Lost/Pilot (1)

Pilot (1)
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	September 24, 2004
Production Number	100
Written by	Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams Damon Lindelof
Directed by	J.J. Abrams
— N/A	1x02 → Pilot (2)
Lost — Season One

Pilot (1) is the first episode of the first season of Lost.

During a routine trip from Sydney, Australia, to Los Angeles, Oceanic flight 815 is blown off course and crashes on a remote, deserted island. Convinced that rescue is coming soon, the surviving passengers set up camp on the beach and try to make the most of what they think will only be a short time on the island. One of the 48 survivors, Dr. Jack Shephard, suggests that they find the transceiver in the front of the plane so they can radio for help. But when a terrifying howl comes from the jungle, it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary island.

Starring: Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Emilie de Ravin (Claire), Matthew Fox (Jack), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Maggie Grace (Shannon), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Malcolm David Kelley (Walt), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Harold Perrineau, Jr. (Michael), Ian Somerhalder (Boone)

Guest Starring: Fredric Lane (Edward Mars), L. Scott Caldwell (Rose).

Co-Starring: Kimberley Joseph (Flight Attendant #1), Jon Dixon (Flight Attendant #2), Michelle Arthur (Flight Attendant #3), Dale Radomski (Tourniquet Man), Geoff Heise (Man), Barbara Vidinha (Woman).

Uncredited: Greg Grunberg (The Pilot).

Plot Overview

The Island

• Oceanic flight 815, traveling from Sydney to Los Angeles, breaks up in mid-air roughly six hours into the flight. The plane splits into the nose, mid, and tail sections, with the nose section landing in the jungle and the mid section cartwheeling through the jungle before ending up on the beach.
• Dr. Jack Shephard wakes up in a bamboo forest and makes his way to the beach and the scene of the Oceanic wreckage. Once there, he and several men (including John Locke) pull a man out from underneath some wreckage and Jack applies a tourniquet before moving on to help Claire Littleton and resuscitating Rose.
• Jack meets Kate and asks her to help stitch a wound he has trouble reaching.
• Sayid Jarrah starts building a fire to help rescuers spot the survivors and employs Charlie Pace to help him.
• That night, in the jungle bordering the beach, a howling cry is heard by the survivors accompanied with trees moving.
• In the morning, Jack, Kate and Charlie head into the island to find the cockpit and the transceiver. They find the nose section and no survivors aside from the pilot. The pilot, Seth Norris tells the group that, 6 hours into the flight, their radio went out and no one could see them. The aircraft turned back to land in Fiji and, by the time they hit turbulence, they were 1,000 miles off course. They realize that any rescue party is looking for them in the wrong place. As they find the trasceiver the "monster" returns and snatches the pilot through the window, blood spraying across the windows. The group escapes the "monster" and find the pilots body deposited up in the trees.

The Flashback

• Flashback: Jack/Rose

Sitting in seat 23A, Jack mentions to the flight attendant that his drink isn't very strong. She gives him a small bottle of alcohol, assuming that he will add it to his drink. Instead, he pockets the new bottle and removes another, half-empty, from his pocket, and pours the rest into his cup. Finishing his drink, Jack tries to get up to the aisle, but Charlie rushes by pursued by several flight attendants. The aircraft shudders and the "fasten seatbelt" sign turns on, so Jack sits back down. He notices a woman - Rose - further along on the same row looking nervous. She is travelling with her husband, Bernard, who went to the bathroom in the rear of the plane. Jack tells her he'll keep her company until Bernard returns. Then the plane hits trouble.

Notes

Mysteries

• What caused the plane to crash?
• Why hadn't anyone come to rescue the survivors after several hours?
• What is the thing making strange noises and toppling trees in the jungle?
• What caused the radio malfunction?
• Why did the plane get lost on its way to Los Angeles?
• What happened to the tail section?

Answers

• No one had come to rescue the survivors because the plane was about 1000 miles off its projected course.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Island: We find out that the island is inhabited by some type of monster. Judging from the sound it makes, it can be assumed that it is mechanical in type.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Getting Lost: The production budget for the Pilot is the most expensive in TV history. This contributed to the firing of ABC Entertainment Television Group Chairman Lloyd Braun, who fought to pick up Lost.
• Just Not Getting Lost: According to James Stewart's DisneyWar, The Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner said, "Lost is terrible. The pilot was two hours; it was broken into two one-hour episodes. Then the show goes off a cliff. There's no more plane crash! Who cares about these people on a desert island?" and Walt Disney Company President Robert Iger called the series "a waste of time", adding that "it might work as a miniseries, but not as a series." Lost went on to become ABC's second most popular TV series, behind Desperate Housewives.
• Cut-Up: This is hour one of a two-hour pilot.
• Close Call: Jack was originally slated to die in the Pilot episode, but it was when Jack was going to be played by Michael Keaton, instead of Matthew Fox.
• Location, Location, Location: The filming location of the Oceanic wreckage and most of the beach scenes was Mokule'ia Beach on Oahu's North Shore. The scenes with Jack, Kate, and Charlie escaping from the monster and the nose section were filmed in a wooded area near the Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu.

Quotes

• Kate: I might throw up on you.
  Jack: You're doing fine.
  Kate: You don't seem afraid at all. I don't understand that.
  Jack: Well, fear's sort of an odd thing. When I was in residency, my first solo procedure was a spinal surgery on a 16-year-old kid. A girl. And at the end, after 13 hours, I was closing her up and I... I accidentally ripped her dural sack. Shredded it at the base of the spine where all the nerves come together. Membrane as thin as tissue, and... So it ripped open. Nerves just spilled out of her like angel hair pasta, spinal fluid flowing out of her and I... The terror was just so... crazy, so real... and I knew I had to deal with it. So I just made a choice. I'd let the fear in. Let it take over. Let it do its thing. But only for five seconds, that's all I was gonna give it. So I started to count. One, two, three, four, five. And it was gone. I went back to work, sewed her up and she was fine.
  Kate: If that had been me, I think I would've run for the door.
  Jack: No, I don't think that's true. You're not running now.
• Charlie: Terrific.