Five The Lost World: Jurassic Park Facts

The Finale Was Added at The Last Minute

The ending of The Lost World we all know is the T-Rex and its infant being brought back to the United States before it escapes and causes chaos on the streets of San Diego. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) and Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore) use the infant as bait in an attempt to bring the Tyrannosaurus back to the shipment container. They succeed, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard) is taken care of by the baby T-Rex, and John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) appears on television to announce that Isla Sorna has been classified as a nature reserve.

This ending was wanted by Steven Spielberg because it echoed the classic monster movies like the King Kong and Godzilla films where the creature would run amok in a public place. The ship that brings in the T-Rex is even called ‘The S.S. Venture’ in homage to the vessel that transported Kong from Skull Island. At first Spielberg thought about saving this sequence for a third Jurassic Park movie but didn’t think he would be directing another one. He was right as Joe Johnson took the helm for Jurassic Park III.

Originally, after the velociraptor attack, the remaining characters would escape by using hang gliders to jump off the cliff to safety. They would then board the rescue helicopter before Pteranodons would attack them before they eventually get away. It would have been an intense action sequence before we cut to the credits. The production team made the models for the Pteranodons and storyboarded the entire sequence which is available online or the Blu-Ray release. There are even toys that show Ian Malcolm in hand-gliding gear that prove that they were well into development before Spielberg made the change.

It looks like it would have been a great sequence to close the film but leaves a lot of loose ends. The buck T-Rex is captured and at the mercy of InGen, we don’t know if Peter Ludlow or Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) has survived, and no one gets their comeuppance. It may have come up later in a sequel, but as a film it would have just felt unfinished.

Michael Crichton’s Novel Is Really Nothing Like the Film

I find this point interesting because it is one instance where Spielberg waited for Crichton to finish writing The Lost World before starting pre-production. Crichton even admits in an interview that he knew, for sure, that this was the only book of his he definitely knew was going to be adapted for the big screen whilst writing.

So to have such a grand departure away from the book in the film seems like they didn’t have to wait for Crichton’s novel at all and David Koepp could have started writing the screenplay from scratch. But Spielberg discussed a sequel with Crichton and got his wish that a follow-up would be written for the director to adapt into a movie.

At the end of the first book Ian Malcolm died of his injuries but returns for the follow-up saying that “The doctors did excellent work.” He is still affected by the wound to his leg throughout the novel. In ‘The Lost World’ book he still leads a rescue mission for Sarah Harding alongside palaeontologist Richard Levine, Eddie Carr, and Jack Thorne. He discovers that two students, Kelly Curtis (who is not Malcolm’s daughter in the book) and Arby Thomas have snuck aboard for the expedition.

Rather than Peter Ludlow and Ingen being the antagonists for the novel, Lewis Dodgson returns with a small team as they attempt to steal dinosaur eggs for rival genetics firm Biosyn. He meets a similar fate to Ludlow, however, at the hands of a baby T-Rex. Dodgson would return to the films in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) played by Campbell Scott.

The book is less action-orientated, and Crichton delves once again into the scientific nature of chaos theory and ethics of the situation. Once the characters are on Isla Sorna, they stay on the island until the denouement and there is no trip to San Diego for the T-Rex.

Crichton knew the film and television industry inside out and how adaptations worked. He said in an interview, “It’s important the director makes his movie, not my book.” Movies and books are different mediums and offer different ways of exploring the world of Jurassic Park. It’s definitely worth a read, but don’t expect it to be the same as the film.

Michael Giacchino Wrote the Music for ‘The Lost World: The Game’

Giacchino is one of the greatest film composers of modern times. He’s famous for his work on many Pixar movies, the Star Trek series of films, and a huge number of blockbusters including Rogue One (2016), The Batman (2022) and the Spider-Man trilogy (2017-2021). He is also very well known for his work on the Jurassic World movies and seemed the logical choice to take over from John Williams.

However, his first major work was for the Dreamworks release of ‘The Lost World: The Game.’ Steven Spielberg was heavily involved in the making of the game and was its producer. He thoroughly enjoyed the demo created for the game and allegedly called Giacchino ‘A young John Williams.’

Giacchino was sent off with storyboards from the film and 19 tracks were composed for the game over a six-month period. He went onto write the music for many games after being sought out by Hollywood including many of the Medal of Honor series.

The score for The Lost World movie was again composed by John Williams and remains one of his most underrated scores. Spielberg prefers the Lost World score to that of Jurassic Park because it is more complex and have more themes. It takes inspiration from Max Steiner’s King Kong (1933) score and is more kinetic for a jungle exploration.

Pete Postlethwaite is one of Steven Spielberg’s Favourite Ever Actors

Pete Postlethwaite plays the hunter Roland Tembo in The Lost World. His monologue where he scolds Peter Ludlow for his stupid idea to set up base camp on a game trail is so well delivered and establishes his authority and character perfectly. He is a hunter who has just about successfully taken down every animal in the world. However, to capture a male T-Rex is an offer too good to refuse. The audience understands his intense motivations when he says, “How and why are my business.”

Upon Postlethwaite’s sad death in 2011 at the age of 64, Steven Spielberg called him “Probably the best actor in the world.” This is not the first time that Spielberg praised the actor to this extent. He was so impressed with his role in The Lost World that he immediately hired him for Amistad (1997) that same year.

There is a story Peter Stormare, who plays Dieter Stark, tells on the additional features. He is sitting next to Spielberg whilst he is directing the scene of Roland taking down the T-Rex and is told, “One day Peter, you’ll be as good at him” motioning at Postlethwaite. You get the feeling that Spielberg really cares about his actors and nurtures them to get the best performance possible.

A Few Scenes Didn’t Make It Into The Finished Movie

There are a number of scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut of The Lost World. The most substantial of these were two scenes early into the movie. You get the feeling that Spielberg wanted to get Malcolm’s team onto Isla Sorna as quick as possible and so couldn’t spend too much time on lots of character development at this point.

The first of these longer scenes is Peter Ludlow addressing the shareholders to depose John Hammond as the CEO of InGen. It’s great that he talks about the economics involved with the failure behind Jurassic Park and the costs involved from the deaths. He explains that Hammond has become a born-again naturalist and that paying everyone involved and the media to suppress information regarding Isla Nublar is destroying the company. It gives the motivation why InGen come to the island later on, to save their investments.

The other scene introduces us to Roland Tembo in Mombasa. Ajay tries and coaxes him out of his boredom of hunting with a proposition to track down something he has never had the chance to before. He picks a fight with someone else at the bar and there’s a bit of light relief and slapstick. You can see why this one was cut.

There was a scene shot where Peter Ludlow gets drunk and steps on the leg of the Tyrannosaurus infant, which would give even more of a payoff at the film’s climax when he becomes its first kill. Like any film, there were bits of additional dialogue that were trimmed here and there and cut for time.