LOST - What is the Smoke Monster?

What is the Smoke Monster?




Here it is, the big grand daddy of all LOST theories. These are my ideas about the
Smoke Monster from my research on the internet.






From their first night on the island, the "Losties" have experienced some sort of monster amongst them and within the jungle. Everybody knows it exists, some have even seen it, but nobody, not even Benjamin Linus, knows what it is! There are certain things that we do know, there are certain things that we don't know, and as the show winds down its final two seasons, we continue to learn more and more about one of the biggest mysteries that the island holds. For the benefit of us all, I have done my fair share of research on the monster. I'll outline some of the things that we know about the monster, starting with some characteristics of the monster. I'll then move on to highlight some of the times that we've seen Smokey. This will include the different "forms" that we have seen Smokey take on during our time on the island. Finally I will end this post with my personal theory on what I think the scoop is with the island's smoke monster.

Characteristics Of The Monster
There are certain characteristics that make the smoke monster unique from all of the other smoke monsters that we come into contact with in our daily lives. The first time that the monster appeared to the Losties, we never saw it, only heard it as it was rummaging through the forest. The sounds the smoke monster makes sound very unique in this situation, but there are strange elements of these sounds that are familiar to us. There are four main sounds that the monster makes. There is whisping sound that the monster makes as it is traveling through the forest. This sound reminds me of the evening hours of the summer when you walk through the long grass and hear all the grasshoppers jumping and flying around. Then there is the cracking sound that almost sounds like lightning striking a tree. This is the sound that we hear while the smoke monster is seemingly scanning a victim’s memory. Along with this noise, we see flashes of light very similar to actual lightning. It's interesting to note that in episode 1.01, Pilot part 1, Rose commented that she recognized the sounds that the monster was making. The producers have confirmed that the actual sound they used for this effect was the sound from a taxi cab receipt printer in New York City. Maybe this can help shed some light on the origin of the monster. The third sound that the monster makes is the roaring. We've heard this sound from the monster a few times, mainly while the monster is in attack mode. We've heard this when the monster killed the pilot, Eko, and when it went after Keamy's men from the freighter. We also heard this sound when the smoke monster seemingly was hurt from the dynamite that Kate threw down the hole when the monster was trying to take Locke. This sound is similar to a Tyrannosaurus Rex's roar from Jurassic Park. It's a mixture between a lion's roar and an elephant's "honk". The final sound that we hear is the most mysterious one to date. This is the sound that the monster makes when it is "reeling" something in. Most of the time the smoke monster can travel at its own leisure, leaving the ground, separating into three parts, and basically just floating around the island. But when the monster grabs onto something, it is restricted to traveling along what seems to be a distinct path, mainly along the ground, and makes a noise that sounds like a chain being reeled back into the holes on some sort of track.

To date the smoke monster has taken a total of seven lives. Seth the pilot (episode 1.01, Pilot part 1), Mr. Eko (episode 3.05, The Cost of Living), Nikki and Paulo, (episode 3.14, Expose), Mayhew (episode 4.11, Cabin Fever), Nadine (episode 5.05, This Place is Death), and Montand (episode 5.05, This Place is Death). Also noteworthy, the monster attempted to pull John Locke down the hole and was only stopped when Kate threw a stick of dynamite down the tunnel. I wouldn't say that the monster is necessarily a violent thing, yet it seems to have the island's best interests in mind and will do whatever it takes to protect it.

The only person on the island who seems to have known what the smoke monster actually is was Danielle Rousseau. Danielle simply referred to is as a security system for the island. Unfortunately, Danielle was killed last season by Keamy and his men so we are forced to postulate our ideas from tiny pieces of the puzzle. There are a few other things that we know about the characteristics of the smoke monster. Apparently the smoke monster can be "summoned" by Ben Linus through the secret door in Ben's Dharma home. To date we have seen this happen twice, one time successful the other time not so much. There is some sort of physical matter to it which allows it to grab on to things and hold them captive. It also has the ability to separate into multiple streams of smoke as we saw when Juliet and Kate were handcuffed to each other (episode 3.15, Left Behind). The monster seems to have the ability to judge its victims and scan their minds or memories. We've seen this happen three times so far on the island. The first time we saw this happen was when Locke was tromping through the jungle and saw the smoke monster (episode 1.04, Walkabout). Viewers weren’t able to catch a glimpse of the monster, but we knew that Locke was having a face to face encounter with it. Next time we saw this occurrence was in season two when the monster approached Eko and we saw flashes in the smoke from Eko's past (episode 2.10, The 23rd Psalm). Up until recently, this was our best look into what the smoke monster was doing. It appeared as if it was downloading memories from Eko's mind. More recently, we saw the monster do this memory scan to Ben Linus when he went to the temple with John Locke to be judged for his transgressions (episode 5.12, Dead is Dead). We got a "hi-def" view into the memory scan as Ben was engulfed by the smoke and memories of his daughter, Alex, were replaying amidst the smoke. We then see Ben's daughter, Alex, alive and well. But was this really the same Alex that Ben raised from infancy???

Manifestations of the Smoke Monster
There's something strange that happens to the people who have come into direct contact with the smoke monster. Jack, Kate, Charlie, Locke, Eko, Juliet and Hurley all experienced some sort of hallucination after coming in contact with the monster. Jack saw his father, Kate her old black horse, Charlie had hallucinations having to do with Aaron inside the piano, Locke saw Walt standing over the mass grave as he was about to commit suicide, Eko saw Yemi and the altar boys, Juliet has seen Harper, and Hurley sees the deceased Charlie and has an encounter with the infamous "Hurley Bird". There has to be something to these people’s suffering from hallucinations after encountering the monster. When Ben was being judged by the smoke monster (episode 5.12, Dead is Dead), he immediately encountered his own "hallucination", but in this instance, he knew it to be very real. He encountered Alex, who instructed him to follow John Locke, but this wasn't really Alex. In fact, this was a mere manifestation of the smoke monster as Ben's daughter Alex.

Through a multitude of podcasts, press releases and the producer’s manuscripts from expos such as Comic Con, we were able to confirm that the smoke monster has the ability to take on the different forms of animals and people, both living and deceased. Thus far in the series, we have seen the monster take on the following forms:

• Walt to Shannon - episode 2.01, Man of Science, Man of Faith
• Kate's Black Horse - episode 2.09, What Kate Did
• Yemi - episode 2.21, ?
• Ana Lucia in Eko's dream - episode 2.21, ?
• Emeka and the Altar boy - episode 3.05, The Cost of Living
• Yemi Eko's Brother - episode 3.05, The Cost of Living
• The venomous spiders - episode 3.14, Expose
• Walt to John Lock - episode 3.22, Through the Looking Glass
• Charlie to Hurley - episode 4.01, The Beginning of the End
• Libby to Michael on the freighter - episode 4.08, Meet Kevin Johnson
• Ana Lucia to Hurley - episode 5.02, The Lie

The bolded items above have been confirmed in one way or another by the producers of the show, while the un-bolded items have not been confirmed, but hold many of the same characteristics of previous encounters with smokey. One of the theories with these hallucinations has to do with the memory scanning that we touched on earlier. It is thought that potentially the smoke monster holds ability to scan a victim’s memory during their first encounter. Then the monster tests his or her character by manifesting itself as a person or animal from the individual’s past and putting the victim in a sticky situation to see how he or she will respond. I will go into this idea a little more later on.

Blast Door Map
In episode 2.17, Lockdown, we saw John Locke get trapped underneath the blast door in the hatch. While trapped, a black light turned on and revealed a map that had been painted on the inside of the blast door. Since then, this map has been referred to as the "blast door map". We've since learned more about the blast door map. We learned that Stuart Radzinsky was the illustrator behind the creation of the map. Radzinsky was a member of the Dharma initiative and seemed to be very involved with the architecture of the Dharma stations. Radzinsky basically exposed all he knew about the happenings on the island and about the Dharma stations on the blast door map. There are also some interesting markings on Radzinky's map that appear to be in-concurrent with the Dharma Initiative. There are a few phrases on the map that mention something called "Cerberus". There are also four spots listed on the map marked as "CV I" through "CV IV". We have been told by the producers that CV stands for "Cerberus vents". These Cerberus vents are located in the same spots as 2 of the smoke monster holes, which we have already seen. Most likely making the holes in the ground that we have seen, the monster pulled Locke and Montand actually into the Cerberus vents. Knowing these things, LOST fans have pieced together the idea that Cerberus = the smoke monster. Even the producers and some of the actors have begun to refer to the smoke monster as Cerberus. Looking a little deeper into the idea of Cerberus, you can find that in Greek and Egyptian mythology Cerberus was the three headed dog-beast that guarded the gates of Hades. The dog was set there to prevent people from escaping. We have also seen other elements pointing toward who may have been the early inhabitants of the island.

Hieroglyphs
Throughout the show so far, we have seen a heavy ancient Egyptian influence within the suspected origins of the island. We have seen the back of what appeared to be an ancient Egyptian statue, we've seen images of an Egyptian Ankh, and we've seen hieroglyphs multiple times scattered around the island. Some of these hieroglyphs have translations that may have something to do with the ancient Egyptian Gods. On the temple wall, the Ajira Airways boarding pass and the donkey wheel, we have seen glyphs depicting the Egyptian god of the sky, Horus. Also in episode 5.12, Dead is Dead, we see glyphs on the wall which seem to be a depiction of Anubis bowing down to Cerberus (smokey). Anubis is also another Egyptian god, the god of the afterlife and underworld. Relating to the smoke monster, our first glimpse of hieroglyphics has proven to be the most interesting. The first time we saw any hieroglyphics was in the Dharma station known as The Swan, more commonly known as "the hatch". In episode 2.23, Live Together, Die Alone, we got a clear view of these hieroglyphics during the failure sequence in the hatch. At Comic Con 2006 producer Damon Lindelof translated these glyphs to mean "underworld". With this translation and the Dharma Initiatives dubbed name of Cerberus, there may be a little more to the guardian of the underworld theory.

Popular Theories
Originally, the most popular theory regarding the origins of the smoke monster was that it was a million tiny nano-bots that were being controlled by somebody on the island. With the popularity of this theory quickly growing, the producers came out and squashed this idea in one of their podcasts. In 2007 the producers of the show, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, opened a question directed toward LOST fans, asking them what they thought the monster was. After receiving over 8000 responses, they chose this to be the best answer:

"I think the Monster was originally a highly advanced security system designed to separate participants in the experimental DHARMA hatches. I think it was an effect that was designed to frighten people (smoke, noise) if they strayed too far from their experiment location. (A bit Wizard of Oz like) However, the electromagnetic force has mutated it - in the same sense as Desmond experienced time travel and can now see the future after exposure - and made it malevolent and able to physically grab things in its force (Eko, the Pilot, Locke). So in theory it may be able to be deactivated, if they can find the control room for it (which would be another hatch somewhere yet undetected)."

They responded to this theory by saying,

"We were amazed at the imagination and prodigious creativity applied to answering the question, what is the Monster? We have chosen our favorite answer. Not that's it’s the right answer. Sorry, but we can't really give away the ultimate secrets of the Monster quite yet. The answer we selected might be somewhat right, totally right -- or completely off-base. But we liked it and found it very cool and intriguing. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in. We loved reading your thoughts -- and thanks for watching! -Carlton and Damon "

My Theory
Well, with all this information compiled and laid out for you to observe, I would like to share with you what my personal theory is for the origins of the smoke monster. Starting with the main points, I think that Cerberus is controlled by someone, but not necessarily completely and wholly controlled. I think that somebody has directed what it was/is to do and the monster does that by using whatever means may be necessary. I think that way long ago, Jacob and Richard Alpert were buddies who crashed on our island while sailing on the "Black Rock". While on the island, they started discovering certain properties that were only present on this particular island (electromagnetism etc). Somewhere along the line, Jacob learned too much about the island and something happened, trapping him in some type of spiritual form and also causing Richard Alpert to cease from aging. While being everlasting may be nice and all, Richard has been trying to save his buddy Jacob for hundreds of years. Richard and Jacob know how to save themselves, but they do not know entirely who can save them. This is why they have been searching for a leader throughout the years (Widmore, Linus, now John Locke). While they have been waiting to find the "chosen one", people would come to the island in search of things that are not necessarily in the island's or Jacob's best interests (Dharma, Widmore's Freighter, etc.). This is where Ol’ Cerberus comes into the picture.

Being stuck in his spirit-like state, Jacob and Cerberus have become great pals and Cerberus was asked or directed by Jacob to protect the island while they look for the "chosen one" who will be able to free them and thus save the island. To do this, Cerberus judges people's intentions and tests them. Lurking through the forest, the monster is watching the Losties and anyone else who manages to find their way to the island. It observes them and tries to figure out their intentions on being on the island. If it deems them a threat to the survival of the island, it attacks them (like it did with Keamy and his men). If it sees you as a friend of the island it, "tests" you. As we talked about earlier it has the ability to scan your memory and manifest itself as other beings. These hallucinations by the Losties, or manifestations of smokey, are a final test put on by Cerberus to judge the person's character. If it finds that the individual fails the test, it kills him or her, much like it tested and killed Mr. Eko (episode 3.05, The Cost of Living). If you pass the test, it tries to "convert" you. I think we saw an attempt by the monster to convert John Locke in episode 1.24, Exodus Part 2. Prior to this episode, we saw John Locke come face to face with the monster and Locke then claimed that he had "seen into the eye of the island" and what he had seen "was beautiful". I think that this was the point at which the monster scanned Locke's memories and judged him. Later during that season, the monster grabs Locke and drags him to one of the Cerberus vents. It would have pulled Locke down the vent, had Jack and Kate not fought it off by chucking a stick of dynamite down the vent. If you remember, after Locke was saved he said something along the lines of, "I don't think that it wanted to hurt me." My theory on this is that by pulling people into the vent and subsequently to it's home, under the temple, it converts people into pod people whose only desire is to protect the island and do whatever it takes in doing so. These people are also known as the "Others". The monster seemingly converted Ben into a heartless pod-person in episode 5.11, Whatever Happened, Happened, and it also converted the male portion of Rousseau's scientific team in episode 5.05, This Place is Death. Remember, Rousseau claimed that when they came out of the temple they were different and that they were "sick".

I know a lot of you are confused right now with what I am saying, so I will summarize my theory right here for you...Cerberus (the smoke monster) is not "controlled" by Jacob, but they are on the same team. The monster is indeed a security system that is trying to protect the island's special abilities and ultimately protect the hope that Jacob and Richard Alpert have of being saved. Cerberus kills those who pose as a threat to the future of the island and pulls those who have certain positive characteristics down the Cerberus Vents, where it converts them to pod-people whose only purpose is to protect the island. They are then willing to do anything to protect the island, as they are now part of Cerberus' "army" which protects the island, they are also known as "the others".

I know that there are some holes in this theory, just take it for what it's worth. Hopefully, as the season begins to wind down and next season when the series comes to an end, we will have more of our questions answered. I encourage you, please hit the comment button below and let me know what you think of all this mess! What doesn't make sense? What do you agree with? What might you disagree with? Please let me know...

This is a compilation of research that I have found on various websites put together to formulate my original theory for the monster. To make your own theories visit lostpedia.com, darkufo.blogspot.com and other LOST themed websites!