What do you believe the monster in ‘Lost’ really is?

Question

Tell us what you believe the monster is. We want to know what you think.

Yahoo! Answers staff note: Read 'Lost' Producers' reasoning behind choosing the best answer. http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-d8pH0dcoRKeB12yOcnUQp.9VCFos?p=19767

Answer 1

I think the monster was originally a highly advanced security system designed to separate participants in the experimental Dharma hatches. I think it was an effect that was designed to frighten people (smoke, noise) if they strayed too far from their experiment location. (A bit Wizard of Oz like) However, the electromagnetic force has mutated it - in the same sense as Desmond experienced time travel and can now see the future after exposure - and made it malevolent and able to physically grab things in its force (Eko, the Pilot, Locke). So in theory it may be able to be deactivated, if they can find the control room for it (which would be another hatch somewhere yet undetected)

Answer 2

The Monster, the Numbers, the Underground Hatches, the Others... What do they all mean and how are all of them related to one another? The Others do not control the monster, but they wish they could find out where to control it from. Right now the monster does things that are often inconsistent to human thinking. The monster could have set the leader of the Others free if it was controled by the Others, but it didn't. The monster is some kind of weapon or more or less a safe gaurd, built there on the island when the hatches were first built and placed there. Those who were over the original use of the hatches used the monster, witch is not alive, but was built to percieve people's thoughts, and to track and kill anyone who might wonder on to the island and become a problem. The monster is not really working properly at this time and it will be interesting when the controlls to the monster are found and shut down or are used to stop the others, but this will only happen toward the end of this TV Series, right when it looks as everything is going to be LOST, and then the good guys will locate a secret place by the help of Locke, which will lead to the controls of the monster. And when the controls of the monster are found, then and only then will the answer to the Numbers be revealed. Someone else on the Island besides the Others was responsible for the numbers that brought all of the people that crashed in the plane together, and to the Island. This person knew that the plane would one day crash on that island because of a devise that allowed them to look into the future. So this person used the numbers to bring a particular group of people onto that plane, so that they could come and help, by stopping the Others.

The Others are on a close by island which also has an underground fecility that they use as there main headquarters. But the Others are also in control of a couple other sercret underground facilitys that have yet to be shared with TV viewers, but will be seen as the series progresses.

The monster basically was origanally a highly stable protective weapon that got out of control and became unstable, and destroyed the Scientist who was the original mastermind behind everything on the island. It also killed many of his team and thier familys. The leader of the Others is the son of this mastermind, and he has always desired to discover and finish all his fathers work. And he is real close to finding the answers. The rest of the Others are also the surviving family members and children of those who were working with the Scientist. They were developing some really increadible things on this island.

The Others have at times left the island and visited cities throughout the world, but only to gather information and knowledge that will help them to find the secrets needed to finish what their parents started.

Alien devises found by the Scientist is what lead him to begin what he never was able to finish here on the Island.

The Darma stuff was a skeme that the Scientist set up with a government agency along time ago, to insure that supplies would always be delivered to the Island where they believed a long term experiment would be taking place. The Button that everyone has been pushing actually place a part in the supplies being dropped. If the Button was ever to completely spot being pushed the that Government Agency would no long send supplies.

The man speaking in the Darma film was actually a friend and team member of the Scientist. He also was killed by the monster.

Answer 3

I feel that the monster can't be a result of the so-called fear or paranoia of the lost survivors because apparently, this monster caused the deaths of some of the survivers on the island. Also, there were scenes where large chunks of overgrown grass were swayed and pushed, suggesting the size of the monster - I believe no amount of fear could result in such a hallucination, especially not when seen by at least three people at once.

With that said, I personally think that not only was there truly a monster - with respect to the question, I actually find the monster a little less than an animal; mainly a senseless, horrible carnivore which in all due respect, I find could have been developed better throughout the series.

I find that Lost is like a computer game with the survivors being the game characters, and like all games, there usually will be some sort of a mission that the characters have to partake and complete. The so-called monster, in this case, is like the obstacles any game character will have to face, just so the game will appear more challenging. In other words, I find the monster a cheap thrill injected every now and then where there were dropping points to the plot just to keep people watching.

So what truly was the monster in the series Lost? I will have to settle for a monster that is there, but at the same time, isn't there.

Answer 4

The monster?

The monsters of Lost are the producers or writers who think that creating more questions for the viewer without answering any of the ones before is a good idea.

Lost used to be a "must watch" show, but now, I don't know why I even bother. With every episode, more storylines are left open, which is a bit crap since there are many from season 1 that have still to be answered. I don't want to watch a show knowing that nothing will happen.

...By the time anything gets answered, someone might want to think about having flashbacks back to when the storyline first began.

..So, anyways, you want to know what the monster is? I might tell you in a few years, at the end of a season, in the last few minutes, and it'll be a bit of an anti-climax since you will have had high hopes, and will be dissapointed.. (Like how you were when you found out how the Others weren't anything special and in turn ruining all of the tension that was made about them in season 1.).. And then once you find out what the monster is, you will then need to wait until the end of the next season before you find out where it came from.

Answer 5

I really liked the show for a little while, but in some ways it went too far and got basically unbelieveable and stupid. I guess if you want to talk about the monster, I think I would have to say it is everyones fear and how they react to the pressure, stress and the situation. I guess the "smoke monster" and the crash and all that has happened could be just some bizzare out of control CIA experiment on peoples minds. It could be like a hypnosis done on everyone on the plane and everything experienced could just be some sort of virtual reality experiment ( you could have people wake up on the plane and supposedly resume life right where they left off on the plane only some of them retain some residual memories even when they were not supposed to and you have to show them dealing with that. and all the back lash that causes, or have them wake up from the hypnosis and be regainging awareness and the plane really crash then and leave us hanging as to the explanation. I like this ideas it is interesting and has a lot of options)...or they crossed into some sort of other deminsion caused by some phenomon in the sky...Who knows at this point it is very far-fetched and the only reason I keep watching is the characters are intriguing. It is the smoke monster and the polar bear that has basically taken things too far into the stupid realm. The crazy others that is believeable if not just way too weird, but the polar bear and the smoke monster...stupid and it blows the whole show.. Give those things up and it is a hit.

Answer 6

I don't think that the monster has something to do with people's imagination, fears etc.

It might be an alien or a robot because it has such powers. It could also be the result of an experiment and I believe that the monster is connected with the mysterious powers of the island and the emission of magnetic rays must have had a big effect on it during the years.

The monster could also be the reason of pushing the button every 108min. otherwise more monsters are alerted. We know that the plane crashed because the button wasn't pressed on time and the monster was active for a period of time after that. Then it calmed a bit and reappeared after the hatch blew up so maybe the emissions are a source of energy for those creatures.

The monster/alien must posses some telepathic abilities as it transformed into Eco's brother and it rather lacks human senses such as vision. It also seams to do everything to keep the survivors on the island and sometimes to lead them in a certain direction. When John "talked" to the island his mind was opened both ways by the drugs: not only to transmit but also to receive which might support the telepathic theory. There is also an interesting fact that the island "talks" through the visions of dead people. The smoke monster CAN transform into a dead person so maybe it's the monster talking - not the island?

All in all, it's not completely clear what the monster is after. Sometimes it kills, but it's not the main goal or it would have killed everyone. If it really appears in the form of visions, can its goal be the same as survivors': to escape from the island and the "others"?

Answer 7

I'm a little concerned that "Officials from LOST" are asking this question ... makes me wonder if perhaps you're trying to flesh out an idea that you began with but that never fully materialized (same as with the numbers ... you went to a lot of effort to work those numbers into a variety of episodes, and now we're hearing you say there's no particular significance to the story. If this is true, fans are going to feel really cheated).

Anyway, the smoke monster: If it's really a 'security system' as Danielle said then it would likely be man-made. It seems to hang around just that one section of the island, from beach toward inland, but not where the tailies were found. It also seems to be subterranean, since it seemed intent on dragging Locke into that hole at the end of S1 (and why hasn't anyone explored the location of those tunnels. These people are living on an island with a monster that nobody seems curious about, to say nothing of the radio tower that nobody is trying to find, nor do they seem interested in determining any use for the Medical Hatch, which could certainly house a few of them, they're not trying to figure out why food dropped from the sky ... they have an amazing lack of curiosity)

Anyway, I guess I think that Dharma must have been trying to create something for some portion of the island but I wonder if it went 'bad' and became something they couldn't control... or if it was meant to be something contained within one of the hatches, but escaped somehow.

I hope you're reading the SSB theories over at abc's Oceanic site. There are some excellent SMOKE MONSTER theories over there.

Love the show, hated the break (fie on all you whiners who said you didn't want reruns!). I'd rather have a new show every OTHER week than go through a 13-week drought again, but personally, I didn't mind reruns. They give some of us without TiVo a chance to catch things we missed the first time around.

One suggestion... get rid of Nikki and Paulo, and instead bring Lucky Vanous onto the island!! (sigh)

Answer 8

I believe the monster is an ancient spirit that lives on the island. It was maybe once worshiped by the islands natives and possible came from a volcano. An outsider discovered it one day and that's why the Darma Initiative was built on this island, to study the monster. This is why the labs are buried underground so that the monster couldn't attack the scientists. But they were too naive and are all dead now. While still alive, the evil scientists tricked or captured innocent people onto the island to see what the monster would do to them. Some of these people are now the others, who were brainwashed by the scientists. They are visited year to year by a person of important nature, such as the President. The government knows about the monster and the Darma Initiative. But they keep it a secret because the secret cannot get out to the public and the monster needs to fed or else it will become angered and cause mass destruction. No one that gets onto the island can ever leave. Of course, this is only one of MANY theories. I guess we'll know more soon!

Answer 9

I'm a little conflicted about this particular subject. At first I thought it was a dinosaur...not now. Then I thought it was a just a mechanical device used to protect the island against unwanted inhabitants, which I still feel could be a possibility, but as a seperate entity from the so called "monster". I believe that the "others" have control over the black smoke that appears, which is the raw form of this monster. I think that is has to be some kind of material that carries the desires of the "others", like one big mind melt, which allows them to conjure any form, perhaps they don't have total control over it. It has something to do with the magnetic force and the experiments that they are performing on the island. Experiments in mind control. The "others" have files on everyone so they already know their fears and what to manifest, which is eventually given more power when confronted by that particular person. I need to know more about the "others". They appear to have been there for along time and still have pretty good connections to the outside world for them being on such a remote island. How do they have the ability to not leave footprints or keep from making the slightest sound? Why be overly protective over the baby and give him shots, perhaps the vaccination keeps them from being able to manifest a fear. They have taken all of the children away. There has to be some relevance between the vaccination, the monster and the others.

Answer 10

"Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is."
---- German Proverb

And the cliche, but what I believe to be very apt to the question,

"The only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
---- FDR - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

In the beginning, that is exactly what I, along with all the other answerists, believed. It was the characters' fear giving it the strength when they were frightened, such as the moments when the characters were killed due to fear or being mentally weak. When the fear of the character was absent and they stood or fought back, the "monster" did not have the strength or ability to defeat or overcome the LOSTee.

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear."
--- H.P. Lovecraft

The popular theory also made some sense of the Great Others War.

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." ---Bertrund Russell.

It made the only plausible sense of experimentation and murder of the New Kids on the Block LOSTees by the Others. Plus, the LOSTees did not, and apparently after numerous flashbacks and revelations, still do not even know each other.

There are many reasons to be afraid everyday on the "island." Afraid of themselves, each other, each "other", and having to survive.

"Only when we are no longer afraid are we free to live."
---Dorothy Thompson.

The monster seems to appear randomly. At the beginning it was a great mystery. Then, after creating an"other" group of people, it seemed the monster lost its purpose or its neccessity. But, I think, it may be that the monster only appeared when in the moments of the greateset uncertainty or vulnerability; thus the moments when were most afraid.

I believe the monster has to be "fear".

In retrospect, I do have to say that after almost every twist or question has been explained to us scientifically; it seems like a desperate move to toss the monster up to voodoo doll magic.
Plane crash was magnets, the others are mid 30-40 retirement community gone awry, there is a second island everyone missed, and countless (plane, balloon, boat) crashes on an unknown island.

The real monster answer better be impressive.

Or maybe the show is based on the whole "we are living in a sleeping childs dream, and when he wakes we will all be gone" thing.

Who knows.

Answer 11

What the hell kind of question is this? Now don't get me wrong, I am a HUGE LOST fan (and have been from day 1), and am an avid supporter of the LOST story, but seriously, what the hell? I realize that the first season was golden (beautifully shot, genius-ly written, and extremely encapsulating) and the second season started the long cliff-hangers where viewers were worried about un-eventful episodes. Nevertheless, I have always stood by the story and believed that the producers knew where they were going from the start (even after the loss of an original writer). But this kind of crap really starts to worry me...I am afraid that they don't KNOW what the monster is, and can't justify any ideas of their own. The monster has changed faces so many times in the course of the series, I think the writers might have become lost themselves. Why else would they bump the airtime of the show an hour later anyways? I have seen shows change dates and times because they are struggling, and after this long break, I am afraid LOST is getting there. I really hope I am wrong about this, Wednesday nights used to be such a good thing to look forward to, and the discussions would last all day Thursday at the office. I just hope that we're not discussing the unknown.