Prologue: "Life at the Edge of Chaos"

Ian Malcolm is giving a lecture on the subject of extinction at the Santa Fe Institute. Malcolm, who nearly died due to his injuries sustained while visiting Isla Nublar in 1989 (he states that he was only "slightly dead", as opposed to being clinically dead as he was at the end of Jurassic Park), now requires the assistance of a cane to walk. During his lecture, he is interrupted by an attendee named Richard Levine, a palentologist. Levine argues that if dinosaurs went extinct due to behavioral changes as Malcolm theorizes, then it is unlikely that all dinosaurs changed their behaviors at once and that its likely that remnant animals still exist in isolated spots around the world. Malcolm rudely shuts the man down and resumes his lecture, while Levine returns to taking notes.