The Lost World (2001 film)

This article is about the 2001 film. For other uses, see The Lost World (disambiguation).

The Lost World
DVD cover
Directed by	Stuart Orme
Produced by	Christopher Hall
Written by	Tony Mulholland Adrian Hodges
Based on	The Lost World novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring	Bob Hoskins James Fox Matthew Rhys Tom Ward Elaine Cassidy Peter Falk
Music by	Robert Lane
Release date(s)	December 25 and 26, 2001
Running time	145 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The Lost World is a 2001 adaptation of the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, directed by Stuart Orme and adapted by Adrian Hodges. It was filmed at various locations on the West Coast of New Zealand. The film was produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC1 in the United Kingdom and A&E in the United States. It consisted of two 75 minute episodes which were first aired in the UK on 25 and 26 December 2001, and in the USA on 6 and 7 October, 2002. In the DVD version, these two episodes are merged into one full length film. Bob Hoskins played Professor Challenger and was supported by James Fox, Peter Falk, Matthew Rhys, Tom Ward and Elaine Cassidy.

Plot

While on a journey through the remote regions of the Amazon rainforest, a long extinct animal shot by Professor George Challenger's (Bob Hoskins) team turns out to be a prehistoric pterosaur. During a lecture at the Natural History Museum of London, he argues that it is genuine and that he shot it several months ago. The lecturer, Professor Leo Summerlee (James Fox) dismisses it as nothing more than a clever hoax, as do several others. Eventually ambitious Lord John Roxton (Tom Ward), a noted hunter and womanizer, and Daily Gazette columnist Edward Malone (Matthew Rhys) announce they will volunteer for the expedition and even Summerlee joins them.

On the boat, Challenger shows a sarcastic Summerlee and his expedition members a map, drawn up by a Portuguese man called Padre Mendoz who ended up in the remote, uncharted area of Brazil which Challenger claims prehistoric creatures thrive. Most notably, there is a plateau, which would supposedly isolate the inhabitants from the evolutionary mainstream for millions of years. Upon arrival, Roxton begins flirting with Agnes (Elaine Cassidy), the niece of reverend Theo Kerr (Peter Falk), a priest who disregards the idea of evolution. Agnes joins them for the expedition, the reverend is initially reluctant however he later joins them.

After a long and eventful journey through the jungle, they eventually find the plateau. They go inside a cave which was the only route out the plateau only to discover that it has been sealed off by debris as it had been exploded years ago. Instead they cross over a log bridge, which the reverend suddenly pushes into a deep crevice in an abrupt mood swing, thus leaving them stranded. In the strange prehistoric redwood forest, Edward makes friends with a Hypsilophodon, and the stunned group spot an Iguanodon, and then a group of Pteranodons who attack and injure Summerlee.

After retreating to the forest, in the middle of the night, while they are gathered around the campfire they are attacked by a large dinosaur, which is later identified by Summerlee as an allosaur which is probably an Epanterias but not an Allosaurus because this animal is much bigger than the usual. The next day Edward is scared out a tree by an ape man called Pithecanthropus which in his words "looked almost human". They then search for and find a large lake in the centre of the plateau which Malone had discovered while up the tree, and he names it after his fiancee, Gladys, while Roxton and the professors rest by the beach. Edward and Agnes walk off along the beach until the allosaur from last night emerges from the forest and drinks from the lake, but soon notices them as they run into the forest. In the cliffhanger ending of the first episode, the allosaur pursues them through the borders of the forest until they all fall into a pit, where the allosaur is killed after being impaled on two wooden spikes.

After making their escape, they find out that Challenger and Summerlee have been kidnapped by the ape men. The apes take them to an enclosed sacrificial chamber, where they are placed on a thick sheet of rock which is covered with blood. The sun shines through a crack and the beasts place Summerlee's head in a groove on the plate of rock, about to smash his head with a large stone and eat him when Roxton and the group start shooting all the ape men. Challenger tries to save the creatures, calling them "the missing link between animal and human" upon leaving the animals territory, the group also rescue an Indian chief's son, Achille. The tribe recognizes Challenger as Padre Mendoz, the Portuguese man that returned from the plateau and drew up a map of the area. They are taken to the other end of the cave they found earlier and told of how a man, who they thought was the Devil, came to visit them and then left, sealing off the cave and trapping the Indians inside the plateau. The two groups cooperate very well together, with Challenger sitting by the chief's side, and Roxton marrying Maree, the patriarch's daughter. However, the presence of the ape men disturb the tribes people but, with Professor Challenger's protection, they remain safe from harm and are kept in a wooden cage on the border of the village.

However, two allosaurs attack the village after weeks of harmony (having been called to the village by the vengeful ape men). After causing much death and destruction, the first female allosaur is killed by Roxton and his elephant gun but the larger male allosaur mortally wounds the chief. In an act of kindness, Agnes and Malone set the ape men loose and they flee back into the jungle. One psychotic ape gets its hands on a knife and keeps an eye on Roxton. Edward Malone eventually kills the larger dinosaur, but is a little late to save the chief and several of the Indians. He is critically injured, and dies in the arms of Achille, who blames the white intruders. During the attack, Summerlee reopens the cave by blowing up the debris blocking their only escape route. After Achille assumes command, the outsiders flee while Roxton stays behind to stall them. The ape with the knife stabs Roxton in the torso, apparently killing him while Achille shoots the mad ape while it stands atop a rocky mound, growling. Outside, the reverend comes to block the remaining group's way and is actually the Devil body who visited the Indians and sealed off the cave. He intends to kill all of them and seal off the cave again to prevent the plateau and its inhabitants from being found and revealed. While struggling with Summerlee, the reverend accidentally shoots himself in the chest and dies.

The explorers go back to London and upon returning, Edward discovers that Gladys is engaged to another man. Later that evening, the juvenile pterosaur that Challenger brings back escapes. Afterwards, Malone and Summerlee urge Challenger to end the whole affair so that the plateau and its inhabitants can exist in peace, realising it would be exploited if its location were to be revealed. The pterosaur is dismissed as an Amazonian vulture, while the articles Edward sent back are passed off as extracts of a novel he is writing. Edward confesses he loves Agnes, who tells him the same, and they kiss in the great hall of the museum where the crew have been exposed as frauds. In the final scene, Roxton is revealed to be alive and well, having survived his injury and is still happily married to Maree.

Cast

• Bob Hoskins as Professor George Challenger
• James Fox as Professor Leo Summerlee
• Tom Ward as Lord John Roxton
• Matthew Rhys as Edward Malone
• Elaine Cassidy as Agnes
• Peter Falk as reverend Theo Kerr

Creatures

• Epanterias − A huge carnivorous allosaurid from the late Jurassic Morrison Formation 150 million years ago. In the film Professor Sumerlee identified the creature as an allosaur, but this is not an Allosaurus species because we can see this creature too when it ate a carcass, and if you look closer you can see it is a model from the Walking with Dinosaurs special The Ballad of Big Al.
• Java Man − An ape-man which originally called Pithecanthropus erectus is a primitive chimpanzee like hominid from the early Pleistocene epoch 2 million years ago. This animal is probably the missing link between primates and humans. In the film an undiscovered species appear because their skull is bigger than the today known type, and Challenger named the animal as "Pithecanthropus challengeris".
• Pteranodon − A giant fish-eater flying reptile called pterosaur from the middle Cretaceous period more than a hundred million years ago. The animal is look like the other Pteranodons of the Walking with... series but this is a red-headed type with striped brown body. This creature is the only proof from Challenger's very first expedition, and later he named the species as "Pteranodon sumerleensis".
• Hypsilophodon − A small herbivore ornithopod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous England 130 million years ago. This was a gentle and friendly little creature and one of them made friend with Edward. This is the first prehistoric creature which is discovered by Challenger's team in the plateau, and not much later they find the Iguanodon.
• Iguanodon − A gentle herbivore from the Cretaceous Europe in the same time with Hypsilophodon. They are the most common group of dinosaurs ever found because paleontologists dig their bones everywhere in the world. In the film Professor Sumerlee thought these creatures are moves like a kangaroo on two legs and their tail is keep on the ground, but this idea is failed when he saw the creature.
• Entelodon − A strange hog-like mammal from the Oligocene and Miocene Asia and other kinds of the group are found in North America. They lived in small herds and sometimes the males brutally fought for the females or the territory with their sharp teeth. This is the only prehistoric mammal in the film with the Pithecanthropus.
• Diplodocus − A more than 40-metre-long sauropod from the late Jurassic Morrison Formation 150 million years ago. In the film one can see a whole herd across a river when Challenger try to collect an egg from a Pteranodon's nest. It is exactly the same animal from the Walking with Dinosaurs, but in the series the juvenile animals lived in the forest and not with the adult herd.
• Brachiosaurus − A massive sauropod from the same time and the same place like the allosaurs and Diplodocus. This is one of the tallest animals to ever exist on the Earth. This animal appears just a few seconds with the carcass eating Allosaurus when Agnes looks over her binoculars and sees the lake and a herd of Iguanodon in the forest edge.
• Allosaurus − A very famous flesh-eater allosaurid dinosaur from the late Jurassic North America more than 150 million years ago. This animal was lived in the same time with Epanterias, Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus. If you examine closer it when Agnes saw these creatures with her binoculars, one can see this is the Allosaurus model from The Ballad of Big Al.
• Southern Coral Snake − A venomous snake from the rainforests of South America. This is one of the creatures in the show which is alive today. Before the team reached the plateau, these reptiles attack Edward. In the film this is not live-acted animals just animatorics because the living snake is too dangerous to the actors.
• Brazilian Black Tarantula − A venomous spider which lives in the South American jungles, but sometimes travels to the village to hunt insects or reptiles. This creature was climbe to Edward's back, but mostly it is a gentle spider which is aggressively reacted to predators, and then attack them with a half-centimetre-long chelicerae or urticating their hairs to the attackers' face.
• Atlas Moth − A large moth from the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast Asia and Indonesia. The females are much bigger than the males and their wingspans are over 30 centimetres long. In the film, Professor Sumerlee found the moth while a Pteranodon carrys away the team's dinner. This is one of the live-acted animals of the film.
• Scarlet Macaw − A large and colourful macaw from the American tropics of south-eastern Mexico to the rainforests of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. It is a more than 80-centimetre-long bird with a weight of about 1 kilogram. In the film one can see a macaw in the Brazilian jungles when the team try to reach the plateau.
• Brown Capuchin − A small New World monkey from the tropical rainforests of the Amazon Basin. Like other capuchins they are social animals and living with small groups which is leading by an alpha or dominant male. They are omnivorous animals and mostly feed on fruits and insects, but sometimes they catch lizards and small birds.

Differences from Doyle's novel

• In the book, the plateau is in Venezuela. In the 2001 adaptation, it was in Brazil.
• In the book, Challenger doesn't depart on the expedition with Malone, Roxton, and Summerlee, he instead meets up with them later after they start to suspect he has sent them on a wild goose chase.
• The prehistoric lake scene from the book is absent.
• In the book, Edward Malone doesn't meet another love interest besides Gladys.
• In the book, the Indians deliberately call the Allosaurus to the village, where they kill them and eat them for dinner. In the film, the ape men call the dinosaurs to the human settlement.
• The characters Gomez and Zambo, indeed, any of the Indians, are not mentioned. They are replaced by reverend Theo Kerr, and his niece Agnes.
• Following the attack on the campfire by the Megalosaurus in the book, neither Summerlee and not Challenger are immediately able to identify even the family of carnivore that attacked them, whereas in the film, Summerlee immediately dubs the animal an allosaur upon being asked by Lord Roxton. Also, the campfire attack is fairly different from the book. In the novel, the group spots the Megalosaurus, and before it has a chance to attack, Roxton scares it off with fire. In the film, the group are completely taken by surprise and the allosaur almost gains the upper hand, before being scared away with fire.
• The ape men are present in both the novel and film, but the other humanoid tribe, rather than a prehistoric species, consists of the surviving members of a Portuguese expedition.
• In the book, Edward Malone says he will join Roxton on the next expedition to the plateau. In the film, he tentatively offers to Professor Challenger, who says he'll be in touch.
• Lord John Roxton escapes the plateau in the book. In the BBC adaptation, he is stabbed by an ape man, and is assumed to have died until, at the end of the second episode, we see him still happily married to Maree, the former patriarch's daughter.
• The diamonds found in the blue clay in the book do not feature in the mini-series.

External links

• The official BBC Drama site
• The Lost World (2001) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Lost World (2001) at AllRovi