99Percent
12-08-04, 01:53 AM
My theory about Lost for now is a mixture between "Lost Horizon (1937)" and "Philadelphia Experiment (1984)".
There are a few facts regarding the story that are undeniable and which need to be solved in the most straightforward way.
Why are they lost.
The most disturbing fact of all is that they are on island which is very large and that is not being seen, and they can't see anything on the outside, like jet airliner planes flying over. This can only mean some bizarre explanation of which the Philadelphia Experiment scenario fits very well. However in my theory, the island still exists on Earth, it just cannot be detected. Other possible explanations are of the type that the survivors experienced a time/space warp of some kind but I think that is too cheesy and limits the posibilities of the show to pulp science fiction.
The Creature
The other fact which has me going in circles is the creature strangely encountered on the early episodes. After much thought I have to conclude that it isn't a creature but abnormalites caused by the experiment. Maybe the force field that is making the island invisible creates some kind of vortices that causes those horrendous sounds and movements. The producers will never show a creature because there isn't one. Rather I think we will see these vortices from the point of view of some of the characters in such a fashion that we will think they are hallucinating. That is what in fact Locke saw in a mild manifestation and thought he saw "the eye" of the island. The "maps" that Sayid saw laying around in the french woman's lair were in fact attempts by Danielle to try to reproduce what she saw.
Healing and Magical Qualities of the Island
Here is where I am speculating the most, and even though there is no real evidence so far to think this, I am deducing it mostly from the conceptual level of the show. We can't just have survivors getting lost, but there has to be something that draws us all to their predicament, something that raises the stakes, and I think the idea of a Shangri La is a very interesting one. In the movie Lost Horizon, the survivors of a plane crash encounter an eden where people live a lot longer, hundreds of years. The catch is, is that you cannot leave this eden after living a long time in it, since you would immediately experience old age and die. I thought to myself, what if the Philadelphia type experiment caused a type of radiation that allowed the people in the island to live a lot lot longer, maybe not hundreds of years but perhaps twice as long or three times as long. This would have weird dramatic consequences indeed. Lets suppose that the experiment took place in the height of WW2, just like in the Philadelphia Experiment, in 1943. The survivors would still be living now, just a bit older, maybe in their forties for example. But they would not be able to leave the island, and maybe some tried and saw the horrifying effects.
Shangri La and Babies
Now, one of the consequences of such a situation, where people aged forever, is that gestation would probably take a lot longer, 2 or 3 years instead of the usual nine months. And most likely, conception is not possible. That is why Ethan eyes Claire with so much wonder and desperation. Imagine a baby that grows up in an island like that. When he is in puberty or maybe a bit younger he can still escape the island with not so much of disastrous effects, and probably survive to tell the story of their island and get someone to rescue them somehow. This brings up Alex.
Danielle, Alex and Locke
This is probably the most bizarre idea of my theory. What if Danielle and her crew landed on the island around the time of the experiment or shortly thereafter. She was pregnant and about to have a baby just like Claire. After a very long labor the baby is born and raised. The others thought of the idea of releasing Alex to the world while he still had chances to survive so they kidnapped him from Danielle and set him off to the world while he was just a child, with the hope of having a chance to survive and tell the world about their Shangri-La place. The child survived but unfortunately the child did experience consequences, besides instant aging and maybe memory loss. The child grew up to be Locke...
Locke later in life realized that some types of radiation helped him in his weakened condition. That is why he has a geiger counter and is intent on finding out natural sources of this radiation. When he finds the island he realizes he found a perfect source of the radiation he needs, he doesn't know yet that he was in fact raised in this place.
Possible Military Conspiracies
The writers have the posibility also of using military conspiracies. Maybe some deep secret branch of the military does know about this experiment and the whereabouts of the island. It uses strong warnings to aircraft and ships that accidentally near the island to sternely stear them away. Maybe it says that is nuclear radiation arising from Bikini style atomic testing contamination to "warn" civilian population away. In fact, this way there is no need for the island to become invisible at all. The survivors do not see anyone getting anywhere near them, and no one even thinks they are there.
Polar bear, underwater cable, power source and other bits
The polar bear might have landed accidentally on the island also by via of some ship carrying zoo related cargo, maybe even Danielle's science expedition. It has managed to live so long also due to the Shangri La nature of the island. The cable that Sayid saw is part of the Philadelphia like experiment which remains. The power source is probably nuclear. The distress signal is set there on purpose by the military so any survivors get the idea that they will not be rescued. The person who hit Sayid might be a military person left over from the early 40's in charge of making sure nobody gets to the power source. Danielle might not realize how many years have passed. The voices that they hear are caused by anomalies of the force field. Adam and Eve are early survivors that decided to end their lives peacefully instead of living a very long time on the island which was probably in conflict at the time of their death (Danielle vs the Others).
Dramatic possibilites
As you can start seeing, the dramatic possibilities are quite endless. We can have new survivors coming in. We can have old survivors having escaped the island and interacting with the current ones in their backstories. We can have the survivors of the tail section of the plane suddenly appearing. Kate and Sawyer might realize that they could have saved the Marshal after all when they understand the nature of the island. There could be survivors trying to escape only to be turned back by some weird military personel, or even shot down. When Jack realizes Claire is simply not having the baby on time he dramatically decides she has to have c-section with no anesthesia, etc, etc.
I am sure I have missed many things, feel free to ask me so I can try to fit it in my theory. There is just one thing that still bothers me a lot and that is the idea of duality, the black and white stones, etc. I am not sure how it will fit with the story. Maybe the group is going to divide in two, those who want to live in their eden in peace for ever, and those who are bent in escaping at all costs, before anymore time passes. Or maybe the radiation creates some sort of strong polarity on the island.
There are a few facts regarding the story that are undeniable and which need to be solved in the most straightforward way.
Why are they lost.
The most disturbing fact of all is that they are on island which is very large and that is not being seen, and they can't see anything on the outside, like jet airliner planes flying over. This can only mean some bizarre explanation of which the Philadelphia Experiment scenario fits very well. However in my theory, the island still exists on Earth, it just cannot be detected. Other possible explanations are of the type that the survivors experienced a time/space warp of some kind but I think that is too cheesy and limits the posibilities of the show to pulp science fiction.
The Creature
The other fact which has me going in circles is the creature strangely encountered on the early episodes. After much thought I have to conclude that it isn't a creature but abnormalites caused by the experiment. Maybe the force field that is making the island invisible creates some kind of vortices that causes those horrendous sounds and movements. The producers will never show a creature because there isn't one. Rather I think we will see these vortices from the point of view of some of the characters in such a fashion that we will think they are hallucinating. That is what in fact Locke saw in a mild manifestation and thought he saw "the eye" of the island. The "maps" that Sayid saw laying around in the french woman's lair were in fact attempts by Danielle to try to reproduce what she saw.
Healing and Magical Qualities of the Island
Here is where I am speculating the most, and even though there is no real evidence so far to think this, I am deducing it mostly from the conceptual level of the show. We can't just have survivors getting lost, but there has to be something that draws us all to their predicament, something that raises the stakes, and I think the idea of a Shangri La is a very interesting one. In the movie Lost Horizon, the survivors of a plane crash encounter an eden where people live a lot longer, hundreds of years. The catch is, is that you cannot leave this eden after living a long time in it, since you would immediately experience old age and die. I thought to myself, what if the Philadelphia type experiment caused a type of radiation that allowed the people in the island to live a lot lot longer, maybe not hundreds of years but perhaps twice as long or three times as long. This would have weird dramatic consequences indeed. Lets suppose that the experiment took place in the height of WW2, just like in the Philadelphia Experiment, in 1943. The survivors would still be living now, just a bit older, maybe in their forties for example. But they would not be able to leave the island, and maybe some tried and saw the horrifying effects.
Shangri La and Babies
Now, one of the consequences of such a situation, where people aged forever, is that gestation would probably take a lot longer, 2 or 3 years instead of the usual nine months. And most likely, conception is not possible. That is why Ethan eyes Claire with so much wonder and desperation. Imagine a baby that grows up in an island like that. When he is in puberty or maybe a bit younger he can still escape the island with not so much of disastrous effects, and probably survive to tell the story of their island and get someone to rescue them somehow. This brings up Alex.
Danielle, Alex and Locke
This is probably the most bizarre idea of my theory. What if Danielle and her crew landed on the island around the time of the experiment or shortly thereafter. She was pregnant and about to have a baby just like Claire. After a very long labor the baby is born and raised. The others thought of the idea of releasing Alex to the world while he still had chances to survive so they kidnapped him from Danielle and set him off to the world while he was just a child, with the hope of having a chance to survive and tell the world about their Shangri-La place. The child survived but unfortunately the child did experience consequences, besides instant aging and maybe memory loss. The child grew up to be Locke...
Locke later in life realized that some types of radiation helped him in his weakened condition. That is why he has a geiger counter and is intent on finding out natural sources of this radiation. When he finds the island he realizes he found a perfect source of the radiation he needs, he doesn't know yet that he was in fact raised in this place.
Possible Military Conspiracies
The writers have the posibility also of using military conspiracies. Maybe some deep secret branch of the military does know about this experiment and the whereabouts of the island. It uses strong warnings to aircraft and ships that accidentally near the island to sternely stear them away. Maybe it says that is nuclear radiation arising from Bikini style atomic testing contamination to "warn" civilian population away. In fact, this way there is no need for the island to become invisible at all. The survivors do not see anyone getting anywhere near them, and no one even thinks they are there.
Polar bear, underwater cable, power source and other bits
The polar bear might have landed accidentally on the island also by via of some ship carrying zoo related cargo, maybe even Danielle's science expedition. It has managed to live so long also due to the Shangri La nature of the island. The cable that Sayid saw is part of the Philadelphia like experiment which remains. The power source is probably nuclear. The distress signal is set there on purpose by the military so any survivors get the idea that they will not be rescued. The person who hit Sayid might be a military person left over from the early 40's in charge of making sure nobody gets to the power source. Danielle might not realize how many years have passed. The voices that they hear are caused by anomalies of the force field. Adam and Eve are early survivors that decided to end their lives peacefully instead of living a very long time on the island which was probably in conflict at the time of their death (Danielle vs the Others).
Dramatic possibilites
As you can start seeing, the dramatic possibilities are quite endless. We can have new survivors coming in. We can have old survivors having escaped the island and interacting with the current ones in their backstories. We can have the survivors of the tail section of the plane suddenly appearing. Kate and Sawyer might realize that they could have saved the Marshal after all when they understand the nature of the island. There could be survivors trying to escape only to be turned back by some weird military personel, or even shot down. When Jack realizes Claire is simply not having the baby on time he dramatically decides she has to have c-section with no anesthesia, etc, etc.
I am sure I have missed many things, feel free to ask me so I can try to fit it in my theory. There is just one thing that still bothers me a lot and that is the idea of duality, the black and white stones, etc. I am not sure how it will fit with the story. Maybe the group is going to divide in two, those who want to live in their eden in peace for ever, and those who are bent in escaping at all costs, before anymore time passes. Or maybe the radiation creates some sort of strong polarity on the island.