Lost is perhaps the ultimate in TV fiction. The storytelling is the stuff of vivid imaginations and it's gotten millions watching and wondering and tuning in for more. Of course, in the midst of all that fantasy, some things we've taken as fact, like most of the technology. For instance, I don't know about you, but I believed those satellite phones they've been using since Naomi parachuted onto the island last season were the real thing. Well, guess what, it's no more of a reality than Mr. Spock's tricorder on Star Trek!A spokesman from the Lost production company confirmed that the devices are, indeed, supposed to be satellite phones. And it's a product they've invented; in other words, pure fiction. When a Globalstar Inc., a satellite phone network, was asked about the Lost phones, a spokesman said, "No satellite phone handset that I am aware of has any form of touch screen." For touch screens, you need to contact Steve Jobs at Apple. There aren't even any photos available of the Lost touch screens used in the episodes because they're CGI effects added in post-production.
That's not the only invention at work. Those GPS monitoring features depicted on Lost using those sat-phones are also a stretch in credibility. The Globalstar spokesman said, "No handset I know of can track another specific satellite phone."
Well, nobody said that Lost is real, right? If it was, Hillary Clinton might be sending a smoke monster to stop Barak Obama from running off with the Democratic candidacy.
[via TVBarn]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-21-2008 @ 11:54AM
adam said...
As we saw in last week's episode, time may be moving slower on the island. Maybe those phones are from the *future*
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2-21-2008 @ 12:32PM
superbagman said...
Barack Obama is spell with a C, not Barak.
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2-21-2008 @ 12:38PM
Keith McDuffee said...
Garmin has GPS units that double as walkie-talkies that also transmit one's location. So I don't see that it's that far fetched.
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2-21-2008 @ 12:52PM
kickit said...
Interesting. I don't watch Lost so I don't really have a comment specifically to it. But I've noticed another thing that TV shows and movies consistently tend to do. Whenever characters in a show/movie at tracing a call, either to a bad guy or whoever else, they always try to keep the person on the phone for a certain amount of time so they can get the trace. It always takes some time, and if the person hangs up, they are screwed.
I've asked people in the criminal justice/law enforcement field, as well as other technology savvy individuals, and all of them agree that what you see in TV/movies is incorrect. They all have told me that the trace happens immediately, even with cell phones which use service provider towers to estimate where the cell phone is.. usually down to a pretty exact (or close to exact) location. If just a regular old police station can do this, how come such technologically advanced fictional agencies such as CTU (24) can't do this?
To look past this, I usually just attribute it to the fact that the "bad guys" must be using some uber crazy encryption that makes it so regular traces don't work. But they seem to do this even in movies and shows that don't have as high-tech criminals as 24.. where there is no indication that the criminals are using any special untraceable phones.
Anyways, always thought this was interesting, and kind of weird that even today's day and age of instant tracing, TV shows and movies are still playing up the whole "keep the bad guy on the phone for a few minutes" bit.
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2-21-2008 @ 1:25PM
bacontaco said...
Funny that you mention that, since the whole "keep the bad guy (well, girl) on the phone" deal happened on Lost too...
2-21-2008 @ 2:03PM
Akbar Fazil said...
I wouldn't say exactly it is immediately, but for the most part it is alot faster than what we see in films/tv. But hey, any chance to inject extra drama is something authors have been doing forever.
However, alot of the "keep the person on the line" drama is due to the person masking their actual location so the trace has to break down where the false connections are and find the true source. This is for the most part real.
2-21-2008 @ 2:08PM
Akbar Fazil said...
please ignore the last sentence in my post. I completely missed that you mentioned this same thing already.
2-21-2008 @ 3:24PM
David said...
They're "fictional" now. So were most non-satellite cell touch screens two years ago. I highly doubt they'll still be "fictional" by the time Lost ends it's run in 2010.
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2-21-2008 @ 5:59PM
las6 said...
I'm really hoping that you just forgot the "sarcasm" tag from this entry. Who on earth thought that there'd be a market for touchscreen sat-phones?
And as far as the tracking thing goes, you obviously didn't pay enough attention when watching the show last time. That Faraday dude (daniel?) said that the Ship was actually sending them the gps coordinates of the gps trackers that the other freightees(?) were wearing. So the phone just displayed the data, nothing more.
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2-21-2008 @ 8:15PM
SImpression said...
i have a feeling he might have been referring to how the Freighties were able to pinpoint jacks location throught the phone, but i maybe wrong.
But yeah i was going to say something about that too (how they weren't tracking the phones but those trackers they were wearing.)
2-22-2008 @ 2:24PM
sky king said...
If someone brought sat phones to the island, why don't they call someone to come rescue them?
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