"I went to a place to eat. It said 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered french toast during the Renaissance". --Steven Wright ... If you are a devotee of time travel, check out this song...

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost

I mentioned in my review of the FlashForward’s fine premiere last week the Oceanic Airlines billboard that appeared in a Los Angeles scene. I said it was a nod to Lost. I think it’s worth another blog post to say it’s much more.

What that billboard does is proclaim that FlashForward and Lost are taking place in the same universe. It’s a universe alternate to ours in which there is no Oceanic Airlines. But it’s a universe in which all the strange phenomena of Lost – including Oceanic Airlines and an island and people that can jump through time – exist or existed.

Oceanic Airlines in FlashForward is in effect a portal that connects both ways between the people and events of Lost and the people and events of FlashForward. Since FlashForward takes place in the present and six months into future, and Lost takes place a little and much further back in the past, that can work.

The people part of the portal are especially significant to consider. Jack in Lost could end up in some episode of FlashForward – not just the actor Matthew Fox but the character Dr. Jack Shephard. Mark Benford from FlashForward could appear in Lost.

In some cases, though, it could get a little complicated. Olivia Benford in FlashForward is played by Sonya Walger, who also plays Penny in Lost. So the actress would pretty much always have to be Olivia in FlashForward, and Penny in Lost, lest the viewers get totally confused and crazy. If Simon, played by Dominic Monaghan in FlashForward (we haven’t really met him yet on the series), were to show up in Lost, viewers would have a hard time understanding why “Simon” looked just like the late Charlie Pace.

Fortunately, Robert J. Sawyer, the author of the FlashForward novel upon which the series is based, doesn’t look much like James Sawyer from Lost, so we would be ok on that score.

But whichever ways these two series go, we could be in for some fascinating crossovers, or, who knows, maybe none at all.

See also FlashForward Debuts

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

review of Lost Season 5 finale, with links to reviews of earlier episodes


6-min podcast episode about Oceanic








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12 comments:

Unknown said...

Along the same bent, have you noticed some parallel links between Fringe and the X-Files?

dawn said...

If you notice the Ocenic billboard says that the airline has a perfect record. Does that mean the past was changed and lost never happened no plane crash

Paul Levinson said...

That's an excellent observation and point, Dawn.

It indeed would mean, if the two series share the same universe, that Lost will conclude in a way that changes the past of Lost, so that the crash never happened.

Paul Levinson said...

snobank - yes, Broyles mentioned the "old X designation" in the Senate hearing, and of course there was that X-Files clip in the victim's apartment (but that suggests that Fringe is actually in our universe, not the X-Files, since watching the X-Files on television is what we do or did :)

Anonymous said...

Very interesting theory! However, I was wondering how this find from a savvy Lost fan would fit into things. My friend Martin spotted a curious poster on the side of a bus during Flash Forward's pilot -

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v60/hobbitpirate/screen%20captures/fflostbus.jpg

Paul Levinson said...

Cool screenshot. If true - if it was really in the episode - it could well mean that FlashForward is in our universe, where Lost is a TV show, and not in Lost's universe, where the events in our Lost TV show are really happening...

Or, depending upon exactly where in the FF premiere the bus poster appears, it could represent an alternate universe - ours, with Lost as a tv show - which something in FlashForward will cause to change.

At very least, the two posters - Oceanic billboard, and Lost on the side of the bus - are contradictory, since one comes from inside the Lost story (Oceanic) and the other is about or outside of the TV series (billboard for Lost).

Which is why this is so much fun :)

Carina said...

Also, on FlashForward, they play the same soundbyte at the close of a set of scenes, just before commercial break. It is the same electronic soundbyte as on Lost.

Paul Levinson said...

Welcome back, Carina! Last time you were here, it was, when, 2 seasons of 24 ago?

You know, I had a flashforward back then that you'd be returning...

Carina said...

It's been a while, indeed. Things got very busy. Here I am....I guess that makes you a prophet? :D

24 had a great season this year, and I was glad Cherry Jones won an Emmy for her portrayal of President Taylor. Too bad Kiefer was passed up, and I wish Sean Callery had won "Best Musical Composition." Ah well, one more year left.

David Vox Mullen said...

Here's a fun trick. Get your stopwatch out and go to LOST season 3 Episode 8.

At the scene where John & Desmond are in the Swan and the "system faliure" alert starts. Start the stopwatch right at the moment the final red countdown flipper flips it's final flip.

See how long it takes before Desmond turns the failsafe key.

All that crazy Electromagnetism lasts for how long?

Unknown said...

Oceanic Airlines is a fictional airline used in tv shows.

They arent crossovers.

Paul Levinson said...

I'm afraid your logic escapes me.

It's precisely because Oceanic Airlines is fictional that a cross-over possibility exists.

If Oceanic Airlines were real - or if the billboard said United Airlines - then there would be no reason to think there might be a cross-over, because then a more reasonable explanation would be that both fictional shows were drawing on our same common reality.

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