Continuity errors are just a byproduct of filmmaking. Virtually every single movie and TV show has has them, and no matter how good the editing or filmmaking, mistakes will pop up from time to time. Yes, some movies obviously have more than others, but even the most studious filmmakers let a few continuity errors slip.
Some are easy to spot, and some are barely noticeable. And when it comes to Lost, there are way more continuity errors than you may have thought. Again, this is through no fault of their own — it’s just the way it goes sometimes.
Cindy’s Announcement
One of the very first continuity errors of the show is Cindy’s seat belt announcement. In Jack’s initial flashback, you can hear Cindy saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, the pilot has switched on the fasten seat belt signs.” Fair enough. But during Charlie’s flashback, we hear her say, “Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned on the fasten seat belt signs.” Not only did she change “switched” on to “turned” on, she changed “pilot” to “captain.” Now, we’re not one to judge these sorts of things, but who calls airplane pilots “the captain?”
Walking Couple
Lost contained a brief glitch in the matrix that many of you probably didn’t notice. It comes in the show’s fifth episode, titled “White Rabbit.” While Hurley, Charlie, and Jack discuss the water shortage, Jack blurts out, “I’m not deciding anything!” While he’s saying this, a woman and a man can be seen walking in the background. After Hurley asks, “Why not?” the camera cuts back to Jack — and the exact same couple walks past again! Spooky. Is this a mere continuity error, or unexplained island magic? You be the judge.
Teleporting Jin
Interweaving flashbacks is a monumental task, and it must have been a nightmare for the continuity department. But something quite major managed to slip through the cracks. During Jack’s flashback in “White Rabbit,” he blurts out “No!” and turns to look around in embarrassment. When he does this, you can see Jin standing in the lineup next to Jack. However, the very next episode is a Sun flashback, and we see the same event from her perspective. In this sequence, Jin actually gets in line behind Jack, rather than in an opposite line beside him.
Sawyer’s Changing Hair
In one of the show’s most famous scenes, a weak and recently tortured Sawyer asks Kate for a kiss in exchange for Shannon’s puffer. Of course, Sawyer doesn’t actually have it. He just wanted a kiss. Anyway, observant viewers may notice that Sawyer’s hair repeatedly changes throughout the sequence. In some shots, his hair swoops down in front of his eyes in a right-to-left direction. In other shots, his hair is parted in the middle and swooped off to the side. And seeing how his hands are tied, we don’t think he parted it himself.
The Hatch’s Location
This is another pretty big oopsie by the prop and production design departments. In “All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues,” Boone and Locke discover the famous Hatch in a rocky area. Numerous large rocks can be seen littered around, and the men appear to be situated at the bottom of a valley. However, later episodes clearly show the Hatch in a flat jungle clearing without any rocks or valley slopes to speak of. It’s possible that Boone and Locke moved all the rocks, but we seriously doubt that.
Goodwin’s Body
Leaving Season 1 behind, we come to the problem of Goodwin’s body. Or, more specifically, the area surrounding Goodwin’s body. When Ana Lucia impales Goodwin in the episode “The Other 48 Days,” his body can be seen laying in a grassy area. Tall and shrubby grass, yes, but grass nonetheless. However, when Jin comes across his corpse in “…And Found,” the area clearly consists of dense jungle vegetation, including clear and prominent ferns.
The Hatch
There are countless issues plaguing the Hatch. Firstly, the depth of burial. The Hatch significantly changes in depth between Seasons 1 and 2. By the end of Season 1, Locke had unearthed much of the Hatch, yet in Season 2 it is buried and not as exposed. The size of the door also changes between scenes. In earlier sequences, the door was quite small. But when Locke and Jack peer in, and later when Eko emerges, the door is noticeably larger and wider to allow human passage. Finally, the door itself changes from wood to steel between episodes.
The Sandy Ground
Ben’s transportation is one of the show’s most inventive and visually absorbing sequences in the entire show. It’s just too bad that it’s marred by a major continuity error. When Ben initially transports himself in “The Shape of Things to Come,” he can be seen waking on a very dry, hard, and cracked surface. However, when he raises himself from the ground, he can be seen laying on a very sandy and smooth surface. We get the gist of his location, but you have to admit that that is one major goof for such an important sequence.
The Compass
Another pivotal sequence shows Alpert testing a young Locke in his mother’s apartment. Part of the test involves laying out numerous items for Locke to gauge, including a comic book and his compass. When Alpert lays the compass on the table, the little protruding part that opens the compass can be seen pointing in a northwest direction (about 10:00). However, this compass later changes positions numerous times throughout the scene — sometimes the protruding thing can be seen pointing entirely west, while other times it’s pointing straight up in a northerly direction.
Adam And Eve
Perhaps the biggest and most outlandish continuity error comes in the form of skeletons Adam and Eve. In “House of the Rising Sun,” the Adam and Eve skeletons are separated from one another and are certainly not laying side by side. However, in the controversial sixth season episode “Across the Sea,” Jacob places the Man in Black and his mother right next to each other. Either he should have placed them apart (as seen in “House of the Rising Sun”), or the skeletons should have originally been seen laying next to each other. We don’t know who let this slip, but it’s a bad one.
