plastic Beach album includes a short behind the scenes video. In the video, it's revealed that Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett hired a team of miniature designers that created the "real-life" scaled replica of the island used in most of the videos and album art for the Plastic Beach album.
  • The island itself bears a striking resemblance to a mushroom cloud from a detonated atomic bomb.
  • The manatee on top of the seastack is never explained. It may be a symbol of depression, hence the name "On Melancholy Hill".
  • Also, the pillar where the manatee was doesn't appear after the "On Melancholy Hill" video.
  • Also, some believe that the island is actually being supported by the Windmill, from the "El Mañana" video (which has been proved wrong in the DoYaThing video).
  • In the Plastic Beach game, where you can tour the beach, a depressed seagull and a pelican reside on the beach. It's clear that the seagull dislikes the pelican, and the pelican seems to have moments of disdain for the seagull, yet the two somehow manage to remain together. Murdoc mentions that the two seem familiar, possibly because they are a metaphor for the relationship between himself and 2D. Or the fact that the seagull is actually voiced by Damon Albarn, the founder of Gorillaz.
  • The character Tattoo originated from the TV show Fantasy Island.
  • The Boogieman can be seen inside a booth on Plastic Beach in the game and on album artwork. It's unknown why he is there, however.
  • If you enter the island's coordinates on Google Earth, you will find a photo of Plastic Beach.
  • In the virtual Plastic Beach application, the area outside the Record Store is the only location to include music that is not from the Plastic Beach album. The background music at the store is actually Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head from the album, Demon Days.
  • Plastic Beach is located directly above the sunken city of R'lyeh, a lost continent which first appeared in the H.P. Lovecraft short story, The Call of Cthulhu.
  • Like Kong Studios, there is a statue of Pazuzu standing outside of the studio. [1]
  • Plastic Beach is currently the shortest lasting home of the Gorillaz with a span of only two years; while Kong Studios served as the band's home for an entire decade (not including the abandonment between Phase 1 and 2).
  • M.C. Escher was the original designer of the Playboy-like mansion on the island, but was fired due to the obscure building design; seemingly endless stairs and doors that led to the unnecessary rooms. Murdoc said that, "Every time I had to use the toilet, I would end up on the roof! Every time I tried to answer the door, I would find myself in the closet! In the end, we had to start all over and start it from scratch. In fact, the only thing we kept was the stairs."
  • The island probably have been based off of the real life Pacific Ocean Garbage Patches, landmasses made out of garbage, plastic, and other forms of pollution which create entire islands.

Website Links[]

Gorillaz.com is an immense website with over 200 pages. After the previous Kong Studios website was hidden, a new game lineup came out. It was setup similar to the Kong layout but a little different. There is a interactive Plastic Beach layout. There are all of the available links below.

Links[]

Due to the dissolution of Jamie's company 'Zombie Flesh Eaters' the Plastic Beach game is no longer available, however clips are available on youtube Part 1 - https://youtu.be/jUnvkZFPu1Q Part 2 - https://youtu.be/pmAo_POMRHY Part 3 - https://youtu.be/DW6KHLLgBss Part 4 - https://youtu.be/IWIkwVDIJNQ Character conversations: 2D and Massive Dick - https://youtu.be/kdbHrtoXeJU Demon Days to Plastic Beach - https://youtu.be/l0V0mIvzRGU Escape to Plastic Beach:  Trailer - https://youtu.be/z3VUqS04m5Q Gameplay - https://youtu.be/06sg3vn8eJI

Sources[]

External Links[]

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