Ruminations on the "hatch"

[Zim]

I've added to the original post down a few lines:

In the previews for the next episode, Walt is pleading w Locke to leave the hatch alone. This suggests that there is a malevolent entity within the hatch. In episodes previous, Locke wonders about the fact that there is no non-violent way to open the hatch. This all leads me to believe that its some sort of detention device- a prison.

In the episode where Boone is injured, Locke's dream shows him the plane and alludes to Boone's fatal accident; it even gives him a piece of info concerning Boones past that Locke exploits to suade Boone to follow him in search of the crashed plane. Furthermore, when the trebuchet fails, Locke cries: "this was SUPPOSED to work!"- and as he threw his bloodied arms against the hatch in the final scenes: " I did everything you asked of me" All of this suggests to me that Locke isnt just divining things, but is in fact being fed revelations- that he's being manipulated.

Consider the flashback in this particular episode, since what happens in flashbacks often relates or parallels the island adventures. Locke's assumed father establishes trust with him, only to viciously exploit the relationship for his own end. One can see a fatherly Locke as having taken advantage of a trusting, boyish Boone. But one can also wonder if it is not once again Locke who is ultilmately being taken advantage of....

Consider that Locke was never alone with the hatch (to my knowlege)... until Boone died, and only then did something occur (the light).
----------------------------------------
It puzzles me most of all that nothing seemed to come from the excursion with the beechcraft except the death of Boone, and considering the sudden return of Locke's paralysis, it would seem as if THAT were what was supposed to have happened. Why did Boone have to die?

When Boone resigned to tell SHannon, Locke helped him to have the vision of her death, and to 'let go'. Yet when he saw Sayid hitting on Shannon he went ape again. Is this why? Is it that he still had teh attachment with her? But why would that be reason to off hiim? This is drivin me nuts! Lol
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[Australopithecus]

What you said made me think of the possibility that a person is the key to unlocking the hatch. A la The Fifth Element style.

[A1sauce]

that a person is the key to unlocking the hatch. A la The Fifth Element style.
Uh-oh...does that mean Locke's gonna dress up like an almost unwrapped mummy?

[Australopithecus]

I was thinking Walt.

[A1sauce]

I was thinking Walt.
Yeah me too, but isn't that child pornography?


Kidding.

[Australopithecus]

As long as he isn't completely naked, no. Thats what you gotta keep telling yourself.

[soup]

"There is the secret to opening the hatch"
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.15.97/gifs/5th-element-9720.jpg

[LoStMyMiNd]

Do you mean to use a spoon jeffsoup? :eek

[soup]

No, the chainsaw.
A spoon could work.
But NEVER a spork.

[LoStMyMiNd]

It could be one of those devices that freeze people and when they finally open it they will see alot of frozen dead people that come to life and start a killing spree - kidding

[scottq74]

My wife and sister (different people) have shared a couple of theories about the hatch with me...

My wife's theory is that the "hatch" symbolizes former Survivor winner Richard Hatch and that a bunch of naked gay guys are going to come out once it finally is opened. I'm pretty sure she was kidding.

My sister made an interesting observation about the timing of the hatch's light coming on, though. She suggested that it didn't come on until after Boone's death (actually, she's wrong because the light came on at the end of Duex ex Machina, and Boone didn't officially kick the bucket until one episode later in Do No Harm). Anyway, her theory was that the hatch light came on as Boone's soul was let into the hatch following his death.

Personally, I think my wife's theory is funny, but my sister's could be something to chew on (flaws and all).

[CrazyLostGirl]

Your sister might have been right about the timing, actually. They show Locke and the hatch at the end of Deus Ex Machina, at night, but we have no idea what time it is. He still had to walk all the way back from camp to the hatch, which probably took awhile (if the hatch was only a short distance away, the other survivors would have found it by now). And when he is shown having his breakdown over the hatch, it gives the impression that he's been there for awhile. So it's possible that Boone died in the time between where Locke drops him off with Jack and where the light comes on - the episodes might not have been perfectly in order. The light coming on, Claire's baby, and Boone's death all happen in the same night, though the light came on in the episode before. I don't think there's any real way to tell which came first.

[Homer Noodleman]

I figure somebody turned a light on because they were making a midnight snack. All of Locke's blubbering and pounding on the hatch must have woke them up.

As for the Fifth Element, didn't Milla start out stranded on a desert island in a gussied up exploitation film? Maybe this is the Blue Lagoon island where nubile young teens run around topless to titillate the folks back home.

[Australopithecus]

My wife and sister (different people)
Ahahahah

[LostMyWay]

Whatever the Hatch ends up being, I just hope that it isnt disapointing. I think I read in another thread that it could be something as simple as a bomb shelter with a flashlight hooked on to a clapper! A leftover from WWII.

Boy that would suck, for us and for Locke as well.

[soup]

...where nubile young teens run around topless to titillate the folks back home.

Homer said "titillate."

[byMaX]

They have tons of stuff salvaged and Locke is almost an alchemist, so I wouldn't be suprised if he used TNT to blow it open :D

[soup]

Yes, he'll mix up some of the stuff he rubbed on Boone's head, add some boar hair or essence of Shannon, and....

kabloooey !!!!

[thoughtform]

I was recalling what Hurley's institutionalized friend Lenny said about the numbers. He was yelling about the box being opened and that the numbers were evil and that you had to stay away from them. I don't think the numbers being on the hatch can be a good sign.

[Zim]

Some have suggested that the hatch is one of Walt's 'conjurings', that the comic book contained the hatch,but I don't think so. The numbers on the side are the main argument against this. Danielle told Hurley that when they originally arrived on teh island, the tower was broadcasting someone reading those numbers until she changed it to her distress call. One would have to believe that Walt heard these numbers someplace and included that in his summoning. Plus the polar bears and the monster seem to just disappear someplace. The hatch has been very permanent.

That leaves one interesting question: why was the tower broadcasting those numbers? Perhaps they are some sort of serial number used to indicate which hatch and where and the tower was trying to warn someone of this particular spot?
Ah well, I'm just throwing out a few more thinks. :)

Does anyone else get the distinct feeling that we dont have all the pieces to this puzzle yet? (haha ya dont say?)

[StickMang]

I have 2 words:

Pandora's Box

[ironlion0404]

If any of you watched the behind the scenes special on Lost on Friday, it mentioned that the exec producers and/or writers had one thing in common...an affinity for The Twilight Zone...well one of the creepiest/scariest episodes (IMHO) was "The Howling Man"...quick summary...the timeline of the story was before WWI...the devil was trapped by monks in a european monastary...a weary traveller needs shelter for the night...he is coerced by the devil (who appears to him as a persecuted prisoner)...only a small wooden staff holds the prisoner in his cell...its within his reach but only someone else outside the cell can free him...eventually he's freed by the traveller...and poof!..he's the devil in disguise and escapes to wreck havoc upon the world...many decades later (roughly before WWII)...the same traveller has caught the devil and has imprisoned him behind a room door with the same wooden staff...you find out that the traveller is telling the story to his friend in the house...he leaves to get help and instructs the friend to not open the door inspite of the incessant howling...the tease is the door opens as the episode fades to black

I think some insight to "what's in the hatch" can be deciphered from this Twilight Zone episode...maybe in later episodes will hint that the hatch was open before and something diabolical on a world wide scale occured...and it will happen again...with Hurley playing the role of the weary traveller...and the mysterious numbers as the wooden staff that imprisons whats in the cell...

[LoStMyMiNd]

One word = bomb

[Zim]

After the preview I saw tonight I'm beginning to think Hurley will do something. It shows for a split second Hurley at the hatch. Lenny told him that he had 'opened the box' and that he had to get as far away from those numbers as possible. I bet somehow it opens for him.

[RunLoganRun]

Welcome newbie posters - not trying to seem rude here, but most of this information has been covered in other threads in 'Theories'. I know that there were several threads discussing the "manipulation" of Locke by the hatch entity. As well as, several more covering the Pandora's Box angle. Also, at least one covering the anti-christ / devil viewpoint. Good catch on the TZ episode - one of my favorites as well. You may want to check out the master index of theories next time.

[Zim]

Actually I looked through the index and didn't find quite what I was looking for. When I clicked a link that suited me it took me to my own thread! LOL I didn't even realize one of my notions was in the ...

(*in a thundering voice*)
MASTER INDEX!!!

*ahem* I'm honored

[jcrew1179]

I suppose that "the devil" could be trapped in the hatch. But the Hatch opens from the INSIDE.

I don't think it is some sort of trapped devil. But whatever it is could be sleeping and not ready to enter the real world. I think that the control tower was signaling the exact numbers on the hatch as a way of communicating that this is the location of the Hatch/Ship.

I think that whatever it is probably crashed on the island and its contents is dangerous for the Humans on the island. Its probably some sort of predator.

[ccmerlot]

>If any of you watched the behind the scenes special on Lost
>on Friday, it mentioned that the exec producers and/or
>writers had one thing in common...an affinity for The
>Twilight Zone...

...and i heard the term Sci-Fi over and over again. There will be a sci-fi twist to this story (the psudeo-science explanation we've been anticipating), and the most obvious opportunity for such a twist seems to me to be that hatch.

[tanuki314159]

Pandora's Box

or Schrodinger's cat...
dead or alive?

[Lostapalooza]

I was going through tapes of the shows this weekend and realized - when Boone and Locke found the hatch, they were climbing an open, rocky slope, but what they've dug out appears to be a level clearing in the jungle.

[jcrew1179]

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think it was just easier for the production to "change" the scenery of the hatch to flat ground, easier to "dig" up the hatch.

The first hatch must have just been the Door buried , but now they have the hatch and its container dug out.

I don't think that the change in location has any significance, but maybe the Hatch is moving --- ooohh spooky!

[Zim]

I noticed this too. I'm guessing they (the show) had to find a more suitable spot to place the 'dug up' prop of the hatc. I thiink it comes as a showbiz judgement and not as part of the story.

[SpidermanHouston]

I was going through tapes of the shows this weekend and realized - when Boone and Locke found the hatch, they were climbing an open, rocky slope, but what they've dug out appears to be a level clearing in the jungle.

I noticed that too. The locations are very different. Locke was climbing up when he threw the flashlight. But I just took it as a continuity error.

[j88bb]

Those numbers are page numbers to Walts comic book i believe. And on those page almost all of them have aliens on them so I believe that the a beatiful monster is in the hatch which it is an alien.

[schweinhaxe]

Hope I'm not hi-jacking this thread, but as I'm not an "EZSupporter" I didn't want to start a new thread and take up precious BW, much less listen to some non-mod yahoo telling me to do a search and read all the other hatch threads(which I've done-btw). This thread seemed like the best place to post.

Anyway, here's a thought I have about the "hatch". The thing looks like some sort of container that's not meant to be (easily)opened. Maybe it contains something bad like some toxic/poisonous/nuclear waste/other hazardous material. Or maybe a lethal infectious virus/bacteria/fungus.

Some government agency buried it on the remote island with the intention of it not being found or opened. Opening such a container would not be good, obviously. Sayid's instincts tell him it would be a bad thing to open it. Walt also, for some reason, thinks/knows it's a bad thing to try to open it.

OR

Maybe it's some type of time capsule. You know like when people fill a container with such things as the newspaper, and knick-knacks representing the pop-culture of that time eg:music, clothes, other media etc. Then bury it for excavation at some designated time in the far future, like a hundred years or more. The people who open it will have a snap-shot of the events and what life was like when the thing was buried.

If the thing is a sort of time capsule, maybe it contains info or some other revelation, knowledge of which would be something terrible for the survivors to know. What exactly, one can only speculate. It doesn't even have to be a time capsule per say, it may just contain something bad for the survivors to know about. Also maybe the thing opens automatically on a timer or something and that's why there is no apparent way to open it from the outside.

I know it's a stretch, but if it is a time capsule of some sort, the finding and eventual opening of it may have been foreshadowed by the digging up of the box with the toy airplane scene in Kate's flashback. The writers seem to use the foreshadowing technique a lot in Lost.

[Air91]

My take on the Hatch.

Run, Hide, Die....

We know that a few of the Lostaways will Run (on the Raft), maybe some will die, but I think some will use the Hatch for what it was used for in the past...to Hide.

Most of what I've read on the board assumes that a hatch with no handle means it was designed not to be opened...but maybe a door with no handle is meant to keep something out (to protect the people inside) instead of keeping something in.

I could see this scenario:
A previous set of castaways find or modify the hatch or ship if it is part of a larger buried vessel and use it to hide from the others. The others bring death, to escape this the previous castaways lock themselves in the hatch, the others cannot get inside but they do bury the hatch and it's inhabitants so that they can never escape.
Our current Lostaways try to open the hatch so that they too can hide from the coming of the others. They open the hatch and rush inside closing the door behind them, only to find dead bodies and possibly a couple of previous survivors that have been in the hatch and would not open the door once it was unearthed thinking the others were still out there.

This is just a feeling. I think the general theory is that something evil is in the hatch, I would not be surprised if the writers are leading us in this direction only to flip it at the end.....the evil is on the surface of the island, the hatch was designed as a safe shelter from that evil.

[LostRockStar]

okay hatch= sumbmarine ^_^

Look at the similarities...
Submarines- open from the inside!

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=submarine+hatch/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=12vmqk5ar/EXP=1117488712/*-http%3A//www.dutchsubmarines.com/pictures/images/tonijn/boat_tonijn_hatch.jpg

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=submarine+hatch/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=12eg45p09/EXP=1117489055/*-http%3A//www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/content/images/2001_312.jpg

http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=submarine+hatch/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=13hsh7vd7/EXP=1117488301/*-http%3A//www.xirr.com/~jeremy_a/travel/europe/sweden/gothenburg/images/maritimeSubmarine4_t.jpg

They look alot like the islands hatch and even refer to the door as a "hatch" on a submarine... but the question is, if its a sub. what the hell are they using it for, and they might have a RADAR in it. That might be the "Others" head quarters, that might be the reason they knew where the raft was. A radar. .... I might be off jus a tad bit ^_~

oh and the pandora's box theory... When Locke is asked, what do u think is inside, he replies Hope. Three things came out of pandoras box, Can't remember what the other two were but the last one to come out was HOPE After everything went wrong there was still hope. So ... the pandoras box theory seems pretty reasonable

[LostInWilderness]

From Pandora and the Story of Hope (http://rrr.kimcm.dk/Notes/Pandora.html)

"Pandora's curiosity knew no bounds, she felt compelled to open the box, and so she did and out came hundreds of creatures looking like insects. The insect like creatures bit and stung Pandora all over her body her then they flew up and spread out into the room. Quickly, Pandora shut the lid and sat on it. While sitting there on the box she heard knocking coming from inside it. Now she was reluctant to open the box again thinking that she had already done enough harm. "Let me out", said a tiny voice, "and maybe I can help you". Pandora thought about it and decided to take one more chance. She opened the box and out came a tiny fairy .

"I am Hope,said the fairy, Pandora due to your curiosity you have let out all possible troubles for mankind. There will be no peace of mind for humans from this day forth. There will be greed and jealousy,insanity and lust, there will be plague and hatred,men will fight each other,wives will be set against husbands,sons against fathers,brother againgst brother,there will be famine,pestilence,vice and destruction.The world will know great sorrow..............."

Flying insects. That's kind of interesting in light of the black smoke. And people get really disfuctional after she opens the box too. Of course our lostaways were really disfunctional before they opened the hatch.

[drabauer]

Fascinating about the insects in that version of the story. Reminds me of the Egyptian plague of locusts in the Bible, studies of swarming giant ants with a curious collective intelligence in the South American rainsofrest, and ground-breaking studies of emergent life forms in current AI research.


Yeah, its all connected.

[LostInWilderness]

Someone recently wrote about how tough the hatch was and how it must have been built to withstand a nuclear explosion. A hatch that can be opened with three sticks of dynamite wasn't built to even withstand 3 sticks of dynamite, let alone a nuclear explosion. This hatch was meant to keep something else entirely out. Whatever it was meant to keep out, needed only a few inches of shielding (the thickness of the door) so why does it appear it has 10 feet of shielding underground (where it is arguably shielded by the ground itself.)

The hatch has a couple of inches of shielding from the air, and a dozen feet of shielding from the ground. Maybe the hatch is meant to keep something powerful in the ground from getting in, and something much less powerful from getting from the air. Could be the same something, and it is more powerful in the ground than in the air. I can't think of any other explanation for the design of that hatch.

[NeillT006]

A hatch that can be opened with three sticks of dynamite wasn't built to even withstand 3 sticks of dynamite, let alone a nuclear explosion.

Well, this is all a question of proximity. If you do some poking around, I think you will find that you can use plywood to build a blast door for an underground shelter adequate to withstand pressures up to 50psi resulting from small (1 megaton - apparently principal component of Soviet nuclear arsenal in the 1980s) nuclear detonations at about 1 mile.

Direct hit? You're fried.

Three sticks of dynamite exploding at a range of 0 feet unquestionably exert a greater overpressure.

Anyway, I think it is pretty obvious that the hatch is not an entrance, but is an emergency exit for some underground structure. When talking underground, it is a good idea to have another way out over and above the principal entrance. But, the problem with an emergency exit is that it can become a means for ingress by unwanted visitors. The solution is to have the emergency exit operable only from the inside.

The "window" is an interesting item. I am guessing that under some circumstances it may be a good idea to be able to tell if it is safe to use your emergency exit. It would sort of suck to pop the hatch only to find your local black smoky thingy there waiting for you.

By the way, this probably ought to be linked to other hatch threads:

Hurley Standing On Hatch-Like Object (http://p073.ezboard.com/flosttheunofficalforumfortheabcseriesfrm29.showMes sageRange?topicID=1730.topic&start=1&stop=20)

Another Hatch Theory! (http://p073.ezboard.com/flosttheunofficalforumfortheabcseriesfrm29.showMes sage?topicID=2038.topic)

Hatch Facts (http://p073.ezboard.com/flosttheunofficalforumfortheabcseriesfrm29.showMes sage?topicID=1726.topic)

Jack and Lock and the Hatch (http://p073.ezboard.com/flosttheunofficalforumfortheabcseriesfrm2.showMess age?topicID=3240.topic)

Light From The Hatch (http://p073.ezboard.com/flosttheunofficalforumfortheabcseriesfrm2.showMess age?topicID=3226.topic)

Hatch Problems (http://p073.ezboard.com/flosttheunofficalforumfortheabcseriesfrm2.showMess age?topicID=3140.topic)

N.

[LostInWilderness]

We agree Neill that the hatch is designed as an exit, not an entrance, but it is also designed with more protection against the surrounding ground than the air, assuming it is solid but for the passageway. It is not a nuclear bunker, imo. It's designed to keep something powerful in the earth out.

[Pirate328]

Maybe the island is a volcanoe? That would make a good one...

[Pirate328]

Has nayone ever read the book Island? It was a kid's book. 6-8 kids shipwrecked on an island. All of the adults on the ship died. In the end they find Little boy the atomic bomb. You know where this is going... I think that they buried little boy here. The atomic bomb screwed up the island. Things radiated... monsters appeared... zombies. That is also an explanation for the crash. The readiation screwed the plane up. The only problem with this is: "Why is the french woman not dead yet?" Who knows... maybe the radiation is gone but the terrifying after affects linger on. I think that they will find zombies and government stuff in the hatch. Aliens maybe. Maybe the french woman is part zombie. Maybe that is why she killed here son/daughter/freiends/husband (I know she killed someone(Can't remember everyone)).


Oh yeah: What was i going to say... oh crud. Oh yeah: What was i going to say... oh crud. Oh yeah: I had an ideaq about pirates being on the island. I think they crashed. There may have been let us say a few woman (3) and a few men (8-10). I think that they were on the island for at least 300 years. I believe that they passed on offspring. However because of the small amount of people they imbreed. Now there are imbreed human freaks on the island. Has anyone ever seen Wrong Turn? That would be similar.

Also here is why Arts (the teacher blew up). Jack, Hurley, Locke, and um the prison girl (sorry i forgot her name) had the same seats in order as the numbers that Hurley says are cursed. Arts did not. The hatch required those people to open. I believe that those people are tied to those numbers in other ways. They are like PHI of lost (1.618)

A little quote by mwa...

[drabauer]

Pirate, you have a lot of ideas but it would be good if you linked them to theories already proposed and discussed.

And do take the time to look up character names--it's a common courtesy around here.

Thanks!

[Pirate328]

o lord i got the point across. why did you even bother posting that. One person tells me to post in a thread and now another tells me to post outside of it. In otherwords just let me be because someone is wrong and it is ot me because i have done both. stay on subject. i was

[LostInWilderness]

Pirate writes:Maybe the french woman is part zombie.
Ok, now we're getting somewhere!

[NeillT006]

Pirate is playing games with us.

The alternate explanation is too terrifying.

The real issue is malice or whimsy. I am guessing the former.

N.

[kateisbetterthanclaire]

I think that the pirate idea is very plausible and in the next season we will learn more that will reinforce that theory.

[Argenbar]

I have been watching Lost occasionally for a while now, and as an engineer, there is only one explanation that makes much sense to me.

When you think where they are, in the south pacific, there is no suprise that they are finding buried metal objects on secluded islands. There are dozens of real islands out there with buried installations on them, left over from the second world war.

Many islands were extensively dug out and installations put in place for heavy artillery, to sink warships, either American or Japanese, depending on whose side you were on. Anyone read "Guns of Navarone"?

So what happens is the Americans (or Japanese or French) spend exhorbitant amounts of money on this island during the war and kit it out with long range cannon to take out warships, meanwhile, the Americans push the front back to Iwo-Jima, and then drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki effectively ending the war. Meaning, if I have got the flight path (and thus the vague location of the island) correct, the island doesn't actually see much use during the war at all.

This also makes sense when you see that there is no means of opening the hatch from the outside... You don't want your enemies to land on the island, stroll in and take out your artillery easily. There will be another entrance (possibly several) elsewhere on the island.

After the war, the country that made it has this enormous installation that is sitting idle, so they turn it into something else, a satellite tracking system, a seismic station for monitoring for ICBM launches, whatever. That explains the broadcasting tower, and the power cable. They man it with a minimum amount of staff and supply it with air-drops. (There may even be an air-strip somewhere on the island)

The people inside the facility probably know that there are people running around on the island, but for 'national security' don't want them to find out they have a current military presence there. Thus, they leave them to the wind and elements. (Explains the mysterious light in the hatch).

The whole abandoned installation idea also explains the numbers on the side of the hatch. Everyone knows how much the army likes to put numbers on things. It makes them happy and makes ordering repairs and scheduling maintenance much easier. Thus, a memo saying "Oil hinges on hatch number 16" makes more sense than "Oil hinges on the hatch that's sort of near the big tree and on the south-eastern corner of the island". Numbering things just makes sense if you are dealing with a large installation.

As for the polar bear attack, I don't see any reason why (if the installation is still occupied), they don't put large nasty creatures on the surface, as they obviously can't get in, and serve a good purpose of disposing of anyone who might blunder onto the island.

Who are the 'others'? An organised strike team kept in the installation in case anyone decides they want to move there and manages to best the big nasty creatures they have wandering around. Thus, it is best to get away as soon as you can, otherwise the 'others' come to dispose of you, 16mm style.

Supernatural events? Have you ever been stuck somewhere with just a few different people for company for over a month? It's not fun, and your perception of reality changes - I think the director has done a very good job of capturing that cinematically.

There - At last a theory that doesn't involve Aliens, or Religion or Hyper-physics. :D

[Argenbar]

In fact, I reckon that it was probably built by the French, given the island's proximity to Noumea and French Polynesia, as well as their continued muckings-around in the South Pacific. (Anyone remember Mururoa Atoll back in the 90's?).

As well as this, the covering for the hatch looks very reminiscent of the design for the Maginot line.... (Yet another massive underground facility built at great expense by the french in preparation for WW2)... so they would certainly have the expertise and equipment required to build it.

Also, if it was built by the Japanese, it wouldn't be manned any more (as they had their hands full losing a war - and since had their military severely restricted), and it would just be cliche'd if it turned out to be yet another secret American facility.

[Warthawg1]

If it was built by some nation involved in WW2, it would most probably have been the Japanese. The offensive forces of the United States did not build any fortified defensive positions during their island hopping campaign to reach mainland Japan.
With each new island taken, the Japanese were retreating from those areas so fixed defensive positions were not needed.

It's much more plausible that the underground facilities were part of the United States nuclear testing in the SE Pacific after WW2. It is possible I suppose that defensive military positions could have been built by the French, who did have some presence in the area.

Now the one thing about it if it had something to do with the Japanese, is that it could have been left manned. There was more than one case of a Japanese soldier here and there whose island got hopped over, were forgotten about and continued to live there for many years; not even realizing the war was over. Had the pirates on the ship been of oriental descent, that might be a bit more plausible.

Oh one more tiny insignificant thought is that the Maginot line was not built in preparation for WW2, but instead in the hope it would prevent any thoughts of renewed German aggression that would lead to another European conflict and another world war.

[allisnotlost]

Misplaced, I like your thinking and I think you may have hit the nail on the head regarding what's really going on, on the island.;)

[Argenbar]

While I think it unlikely, I would argue that it *could* have been built by the americans, seeing as they had a vested interest in that part of the world before the war. Noumea is remarkably close to American Samoa.

I don't think it was built by the Japanese, as even if it were manned by remnants of the Japanese army, it is too far away from Japan for them to have covert access to it before the war, and I don't think that they would have had enough time to make it before they were turned back by the American campaign.

My reasons for thinking the island is for artillery and not for nuclear testing is primarily because of the lack of handles on the hatch and the length of the tunnel. While they would need a lot of dirt between them and the explosions if it were for nuclear testing, (would have to be open air for this), having no handles on the hatch makes no sense (if someone was trapped up there and the test was about to happen, you would want them to be able to get to safety easily).

Underground artillery is usually deep underground for a good reason, to absorb damage from retalliatory fire. Why was the hatch buried, if not to keep someone from finding it? It was in moderate jungle, and 50 years of leaf-fall and general forest debris would bury anything if left undisturbed.

Also had a thought about the broken ladder. If the new activities for the facility did not require that particular exit, then it would make sense to seal the hatch and remove the ladder, just in case anyone actually finds it and uncovers it.

(Good call on the Maginot Line tho, I was typing without thinking, I stand chastised :) )

[Warthawg1]

I didn't mean that to chastise you. I am just a student of history, and therefore a stickler for details regarding it.

I don't think it was built by the Japanese either. I was just saying that as far as it being a defensive military artillery complex, it would be a bit more likely it was the Japanese or the French, and not the Americans.

As far as the nuclear testing goes, most of what was done in the south pacific was open air testing. The thing about it being for artillery is the depth. Underground artillery usually isn't in the ground as deep as that shaft indicated an underground complex on craphole island is going to turn out to be. See, the reason for this lack of depth is where the retalitory fire would be coming from - Naval Guns. Most Naval guns at the time had a limited trajectory. They were not fired at such a high arc to really damage things deep underground, and the explosive force when a shell hits is not so strong as to dig out mountainous craters in the ground. Most damage from Naval guns to onshore artillery came from direct hits, so all the protection needed was enough depth to get the gun out of the line of sight for the naval weapons. Plus, the guns also have to be able to be dropped out of sight, and then raised back up to fire very quickly, and that's just not possible if the artillery was hidden too deep. You just didn't need that much depth to protect artillery, and a bit of knowledge about known existing buried artillery reveals that to be true.

[clayseason1]

I am in agreement with LostRockStar (page 2 of this thread).
okay hatch= sumbmarine ^_^

The hatch reminds me most of a submarine.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/clayseason/lost/submarine.jpg

We’ve already seen a mid 19th century ship – “The Black Rock” on the island, why not a 20th century submarine buried on the island?

Perhaps the numbers literally bring people to the island. Are the numbers “etched” on the side of the “hatch” a serial number for the part?


Zim

In the previews for the next episode, Walt is pleading w Locke to leave the hatch alone. This suggests that there is a malevolent entity within the hatch.

Walt was content to remain on the island until his encounter with Locke and Walt’s sudden knowledge that Locke intended to open the hatch. After that Walt (as he told his father) needed to get off the island. This does suggest a malevolent entity. However, it could also be a turning point.

The hatch may signify a “fork” in the road. What destiny lies along the decision to open the hatch as opposed to not opening the hatch?

The act of opening the hatch and what is found may not be what frightened Walt. It may be the path that is chosen (opening the hatch) leads to dire circumstances further along the chosen path.

[Argenbar]

Umm, sorry to pull the engineer-card on things here, but the top of the hatch is attached to a *round* tube-like-object.

Submarines don't have round 'sails' (where the hatches are) on them, as it causes too much drag. You can even see from your picture that the sails are oval-shaped. Which the hatch is not.

Good idea, but i'm not convinced it's a submarine. How the heck did it get so far inland? Why was it buried perfectly vertically? (Instead of on it's side) Why was it buried so deep? (70 years of leaf-fall won't bury it that deep.) Too many unanswered questions for my liking.

[clayseason1]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/clayseason/lost/ellipticalhatch.jpg

[LostInWilderness]

If it's a sub, it's not any known sub. I don't think it's a sub.