The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park - 1997

Our next film is the second installment in the Jurassic Park series.  1997's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" finds us on a second island filled with dinosaurs that exhibit behaviors no one thought they were capable of.

The film's cast includes Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Richard Attenborough, Vince Vaughn, Arliss Howard, Vanessa Lee Chester, Peter Storemare, Richard Schiff, Joseph Mazzello, and Ariana Richards.

Dr. Ian Malcolm is summoned to the home of John Hammond, creator of the dinosaurs that wrecked havoc on him in the first film.  He's unsure of why he's been asked to the Hammond residence.

It soon becomes clear to Dr. Malcolm.  There is a second island used to create dinosaurs in Costa Rica.  Hammond wants Ian to go there and lead a team that will document these creatures and allow them to stay in a biological preserve setting.  Ian is dead set against it.  When Hammond tells him that his girlfriend Sarah is already there, Ian agrees to go so he can extract Sarah from a potentially deadly situation.

As Ian prepares to leave, his daughter stows away on board some of the field equipment they will be using.

When they get to the island, Ian's crew can't help but feel overwhelmed when they see dinosaurs for the first time.  A herd of stegosaurus walks right by them.  Ian says, "Oh, yeah, ooh...ahh...that's how it always starts.  Then later there's running and screaming."

They succeed in locating Ian's girlfriend Sarah, who is busy documenting the stegosaurus herd and their habits.  Ian tells her that coming to the island was not a smart thing to do.  "I'll be back in five or six days," Sarah tells him.  "No, you'll be back in five or six pieces," Ian responds.

She ignores him and goes back to taking pictures of a baby stegosaurus.  While she's taking pictures, she inadvertently causes a stegosaurus stampede that they all barely escape from.

When Ian discovers his daughter on the island, he wants to get her off of it.  He tries to flag down some passing helicopters.  They aren't stopping, and members of the team notice a familiar logo on them.

It seems that Hammond's nephew is interested in more than a biological preserve.  He wants to capture dinosaurs and send them back to a sort of zoo in San Diego.

Sarah, Ian and the team free the captured dinosaurs and bring an injured baby T-Rex back to their camp to treat a broken leg.  Things go all right until Mommy T-Rex is knocking on the door and wants her baby back.

After she gets her baby back, the mother T-Rex destroys the camp and eats one of the team members.  Ian, Sarah, and the rest of their team join up with the other people on the island in an effort to find a way to get off of it alive.  In the process, the mother T-Rex and her baby are captured and put on a ship bound for San Diego.

All hell breaks loose once the ship docks in San Diego.  It turns out that the adult T-Rex ate the crew, which sends the ship careening into the dockside.  Then, she escapes and runs freely on the streets of the unsuspecting city.

She terrorizes one family and eats their pet dog.  No one seems to have any ideas on how to capture her.

Sarah and Ian decide to get the baby T-Rex and use it to lure the mother back to the ship.  The plan seems to work, and they have to move fast to outrun the angry mommy dinosaur.

Once they are safely aboard, Sarah uses a dart gun to tranquilize the mother.  Then the armor plated doors are sealed and the boat can return to Isla Sorna.

After everything is over, Hammond comes on TV and tells how these creatures need our absence not our help.  The T-Rex family is shown reunited on the island along with other species of dinosaurs.

Cast rundown:

   Jeff Goldblum.................................Dr. Ian Malcolm

   Julianne Moore...............................Dr. Sarah Harding

   Pete Postlethwaite...........................Roland Tembo

   Richard Attenborough......................Dr. John Hammond

   Vince Vaughn..................................Nick Van Owen

   Arliss Howard..................................Peter Ludlow

   Vanessa Lee Chester........................Kelly Curtis Malcolm

   Peter Storemare..............................Dieter Stark

   Richard Schiff..................................Eddie Carr

   Joseph Mazzello...............................Tim Murphy

   Ariana Richards...............................Lex Murphy

And that's all for The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  It's a bit darker in subject matter than its predecessor.  A dinosaur that was featured heavily in the film was the stegosaurus.  Steven Spielberg made sure to put it in as it was a "popular demand" inclusion.  The baby stegosaurus was eight feet long and weighed 400 pounds.

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