PreCommentary: This sequel to The Lost World (1992) was shot at the same time as its predecessor. The final credits are even a repeat of the first film's, so that a few characters new to this film go uncredited.

Notes: Harmony Gold Pictures / Republic Pictures. 99 min.
George Challenger: John Rhys-Davies
Summerlee: David Warner
Malone: Eric McCormack
Malu: Nathania Stanford
Jim: Darren Peter Mercer
Jenny Nielson: Tamara Gorski

Producers: Frank Agrama, Norman Siderow, Daniele Lorenzano
Director: Timothy Bond
Screenplay: Peter Welbeck
Special Effects: Image Quest Ltd.

Summary: "A plateau in Africa--1914." A tribal chief and his daughter come across a bi-wing plane in a clearing. The chief is captured by thugs working for an oilman, Dr. Haymans, who has Belgian authorization and Gomez in his employ too. Haymans sets off a dynamite blast which blows up a dinosaur and its infant. The dinosaur lives but Haymans repeatedly shoots it in the face. They throw the chief off a cliff for now there are "no gods . . . only death." The infant dinosaur lived too and the daughter escorts it back to the tribe.

Malu brings the hurt chief to Kate Crenshaw, who wires for Malone and the others to make good on their vow to come back when needed. Malone receives word that the dinosaurs are in danger because of oil drilling when he and Jenny Nielson are on assignment in the Khyber Pass battles. We learn that Challenger and Summerlee are feuding again over differing theories of the origin of the Orinoco River. Malone and Jenny visit Summerlee at his institute, a museum on a countess's estate. Summerlee greets them warmly. "You two are, uh . . ." "Partners," says Malone. Summerlee agrees to go when the others tell him Challenger won't. Challenger subsequently agrees to go thinking Summerlee won't. The two convince him to stow away to avoid the press. "He's right, of course. Everything I do is of international interest." Jim has been working for Challenger and joins.

When Summerlee discovers Challenger aboard and vice versa, the duel, but are mollified by Jim's reminder of their vow to help in this matter of "the fate of the last prehistoric animals on earth." On the plateau, a pipe explosion wounds a worker, but Haymans insists the rest tend to the machinery. After it is fixed, he bribes Gomez to make the wounded man "disappear."

The Anglos arrive triumphantly and set out on their canoes again with Malu. Jim is nearly eaten by a school of prehistoric piranhas, Malu swims naked, and Malone and Jenny are idiots as usual. Meanwhile, an apatosaur is shot at by the drillers, but a T-rex wrecks the cooling system pipe. To the workers it seems like they've struck oil, but actually volcanic ash blows, setting fire to the plane and destroying all equipment. To Haymans, they ask, "You got us into this mess; how you gonna get us out of this hell hole?" Haymans decides he and Gomez can convince the tribe to tell them a way off the plateau, and they seize the opportunity to kidnap the chief's daughter, leaving the baby dino, to barter with. The tribe notes that these drillers bring death and must be in league with the evil ones, the carnivorous dinosaurs; to help them would only bring more death. As Gomez is about to kill the girl, Challenger shoots him. Haymans is tied up.

The tribe has added to their mural, including depictions of the six of them and their previous visit. They have become part of the tribal mythology. Malu tells the rest that they are more--gods--and are expected to restore peace and tame the volcano.

Jim is captured temporarily by the thugs awaiting Haymans, but the chief's daughter imitates a pterodactyl call and they run away. Challenger reasons that if one caps oil fires, so should one treat a volcano. He has brought an invention of his, a powerful explosive dubbed "Challengite." Summerlee believes all should evacuate the plateau but the tribe won't: "They say they don't want to live if their world is dead."

No one agrees to acompany Challenger into the cave to plant the explosives. When a bridge burns, Malone shows up to rescue Challenger. Chaos ensues. Malu releases Haymans supposedly to help. Jenny admits to Malu she loves Malone. The thugs attack with gunfire while the detonation is scheduled. Summerlee risks his life to set the explosives off, but a wire has broken. Jim goes into the cave and Haymans follows. Realizing it is a way out, Haymans tries to convince Jim that the two of them could escape but Jim connects the wires. The blast succeeds, and although assumed dead, Jim reemerges from the cave. Jenny and Malone kiss, and a cry goes up when Percy, the baby pterodactyl from the previous film seems finally to have made it back home. Challenger and Summerlee are re-reconciled and discuss intuition's role in science. Challenger will destroy the formula for Challengite: "The world does not need a more powerful explosive." At least we saved the lost world. "Yes, we saved it; but for how long?"

Commentary: Yes, the geology is suspicious (How close can one get to a river of molten rock? Is capping a volcano a good idea?); dishrags Malone and Jenny have been travelling around together for over a year and a half reporting on and photographing wars but haven't considered each other as romantic partners?; but this sequel offers an enjoyable follow-up very much in the spirit of the first film. The ruthlessness and pointless violence of the opening scenes (blowing up dinosaurs, throwing the harmless chief off a cliff) is particularly horrifying in an appropriately effective way. Being on the verge of World War I is never alluded to, but our awareness of this fact plays a part in our experience of this story.