The Lost World: Jurassic Park (commonly referred to as The Lost World or Jurassic Park 2) is a 1997 American science fiction film and the second Jurassic Park film as part of the Jurassic Park franchise. The film succeeds Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg, loosely based on the The Lost World by Michael Crichton. The film centers on the island of Isla Sorna, an auxiliary site for the main Jurassic Park island, where dinosaurs have taken over and live in the wild. Ian Malcolm leads a team to document the dinosaurs in their native habitat, while an InGen team attempts to capture them for a second Jurassic Park in San Diego.

After the release of the original Jurassic Park book and the success of the first film, Crichton was pressured not only by fans, but Spielberg himself, for a sequel novel. After the book was published in 1995, production began on a film sequel.

Plot

Four years have passed since the disaster at Jurassic Park, and John Hammond has lost control of InGen to his ruthless nephew, Peter Ludlow. Despite having signed a non-disclosure agreement about the events of the first film, Ian Malcolm goes public with his story. Unfortunately for him, his stories are not widely believed, threats of legal action prevent him from producing any evidence, and his academic reputation is destroyed. At the film's beginning, a ship has landed into Site B: Jurassic Park, and a little girl finds a Compsognathus, but then is attacked when she feeds a roast beef sandwich to them.

Ludlow plans to create a Jurassic Park arena in San Diego, using captured dinosaurs from Isla Sorna. These dinosaurs are from Site B, an auxiliary facility used to hatch eggs before the dinosaurs were transferred to the main Jurassic Park facility at Isla Nublar. The island was abandoned after the failure of the park and after a hurricane wiped out most of the facilities, and the creatures have been living in the wild ever since. Hammond requests Malcolm's help in stopping Ludlow and preserving the dinosaur's natural habitat. He initially refuses, but after learning that his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding, is already on the island, he goes along but instead for a rescue mission.

The team consists of Eddie Carr, the engineer who built the two custom Mercedes M-Class SUVs and the mobile laboratory RV/trailer the team will use, and wildlife documentary producer Nick Van Owen. Shortly after arriving on the island, they find Sarah and escape a Stegosaurus herd. When they return to camp, they find Kelly, Malcolm's daughter, stowed away on the trailer. He tries to contact the boat to take them home, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the InGen team.

Using their custom vehicles and equipment, the rival team quickly captures several species, including Parasaurolophus, Stegosaurus, Gallimimus, Pachycephalosaurus, Triceratops, and a swarm of Compsognathus. At night fall, Nick reveals an alternate mission: free any captured dinosaurs. He and Sarah sneak into the InGen camp to free the dinosaurs and cut the fuel lines on their jeeps. The freed dinosaurs cause a huge commotion, compounded by the exploding vehicles.

Meanwhile, Roland Tembo, the leader of the InGen team, is hunting for his prize trophy, an adult Tyrannosaurus, using a T. rex baby to lure in its parents. When he returns to the camp, Nick frees the baby T. rex, taking it back to their trailer so Sarah can set its broken leg. Eddie and Kelly hide in a tree stand that's called the High Hide, while Malcolm returns to the trailer. As Tembo intended, the T. rex parents come searching for their son, and after getting it from Sarah and Nick, throw one half of the hinged trailer over a cliff in the process, with Malcolm, Nick, and Sarah inside. Eddie throws down a rope and tries to pull the trailer back up using one of the SUVs, but is killed when the adult rexes return. The trailer falls, but its occupants survive by holding on to the rope and are helped up by the InGen team. With all of the communications equipment destroyed in the attacks, both groups team up to reach the old InGen compound's radio station, right through a Velociraptor nesting site, while Dr. Harding suspects the T. rex parents will continue pursuing them.

On the way, Dieter Stark, Tembo's second in command, is eaten by Compsognathus. At night, one of the Tyrannosaurs (the female) comes into the group's camp and looks into Sarah and Kelly's tent, seemingly attracted to the smell of the baby T. Rex's blood on Sarah's jacket. One of the InGen team members, Carter, wakes up and notices the Tyrannosaur. His screams of terror awaken the other group members and they all run, with the Tyrannosaur in hot pursuit. Two members of the team are crushed underfoot and the group separates in the chaos. Nick, Sarah, Kelly, and another InGen team member, Dr. Robert Burke, take refuge in a small cave behind a waterfall. The Tyrannosaur puts its head inside but cannot spot them since they are all standing still. However, Burke discovers a snake slithering on him and tries to run out of the cave in panic. The "Tyrannosaur" then catches him. Malcom comes in a few moments later, much to the group's relief. Nick decides to go ahead to the compound and radio for help.

Still fleeing the Tyrannosaur, the InGen team passes through a field of tall grass. Tembo's friend, Ajay, warns them to stay out of the grass but the team doesn't listen. As a result, they are all one by one picked off by Velociraptors hiding in the grass. Ronald Tembo fails to shoot the Tyrannosaurus, mostly due to the fact that Van Owen disabled Tembo's rifle so that he was unable to stop the dinosaur until after most of the team had been killed. Malcolm and his friends pass through the field unharmed, but are attacked by three Velociraptors and go into hiding. Kelly kills one of them and Sarah manages to pit the last two against each other. The team then make a run towards a building, where they contact a rescue helicopter. As they fly away, they see that Tembo has caged the adult male Tyrannosaurus that he had tranquilised earlier when it had attacked the camp, preparing to ship it and the baby back to the mainland. When the ship carrying the dinosaurs arrives in San Diego, it crashes into the dock. A boarding party then finds out the gruesome reason why there was no one to slow it down. The entire crew is dead and eaten, which is largely unexplainable, seeing that the only dinosaur on the ship was a T. rex, and therefore much too large to fit into intact human-sized quarters. However, a human hand is found attached to the button inclosing the rex, hinting that it had gotten free and they had attempted to cage it again (it is explained that the Tyrannosaur collapsed and went into shock due to a tranquiliser overdose, therefore the crew gave it a drug to counteract the effects: however, without the proper dosage, the dinosaur was given too much, making it berserk). While searching for survivors, a guard opens the cargo hold and unleashes the Tyrannosaurus, who storms into the city.

Malcolm and Sarah rush to the Jurassic Park arena to get the baby T. rex, who was brought separately by plane. As the adult runs through the city, causing immense damage, and eating one person and a dog, there seems to almost be no hope in stopping the T. rex from destroying San Diego. However, Malcolm and Sarah in their car lure the Tyrannosaurus Rex with the sounds of the baby awakening to make it follow them, and they quickly run back to the boat. However, Peter Ludlow, who is in his car near them, still wants his San Diego arena of Jurassic Park to be endorsed, tries to take the "T.rex" out and put the infant as the first dinosaur in his arena. However, the infant is freed, and the adult Tyrannosaurus Rex comes, bites Ludlow's leg, and then encourages the infant to attack him, making Peter Ludlow the infant's first kill. Then, Malcolm and Sarah quickly shoot a tranquillizer dart at the adult T. rex and closes the cargo hold of the ship to bring the T. rex back to Site B Jurassic Park. Then, Malcolm and Sarah fall asleep on the couch while Kelly watches the television where John Hammond explains that, the island requires human absence, so the dinosaurs can live and be able to survive again from being hunted, citing Malcolm's famous quote Life will find a way. The scene cuts to Site B, where the infant T.rex is living happily with it's parents, and all is well.

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 experiences. He remains the voice of reason concerning InGen's plans.
• Julianne Moore as Dr. Sarah Harding: A behavioral paleontologist who is said to be at the top of her field. Sarah is tough and independent, which makes things difficult for her boyfriend, Dr. Malcolm.
• Vince Vaughn as Nick Van Owen: A well-traveled and experienced "documentarian," photo journalist and environmentalist.
• Pete Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo: A big-game hunter who, although capable of violence, adheres to his own strict moral code.
• Vanessa Lee Chester as Kelly Curtis Malcolm: Malcolm's teenage daughter from a failed marriage, who often feels estranged and alienated from her father. She tries to get closer to Malcolm by stowing away in the trailers.
• Arliss Howard as Peter Ludlow: Hammond's conniving nephew. A greedy and manipulative businessman first, last and always. He wants to build a San Diego Zoo of Jurassic Park, only to have a T.rex attack the city instead.
• Richard Attenborough as John Hammond: The former CEO of InGen who takes steps to redeem himself and preserve Isla Sorna.
• Peter Stormare as Dieter Stark: A sadistic hunter, and the second-in-command of the InGen harvesters under control of Roland Tembo.
• Harvey Jason as Ajay Sidhu: An experienced tracker from India, who is the immensely loyal and long-time hunting partner of Roland Tembo.
• Richard Schiff as Eddie Carr: A sardonic "field equipment expert." He heroically saved his friends' lives by surrendering his to the Tyrannosaurs.
• Thomas F. Duffy as Dr. Robert Burke: The InGen Hunter's pompous paleontologist who is proven to be incorrect more than once. The character itself is actually based off real life paleontoligist Robert T. Bakker.
• Ariana Richards as Alexis "Lex" Murphy: Hammond's granddaughter, a vegetarian and self-professed computer hacker.
• Joseph Mazzello as Timmy "Tim" Murphy: Lex's younger brother. Interested in dinosaurs. He has read Grant's numerous books.

Production

After the relase 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 Eureka, San Diego, and Kauai. 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 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.

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(Camilla Belle) 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 Horner's 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 Mercedes-Benz ad appears before the film.

Dinosaurs on screen

• Compsognathus
• Stegosaurus
• Parasaurolophus
• Pachycephalosaurus
• Gallimimus
• Mamenchisaurus
• Tyrannosaurus
• Triceratops
• Velociraptor

Unlike the first movie, The Lost World also featured extinct reptiles other than dinosaurs, pterosaurs, represented by a pair of Pteranodon. They have only been seen at the very ending.

Release

Following four years of growing anticipation and hype, The Lost World: Jurassic Park broke many box office records upon its release. It took in $72,132,785 on its opening weekend ($92.6 million for the four-day Memorial Day holiday) in the US, which was the biggest opening weekend at the time, surpassing the previous record-holder Batman Forever at $52.8 million. It held onto this record for four and a half years, until the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in November 2001. The Lost World took the record for highest single-day box office take of $26,083,950 on May 25, a record held until the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It also became the fastest film to pass the $100 million mark, achieving the feat in just six days. However, its total US box office gross fell below the total of the original film. The film eventually ended up grossing $618,638,999 worldwide, becoming, at the time, the highest grossing film of 1997, and the sixth highest-grossing film of all time, behind Titanic, the original Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Star Wars and E.T. The Extra-terrestrial. The film made its VHS debut on November 4, 1997, and was first released on DVD on October 10, 2000.

The film was also released in a package with Jurassic Park. The DVD has also been re-released with both sequels on December 11, 2001 as the Jurassic Park Trilogy (right) and as the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack on November 29, 2005. The soundtrack was released on May 20, 1997. On the same day it was first released to DVD, a deluxe limited edition box set was released that included Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, exclusive soundtracks for both films made exclusively for the set, two lenticulars, 8 8x10 stills from both films, and a certificate of authenticity signed by all three producers of the set, all inside a collector case.

Reception

The Lost World is ranked as rotten on Rotten Tomatoes with a 52% positive rating, with 27 out of 51 critics giving it positive reviews. It also has a 59% on Metacritic. It received much of the same criticism as the original Jurassic Park, with praise for the special effects but accusations of flat characterization. Roger Ebert said, "It can be said that the creatures in this film transcend any visible signs of special effects and seem to walk the earth, but the same realism isn't brought to the human characters, who are bound by plot conventions and action formulas." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times saw improved character development over the original, saying, "It seemed such a mistake in Jurassic Park to sideline early on its most interesting character, the brilliant, free-thinking and outspoken theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) with a broken leg, but in its most inspired stroke, The Lost World brings back Malcolm and places him front and center," calling it "a pleasure to watch such wily pros as Goldblum and Attenborough spar with each other with wit and assurance. The dinosaurs were even more developed as characters, with Stephen Holden of the New York Times saying, "The Lost World, unlike Jurassic Park, humanizes its monsters in a way that E.T. would understand. Entertainment Weekly remarked in 2008, "Mr. T-rex was cool in the first Spielberg flick, sure, but it wasn't until [it was in] San Diego that things got crazy-cool. It's the old 'tree falling in the woods' conundrum: Unless your giant monster is causing massive property damage, can you really call it a giant monster?

The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects and for "Best Action Sequence" in the MTV Movie Awards 1998 for the T. Rex rampage through San Diego. It was also nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, Best Director, Best Young Actress for Vanessa Lee Chester, Best Special Effects, and Best Supporting Actor for Pete Postlethwaite.

References

External links

• The Lost World: Jurassic Park Official Site
• Jurassic Park Legacy - Jurassic Park Encyclopedia
• Jurassic Park & Dinosaur News