Lost is an American television series that originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) between 2004 and 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a heavily serialized drama series that follows the lives of various individuals and groups of people, most importantly the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean. Episodes typically feature a primary storyline on the island, as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character’s life.
Lost was created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, who share story-writing credits for the show’s pilot episode, which Abrams directed. Throughout the show’s run, Lindelof and Carlton Cuse served as showrunners and head writers, working together with a large number of other executive producers and writers. Due to its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii, the series was one of the most expensive on television.[1] The Fictional universe and mythology of Lost is expanded upon by a number of related media, most importantly a series of short mini-episodes called Missing Pieces, and a 12-minute epilogue titled “The New Man in Charge.”
A critically-acclaimed and popular success, Lost was consistently ranked by US critics on their lists of top ten series of all time.[2] The first season garnered an average of 15.69 million US viewers per episode on ABC.[3] During its sixth and final season, the show averaged over 11 million US viewers per episode. Lost was the recipient of hundreds of US award nominations throughout its run, and won numerous industry awards, including the Emmy Award for US primetime Outstanding Drama Series in 2005,[4] Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association Golden Globe Award for Best Drama in 2006 and a US Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series.
Overview
The first season begins with a plane crash that strands the surviving passengers of Oceanic Airlines flight 815 on what seems to be a deserted tropical island. Their survival is immediately threatened by a number of mysterious entities, including polar bears, an unseen creature that roams the jungle (the “Monster”), and the island’s malevolent, and largely unseen, inhabitants, known as “the Others”, occurring throughout the whole first season. They also encounter a French woman named Danielle Rousseau who was shipwrecked on the island just over 16 years earlier, and they find a mysterious metal hatch buried in the ground. While two characters try to force their way into the hatch, four other survivors attempt to leave the island on a raft that they have constructed. Meanwhile, flashbacks centered on individual survivors detail their lives prior to the plane crash.
The second season follows the growing conflict between the survivors and the Others, and continues the theme of the clash between faith and science, while resolving old mysteries and posing new ones. New characters are introduced, including the tail-section survivors (the “Tailies”) and other island inhabitants. The hatch is revealed to be a research station built by the Dharma Initiative, a scientific research project that was conducting experiments on the island decades earlier. As the truth about the mysterious Others begins to unfold, one of the crash survivors betrays the other castaways, and the cause of the plane crash is revealed.
In the third season, the crash survivors learn more about the Others and their long history on the mysterious island. One of the Others and a former inhabitant of the hatch joins the survivors, while one of their number in turn defects to the Others. A war between the Others and the survivors comes to a head, and the survivors make contact with a rescue team aboard the freighter Kahana.
Season four focuses on the survivors dealing with the arrival of people from the freighter, who have come to the island with dangerous intentions. Flashforwards reveal the future actions of the so-called “Oceanic Six,” a group of survivors who have escaped the island and attempted to resume their normal lives. There is also a revealed staging of their plane being found underwater.
The fifth season follows two timelines. The first takes place on the island where the survivors who were left behind erratically jump forward and backward through time until they are finally stranded with the Dharma Initiative in 1974. The second continues the original timeline, which takes place on the mainland after the Oceanic Six escape, and then follows their return to the island on Ajira Airways flight 316 in 2007. Some of the Ajira flight land in 1977 and some stay in 2007. The ones who land in 1977 reunite with the other survivors who have lived for three years with the Dharma Initiative. They then attempt to change past events in order to alter their futures.
In the final season, the main storyline follows the survivors, reunited in the present day. Following the demise of Jacob, the island’s protector, the survivors are up against the Man in Black, known previously as the Smoke Monster. A “flash-sideways” narrative also follows the lives of the main characters in a setting where Oceanic 815 never crashed. In the final episodes, a flashback to the distant past shows the origins of the island’s power and of the conflict between Jacob and the Man in Black, who are revealed to be twin brothers. One survivor becomes the successor to Jacob as caretaker of the island, and kills the Man in Black in a final showdown, with the island at stake. A small handful of survivors escape on the Ajira plane. It is implied that a few survivors return home later, and others live happily on the island. The series finale reveals that the flash-sideways timeline was actually a form of limbo, where all the survivors were reunited after having died because their time on the island had been the most important part of their existence.
Mythology and interpretations
Episodes of Lost include a number of mysterious elements ascribed to science fiction or supernatural phenomena. The creators of the series refer to these elements as composing the mythology of the series, and they formed the basis of fan speculation.[5] The show’s mythological elements include a “Monster” that roams the island, a mysterious group of inhabitants the survivors call “The Others,” a scientific organization called the Dharma Initiative that placed several research stations on the island, a sequence of numbers that frequently appears in the lives of the characters in the past, present and future, and personal connections (synchronicity) between the characters they are often unaware of.
Some fans have noted similarities between Lost and the 2001 movie Donnie Darko, such as the use of time travel, references to rabbits, both featuring plane crashes as a main element of the plot, and predestination.
At the heart of the series is a complex and cryptic storyline, which spawned numerous questions and discussions among viewers. Encouraged by Lost’s writers and stars, who often interacted with fans online, viewers and TV critics alike took to widespread theorizing in an attempt to unravel the mysteries. Theories mainly concerned the nature of the island, the origins of the “Monster” and the “Others,” the meaning of the numbers, and the reasons for both the crash and the survival of some passengers.[citation needed] Several of the more common fan theories were discussed and rejected by the show’s creators, the most common being that the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 are dead and in purgatory. This was specifically denied by J.J. Abrams. Lindelof rejected speculation that spaceships or aliens influenced the events on the island, or that everything seen was a fictional reality taking place in someone’s mind. Carlton Cuse dismissed the theory that the island was a reality TV show and the castaways unwitting housemates and Lindelof many times refuted the theory that the “Monster” was a nanobot cloud similar to the one featured in Michael Crichton’s novel Prey (which happened to share the protagonist’s name, Jack).
Recurring elements
There are several recurring elements and motifs on Lost, which generally have no direct effect on the story itself, but expand the show’s literary and philosophical subtext. These elements include frequent appearances of black and white, which reflect the dualism within characters and situations; as well as rebellion in almost all characters, especially Kate; dysfunctional family situations (especially ones that revolve around the fathers of many characters), as portrayed in the lives of nearly all the main characters; apocalyptic references, including Desmond’s pushing the button to forestall the end of the world; coincidence versus fate, revealed most apparently through the juxtaposition of the characters Locke and Mr. Eko; conflict between science and faith, embodied by the leadership tug-of-war between Jack and Locke; and references to numerous works of literature, including mentions and discussions of particular novels. There are also many allusions in characters’ names to famous historical thinkers and writers, such as Ben Linus (after chemist Linus Pauling), John Locke (after the philosopher) and his alias Jeremy Bentham (after the philosopher), Danielle Rousseau (after philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau), Desmond David Hume (after philosopher David Hume), Juliet’s ex-husband (after philosopher Edmund Burke), Mikhail Bakunin (after the anarchist philosopher), Daniel Faraday (after physicist Michael Faraday), Eloise Hawking (after physicist Stephen Hawking), George Minkowski (after mathematician Hermann Minkowski), Richard Alpert (the birth name of spiritual teacher Ram Dass) , Charlotte Staples Lewis (after author Clive Staples Lewis C. S. Lewis).
Cast and characters
From left to right: Faraday, Boone, Miles, Michael, Ana Lucia, Charlotte, Frank, Shannon, Desmond, Eko, Kate, Jack, Sawyer, Locke, Ben, Sayid, Libby, Sun, Jin, Claire, Hurley, Juliet, Charlie, Richard, Bernard, Rose and Vincent
Out of the 324 people on board Oceanic Flight 815,there are 70 initial survivors (as well as one dog) spread across the three sections of the plane crash. Although a large cast made Lost more expensive to produce, the writers benefited from added flexibility in story decisions. According to series executive producer Bryan Burk, “You can have more interactions between characters and create more diverse characters, more back stories, more love triangles.”
Lost was planned as a multi-cultural show with an international cast. The initial season had 14 regular speaking roles that received star billing. Matthew Fox played the protagonist, a troubled surgeon named Jack Shephard. Evangeline Lilly portrayed fugitive and love interest Kate Austen. Jorge Garcia played Hugo “Hurley” Reyes, an unlucky lottery winner. Josh Holloway played a con man, James “Sawyer” Ford. Ian Somerhalder played Boone Carlyle, chief operating officer of his mother’s wedding business. Maggie Grace played his step sister Shannon Rutherford, a former dance teacher. Harold Perrineau portrayed construction worker Michael Dawson, while Malcolm David Kelley played his young son, Walt Lloyd. Terry O’Quinn played the mysterious John Locke. Naveen Andrews portrayed former Iraqi Republican Guard Sayid Jarrah. Emilie de Ravin played a young and pregnant Australian woman, Claire Littleton. Yunjin Kim played Sun-Hwa Kwon, the daughter of a powerful Korean businessman and mobster, with Daniel Dae Kim as her husband Jin-Soo Kwon. Dominic Monaghan played an English ex-rock star drug addict named Charlie Pace.
During the first two seasons, some characters were written out, while new characters with new stories were added. Boone Carlyle was written out near the end of season one, and Kelley became a guest star making occasional appearances throughout season two after Walt is captured by the Others in the season one finale. Shannon’s departure eight episodes into season two made way for newcomers Mr. Eko, a Nigerian Catholic priest and former criminal played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje; Ana Lucia Cortez, an airport security guard and former police officer played by Michelle Rodriguez; and Libby Smith, a purported clinical psychologist portrayed by Cynthia Watros. Ana Lucia and Libby were written out of the series toward the end of season two after being shot by Michael, who then left the island along with his son.
In season three, two actors were promoted from recurring to starring roles: Henry Ian Cusick as former Scottish soldier Desmond Hume, and Michael Emerson as the leader of the Others, Ben Linus. In addition, three new actors joined the regular cast: Elizabeth Mitchell, as fertility doctor and Other Juliet Burke, and Kiele Sanchez and Rodrigo Santoro as background survivor couple Nikki Fernandez and Paulo. Several characters died throughout the season; Eko was written out early on when Akinnuoye-Agbaje did not wish to continue on the show,Nikki and Paulo were buried alive mid-season after poor fan response, and Charlie was written out in the third season finale. In season four, Harold Perrineau rejoined the main cast to reprise the role of Michael, now suicidal and on a desperate redemptive journey to atone for his previous crimes. Along with Perrineau, additional new actors — Jeremy Davies as Daniel Faraday, a nervous physicist who takes a scientific interest in the island; Ken Leung as Miles Straume, a sarcastic supposed ghost whisperer, and Rebecca Mader as Charlotte Staples Lewis, a hard-headed and determined anthropologist and successful academic — joined the cast. Michael was written out in the fourth season finale. Claire, who mysteriously disappears with her dead biological father near the end of the season, did not return as a series regular for the fifth season, but returned for the sixth and final season.
In season five, no new characters joined the main cast, however several characters exited the show: Charlotte was written out early in the season in episode five, with Daniel and Juliet being written out later in the antepenultimate and ultimate episodes respectively. Season six saw several cast changes; three previous recurring characters were upgraded to starring status. These included Nestor Carbonell as mysterious, age-less Other Richard Alpert, Jeff Fahey as pilot Frank Lapidus[34] and Zuleikha Robinson as Ajira Airways Flight 316 survivor Ilana Verdansky. Additionally, former cast members Ian Somerhalder, Dominic Monaghan, Rebecca Mader, Jeremy Davies, Elizabeth Mitchell, Maggie Grace, Michelle Rodriguez, Harold Perrineau and Cynthia Watros made return appearances.
Numerous supporting characters have been given expansive and recurring appearances in the progressive storyline. Danielle Rousseau (Mira Furlan), a French member of an earlier scientific expedition to the island first encountered as a voice recording in the pilot episode, appears throughout the series; she is searching for her daughter, who later turns up in the form of Alex Rousseau (Tania Raymonde). Cindy (Kimberley Joseph), an Oceanic flight attendant who first appeared in the pilot, survived the crash and subsequently became one of the Others. In the second season, married couple Rose Henderson (L. Scott Caldwell) and Bernard Nadler (Sam Anderson), separated on opposite sides of the island (she with the main characters, he with the tail section survivors) were featured in a flashback episode after being reunited. Corporate magnate Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) has connections to both Ben and Desmond. Desmond is in love with his daughter Penelope “Penny” Widmore (Sonya Walger). The introduction of the Others featured Tom aka Mr. Friendly (M. C. Gainey) and Ethan Rom (William Mapother) all of whom have been shown in both flashbacks and the ongoing story. Jack’s father Christian Shephard (John Terry) has appeared in multiple flashbacks of various characters. In the third season, Naomi Dorrit (Marsha Thomason), parachutes onto the island, the team leader of a group hired by Widmore to find Benjamin Linus. One member of her team includes the ruthless mercenary Martin Keamy (Kevin Durand). In the finale episode “The End,” recurring guest stars Sam Anderson, L. Scott Caldwell, Francois Chau, Fionnula Flanagan, Sonya Walger, and John Terry were credited under the “starring” rubric alongside the principal cast. The mysterious, black, smoke cloud-like entity known as “the Monster” appeared in human form during season five and six as a middle-aged man dressed in black robes known as “The Man in Black” played by Titus Welliver, and in season six, it appears in the form of John Locke played by O’Quinn in a dual role. His rival, Jacob, was played by Mark Pellegrino.
Production
Lost was produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions. Throughout its run, the executive producers of the series were Damon Lindelof, J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Carlton Cuse, Jack Bender, Jeff Pinkner, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Jean Higgins and Elizabeth Sarnoff, with Lindelof and Cuse serving as showrunners.
Conception
The series began development in January 2004, when Lloyd Braun, head of ABC at the time, ordered an initial script from Spelling Television based on his concept of a cross between the novel Lord of the Flies, the movie Cast Away, the television series Gilligan’s Island, and the popular reality show Survivor. ABC had also premiered a short lived series about plane crash survivors in 1969 called The New People with the opening episode by Rod Serling. Gadi Pollack notes that some of “the influences of Lost came from…the game Myst.” Jeffrey Lieber was hired and wrote Nowhere, based on his pitch to write the pilot. Unhappy with the result and a subsequent rewrite, Braun contacted J. J. Abrams, who had a deal with Touchstone Television (now ABC Studios), and was also the creator of the TV series Alias, to write a new pilot script. Although initially hesitant, Abrams warmed up to the idea on the condition that the series would have a supernatural angle to it, and collaborated with Damon Lindelof to create the series’ style and characters. Together, Abrams and Lindelof also created a series “bible,” and conceived and detailed the major mythological ideas and plot points for an ideal four to five season run for the show.The development of the show was constrained by tight deadlines, as it had been commissioned late in the 2004 season’s development cycle. Despite the short schedule, the creative team remained flexible enough to modify or create characters to fit actors they wished to cast.
Lost’s two-part pilot episode was the most expensive in the network’s history, reportedly costing between US$10 and $14 million,compared to the average cost of an hour-long pilot in 2005 of $4 million. The series debuted on September 22, 2004, becoming one of the biggest critical and commercial successes of the 2004 television season. Along with fellow new series Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy, Lost helped to reverse the flagging fortunes of ABC.Yet, before it had even been aired, Lloyd Braun was fired by executives at ABC’s parent company, Disney, partly because of low ratings at the network and also because he had greenlighted such an expensive and risky project.The world premiere of the pilot episode was on July 24, 2004 at Comic-Con International in San Diego.
Casting
Many of the first season roles were a result of the executive producers’ liking of various actors. The main character Jack was originally going to die in the pilot, and the role was planned for Michael Keaton. However, ABC executives were adamant that Jack live. Before it was decided that Jack would live, Kate was to emerge as the leader of the survivors; she was originally conceived as a middle-aged businesswoman whose husband had apparently died in the crash, a role later fulfilled by the recurring character Rose. Dominic Monaghan auditioned for the role of Sawyer, who at the time was supposed to be a slick suit-wearing city con man. The producers enjoyed Monaghan’s performance and changed the character of Charlie, originally an over the hill former rock star, to fit him. Jorge Garcia also auditioned for Sawyer, and the part of Hurley was written for him. When Josh Holloway auditioned for Sawyer, the producers liked the edge he brought to the character (he reportedly kicked a chair when he forgot his lines and got angry in the audition) and his southern accent, so they changed Sawyer to fit Holloway’s acting. Yunjin Kim auditioned for Kate, but the producers wrote the character of Sun for her and the character of Jin, portrayed by Daniel Dae Kim, to be her husband. Sayid, played by Naveen Andrews, was also not in the original script. Locke and Michael were written with their actors in mind. Emilie de Ravin who plays Claire was originally cast in what was supposed to be a recurring role. In the second season, Michael Emerson was contracted to play Ben (“Henry Gale”) for three episodes. His role was extended to eight episodes because of his acting skills, and eventually for the whole of season three and later seasons.
Filming
Lost was filmed on Panavision 35 mm cameras almost entirely on the Hawaiian island of Oahu due to the wide range of diverse filming locations available in close range. The original island scenes for the pilot were filmed at Mokulē’ia Beach, near the northwest tip of the island. Later beach scenes take place in secluded spots of the famous North Shore. Cave scenes in the first season were filmed on a sound stage built at a Xerox parts warehouse, which had been empty since an employee mass shooting took place there in 1999.[50] The sound-stage and production offices have since moved to the Hawaii Film Office-operated Hawaii Film Studio,[51] where the sets depicting Season 2′s “Swan Station” and Season 3′s “Hydra Station” interiors were built.[52]
Various urban areas in and around Honolulu are used as stand-ins for locations around the world, including California, New York, Iowa, Miami, South Korea, Iraq, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Paris, Thailand, Berlin, Maldives and Australia. For example, scenes set in a Sydney Airport were filmed at the Hawaii Convention Center, while a World War II-era bunker was used as an Iraqi Republican Guard installation. Scenes set in Moscow during the winter were filmed at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, with crushed ice scattered everywhere to create snow and Russian storeshop and automobile signs on the street. Several scenes in the Season 3 finale, “Through the Looking Glass,” were shot in Los Angeles, including a hospital set borrowed from Grey’s Anatomy. Two scenes during season four were filmed in London because Alan Dale who portrays Widmore was at the time performing in the musical Spamalot and was unable to travel to Hawaii. Extensive archives of filming locations are tracked at a repository at the Lost Virtual Tour.
Music
Main article: Lost Original Television Soundtracks
Lost features an orchestral score performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony Orchestra and composed by Michael Giacchino, incorporating many recurring themes for subjects such as events, locations and characters. Giacchino achieved some of the sounds for the score using unusual instruments, such as striking suspended pieces of the plane’s fuselage. On March 21, 2006, the record label Varèse Sarabande released the original television soundtrack for Lost’s first season. The soundtrack included select full-length versions of the most popular themes of the season and the main title, which was composed by series creator J.J. Abrams.Varèse Sarabande released a soundtrack featuring music from season 2 of Lost on October 3, 2006. The soundtrack for season 3 was released on May 6, 2008, the soundtrack for season 4 was released on May 11, 2009, the soundtrack for season 5 was released on May 11, 2010 and the soundtrack for the final season was released on September 14, 2010.
The series uses pop culture songs sparingly, and used a mainly orchestral score. When it features pop songs, they usually originate from a diegetic source.[citation needed] Examples include the various songs played on Hurley’s portable CD player throughout the first season (until its batteries died in the episode “…In Translation,” which featured Damien Rice’s “Delicate,” or the use of the record player in the second season, which included Cass Elliot’s “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” and Petula Clark’s “Downtown” in the second and third season premieres respectively. Two episodes show Charlie on a street corner playing guitar and singing the Oasis song “Wonderwall.” In the third season’s finale, Jack drives down the street listening to Nirvana’s “Scentless Apprentice,” right before he arrives to the Hoffs/Drawlar Funeral Parlor, and in the parallel scene in the fourth season’s finale he arrives listening to “Gouge Away” by Pixies. The third season also used Three Dog Night’s Shambala on two occasions in the van. The only two pop songs that have ever been used without an on-screen source (i.e., non-diegetic) are Ann-Margret’s “Slowly,” in the episode “I Do” and “I Shall Not Walk Alone,” written by Ben Harper and covered by The Blind Boys of Alabama in the episode “Confidence Man.” Alternate music is used in several international broadcasts. For instance, in the Japanese broadcast of Lost, the theme song used varies by season; season one uses “Here I Am” by Chemistry, season two uses “Losin’” by Yuna Ito, and season three uses “Lonely Girl” by Crystal Kay.