The Lost World (1995) is a sequel to Michael Crichton’s techno-thriller Jurassic Park, a 1990 bestseller. The original novel focuses on an ambitious business plan to hatch live dinosaurs through genetic engineering and then display them in a family-friendly theme park on Isla Nublar off the coast of Costa Rica. The plan goes awry when the great animals take over the island and compel the company that initially bankrolled the park, In-Gen, to destroy the park and all the animals. The Lost World picks up the storyline nearly five years after the theme park disaster. When carcasses of unidentifiable creatures begin to wash up on Costa Rican beaches, rumors circulate that InGen’s project may have left some loose ends.

Given the international success of Jurassic Park and the subsequent blockbuster film directed by Steven Spielberg (1993), interest in The Lost World was high—the book was a number one New York Times bestseller for nearly two months. Sales took off again in the summer of 1997 following a film adaptation. Although many of the elements of the original play out in the sequel, The Lost World focuses less on the dinosaur chases and the ferocious attacks and more on Crichton’s fascination with the process of evolution itself and the dynamics of extinction. In addition, the novel raises thorny questions about science and the abuse of nature as a commodity. This study guide uses the 2012 Ballantine Paperback edition.

Plot Summary

In 1993, globe-trotting paleontologist Dr. Richard Levine, intrigued by rumors of unidentifiable animal carcasses washing up along the shores of Costa Rica, approaches Dr. Ian Malcolm, a chaos theoretician working at the Santa Fe Institute. Malcolm is the only survivor of a team of genetics specialists who were involved in an ambitious project four years earlier, spearheaded by the InGen Corporation. Although details of the project were never made public, rumors suggested InGen tried to clone dinosaurs from DNA preserved in fossilized bugs and display them in an elaborate theme park. The project failed; InGen went bankrupt and abandoned the facilities on Isla Nublar and destroyed all the animals. However, rumors persist of a facility on Isla Sorna, a nearby island, where InGen reportedly maintained factories to produce viable dinosaur eggs. 

Malcolm doubts the rumors. Levine, intrigued by the idea of a real “Lost World” where dinosaurs still existed, mounts his own expedition assisted only by a local guide, Diego. The two are attacked by large creatures; Diego is killed, and Levine disappears.

Concerned, Malcolm agrees to join Jack Thorne, a retired civil engineer who works for Levine, and Eddie Carr, Thorne’s chief mechanic. Malcolm reaches out to long-time friend animal behaviorist Sarah Harding to join them on the island. They are joined by two stowaways: Kelly and Arby, two middle school students determined to help Levine.

The team lands on the island and finds a variety of buildings abandoned by InGen. They locate Levine who is enthusiastic over what he has found: an island full of dinosaurs. At the same time, Biosyn, the genetics company responsible for sabotaging InGen’s original research plan, dispatches a team, headed by the company’s unscrupulous CEO Lewis Dodgson, to find the nests of the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna and bring back as many fertilized eggs as they can to secure a patent.

Levine’s team constructs an observation tower and watches the dinosaurs as they interact. The Dodgson team, however, heads to the nests of the island’s fiercest predator, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, to grab some eggs. When Levine’s team finds the nest of a T. Rex., Eddie cannot bring himself to kill one of the baby dinosaurs whose tiny leg he had clumsily stepped on and broken. Instead, he brings the wounded animal back to the trailers to set its leg. The parents of the dinosaur attack the trailer, and Malcolm and Sarah are nearly killed. Then Eddie is attacked and killed by a herd of raptors who snatch Arby when he takes refuge in a specially designed cage. The raptors drag the cage off to their nest.

Thorne, Sarah, and Levine take after the raptors. Malcolm stays behind—his leg is badly hurt, and he has been given morphine. The team takes refuge in a convenience store in the abandoned InGen workers’ village. The raptors keep up the attacks. Thorne understands they will have to get the team’s Ford Explorer, abandoned during one of the raptor attacks. Sarah volunteers to retrieve the vehicle on the team’s motorcycle. When she arrives at the vehicle, she discovers Dodgson trying to steal it as well. A T. Rex. attacks and drags Dodgson off and then feeds him to his babies. Sarah claims the vehicle and returns to the workers’ village to get the team. By the time they reach the rendezvous site, the helicopter has already left.

They return to the store dejected. The raptors renew their attacks on the store. Kelly discovers a tunnel under the store; the team gets out just as the raptors break into the store. They make their way to a boathouse and leave the island. Levine reveals what he has learned: InGen fed the first-generation dinosaurs a virus that was destroying the animals, so they will eventually die out.