When a decaying Russian satellite crashes on the island, the Professor uses a key component for a barometer. With that device, he learns that a massive wave is going to swamp the island. In desperation, the castaways lash their huts together into one structure in order to have any chance to ride the disaster out. The wave strikes the island and the hut is swept out to sea. Once there, Gilligan accidents starts a fire trying to cook a meal and nearly burns the floating hut down. Occupied with stopping the fire, the gang fails to notice that the smoke caught the attention of a naval helicopter who summoned a ship to rescue the castaways. In triumph, they return to Hawaii, only to learn that things have changed over the years and they will have trouble fitting in. To further complicate matters, two Russian spies are after that the key component that Gilligan now wears as necklace.I loved Gilligan's Island as a kid. This feature falls short on lots of levels. First and foremost, no Tina Louise who really makes the character of Ginger. The new Ginger is absolutely horrible. Then there is the incessant filler to make this a feature film. It's a half hour show expanded by three times with filler material. Then there is the fact that the actors are just walking through their parts. They lost the spark of the TV show.But there IS Dawn Welles, who is hot as ever.

Before watching the reunion movie "Rescue from Gilligan's Island", the only exposure I had to the original television series was seeing the last five minutes of one episode. After watching this reunion movie, I have absolutely no desire to watch any more of the original show. This reunion movie goes wrong in just about every way you can think of. Most of the principle cast looks very tired and old, and seeing them try to get the energy to do their shtick is a sad sight. In fairness to the cast, they were working with an incredibly bad script. The gags are as tired and old as the cast. Not only that, but the movie doesn't seem to know what to do with its premise, having the rescued castaways doing things that don't seem the least bit comically inspired. Also, an incredible amount of time is spent on the subplot with the communist spies hunting for Gilligan's medallion, a subplot that's ultimately for nothing and could have easily been written out without affecting the rest of the story in the least bit. This sorry excuse for a movie should be marooned on an uncharted island.

Even though Tina Louise is missing from the movie, and the cast looks older, they still pulled off a very convincing movie. Unlike the Andy Griffith reunion where Barney is still deputy, which doesn't make any sense because he had been a Raleigh detective by the end of the original series, or the Dick Van Dyke Reunion where mush of the script doesn't make a bit of sense, especially the part of Rob playing on his computer. Unlike these and other reunions of 60s sitcoms, Rescue from Gilligan's Island makes sense. The castaways had been on the island for 15 years, and any hope of being rescued has long since past, which accounts for the fact that the castaways look much older. The radio has been dead for years, and the barometer doesn't work either, until Gilligan finds a disc on the Lagoon from a Soviet satellite.The Professor is able to fix the barometer to only find out that a storm is coming, which will wash away the island. Thus, the castaways build a boat by joining all three huts together (why they didn't think of that before, we'll never know), and then are rescued later on. Each person returns to pick up his/her life, but things aren't going very well. Gilligan and the Skipper have to prove that it wasn't the Skipper's fault for the shipwreck, Ginger will not do a nude scene, Mary Anne doesn't love her fiance of 15 years, and the Howells' are being taken for their money. Also, the Professor has become a celebrity, instead of the scientist he wanted. It's a great story-line, much better of any TV reunion movie.Although Tina Louise is absent, Judith Baldwin's performance is a fair one, convincing enough, although she does look younger than everyone else. The movie lacks in a few places, but it's overall a great movie, and is very much like the series, silly but classic. At the end of it, they're shipwrecked again on the same island, which in one way doesn't make sense because didn't the island get washed away in the storm? But hey, it's like the series, silly to the end.

"After fifteen years... we're finally... rescued!" The Skipper choked on the words almost unable to say them as if he couldn't believe it. So do we as this the most successful television movie finally rescues those seven...... well, six anyway, Judith Baldwin had done away with Tina Louise and hypnotized the Castaways to think she was Ginger. Just kidding, Louise had held out till the last minute on doing the movie and then refused to do it. The show had reputedly damaged her career and she had finally gotten it back when this was going to be made. Her absence and Baldwin trying to be like her are the only things wrong with this movie as the castaways realize being rescued means leaving each other and that their time on the island was better than they had thought; this is more of what the movie should have been about. There is too much time spent on the sub-plot of Russian spies, a holdover from some of the episodes, which drags down this movie and a failure to show the celebrity status that would have logically occurred if seven real people had been suddenly rescued after being legally thought deceased. Think of what has happened to the cast of the first "Survivor." I would have figured at least the Skipper and Gilligan would have done commercial endorsements. "Running from cannibals and headhunters on the island, I always made sure I wore my Sprint-fast Air-soled Sneakers !" Gilligan would scream through the brush. Instead, we are subjected to the same cartoon-like humor and comedy that the series had turned into by the end of the series. Very little time is spent exposing the culture shock the castaways have returning to society and then the movie rushes straight into its meandering, obviously dated and clichéd sub-plot of spies and secret microfilm. Another overall drawback on the movie is the limited budget. It was all done rather cheaply with a rather noticeable Hollywood tank being used to float the huts on and a studio back lot being used as civilization. Even with the cast showing their age, and Tina Louise conspicuously absent, the movie is a joy to see but for the nostalgia factor. Maybe you can go home again, but I for one wouldn't mind seeing a big screen version of the series go into updating and expanding upon this movie for the present rather than trying to recreate the series itself!