"Lost" Pilot: Part 1 (2004)

Director:

J.J. Abrams

Writers:

Jeffrey Lieber (story) and
J.J. Abrams (story) ...

TV Series:

"Lost" (2004)

Original Air Date:

22 September 2004 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Plot:

Forty-eight survivors of an airline flight originating from Australia, bound for the U.S., which crash-lands onto an unknown island 1000 miles off course, struggle to figure out a way to survive, why trying to find a way to be rescued.

Plot Keywords:

Mysterious Plane Crash | Labrador Retriever | Swimming In Underwear | Mysterious Island | Sucked Into Jet Engine

Cast

Naveen Andrews	...	Sayid Jarrah
Emilie de Ravin	...	Claire Littleton
Matthew Fox	...	Jack Shephard
Jorge Garcia	...	Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes
Maggie Grace	...	Shannon Rutherford
Josh Holloway	...	James 'Sawyer' Ford
Malcolm David Kelley	...	Walt Lloyd
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Jin Kwon
Yunjin Kim	...	Sun Kwon
Evangeline Lilly	...	Kate Austen
Dominic Monaghan	...	Charlie Pace
Terry O'Quinn	...	John Locke
Harold Perrineau	...	Michael Dawson
Ian Somerhalder	...	Boone Carlyle
Fredric Lehne	...	Marshal Edward Mars (as Fredric Lane)

Runtime:

42 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:TV-14 | Venezuela:PG-13 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

O'ahu, Hawaii, USA

Company:

Bad Robot

Trivia:

The still-turning jet engine on the beach was added in digitally later. During filming, all that was on set was the cowling.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Jack uses his tie in the first scenes, you can see he is still wearing it in the next shot.

Quotes:

Kate: You don't seem afraid at all. I don't understand that.

Movie Connections:

References The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) (VG)

Iconic

The opening episode of "Lost" will always be iconic- that opening shot of Jack's eye, the progressive heightening of the tension in Michael Giacchino's music, and Matthew Fox's excellent acting as the character of Jack slowly realizes the scope of what just happened. The subtle introduction of numerous characters makes for outstanding character writing as well.

However, as with most pilot episodes, I find this script becomes too bogged down in being an introductory piece that it doesn't quite blossom as a full episode. Take for example one of the great pilot episodes in my opinion- "The Way Back" from Blake's 7. By the end of that episode you get the basic premise for the show, the characters, the nemesis, etc. Few pilot episodes accomplish that much and to be honest it is Part 2 of the "Lost" pilot that it successful in that regard- very, very successful.

"Pilot, Part 1" is iconic because it's the episode that hooked most of the people that are faithful to "Lost" to this day. When you look at how well it manages to introduce and develop these characters in 40 minutes it is an outstanding achievement, but for pure entertainment value and rewatchability when compared to many other episodes of the series? It's not quite one of the best episodes, and the second part of the pilot vastly improves on this.

J.J. Abrams proves his worth as director here, setting the bar for excellence in direction on this show and TV in general fairly high here.

Best scene- The first ever flashback aboard Flight 815 just before the crash.

Best shot- The introduction of John Locke, orange in mouth and all.

Questions in light of the remainder of the series: why did the monster kill the pilot?

8/10