Man wearing red shoes

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Portrayed by John Williamson

First Appearance

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Last Appearance

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Last Flash Appearance

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Appeared in

"Flashes Before Your Eyes"

Mentioned in

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Centric episode(s)

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Name

Unknown

Also Known As

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Status

Deceased

Age

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Date of birth

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Date of death

1996

Origin

United Kingdom

Profession

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In Australia...

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On the plane...

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On the island...

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Family Members

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Connection

Ms. Hawking points him out to Desmond just before he is killed.

Season(s)

S1 - S2 - S3 - MP - S4

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A man wearing red shoes is pointed out to Desmond by Ms. Hawking in "Flashes Before Your Eyes".

The man is pointed out to Desmond.

After revealing to Desmond that she knows about him and his future path, Ms. Hawking points out this bystander for no clear reason. The rest of his attire is business wear, including a black trench coat and hat. He is buying a newspaper at the time. She claims she "just thought it was a bold fashion choice worth noting". The man is soon killed by falling scaffolding moments after being introduced, and only his red shoes are visible protruding from the debris. Ms. Hawking uses this incident as an illustration of her belief that the universe will automatically self-correct its previous course in response to any attempts to alter destiny.

Trivia

The man's shoes are PF Flyers, the shoes guaranteed to make the wearer "run faster and jump higher." Beneath the insole of one shoe in each pair of PF Flyers produced after 2001, one may find a slip of material bearing the phrase "Sometimes a closed door is the best invitation."

Unrelated cultural references

The 1939 MGM film, The Wizard of Oz features red shoes, with the original owner of the shoes also dying accidentally and being covered with only her feet visible, although in the original Frank Baum novel, the shoes were silver.
In the Schrödinger's Cat trilogy, sequel to The Illuminatus! Trilogy, there is repeated reference to girders falling indiscriminately falling on just and unjust men, killing them.
A Woman in Red is introduced in the film The Matrix, as one character is explaining the nature of existence. Similarly there is a suspicious element of artificiality to the red shoes marking out someone to whom Desmond is supposed to pay attention. The Woman in Red's purpose was to point out the artificiality of the environment to Neo.
In the movie Schindler's List (a black and white movie), color only appears twice. The first time we can see a little girl running in the ghetto during a Nazi raid, wearing red. We see her again later in the movie as a corpse, after being dug up by the Nazis to be burned, wearing the little red coat.
In The Sixth Sense, the color red appears when a "dead person" is on screen.
In Stir of Echoes, the color red appears to warn the main character, Tom, that his young son is in danger.
In the film Sin City, the color red is also significant and appears when a character is going to die.