When Jack is on shipboard, returning from Hawai'i, he tries to start a conversation with a stranger, Joseph Kearns, who is simply trying to read his book. Jack tells him that their current position is "latitude 145, longitude 21". The numbers are backwards, as the range for latitude values is -90 to 90 degrees. Even reversing, the position of latitude 21, longitude 145 would put them several thousand miles West of Hawai'i, approaching Southeast Asia, the opposite direction from Jack's home in Beverly Hills, California.