Let me say upfront, I really enjoyed the new Tomb Raider game. It was exciting, adventurous and action packed, and it delivered an engaging story. And boy-howdy, Lara Croft could stand up to some beatings, couldn’t she? In the first twenty minutes she was knocked unconscious, impaled, and survived numerous falls and tumbles off cliffs without breaking a single bone. I mean, that girl went through hell. She should have died from loss of blood, infection, hunger, dehydration, swollen wrists and ankles – although I don’t think you can die that way. But despite her invincibility and demi-God like abilities, I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game. But as I progressed further into the story I started to notice some rather startling similarities to a certain popular cult television show we all know and love to hate – LOST.
For the few of you who have not endured LOST and know very little about it, or for those of you who have decided to do the whole selective memory thing, let me recap briefly on the elements in the show. Oceanic flight 815 crash lands on an island due to extreme turbulence leaving forty or so survivors to, well, survive. Out of these forty souls we are introduced to only a handful. These were probably the only passengers with unchecked personal baggage. Anyway, the island they’re on is no ordinary island, and it is guarded by the Black Smoke Monster. At least, that’s what the writers decided it was after a few seasons of having no clue. There’s stuff about good v’s evil, savage natives, weird 70’s experiments, and deep personal intertwining relationships. It’s all pretty bizarre, but ridiculously addictive. I never thought I’d see the like of it again… I was wrong.
The Island Won’t Let You Leave
Tomb Raider starts off with Lara and a group of history lovers sailing to an island in the dreaded Dragon’s Triangle. But as soon as they attempt to get close to the island they are hit by a freak storm and their vessel is torn in two. Lara and her shipmates are washed ashore and it is here where we start the comparisons. As Lara jumps and climbs her way around the island we discover anyone attempting to leave the island is struck down by a raging storm that suddenly materialises out of thin air. We quickly find out (as Tomb Raider doesn’t have six seasons to make shit up) the spirit of Himiko, leader of the Yamatai, who vanished without a trace long ago, is haunting the island and she won’t let anyone leave.
Because why should they get to leave if she can’t? This is the moment I realised I was playing LOST the video game. Just like the island in Tomb Raider the island in Lost won’t let anyone leave either, not really. There is an invisible force shield that prevents anyone from venturing too far from the island. There’s only one specific point you can travel through if you really want to get off. But even then the island won’t let you forget and calls for you to return. Talk about clingy:
The Spirit of Himiko rings very close to the Black Smoke Monster, who is also a malevolent spirit, except he acts as a security system that guards the island’s dirty secrets, and kills those who get close to the truth without hesitation or remorse. Like the survivors, BSM (The Black Smoke Monster) and Himiko are bound to the island and are desperate to be free. They’re your basic angsty teenagers, throwing all their anger and frustration onto other people because they’re not getting their way. But Himiko comes up with a plan:
Well, it was BSM’s first, she just borrowed it:
The plan is long and complicated and it involves taking a host body and Harry Potter wizardry. But if they were to ever get off the island their evil would spread around the world. That’s where Jack Shepard and Lara Croft come in and play hero. All looks lost (wink) as the bad guys complete their voodoo and prepare to depart their prison. But you should know good always triumphs. Jack and Lara are able to defeat their adversaries and evil is prevented from spilling into the world. And that’s what you get for being evil. Don’t be evil!
The Hero Complex
Lara is a reluctant hero from the very start. She only does what she has to do to survive. She doesn’t want the responsibility of having to save her entire crew; she’s just not strong enough. But Lara is constantly relied upon again and again – mainly because everyone else is incompetent – and she is forced to overcome her fears in order to save the day. She’s kind of like Jack from Lost, only without the stupid tattoos and whiny face. As you probably have guessed, Jack too is a reluctant hero. From the very beginning he is in the running to become leader of the survivors. But Jack is too scared to be who they want him to be. However, over time, he manages to get over himself and does the right thing and defeats the big bad. I also find it very curious that Lara receives a similar injury to that of Jack at the start of their journey. She is impaled above the left hip:
and he has a piece of shrapnel in the same position:
It’s like a parallel world where everything seems familiar but it’s different somehow.
Neighbours From Hell
So, we’re on the island for about ten seconds and Lara is smashed in the head and knocked unconscious by some random person, then hung upside down in a cave with numerous dead bodies. She manages to escape and over the course of more rock climbing and hand gliding, we discover there are inhabitants already on the island who call themselves the Solarii Brotherhood, run by the insane Mathias.
Mathias was brought to the island years ago and now refers to himself as the LORD of the FLIES. He runs a commune full of devoted and fearful disciples, who obey him without question. They trust Mathias as he claims to have a special connection to Himiko. But they’re not the only ones who are on the island, oh no. Himiko’s army, The Storm Guard (or the Oni), are the true original inhabitants and are hostile to all invaders. They are immortal and very hard to kill. Just like Ricardo here…
Mathias reminds me a great deal of Benjamin Linus, with his charming exterior before his true colours emerge.
Ben also happens to run a small community on an island and has a special connection to a mystical being they refer to as Jacob. The community revere Jacob and trust Ben’s judgement as he is the only one who seems to be able to communicate with him. The Others from Lost are also native to the island; they respect it and protect it from all those that would cause it harm – which apparently means rob babies and terrorise the already terrified survivors of a horrific plane crash. I don’t know why they act so high and mighty, that’s a dick move in any society.
Namaste
As Lara continues her aerobatics about the island we stumble upon unusually, modern structures with mid-20th century technology.
It turns out they were built by the Japanese during World War II in an effort to harness the power of the island. There are many of these facilities throughout the island, each one focusing on its own particular experiment. Unfortunately, the Japanese scientists and soldiers were killed off by the Oni to prevent them from doing any harm to their dead Queen. Now here’s the interesting part, the Dharma Initiative from Lost had, what they called, hatches all over their island testing for various things. But their main goal was the unusual power the island possessed – particularly its electromagnetic properties. They wanted to harness that power and control it for whatever reason. But their experiments failed and eventually they were killed and thrown into a large pit by the original settlers. The moral of this story is, don’t piss off supernatural beings with crazy devotees.
Like I said at the very beginning I really enjoyed playing Tomb Raider. But after I had finished I couldn’t help compare the story to Lost. They’re just too similar in structure to be ignored. But that’s the problem nowadays. It’s so hard trying to come up with original stories there’s bound to be some repetition. And I wouldn’t blame the creators. They can’t help but be pulled into the regurgitating world that is now the Hollywood norm. Hell, even J J Abrams finds it hard to steer clear of it.
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
