By Rob Bricken in
TV
Friday, Feb. 5 2010 @ 9:45AM
After the Lost premiere on Tuesday night, this was inevitable -- some nerd lined up the footage of the two Oceanic flight 815 sequences starring Jack and Rose to see how they compared. It's not exactly amazing in and of itself; I mean, one flight crashes, the other doesn't, and we knew that. But it is interesting to see how closely the directors tried to match the new footage to the season 1 footage, from the deliveries to the cadences and so forth -- and how well they succeeded -- just so the actual differences would stand out more. Neat. (Via New York)
Tags: Fan Videos, Lost
18 comments
Comments
Deacon Blues said:
Now if only I knew what the hell this was supposed to mean.
Geoff said:
I love how the non-comic reading Lost fans, like my girlfriend, were totally blown away by this.
Meanwhile I was just casually saying 'alternate timeline based on the What If? that they destroyed the island in the 70s. No big.'
I think that's why she's into the show so much more than I am - a lot of the concepts are totally new to her, whereas they're old hat to me.
Quixotico replied to Geoff:
Yes, but the big question is "why is it significant to show that what if?" It's fun with shows like Futurama's Anthology of Interest episodes, but just showing a what-if storyline interspersed with a non-what-if storyline for the heck of it has no contribution to the story they're trying to tell.
Personally, time travel paradox (if they never crash they can't go back in time to set off the bomb to prevent themselves from crashing) creates a superposition of the crash, one where they did and one where they didn't. When someone with the ability to observe possible outcomes (Desmond?) realizes he's spread across two realities, he'll collapse the waveform and... we'll be left with something singular.
Basically we're watching Schrödinger's Castaways.
I think this is the most likely, and most logical, scenario. How it will exactly play out, especially in regards to which of the two realities takes primacy once they begin to merge. I'm sure the timeline with the crash will be considered Timeline A, and the one without is Timeline B (that's in order of primacy, not chronology, which is moot). But I think that entirely because it would be piss poor writing if the non-cash reality becomes the singular reality. As well, the Non-Crash Timeline can ONLY exist alongside the Crash Timeline, whereas the latter can exist (and has existed) without its new counterpart.
I like that the producers took the most creative and the most logical route by showing the two different time streams. It just makes sense. Daniel Faraday was right when he said, "Whatever happened, happened." But, he was also right when he said, "We're (people are) the variables!" Since both statements must be accurate, there must be two (or infinite) time streams based purely on the choices we make on the ground. It's interesting that Faraday himself didn't realize that he wouldn't be "fixing" time by detonating Jughead, but that he'd be creating a wholly divergent timeline that is virtually parallel to his own, save for the sunken Island. Of course, I had both theories in my head, too, and I didn't put them together, either.
All that said, what matters most is the details-- not whether or when they merge, but how, and will the characters (perhaps those touched by Jacob) suddenly have the memories of two lives in their minds, or will they only have memories from Timeline B up to the moment the plane didn't crash? Either way, what does that mean for John Locke? He's dead in Timeline A, but can he be resurrected with a new mind (or, perhaps, soul) once the singularity occurs? I think he must, because he was touched by Jacob (whereas Juliet, Charlie, Boone, et al, weren't). Like Jack said to Richard, don't give up on John Locke...
Whew. That was too much and it was all rambly. Sorry.
AfterGlow said:
Wow, some random footage about Lost that's barely even interesting for Lost fans.
You've outdone yourself this time, Mr. Bricken
How is a side-by-side comparison of two opposing Oceanic Flight 815s from Jack's POV NOT of interesting to Lost fans? The subtle differences alone are worth pondering:
-Flight 1 Rose is comforted by Flight 1 Jack. Flight 2 Rose comforts Flight 2 Jack.
- Flight 1 Jack has no idea what's going on when the turbulence starts. Flight 2 Jack also has no idea what's going on, but he's scared poopless-- because he has some sort of reisidual memory/deja vu, or because alt-Jack just has a fear of flying?
- Flight 1 Jack receives two bottles of alcohol from Flight 1 Cindy the Stewardess. Flight 2 Jack only receives one bottle. Why the difference there?
- Flight 2 Jack looks more disheveled than Flight 1 Jack. Is it merely because Matthew Fox is older? Even disregarding the age, this Jack looks like he's already been through a lot. Is it more residual effects from the new time stream, or does this Jack just generally care less about his appearance and what people think of him? What if this Oceanic 815 is in 2007, not 2004?
I'm just saying, Lost fans can find many points of interest in anything Lost-related.
Yeah, the rabid Lost fans whom obviously are too into the show for what one would consider healthy can obviously found anything related to Lost interesting.
OMG FLIGHT 1 JACK RECEIVED 2 BOTTLES!
I SMELL ANOTHER HUGE MYSTERY!
Lost-fans crack me up.
It's not about just being obsessed with the details, it's about trying to solve the mystery. Or, at least, have fun thinking about the possibilities. Lost has presented itself as a show about ideas/theories and philosophies, so it just makes sense to want to think about those things that make you question. What's the difference between analyzing Lost and analyzing Paradise Lost? Because one is an old (admittedly awesome) poem, and the other is just a TV show?
Sometimes, thinking, questioning, wondering, considering, pondering, etc., etc., is its own reward.
Wade vs The World replied to RobP:
Thank you sir, you have explained perfectly why we love the show so much.
I'm just going to print this out and hand it to people when they start asking me why I love the show so much.
RobP replied to Wade vs The World:
Thanks, to both of you. It's always nice knowing you aren't alone.
But, you know, speculating about what will happen next on Lost really isn't any different, in spirit, than any other speculation people do about any other show they love. Lost, however, is almost singularly unique in that speculation goes beyond "What'll happen next?!" and into "What does that MEAN???!!!" territory. Trying to understand the WHY of something is always more fun than the WHAT or the HOW.
We should all keep that in mind throughout this season. There will probably be some explanations of HOW things happened, and to a great many of us, they won't be very satisfactory explanations. But, as long as the WHY of things is interesting, creative, logical, and entertaining, then HOW doesn't matter. The HOW can be anything the writers come up with, and there'll have to be some deus ex machina-ness in there somewhere. So, focus on the WHY.
Like I said, it's more fun, anyway.
Kevin said:
I love that you're ignoring you're earlier statement about not posting any more Lost news until the finale. I love reading it, and think you're posting newsworthy items. And I have to admit, the fact that it aggravates the rabid Lost haters just tickles me pink.
lewen said:
how's this for a detail. One Jack was in the aisle seat and the other in the window seat. magic!
I never watched this show so I couldn't tell which was which.
Tommy said:
THIS IS AWESOME!
Wade vs The World said:
Not show in this clip, but the glaring difference was the appearance of a certain time jumping character.
Anyone have any good theories about his inclusion on Flight B??
monkeypicked replied to Wade vs The World:
i cannot figure out why or even how he got on the flight.
was Desmond even in Australia, if so what happened to his boat? where is Penny?
Oh los
RobP replied to Wade vs The World:
I've got some ideas about ol' Des.
1.) As Daniel Faraday told him, the rules don't apply to him. And as Miles said about Faraday, he's been right about everything, so far (even if they don't understand how, at the moment). So, Desmond was really on the plane, he wasn't a ghost or some figment in Jack's mind, but he disappeared because he's jumping between realities. The man he said was snoring next to him is actually a fellow patient at the hospital, where we last saw him after being shot by Ben Linus. Desmond is most likely in a coma, so has no control over his timeline jumping, and doesn't realize he's even doing it because in one timeline he's unconscious. It probably just feels like being in a deep sleep to him. Eventually, of course, he'll wake up and realize what's going on, and he'll be the fulcrum that brings the two realities together.
2. Or, he's just supposed to function as the constant for those touched by Jacob in the Non-Crash Timeline. And when he "disappeared" he just went to sit back in his original seat because Jack creeped him out. Then again, we didn't see him on the plane after that, or at the airport...
3. So, he really was just in Jack's mind and is merely a residual effect of creating a new timeline that probably shouldn't exist. Still, Rose didn't see say she didn't SEE Desmond, she only answered Jack's question saying she didn't see him LEAVE HIS SEAT. (Similar to Not-Locke's statement to Richard about being "out of chains," after killing Bram and his Other Mercs. Did he mean, "good to see (Richard) again, out of those chains," or, "good to see (Richard) again out of those chains?" I mean, was Richard the chained one, or was Not-Locke "chained" before Jacob died? AAAARRRRRGHH!)
As to how Des would be on the alterna-flight 815, it isn't beyond believability. In that reality, the Island sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Who knows how long ago (my money's on Jughead sinking it), but likely long enough ago that Charles Widmore may have never gotten off the island or given birth to Penny, yet. If that's the case, then Desmond's adult life would be entirely different than before. Had he never met Penny, he'd never have competed in Widmore's boat race (much less the race even existing), so he'd never have crashed on the Island (which is at the bottom of the ocean, so, even if he did race, he'd never crash there). Beyond that, though, he also probably never trained in the middle of the night in that LA stadium (training he was doing for the big boat race, remember), and so would never have met Jack. So, no matter what's really going on with Desmond, when Jack remembered him, it wasn't from this reality. That's super important. Jack remembered Desmond, but he shouldn't. In this timeline, they've never met before, so Jack remembering (and being coupled with that gut twisting fear when the place SHOULD HAVE crashed) are big clues to something. It's probably sort of like "deja vu" in The Matrix, or something...
