The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

FILMS > JURASSIC PARK TRILOGY > THE LOST WORLD

Four years after the failure of Jurassic Park, John Hammond reveals to Ian Malcolm that there was a second island where dinosaurs were bred before being transported to Isla Nublar. Since the disaster the dinosaurs have flourished, and Hammond sends in a team of researchers to study the animals, while an InGen team approaches with more sinister agenda.

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by: David Koepp
Production Designer: Rick Carter
Produced by: Kathleen Kennedy (Executive), Gerald R. Molen, Colin Wilson
Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski
Music Composed by: John Williams

Runtime: 129 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Certification: PG-13 / PG / PG

The Lost World: Jurassic Park debuted May 19^th, 1997, and was the second installment in the Jurassic Park franchise. The film was roughly based from Michael Crichton’s novel The Lost World and was produced by Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is set on Isla Sorna, an island 87 miles east of Isla Nublar. Also known as ‘Site B’ – a Jurassic Park compound facility and home to the surviving dinosaurs that were genetically engineered for the original park.

Starring

Development & Production

Crichton had never initially written a sequel and refused to do so when pressured by fans and the studio. But after the success of the first film, Steven Spielberg and David Koepp persuaded Michael when the three of them laid out groundwork for the second film. Michael then began work on his novel and in 1995, development on the sequel was underway.

The film began production while Michael was still finishing his novel and it was then that Steven Spielberg and David Koepp decided to do away with many of the novels essential plots and ideas. The movie borrowed the idea of the dinosaurs being on a second island called, ‘Isla Sorna’, and the inclusion of the research mobile-trailers and their scene in which a pair of Tyrannosaurs slowly pushes them off of a cliffs edge. Spielberg and Koepp loved the idea of dinosaurs being captured for their use on the mainland and much of the story was adapted from the 1962 film, Hatari!.

The plot and overall tone of The Lost World is significantly darker than its predecessor in terms of character interaction and the films color and lighting choices. Much of the movie is filmed at night with daylight scenes only showing up a few times and for short periods. The film also capitalized on it’s usage of dinosaur animatronics and also used a much heavier dosage of digital effects and sound created again by ILM.

Numerous locations were considered for filming, including the Caribbean, Central America and New Zealand, but the production team which included Production Designer Rick Carter, decided on the redwood forests of Eureka, California. Rick Carter had wanted to now see dinosaurs in a more natural environment that would have been close to the environment they lived in 65+ million years ago.

Mercedes-Benz signed an endorsement deal for the movie, to introduce their new first sports utility vehicle, the ML320. Jeff Goldblum was given one of these vehicles post-filming.

Filming for The Lost World: Jurassic Park commenced on September 5, 1996 at Fern Canyon in California’s Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Filming continued in California for two weeks in other state parks and on private land. The opening sequence showing the island of Isla Nublar was filmed in Kauai, Hawaii.

Filming then moved to stages at Universal Studios Hollywood in the fall of 1996, with the Site B workers village being constructed there. The Universal Studio’s multi-storey car park famously stood in for a cliff of Isla Sorna where the research trailers are pushed over by the Tyrannosaurus pair.

Some of the scenes were scheduled to be filmed at New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park, but was cancelled due to high costs. John Hammond’s residence were filmed during the final week of filming at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena, California, with filming concluding ahead of schedule on December 11, 1996.

Cinematographer for Jurassic Park Dean Cundey did not return for The Lost World – instead Steven Spielberg’s recent collaborator Janusz Kamiński was brought in to give the film a more darker, artistic feel.

The original ending was supposed to feature Pteranodons attacking the escape helicopter, but this was cut when Steven Spielberg suggested the San Diego sequence, which would bring dinosaurs to the mainland. The concept was initially going to feature in a third Jurassic movie, but Spielberg decided to put it into the second as he did not think he would direct another. The sequence takes place in San Diego, California, but only one sequence was actually filmed there. When the InGen helicopter flies over the wharf and banks towards the city, that is actually San Diego. The rest of the scenes were filmed in Burbank, California.

Many members of the crew can be seen in a crowd of screaming pedestrians running from the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Some elements from the original novel Jurassic Park that didn’t make it into the film were instead used in The Lost World. The opening sequence of a vacationing family’s young daughter being attacked by a group of Compsognathus was very similar to the opening scene in the original novel. Dieter Stark’s Compy related death was also similar to John Hammond’s demise in the novel. The scene where Nick, Sarah, Kelly and Burke get trapped in the waterfall is taken from the novel, where Tim and Lex are trapped behind a man-made waterfall with the T-Rex attempting to eat them. Roland Tembo shoots the T-Rex with a tranquilizer in the same way that Robert Muldoon did in the novel.

According to paleontology consultant Jack Horner, the waterfall scene was written partly as a favor to him by Spielberg. Burke is a representation of Horner’s real-life rival Robert Bakker – who believes that the T-Rex is a predator, while Horner views it as primarily a scavenger. Spielberg wrote Burke into this part to have him killed by the T-Rex as a favor. After the release of the film, Robert Bakker recognised the hints and loved it, sending Jack Horner a message: “See, I told you T-Rex was a hunter!”.

The characters of Roland Tembo and Nick Van Owen were named by screenwriter David Koepp, who referenced one of his favorite songs, “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” by Warren Zevon. Koepp said “since Roland is a mercenary in the song, that seemed like a good name for the hunter-for-hire in our movie. While I was at it, I thought it would be fun to make his nemesis’ last name Van Owen, like in the song.”

The Lost World: Jurassic Park released in theatres on May 23, 1997. The marketing campaign was more extension than the first film, at the cost of $250 million with 70 promotional partners. The leading merchandising partners were Burger King, JVC and Mercedes-Benz. Timberland Co. also made their first film tie-in.

A pinball machine and an arcade game was developed by Sega and a four-part comic series were released by Topps Comics. The Fox Network paid $80 million for the exclusive broadcasting rights which debuted on November 1, 1998 with two deleted scenes featured. These two scenes can only be found on the DVD release. The film reached a VHS and LaserDisc release on November 4, 1997, with the first DVD release following on October 10, 2000.

The Lost World broke many box office records upon its release. It made $72, 132, 785 on its opening weekend in the U.S. which was the biggest opening weekend at the time and surpassing Batman Forever which sat at $52.8 million. It held this record until 2001. On May 25, 1997, The Lost World took the record for the highest single-day box office take of $26,083,950 which it held until the release of Star Wars: Episode 1. It also became the fastest film to pass the $100 million mark achieving the feat in just six days.

The film grossed $229,086,679 domestically and $389,552,320 internationally with a total gross of $618,638,999 worldwide, becoming the second highest grossing film of 1997 behind Titanic.

Dinosaurs

Behind The Scenes

The Making of ‘Jurassic Park: The Lost World’ (1997) treats film fans to a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, including interviews with director Steven Spielberg and other members of the cast and crew. The making of was well documented in Jody Duncan’s book of the same name, and James Mottram’s 2021 book Jurassic Park: The Ultimate Visual History.

Other documentaries have followed and included closer looks at the first sequel, including Beyond Jurassic Park (2001) and Return to Jurassic Park (2011).

Soundtrack

John Williams returned to compose The Lost World: Jurassic Park, with the soundtrack being orchestrated by Conrad Pope and John Neufeld, and recorded in Los Angeles. The score was quite different to the original Jurassic Park score, having developed a wildly different style to suit the new location and darker tone.

He avoided using most of the previous film’s main themes in order to keep the sequel fresh and unique, and wrote a more action oriented score. The tone and style is very different to that heard in Jurassic Park. While the first film balances tense action scoring and horror elements with a sense of wonderment and awe, the sequel instead avoids the wonderment and awe and replaces it with a more jungle sounding percussion, like congas, bongos, gourds, log drums and tabla.

The soundtrack was released by MCA Records on April 30, 1997. It features over seventy minutes of the film’s music and also included material that was unused in the film’s final cut. A version of the soundtrack exists that, once opened, reveals a diorama featuring the dinosaurs from the film.

Tracklist (Original Release)

Visual Effects

The successful creature animation in Jurassic Park left no doubt that ILM could put even more digital dinosaurs into this film – herds of them, in fact – thanks to impressive new software that slid virtual skin over digital muscles. The eye-opening dinosaurs in this film solidified ILM’s leadership in creature animation.

Toys and Merchandise

In February 1997, Universal announced a $250 million marketing campaign with 70 promotional partners. It was even more extensive than that of Jurassic Park. The leading partners were Burger King, whose promotion was concurrent with one for another Universal dinosaur-based franchise, The Land Before Time; JVC and Mercedes-Benz, whose products are featured in the movie; and Timberland Co., making its first film tie-in. Another partner was a then-sister company of Universal under Seagram, Tropicana Products. Other promotional partners included Hamburger Helper and Betty Crocker, while General Mills introduced Jurassic Park Crunch cereal. Derivative works included various video games, including both a pinball machine and an arcade game by Sega, and a four-part comic series released by Topps Comics.

Other promotional items included a toy line of action figures by Kenner and remote-controlled vehicles by Tyco, as well as a board game by Milton Bradley Company. Also produced were Hershey’s chocolate bars that featured holographic dinosaur patterns.

You can find Jurassic Park items at Entertainment Earth – but for original Kenner items check eBay!

Where To Watch

The greatest sequel ever, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is available to stream through Amazon Prime. You can get 20% off by using code JURASSICOUTPOST at Zavvi US and Zavvi UK. Or check out some options below: