From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (November 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Lost in Space
Lost in Space Movie Poster
Directed by	Stephen Hopkins
Produced by	Mark W. Koch Stephen Hopkins Akiva Goldsman Carla Fry
Written by	Akiva Goldsman
Starring	William Hurt Mimi Rogers Lacey Chabert Heather Graham
Music by	Bruce Broughton
Cinematography	Peter Levy
Editing by	Ray Lovejoy
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	1998-04-03 (USA)
Running time	130 min.
Language	English
Budget	$80,000,000
Gross revenue	$136,159,423
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Lost in Space is a 1998 feature-length motion picture produced by New Line Cinema starring William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Heather Graham, Matt LeBlanc, Gary Oldman, Jack Johnson, and Lacey Chabert, and is an adaptation of the 1965-1968 CBS television series Lost In Space.

The film opened at #1; the first new film of the year to do so due to the success of Titanic. Audience reaction was mixed and box office results were insufficient to justify a planned sequel.

Several of the actors from the TV show appeared in the film. June Lockhart (Maureen Robinson) appeared as Will's teacher in a hologram. Mark Goddard (Major West) appeared as Major West's commanding officer. Angela Cartwright (Penny Robinson) and Marta Kristen (Judy Robinson) appeared as news reporters. Dick Tufeld returned to his role as the voice of The Robot, having played The Robot in the original program, as well as narrating the series. However, Jonathan Harris, who played Dr. Smith in the series, refused to make a cameo appearance in the motion picture version as the Global Sedition businessman who deals with Dr. Smith.

In the year 2058, the Earth will soon be uninhabitable after the irreversible effects of pollution. The United Global Space Force serves as the planetary government. Professor John Robinson, lead scientist of the Jupiter 2 Mission, will lead his family to the habitable planet Alpha Prime to prepare it for colonization by building a hypergate in orbit. The Jupiter 2 is equipped with a hyperdrive that allows faster-than-light travel, which will eventually be employed to evacuate the citizens of Earth. However hypergates must be constructed on Earth and Alpha Prime to provide stable points of departure and arrival. The project is accelerated after Global Sedition terrorist forces send two armed fighters to destroy the hypergate under construction. Major West, a fighter pilot from the hypergate defense force, manages to destroy the enemy fighters and is unwillingly drafted as the new pilot of the Jupiter Mission, as the previous pilot has been assassinated.

Dr. Zachary Smith is bribed by the Global Sedition to sabotage the mission and is betrayed by his employers, left an unwilling stowaway as the ship blasts off. The sabotage causes the ship to veer towards the sun. Realizing that it would be impossible to escape the sun's pull at such close range, the Major West and Professor Robinson decide to fly through the sun, using the ship's hyperdrive. Unfortunately, without a hypergate to warp to, the ship and its crew end up in a random (and apparently uncharted) part of the galaxy. Soon they encounter the Proteus, an Earth ship from the future, which has been infested with carnivorous and cannibalistic silicon-based spider-like lifeforms, one of which scratches Dr. Smith. Major West self-destructs the Proteus, destroying the spiders. However, the shockwave from the explosion damages the Jupiter 2, and they crash land on a nearby planet.

On the mysterious planet, they locate a fuel source with which to refuel the damaged engines of the Jupiter 2. However, it lies in the center of a strange, growing bubble of mysterious origin. Professor Robinson and Major West explore the bubble and discover it is actually an area of time distortion where future versions of Dr. Smith and Will Robinson have constructed a time machine, powered by their Jupiter 2's power core, and are planning on returning to Earth at an earlier time to prevent the family from getting lost. They are all betrayed by the future Smith, who is revealed to have transformed into a giant space spider/human hybrid as a result of the spider scratch he received on the Proteus. Robinson battles Spider Smith, while Major West returns to the Jupiter 2, without the power source, to try to evacuate the other Robinsons. Robinson successfully stops Spider Smith by sticking a spear into his womb (causing some cannibalistic baby spiders to come out and start eating Spider Smith) and kicking Spider Smith into the time machine's field while it is too small for his massive form, killing him.

The family attempts to escape, but the time bubble has made the planet unstable, and it is violently breaking apart. As well, the ship still does not have enough power to reach escape velocity. The stranded John Robinson watches as the Jupiter 2 is hit by debris and explodes in the sky. Future Will realizes his father does indeed love his family, and lets John use the time portal and travel back in time to the Jupiter 2 just before it exploded. Rather than attempt escape into the atmosphere, he commands West to pilot the ship through the planet's core as it is breaking up, enabling them to use the planet's gravity to propel the ship through the other side. They escape, but the collapsed planet forms a small black hole that begins to suck in the Jupiter 2. Once again the Robinsons must activate the hyperdrive, however this time they are able to target Alpha Prime using data downloaded from the future Earth ship and presumably they are transported to Alpha Prime, however it is uncertain as the film ends right when the Robinsons and West activate the hyperdrive. We do hear West saying the line "Targeting Alpha Prime. I hope".

• Professor John Robinson - A brilliant scientist placed in charge of the Jupiter Mission. He accepted the post on the condition that his family accompany him, however, his work on the mission resulted in him neglecting his family despite his deep love for them. His father was a famous general who died during his service.
• Professor Maureen Robinson - The wife of John Robinson, she is also a scientist.
• Dr Judy Robinson - The eldest daughter of the family who followed in her father's footsteps in fulfilling the Jupiter Mission. She is in charge of the cryo-sleep system. She spent three years of her life working on the project which resulted her in becoming a "ghost" like her father before the missions launch.
• Penny Robinson - The middle child. She was the most reluctant to go on the mission, as she would leave her life behind. She was arrested several times by the police and returned home. She tended to record a video diary on her watch and spoke about how years of training prevented her from getting a life, and missed her friends. When stranded in space, she formed a friendship with an alien monkey-like creature that the crew found, named Blarp.
• Will Robinson - The youngest child and a genius who won many science fairs. His father's preoccupation with the Jupiter Mission meant that Will was somewhat neglected and underestimated much to his frustration. He formulated a rudimentary theory of time travel and hacked his school's main power grid in order to conduct his experiments. He eventually is successful in constructing a working time machine from the hyperdrive of the wrecked Jupiter 2. He became somewhat dependant on Dr Smith, a relationship the Doctor manipulated for his own gains. Will's closest friend was the Robot.
• Major Don West - A military pilot in the United Global Space Command, he studied General Robinsons battle strategies and favored more militant actions which sometimes brought him into conflict with John Robinson. Despite this, he was known to risk his life for a friend and his record made him a candidate for pilot of the Jupiter Mission. He is attracted to Judy Robinson.
• Dr. Zachary Smith - The base physician for the Jupiter Mission, Dr. Smith was bribed by the Global Sedition to sabotage the Jupiter Mission. He was betrayed by his employers and left on the Jupiter 2 to die. He tends to be philosophical, recognizing his evil acts as evil, and uses duplicity to survive. He is very intellectual, quoting various works, and tends to the dark, sarcastic side.
• Robot - The Jupiter 2's mechanical robot built to maintain the Jupiter 2 in flight, and to protect the Robinson family and the mission. It was reprogrammed by Dr Smith to kill the family and destroy the ship in-flight but was overridden by Will Robinson's electronic genius. Robot's original body was destroyed by Space Spiders on the Proteus but his mind was downloaded by Will, eventually placed into a newer form. When Will used his own mental patterns to fill in the missing gaps of Robot's programming, he developed a personality and became Will's friend to the extent that he was able to override the programming Doctor Smith used in the future. He possessed pulse blasters and numerous weapons.
• Blarp - While exploring the spaceship from the future, the explorers find a non-hostile alien creature that looks and behaves like a monkey with chameleon like attributes. Later it accompanies the explorers and is taken care of by Penny Robinson for the rest of the film.

• William Hurt (Professor John Robinson)
• Mimi Rogers (Dr. Maureen Robinson)
• Lacey Chabert (Penny Robinson)
• Heather Graham (Judy Robinson)
• Jack Johnson (Will Robinson)
• Gary Oldman (Dr. Zachary Smith)
• Matt LeBlanc (Major Don West)
• Jared Harris (Older Will Robinson)
• Edward Fox (Global Sedition Leader)
• Dick Tufeld (voice-The Robot)

• Lost in Space at the Internet Movie Database
• Lost in Space at All Movie Guide
• Lost in Space at Box Office Mojo
• Lost in Space at Rotten Tomatoes

• Lost in Space review by Roger Ebert
• Lost in Space review by The New York Times
• Lost in Space review by the Los Angeles Times
• Lost in Space review by the San Francisco Chronicle