The Lost World or The Lost World: Jurassic Park II

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (commonly referred to as The Lost World or The Lost World: Jurassic Park II) is a 1997 American science fiction film and the second Jurassic Park film as part of the Jurassic Park franchise. The film succeeds the film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, of Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park. This film is loosely based on the novel that was also written by 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 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

The film opens with a family of tourists on the island of Isla Sorna. Their young daughter explores on her own and runs into a baby Compsognathus. When the child attempts to feed the dinosaur, a large pack emerges and attacks the girl for more food. The parents are horrified to find that their daughter was slain.

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 prior events, chaos theorist Ian Malcolm has gone public and revealed details of his experiences at Jurassic Park. 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.

Hammond summons Malcolm to his home, where he reveals the existence of Site B, Isla Sorna. Sorna was the facility where the dinosaurs were actually engineered, before being sent to Isla Nublar when mature. The island was abandoned after a hurricane wiped out most of the facilities, and the creatures have been living in the wild ever since.

Hammond explains that the loss of  Nublar and the incident with the girl have all but bankrupted InGen, and so Ludlow plans to bail the company out by exploiting Site B. Hammond requests Malcolm’s help in stopping Ludlow and preserving the dinosaurs’ natural habitat, by creating a wildlife portfolio that will convince environmentalists to leave the island as a nature reserve. He initially refuses, but after learning that his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding, is already on the island, he goes along.

The team consists of Eddie Carr, an engineer who built the custom vehicles the team will use, and documentary producer and environmentalist 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, has stowed away. He tries to contact the boat to take them home, but they are interrupted by the arrival of an InGen team.

The rival team quickly captures samples of several species, including Parasaurolophus, Stegosaurus, Mamenchisaurus, Gallimimus, Pachycephalosaurus, Triceratops, and a swarm of Compsognathus. That night, Nick and Sarah sneak into the InGen camp to free the dinosaurs and cut the fuel lines on the vehicles. 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, breaking the leg of a young T. Rex so that its cries might lure its parents. When he returns to the camp, Nick frees the baby, taking it back to their trailer so Sarah can set its broken leg. Eddie and Kelly hide in a tree stand called a high hide, while Malcolm returns to the trailer. The adult Tyrannosaurs come searching for their child and, after retrieving it, throw one half of the hinged trailer over a cliff with Malcolm, Nick and Sarah inside. Sarah falls on the glass, almost breaking it. But Malcolm comes down, grabs Sarah’s “lucky pack” and Sarah holds on to it. Eddie throws down a rope and tries to pull the trailer back up using one of the SUVs, but is torn in half and eaten by the Tyrannosaur parents. The trailer falls of the cliff, but its occupants survive by holding on to the rope, only to be rescued 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 Sarah suspects the adult Tyrannosaurs will continue pursuing them.

On the way, Dieter Stark is eaten by a Compsognathus swarm. At night, the male Tyrannosaur comes into the group’s camp and looks into Sarah and Kelly’s tent. One of the InGen team members, Carter, wakes up and notices the tyrannosaur. His shouts awaken the other group members and they all run, with the Tyrannosaur in pursuit. Tembo tries but fails to shoot the Tyrannosaur, finding his ammunition disabled by Nick. Carter is 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 coral snake slithering on him and tries to run out of the cave in a panic. The Tyrannosaur then catches and devours him. Malcolm 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 and are picked off one by one by Velociraptors hiding in it. Malcolm and his friends pass through the field unharmed, but are attacked by three raptors and go into hiding. Kelly wounds one of them by knocking it out of a window (using her gymnastic skills) and Dr. Harding manages to pit the last two against each other. The team then run towards a building, where they contact a rescue helicopter. As they fly away, they see that Tembo has caged the adult male Tyrannosaur that he had tranquilized earlier when it had attacked the camp, and Ludlow is preparing to ship it and the baby back to the mainland. Tembo however states that he is done with InGen and hunting, having lost his brother to the Velociraptors.

When the ship carrying the dinosaurs arrives in San Diego, it crashes into the dock. A boarding party finds out the entire crew is dead, apparently killed by the Tyrannosaur, which had somehow escaped. While searching for survivors, a guard opens the cargo hold and inadvertently releases the Tyrannosaur, which enters the city. Malcolm and Sarah learn that the Tyrannosaur stopped breathing due to a tranquilliser overdose, it was given amphetamines to bring it round, but not knowing the proper dosage, they administered too much and the dinosaur is out of control. Realising that the Tyrannosaur will likely come for its infant, Malcolm and Sarah rush to the Jurassic Park arena to get the young T. rex, which had been brought in separately by plane. They lure the adult with the baby and run back to the boat. Ludlow tries to intervene, but is trapped in the cargo hold and devoured by the two Tyrannosaurs. Malcolm and Sarah manage to tranquilize the adult before it can escape again, and seal it in the hold.

Later, as Malcolm and Sarah fall asleep on the couch in their living room, Kelly is watching television and sees the cargo ship on its way back to Site B, surrounded by a convoy of naval vessels. The program breaks away to an interview of restored InGen Chairman John Hammond, who explains that the island will now be left alone as a natural reserve so the dinosaurs can live free of human interference. He offers a quote by Malcolm, “Life will find a way.” The scene cuts to Site B, where the family of Tyrannosaurs is shown in the wild, alongside various other dinosaurs.

Cast

* Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm: A mathematician and chaos theorist and the main protagonist of the film. 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 and the Female protagonist 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 and the main antagonist of the film. 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 surviving the Incident on Isla Nublar, and 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 saved Malcolm and Sarah’s lives when he refused to abandoned them hanging from a cliff while faced by the Tyrannosaurs, getting eaten in the process.
* 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 on real life paleontologist Robert T. Bakker.
* Ariana Richards as Alexis “Lex” Murphy: Hammond’s granddaughter who surviving the Incident on Isla Nublar, a vegetarian and self-professed computer hacker.
* Joseph Mazzello as Timothy “Tim” Murphy: Lex’s younger brother who also surviving the Incident on Isla Nublar. 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 Mercedes-Benz W163 used in the movie

The Lost World was filmed at Eureka, San Diego, Burbank, 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 Burbank.

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 a group of Compsognathus 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!”.