Factual error: In the first scene in Sydney the camera pans from the opera house toward the rich North Shore suburb, except it shows that there are no houses on the shore whatsoever. In reality there are houses scattered across the shoreline.
Factual error: The location of the working dock in Sydney where Sawyer buys a gun doesn't really exist next to the Opera House, as pictured. The reality is the site has a glass cruise ship terminal, not a shabby wooden workshop.
Chosen answer: None of the main characters died in the plane crash. Many died on the island after the crash (Jack, Charlie, Sun, Jin, Daniel, Juliet, others), some lived on the island for an apparently long time after the crash (Hurley, Ben, Bernard, Rose) but some lived lives off the island after the crash (Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Miles, Aplert, and Lapidus). Remember that Christian tells Jack that "time has no meaning here," (in Purgatory). When everyone meets at the church, they are at the end of their lives however long that may have been and will now "move on" together. They look like they did on the island because that is the way they best remember each other.
Guy
That has to be the clearest explanation of the ending I've ever read.
Ssiscool ★