Ultimately, Gilligan's ineptitude ended up rescuing the castaways. In the 1978 film "Rescue from Gilligan's Island" the group flees certain death when a tsunami hits the island by merging their huts into a makeshift boat. They are now off the island, but still adrift on the high seas. Gilligan lights a fire, which is immediately extinguished and he is scolded by the other castaways for such a harebrained activity. A US Coast Guard helicopter notices the smoke plume and investigates, positively identifying the lost castaways from the "SS Minnow" and remarks that the using a fire to signal was smart thinking, else they would have remained lost at sea and unnoticed.