The Lighthouse: The Real Life Story That Inspired The Movie Explained | The Flannan Isles Mystery

The Lighthouse: The Real Life Story That Inspired The Movie Explained | The Flannan Isles Mystery. We break down the true story behind ending of The Lighthouse.

#TheLighthouse #Horror #EndingExplained

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Throughout this, we’re going to be discussing the real-life story that inspired the new horror movie: The Lighthouse.

The Flannan Isles Disappearance is one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the past 200 years and throughout this, we’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the story as well as the theories behind what really happened.

There will be some spoilers in regards to The Lighthouse here, so if you haven’t had a chance to watch the movie yet and don’t want some aspects ruined then I highly recommend that you turn off now. We won’t be spoiling the ending but there are some plot points that might be ruined here if you want to go in without any prior knowledge.

With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into our breakdown of the Flannan Isles. Disappearances.

The Lighthouse Explained
The film The Lighthouse follows two Lighthouse watchmen known as Winslow and Wake, the latter of whom begins to turn on the former due to him losing his grip on reality and gaining paranoia that makes him begin to take a dark path.

Whilst the events that happen in the movie seem very extreme, they’re actually a lot closer to the real-life events than you may think and the truth is actually a lot stranger than fiction. The real-life story of The Lighthouse starts at the beginning of the prior century in the year 1900 and takes place on Flannan Isles.


Flannan Isles is located in the outer Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland and this remote island was a central pillar of the sea trade in the area. The lighthouse guided ships through the night from crashing into the perilous rocks and due to its importance, it required three people to man it at all time.

The Flannan Isles Disappearances
This included Thomas Marshall, James Ducat and Donald MacArthur who were all placed on the island over December to watch over the isles and make sure that the upkeep of the lighthouse was maintained. All men were thought to be loyal, hard-working people that put duty above all else and took pride in their work. A lot of trust had been put in them to man the station and no one would ever believe that they would flee from their post, no matter what weather conditions there may be.

However, on the 15th of December 1900, the steamer Archtor noted that the light was not in operation and when they docked, three days later, they passed this information onto the Northern Lighthouse board. Though this was unusual, it was not uncommon for the time especially due to the electrical upkeep that was required on such a station and the board didn’t attempt to send out the relief vessel until two days later as was scheduled. However, due to poor weather conditions, the boat did not actually reach the island until the 26th of December.


Upon arrival, the crew of the relief vessel found that the flagstaff had no flag and that all of the provision boxes had been left at the dock. More worrying this though was the absence of the lighthouse keepers who had not emerged to welcome them to shore. Captain of the relief vessel tried to flag them with both a flare and the ship’s whistle but still, no one emerged to see them.

The Isle Mystery
From here a boat was launched with relief keeper Joseph Moore, a fourth man that manned the island in rotation. He found the gate and door to the compound locked, all beds unmade and every clock stopped.

Instrumental by Homage

[heavyspoilers]

Let me know your thoughts on the Flannan Isles Mystery and The Lighthouse movie.

[johnthemachine]

Its actually the 1801 smalls lighthouse tragedy. Two guys named thomas as keepers, old one died and the young kept the rotting body in the cabin for 4 months to avoid murder accusations, went insane.

[iselldreams]

My mother is from the isle of Harris. This was my favourite bedtime story when I was wee. There is bits of the story that are left out but the locals know. The dinner table was set for 3 but there was no evidence of the keepers apart from the over turned chair and coat. When the search party called the names of the keepers 3 squawks of crows was heard. When they called the keepers names again the crows fell to earth dead. The locals believe that the keepers were washed out to sea and their bodies caught in the sea kelp. (Although some believe that the devil himself came for the keepers thus the big storm and no bodies. When the crows died so did the men's souls)

[davidp]

Um... the movie The Lighthouse is based off the Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy, not the Flannan Isles Mystery. That would be "The Vanishing."

[Bmix]

When I walked out of the cinema after watching The Lighthouse, I was like "wow what a movie, not as good as The Witch, but still a great movie. 3 Days late and I still can't stop thinking about this movie and I felt like I was in a different world during that time watching it. Not only do I now think that It's unfair to compare Egger's works but it is definitely in the top five best horror movies I have seen.

[cruddddddddddddddd]

What I love about The Lighthouse is that it draws from many sources to tell its story. The killing of the seagull to set off a possible curse (killing the albatross), evil mermaids (mermaids/sirens from mythology), Dafoe's character (Ahab/Proteus), Pattinson's character (Prometheus), the lighthouse's light itself (Promethean fire/a cosmic, Lovecraftian mystery). The entire film felt very Lovecraftian to me.

I think The Witch worked better as a straight horror film, but this is a very special film. I love the black and white cinematography, the performances, and the unsettling score... I hope Eggers keeps putting these out. It's safe to say Pattinson has earned his place among respectable after this and The Rover--if you haven't seen the Rover, pretty interesting film with Guy Pierce, and Pattinson does a great job in that as well.

Just finished the entire video--was doing yard work and caught the tail end. I'd read up about the lighthouse disappearances that inspired Eggers, but only briefly, and this video offered added great insight. I'd heard the giant bird theory, but I like the giant serpent theory the best, lol. Good stuff, as always. Keep doing what you do and I'll keep coming back for more.

[perrywidhalm]

Dude, you're just reading the Wikipedia entry on the Flannan Isle Lighthouse. C'mon ....

[normancrane]

This isn't even right, rob eggers has said in a few interviews it's based on a lighthouse helmed by two dudes that were named thomas, one older one younger, the older of which had a heart attack, and the other went crazy because he thought he'd be blamed for the older ones death. The fellas in the movie don't even disappear, they just die. I for one would've rather had a movie based off flannan isles, but god do some research before you pour all this effort into a completely wrong video.

[beanfonoranges]

I loved this movie so much. It created such a tense atmosphere and the performances of both actors added to the experience

[loseyourself]

Awesome 👍, i loved lighthouse, it was a amazing movie

[PeterFilimaua]

Saw this and Parasite at the Cannes Film Festival, I have to say it’s my favorite thus far into the year. A24 and Eggers are quite a dynamic duo 🔥 can’t wait to see what he has next!

[AntonQvarfordt]

I think that the primary inspiration in terms of real-life lighthouse stories for the movie was the 'Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy' in Wales, and not the Flannan Isles Lighthouse incident (Scotland).

[danischeel]

The cryptid lover in me wants to believe that a colossal squid attacked the men at the landing stage. The other man saw this and ran to their aid to by grabbed in turn. I've not seen the movie, but now I definitely will. Thanks for the post!

[chrisbridston]

In a perfect world this flick would be a best pic nominee.. the cinematography.. black and white approach.. acting .. tone .. music .. haven’t seen a movie like this since Dead Man.. LOVED BOTH movies.. this one more so actually

[bobgunter]

It's the smalls lighthouse story not this one that the film is based on.

[freyathesage]

1:15 Nothing described in this video is anywhere near as strange as The Lighthouse!

[ilewis.]

Theres also a story similar to this about the smalls, pembrokeshire, wales...

I live near there so i was told it a lot as a child...

[darkesthourapparel]

I agree! LOVED this movie is visually stunning as well. The story line is a trip. I have been telling everyone about it. I've watched it twice so far and just love it so much.

[mregoli]

Great video! Can't believe that I haven't heard of this mystery before. I will be checking out the new movie and the others mentioned by this video.

[freedomdeusmostartentertai]

CSI: The Lighthouse Edition. great back story. another unsolved mystery.