The Lost World: Jurassic Park (film)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the 1997 film sequel to the blockbuster. The film was adapted by David Koepp from Michael Crichton's novel The Lost World and was directed by Steven Spielberg.

Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough reprise their roles from the previous film. They are joined by Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Vince Vaughn, Richard Schiff, Vanessa Lee Chester, Arliss Howard and Peter Stormare. Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello have cameo appearances.

Plot Summary
Four years have passed since the disaster at Jurassic Park, and John Hammond is no longer CEO of InGen. Recently a pack of Compsognathus attacked a little girl on the beaches of Isla Sorna and the lawsuit her parents set against InGen ended up with Hammond being booted out. The company is taken over by his ruthless and greedy nephew, Peter Ludlow. Meanwhile, Ian Malcolm, despite having signed an agreement that forbade him from ever divulging any information on his visit to Isla Nublar, reveals to the media that InGen cloned dinosaurs for use in a theme park, which almost destroys his credibility as he cannot support his claims under InGen's threat of legal action.

Hammond summons Ian and asks him to help. Seemingly, the animals on Isla Nublar are dead, but InGen had a second island, named Isla Sorna, where the original research was performed. A hurricane forced an evacuation of this island, and the dinosaurs were released at the last minute to mature and thrive in their own separate environment. Peter Ludlow persuades InGen's investors that a dinosaur theme park is still a profitable idea, and decides to exploit the second island by capturing several animals to bring to San Diego, where InGen is finishing construction on an abandoned Jurassic Park stadium. Hammond is trying to prevent this: if he gathers a team of experts to document the dinosaurs in their new habitat, he may just rally enough public support to save the ancient animals from life in captivity. Malcolm initially refuses, but then learns that his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding, is already on the island by herself. He agrees to go in an attempt to rescue Sarah. As he prepares for the trip we are introduced to his teenage daughter, Kelly Curtis (one of the three children he mentions having in the first film).

The rest of Hammond's team consists of engineer Eddie Carr (who built the custom vehicles the team use, including two solar-powered Mercedes SUVs and a special trailer with an onboard laboratory), and wildlife documentarian Nick Van Owen. They arrive at the island and find Sarah in the wild, taking photographs. After escaping an alarmed Stegosaurus herd, the group returns to their camp site to find Kelly, who sneaked into the trailer before it left for the island. Ian, furious, tries to contact the boat which brought them to Isla Sorna. Unfortunately this is interrupted as InGen has officially sent their second team to the island to hunt down and capture the dinosaurs for transportation to InGen's mainland facility.

The InGen Hunters arrive with all-terrain vehicles and equipment, carried by and. InGen's team is being led by big game hunter Roland Tembo and his hunting partner, Ajay Sidhu. The mercenaries are led by Dieter Stark and the team's consultant is paleontologist Robert Burke.

By the time night falls, the InGen team has already captured several dinosaurs, including Parasaurolophus, Pachycephalosaurus, Triceratops and an infant, Gallimimus, Compsognathus and Stegosaurus and an infant. As Peter prepares for a satellite video transmission to the InGen board room, Nick tells the others that, because Ludlow has arrived and is mistreating the animals, he must carry out Hammond's wish and free them (Nick is later revealed by Roland to be a member of Earth First!, a radical organization of environmentalists who engage in sabotage to achieve their goals). Nick and Sarah then sneak into the camp to release the captive dinosaurs and cut the fuel lines of the InGen vehicles. In the ensuing carnage, car explosions set off fires which quickly spread through the camp. One burning vehicle is jettisoned into the air, almost killing Roland and Ajay.

Roland has come to the island, not to help Peter, but to fulfill his dream of hunting down a male Tyrannosaurus. He and Ajay discover a Rex nest, injuring the infant and chaining it to the ground, hoping its cries for help will attract the attention of the adults. The two hunters hear the commotion back at the InGen camp and leave to investigate. Nick soon finds and frees the baby, bringing it back to the trailer so that he and Sarah can put a cast on its broken leg. Ian, Kelly and Eddie take refuge in the "high hide", an observation platform that can be hoisted into the forest canopy. Ian returns to the trailer just before the Rex parents arrive in search of their offspring. Sarah returns the baby to its parents, who quickly retaliate by attacking the double-trailer. The adults leave after forcing the rear trailer over a cliff with Ian, Nick and Sarah trapped inside. Eddie decides to help, and leaves Kelly alone in the high hide. He takes the remaining SUV and drives to the trailers. He ties a rope to a tree and throws it down to Ian, Sarah and Nick. Eddie then hooks the SUV to the trailer and tries to pull it back. After hearing the squealing tires, the T. rex parents return unexpectedly and eat Eddie. The trailer falls over the edge, but the trio manage to survive holding the rope Eddie tied to the tree. The InGen team arrive and help them climb back up.

Now with no other choice, Ian, Sarah, Nick and Kelly join the rival InGen team, after the animal attack destroyed all communication equipment and now they have to migrate to the abandoned operations building to radio for help. Peter warns that the area is dangerously close to a Velociraptor nesting site.

While trekking through the forest, Dieter leaves the group, who are resting, to use the bathroom and gets lost (his friend Carter is listening to headphones and does not hear Dieter's calls for help). While wandering, Dieter is killed by a large pack of Compsognathus soon after getting lost. The camp is attacked by the Tyrannosaurus pair during the night, and despite Malcolm's advice, everyone panics and screams. Roland tries to shoot the male Tyrannosaurus, but after finding the bullets in his shotgun missing (Nick stole them to try to prevent him from killing the male T-Rex), is forced to use a tranquilizer gun. The female T-rex pursues the terrified hunters, stepping on Carter and trapping the others behind a waterfall. Burke sees a snake slithering on him and panics, running straight into the waiting jaws of the rex. (Ironically, it was a harmless milk snake.) Once losing the T-rex, the surviving hunters travel through a open field of tall grass. Ajay tries to warn them, shouting "DON'T GO INTO THE LONG GRASS!" but none of them listen and are brought down one by one by Velociraptors.

Ian and his friends make it through the field alive and run for cover in the operations building while the raptors are hunting the hunters. Nick rushes into the building and radios for help while Ian, Sarah and Kelly fend off a trio of raptors. The group then reunites and boards a rescue helicopter.

On the flight out, they see that Roland has disabled the male rex, which is being prepared for its journey to the mainland. Before he leaves, Ludlow orders his men to find the infant and fly it to San Diego.

InGen invites all prestigious investors and reporters to the docks to witness the arrival of the T-rex. The ship doesn't slow down and crashes into the dock. Police board the ship and find that the crew have been eaten. Someone opens the cargo door in an attempt to look for survivors and the T-rex storms out of the cargo bay and into San Diego. As Peter is surveying the destruction, Malcolm tells him "Now you're John Hammond."

Ian and Sarah ask Ludlow, who is in total shock, where the baby is. He tells them that the baby was flown in by plane and is in confinement at the Stadium zoo complex. They drive to the stadium and pick up the infant, while the adult runs amok in the city. Ian and Sarah bait the creature with its infant and drive back to the docks and place the infant in the cargo hold of the ship. Peter orders the police to shoot the rampaging adult, and then follows the couple onto the ship. However, they escape the ship and Peter enters the cargo hold in search of the baby. While he attempts to catch it, the infant's father returns and walks up behind him. Ludlow attempts to run away, but the angry parent grabs him by the leg and places him back down. Then it leaves the killing to the infant. Sarah prepares a sedative dart and shoots the T. rex as Malcolm closes the cargo hold door, trapping the animals inside.

Next morning, Ian, Sarah and Kelly are watching a news report on TV, which is covering the dinosaurs return journey to Isla Sorna. John Hammond is then interviewed, pleading that the island remain preserved and isolated, for the dinosaurs require human absence in order to survive. He also offers a quote by Malcolm: "Life will find a way." We then see an open plain on Isla Sorna, where the Tyrannosaurus couple is nursing their infant, the Stegosaurus herd migrating with their young, and a flock of Pteranodons glide into view, and one of them lands in a tree and shrieks.

Characters
Click here for a complete list of cast and crew.

This are the main characters of the movie. They are devided in two groups.

Gatherers
The Gatherers are send to Isla Sorna by John Hammond to make a scientific documentation of the dinosaurs. They can be considered the protagonists of the story.

Hunters
The Hunters came to Isla Sorna to capture some dinosaurs for Peter Ludlow's new Jurassic Park in San Diego. They can be considered the antagonists of the story (although they don't perform any cruel deeds).

Dinosaurs Featured
These are dinosaurs and other extinct creatures featured in the Lost World:
 * Compsognathus the mini or antagonist
 * Gallimimus
 * Mamenchisaurus
 * Pachycephalosaurus
 * Parasaurolophus
 * Pteranodon
 * Stegosaurus
 * Tyrannosaurus Rex the main antagonist
 * Triceratops
 * Velociraptor the primary antagonist

Production
After the release of the original Jurassic Park book, Michael Crichton was pressured by fans for a sequel novel. Having never written a sequel, he initially refused, until the success of the first Jurassic Park film prompted Steven Spielberg himself to request one. After the book was published in 1995, production on the sequel film began in September 1996.

The Lost World was filmed at, San Diego, and. Although the ending takes place in San Diego, only one sequence is actually shot there, where the InGen helicopter flies over the wharf and banks towards the city. The other sequences were all shot in northern California.

Spielberg suggested the Tyrannosaurus rex attack through San Diego be added to the film story, inspired by a similar attack scene of a Brontosaurus in London in the 1925 film adaptation of.

Many elements from the original Jurassic Park novel that were not in the first film were used for Lost World. The opening sequence of the vacationing family's young daughter being attacked by dinosaurs was inspired by a scene where a Procompsognathus escapes to Costa Rica and attacks young children, and Dieter Stark's death is analogous to John Hammond's compy-related death in the novel. Also, Nick, Sarah, Kelly, and Burke being trapped behind a waterfall by the female T. rex is taken from the first novel, where Tim and Lex are trapped behind a man-made waterfall with the T. rex attempting to eat them.

According to Jack Horner part of the waterfall scene was written in as a favor for him by Spielberg. Burke greatly resembles Horners' rival Robert Bakker. In real life Bakker argues for a predatory Tyrannosaurus rex while Horner views it as primarily a scavenger. So Spielberg wrote Burke into this part to have him killed by the Tyrannosaurus Rex as a favor for Horner. After the film came out Bakker, who recognized himself in Burke and loved it, actually sent Horner a message saying "See, I told you T. rex was a hunter!".

Mercedes-Benz's new sport-utility vehicle, the M-class, had not yet been introduced and made its first appearance in the film. As a result, on the original VHS copies of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, a ad appears before the film.

Deviations from the Novel
It should be noted that the list of people who survived to the end of the book version of Jurassic Park differs from the survivor count in that movie. It appears that Crichton may have killed off some of the characters in between the two books to make the book version of The Lost World compatible with the ending of Jurassic Park, the movie. The most glaring example of this is Malcolm, who dies in the first book (but not the first movie), but is revealed in the second book to only have been "very close" to death. John Hammond is also alive, whereas his book counterpart died in the first novel. However, it should be noted that Hammond was only killed in the novel, but survived the film.

The film version of The Lost World is substantially different from that of the novel. Peter Ludlow and the InGen hunters replace Lewis Dodgson and his two henchmen as the antagonists in the movie, and neither Dodgson nor Biosyn are mentioned. Certain characters were eliminated for the movie version (Richard Levine and Jack Thorne, though they were in early drafts) and instead made into a composite character, Nick Van Owen. Additional attributes of the novel's Levine were also given to Sarah Harding for the movie version; most notably, the character's career (in the novel, Levine was the group's token paleontologist and Harding was an animal behaviorist. For the movie, Harding became a "behavioral paleontologist"). The two stowaway children from the novel were also made into one character, Malcolm's daughter (whose name, Kelly Curtis, was that of the girl from the novel).

The main characters, Malcolm and Harding, suffer an inversion of roles in the movie. Crichton presents Sarah as a strong woman, from the physical and psychological point of view, muscular and used to safari. Malcolm is the introspective studious man, crippled, weak and not suited for adventures.

In the scene of the mobile laboratory sliding on the cliff, Sarah takes a broken Malcolm on her shoulders and brings him up climbing by the strength of her only arms and legs. In the film the roles are inverted and much more conventional: she falls and it's Malcolm who saves her.

The dinosaur species called Carnotaurus was also cut from the film. In Crichton's book, this large carnivorous dinosaur had a remarkable ability to blend in with its surroundings. This species was added in the arcade game, however, albeit inside of the laboratory instead of the jungle.

Most significantly, there is no T. rex rampage through San Diego in the novel. In the film continuity, this incident reveals Isla Sorna's existence, leading to the events of Jurassic Park III.

Some shots and sequences in the movie were actually taken from the original Jurassic Park novel rather than the Lost World novel, such as the opening sequence with the vacationing family on an Isla Sorna beach or the idea of a boat carrying dinosaurs heading for the mainland. Another concept taken from the first book was the waterfall scene. Several people flee from a T.rex and take shelter in the cavern of a waterfall, as the T-rex desperately attempts to reach its potential victims. In the first book, Lex and Tim were in the cavern of the waterfall as the Rex attempted to drag Tim out using its tongue.

In the Lost World novel, only one of the two trailers falls off the cliff, but it doesn't explode.

Only Malcolm and Sarah were in the trailers, and Eddie is younger in the novel.

Eddie is killed by raptors instead of two Tyrannosaurs. Jack Thorne is the one who saves Malcolm and Sarah in the novel instead of Eddie, and is not eaten.

List of Paleontological Faults and Inaccuracies
Some of the Jurassic Park dinosaurs and the Isla Sorna's ecosystem were inaccurate or highly speculative. These are some of the faults and speculations:
 * Scientists aren't sure if Compsognathus hunt in packs or alone.
 * One raptor leapt twenty feet in the air to attack. It is highly unlikely that real Velociraptors could jump that far or high. Note: they only jumped 8 feet up, then climbed up the rest
 * Historically, the dinosaurs in the movie would not have lived at the same time. Thus, it would be difficult for them to adapt as easily to the environment and the other competing species.
 * The Stegosaur's head is too broad; there is probably no throat pouch, and there are only 4 digits on the manus and all have hooves.
 * The Stegosaur's are considerably larger than real ones. Actual Stegosauruses are 7-9m long (about 21-27 feet) while the movie counterpart is about 12-13m long(40-43 ft).
 * Velociraptors are much smaller in real life than in the film, and are more anatomically similar to Deinonychus than their dog-sized counterparts.

Seeing that the dinosaurs in this movie were genetically engineered with frog DNA and the like, an easy explanation to these faults is that they would behave in whatever manner the bio-engineers (the director) wanted, irrespective of how dinosaurs might have actually behaved 65 million years ago.

Score
John Williams was again asked to score the second installment of the Jurassic Park series. Few motifs and themes carry on from the first film. The score for The Lost World: Jurassic Park is, instead, almost an entirely different score. Due to the hectic schedule and many changes post John Williams involvement, the score was heavily edited. The Album is available on CD from MCA but has yet to be released in its completion.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Film Score) article contains more information on the topic.

Box Office
This film broke many box office records upon its release on May 23rd, 1997. It took an incredible $72.1 million gross on its opening weekend ($92.6 million for the four-day Memorial Day holiday) in the US, which was by far the biggest opening weekend taking at the time. It also took the highest single day box office taking of $26.1 million on Sunday, May 25th, and it became the fastest film to pass the $100 million mark, achieving the feat in just five and a half days. The film eventually ended up grossing $620 million worldwide, becoming (at the time) the sixth highest-grossing film of all time, and helped to launch the movie careers of Richard Schiff, Vince Vaughn and Julianne Moore.

Cultural References

 * The cargo ship U.S.S. Venture transporting the Tyrannosaurus rex to San Diego is a homage to another ship with the same name that transports King Kong to New York in the King Kong movies and later in Peter Jackson's remake.


 * In an obvious homage to Godzilla (King of the monsters), the Tyrannosaurus rampage through San Diego features a brief clip of Japanese tourists, shouting something in Japanese. Translated, they're shouting "We left Japan to get away from this!"


 * One of the characters in the film, Dr. Robert Burke, is obviously based on paleontologist Robert Bakker whose theories on warm-blooded dinosaurs helped to inspire Jurassic Park. Interestingly, Tim Murphy mentions "a guy named Bakker" in the first Jurassic Park film; therefore, both Bakker and Burke exist in the same world.

Goofs

 * When the rescue team has its first dinosaur encounter, the rifle changes hands several times. In the frontal shots Ian is holding it, but in the shots from behind Eddie is holding it.


 * When Sarah is clinging for her life on the roof of the warehouse, her hand is first shown holding the support between the tiles. However, in the next scene after the dinosaur falls off the roof, her hand is now shown gripping the tile.


 * When the rescue helicopter arrived, the team enter the Communication Center without closing the door, after The helicopter flys away, the door can be seen closed.


 * The part where the ship crashed into the docks is very unlikely given the geography of the San Diego Bay and the location of the loading docks. The ship could not have come straight in, but would have had to alter course several times.


 * Several times when the actors are holding the baby Rex, wires attached from the baby to the actor can be seen clearly. Also, it wouldn't be easy to carry a 200 pound baby T-rex around.

Awards

 * The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects.


 * It was also nominated for "Best Action Sequence" in the 1998 MTV Movie Awards for the sequence where the T. rex is destroying San Diego, looking for his son.
 * However, it was also nominated for three Golden Raspberry awards - Worst Screenplay, Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property.

Trivia

 * Spielberg suggested the Tyrannosaurus rex attack through San Diego be added to the film story, inspired by similar attack scene of a Brontosaurus in London in the 1925 film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. This replaced the original ending, featuring an extended Raptor sequence and an attack by Pteranodons while escaping from the Island. Instead of the CNN news footage of the T-rex returning to the island, the final scene would have been Hammond's funeral, where Malcolm delivers a eulogy. The dinosaurs would remain undiscovered by the general public.
 * Spielberg was approached by the producers of Swingers who needed the director's approval for use of the theme from Jaws. Spielberg asked to see footage of the clip that would eventually feature the music, which featured Vince Vaughn, who caught the director's eye. Spielberg soon offered Vaughn a part in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which provided a breakout role for Vaughn.
 * This was the first film to feature Universal's new logo, which is still used as of 2012.
 * Mercedes-Benz's new sport-utility vehicle, the M-class, had not yet been introduced. Its appearance in the film was strategically placed, along with full-page ads in several newspapers, such as USA Today, touting the vehicle's appearance in 'The Lost World.' As a result, on the original VHS copies of The Lost World, a Mercedes-Benz ad appears before the film.
 * Screenwriter David Koepp has a cameo as the man in San Diego who is eaten by the Tyrannosaurus rex. When he breaks from the fleeing masses and tries to enter a video store, the Tyrannosaurus singles him out and devours him. He is listed in the credits as "Unlucky Bastard."
 * The call of the Parasaurolophus was also the same sound used for the dewbacks in the Star Wars films. It is also very similar to some of the noises made by the Triceratops and Stegosaurs in the same film.
 * Dieter Stark's death is an homage to John Hammond's compy-related death in the first Jurassic Park novel.
 * The end is said to take place in San Diego. There is actually only one sequence shot in San Diego, where the InGen helicopter flies over the wharf and banks towards the city. The other sequences were all shot in northern California.

Reaction
Although the film did well at the box-office, it received mixed reviews. Many of the fans praised it as a worthy follow-up, while others were less impressed. Some of the concerns centered on the characters' reckless and foolish actions (example: Sarah carrying the vest with the infant T-rex blood even though she knew the T. rex could track it), the character of Kelly (who uses gymnastics to subdue a Velociraptor), paleontologist Robert Burke (who during the T-Rex chase sees a snake go down his shirt and instead of a snake bite runs through the waterfall to get eaten by the T-Rex) and the Tyrannosaur's rampage through San Diego. Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, taking issue with the fact that the characters seemed to be bound by what the plot demanded, rather than their own free will like the dinosaurs were.

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