A tropical island where the passengers of a huge plane unexpectedly found themselves, a primeval jungle, from the depths of which mysterious creatures emerge, from bloodthirsty predators to unknown monsters. What are the dreams of people who have fallen into such a mess? Of course, about how to survive and return to their native lands. The same feelings drive the heroes of one of the most successful Hollywood projects of the 2000s, the six-year-old and billion-dollar television series Lost. The creators of the successful film did not spare money on special effects, and the scriptwriters’ fantasies turned heads even to sophisticated lovers of the most fantastic stories.
What was not in this film: animals from different continents, which by some miracle ended up on an island in the Pacific Ocean, ancient idols and gods come to life, savages with paranormal abilities. And even a column of black smoke, which takes on the guise of either a person or an animal and turns out to be an almost omnipotent master of the island, living on it for many years. Most viewers of the television series perceived all these revelations as pure entertainment, rejoicing at the opportunity to get away from everyday worries. But “highbrow” viewers were looking for hidden meanings with this series.
There is a basis for such conjectures: the heroes now and then meet with their past in the form of relatives and friends buried in their native lands and miraculously resurrected on a tropical island, “fall through” into parallel worlds that allow them to “replay” the events that have already occurred, build explanations for what is happening one the other is more bizarre. In the end, the viewer gets the impression that the whole world of the series is a solid illusion in which you cannot distinguish truth from delusion or fiction. This film is what the audience of the twenty-first century, living in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of events, longs to see. Like ourselves, either mentally diving into the past, or trying to penetrate into the future, the mysterious island and its inhabitants travel through the expanses of space and time.
“This film is an allegory of the unconscious,” many fans of the series believe, pointing to the similarity of the plot and characters with the insights of Freud and his followers. Others see it as a parody of the classic Robinsonade, a giant vinaigrette in which the incompatible is mixed – outright mysticism and references to the latest scientific hypotheses such as theories of the origin of the Universe, ancient gods and modern technologies, stereotypes of the behavior of modern citizens and ancient, like humanity itself, occult rites.
Many viewers and critics consider this series a gigantic charade, a puzzle, especially since this idea was supported by the masses and the filmmakers. So, the premiere of the last series was accompanied by online “walkers” and quests, where you could participate in alternative versions of the adventures of the heroes and try to unravel the mysteries disturbing them. Many viewers pointed to cleverly built-in Easter eggs containing references to both previous series and other mega-popular stories like The Lost World or the next adventures of the tireless Indiana Jones.
And yet, most viewers agreed that this film is an allegory for the development of the human soul and tells about life after death. It is no coincidence that in the last of the episodes, the surviving heroes fall into an analogue of the biblical purgatory, where omissions are revealed and all secrets are unleashed.
“I realized that my life, which seemed like a chain of misses and mistakes, led me to a goal determined by Fate itself,” says one of the film’s devoted fans. Others talk about how they managed to reconcile with spouses, parents or friends, learn to accept defeat without despair, and not revel in pride when they win. Many viewers find in this film references both to ancient legends and myths, and to the discoveries of modern psychologists who have studied the labyrinths of the human soul, but have not penetrated into the last secrets. The Survivors are compared with the Odyssey, whose hero also overcame thousands of dangers and returned to his homeland, with biblical revelations and with the bizarre world of the Thousand and One Nights. This film leaves many mysteries to be unraveled.
