The Monster. What is it?*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

Prufrock

There probably won't be any spoilers in this thread but some might be still on series 1 and I don't want them complaining.

So what could the monster possibly be? Any thoughts?

I'll throw a crazy theory into the mix. Rose says in the pilot that one of those sounds was familiar. She is from the Bronx. There are many subway systems in the Bronx. (6 lines) May be whatever the monster is it moves on tracks. Also would explain why it can't just hop over the fences the others have and why it can seemingly split in two.

As for why a large amount of smoke can pick somebody up(poor Eko) I'm at a loss.

The producers (I think?) said in a podcast that they used the sound of a New York ticket machine for the monster. Perhaps this is what she meant?

I hope the monster wont be explained, because there is a strong chance that the actual explanation will never be anywhere near as good as the theories people have come up with. And I, for one, don't want to be disappointed by this.

damnyanks

If the others dont know what it is then I'm guessing someone from dharma will explain it (Whenever they show up)

Sad Professor

I think it's the Ceberus security system created by Dharma to protect the island. Protect it from what? I don't know yet but it must be closely related to Dharma's purpose on the island which we've yet to discover. I don't think what the monster physically is is that important.

Perhaps Dharma was trying to create a utopian society on the island and they created smokey to punish all the bad people. But at some point there was a malfunction and it started killing everyone. Maybe the Others were recruited as part of the experiment and they rebelled. The experiment failed and Dharma left/got killed off by the Others.

abelard

Deleted User wrote:

I hope the monster wont be explained.....

I think we both know, however, that that would probably cause a high level of uproar.

stevejazzx

I think it's something like this:

The moster is some sort micro metallic assembly that can operate with the extreme em field. It can controt into any shape and because of its metallic properties can channel radio signals.It is also capable of projecting holographic images. How people can touch these images I'm a bit unsure of but possibly something to do with that persons subdued sense of reality due to the overexposure to the em field i.e their senses are more easily manipulted. I don't think it's malfunctioning but just that we havn't yet seen the person who has control over it.

Sad Professor

stevejazzx wrote:

I don't think it's malfunctioning but just that we havn't yet seen the person who has control over it.

I really hope this isn't true. If it turns out there's some guy (Jacob?) in a room with a joystick somewhere controlling the monster I'm gonna be really pissed.

ZiabR

I think the smoke is the result of an experiment that went wrong. Dharma were messing with things they thought they could control, but they couldn't.

upmeath

It's a smog problem caused by the burning of the rainforest in Indonesia, it manifests itself at a random stage in every episode...

ZiabR

upmeath wrote:

It's a smog problem caused by the burning of the rainforest in Indonesia, it manifests itself at a random stage in every episode...

Genius Upmeath . I am with you.

Hyzepher

The Others build the fence to keep Dharma out - Dharma built Smokey to defend against the Others.

Hyzepher

Hyzepher wrote:

The Others build the fence to keep Dharma out - Dharma built Smokey to defend against the Others.

Could Dharma not have built the fence originally, but in the purge the Others seized control of it and the rest of the island.

Here's a possible theory:

Smokey is not malfunctioning but is doing exactly what it was programmed to do; to kill people. In Press 77 we saw that Dharma had programmed the house to explode if it had been compromised. Could Smokey not be doing the exact same thing- it had been activated after the purge.

ZiabR

I think Dharma built the fence along with the hatches. They were doing experiments and knew that there was a possibility of something going wrong. Incase something did go wrong they were safe with the fence. Either that or they built the fence after they screwed up.

Anima

Well I think that the monster is completely automated with its own artificial intelligence. I say this because 3 times the monster has been up close to the island inhabitants and it has done nearly the exact same thing each time in the same sequence. Like a computer program being executed once a condition has been met.

With Locke all the way back in season 1, he saw the monster up close but we didn't see what happened next. I think it scanned him like it did to Eco and Juliet. The actor was told to look like he saw something beautiful, well if some black smoke thing was flashing lights at me I'd be fairly awestruck as well. Then at the end of the season he tries to confront the monster and it tries to drag him down that hole and presumably kill him.

Same thing with Eco only we see a lot more of what happens. The monster scanned his memories/brain or something and goes away. He meets him again in a later episode and its as if he was judged and executed.

Now the latest person to confront the monster is Juliet and it looks like the monster was doing the same thing to her as it did to Locke and Eco. What will it decided for her? I guess only time will tell.

Of course I could be wrong and one question I have is why didn't the monster come back for Locke after it failed to grab him? It doesn't really fit the pattern of a relentless security system bent on destroying its target, so maybe it is sentient to a certain degree. Or maybe it's just busted

ZiabR

It is possible it is learning and extracted Johns past. It may not be interested in killing all people it confronts.

Anima

Well maybe he wouldn't of died if he was dragged down the hole but what else would of happened?

I mean unless theres some kind of underground facility we don't know about then I'm fairly sure it was trying to kill him.

ZiabR

Anima wrote:

Well maybe he wouldn't of died if he was dragged down the hole but what else would of happened?

I mean unless theres some kind of underground facility we don't know about then I'm fairly sure it was trying to kill him.

That is true mate, but we still don't know what drives the smoke. We don't know it is is controlled from somewhere else or wheather it is AI.

upmeath

logik wrote:

It is possible it is learning and extracted Johns past. It may not be interested in killing all people it confronts.

Yeah I think the flashy camera thing in "Left Behind" led me to believe it read memories and could read emotions

stevejazzx

I don't think artifical intelligance accounts for the smokes actions. I think it has been programmed to 'Judge' when a certain person is ready to 'move on'. Now either that means some form of spiritual transcendance (the ying and yang theme again) or just simply death I'm not sure. remember it is almost certainly sending thoughts that it has read back to some base, most probably to Mikail before his communication center was blown up, but now probably back to the default loaction of Dr. Marvin Candles setup.
It is no coincidence that nearly all our losties are murderers/killers in one form or another and are now facing judgement of one sort or another. This is probably the main research project of the others or dharma. i think there is control left in the project but there certainly was a problem with it previously......

ZiabR

stevejazzx wrote:

I don't think artifical intelligance accounts for the smokes actions. I think it has been programmed to 'Judge' when a certain person is ready to 'move on'. Now either that means some form of spiritual transcendance (the ying and yang theme again) or just simply death I'm not sure. remember it is almost certainly sending thoughts that it has read back to some base, most probably to Mikail before his communication center was blown up, but now probably back to the default loaction of Dr. Marvin Candles setup.
It is no coincidence that nearly all our losties are murderers/killers in one form or another and are now facing judgement of one sort or another. This is probably the main research project of the others or dharma. i think there is control left in the project but there certainly was a problem with it previously......

So you think the Others control the Smoke. I really don't think so. The smoke seems to be a seperate entity.

jArgHA

maybe there is a Monster flashback episode coming up soon where we'll get to see some of its nasty past

redtom

I'll tell you what the monster is - it's a Herring, and a Big ****in Red One at that...

stevejazzx

logik wrote:

So you think the Others control the Smoke. I really don't think so. The smoke seems to be a seperate entity.

First off we don't really know if the others are dharma or if dharma and the otheres are seperate. i think smokies actions is the central idea of the show. Smokey is controlled on some level i.e he has been programmed and is now 'free' to carry out his task in which case he might have artificial intelligence or simply controlled by the master of the experiment (candle/degroot/hanso). I'm going for the latter as it makes more sense to me at the moment as it makes the losties plane crash more devisive i.e not 'meant to happen' but 'caused to happen'.

ZiabR

stevejazzx wrote:

First off we don't really know if the others are dharma or if dharma and the otheres are seperate. i think smokies actions is the central idea of the show. Smokey is controlled on some level i.e he has been programmed and is now 'free' to carry out his task in which case he might have artificial intelligence or simply controlled by the master of the experiment (candle/degroot/hanso). I'm going for the latter as it makes more sense to me at the moment as it makes the losties plane crash more devisive i.e not 'meant to happen' but 'caused to happen'.

Why do you think Dharma would release the smoke into the Island to roam freely knowing what it is capable of? Or did they know.

Anima

So you think the Others control the Smoke. I really don't think so. The smoke seems to be a seperate entity.

I'd be inclined to agree. They seem to know sweet **** all , just like the losties. Maybe Ben knows something but its too early too tell what yet.

My understanding is that the Other's are not connected to Dharma or rather they're not connected anymore. I think Mikail was telling the truth about the purge that happened between the scientists and the Other's. Leaving just the Other's now. I'm not really sure how that all fits together yet. Maybe we'll find out in

Ben's flashback coming up.

As far as the monster goes, I think its been around longer than the Other's and as Juliet said "We don't know what it is, but we know that it doesn't like our fences.". Although she is a ****ing snake.

ZiabR

Anima wrote:

I'd be inclined to agree. They seem to know sweet **** all , just like the losties. Maybe Ben knows something but its too early too tell what yet.

My understanding is that the Other's are not connected to Dharma or rather they're not connected anymore. I think Mikail was telling the truth about the purge that happened between the scientists and the Other's. Leaving just the Other's now. I'm not really sure how that all fits together yet. Maybe we'll find out in

Ben's flashback coming up.

As far as the monster goes, I think its been around longer than the Other's and as Juliet said "We don't know what it is, but we know that it doesn't like our fences.". Although she is a ****ing snake.

Aye mate i agree with you also. It is possible that the smoke was there before both the Others and Dharma got the the Island. Maybe the smoke was the reason Dharma came to the Island in the first place. They wanted to study the smoke but it went horribly wrong.

Ste.phen

logik wrote:

Aye mate i agree with you also. It is possible that the smoke was there before both the Others and Dharma got the the Island. Maybe the smoke was the reason Dharma came to the Island in the first place. They wanted to study the smoke but it went horribly wrong.

Not sure if this can be considered canon or not, but apparently this is from The Lost Experience: (the collection of Lost related websites, etc, such as http://thehansofoundation.org/

http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Sri_Lanka_video

Again, I dunno if this counts as canon, spoilers, etc, so avoid it if you're not sure:

The second half of the video appears to be clandestinely-filmed footage filmed by Rachel Blake of Thomas Mittelwerk explaining a "radical" Hanso Foundation intervention project to his staff. He begins speaking as the Orientation Film finishes playing on a television monitor; it seems that this video is the one seen in the first half, above, despite its much steadier and clearer video quality. Mittelwerk explains that two villages have been intentionally infected with a Hanso-engineered virus, and that the Hanso Foundation's cover story is to provide a treatment vaccine. He reveals that their goals include a mortality rate no higher or lower than exactly 30%, as well as testing of the deceased to confirm genetic targets of their virus. In response to a question from the audience, he justifies the human cost of the operation in terms of saving humanity. There appears to be a splice missing from the clip, then Mittelwerk notices Rachel Blake's hidden position and she appears to be near capture as the video ends. However she must have escaped, or have been released, according to the timeline of the game, her appearance at Comic Con 2006 and the distribution of the video via The Lost Experience.

ZiabR

Igy wrote:

Not sure if this can be considered canon or not, but apparently this is from The Lost Experience: (the collection of Lost related websites, etc, such as http://thehansofoundation.org/

http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Sri_Lanka_video

Again, I dunno if this counts as canon, spoilers, etc, so avoid it if you're not sure:

The second half of the video appears to be clandestinely-filmed footage filmed by Rachel Blake of Thomas Mittelwerk explaining a "radical" Hanso Foundation intervention project to his staff. He begins speaking as the Orientation Film finishes playing on a television monitor; it seems that this video is the one seen in the first half, above, despite its much steadier and clearer video quality. Mittelwerk explains that two villages have been intentionally infected with a Hanso-engineered virus, and that the Hanso Foundation's cover story is to provide a treatment vaccine. He reveals that their goals include a mortality rate no higher or lower than exactly 30%, as well as testing of the deceased to confirm genetic targets of their virus. In response to a question from the audience, he justifies the human cost of the operation in terms of saving humanity. There appears to be a splice missing from the clip, then Mittelwerk notices Rachel Blake's hidden position and she appears to be near capture as the video ends. However she must have escaped, or have been released, according to the timeline of the game, her appearance at Comic Con 2006 and the distribution of the video via The Lost Experience.

Very interesting mate, not sure i fully agree on it all but there are some points that may contain some truth.

HOB-it

one question that has remained unasked is - if lostzilla is just made of smoke - how does it interact with its environment i.e. how can it pick people up or drag people through the jungle or uproot trees. this leads me to the underground theory - as it moves underground - it blows the roots of trees in its path out of the way. one other piece to the puzzle is the fact that the island is full of halucinagenic (sic) plants. has anyone noiticed these strange red plants around the island. also locke knows about these and knows that the island can cause dellusions - thus he may know the true form of the monster - thus why it hasnt done away with him yet.

ZiabR

Yes exactly. It is very possible the the smoke moves and lives underground. If you can remember back to season 1 when Locke was dragged by the smoke along the ground. You remember where it was trying drag him? Underground.

In saying that though you must rememeber how it killed Eko. It killed him above the ground and bounced him off a tree.

So the smoke is not just smoke, there are physical properties to its being but how it moves, operates is still a mystery.

HOB-it

dont forget the pilot. he was left hanging ............

another thing to think about with smokie - i think there maybe more than one. locke saw something beautiful when he looked into the monster - ecko said the fist time he looked at the monster that "that is not what i saw" and on his second encounter - it was something different altogether from his first which resulted in his demise.

i cant remember who it was by the stream that time (think it was locke) and he saw lostzilla in the reflection of the water and then dissappeared when sayid came along - as if startled - as if spying on locke and not intending to hurt him.

think of the scene in king kong the t-rex - at first we thought there'd only be one then the camera pans around to show two more - i can see the same happening in lost. open clearing - someone (maybe jack) stares down lostzilla then the camera turns around and boom - another smoke job - the two fight and jack gets away. j

ZiabR

HOB-it wrote:

dont forget the pilot. he was left hanging ............

another thing to think about with smokie - i think there maybe more than one. locke saw something beautiful when he looked into the monster - ecko said the fist time he looked at the monster that "that is not what i saw" and on his second encounter - it was something different altogether from his first which resulted in his demise.

i cant remember who it was by the stream that time (think it was locke) and he saw lostzilla in the reflection of the water and then dissappeared when sayid came along - as if startled - as if spying on locke and not intending to hurt him.

think of the scene in king kong the t-rex - at first we thought there'd only be one then the camera pans around to show two more - i can see the same happening in lost. open clearing - someone (maybe jack) stares down lostzilla then the camera turns around and boom - another smoke job - the two fight and jack gets away. j

This is true, there are more than one smoke object. whether or not they all come together to form the main smoke i still don't know but i agree with you when you talk about the river and Locke. The smoke seen Sayid coming and legged it.