Synopsis of Movie

“Oooh! Ahhh! That's how it always starts. Then comes the running and the screaming…”

Life always finds a way. At the end of the first Jurassic Park film, it looked like the dino threat was over, and Dr. Ian Malcolm and the rest were safely out of harm’s way. But in that film’s 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, life found ways to get both the thunderlizards and Dr. Malcolm back for another carnivorous adventure.

John Hammond, the billionaire behind the failed Jurassic Park theme park, wants Ian to take a trip to Isla Sorna, home to the ominous-sounding “Site B.” This was the breeding area for the first film’s dinos, and despite the lessons he supposedly learned from Jurassic Park, Hammond wants to keep Site B going as a research habitat. Ian wants no part of it until he learns that former love Dr. Sarah Harding is already there with her own expedition. Against his better judgment, Ian takes the trip, and his teenage gymnast daughter Kelly stows away on the voyage.

Arriving on Isla Sorna, Ian and company discover that a second group of homo sapiens is there, too, but this one has a more sinister motive. Company man Peter Ludlow wants to catch a few samples and bring them back stateside for a non-petting zoo. His team is headed up by great white hunter Roland Tembo, who plans to bag a T-Rex hide as long as he’s here.

The two groups end up together after Sarah and her animal activist partner Nick Van Owen free Ludlow’s captured beasties and try to nurse a baby T-Rex back to health. Soon, Mama and Papa Rex come looking for junior, and then the running and the screaming begin in earnest. A series of cliffhanging action sequences ensues—including a T-Rex/truck battle, an attack of the tiny compsognathuses and a velociraptor siege in Site B’s abandoned headquarters–and just when it looks like our heroes are once again safe, Peter Ludlow’s greed opens suburban San Diego up for some King Kong-style terror.

Like the first film, The Lost World was designed as a non-stop chase, pitting gargantuan predators against what Roland Tembo (quoting Hemingway) terms a “moveable feast.” Since the pseudo-science background was already taken care of in Jurassic Park, director Steven Spielberg cut right to the chase and never let up.

It was another thrill ride of the movie, packed with elaborate special effects, and it was another global smash at the box office. A third film arrived in 2001, with Joe Johnston (Jumanji, The Rocketeer) taking over the director’s chair.

Movie Release History

1993 - Jurassic Park
1997 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park
2001 - Jurassic Park III

Movie Sub Categories

live-action
sci-fi/fantasy
action/adventure

Movie Studio

Universal, Amblin

Cast

Dr. Ian Malcolm   Jeff Goldblum
Dr. Sarah Harding   Julianne Moore
Roland Tembo   Pete Postlethwaite
Peter Ludlow   Arliss Howard
John Hammond   Richard Attenborough
Nick Van Owen   Vince Vaughn
Kelly Malcolm   Vanessa Lee Chester
Dieter Stark   Peter Stormare
Ajay Sidhu   Harvey Jason
Eddie Carr   Richard Schiff
Dr. Robert Burke   Thomas F. Duffy
Tim Murphy   Joseph Mazzello
Lex Murphy   Ariana Richards
Carter   Thomas Rosales
Cathy Bowman   Camilla Belle
Mrs. Bowman   Cyndi Strittmatter
Mr. Bowman   Robin Sachs
Curious Man   Ross Partridge
Butler   Ian Abercrombie
Workman   David Sawyer
Barge Capatin  Geno Silva
Barge Captain's Son   Alex Miranda
InGen Helicopter Pilot   Robert 'Bobby Z' Zajonc
Cargo Helicopter Pilot   Bob Boehm
Cargo Helicopter Pilot   Bradley Jensen
Cargo Helicopter Pilot Alan Purwin
InGen Guard Christopher Caso
Cargo Helicopter Pilot  Ben Skorstad
Cargo Helicopter Pilot   Rick Wheeler
Cargo Helicopter Pilot   Kenyon Williams
InGen Worker Gordon Michaels
InGen Worker J. Scott Shonka
InGen Worker Harry Hutchinson
InGen Worker Bill Brown
InGen Worker Brian Turk
Harbor Master  Jim Harly
Benjamin   Colton James
Benjamin's Dad   Carey Eidel
Benjamin's Mom   Katy Boyer
Unlucky Bastard  David Koepp
Attorney   Eugene Bass Jr.
Screaming Woman   Bari Buckner
Screamer P.B. Hutton
Screamer David St. James
Screamer Mark Brady
Screamer Marjean Holden
Screamer Jaqueline Schultz
Screamer Domini Hoffman de Saldago
Screamer Thomas Stuart
Ship Driver C. Ransom Walrod
Police Helicopter Pilot  David Gene Gibbs
Asian Tourist  Michael N. Fujimoto
Asian Tourist  Paul Fujimoto
Asian Tourist  Darryl A. Imai
Asian Tourist  Darryl Oumi
Screaming Hunter   Vincent Dee Miles
Bernard Shaw  Himself

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