The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Unlike author Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park” novel, the 1993 Universal Pictures film adaptation was built with sequels in mind. Whereas the novel wiped out the dinosaurs in the end, Spielberg kept them alive, as well as his favorite characters, Ian Malcolm and John Hammond. He also deliberately included a shot of Dennis Nedry losing a can of shaving cream cleverly hiding the embryos of several species of dinosaurs. This was Spielberg’s backdoor to return dinosaurs for round two.
Spielberg would produce any continuations of Jurassic Park, still bitter by the poor quality of Jaws sequels. Spielberg hired screenwriter David Koepp to return. They exchanged a few story ideas, but Koepp’s full involvement paused so he could complete his debut directorial effort, The Trigger Effect, while Spielberg laid the groundwork for future projects.
With Trigger Effect in post-production, Koepp put together a Jurassic Park II story outline based on set pieces he and Spielberg would brainstorm, beginning with leftover ideas from the first film, such as compy attacks and a T.Rex attacking people hiding behind a waterfall. Koepp wrote them down while Spielberg storyboarded them, passing approved concepts to JP collaborators, production designer Rick Carter and illustrator Dave Lowery to begin work on the technical side.
They discussed the possibility of a new kind of dinosaur, bioengineered as a super-raptor. Spielberg eventually killed this angle, feeling it was more horror than adventure. They had plenty of dinosaurs to explore, so they could introduce the chicken-like swarming “compies” (compsognathus), which were like land piranhas.
Their brainstormed plans had to take a pause. one Crichton acquiesced to requests by Universal and Spielberg to write a follow-up. Crichton would entitle the next entry, “The Lost World”, as an homage to a favorite Arthur Conan Doyle novel of 1912 Crichton enjoyed in his childhood where dinosaurs existed independent of humankind. Crichton changed his mind because he knew there would be a film sequel and because he’d received many letters from kids and younger adults who decided to become paleontologists thanks to “Jurassic Park”. Crichton, whose dinos perished at the conclusion of his novel, continued the story by revealing there were dinosaurs bred in secret on a previously uninhabited island near Isla Nublar called Isla Sorna. Crichton filled Spielberg in on plot details before writing his novel in his rented Hawaiian abode.
Crichton’s set “The Lost World” six years after the events of “Jurassic Park”. The corpses of dinosaurs wash ashore in Costa Rica, piquing the interest of rich and eccentric Berkeley paleontologist Dr. Richard Levine, who wants to observe them in their natural state to determine why they once went extinct. The corpse origin is determined to be from InGen Corporation experiments a few years prior. Levine to travels to InGen’s secret Site B on Isla Sorna, where the dinosaurs were bred, flourished, and now roam freely. Unlike Isla Nublar’s dinos, Sorna’s don’t have the lysine deficiency to shorten their lives without boosters.
Ian Malcolm returns, despite dying in the first book. Crichton rationalized that if his favorite author, Arthur Conan Doyle, could kill Sherlock Holmes in one book then have him return for all the others, Malcolm could also return. Malcolm turned out to be only severely injured, restored to health after intensive rehabilitation. Malcolm leads the party hired to rescue Levine, along with two child stowaways who are Levin’s students. Animal behavior specialist Dr. Sarah Harding, Malcolm’s ex, travels separately to the island, along with the first book’s Lewis Dodgson. Dodgson is accompanied by hired goons looking for dinosaur eggs his rival genetic research company, Biosyn. Stealing T.Rex eggs pisses off its parents, sparking a battle for survival between the humans and the dinos.
Koepp read an advance of Crichton’s novel four straight times, highlighting compelling dialogue and key sequences. Anything highlighted each time, such as a T.Rex attack on a trailer, was a sure indication it should be put into the movie. The book’s 400-page length necessitated condensing, combining, or eliminating characters and scenes. Koepp also interwove those early ideas he and Spielberg concocted, despite deviating from the book substantially. Crichton was never consulted during the production of The Lost World and wasn’t shown a script until it was necessary for him to approve merchandising rights.
A month after the book’s release in 1995, Spielberg officially announced he’d direct The Lost World, his first directorial effort since 1993’s Schindler’s List. Spielberg’s decision came from needing something familiar to shake the rust after so much time off after the draining Schindler’s List, then spending so much time setting up the Shoah Foundation, executive producing films through Amblin Entertainment, and getting the DreamWorks SKG studio off the ground.
Because The Lost World was set on a different island, Spielberg avoided shooting again on Kauai to differentiate it. South America was ruled out due to the long rainy season. After considering Puerto Rico and Australia, New Zealand was selected for its exotic volcanic appearance representing a lost world untamed by humans. However, it lost favor for being too distant, too isolated, and too difficult to find places to haul and store equipment.
They scouted American locations and settled among the redwood forest areas of northern California, a place dinosaurs would actually have lived as compared to a lush, tropical island. Budget deficits in California prompted more accessibility to the film industry to shoot within state and federally-protected areas. In exchange, Universal agreed to have lead actors Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore appear in public service announcements promoting state parks. Pickup shots from a distance were done in Costa Rica, Australia, and New Zealand while set pieces were done on the Universal Studios lot. Kauai was used for the opening picnic scene when the New Zealand location shoot fell through. Some exteriors were done in Burbank to replicate the streets of San Diego.
Spielberg originally devised a “hunters vs. gatherers” concept for one scene, extended it as the foundation of the movie, pitting hunters out to trap dinosaur specimens with those trying to protect them. Spielberg emphasized themes about human greed, egotism, and desire for power, as well as humanity’s belief that nature should serve their whims rather than exist undisturbed. The dinosaur-family theme contrasted them to humans, as nature protects their own while humans are increasingly flawed and dysfunctional as time goes on.
To avoid rehashing the first film, Lewis Dodgson’s character and his goons newly imagined characters like John Hammond’s avaricious nephew, Peter Ludlow, and big-game hunter Roland Tembo and his hunting party. Spielberg wanted a safari atmosphere to pay homage to one of his favorite big-game hunter films, Howard Hawks’ 1962 effort, Hatari!
Ian Malcolm was so integral to “The Lost World” and actor Jeff Goldblum so indelible in the role that they secured his services before they could greenlight the adaptation. Goldblum accepted, eager to explore Malcolm’s passionate and emotional side. Goldblum provided the rationale for Ian Malcolm’s return to the island: Sarah is already there and in danger.
Juliette Binoche was the early choice to play Sarah Harding, as was for Jurassic Park‘s Ellie Sattler but she turned it down. Because she considered Spielberg a great director of men and monsters but not feminine parts, she joked she’d only accept if she could play a dinosaur. Spielberg next pursued Julianne Moore, who he’d met years prior after seeing her in The Fugitive and vowed to cast her in a future project. Spielberg told Koepp to write Hardin specifically for Moore. After accepting that it would be the most physically challenging of her career, she was hired without an audition.
Spielberg also cast Vince Vaughn without an audition for cameraman Nick Van Owen. Spielberg had screened a rough cut of 1996’s Swingers to approve the use of the Jaws theme for a party sequence and fell in love with Vaughn’s smart-alecky persona. Vaughn also appeared with Spielberg’s wife Kate Capshaw in The Locusts, and Spielberg observed he was on the cusp of becoming the next Hollywood movie icon.
Though Sam Neill and Laura Dern were contracted to appear in the sequel, Spielberg felt their cameos might be a distraction. Richard Attenborough returned to shoot an extended cameo. His character, John Hammond, was killed in the first Crichton book but Spielberg kept the character alive in the film. Ariana Richards and Joey Mazzello also make a cameo return. Mazzello says the cameo paid his college tuition.
For supporting roles, Spielberg wants impactful actors that best fit the characters rather than star power. Arliss Howard plays Hammond’s nephew, Peter Ludlow. the new head of InGen who is out to exploit the dinos in a way his uncle came to realize was folly. Pete Postlethwaite was cast as game-hunter Roland Tempo after Spielberg was impressed with his performance and intense presence in 1993’s In the Name of the Father. During the promotional tour, Spielberg called him the best actor in the world. Both Howard and Postlethwaite appeared in Spielberg’s next film, Amistad.
Trivia: Koepp paid homage to the Warren Zevon song, “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner”. Roland Tembo comes from the titular name, and the lyrcis mention a “Van Owen”, which is named Nick Van Owen. A deleted scene of Roland in Kenya takes place at the Mombasa Bar, inspired by a lyric about a barroom in Mombassa.
12-year-old actress Vanessa Lee Chester, who Spielberg admired in The Little Princess, plays Kelly Curtis plays Malcolm’s daughter who stows away on the expedition. Chester got the role after auditioning with Goldblum, including a moment where she had to pretend he was a velociraptor chasing her around the room. Kelly became a composite character of the two kids in the novel to avoid resembling the first film. Kelly was initially written to be Malcolm’s math student in the early scripts after they removed the Dr. Levin character but Koepp struggled to devise a rationale for Malcolm teaching a grade-school student, beyond the contrived premise of performing community service to tutor students from inner-city schools.
Koepp made Kelly Malcolm’s daughter from one of his many failed relationships as a thematic contrast to dinosaur families. Spielberg was initially hesitant that Malcolm had a black daughter then rationalized that times have changed and they’d accept Malcolm having had an interracial relationship. Besides, Spielberg himself has two adopted African-American children. It also fit that the proponent of chaos theory would himself lead a chaotic, unpredictable life. They decided not to comment on the racial component save for a passing reference by Vince Vaughn’s character about their lack of resemblance.
Two months prior before filming began, Spielberg was at his home in the Hamptons looking at the swimming pool, when an image popped into his head of a T.Rex bending down to drink from it. He imagined the awe and fright of a little boy seeing something like that out of his bedroom window. Koepp and Spielberg had talked about the third Jurassic Park film featuring dinosaurs coming to human cities, but, given how he felt so detached from The Lost World, he wasn’t going to direct the third film. With Roland Emmerich’s Godzilla in production for a 1998 release, Spielberg thought it might diminish his intent to have dinosaurs destroy cities for the third entry and felt he had to beat them to the punch. Spielberg decided to replace the intended climax of a raptor chase through an abandoned village’s laboratory compound leading to pteranodons attacking their escape helicopter (which they had already reduced to hang gliders pulled from their backpacks). The new finale featured InGen capturing to introduce a theme park attraction stateside which then escape. An epilogue featuring Hammond’s funeral was replaced with a TV interview where he is alive and advocating for Isla Sorna’s protection from further human interference.
Koepp wasn’t keen to deviate from their plan to slowly and credibly build things up. He also didn’t want to impose a third act overhaul five days from his wife giving birth, hoping for time to enjoy as a new father. A new third act also meant condensing the prior two acts all because Spielberg had to indulge his boyish wish-fulfillment.
A few loose ends emerged from editing. A dart gun that kills anything is introduced for no payoff. The big raptor chase sequence and pteranodon attack were stripped because Spielberg wanted to save the wow factor for the finale, where raptors escape on the ship, causing major damage resulting in the T.Rex springing loose and entering the city while they wreak havoc on a mini-mall. When the raptors were pulled out of the climax to it left the T.Rex’s escape ill-defined. Their T.Rex specimen escapes its cargo ship hold upon landing in San Diego and begins terrorizing the public in search of its baby being held in captivity nearby. San Diego was chosen over the originally intended Times Square because it’s the closest port of entry from Costa Rica, it hadn’t been used much in films, and also because it’s the home for major zoo attractions already – the San Diego Zoo, its Wild Animal Park, and SeaWorld. The cargo ship carrying the T.Rex to San Diego is named the “S.S. Venture”, an homage to the ship that brought King Kong to New York.
A scene of angry T-Rexes pushing a double trailer over a cliff ranks as the tensest sequence. The actors wore harnesses for three weeks as the trailer vertically dangled drenched by simulated rain that was freezing cold so it wouldn’t fog up the cameras.
The T-Rex foot chase in characters hiding behind a waterfall originally contained a mass of large cockroaches scaring those hiding, but this was changed to a milk snake in the film. A scene where velociraptors stalk humans in long grass came after Spielberg encouraged Koepp to read hunting literature and discuss hunting tactics with filmmaker John Milius. One thing Koepp learned was that long grass in South America caused fear in hunters uncertain if deadly jaguars lurked within.
CG had become commonplace since Jurassic Park, Spielberg wanted to push the limits for what could be achieved with visual effects in The Lost World. Rather than go completely with CG, Spielberg still felt blending them with practical effects achieved better results. Brought back was animatronics expert Stan Winston, Industrial Light & Magic’s Dennis Muren. and dino effects supervisor Michael Lantieri. They knew they’d be criticized for doing more of the same, so they upped their game to do things no one’s done before. They highlighted varied personalities among the dinosaurs. The new dinos would be faster, more destructive, and could make seamless transitions with animatronics and real-world footage in ways where the audience couldn’t tell the difference.
Jack Horner, an advisor for dinosaur appearance and behavior on both films, felt that Spielberg kept straying too often into monster movie cliches, portraying T.Rexes as predators that carried out vendettas. He vehemently protested ideas like pteranodons swooping down on humans from the air and carrying them away, but lost the war despite winning a few battles to keep dinosaurs appearing like animals rather than monsters.
Jurassic Park cinematographer Dean Cundey was busy making his directorial debut with Honey We Shrunk Ourselves, so Spielberg hired the Oscar-winning cinematographer for Schindler’s List, Janusz Kaminski. Because of the darker tone of The Lost World, they emphasized keeping things shadowy rather than bathed in light, drawing inspiration from the lighting used for Ridley Scott’s Alien and Blade Runner.
During the shoot, the pressures of dealing with his new company, DreamWorks SKG, as well as the birth of his daughter, Destry, caused Spielberg to take leave for eight days. In the meantime, Koepp, who’d operated as a second-unit director, took charge of two sequences: Malcolm on a New York City subway train and his boat arriving at Isla Sorna. A satellite linkup that allowed Spielberg to remotely see through the cameras to make decisions.
Due to the increased efficiency of Stan Winston’s dino creations and Spielberg determining to avoid rehearsals (he wanted to capture the actors tasting the words for the first time) The Lost World finished six days ahead of schedule. Spielberg began production on the historical epic Amistad while in post-production on The Lost World. John Williams returned to compose, highlighting more the terrifying safari adventure than the wonderous sci-fi discovery of the first film.
Preview screenings revealed that some felt the film too violent for PG-13, but the producers lobbied with the rating boats that its a comic book adventure and that children understand it’s a fantasy
Box-office-wise, The Lost World had an uphill battle, competing with other action-adventure science-fiction films full of cutting-edge CG released since its 1993 predecessor. The “wow” factor was gone for the second go-round. The budget wasn’t bank-breaking at a reported $74 million, thanks to generous backend deals for both Spielberg and Crichton. Due to its lofty box-office expectations, other studios steered clear of its Memorial Day weekend release date. The Lost World a record-breaking $97 million in its opening weekend, but failed to earn as Jurassic Park, settling for $229 million and $590 million worldwide. It received one Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects, but three Razzie nominations: Worst Sequel or Remake, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property.
Spielberg himself was the most critical, feeling he’d matured out of this sort of filmmaking. He compared the process of making The Lost World to serving the audience a banquet but serving nothing challenging for himself. He also felt little emotional connection to the material. After Schindler’s List he vowed never to follow up one film with another just like it. Before he was done with post-production, Spielberg turned his attention on his next two efforts, Amistad and Saving Private Ryan.
Even the best of directors make an occasional dud. Jurassic Park film worked due to an intriguing premise and a realistic depiction of dinosaurs. This sequel is little more than dinosaur attacks and stunt pieces. It has an uninspired premise that can’t recapture any of the awe or scientific plausibility of its predecessor. Easily the vapidest film Spielberg has ever done.
Qwipster’s rating: C+
MPAA Rated: PG-13 for intense sci-fi terror and violence
Running Time: 129 min.
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, Arliss Howard
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenplay: David Koepp