Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough reprise their roles from the original film with Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite, and Arliss Howard joining the cast.

Hammond sends a team, led by the eccentric chaos theorist and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Goldblum), to the island to document the dinosaurs and encourage non-interference, although the two groups eventually come into conflict.

Ludlow wants to exploit the island's creatures to save InGen from bankruptcy, so Hammond requests Ian to join a team that will document the thriving dinosaurs to encourage a non-interference policy.

Malcolm's group realizes that Ludlow intends to ship the captured specimens to San Diego at an unfinished Jurassic Park amphitheater that Hammond abandoned.

At the Port of San Diego, Ian and Sarah attempt to convince Ludlow to abandon his plans, but the ship carrying the male Tyrannosaurus suddenly crashes into the docks.

Ian, Sarah, and Kelly watch Hammond in a televised interview announcing that the American and Costa Rican governments have declared the island a nature reserve.

[15]: 7  The Lost World: Jurassic Park had nearly 1,500 storyboards, which aided in the precise planning needed to shoot scenes involving action, dinosaurs, and special-effects.

[15]: 39 Koepp noted that the first Jurassic Park film was philosophical about bringing dinosaurs back to life and how they would impact humanity: "We had thoroughly explored those questions in the first movie, so I didn't want to return to them.

"[19] Spielberg and Koepp devised a new story while including two ideas from the book that the director liked: a second island populated with dinosaurs, and a scene where half of a two-part trailer dangles from a cliff after being attacked by T.

[24] Several novel characters also had to be removed,[15]: 18  including Lewis Dodgson, the leader of the Biosyn team,[33] and field equipment engineer Doc Thorne, whose characteristics were partially implemented in the film's version of Eddie.

[27] The original ending involved a larger InGen village and a longer raptor chase there,[15]: 71–75  followed by an aerial battle where Pteranodons attack the helicopter trying to escape Isla Sorna.

[17] Koepp considered it a "logical extension" of the story told in the first film, and believed it was the top sequence that viewers would expect to see, but noted that he and Spielberg had gone "back and forth" on whether to include it: "The main reason not to do it had been that if it wasn't done just right, we'd suddenly be remaking Godzilla.

[17] Two months before the start of filming, Spielberg decided to change the ending to feature the often-discussed city rampage, eventually settling on a T. rex in San Diego.

[15]: 74 Koepp liked the idea of a dinosaur rampage, but acknowledged that rewriting the script so close to filming was "pretty hectic," especially because it coincided with his wife giving birth.

[46] Indian actor M. R. Gopakumar was initially cast as Ajay Sidhu in August 1996, but was unable to participate in the project because of trouble acquiring a work visa in time for filming.

[11][16][35] One scene depicts the group after their arrival on Isla Sorna; this was filmed at Patrick's Point, in a visitor parking lot that was covered in dirt and vegetation for the shoot.

[27] Although the T. rex rampage is set in San Diego, the filmmakers eventually decided against shooting there, deeming the city too far from Los Angeles and seeking a closer location for convenience.

[15]: 117, 119 Another Burbank scene features dozens of people fleeing the T. rex, and includes a Godzilla reference added by Spielberg and Koepp: a Japanese businessman, screaming in his native language, that he "left Tokyo to get away from this!

[15]: 120 Other portions of the rampage were shot in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Granada Hills, where locations included a Union 76 gas station and the exterior of a family's house.

[15]: 141 While Jurassic Park featured mostly the animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston's team, The Lost World relied more on the computer-generated imagery (CGI) of Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).

[19] Although technology had not progressed much since the release of the first film, Spielberg noted that "the artistry of the creative computer people" had advanced: "There's better detail, much better lighting, better muscle tone and movement in the animals.

[77] Other leading partners were Burger King, which was already promoting Universal's other dinosaur franchise, The Land Before Time; JVC, which also has product placement in the movie; and Timberland Co., making its first film tie-in.

[84][85] Other promotional items included a toy line of action figures by Kenner and remote-controlled vehicles by Tyco,[76][86][87] as well as a board game by Milton Bradley Company.

[110] The Lost World: Jurassic Park made its home video debut on THX certified VHS and LaserDisc releases on November 4, 1997, accompanied by a $50 million promotional campaign.

[142] Over the next few weeks, The Lost World would go on to compete against other blockbuster films released during that summer such as Hercules, Face/Off, Men in Black, Con Air, George of the Jungle, Batman & Robin and Speed 2: Cruise Control.

The site's critical consensus reads: "The Lost World demonstrates how far CG effects have come in the four years since Jurassic Park; unfortunately, it also proves how difficult it can be to put together a truly compelling sequel.

[150] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times saw improved character development over the original: "It seemed such a mistake in Jurassic Park to sideline early on its most interesting character, the brilliant, free-thinking and outspoken theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) with a broken leg, but in its most inspired stroke, The Lost World brings back Malcolm and places him front and center", calling it "a pleasure to watch such wily pros as Goldblum and Attenborough spar with each other with wit and assurance".

[152] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B grade; he remarked, "Mr. T-Rex was cool in the first Spielberg flick, sure, but it wasn't until [it was in] San Diego that things got crazy-cool.

[26] However, Syfy Wire's Stephanie Williams considered the novel superior, finding it more action-packed and thrilling while also taking its time "to breathe with these majestic creatures", whereas the film has "way more running and screaming".

[160] In contrast, Jacob Hall of /Film negatively compared it to Spielberg's 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, writing that The Lost World transforms "intelligent characters into bumbling idiots", increases "the volume and the chaos while dialing back the mystery and the awe", and replaces "excitement with violence and cruelty".