Pilot (Lost)
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| “Pilot” | |
|---|---|
| Lost (TV series) episode | |
 Flight 815 after the crash |
|
| Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 1 & 2 |
| Guest stars | Fredric Lane (Marshall) L. Scott Caldwell (Rose) Kimberley Joseph (Cindy), Daniel A. Ortiz (Passenger), Jonathan Dixon (Flight Attendant #3), Michelle Arthur (Flight Attendant #2), Faith Fay (Survivor), George Alan (Flight Attendant #1) Barbara Vidinha-Tyler (Woman), Dale Radomski (Tourniquet Man), Geoff Heise (Man) Greg Grunberg (The Pilot) |
| Written by | Story by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof, Teleplay by J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof |
| Directed by | J.J. Abrams |
| Production no. | 100 |
| Original airdate | September 22, 2004 (Part 1), September 29, 2004 (Part 2) |
| Episode chronology | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| "n/a" | "Tabula Rasa" |
| Episode chronology | |
"Pilot" constitutes the 1st and 2nd episodes of the first season of Lost. The episodes were directed by J.J. Abrams, and written by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, based on story by them and Jeffrey Lieber. They first aired on September 22, 2004 and September 29, 2004 on ABC. The characters of Jack Shephard, Kate Austen and Charlie Pace are featured in the two episodes' flashbacks.
[edit] Part 1
Jack Shephard awakens in the jungle, terribly disoriented, battered and bruised. He sees a yellow Labrador retriever (Vincent) running through the bamboo. Jack attempts to gather his thoughts, finding a small bottle of vodka in his suit pocket and takes off, crashing through the branches and vegetation. He suddenly emerges onto a beautiful beach, with a clear blue ocean stretching off to the horizon. He is confronted with the carnage of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. Jack, a distinguished surgeon, immediately springs into action, administering medical aid and asking other survivors to assist him with more difficult rescues. In quick fashion, he rescues a man pinned under some wreckage, he assists Claire and enlists Hurley to watch her, and administers CPR to Rose, saving her life.
After the initial shock of the crash passes, Jack slips off to tend to his own minor injuries. Here he meets Kate, whom he asks to stitch a wound on his back. During their initial conversation, Kate reveals that their plane had broken apart in mid-air. Later on the beach, Jack tends to an unconscious man who has been badly hurt, while Kate curiously observes them. Other survivors, including Michael and Walt, meet to discuss what to do with the bodies in the wreckage, as an uninterested Sawyer looks on. This prompts Sayid to organize a clean-up. Hurley salvages meals from the plane's galley and distributes them to the survivors, while Shannon refuses chocolate offered by Boone, believing instead that their rescue is imminent.
That night, the peacefulness of the camp is disturbed by loud roaring noises and crashing trees emanating from the nearby jungle. In the morning, Jack decides that the survivors need to send a distress signal to have any hope of rescue, and he believes the best solution is to use the plane's transceiver, located in the cockpit of the plane. Kate claims to have seen smoke from somewhere within the jungle and asks to come with Jack to find what is hoped to be another part of the plane's wreckage. With Kate and Charlie, Jack sets off into the jungle to find the cockpit. As they move deeper into the jungle, they encounter a sudden rainstorm. When the trio finds the plane, resting against a tree, they are forced to climb through the rows of seats to reach the cabin. Inside, they find the pilot still in his seat. Charlie disappears into the bathroom while Jack and Kate find the pilot awaking with a start from a concussion. He tells them that the plane had lost radio contact six hours after take off, where it turned back for Fiji and hit turbulence. The plane was a thousand miles off course when it crashed.
Meanwhile, on the beach during the rainstorm, a group of survivors takes refuge in the wreckage. While huddled there, a young Korean man, Jin, tells his wife, Sun, that she should remain close to him at all times. Even though most of the survivors have taken shelter, John Locke remains outside and sits alone in the rain on the beach with his arms outstretched. Back in the jungle, the conversation in the cockpit is interrupted when the strange roaring noise that they had heard from the jungle the previous night returns. When the pilot investigates, he is seized by something outside, which drags him through the cockpit window. This prompts the trio to grab the transceiver and flee. During the escape, Charlie falls. Jack returns to help him, while a terrified Kate runs on. After the entity disappears, Kate, Charlie and Jack reunite and find the pilot, his bloodied corpse suspended in a tree top.
[edit] Part 2
Jack, Kate, and Charlie head back to the beach. Kate asks Charlie what he was doing in the bathroom, and he says he was sick, but in a flashback, it's revealed that Charlie had been doing drugs in the bathroom, and attempted to flush his stash but had been prevented by the sudden onset of turbulence.
On the island, while looking for his dog Vincent, Walt discovers a pair of handcuffs. Sayid manages to repair the transceiver, but it does not have a signal or much battery life. While working on it, he reveals to Hurley that he was a communications officer with the Iraqi Republican Guard in the Gulf War. He and some of the other survivors take the transceiver inland in an attempt to reach higher ground and get a better signal. Along the way, they are attacked by a charging polar bear, which Sawyer shoots and kills. He then explains that he got the gun from the body of a dead U.S. marshal. Sayid accuses Sawyer of being the marshal's prisoner. Kate takes the gun from Sawyer, and Sayid instructs her on how to dismantle it.
A flashback shows the final moments of the flight. Kate is talking to the marshal, the same injured man to whom Jack had been tending, on the beach. On the plane, it can be seen that Kate is wearing the handcuffs that Walt found in the jungle. As the turbulence hits, the marshal is knocked unconscious by a falling suitcase. Kate uncuffs herself, and puts the marshal's oxygen mask on him before attaching her own, at which point the tail end of the plane suddenly breaks off and falls away.
Back at the beach, the marshal wakes up during the operation and asks Jack, "Where is she?" Inland, Sayid turns on the transceiver and it has a signal. However, it's being blocked by a transmission in French that has been repeating for over sixteen years. Shannon translates it: "I'm alone now, on the island alone. Please someone come. The others are dead. It killed them. It killed them all."
[edit] Trivia
- This episode was the most expensive pilot in television history, primarily due to the expense of purchasing, shipping, and dressing the actual decommissioned aircraft body used to represent the wreckage. It cost between $10 and $14 million. [1]
- At the end of the episode, Sayid states that the message is "roughly 30 seconds long", and calculates that it has been playing for 16 years, five months. However, the message is actually only 14 seconds long (Including the iteration count). This makes his calculation incorrect by more than 8 years.
- J.J. Abrams won an Emmy award for directing the Lost Pilot; Damon Lindelof, and Jeffrey Lieber also received an Emmy.
- In the original draft Jack was killed off, leaving Kate to take leadership of the survivors. However, when readers thought Jack should not be killed, a pilot was introduced to take Jack's place as The Monster's first victim.
| Lost | |
|---|---|
| Production: | DVD releases | Episode list | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Soundtrack |
| Main characters: |
Ana Lucia | Ben | Boone | Charlie | Claire | Desmond | Hurley | Jack | Jin | Juliet | Kate Libby | Locke | Michael | Mr. Eko | Nikki | Paulo | Sawyer | Sayid | Shannon | Sun | Walt |
| Supporting characters: |
Alex | Bernard | Christian | Cindy | Ethan | The Others | Pickett | Rose | Rousseau | Tom |
| Organizations: | DHARMA Initiative | Hanso Foundation | Oceanic Airlines |
| Elements: | Crossover list | DHARMA Initiative stations | Flight 815 | Mythology | Thematic motifs |
| Miscellaneous: | Gary Troup | In popular culture | Lost Experience | Rachel Blake | Video game |
