Lost's Daniel Dae Kim Talks Time Travel: Popular Mechanics Exclusive Interview

When the freighter went up in a massive explosion in Lost's season finale last year, it was hard not to declare Daniel Dae Kim's character Jin a goner. He was last seen on the deck of the freighter, waving frantically to a departing helicopter carrying his wife, Sun. After all, there was enough C4 on that ship to blow anyone on it to kingdom come. But Kim, who plays Jin, always knew he would be back—and he made his reappearance at the end of last week's episode, "The Little Prince," unconscious and floating on a piece of the dearly departed freighter.

His return solved a mystery that's been plaguing fans since the finale. Not only is Jin alive, but he's time traveling just like the other castaways. But how is that possible when the helicopter, which wasn't anywhere near the island, was past the blown-up freighter and didn't go along for the island's ride through space and time? "That's one of the questions I had for [the producers] when I saw them last week," Kim told sci-fi blog io9. "I was blown off the ship and I was floating on my own. But I was within the radius of the island's time travel abilities. So I went with the island."

In an exclusive interview with Popular Mechanics at New York's Comic Con last weekend, Kim admitted to being a little wary of the show's time-travel premise. "I think time travel is really tricky," he said. "But if there's a logic and a complete and well-thought-through paradigm for it, I think it can be really interesting. Some of my favorite time-travel movies just make me think and, you know, the 'what if' question becomes a big one."

Beyond watching time-travel movies, Kim doesn't do much heavy theoretical digging into the mechanics of the phenomenon. "I almost bought the same contraption that they had in Napoleon Dynamite for time travel, but it didn't work out so well," he jokes. Instead of research, Kim relies on the information producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse give him. Which, by the sound of it, is a lot. "I actually just had a conversation with Damon and Carlton last week about the specifics of their version of time travel," he said. And, he assures us, there is definitely logic to the phenomenon on the show. "It is nothing if not well thought out."

But Kim knows exactly when he would go if he could travel through time. And just like the island, he wouldn't be satisfied with just one place and time. "I've always been really interested in the age of the samurai in Japan," he said. "I've always wanted to see what it would be like to live in feudal Japan; I think that would be interesting. I'd love to see the Roman Empire right around the time of Christ, and I'd love to see my ancestors, my children and their children, and how they end up faring in the world. " And when would he go, as Jin, in the island's history? Kim thinks for a moment. "The day after the series finale," he laughed, "just to see what happens next." —Erin McCarthy
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