LOST Finale Special: Everything You Need To Know To Leave The Island

Today we have a special Sci-Fi TV Update all about our favorite show from JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof, LOST. Tonight, after six seasons, it all comes to an end in a big series finale event. We have compiled everything you need to know to prepare, including details, interviews, previews, and some fun stuff too. So get ready to get LOST for the last time.

 

TREKMOVIE’S GUIDE TO THE LOST FINALE

LOST series finale to be simulcast around the world
The LOST series finale airs tonight on ABC at 9:00 p.m., but several countries around the world will be watching it along with America, if they so choose.  ABC has announced that the U.K.’s Sky1 will simulcast the series finale with the U.S. West Coast broadcast (5:00 a.m. local time on Monday, May 24). Sky1 will then rebroadcast the finale during its normal 9:00 p.m. timeslot on Friday, May 28. Broadcasters in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Turkey and Canada will also simulcast the finale. It’ll also be broadcast faster than usual in other international markets. Here are the details:

Driven by fan demand – and regardless of the international time difference – the non-subtitled finale will be simultaneously broadcast with the U.S. West Coast telecast (May 23, from 9:00 p.m., PT) on Sky1 in the UK, Fox Italia and Telecom Italia in Italy, Cuatro Spain, Fox Spain and Portugal, Digiturk Turkey, HOT Israel. CTV Canada will broadcast the finale at the same time as the U.S. East Coast.

In total, 59 countries around the world will air the final episode from 24-48 hours after the U.S. broadcast, with subtitles for viewers in non-English speaking territories. The series is licensed as part of their existing ‘Hot from the U.S.’ agreements with Disney Media Distribution, which bring series such as “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” to international platforms in a 24-48 hour window from U.S. broadcast.

Additional footage to be included in season six DVD/Blu-ray
"The End" won’t be the end after all. The two-episode series finale has already been extended from a 2 hour run-time to a 2½-hour run-time (9:00-11:30), but TV Guide Magazine reports that about twenty minutes of additional storyline will be included in the forthcoming DVD/Blu-ray release on August 24, 2010 (along with a complete series set):

“It’s in production now,” confirms the source, who couldn’t yet confirm the actual running time of the new scenes. “Damon and Carlton wanted to offer fans answers to additional questions they couldn’t get to in the body of the final show.”

Speaking of that home video release, according to TV Guide Magazine, executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse say it will have "some pretty spectacular packaging."

Lindelof: Jacob and the Man in Black are not the "The Epitome of What Lost Is"
"LOST" may have put a big focus on Jacob and the Man in Black in recent weeks, but that doesn’t mean the two are the key to the show:

"It would be mis-categorizing to think this is the epitome of what Lost is," executive producer Damon Lindelof tells TVGuide.com. "Obviously the island was there before these babies were born, and lots of things were going on before they came there. What those stories are isn’t relevant to the story we told, which is the crash of Oceanic 815 and what the ultimate fates of the survivors are."

And will that story’s conclusion be definitive?

"I wish that we could say that the finale is going to be enormously definitive," Lindelof says. "We found that when we told people that we’ve got definitive answers coming, it’s not as definitive as the fans want it to be, therefore there’s this ongoing and vociferous debate about what things mean.

"All we can say is: Lost is only ending once," he adds. "There’s only one finale. There’s not a question mark at the end of the end. There’s not a dot, dot, dot. This is our story and it’s over. Hopefully there’s going to be a lot of interpretation in its wake."

Hurley says goodbye to LOST
Jorge Garcia (Hugo "Hurley" Reyes) says goodbye to "LOST" in a letter he wrote at Variety. Here are two snippets, click the source to read the entire letter:

At 5 a.m. on April 24, I became unemployed.

I just wrapped my six-season run on "Lost." The job that went above and beyond anything I could have imagined was over.

When I auditioned for "Lost," I was just another out-of-work actor struggling to land a pilot. When I first went in to meet the producers, there wasn’t any material for me, except a few sides they had for the character Sawyer.

I felt great about the audition; so great, in fact, that getting the part wasn’t important because I knew I couldn’t have done any better. Then I got the call that I was going to test, and that they were going to write scenes specifically for me. I remember noticing I was the only Hurley in the room waiting to test. I called my agent from the parking lot afterward and said, "I don’t know what it meant but it felt like a good thing."

My last day on "Lost" was also my longest: 20 hours. Without going into details, I can say the shoot was dangerous, physical and wet. But what could be more appropriate? How else could we end this epic show without an epic marathon night of shooting? At the end of it all we all remarked how we expected the end to be more emotional for us, but we were too tired to cry.

I’ll admit I got a little teary with Matthew Fox. I thanked him for everything he taught me, including taking me on his trip to Japan to see Green Day that first summer of shooting. At the time, flying at the last minute to a foreign country was way out of my comfort zone, but then again nothing on "Lost" was ever in my comfort zone.

NY Times LOST: Time Talks Live event [VIDEO]
"LOST" producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse and stars Jorge Garcia and Michael Emerson took part in an interview with the NY Times on Thursday. Highlights can be found here, or you can just watch the entire video of the event starting with the embed below:

Times Talk Live – Behind the scenes of LOST [YouTube]

You can watch the other parts here

More interviews with cast and crew
Here’s a excerpt from Time.com’s three-part —
"Retrospective" of sorts — interview with executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. This part deals with the duo’s thought process in approaching the finale:

Time.com: …I know you guys were fans of the finale of “The Sopranos,” which some people loved and some people hated. I wonder if you feel to an extent that in order to be any good, the finale is going to have to tick off somebody?

Carlton Cuse: Absolutely. I mean, if the finale was not ambitious, it would not be in keeping with the show. And by being ambitious, I think we’re going to have – there are going to be some people who will be dissatisfied and you know, it’s kind of become pretty evident during the sixth season of the show that the sort of – the fans have broken into camps. There are the, you know, the show is about the journey and not about the destination and that’s how you should watch it. And then there are people who are getting really, really anxious and pissed off that they’re particular questions that they’ve sort of nurtured for many seasons, they’re starting to realize, oh my god that question that I have, that I care about, is not going to get answered.

Damon Lindelof: Or questions that they have are answered in unsatisfactory ways. Like, that’s what the whispers are? Really?

Carlton Cuse: Yeah, exactly. And so, we fully expect that there will be some percentage of the audience that will be unhappy, but we also think that there will be a different reaction right after the finale, and then over time. I mean, there’s going to be an emotional reaction that’s gong to come with the show’ ending, and people’s sort of immediate realization that they’re particular concern might not have been addressed. But we hope overtime, that the sort of deeper, kind of lasting impression will be that we – you know that we told the story that we wanted to tell, and right or wrong, that was our prerogative and the only way we could approach the show was to kind of keep doing all the way to the end what we’ve done all along, which was Damon and I sort of sitting together and going, you know, if we both thing something’s cool it goes into the show and trying to attack it on a very visceral, gut level. And we did that through 121 hours of the show, and we did it right through the finale. And we’re proud of the finale and you know, but we do recognize that there probably will be some, you know, there will be some blow back and we’re prepared for that. And we accept that that goes with the territory.

Check out the complete three-part interview at Time.com: Part One, Part Two and Part Three and two more interviews at Fancast and Popular Mechanics.  Time.com also posted interviews with Terry O’Quinn, Evangeline Lilly, Josh Holloway, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox and Jorge Garcia.(in two parts, here and here). Here are some selected excerpts:

Terry O’Quinn

Was Locke’s faith misplaced, then?

"I think it was never placed. He desperately wanted to believe in something, and he to this point in his life never found anything that repaid him for believing in it. … [Until he found the Island and the belief] that it could be shared with everyone. He desperately wanted that to happen. He said he was a man of faith, but I also think that he desperately wanted people to have faith in him. So no, I don’t think he was ever satisfied. And that’s what makes him tragic. But a good man."

Matthew Fox

On playing the part while not knowing what was in store for the characters in the finale:

"Don’t assume that we all didn’t know what was going to happen. I actually had some in-depth conversations [with Damon Lindelof] early in the season about it, so I could have some kind of understanding of what was going on."

Jorge Garcia

On his reaction to the finale:

"I’m satisfied with the finale. I think both storylines that were introduced in the season, the finale wraps them up well. They make a bold choice. Anytime you do that on a show like this, we know we’re gonna get–the reactions will be mixed. It’ll be interesting hearing the reactions over the summer. It’s nice not being a writer around here when finale time comes around."

Also, just in case we missed any interviews, The ODI has a nice round-up of all the various cast and writer interviews at this link.

Hints at the finale + LOST bites
Sonja Walger, who as previously reported is reprising her role as Penny in the finale, may have said too much in a recent interview with TV Guide Magazine:

And for those of you who have completely abandoned hope of any happily-ever-afters for these poor lost souls following the recent string of island casualties, Sonja Walger, whose lucky Penny turns up in the finale, offers us a ray of hope. When I asked her to tell me who gets the best ending, she said, "We all do and you’ll see why."

Here are some remaining bites:

  • Man in Black (Titus Welliver) says there won’t be a "LOST" movie. [TMZ]
  • Is this leaked final page of the series finale script real? [SCI FI Wire]
  • Damon Lindelof tweeted that he’ll be making his final "Lost"-related tweet "for a while" at midnight, West coast time Sunday night. [Damon Lindelof]
  • Jack Bender, director of the finale, reveals that the final shot involves Terry O’Quinn and Matthew Fox and Hurly is also involved. The final scene has reportedly been known since season 1. [NY Mag Vulture Blog & The ODI]
  • Cast and crew discuss the emotional finale and why they fell there won’t be a movie based on the show. [E! Online]
  • Carlton Cuse reveals that the finale will be more character, less mythology. "We’re not going to tell you what you will and won’t know in the finale. The finale is much less about the mythology of the show and much more about the character resolutions. How do these character stories end and what happens to the people? That’s what Lost is about." [E! Online]
  • We’ll see Walt in the finale. [The ODI]
  • Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond) on the finale: "There is a resolution between Penny and Desmond, definitely," Cusick said. [SCI FI Wire]
  • Nestor Carbonell (Richard) says he "was very happy with the way they dealt specifically with [his] character…With what I read, they resolved a lot of the dynamics of the characters. They did a tremendous job, so I’m looking forward to the final resolution."… [SCI FI Wire]
  • …And in general, Carbonell says the "finale is all about everyone’s resolutions." [TV Guide Magazine]
  • Scotty Caldwell (Rose) reveals that more than one ending was shot: "I’m not absolutely sure about the final hows, wheres and whens because they shot more than one,” she says. “So I’ll be waiting like everyone else to see what they air." [TV Guide Magazine]
  • The script for the series finale took four weeks to film. [Fancast]
  • The series finale is eligible for Emmy consideration after the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors on Wednesday made an exception to their rule that extended length episodes that are submitted can only run for two hours. [EW]
  • ABC is selling 815 vintage 16×20 collector prints of "LOST" cast images titled "Survivors" and "Summon the Smoke Monster". According to the official site, the prints, available for $69.99, "will be custom printed and numbered on fine art, museum quality rag photo paper with deckled edges." [Official LOST Photos]

"LOST" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. on ABC from 9:00-11:30 p.m. The series finale is preceded by a two-hour recap special at 7:00 p.m.


VIDEOS AND IMAGES

Promotional stills from the series finale – "The End" [more at Dark UFO]

Vanity Fair behind the scenes outakes [more via ONTD]

Series finale promo [YouTube]

Watch two more promos here and here

Fan-made series finale trailer [YouTube via Damon Lindelof]

Sneak peek #1 from the series finale [YouTube]

Sneak peek #2 from the series finale [YouTube]

Late Show Top 10 list with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse [YouTube]

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" [YouTube & YouTube]

Also from ‘Kimmel’: New Dharma Initiative video and a LOST edition of "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship"

AP interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse [AP via Dark UFO]

Cast "Self-Interviews" [YouTube & YouTube via DocArzt]

Interview with Josh Holloway on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" [YouTube & YouTube]

Matthew Fox on "Good Morning America" [sl-LOST]

Michael Emerson on "The View" [YouTube]

TV Guide interview with Nestor Carbonell [YouTube]

TV Guide Q&A with Henry Ian Cusick and Nestor Carbonell [TV Guide]

Jorge Garcia on "The View" [sl-LOST]

IGN interview with the cast and crew [IGN]

LOST Retrospective: LOST cast says goodbye [YouTube via Lyly Ford]

LOST Slapdown, Part 16 [YouTube]

LOST Untangled – 6×16 – What They Died For [YouTube]

The Official LOST Video Podcast – May 20, 2010 [Dark UFO]

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse interview with the AP interrupted by fire alarm [YouTube via The ODI]

 

POLL: Get Lost?

Are you going to say goodbye to the island tonight?

[poll=585]

 


Follow Russ on his blog: Your Entertainment Now and on Twitter: Twitter.com/YourEntNow.

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Man, this has been a long slog.

I’m glad it’s ending, and very pleased that the last season or two have been back to form. I think the show coulda shoulda run 4-5 seasons instead of 6, but hey… now that it’s wrapping, I’m just glad I stuck with it.

BTW, did they ever say why the statue of Taweret has four toes? BTW, lord help me for knowing the statue’s name.

sweet topic thanks! im thinking we need a star trek lost show now. instead of an island, its a planet and instead of a plane crash, its a starship.

:o

Is it bad that I just don’t give a damn about Lost anymore? It had GREAT moments, but as for me, I am going to play Star Trek online tonight, not watch Lost. (Karjim@Jennau116 :P)

Watched the first couple of episodes of this series, but it seemed rather pointless to me, so I gave up on it.

I have been so ready to watch the finale! My roommates have already pre-ordered the complete series for me, as a gift for my birthday!

Namaste!

I don’t watch Lost. It lost me after 10 episodes.

I will be glad to no longer hear the hype of this show.

I’m beyond glad that this show is ending. It took “canon” to an extreme that should never be viewed….

UK here- ill be up 7am to watch it on SKY plus with my wife and 2 daughters so we can skip thru the adverts!

Rosario, despite the confirmation that a movie will not follow (never say never), there were a number of articles quoting the producers and ABC executives about a year ago that alluded to the possibility of ABC continuing Lost as a franchise without Abrams or Lindeloff. Something to the effect that they would be ending the story for these characters and their involvement, but not necessarily for future stories. It would be interesting to update this article with any new buzz about the possibility of that happening.

I’m so exicited. This show was such a blast and the characters were great.

9. Red Skirt – That’s true, and we reported that a few months ago or so. At the moment, however, the talk amongst the cast and crew is that the show won’t be extended through a movie or by any other means.

Whatever talk there was about extending the franchise is just that at this moment. There haven’t been any new developments on that front as far as I’m aware (be it through the cast and crew or through the network/studio). I imagine ABC may revisit the situation sometime in the future.

Fantastic article! It made my wait for the series finale easier. Much, much easier! :D

RE: Lost future

Based on those previously reported article, ABC & Disney have noted they want LOST to be like STAR TREK as a franchise. I suspect there will be a new LOST TV show in the future, but it will be a new and different show, like TNG vs TOS. And abrams, Lindelof and cuse won’t be involved and probably new cast too

Anthony, I cannot answer the poll… I get a ‘Please choose a valid poll answer.’ warning.

What’s with that (respectfully)?

I have not seen the show in four and a half years, but trust me, I will as I have the entire series on DVD and awaiting the final season’s release to do a marathon.

So now spoilers for the final episode,guys!!! Pretty please. :-)

I gave up on this show sometime around season 2. I got sick and tired of of mystery piled on top of mystery; plus, Jack, Kate and Sawyer got on my last good nerve.

Heard the show was half-decent. Think I’ll give it a whirl tonight.

I’ve never seen the show. So I probably won’t be watching tonight. ; )

@ 2.

That’s pretty much what Stargate Universe is.

I never watched the show but congrats on making it multple seasons.

While to me the plots were a bit too complicated for my tastes (maybe too many characters and too many backstories) I do enjoy the characters interacting with each other as well as just enjoying seeing the beautiful locations in high def. Locke, Sawyer, Kate, Sayid, Jack and Hurley are my favorite characters.

As for the future of the franchise, if they do another show I hope they keep a few of the production staff to keep things consistant. Though I don’t know if a spinoff is neccessarily a good idea. And I don’t think a movie would work either. I think “Lost” works best as a “one-off” idea. Of course, I’m sure someone said that same thing about “Star Trek” a long time ago….

See ya LOST. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

14. I get that “please choose a valid poll answer” thing too sometimes. Kind of irritating, ain’t it?

I never have watched Lost but the finales of (usually) all series are pretty good and my friends watch it so I’ll probably have a go and end up watching it tonight

Watching the 2-hour series recap. Man, it’s like waking up after a six-year bender and having someone tell you what’s happened. I fogged through SO much of the major plot points, mostly involving the deaths which are sooo numerous as to leave only a dull buzz in my memory. Ah well.

Any of your people who hate Lost for whatever reason, need to watch it. It’s the most moving show/ending I’ve ever seen. Please, it changed me.

Finally, this sorry excuse for entertainment is over.

Extremely happy with the way it ended. Will miss it.

I gave up trying to figure out Lost ages ago, but my wife and I just sat thru the finale for the hell of it. All I could figure out at the end was *SPOILER ALERT* they were all dead and in some sort of collectively self-made Pearly Gates waiting room. At least I think that’s what was going on. Was it?

I watched the last 45 minutes, and now I’m glad I didn’t waste 5 years on this show. Not the worst finale by any stretch of the imagination (Enterprise has dibs on that distinction), but hardly worth 5 years of intellectual and emotional investment for the ending they gave us.

Hmm…a lot like Battlestar Galactica, eh?

POSSIBLE SPOILER:
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I will admit, the last images are haunting, in a way…when you think about what you are (and aren’t) seeing.

Lost haters that I’ve met never got it because they didn’t stay with it and just refused to engage their brain. No offense, but that is one show that you cannot sit there and zombie-out on.

Loved it the whole way.

Wow….

I have to say, this is by far one of the best and most touching endings to a show I have ever seen. Fantastic job guys! Well done, and it WAS WORTH EVERY SINGLE EPISODE!!!

Hats off to all of you! Great job and thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

– David and Pam

#28
Basically Yes. It was the last stop before they all move on to wherever they’ll each end up next.

This episode was a let down for me. Which is too bad because the last few episodes before this were outstanding.

The only truly great series finale I’ve seen was TNG’s “All Good Things…”.

“Battlestar Galactica”s was merely okay, “Seinfeld”s was average, “Turnabout Intruder” and “These Are The Voyages…” were both lousy, “Endgame” was mediocre, “What You Leave Behind” was good, while the “X-Files” finale was downright horrible.

But I find that I like “Lost” better after watching it a couple of times on dvd or Blu Ray. And Its possible I will like the finale better after seeing the dvd/Blu Ray extended cut.

21. ryanhuyton
“As for the future of the franchise,”

Franchise? What “franchise”? There is no franchise. This is the last you’ll see of “Lost”. It may live on with some popularity in the years to come now that it’s over, but there won’t be any sequel, no spin-off, and no big screen feature. “Lost” is now and for all time DONE.

33. ryanhuyton
“This episode was a let down for me. Which is too bad because the last few episodes before this were outstanding.”

They let Smokey go to waste. There was no epic battle –we didn’t even get to see Locke transform into Smokey, which I was actually hoping would happen by the end of the series at least once, and figured that maybe that was being saved for the series finale. Instead there’s all this build up, and killing him off wasn’t really all that hard in the end. What a joke.

I wasn’t a fan of BSG, but I think that as finales go, it delivered.

I’m not that big on “All Good Things …” frankly. I thought it was _all right_ but not anywhere near as great as a lot of TNG fans seem to think. But hey, to each his own of course.

An All-Time great finale: “Newhart” (and I was by no means a big “Newhart” fan, but that ending really did have me rolling on the floor laughing my butt off.)

#34

There have been rumors that ABC wanted to do a spin-off series and possibly a movie.

And was it just me, or were most of the main characters killed off?
There is a lot I just didn’t get about this episode. That is why I have to get the Blu ray when it comes out.

36. ryanhuyton
“There have been rumors that ABC wanted to do a spin-off series and possibly a movie.”

I hadn’t heard that dude. What I have heard is that ABC is disappointed that “FlashForward” didn’t turn out to be their new tent-pole show to replace “Lost” now that it’s over.

37. ryanhuyton
“And was it just me, or were most of the main characters killed off?
There is a lot I just didn’t get about this episode. That is why I have to get the Blu ray when it comes out.”

No, there have been a lot of deaths, and they stepped it up by killing off a number of the major characters as it got close to the end there.

And I’m not sure what Sayid was doing with them all at the end in the Church. Yes, he had sacrificed himself in order to save them, but he’s killed an awful lot of people, especially when he decided to follow Smokey and do his bidding –he basically was responsible for killing off a swarm of people there in that one incident alone.

And some of the side stories made no real sense. For example, Shannon and her brother pop up and Sharon doesn’t remember the island until she makes physical contact with Sayid, at which point he remembers it too, so I have no real idea just what was going on with that alternate timeline — it’s all just too damn confusing when trying to ‘reconcile’ :::ahem!:::: it with the finale. The same goes for Sawyer and Juliet, but I’m open to hearing the impressions of others about that.

It must be that both timelines somehow “touch each other” when two characters in ie Sawyer and Juliet who don’t know each other in one timeline but who were close in the other. Then they somehow “remember” their counterparts’ lives on the island. Maybe it is a wierd form of destiny. That there are different ways of meeting.

#40:
Well, really…
and here is a COLOSSAL SPOILER WARNING to all who care and don’t already know…

There was never any alternate timeline. The hell of it is, Damon & Carlton acutally said this at the beginning of the season. They specifically avoided using the “alternate timeline” phrase, and said that they were avoiding it for good reasons. I just thought they didn’t want some fans to think of it like various “alternate timelines” we’ve seen on Trek etc. that almost always get reset/excised/aborted/averted by the time the episode or movie is over (except the new movie, of course.) Turns out they were speaking the absolute truth.

Juliet, on the verge of death, saw briefly into this afterlife or next reality. These aren’t AU counterparts like Kirk and Mirror Kirk, but the souls (or similar term of your choice) of the people we’ve been following this whole series (most of them, anyway.) You can’t really pin it down to any one religion (notice the window and decorations in the room where the coffin is), but it’s that which is after death. Time there is nonlinear (as a Trekkie ought to understand from the Prophets); as Christian says, some died before Jack did, and some well after. In the end, they’ve all managed to remember their most pivotal life experiences, and they’re ready to move on to whatever’s next, which we don’t know what it is any more than they do.

Good effing riddance, it was tripe from day one.

just finished watching it here in the UK….. great ending – tear in the eye! now better get some work done!

After 6 years, A truely fantastic ending to a fantastic Series. I cried all the way through. Thanks to everyone involved.

I’m personally glad that not all the questions were answered. This will go down in Tv mythology for many decades to come, with no REAL answer.

It has been a gift!

#42 – Obviously didn’t watch the show and wanted to threadcrap.

The finale had me from start to finish. I’ll admit to having something in my eye when it ended.

Remember when Admiral Locke suckered Riker into trying to build a cloaking device that violated the treaty with the Romulans?

Bad Admiral Locke! :D

I give the producers and writers credit for taking this show in a different direction than most of the stuff we see on tv. Maybe it didn’t always work, but its nice to see risks being taken in an industry that, typically, doesn’t like to risk anything…

#45
That’s a bold assumption. I had no idea you’d monitored my television viewing habits for the last few years …

LOST interest in LOST when they moved it from Channel 4 here in the UK to Sky1 – might buy it all on DVD when they put out a complete set but as for now LOST stays a mystery to me.

I seen Lost last night and i was there from the Start. It is a fantastic Show with Fantastic People. I had Tears in my eyes on several occasions. I suspected at the start of season 2 what we seen last night. I won’t say what in case there are people who have not seen it yet. But suffice to say It was a closing that had me thinking about all night as I slept. Very and I mean very few Shows can do that to me. To all the Actors and Writers and producers of Lost. Thank you for one Hell of a Ride!!!!!.