The second season of Lost In Space, Netflix’s reboot of the original television series from 1965, is filled with references from classical science fiction movies. Unlike the original Lost In Space, which falls more into the genre of comedy, Netflix’s Lost In Space has been upgraded into a high-action sci-fi thriller that pays homage to the leading films of the genre.
Lost In Space season 2 picks up seven months after the events of the first season. After the alien engine activated and transported the Robinson family’s Jupiter into another solar system during the season finale, season 2 follows Maureen (Molly Parker), John (Toby Stephens), Judy (Taylor Russell), Penny (Mina Sundwall), and Will (Maxwell Jenkins) as they set out to leave the oceanic planet they’ve been stranded on for nearly seven months, attempt to reconnect with the colonists on the Resolute, and discover the whereabouts of Will’s robot friend after it saved him from the second alien robot (or SAR).
The trend of paying tribute to classic science fiction movies began in season 1 of Lost In Space. Will’s robot bore similarities to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a robot who bonded with the 10-year-old boy John Connor (Edward Furlong), and Maureen Robinson’s line “Get away from my kids!” from the season finale is reminiscent of Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) memorable line from Aliens. In keeping with the standards set by its premiere season, the second season of Lost In Space continues the tradition of sprinkling sci-fi movie references throughout each scene as an extra treat for fans of the genre. Within season 2, however, the throwbacks refer less to minor plot points and more to recognizable iconic scenes from the following sci-fi movies.
Aliens
The second season of Lost In Space draws a lot of parallels to James Cameron’s classic sci-fi film Aliens, especially within episode 3, “Echoes.” Any seasoned fan of the Alien franchise will spot the similarities immediately since the episode begins in a similar fashion. In the early scenes of Aliens, Ellen Ripley and the company of marines land on the planetoid LV-426 and discover that the colonists of Hadley’s Hope have all gone missing. From the acid-melted apertures in the floor to the scattered array of belongings left behind, all signs point to some sort of showdown between the colonists and the Xenomorphs.
Similarly in Lost In Space, once the Robinson family have docked their Jupiter at the Resolute, they explore the colony ship expecting to be greeted by their fellow colonists, but are shocked to find that the entire ship is deserted. As they search the Resolute further, they discover rotting trays of food in the dining hall, a single survivor who mentions a “monster,” and an outgoing message calling for help, alluding to a confrontation between the colonists and the SAR robot.
Not only is the general atmosphere of episode 3 similar to Aliens, but the introduction of a new character, Samantha, is reminiscent of Rebecca “Newt” Jordan (Carrie Henn), the little girl from Aliens who was the last remaining survivor of the LV-426 colony. Similar to Newt, Samatha has been living alone on the Resolute for a significant amount of time, using the ventilation system to travel through the ship undetected by the “monster.” Mimicking Newt’s backstory, who lost her parents and younger brother to the horde of Xenomorphs, Samantha believes she lost her parents to the robots during two separate attacks. However, it is revealed at the end of the episode that Samantha's mother is still alive.
Star Wars
The famous trash compactor scene from Star Wars: A New Hope gets a shoutout in the fifth episode of the second season, “Run.” When Penny suspects that Dr. Smith (Parker Posey) is up to her usual schemes, she follows her to a trash chute on the Resolute, where she disposes of a mysterious blue trash bag. Hoping she’ll find evidence that’ll prove Dr. Smith is lying about her identity, Penny convinces Vijay (Ajay Friese) to help her sneak into the trash compactor using his father’s access codes. Along with an unsettling amount of banana peels, the two of them find a torn note in the trash bag, but don’t get a chance to read the whole thing before a crew member turns the trash compactor on, unaware that Penny and Vijay are inside.
While the two scenarios are virtually identical, the main difference between the compactor scene in Lost In Space and the iconic scene in Star Wars is the tone. In Star Wars: A New Hope, as the compactor becomes devastatingly close to crushing Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), R2-D2 saves them at the last second. As the crew celebrates their rescue, C3PO interprets their excitement to be screams of pain, transforming the incident from a near-death experience to a funny anecdote.
In Lost In Space, when Penny’s foot gets stuck and the walls are closing in, she believes Vijay is deserting her as he runs out of the trash compactor. Instead of recycling the same events from Star Wars, the scene pays homage to a sci-fi classic while being dynamic enough to stand out on its own. Penny’s panic and distrust of Vijay in the scene shows how the reboot is exchanging its comedic roots to explore more dire themes of morality in the face of danger, elevating the series to the level of its sci-fi predecessors.
Jurassic Park
Episode 3, “Echoes,” is unlike any other episode in the second season of Lost In Space because it’s loaded with references to multiple science fiction films. Other than Aliens, the third episode alludes to an iconic moment from Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park: the kitchen scene where Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex Murphy (Ariana Richards) hide from the two velociraptors hunting them. Reminiscent of the scene in Jurassic Park, the youngest members of the Robinson clan, Will and Penny, get trapped in the dining hall on the Resolute by one of the unfriendly robots, Scarecrow.
As the robot slowly crawls into the dining hall, Will and Penny take shelter behind a counter. Just as the robot is about to discover them, their father begins to sing a very off-key rendition of “Space Cowboy,” which draws the robot out into the hallway and away from the two kids. With only the one robot to contend with instead of two velociraptors, the scene is comparably less thrilling or high-stakes since Penny and Will are saved at the last second by their parents while Tim and Lex only had their own stealth and wits to rely on to outsmart the dinosaurs. However, instead of competing with the memorable scene, Lost In Space opted for a more intriguing bait-and-switch where the viewer goes from fearing for the children’s safety to worrying over the safety of their parents.
Since Lost In Space was originally dubbed a comedy when the original series first aired in 1965, the recurring references to other science fiction films throughout seasons 1 and 2 of the Netflix reboot may have been a clever maneuver to attract fans of the sci-fi genre and connect with their target audience in a way that registers personally. Revisiting these iconic scenes allows the second season of Lost In Space to not only honor the definitive sci-fi stories that came before it, but places the series on equal footing as it challenges itself to live up to the same level of dynamic storytelling.