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The Stand and Lost Share Thematic Elements
Charlie Is Inspired by a Main Character From The Stand
Charlie and Larry Sacrifice For the Great Good
Lost Took On Other Inspirations In Stephen King's Work
It is no secret that the 2004 juggernaut Lost contains many influences. Created by J.J. Abrams in collaboration with Damon Lindelof, the mystery series was practically unprecedented at the time. Containing a large ensemble cast that was incredibly character-driven, the series focused on one character week to week. The writers for Lost pulled from many different influences, from philosophy to music and other writers -- most notably Stephen King.
Lost injects some horror elements along with characters driven to survive horrible circumstances. The master of horror is specifically name-checked in one Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) flashback where she defiantly says that King's first published book, Carrie, is her favorite. But that isn't the only inspiration Lost writers took from the prolific author. King's seminal apocalypse book, The Stand, affected many storylines of the series with one character in particular.
The Stand and Lost Share Thematic Elements
The clash between good and evil is a classic dynamic in storytelling. Out of all of Stephen King's books, this theme is most prevalent in his 1978 book, The Stand. The story features a large ensemble of characters who separate into factions under two leaders, which should be familiar to Lost fans. In The Stand, these events are triggered when a flu kills 99.4% of the world's population. Those left receive visions of either the benevolent Mother Abigail or the most despicable Stephen King character, Randall Flagg. The book flips back and forth between the two camps who battle for the souls of humanity.
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Mother Abigail resides in Boulder, Colorado, where she amasses a group of like-minded individuals and prepares them for the final battle against Flagg, who represents the Devil. In Las Vegas, Flagg holds camp in a hedonistic and sadistic community. Torture and assault are prevalent, but he still manipulates people to his side. He finds broken and confused acolytes and lures them to work for him. In one case, he plants the seeds to groom a concubine who will carry his child in Nadine Cross. He chooses Nadine because she has been abandoned by everyone in her life and is easy to control. Orphaned at four years old, she is adopted by a couple who prefer their natural-born son to her. They also die, so Nadine is given to other family members who resent being saddled with a child.
Her feelings of neglect and abandonment only intensify through the years when she can't successfully consummate a sexual relationship with anyone. At this point, Flagg makes her believe that she is being saved for some dark purpose, only for her to realize later that he is evil incarnate. Flagg is a master manipulator who is heavily reminiscent of Lost's The Man in Black (Titus Welliver). The mystery series also focuses on the epic battle between good and evil, as The Man in Black represents evil while his brother Jacob (Mark Pellegrino) represents good. Similar to Flagg, The Man in Black finds ways to manipulate his followers, most aggressively in the final season when he takes on the visage of John Locke (Terry O'Quinn). Like Nadine, Claire (Emilie de Raven) follows The Man In Black because he manipulates her by appearing as her father, Christian Shephard (John Terry). The Lost creators have always been upfront about their influences on the series, which impressed viewers from the opening shot. But these influences go even further than the classic good vs. evil trope. They molded one character after King's rockstar character in The Stand.
Charlie Is Inspired by a Main Character From The Stand
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Lost quite famously, was born in chaos. ABC came to J.J. Abrams with the idea of doing Tom Hanks' Castaway as a television series. The network paired him with Damon Lindelof, and they set off to work. Because of the tight schedule and the inability to make an overarching plan, many decisions were made on the fly. Characters such as Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Sun (Yunjin Kim) were created after seeing auditions with the actors. In a similar vein, Dominic Monaghan made Abrams and Lindelof rethink their approach.
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"The first meeting I had with J.J. about Lost, we talked about The Stand, and it kept suggesting ideas throughout the process," Lindelof said in a conversation with King (per Entertainment Weekly). "The character of Charlie was always going to be a druggie rocker, but when Dominic Monaghan came in to audition, we started saying, 'What if he was a one-hit wonder?' I said, 'Like the guy in The Stand! The guy with just this one song.'"
Monaghan plays Charlie Pace, a washed-up musician who, at first glance, is a reference to the famous English band of the '90s, Oasis. Noel and Liam Gallagher have famously quarreled in the past, which aligns with Charlie's relationship with his brother - incidentally, also named Liam. From an early age, Charlie shows an affinity for music, and they build a budding career on it. However, Liam's (Neil Hopkins) dependency on drugs spreads to Charlie, and the band Drive Shaft implodes before it ever has a chance to thrive. By the time Charlie lands on the island, he is a drug addict who lies and struggles to make good decisions. It is through his experiences, far away from the pressures of drugs and fame, that he finds a bigger purpose, just as Larry Underwood does in The Stand.
Charlie and Larry Sacrifice For the Great Good
Charlie is ultimately a divisive character, but he is designed to be that way as a good drama doesn't focus on perfect characters. Television is interesting because characters have flaws that lead to conflict. Flaws are what Charlie has in spades. His addiction to heroin influences many decisions he makes. Desperate to keep his habit going, Charlie does what he can to scrounge for drugs. This is infinitely easier when he finds a smuggler's plane in the jungle full of drug-filled Virgin Mary statues. His arc involves some of the hardest watches of the series as he attempts to baptize Aaron, Claire's baby, by drowning him in the ocean. These are setbacks that lead to a moment of self-sacrifice for the character.
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In Season 3, Charlie decides he will be the one to dive into the Looking Glass, an underwater Dharma station that is jamming all signals coming from the island. He goes down there, aware there is a good chance he will never resurface. This comes to pass when Other, Mikhail (Andrew Divoff), throws a grenade into the station. Seeing it coming, Charlie barricades himself inside the room so Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) can escape. His last valiant effort is alerting Desmond that the freighter beyond the shores of the island is not friendly. He dies for a good reason, which mirrors Larry Underwood's journey.
Adam Storke and Jovan Adepo portrayed Larry in their respective live-action adaptations.
The Stand marks the first appearance of Randall Flagg, a prolific villain in the Stephen King universe.
The Stand was also adapted into comic book form for Marvel Comics.
Similarly, Larry is a musician who has only found moderate success. Developing a drug habit of his own, Larry is in dire straits when the pandemic hits. Stuck in New York, he has to find a way to Colorado where Mother Abigail and her band of rebels resides. Larry's journey is full of trials as he is selfish and doubtful of his role in Abigail's grand plan. But as he travels to Boulder, he helps a group of survivors get to the city safely. He also bonds with a young feral boy, Leo, through their mutual love of music.
The Stand Adaptations
Premiere Date
Episode Count
The Stand television miniseries
May 8, 1994
4
CBS' The Stand
December 17, 2020
9
Larry proves himself so much that Abigail appoints him as second in command to Stu, the de facto leader who is meant to confront Flagg. Eventually, Larry travels to Las Vegas as the leader because Stu has to stay behind, and this leads to his moment of self-sacrifice. Captured by Flagg, Larry accepts his fate when a dynamite bomb gets detonated, wiping out the Las Vegas faction. Because of Larry's final act, humanity can go on just as the survivors of the island can fight another day because of the efforts of Charlie. Sacrificing himself redeems the character for many misdeeds in the past, even if Charlie's arc isn't quite as satisfying as Larry's. Larry has a gradual and natural ascent to leadership, while Charlie's redemption takes a sudden swing towards the positive in Season 3. However, his final moments are still one of the more emotional deaths on Lost, and succeeds in making his sacrifice worth it. While Charlie's character arc could have been slightly more satisfying, he was far from the last character inspired by The Stand.
Lost Took On Other Inspirations In Stephen King's Work
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Stephen King references are prevalent in Lost. References to The Stand are fundamental to the mystery series, as many of the characters are drawn from familiar places. Stu, Frannie, Larry, and others all have counterparts in the world of Lost.
"The thing about The Stand is that there are all the archetypes, and we embraced the same thing," Lindelof continued to Entertainment Weekly. "The strong, silent, heroic type. The nerdy guy. The techie. The pregnant girl. All those characters exist in The Stand, too."
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Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox), the stoic doctor who leads the plane crash survivors, is the obvious hero. He never deviates from doing the right thing, even when it sets him apart from those around him. Claire and Frannie also have many similarities. Readers of The Stand first meet Frannie before she conceives her child. Throughout the book, she forms a sort of makeshift family with Stu, which has clear comparisons to Claire and Charlie. Sayid (Naveen Andrews) fills the techie role, which is imperative when crash landing on an island. Many of his early storylines involve trying to make inventions that will take the survivors off the island.
But as Stephen King also notes in the interview, Lost sets itself apart from anything else like it. The deep dive into the character's backstories and what unites them is the point of the series. As the title indicates, all these characters are lost in some way, and their time on the island fixes some broken pieces inside them. Solving the mystery of the numbers or the monster isn't what Lost is about. It has always been about the people.
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Lost
TV-14
The survivors of a plane crash are forced to work together in order to survive on a seemingly deserted tropical island.
Where to Watch
stream rent buy
Not available
Not available
Not available
*Availability in US
Release Date September 22, 2004
Creator(s) J.J. Abrams , Damon Lindelof , Jeffrey Lieber
Cast Evangeline Lilly , Naveen Andrews , Henry Ian Cusick , Daniel Dae Kim , Harold Perrineau , Dominic Monaghan , Emilie de Ravin , Jorge Garcia , Josh Holloway , Michael Emerson , Terry O'Quinn , Matthew Fox , Ken Leung , Elizabeth Mitchell , Yunjin Kim
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