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“Lost” isn’t just a TV show. It’s also a complete, self-contained mythology that taps into the science and technology passions of hardcore nerds. The show overflows with interesting gadgets and gizmos, and with but one episode left, we’ve decided to celebrate our favorites. We created our list from memory, but researched the living bejezzus out of it on Lostpedia, the ultimate depository of “Lost” minutia. And by the way, if you’re interested in owning some of these gadgets, tools and technologies -- all lovingly created by the department of “Lost” prop master Rob Kyker -- you can ready yourself for the auction to be held by Profiles in History this summer. And now, without further ado, our favorite “Lost” tech gear, in order of increasing coolness. (And, if you liked this story, make sure to check out 16 Secret Lost References in Videogames on our partner site, GameRadar.com)
First Seen: “Pilot, Part 1,” Season 1, Episode 1
Of all the tech gear pivotal to the series, the radio transceiver is the one we encounter first. Retrieved from the cockpit of Oceanic 815 just moments after the pilot is killed by the Smoke Monster, the transceiver becomes integral to the first few episodes of season one. Sayid tries to jimmy it into a device that can send a distress signal, but instead the Losties receive the 16-year-old distress signal recorded by Rousseau (which roughly translated to “If anybody can hear this, they are dead. Please help us. I'll try to make it to the Black Rock. It killed them. It killed them all”). The actual device is a Rexon RHP-520 Nav Comm Transceiver, which you can have for the low, low price of $249.
Members of Widmore’s mercenary crew -- most notably Naomi Dorritt -- were equipped with satellite phones, which according to “Lost” producer Damon Lindelof, are not affected by the island’s time/space distortion properties. While satellite phone technology is real (and quite badass at that), the phones in the show are props with fake GUIs.
Why create props when real technology exists? Lindelof told Popular Mechanics the following: “We didn't really want to put ourselves in a position where we were literally married to everything that exists technologically. We decided that our satellite phone would be a very modern, high-tech version of it, and created one that we thought was cool… I think that the thinking at the time was, that although these sat phones were built in 2004, that the people who had them had access to the latest technology. So it’s sort of like when you travel to Japan, their cell phones are two years ahead of our cell phones… The technology existed to build a phone like that in 2004, they just weren't readily available in any American market.”
Is it Jin’s watch or Woo-Jung Paik’s watch? That’s open to interpretation, but we can say without equivocation that the watch in question is a two-tone Rolex Daytona in gold and stainless steel. The watch is a self-winding chronometer, features a tachymeter bezel, and currently retails for around $15,000, but can be found for south of $9,000.
The compass: It’s one of mankind’s most rudimentary tools, but also one of its most essential. And in the “Lost” mythology, it bounces around time like a ragdoll. In episodal time, the compass first appears in 1961 when Richard Alpert lays out various items in front of a 5-year-old John Locke, and asks him to identify “which of these things belong to you already.” John correctly claims the compass, but Richard doesn’t yet give it to him. Next, in 1977, Richard does give the compass to John -- but tells him to give it back the next time they see each other. Little did John expect that this next time would be in 1954!
The Swan turntable is integral to perhaps the coolest, most eerie scene in all of “Lost” -- certainly the most cool and eerie season opener. An identified man wakes up to the beeping of a computer command prompt. He enters a few keystrokes into his computer, throws “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Mama Cass onto his old-school turntable, and then starts his day: a quick workout, a shower, and then an energy shake. But then things get creepy. He injects himself with some unknown fluid. Why? And then an explosion occurs! It knocks the needle off his record with a blaring screech. Next thing we know, this curious man is armed to the hilt, and is using an elaborate system of mirrors to determine who’s trying to penetrate what turns out to be an underground fortress. WTF? This most chilling of scenes is our first introduction to the Dharma Initiative, and it’s the Technics SL-Q3 turntable -- and Mama Cass’s groovy tune -- that set the tone for all the retro technology and hippie flubbery that the Dharma Initiative will reveal itself to stand for.
Like her birth mother, Alexandra Rousseau had a talent for fashioning low-tech, Gilligan’s Island-style weaponry out of random materials lying around the island. While mom armed herself with the big guns (well, crossbows), Alex made do with slingshots, which she used to fire stones at guards watching over Kate and Sawyer.
While working as a hitman for Ben Linus, Sayid is stalked by mercenaries under the employ of Charles Widmore. But their goal isn’t to kill Sayid. They only want to subdue him, so they use tranquilizer pistols: Cap-Chur #1400-C Short Range Projectors armed with Cap-Chur syringes tipped with fluffy cloth tails. Sayid is tranquilized the first time he’s attacked, leaving him unconscious for 42 hours thanks to the equivalent of three does of horse tranquilizer. The second time he’s attacked, he turns the tables on his assailant, a faux nurse who went by the name of “Tony.”
Wielded by the Others with stealth and efficiency, stun darts were used to incapacitate Hurley, Jack, Kate and Sawyer. We never get to see the guns from which the darts were shot, but we do get to see the darts take down the Losties with a high-voltage electrical discharge. Unlike real-world tasers -- which shoot darts that remain connected to their firing devices via wires -- the darts used by the Others seemed to have built-in electricity sources. Baddass technology! But also entirely fictional. As far as we know.
When we first see the film projector, Jack and Locke are using it to watch Swan orientation film number three of six, copyright 1980. Aside from the Dharma logo on its chassis, the projector is pretty much a standard issue Graflex 16mm portable film projector. Want one for yourself? As of press time, there were three days left to win one in this Ebay auction.
Wantonly idealistic, a bit hippy-dippy -- that’s the Dharma Initiative, so of course they used Apple computers. The personal computer located in the Swan Station was actually an amalgam of various Cupertinoian hardware. The machine itself was an Apple II Plus running an Apple III display, and there was also a Disk II 5.25-inch floppy drive attached. The keyboard’s right Shift button was replaced with a button labeled Execute, making it that much easier to save the world after The Numbers had been entered at the Countdown Timer’s 104-minute mark. The Swan station computer was linked to other island hardware, most likely via DharmaTel, a network referenced on the Swan’s blast door map (e.g., “No safe location for DharmaTel servers/hub/cabling or infrastructure”).
Can you remember the first time you saw Benjamin Linus? He was actually ensnared in one of Rousseau’s hanging net traps -- and calling himself Henry Gale. After some chit-chat, Sayid cuts him down, at which point Rousseau nails Ben/Henry in the back with an arrow from her trusty crossbow. The arrow easily breaks the skin on the other side, proving Rousseau’s crossbow an effective weapon despite the fact that it looks like a Gilligan’s Island prop. Seriously, look at it. We doubt it has enough bow tension to take down even a jackrabbit (or an Arzt or a Frogurt). Regardless, a crossbow is a crossbow, and crossbows are cool.
There’s just something so damn cheery about a gleaming, sky blue Dharma van. Though known to most people as the “VW Bus,” Volkswagen’s official name for their multi-passenger vehicle was simply “Type 2.” It was produced from 1967 to 1979. Aside from 8-track tape players and ample supplies of beer, we really don’t know how Dharma “equipped” these vehicles for Initiative-specific deployment. Nonetheless, they were all painted the same color and adorned with the Dharma logo -- you know, so members of other island social groups wouldn’t mistake the vans for public transportation.
When Daniel Faraday first arrived on the island, he conducted a time-travel experiment using a curious collection of hardware – namely, a metal tripod with a digital clock and some type of “beacon” attached to it. He set up this apparatus, and then phoned someone on the freighter Katana to send the “payload,” which we eventually find out is a rocket with a clock attached to it. We surmise that the times on each clock are supposed to match, but they don’t. Instead, there’s a 31 minute, 18 second differential, which Daniel describes as “not good.” But is this because the island has unique time-warping properties, or because Daniel’s beacon isn’t a beacon, but rather a Swann NightHawk Wireless Outdoor security system?!
How small does a submarine have to be to qualify as “mini”? We’re not sure, but the Galaga -- the sub the Dharma Initiative used to ferry people to and from the island -- doesn’t look much bigger than the fake-o one used in Disneyland’s Submarine Voyage ride. And, indeed, the Galaga isn’t a real sub, but an elaborate prop. The Galaga was blown up before the Losties could commander it for escape off the island, evoking a little bit of Gilligan’s Island nostalgia. Like the Losties, those island castaways hoped a fakey, comically small mini-sub -- the original owner a horribly stereotyped Japanese solider -- would be their ticket back to civilization.
Comments are closed on this article
kickthetv643
May 23, 2010 at 7:41am
the tazer dart exists and is used all the time. its called the xrep its a shot gun fired tazer round. its on tv all the time with law enforcement shows.
Keith E. Whisman
May 21, 2010 at 12:21pm
BTW where oh where is that promised weekly podcast? I mean the podcast number 142? Ahhhh broken promises. Life sucks...
Keith E. Whisman
May 21, 2010 at 11:34am
So is Lost done and over with now? I never did sit down and watch a single episode.
BTW the article is excellent and the props are extremely interesting.
Also I just wanted to share with everyone that the main www.google.com webpage that you can search from has a window with a fully usable PacMan Game in it. The Pac Man game is directly above the search box. It's pretty neat. Finally google has made searching the web fun. It's given me reason to spend more than 30 seconds at the google.com webpage. LOL..
