Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World
Original title The Lost World
Country of production USA , Canada
original language English
Publishing year 1998
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Bob Keen
script Jean LaFleur ,
Leòpold St-Pierre
production Danny Rossner ,
Murray Shostak
music Milan Kymlička
camera Barry Gravelle
cut Jean Beaudoin ,
Isabelle Lèvesque
occupation

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World (original title: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World , alternative title: Dinosaurs - The Forgotten World ) is a film adaptation of the book of the same name by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 1998 . Patrick Bergin took over the leading role of Professor Challenger .

action

1934: In Mongolia, the explorer Maple White and his local assistant Azbek climb a still unknown plateau . In a cave there, they discover real dinosaur eggs. But when White wants to celebrate this sensational discovery with music and champagne, they are suddenly attacked by a crowd of aggressive Dimorphodons. Azbek is killed and White falls from the cave on the plateau. But he survived seriously injured and was found by Azbek's siblings Djena and Myar. A little later his old friend Professor George Challenger visits him. White reveals to Challenger one of the dinosaur eggs, which he was able to take with him, as well as his assumption that there must be living dinosaurs on this plateau . Challenger promises White that he will explore the plateau before it succumbs to his injuries and dies. The dinosaur egg breaks with the still unborn embryo .

A month later in London . Challenger gives a lecture about his assumption that there must still be prehistoric life in Mongolia. But by his colleagues, especially by his rival Professor Summerlee, he is declared insane. Even the dinosaur embryo soaked in ethanol is labeled a fake when Challenger shows it off. Nevertheless he asks Lord Thomas, the chief of the Zoological Society, to grant him a new expedition to Mongolia. Eventually he agrees, on the condition that Summerlee should accompany him. Summerlee is initially not very enthusiastic, but in order to preserve his reputation, he also agrees. The rich Oscar Perrault agrees to finance the expedition. Furthermore, the big game hunter Lord John Roxton and the young reporter Arthur Malone get a place in the team. Maple White's daughter Amanda also agrees to accompany the expedition to finish the work of her late father.

Once in Mongolia, some locals join the group to support the expedition, including Djena and Myar. The journey to the plateau begins in a moving tank. After a few incidents, the team finally reaches the mountain. The team wants to climb the plateau using a balloon. While Malone is assembling it with Djena, Amanda White moves away from the group and is suddenly kidnapped by disguised savages, who turn out to be surviving Neanderthals and take them to a camp. There she is supposed to be sacrificed in a kind of ritual. But she is rescued by Challenger, Roxton and Myar, who reach the camp in time and shoot several Neanderthals. The group flees and goes to the finished balloon, with which they can take off in time.

Despite the missing load, the group can climb the plateau with the balloon. They discover several pterodactyls circling in the air. Summerlee is intrigued and has to apologize to Challenger. But the pterosaurs feel threatened and attack the balloon. Myar falls from the balloon and dies. Roxton can shoot one of the flying lizards, but another pterodactyl manages to damage the balloon badly, so that the group is forced to land on the plateau below them. In the forest they see a brontosaurus , but it just walks past them. Shortly afterwards they discover a kind of cave with lots of wall paintings. You decide to stay there. Roxton decides to return to the balloon to retrieve the scattered gear. Challenger and Amanda come to the conclusion that a highly developed civilization must have lived on the plateau at that time, as the hieroglyphs and ruins indicate. After Roxton does not return, some of the other members go looking for him. They finally find him in the forest, where he presents them a captured little Centrosaurus and his real plans: He wants to turn the plateau into an expensive hunting area for big game hunters and so make a lot of wealth. There is a fight between Roxton and Challenger, which can ultimately overwhelm and tie the poacher. On the way back to the cave you come to a kind of pitfall with a huge crocodile. The unfortunate Roxton rushes in, right in front of the crocodile's jaws and disappears with the beast in the tunnel of the pit.

The others return to the cave and report the alleged death of Roxton. Summerlee now reveals to the others that he wants to stay on the plateau forever so that he can study the dinosaurs here closely. But it shouldn't come to that: During the night, one of the Neanderthals sneaks through a secret door into the cave and blows a poison arrow into the throat of the sleeping Summerlee. He wakes up and starts having strange hallucinations. He leaves the cave unnoticed and gets lost in the forest. There he meets a hungry tyrannosaurus and is eaten.

The next morning, the rest of the members find Summerlee's remains in the woods and bury him with the flag from the balloon. Djena and Malone fall in love in the meantime. Back in the cave, Challenger and Amanda find a kind of secret door that leads into a system of tunnels that connect the whole plateau. It's the same cave that Amanda's father discovered back then. There you will find the remains of the dead Azbek. Suddenly the living, evil-looking Roxton stands in front of them and threatens them with his weapon. He plans to blow up the entire tunnel system with Challenger and Amanda with a box of dynamite that he took with him at the beginning of the trip. He has other plans for himself, however. He has already caught one of the Dimorphodons and ignites the fuse. But then the angry Dimorphodon bites him in the hand and Roxton falls from the cave entrance from the plateau into the depths. Amanda and Challenger can escape the cave system in time before everything explodes and destroys.

Finally, the rest of the group returns to the balloon to build a parachute out of the remains and leave the plateau. But suddenly they are attacked by a pack of raptors. The team flees to some old ruins and tries to defend themselves against the small predatory dinosaurs. But then a large tyrannosaurus appears, which Djena catches and eats. Furious at Djena's death, Malone attacks the Tyrannosaurus and attracts the dinosaur's attention. Challenger and Amanda can currently escape to the finished parachute. Malone manages to create a large explosion that kills the Tyrannosaurus and throws the parachute with Amanda and Challenger over the edge of the plateau.

Back in London , Challenger gives a public lecture declaring the Forgotten World in Mongolia a myth that does not exist and saying that the whole expedition was in vain. In the last scene you can see that Arthur Malone actually survived several months on the plateau and is now throwing his diary off the plateau.

Differences to the original book and miscellaneous

  • In the book, the plateau is in Venezuela in South America . In the film, however, it has been relocated to Mongolia .
  • The action takes place in the book in 1912 . In the film it was moved after 1934 .
  • The ape-men featured in the book were replaced by Neanderthals in the film .
  • Many of the dinosaur species shown in the film do not even appear in the book, for example Tyrannosaurus or the little Centrosaurus . Furthermore, the Tyrannosaurus is more like an Allosaurus, as it has longer arms and more fingers.
  • Overall, the plot in the film took a lot of liberties compared to the book.
  • The film is relatively unknown. It first ran on German television, on RTL II in 2001.
  • Some of the scenes were shown relatively bloody (such as the sight of Summerlee's torn corpse). Nevertheless, the film was rated from 12 years.

Web links