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The Lost World: Jurassic Park
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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 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.
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Encyclopedia
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 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. The young daughter explores on her own and runs into a Compsognathus. When the child attempts to feed the dinosaur, a large pack emerges and attacks the girl. She is rescued by her parents and brought back to the mainland.
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, 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 severly damaged Ingen's finances, 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. 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 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, 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, using a young T. Rex to lure in 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. Eddie throws down a rope and tries to pull the trailer back up using one of the SUVs, but is killed and then eaten when the adult tyrannosaurs return. The trailer falls, but its occupants survive by holding on to the rope. 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 adult tyrannosaurs will continue pursuing them.
On the way, Tembo's second in command is eaten by a Compsognathus. At night, the female 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 hot pursuit. 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. Tembo tries but fails to shoot the tyrannosaur. Malcolm and his friends pass through the field unharmed, but are attacked by three velociraptors and go into hiding. Kelly wounds one of them by knocking it out of a window (using her gymnastic skills) and Sarah 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.
When the ship carrying the dinosaurs arrives in San Diego, it crashes into the dock. A boarding party finds the entire crew is dead, apparently killed by the tyrannosaur, which has somehow gotten loose. While searching for survivors, a guard opens the cargo hold and unleashes the tyrannosaur, which storms into the city. 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 and is killed by the two tyrannosaurs, but Malcolm and Sarah manage to tranquilize the adult and trap it in the cargo hold of the ship.
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 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. The unspoken question is what, exactly, this particular life will find a way to do if left to itself.
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 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 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, 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 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!".
Dinosaurs on screen
Distribution
The Lost World: Jurassic Park was released on Memorial Day, 1997. 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 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, soundtracks for both films with packaging made exclusively for the set, two lenticulars, eight 8x10 stills (4 from each film), and a certificate of authenticity signed by all three producers of the set, all inside a collector case.
Reception
Box Office
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 Philosopher'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. With grossing $229,086,679 domestically and $389,552,320 internationally, the film ended up grossing $618,638,999 worldwide, becoming the second highest grossing film of 1997 behind Titanic, and the 40th highest-grossing film of all time.
Critical
The Lost World received mixed reviews. It 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.
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