King of the Lost World

King of the Lost World
DVD cover art
Directed by	Leigh Scott
Produced by	David Michael Latt David Rimawi Paul Bales
Written by	Arthur Conan Doyle (Novel) Carlos De Los Rios (Screenplay)
Starring	Bruce Boxleitner Jeff Denton Rhett Giles Steve Railsback Thomas Downey Chriss Anglin Freema Agyeman Sarah Lieving
Release date(s)	2005
Running time	90 mins.
Country	United States
Language	English

King of the Lost World is a 2005 film produced by The Asylum. The film is a very loose adaptation of The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, but the film bears a closer resemblance to the remake of King Kong released in the same year, particularly as both center on a giant ape. Hence, King of the Lost World is a mockbuster of said film, a tradition that The Asylum usually undergoes. The film is described by its producers as "the classic story that inspired King Kong, Jurassic Park and Lost".

Plot

A plane crashes in a remote jungle. Many survive, but the cockpit and the front end of the plane are nowhere to be found. The only way to call for help is to find the cockpit and radio a message.

Ed Malone (Jeff Denton) climbs a small hill and he sees the cockpit in the distance about a mile away. A group of people decide to leave the plane and head over to find the radio. John Roxton (Rhett Giles) leads a small group through the jungle. The rest of the passengers stay put in case a plane passes by.

The group arrives at the fuselage when they notice that its not the same plane they flew in. In addition, the radio and all other important instruments have been stripped and taken away. They are startled by the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Challenger (Bruce Boxleitner), who managed to travel by himself all alone to the downed plane, still carrying a briefcase that he doesn't seem to want to part with.

The group continues on its way to find the cockpit and encounter a military plane. Challenger tries to turn one of the missiles into a flare gun, but fails. The group stops at a cavern for the night, where they are attacked by giant scorpions. Two of the group are killed, whilst the others flee for safety. As they escape from the caves, they are captured by a group of natives living in the jungle. It is soon learned that the natives have been stripping the aeroplanes to avoid any outside interference. The natives also turn out to be other people that had crashed a long time ago, and have developed a sacrificial rite to appease the creatures of the jungle.

The current sacrificial ceremony fails when a giant ape attacks the area. Many of the natives are killed and the group is able to escape, and spot military jets flying overhead who attack the giant ape, are destroyed in the process. With many of the group killed, Ed is now alone to try and defeat the ape.

Ed detonates a nuclear bomb left from one of the planes and successfully kills the ape, but also destroys their cockpit in the process, trapping the Ed, Rita, and Dana in the jungle. They contemplate dying in the jungle, to which Ed tersely replies: "Not today".

Differences from The Lost World

• The setting is moved to the 21st century rather than the early 20th century.
• In the original novel by Arthur Conan Doyle, it was made clear that Ed Malone was Irish. In this film, however, he is American.
• In the novel, the character of Professor Challenger was a misanthropic scientist. In this film, he is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force.
• The character of Professor Summerlee is now a female character named Rita Summerlee.
• The expedition in the novel had originally journeyed to the Lost World to prove Prof. Challenger's claims that dinosaurs still lived in modern times. In the film, the expedition accidentally crash-land into the Lost World.
• There was no giant ape in the original novel, the original antagonists were a race of ape-men living in the Lost World.
• In the film, the characters are stranded on an island, however, in the novel and previous film adaptions, it takes place on a plateau.
• There are giant scorpions, giant spiders, man-eating vines and giant winged lizards in the film. But in the novel there are only dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in the novel.

Cast

• Bruce Boxleitner as Lt. Challenger
• Jeff Denton as Ed Malone
• Rhett Giles as John Roxton
• Sarah Lieving as Rita Summerlee
• Christina Rosenberg as Dana
• Steve Railsback as Larry
• Chriss Anglin as Olo
• Amanda Ward as Natalie
• Boni Yanagisawa as Tianka
• Andrew Lauer as Steven
• Thomas Downey as Reggie
• Amanda Barton as Taylor
• James Ferris as Yuri
• Jennifer Lee Wiggins as Etienne
• Angela Horvath as Chrissy

See also

• The Lost World, the original novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• King Kong, another film that features a giant gorilla
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, another Asylum film based on characters by Conan Doyle
• Transmorphers: Fall of Man, another Asylum film that stars Bruce Boxleitner.

External links

• King of the Lost World at The Asylum
• King of the Lost World at the Internet Movie Database