Dynamite

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Dynamite

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First Introduced

"Numbers"

Owned by

The Black Rock crew

Found by

Danielle

Dynamite is a highly explosive mixture formed by adsorbing nitroglycerin into a diatomaceous earth substrate.

A cache of extremely old dynamite rests in the hold of the Black Rock. Danielle Rousseau has used some of the dynamite to set traps for the Others, and she informs the crash survivors of its location in the ship. She takes Jack, Locke, Hurley, Kate and Leslie Arzt to the ship and they get 6 sticks of it and put it in two separate backpacks.

The dynamite has subsequently been used a number of times in the show:

Leslie Arzt accidentally blows himself up while demonstrating how to safely handle dynamite.
Kate uses one of the sticks to distract the Security System from taking Locke underground.
Three of the sticks are used to blow the lid off of The Hatch.
Hurley attempts to blow up the food found in The Hatch, but is talked out of the act by Rose. There remains one stick that hasn't been used, though it may have detonated during the event at the Swan in "Live Together, Die Alone", due to it being highly unstable, as Arzt points out, prior to being blown up by the stick he was holding.
Eko uses the leftover dynamite from the Black Rock expedition to try to breach the blast doors in the Swan station to get to the computer room.
Rousseau takes another box of dynamite from the Black Rock in "The Brig" for rigging the beach camp with as per Jack's plan to blow up the Others. ("Greatest Hits")
Bernard and Sayid kill five of the Others by shooting guns at dynamite traps they have set at the camp. Jin was also to have set off a dynamite trap, however he misses his shot. ("Through the Looking Glass")

1 Unanswered questions
2 Trivia
3 Theories
4 See also

Unanswered questions

Was the dynamite being carried by the ship or was it stored in the wreck afterwards?
Is the appearance of the sticks and crates consistent with dynamite manufactured in or before 1881?
Could dynamite sit for over 120 years without all its nitroglycerin sweating out or degrading?

Trivia

The dynamite transport scene (and Montand's name) are an homage to the movie The Wages of Fear, according to Damon Lindelof in the 5/19/06 podcast. The plot of the extraordinarily tense movie involved transport of dangerous explosives in a desperate situation with few safety precautions. It also featured the idea of separating into two groups that keep their distance from one another, planning for the "worst-case-scenario" of one of them not making it, that the other will reach the destination with adequate explosives to accomplish the mission (much like Jack's idea).
Dynamite has played a central role in all the season finales of season 1-3.