"Oooh! Ahhh! That's how it always starts. Then comes the running and the screaming…"

When we last left the tormented survivors of a vacation outing at Jurassic Park, the carnage had seemingly been finally contained. Those that weren’t eaten were whisked away to safety and the threat of dino danger had been downgraded considerably. But as viewers learned in the original Jurassic Park, life always … finds a way. The ravenous prehistoric reptiles and Dr. Ian Malcolm were soon faced with doing it all over again in 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the anticipated sequel to the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film that first introduced audiences to an island inhabited by prehistoric predators.

When billionaire theme park creator John Hammond contacts Ian again after their last foray together, and invites him to the remote island of Isla Sornia, it isn’t a offer for three luxurious days in a tropical hotel resort - the news he brings has ominous implications. It turns out that this island was the original breeding ground for the beasties that once tried their best to chew Ian up. While Malcolm wants to turn the island into a research sanctuary, Ian has had enough with the whole concept and refuses to tag along – at least until he discovers that his former flame, Dr. Sarah Harding is already conducting research on the island. Discarding his better instincts, Ian agrees to visit, unaware that his teenage daughter Kelly has stowed away on the journey.

Unfortunately, the group still discovers that there are bigger dangers than the dinosaurs, in the form of unscrupulous humans with their own sinister motives. Peter Ludlow, a company employee, is plotting to bring a few of the specimens home for his own theme park attempt. He has enlisted the help of famed adventurer Roland Tembo, who plans to wrangle up his own T-Rex along the way.

When Sarah and her partner Nick Van Owen discover Ludlow’s carnivorous captured creatures, they free the animals and try to nurse a baby T-Rex back to health. This catches the attention of all the islands human inhabitants who are soon drawn together – right about the same time that Rex’s parents discover their missing offspring and come looking for the little tyke. Cue the running, screaming and chomping. A number of cliffhanging sequences play out, with predictable attacks by velociraptors and compsognathuses, not to mention another war waged between truck and T-Rex. Somehow the group is able to emerge from the chaos unscathed yet again, but this time more terror awaits back home. For it seems that Peter Ludlow’s greed has had the misfortune of unleashing some terror of Godzillian proportions on the good citizens of San Diego.

With audiences already brought up to speed on the associated science specifics in the first film, Spielberg was free to cut to the chase with little explanation necessary. The Lost World was pretty much a non-stop nail-biting chase scene from beginning to end. Filled to the brim with the same tension and magnificent special effects that made the original a major box-office success, few were disappointed by the sequel, which brought back loyal fans of the franchise in droves and sent them away fulfilled. And with the continued success of the Jurassic Park series, it was no surprise that a third installment was lurking around the corner.