The Lost World: Jurassic Park

"I'll be right back. I give you my word."

"But you *never* keep your word!"

Four years after surviving the dinosaurs on the island of Isla Nublar, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldblum) is again approached by John Hammond (Richard Attenborough).  Hammond, the former CEO of InGen, reveals that there was a second Jurassic Park location, "Site B."  Site B was housed on the island of Isla Sorna and was the location where the dinosaurs were cloned.  After the first park was overrun, the second site was also abandoned, but the dinosaurs have thrived on their own.  Hammond wants to send a team to the island to document what they find and help preserve the island as it is.

Malcolm refuses, until he learns that his girlfriend Dr. Sarah Hardin (Moore), is already on the island as the expert paleontologist.  Malcolm reluctantly joins photographer Nick Van Owens (Vaughn) and engineer Eddie Carr (Schiff) on the island.  Shortly after finding Dr. Hardin, they discover Malcolm's teenage daughter Kelly Curtis (Chester) hid in their trailer and is also on the island.  They soon learn that an even larger team is also on the island, this team is led by Hammond's nephew Peter Ludlow (Howard), the new CEO of InGen.  Ludlow's team plans to gut the island and start a new park in San Diego.  He hired big game hunters Roland Tembo (Postlethwaite) and Ajay Sidhu (Jason) to lead the capture and survival of the team, while palentologist Dr. Robert Burke (Duffy) provides the dinosaur expertise.  The teams are forced to stick together for survival after a Tyrannosaurus Rex attack destroys most of their equipment.  Can they survive long enough to get off the island.


After the success of Michael Crichton's novel "Jurassic Park," and the success of it's film adaptation Jurassic Park directed by Steven Spielberg, people (including Spielberg) began clamoring for a sequel.   In 1995, Crichton obliged with "The Lost World."  While Crichton finished the novel, Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp began coming up with their own ideas for the film sequel.  They used the premise and some of the characters from Crichton's novel, and then used their own ideas and characters to round out the story (including some ideas / scenes that were planned for the first film).

Once again Jack Horner served as a consultant on this film.  The character of Dr. Robert Burke is based on paleontologist Dr. Robert Bakker, who is Horner's rival, and actor Thomas F. Duffy resembles him.  Only 4 characters from the first film return for this one.  Like the novel, the film focuses on Ian Malcolm this time.  Richard Attenborough appears at the beginning and ending of the film in a brief cameo.  Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello, who played Lex and Tim Murphy, also appear in a brief cameo.

This film introduces the dinosaurs much earlier in the story.  And it featured more T rexes and more Velociraptors than the original.  Once again it is a suspenseful film and the dinosaurs are impressive.  It is not quite as good as the original, but it is still an interesting film.

This film did not do as well as it's predecessor, but was still successful enough to create 2 more sequels: Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World.


The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) 129 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for intense sci-fi terror and violence
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm
Julianne Moore as Dr. Sarah Hardin
Pete Postlethwaite as Roland Tembo
Arliss Howard as Peter Ludlow
Vince Vaughn as Nick Van Owen
Vanessa Lee Chester as Kelly Curtis
Peter Stormare as Dieter Stark
Harvey Jason as Ajay Sidhu
Richard Schiff as Eddie Carr
Thomas F. Duffy as Dr. Robert Burke