| The Lost World: Jurassic Park | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Steven Spielberg |
| Produced by | Kathleen Kennedy Gerald R. Molen Colin Wilson |
| Screenplay by | David Koepp |
| Based on | The Lost World by Michael Crichton |
| Starring | Jeff Goldblum Julianne Moore Vanessa Lee Chester Pete Postlethwaite Arliss Howard |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Janusz Kamiński |
| Editing by | Michael Kahn |
| Studio | Amblin Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 23, 1997 |
| Running time | 129 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $73 million |
| Box office | $618,638,999 |
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (also known as Jurassic Park II: The Lost World or just Jurassic Park II) is a 1997 science fiction thriller film, directed by Steven Spielberg. The film was produced by Bonnie Curtis, Kathleen Kennedy, Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson. The screenplay was penned by David Koepp, based on the 1995 novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton. The film stars Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Richard Schiff, Vince Vaughn, Arliss Howard, Thomas F. Duffy, Vanessa Lee Chester, and Richard Attenborough.
The film picks up four years after the events of Jurassic Park. On a deserted island, dinosaurs have secretly survived and been allowed to roam free. In the time between the two events, John Hammond loses control of his company, InGen, to his nephew Peter Ludlow. Ludlow assembles a team to bring the animals back to the mainland to bring in revenue and restore the company. Hammond sees a chance to redeem himself for his past mistakes and sends an expedition led by Dr. Ian Malcolm to reach the island before InGen's team can get there. The two groups confront each other in the face of extreme danger and must team up for their own survival.
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. The film received a 51% approval rating from critics at Rotten Tomatoes and 60 out of 100 at Metacritic. This film is much darker and arguably scarier than the predecessor. The film earned over US$618 million at the worldwide box office, US$300 million fewer than the predecessor. It is the most recent Crichton adaptation to be a box office success.
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Four years after the incident at Jurassic Park, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has lost control of InGen to his unscrupulous nephew, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard). Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) publicized the incident, but disbelief has destroyed his academic reputation. Hammond summons Malcolm to his home and tells him about Isla Sorna, known as "Site B", where the dinosaurs were engineered and nurtured for a few months, before they were moved to Isla Nublar, the location of the park. He explains that after Jurassic Park was shut down, a hurricane destroyed the containment facilities on Isla Sorna, and the dinosaurs have been living free in the wild ever since. Hammond asks Malcolm to join a team that will travel to "Site B" and will help him stop Ludlow from exploiting the site for InGen, and to help leave it as a nature preserve. Malcolm initially refuses, but agrees after learning that his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), is part of the team and is already there, while the others will meet her after three days.
Malcolm meets the team of people he will join with: vehicle engineer Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff), and documentary producer Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn). Shortly after arriving on the island, they find Sarah. Sarah attempts to take a close-up picture of a baby Stegosaurus. Its parents attack Sarah, protecting their baby. Sarah survives by hiding in a hollow log. At camp, they discover Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester), Malcolm's daughter, had stowed away on the trailer. Malcolm tries to get Kelly home, but they are interrupted by the arrival of an InGen team led by Ludlow which they spot chasing and capturing several dinosaur species such as Parasaurolophus, Pachycephalosaurus, Gallimimus and Mamenchisaurus, identified by InGen paleontologist Dr. Robert Burke (Thomas F. Duffy). That night, Nick (who reveals to the team that he is a member of Earth First) and Sarah sneak into the InGen camp to free the dinosaurs, which causes a huge commotion as a Triceratops destroys the camp and the dinosaurs escape, leading InGen tracker Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) to blame his second-in-command Dieter Stark (Peter Stormare) for the failure.
Roland wishes to hunt and kill an adult male Tyrannosaurus by luring it to the cries of its injured offspring. During the commotion caused by the fleeing dinosaurs, Nick frees the baby and takes it to the trailer so Sarah can set its broken leg, frightening Kelly, making her ask Malcolm to go into the "high hide" which is Eddie's lift that goes above trees. While Kelly, Malcolm, and Eddie are in the lift, they hear the T-rex in the distance, making Malcolm call the trailer to tell Nick and Sarah that the T-rex is near. Because the baby rex struggles during their treatment, neither Sarah nor Nick is able to answer. Malcolm decides to head to the trailer before the T-rex gets there, which he does. Later, a scouting Eddie sees the Tyrannosaurs headed for the trailer, and heads for the camp to save the group. The team gives the adult Tyrannosaurus its child, but moments later it and its mate push one half of the double trailer over a cliff with the group inside. Eddie connects a rope to the trailer and tries to pull the trailer back up using one of the SUVs, but he is attacked and eaten by the Tyrannosaurs. The trailer falls off the cliff, and explodes, but its occupants hold on to the rope, only to be rescued by the remnants of the InGen team. With both groups' communications equipment destroyed in the attacks, they team up to reach the old InGen compound's radio station. Stark dies when he is separated from the group and devoured by a pack of Compsognathus, one of which he had tried to shock with a cattle prod earlier. Dieter's friend, Carter (Thomas Rosales Jr.) fails to hear Dieter's screams due to listening to headphones.
At night, the Tyrannosaurs come across the group's camp. One of them pokes its head into Sarah and Kelly's tent. One of the team workers sees the Tyrannosaurs and screams, waking up the rest. As they all flee with the female rex in pursuit, Carter falls and is crushed under its foot, and Dr. Burke is eaten by the dinosaur. Back at the ruined campsite, Roland, after realizing that someone has unloaded his hunting rifle, manages to tranquilize the male rex. The fleeing team, including Roland's friend and hunting partner, Ajay Sidhu (Harvey Jason), passes through a field of tall grass and are picked off by Velociraptors, leaving few survivors. Nick reaches the compound, but Malcolm, Sarah, and Kelly are attacked by raptors and go into hiding. Nick manages to call for help after reaching the radio station. After a fight with the raptors, they reunite with Nick, and fly away in a rescue helicopter that Nick had contacted earlier. Flying away, Nick reveals that he is the one that removed the bullets from Roland's gun, but as they look out the chopper's windows they spot the caged Tyrannosaurus and Ludlow preparing to ship it and its baby back to the mainland. However, Roland quits his post after Ajay's death in the raptor attack.
Some time later, when the ship carrying the dinosaur arrives in San Diego, it crashes into the dock. Ludlow and some guards investigate the boat and find the entire crew dead. A guard opens the cargo hold, thinking there might be some crew members below, despite Malcolm's warnings, inadvertently releasing the Tyrannosaurus, which escapes into the neighborhood, then into the city, and creates havoc. Realizing that the creature will likely come for its infant, Malcolm and Sarah ask Ludlow where the infant is. He reveals to them that it is hidden in the Jurassic Park amphitheater, Hammond's original dinosaur attraction, which he abandoned in favor of the Isla Nublar facility. They rush to the amphitheater to get the baby, using it to lure the adult back to the boat. Ludlow tries to intervene, but is trapped in the cargo hold and devoured by the infant Tyrannosaurus. Malcolm and Sarah manage to tranquilize the adult before it can escape again and seal it in the hold. The next day, Malcolm, Sarah and Kelly watch television reports of the cargo ship on its way back to Isla Sorna, surrounded by a convoy of naval vessels. The program breaks away to an interview with Hammond, who explains that the American and Costa Rican governments have agreed to declare the island a nature preserve so the dinosaurs can live free of human interference, and says "Life will find a way," paraphrasing something Malcolm told him on Isla Nublar four years earlier.
David Koepp cameos as a citizen of San Diego who gets killed by the Tyrannosaurus during its rampage. Steven Spielberg makes a cameo at the end of the film, appearing in the reflection of the TV as the T-rex is transported back to Isla Sorna.
After the release of the novel Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton was pressured by fans for a sequel novel. Having never written a sequel, he initially refused, until the success of the first film prompted Steven Spielberg himself to request one.[1] After the book was published in 1995, production on the sequel film began in September 1996.[2]
The Lost World was filmed in 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.[3]
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.[4]
Many elements from the original Jurassic Park novel that were not in the first film were used for The Lost World.[5] The opening sequence of a vacationing family's young daughter being attacked in Costa Rica by a group of Compsognathus was similar to the opening scene in the original novel, 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, and Roland Tembo shoots the T. rex with tranquilizer in the same way that Robert Muldoon did in the first book.
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!".[6]
The Lost World: Jurassic Park was released on May 23, 1997. The film made its VHS and LaserDisc debut on November 4, 1997.[7] The DVD, first released on October 10, 2000, includes deleted scenes that were incorporated into the Fox broadcast television premiere of the film. However, the deleted scenes are included separate of the actual movie, and are of lesser quality than the corresponding scenes from the broadcast version, despite being released some time after the broadcast. Universal Home Video, Amblin Entertainment and director Steven Spielberg have all declined comment on the matter, and it is unknown if the scenes will be reintegrated into the actual film for a later Blu-Ray release.
The film was also released in a package with Jurassic Park.[8] The DVD has also been re-released with both sequels on December 11, 2001 as the Jurassic Park Trilogy[9] and as the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack on November 29, 2005.[10] 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.[11]
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 U.S.,[12] which was the biggest opening weekend at the time,[13] 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,[14] 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.[15] However, its total U.S. 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,[16] becoming the second highest grossing film of 1997 behind Titanic.
The Lost World received mixed reviews. On the film aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 51% "rotten" rating with 31 out of 61 reviewers giving it a positive review.[17] It also has a 59% on Metacritic.[18] 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."[19] 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."[20] 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?"[21]
The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Visual Effects[22] and for "Best Action Sequence" in the MTV Movie Awards 1998 for the T. rex rampage through San Diego.[23] 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.[24] However, it was also nominated for three Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Screenplay, Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property, but failed to win any of those prizes.
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