The Lost World: Jurassic Park (film)



The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the 1997 film sequel to the blockbuster Jurassic Park. 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, Arliss Howard and Peter Stormare. Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello have cameo appearances.

Plot Summary
Six 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. Ian Malcolm, meanwhile, 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 abondoned 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 Chinook and Huey helicopters. 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 a Parasaurolophus, a Pachycephalosaurus, a bull Triceratops and a infant, a Gallimimus, lots of Compsognathus and a bull Stegosaurus'' and a infant Stegosaur. As Ludlow 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 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, nearly killing Roland and Ajay.

Roland has come to the island, not to help Ludlow, 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 T. 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. Ludlow 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 reason the compys attacked him is most likely because he constantly shocked them with his electric cattle prod. 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, 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. However, it does look like the deadly coral snake.) Once the T-rex leaves, the surviving hunters travel through a dense 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 raptors.

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 board a rescue helecopter.

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

InGen invites all prestigious investors and reporters to the docks to witness the arrival of the Tyrannosaurus. The ship doesn't slow down and crashes into the dock. Police board the ship and find that the crew are have been eaten. Someone opens the cargo door in an attempt to look for survivors and the Tyrannosaurus storms out of the cargo bay and into San Diego. As Ludlow 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 baby, while the adult Tyrannosaurus runs amok in the city center. Ian and Sarah bait the creature with its baby and drive back to the docks and put the infant in the cargo hold of the ship. Ludlow orders the police to shoot the rampaging adult and then follows the couple onto the ship. However, they escape the ship and Ludlow 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 snaps it. Then the infant kills him. 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. The end credits roll.

Cast

 * Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm: a mathematician and chaos theorist. After barely surviving the Incident on Isla Nublar, Malcolm is more cynical and jaded as a result of his experience. He remains the voice of reason concerning InGen's activities.
 * Julianne Moore as Dr. Sarah Harding: a behavioral palaeontologist who is said to be at the top of her profession, Sarah is head strong and independent, which makes things difficult for Malcolm.
 * Pete Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo: a big-game hunter from South Africa. Although sometimes violent, he adheres to his own strict moral code.
 * Arliss Howard as Peter Ludlow: Hammond's conniving nephew; a greedy and manipulative businessman first, last, and always.
 * Richard Attenborough as John Hammond: former CEO of InGen, a repentant Hammond takes steps to redeem himself and preserve Isla Sorna. He tries to have Malcolm forgive his negative expressions towards him before the Isla Nublar incident.
 * Vince Vaughn as Nick Van Owen: a well-traveled and experienced documentarian and environmentalist.
 * Vanessa Lee Chester as Kelly Curtis Malcolm: Malcolm's teenage daughter from a failed marriage, Kelly often feels estranged and alienated from her father. She tries to bridge the gap in their relationship by stowing-away in the trailers.
 * Peter Stormare as Dieter Stark: a sadistic hunter, and the Second-in-Command of the InGen team under Roland Tembo.
 * Harvey Jason as Ajay Sidhu: Roland's immensely loyal and long-time hunting partner from India.
 * Richard Schiff as Eddie Carr: a timid and sardonic "Field Equipment Expert" who gives his life to save his friends.
 * Thomas F. Duffy as Dr. Robert Burke: an arrogant palaeontologist who is proven to be incorrect on more than one occasion.
 * Thomas Rosales JR. as Carter: Dieter's only friend, whose lack of attention results in his boss being ripped apart. He was killed by the female Tyrannosaurus, who trampled him.
 * Ariana Richards as Alexis "Lex" Murphy: Hammond's granddaughter and a survivor of the Isla Nublar fiasco. She greets Malcolm when he arrives at her grandfather's home and informs him that not everything is as it should be.
 * Joseph Mazzello as Tim Murphy: Lex's younger brother, who also survived the events on Isla Nublar.
 * Camilla Belle as Cathy Bowman: a young girl who is attacked by Compies when her family stumbles upon Site B during a yacht cruise. She survives the assault, but Ludlow still uses the incident to gain control of InGen.
 * Cyd Strittmatter as Deirdre Bowman: Cathy's mother, a constant worrier who fears for her daughter's safety.
 * Robin Sachs as Paul Bowman: The patriarch of the Bowman family. He assures his wife that Cathy will be fine on her own, unaware of which island they're on.
 * Geno Silva as Carlos: Captain of the Costa Rican barge Mar del Plata, Carlos is hired to take Malcolm's team to Site B. However, he refuses to approach the interior of the island, eager to warn the team about the aptly named "Five Deaths."
 * Colton James as Benjamin: Citizen of San Diego and one of those affected by the imfamous San Diego incident.
 * Bernard Shaw as Himself: a news anchor for CNN who reports on the aftermath of the San Diego incident.

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's 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. The InGen hunters replace Lewis Dodgson and his two henchmen as the villains 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.

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.

Dinosaurs Featured
These are dinosaurs and other extinct creatures featured in the Lost World:


 * Compsognathus
 * Gallimimus
 * Mamenchisaurus
 * Pachycephalosaurus
 * Parasaurolophus


 * Pteranodon
 * Stegosaurus
 * ''Tyrannosaurus Rex
 * Triceratops
 * Velociraptor

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.
 * 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).
 * 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 bioengineers (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 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 paleontolgist 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 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.
 * 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.

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.

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 2008.
 * 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.

Video
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