Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 tears apart mid-air and crashes on a mysterious, uncharted tropical island in the South Pacific
The surviving passengers quickly discover they are not alone and that the island harbours polar bears, bizarre, supernatural elements – including a “smoke monster” (a terrifying, roar-emitting security system made of black smoke that stalks and kills inhabitants) – and a hostile, deeply manipulative group of violent survivalists (“the Others”) already residing on the island, led by the calculating Ben Linus (Michael Emerson).
The island also contains remnants of a 1970s scientific research project (the DHARMA Initiative) that built underground bunkers (or “hatches”) across the island to study its unique electromagnetic anomalies.
The survivors find a man named Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) living inside, who explains that a sequence of numbers (4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42) must be typed into a computer every 108 minutes to prevent a catastrophic electromagnetic buildup on the island.
Dr Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), a dedicated yet troubled spinal surgeon, reluctantly assumes the role of the survivors’ leader.
Other prominent characters included Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly), a fugitive criminal who was being escorted back to America in handcuffs when the plane crashed; James “Sawyer” Ford (Josh Holloway), a cynical, quick-witted con man who forms a central love triangle with Jack and Kate; John Locke (Terry O’Quinn), a man mysteriously healed of his paralysis by the island, who develops an intense, spiritual obsession with its destiny; Hugo “Hurley” Reyes (Jorge Garcia), an incredibly lucky yet cursed lottery winner who serves as the emotional heart of the group; Sayid Jarrah (Naveen Andrews), a highly intelligent former Iraqi Republican Guard communications officer, and a married Korean couple named Sun-Hwa (Yunjin Kim) and Jin-Soo (Daniel Dae Kim) who struggle through a fractured relationship and severe language barriers.
Episodes paired events on the island with flashbacks to the characters’ lives before the crash. Later seasons shifted to flash-forwards showing what happened to certain characters after escaping the island. The final season introduced a parallel-timeline structure in which Flight 815 never crashed.
The ABC show kept its obsessed followers on their toes by introducing one fantastical plot device after another. As the story unfolds season by season, the show shifted from a traditional island survival story into a complex sci-fi epic involving time travel, corporate conspiracies, and a mythological war between good and evil.
The series finale, “The End,” remains one of the most talked-about finales in television history. Jack ultimately sacrifices his life to save the island from destruction, passing leadership over to Hurley, while the parallel universe is revealed to be a purgatory-like afterlife.
Because the bonds they formed on the island were the most important of their lives, the characters’ souls wait in this space after they die (whether they died during the crash, years later on the island, or decades later of old age) so they can remember each other and move on to the afterlife together.
Dr Jack Shephard Matthew Fox Sayid Jarrah
Naveen Andrews Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes
Jorge Garcia James ‘Sawyer’ Ford
Josh Holloway Jin-Soo Kwon
Daniel Dae Kim Sun-Hwa Kwon
Yunjin Kim Kate Austen
Evangeline Lilly John Locke
Terry O’Quinn Claire Littleton
Emilie de Ravin Ben Linus/Henry Gale
Michael Emerson Walt Lloyd
Malcolm David Kelley Boone Carlyle
Ian Somerhalder Desmond Hume
Henry Ian Cusick Dr Juliet Burke
Elizabeth Mitchell Charles Widmore
Alan Dale Penny Widmore/Hume
Sonya Walger Martin Keamy
Kevin Durand Charlie Pace
Dominic Monaghan Danielle Rousseau
Mira Furlan Jacob
Mark Pellegrino Man in Black (Smoke Monster)
Titus Welliver
You May Also Like
Lane End 1 9 7 2 (Australia) 7 x 30 minute episodes Short-lived Aussie serial Lane End debuted on…
Rugrats 1 9 9 1 - 2 0 0 4 (USA) A cartoon depicting life and adults as…
Young Rebels, The 1 9 7 0 - 1 9 7 1 (USA) 15 x 60 minute episodes This short-lived…
Rollergirls 1 9 7 8 (USA) 4 x 30 minute episodes The Pittsburgh Pitts, an all-female roller derby…
Charlie & Co. 1 9 8 5 - 1 9 8 6 (USA) 18 x 30 minute episodes What a…
Hard Time On Planet Earth 1 9 8 9 (USA) 13 x 60 minute episodes This CBS series introduced an intergalactic warrior…
Newcomers, The 1 9 6 5 - 1 9 6 9 (UK) 430 x 25 minute episodes Set in…
Living In The Commonwealth 1 9 5 7 (UK) 32 x 25 minute programmes The first national television programme for schools…
The surviving passengers quickly discover they are not alone and that the island harbours polar bears, bizarre, supernatural elements – including a “smoke monster” (a terrifying, roar-emitting security system made of black smoke that stalks and kills inhabitants) – and a hostile, deeply manipulative group of violent survivalists (“the Others”) already residing on the island, led by the calculating Ben Linus (Michael Emerson).
The series finale, “The End,” remains one of the most talked-about finales in television history. Jack ultimately sacrifices his life to save the island from destruction, passing leadership over to Hurley, while the parallel universe is revealed to be a purgatory-like afterlife.
