Been there, 'Saw' that?

[Xanderman]

So I watched Saw last night (first one) after not having seen it in a long time, and was amused to discover two actors from Lost on it in similar roles. They were nobodies to me previously, but now that I'm watching Lost, they're not. Funny how that works.

Anyway Miles was a cop in Saw, and had an obsessed partner (who was on the hunt for someone for revenge). And now here on Lost he's apparently been type cast as a cop again with a similarly obsessed partner (Sawyer).

Ben played a mysterious villain who only seemed to be like the man in charge in Saw, when in fact he was just the puppet of someone else. Very similar to the Ben/Jacob thing. Also, Ben said that he was just "following the rules" in Saw, and of course the idea of there being "rules" is something we have on Lost with Smokey and Jacob and the mysterious island.

Jacob is basically Jigsaw. Jigsaw tried to push people, put them in situations where they would face choices related to life and death struggles to make them appreciate the value of life, etc. Jacob of course has been doing similar things, setting up his own crazy chess game with human pieces toward an "end game" only he can foresee.

Also, there was a doctor in Saw who suffered a whole lot, and we were shown in his backstory that he was tempted to cheat on his wife at one point. Jack similarly came close to cheating on his wife but didn't go through with it. And as we all know, "Jesus Jack" is the sort of guy who would give his own arm or leg if it meant helping/saving somebody he cared about, which the doctor in Saw literally did when he sawed off his own leg/foot. lol

So congratulations Lost, you've successfully ripped off Saw, and nobody was none the wiser. (Until now. heh)

[Tabularasa]

Except for the fact that Lost came out a whole month before Saw. Also a lot of these themes have been explored by others. Saw took a lot from other films/shows. If anything Lost ripped off The Stand.

[superhippie2000]

i love the saw movies and ya some things are very similar. also how ben (who was the fake jigsaw) got tied to the tree like the 2 dudes in the bathroom. i thought ilana was going to zap him if he didnt dig faster lol.

as for lost coming out before saw. thats true as in being released but i think the saw story was created before lost. not totally sure and think before the saw worlwide release it was like only released in a couple places previously and think it was considered an indy film that got expanded. guess similar like the movie Clerks. but either way they basically were thought up around the same time so dont think anyone got any ides about anything. i do enjoy how both saw and lost have flashbacks and let us learn about the characters. who they are where they come from how everyone is connected. really like learning about characters and why things happen. saw and lost arent typical ok lets kill people cause they are stupid or lets just hang out on an island making coconut radios haha.

[Xanderman]

Except for the fact that Lost came out a whole month before Saw. Also a lot of these themes have been explored by others. Saw took a lot from other films/shows.

Ben and Miles and Jacob etc didn't make their appearance until later in the series. And the Jack thing I mentioned didn't make it into the story until the second or third season. Sorry but the type-casting and direct Saw similarities are clear as day to me bud. And I never said Saw was necessarily original or didn't get ideas from elsewhere itself, afterall what/who doesn't? I'm merely pointing out how Saw itself may have (or likely has) directly inspired things we're seeing or have seen on Lost. Such as the choice of some actors and the roles they would play, for one thing.

Other similarities:

- Early on when Ben was first introduced, Jack, Sawyer and Kate were kept prisoner. And we would see that Jack's captors seemed to know all about his life/past/wife etc (very Saw). And of course as I mentioned Ben seemed to be the leader for a time, but we would eventually discover he was just doing what he was told himself (just like his character on Saw).

- Jigsaw was dying and searched for a fitting replacement for himself, to carry on his mission/work. Jacob died (and likely knew he would die ahead of time), and similarly was looking for or recruiting possible replacements/candidates.

- Jigsaw was dying from a tumor. Similarly Fake Jigsaw aka Linus had a tumor at one point.

There are other similarities. But for the ones that come from later movies, it becomes harder to pinpoint which aired first, the Lost events or the Saw sequel's. But my guess is Saw's came first for the most part.

i love the saw movies and ya some things are very similar. also how ben (who was the fake jigsaw) got tied to the tree like the 2 dudes in the bathroom. i thought ilana was going to zap him if he didnt dig faster lol.

saw and lost arent typical ok lets kill people cause they are stupid or lets just hang out on an island making coconut radios haha.

Lol. Jigsaw was a bit of an ass with some of his choices though, especially when it came to the first movie. The doctor really didn't deserve what happened to him, neither did the photographer. They never really did anything THAT bad in their lives. Some of his other choices in other films totally deserved it of course, but other times Jigsaw was really just being a son of b**** wasn't he.

[superhippie2000]

well i think in the first movie when you only see the first it seems that the doctor wasnt that bad but later when you learn more about jigsaw you see why he did it cause gordon contributed to him dying of cancer. similar to saw 6. but ya everyone else in the other movies deserved it haha.

would have been funny when unlocke came out of the island with the boar for his people if he was wearing the head hahaha.

[Tabularasa]

Not the type-casting. The producers have been very open about why they casted Ben and Miles. Michael Emerson was casted because they fell in love with his portrayal of a crazy man in The Practice which he won an emmy for best guest actor. Michael Emerson was also never supposed to play Ben. He was supposed to just play the guy pretending to be Henry Gale for two episodes. But the writers loved him and he got the fans behind him so they found a role for him Ken Leung was casted after he had a one episode guest spot on The Sopranos. He also played a cop/detective in Red Dragon. They've also been open to saying that they casted Jorge Garcia after seeing his guest spot as a drug dealer on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

[superhippie2000]

really? ben was only ment to be in a couple episodes? im so glad they didnt go that way. ben rules. id assume the leader would have wound up being mr friendly or richard. but i think their change of ben was for the good. couldnt imagine the series without him. i wish we did learn more about the real henry gale guy. like how he got to the island. least the nigerian plane had some role for a few characters.

ken was in red dragon? havent seen that movie in a long time.

one thing i like about LOSTs casting is they cast people no one knew about for the most part. the only person i think everyone knew was DM for being in lord of the rings. everyone else has pretty much just been guest stars or havent been around in a long time. and not everyone is a sci fi or action star so being in this series they get to do a little bit of everything.

[Tabularasa]

Yup, Darlton have talked about Emerson only supposed to be on for 2 episodes and Michael Emerson himself referenced it during comic con in the summer. Ken Leung played the detective who went into the library and decoded the dragon's letter he had sent to Hannibal. Ken Leung is one my favorite little unknown actors because if you look at his career he's played a lot of different roles. He was also a mutant in X-Men: The Last Stand

As for when Lost started, I knew 6 of the original 14. I knew Dominic from Lord of The Rings, although I did have to take a double take without his wig. I knew Matthew Fox from Party of Five. I knew Terry O'Quinn from The Stepfather & guest spots on Alias. I knew Emile de Ravin from Roswell (which Terry O'Quinn guested on one episode) and I knew Ian Somerhalder from his guest role on Smallville. I also knew Harold Perrieanu from Oz. The rest were really unknowns. Especially Josh Holloway. And Jorge Garcia's role on Curb and Daniel Dae Kim's role on 24 were so small that I didn't even notice them until someone pointed them out.