Jurassic Park III is a 2001 American science fiction adventure action film directed by Joe Johnston and written by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor. It is the third installment in the Jurassic Park franchise and the final film in the original Jurassic Park trilogy, following The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). It is also the first film in the franchise not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, as well as the first not to be based on a novel by Michael Crichton; however, the film features characters and ideas by Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan and Michael Jeter, with brief appearances by Laura Dern. Neill and Dern reprise their roles from the first film as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. The plot involves a divorced couple who, via subterfuge, enlist the help of paleontologist Dr. Grant to find their son, who has gone missing on Isla Sorna.