You Lost Me

What follows is the original pilot script to Lost, as written by Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams. ABC feared that they were giving too much away in the first episode, and told them to give the audience this information a little bit at a time, such as over the course of four seasons of television.



Jack: Okay, everyone gather 'round. I'm Jack, we crashed on this island. I'm kind of an alcoholic and I had a really complicated relationship with my father, Christian, who was also an alcoholic.

Claire: Christian Shepherd? That's my dad!

Jack: No way!

Sawyer: Oh yeah, I know that guy too. I met him at a bar. He's proud of you.

Jack: You met my dad?

Sawyer: Yeah, I met him right before I killed this guy I thought had ruined my life as a child. He was a con-man who went by "Sawyer" and had an affair with my mother and then my dad found out and killed her and himself. It was ugly.

Locke: No way! That sounds just like my dad! He stole my kidney and then paralyzed me.

Kate: Paralyzed people can't walk.

Locke: Don't tell me what I can't do! I can walk now, obviously. I think this island is magic or something crazy like that.

Kate: Know what else is crazy? I killed my stepdad, who was actually my dad, by blowing up the house he was in. Then I went on the run for a long time. That marshall guy that's dying there was taking me to the US to put me in jail.

The "monster noise" is heard in the jungle.

Charlie: What was that, mates?

Hurley: I think it was a monster made of smoke that's floating around for some reason.

Charlie: That's bloody weird. Almost as bloody weird as me being a heroin addict due to my rock band, Drive Shaft, and my brother, Liam.

Hurley: Oh, I've heard you. You guys suck.

Sun: Ha! They totally do.

Shannon: You speak English?

Sun: Oh yeah, I do. Hey Jin.

Jin: (something Korean-y)

Sun: I speak English. I also had an affair with a bald guy who taught it to me, then he killed himself, or maybe I did. But you can't blame me, right? You used to be a really nice guy before we got married and I paid off a blackmail debt to your prostitute mother by taking a loan from my father, which led him to make you his guy who beat the shit out of people which destroyed your soul. I hope we reconcile. Wanna bone in that tent and see if we can get me knocked up?

Jin: ...boat?

Sayid: While they're boning, we should try to figure out how to get off this island. I need to get back to Nadia, this chick I used to like and who I sorta tortured once. I'm from Iraq. Did I mention that?

Michael: No. Hey, where'd Walt go?

Sayid: Oh, some grungy-lookin' pirates took him.

Michael: WAAAAAAALT! WAAAAAAALT! I wanted to be there for him, but his mom was a bitch and took him away from me. I'm trying to get to know him now. Sucks that he got kidnapped.

Locke: Hey, while you guys were talking, I found some door in the jungle.

Jack: Did you open it?

Locke: Yeah, there was a Scottish guy in there and I made him stop pressing some button. It just exploded and released a bunch of electromagnetic energy so the island is visible to the outside world again.

Desmond: Hi bruthas. I'm Desmond. I can kinda see the future. Charlie, you're gonna die.

Charlie: Okay, I'll go swim to an underwater station so we can all get rescued.

Desmond: Sounds good. Then I can reunite with this chick I liked but got separated from due to her father's meddling. It was kinda like The Notebook.

Rousseau: I found this guy in the jungle.

Ben: My name is Henry Gale!

Sayid: Really?

Ben: No, it's Benjamin Linus. I'm an Other, which means I'm part of this group of people who were on the island before you guys. I was initially part of the Dharma Initiative, but it was purged by me and other people who have been on the island a long time and may or may not be immortal. It's complicated.

Rousseau: They whisper.

Ben: Right. I'm really manipulative. If you help me escape, Michael, I'll give you back Walt. He makes birds run into doors. I don't like that and neither does Jacob, the cabin-ghost guy who runs this island.

Michael: Okay. (shoots off into the distance) I just killed Libby and Ana-Lucia. Trust me, they're on the other side of the island. Tail section.

Ben: Okay, here's Walt back. Get on this boat and then go sneak onto the freighter that's coming to kill us.

Michael: Okay.

Alex: Hey dad, what're you doing here?

Ben: Hi Alex, this is your mother.

Rousseau: Hey, I've been looking for you for 16 years.

Alex: Weirdo.

Jack: Hey Kate.

Kate: Yeah?

Jack: Pick me or Sawyer.

Kate: Who's Sawyer?

Sawyer: Me.

Kate: Oh, okay. I dunno. Sawyer, I guess.

Sawyer: Thanks, Freckles.

Boone: I'm gonna go die now.

Locke: Yeah, the island would like that.