Jurassic Park Incident (films)

"But, John. If the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."

- Ian Malcolm

The 1993 Isla Nublar Incident is one of the biggest catastrophes in the Jurassic Park series, as well as the most famous, and takes place during the first film. The incident was the beginning of the end for John Hammond‘s genetics company of InGen, as the loss of the resort facilities caused Hammond to not only re-examine himself as a capitalist, but the monetary loss caused the company to be on the verge of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

June 11
Hammond and the attorney who represented InGen’s investors, Donald Gennaro, were tasked by the benefactors of InGen to assemble a professional team of scientists to tour and investigate the safety of Jurassic Park, the venture located on Isla Nublar. The team was created due to safety concerns after an incident on the island that resulted in the death of one employee by a Velociraptor while introducing the animal to a holding pen. Gennaro recruited renowned mathematician and Chaotician, Dr. Ian Malcolm, while Hammond brought Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, paleontologist and paleobotanist respectively, to Isla Nublar.

Later on, the tour group of scientists arrived and caught their first glimpse of dinosaurs when gazing upon the Brachiosaurus and Parasaurolophus in an open field on the way to the Visitor Center, the headquarters and tourist hub of Jurassic Park. After arriving at the Visitor’s Center, the group quickly toured the facilities in the form of a short animated feature narrated by a cartoonized DNA strand named “Mr. DNA“. The animated feature then turned into an automated ride that allowed the visitors to view a selected progression of Jurassic Park’s cloning process. After the automated tour, the group interacted with a baby Velociraptor and detoured to the holding pen of the adult Velociraptors, witnessing a feeding frenzy by the animals. They returned to eat and then head out into the Park, accompanied by Hammond’s surprise guests, his grandchildren Tim and Lex Murphy.

The group headed out into the Park proper via a guided vehicular tour which was supervised by Hammond, Park Warden Robert Muldoon, Chief Engineer Ray Arnold and Computer Programmer Dennis Nedry. The first two stops on the tour, the Dilophosaurus paddock and Tyrannosaur paddock, were fruitless with regard to seeing those respective animals. The third animal on the tour, the Triceratops, was also missing in action until Dr. Grant spotted an InGen jeep in the paddock. He proceeded to lead the rest of the group through its paddock to the location of the jeep and encountered a sick Triceratops being examined by veterinarian Dr. Gerry Harding. Dr. Sattler, in conjunction with Dr. Harding, finished the examination of the Triceratops and began investigating the surroundings for causes for the animal’s sickness. Dr. Sattler discovered a poisonous plant, colloquially named “West Indian Lilac”. The group decided to return to the tour vehicles once it became apparent that inclement weather was approaching the island. All but Dr. Sattler and Dr. Harding left the Triceratops paddock. The vehicles circled around and were re-oriented on the main tour track to return to the Visitor’s Center prematurely.

Meanwhile, Dennis Nedry alerted his colleagues in the control room that he was taking a break. He snuck into the embryo chamber and stole a vial of each dinosaur specimen that InGen cloned on the island while his debugging program shut off security systems, effectively allowing anyone or anything to roam the Visitor’s Center and Park freely.

Due to Nedry’s programming, the tour vehicles carrying the tour group, shut down in front of the T. rex paddock. At the same time, the electrified fencing to the paddock also shut down. At this point, the Tyrannosaurus revealed herself to the visitors by eating a goat left by the fence as bait. Gennaro, in a fit of panic, left his tour car and ran to the nearby restroom hut for refuge. By that point, the Tyrannosaurus rex moved to the disabled fencing and ripped the fencing apart; she proceeded to step through her mangled handiwork and roar. After a minute or two of exploring and investigating the Explorers, her attention was aroused by the light that was emitted from a flashlight Lex had activated in the front Explorer. Unaware that the source of the light was inside the car, she walked right up the front door and peered out into the jungle in front of the SUV. It was not until Tim slammed the open door next to her that she had discovered the source of the light. Now confident that the light was coming from inside the Explorer and that there were interesting objects inside, she set to attacking the mysterious vehicle in front of her, searching for a way to get at Lex and Tim. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm, the T. rex was briefly distracted. The Tyrannosaurus followed a fleeing Dr. Malcolm toward the restroom hut, where it injured him by flinging him into the building and exposed a cowering Gennaro. The Tyrannosaurus ripped apart Gennaro while Dr. Grant rescued the kids inside the car. Before long, however, the T. rex returned and pushed the vehicle over the cliff while Tim was still inside.

After entering the Park and passing through several disabled gates, Nedry found himself lost while searching for the east dock. In a moment of distraction and lament, Nedry crashed through a fence and over a fallen tree. The back wheels of his Jeep were suspended in the air due to the chassis being caught on the log, and so was unable to use them to dislodge the vehicle from the tree. Nedry took the winch on the front grill and wrapped the cable around a tree, losing his glasses in the progress. On his way back to activate the winch, he ran into a juvenile Dilophosaurus. Startled at first, Nedry relaxed when he caught the full-size of the creature. Nedry, half-concerned with the creature’s well-being and half-irritated by her following him, tried to get the creature to flee. Nedry soon gave up and attempted to traverse the small hill, back to the Jeep. He paused halfway up the hill and turned to face the Dilophosaurus that had not given up stalking him. The young theropod unfurled her rattling frill and spit sticky venom onto Nedry’s shirt. Dennis fearfully scurried up the rest of the hill and got to the Jeep door; he turned back to the location of the Dilophosaurus and was subsequently blinded by a gob of venom from the dinosaur. Nedry slammed into the frame of the vehicle, fell down, and lost the Barbasol can that he used to the store the embryos. Unaware of his misfortune, he cleaned his eyes, got up and sat in the now closed off vehicle. The Dilophosaurus signaled its presence by rattling her frill and proceeded to attack Nedry, killing him.

Back at the Tyrannosaurus paddock, Dr. Grant consoled a frightened Lex and then set out to retrieve Tim from the Explorer wedged into a large tree. Dr. Grant climbed up to the vehicle and saw a very scared Tim. Dr. Grant coaxed the boy from his perch inside the vehicle and helped him start to climb down. Hearing the creaking and seeing the instability of the Explorer in its perch, Dr. Grant pleaded to Tim to quicken his pace in order to not be struck and killed by the falling SUV. Dr. Grant and Tim tumbled down the tree at breakneck pace, the vehicle hot on their heels. They made it to the ground just as the destroyed vehicle hit the bottom of the tree. It toppled over them, although they survived due to the hole in the roof where a plexiglass bubble once resided.

As Lex, Tim, and Dr. Grant began their trek back to the Visitor Center, Muldoon and Dr. Sattler arrived at the Tyrannosaurus Paddock to retrieve those who had been stranded there only to find the Tyrannosaurus mess. Acting quickly, the two began searching for the group and calling out their names. At the site of the collapsed restroom hut, Muldoon and Dr. Sattler found the remains of Genarro and recovered Dr. Malcolm who was injured, but alive due to his quick thinking to reduce blood loss by using his belt as a tourniquet. After loading Dr. Malcolm into their Jeep, the two took one last sweep of the area, Dr. Sattler spotted the ruined hulk of the second tour car the Tyrannosaurus had pushed over the cliff adjacent to her Paddock. Although Muldoon and Dr. Sattler did not find Tim, Lex, or Dr. Grant, they did find their shoe prints in the mud, which told they were alive. When the two returned to the guest jeep, the Tyrannosaurus crashed through a line of trees and began chasing the three along a service road. After a very close chase, the Tyrannosaurus was unable to pin down her prey and so gave up her pursuit.

Meanwhile, Lex, Tim, and Dr. Grant could hear the commotion the Tyrannosaurus was making during her chase and so climbed a nearby tree, fearing the T. rex may be close by. Nestled safely in the canopy, the trio watched a herd of Brachiosaurus grazing before they drifted off to sleep. By this time, Muldoon and Dr. Sattler had returned to the Visitor Center with Dr. Malcolm, who was given a place to rest and an injection of morphine to dull the pain. Dr. Sattler then confronted Hammond and explained to him what their priorities should be and that the Park wouldn’t succeed, which Hammond solemnly accepted.

June 12
The next morning, the trio awoke to find that a Brachiosaurus had chosen their tree for her morning meal. Lex, who was initially frightened by the animal quickly warmed up to the gentle herbivore and even petted the sauropod while Dr. Grant fed it. However, the touching moment was cut short as the Brachiosaurus let out a sneeze, covering Lex in its mucus, much to Lex’s disgust and Tim’s amusement. As their trek to the Visitor’s Center continued through the Velociraptor Paddock, Dr. Grant stopped the group for a moment when he discovered a Velociraptor nest nestled between the roots of a tree. There, he took a moment to explain to the two children that the dinosaurs were breeding.

As Grant, Tim and Lex’s trek continued, they found themselves in the Gallimimus Paddock, and witnessed the Tyrannosaurus hunting the herd of Gallimimus. After watching in amazement for a while from behind a fallen log, Lex begged Dr. Grant for them to go, to which Dr. Grant obliged. However, Tim continued to stare in fascination and so had to be forcibly taken away by Dr. Grant.

Unfortunately, even though working through the night, Mr. Arnold was unable to find and remove the White Rabbit Object command that Nedry used to disable the Park systems. In an attempt to remove the bug in its entirety, Hammond had Arnold shut down the entire Jurassic Park system, and Hammond calling for them all to take shelter in the Emergency Bunker while Ray Arnold went to the Maintenance Shed to restore the power to the Park.

After Ray Arnold did not return from the Maintenance Shed, Dr. Ellie Sattler accompanied by Robert Muldoon, decided to go to the shed themselves. On their way, the duo discovered that the Raptors used the shut down to break out of the Raptor pen and roam freely. Knowing the Raptors' danger, Muldoon had Dr. Sattler make a break for the Maintenance Shed as he attempted to take down the Raptors. Spotting one Raptor in the distance, Muldoon closed in on her and quietly readied his gun. However, as he took aim, a second Raptor ambushed Muldoon and attacked the seasoned hunter just after the man uttered his last words: “clever girl”. As Muldoon was mauled, the Raptor being aimed for watched from a distance as a small boa constrictor slithered along the branch in front of her.



Finally arriving at the perimeter fence, the trio climbed over only for Tim to be electrocuted when Dr. Sattler had restored the power. Performing CPR, Dr. Grant was able to resuscitate Tim and carried him to the Visitor’s Center from there.

Dr. Ellie Sattler had entered the Maintenance Shed and restored power to the Park, only to be ambushed by the third Raptor of the trio. Scrambling back in fright, Sattler bumped into a machine, which caused Ray Arnold’s chewed off arm to fall on her. Discovering that the Raptor must have killed and partially consumed Arnold, Dr. Sattler was once again ambushed by the Raptor as Dr. Sattler made her escape from the building in a frenzied panic. Running towards the Emergency Bunker, Dr. Sattler encountered Dr. Grant who had just came from dropping the children off at the Visitor’s Center.

As Grant, Sattler, Malcolm, and Hammond regrouped back in the Emergency Bunker, Lex and Tim feasted out on a buffet that had assumingly been cooked up by Chef Alejandro. However, the two Raptors that had killed Muldoon had also found their way into the Visitor’s Center. The two children took shelter in the Visitor’s Center kitchen, only for one of the Raptors to follow them in. Calling to her partner, the second Raptor appeared and the two animals began to stalk the children. After a short engagement, Tim and Lex managed to lock one of the Raptors in a large walk-in freezer, while the other watched the children flee from the room.

Outside the kitchen, the children encountered Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler, who took them to the Park control room so that the Park systems could be rebooted. As they entered, however, the second Raptor from the kitchen followed the group, where she attempted to force her way into the room. Tim Murphy, who stood by in shock, was told by Dr. Alan Grant to get away from the door, and so joined his sister by Dennis Nedry’s computer station. Lex, who was familiar with computers, was able to figure out the system and reboot the door locks, security systems, and phones. With the Raptor locked out, Dr. Grant used the moment of calm to call Hammond and request that a helicopter be sent out to pick them up. However, the conversation was cut short when Dr. Sattler noticed that the Raptor was planning on breaking through the glass wall from the Mr. DNA ride. As the Raptor busted through the glass, Dr. Grant tried shooting the animal thrice before the gun jammed. Abandoning the weapon, Dr. Grant instead had the group escape the room through the air ducts. Kicking the ladder away from the gap in the drop-ceiling tiles in hopes that it would dissuade the Raptor from following them, the Raptor instead dismounted from the computer desks she was standing on and jumped through the ceiling tiles where she hung herself from the support beam. Unfortunately, Lex was on the ceiling tile the Raptor had jumped through, and Grant had to kick the Raptor in the face in an effort to get the Raptor to let go. Letting go of her support, the Raptor fell, bringing Lex with her. Lex was able to be hoisted back up just before the Raptor bit her leg.

Following the ducts to the rotunda, the group found that the Raptor had pursued them there from the control room. Seeing only one way of escape, the group jumped onto the mounted skeletons, only for the Raptor to follow. The mounts, unable to support their weight, quickly began to break apart and tumbled to the floor, sending the four human and one archosaurian riders along with. As the group recovered from their falls, Dr. Ellie Sattler looked up to find the Raptor that she had encountered in the Maintenance Shed sneaking underneath a plastic tarp that was being used to cover a hole in the uncompleted Visitor’s Center wall. As the two Raptors closed in on the humans, the group was saved just in the nick of time as the second Raptor was about to pounce on her human prey. The Tyrannosaurus rex had come through the hole in the wall, and grabbed the Raptor from mid-air, and crushed it in her jaws. Using the distraction the T. rex provided, the humans fled. Meanwhile, the Raptor that had pursued the group through the Visitor’s Center foolishly attacked the larger theropod. The T. rex snapped at her, but could not reach her. Rolling her head, the Raptor fell into the Tyrannosaur‘s mouth where she was killed and then thrown against the Tyrannosaurus skeleton and the T. rex let out a mighty bellow. Hammond then drove the survivors to the Helicopter pad, where they were airlifted off the island.

Aftermath
In the wake of the Isla Nublar Incident, the “demolition-deconstruction” of the island alone cost InGen 126 million dollars. The costs of paying off survivors for their silence, along with the tens of millions of dollars from lawsuits by the families of those who died in the incident pushed InGen onto the verge of Chapter 11. Four years later, the attack of young Cathy Bowman on a beach of Isla Sorna, InGen’s Site B, led to the InGen Board of directors voting to remove John Hammond as CEO of InGen and replacing him with his nephew, Peter Ludlow. Ludlow then used his position to attempt a harvest of the dinosaurs that had been released to roam free on Isla Sorna after a hurricane hit the island not long after the Isla Nublar Incident. The harvest operation was mostly a failure, due to John Hammond sending his own team to thwart his nephew. Although Ludlow managed to capture a male adult Tyrannosaurus, this led to the San Diego Incident, which likely sent InGen further into debt. Isla Nublar and the park buildings were left to be taken over by nature while Rexy lived freely on the island for nearly 10 years, living off the other dinosaurs on the island before being put back into captivity by InGen and Masrani Global Corporation, InGen's new parent company when they returned to the island to build Jurassic World.

Endorsement Team

 * Dr. Alan Grant
 * Dr. Ellie Sattler
 * Dr. Ian Malcolm
 * Donald Gennaro (killed by Rexy in the film)
 * Lex Murphy (Personal guest of Hammond)
 * Tim Murphy (Personal guest of Hammond)

Jurassic Park Employees

 * John Hammond
 * Dennis Nedry (killed by Dilophosaurus)
 * John "Ray" Arnold (killed by Velociraptors)
 * Dr. Henry Wu (killed by Velociraptors, novel only)
 * Dr. Gerald Harding
 * Robert Muldoon (killed by Velociraptors, movies only)

Dinosaurs Involved

 * Dilophosaurus
 * All Juveniles
 * Tyrannosaurus rex
 * 1 Adult named Roberta
 * 1 Juvenile (novel only)
 * Velociraptor
 * Multiple Hatchlings (novel only)
 * The Big One (film only)
 * Randy (film only)
 * Kim (film only)
 * More 6 Subordinates (pre-film only)
 * Herrerasaurus
 * 1 Pack (film/game only)
 * Compsognathus
 * 1 Pack (film/game only)
 * Pteranodon
 * 1 Trio of Adults (film/game only)
 * Brachiosaurus
 * 1 Herd (film only)
 * Triceratops
 * Gallimimus
 * 1 Herd (one killed by Rexy (film only))
 * Hadrosaurus
 * 1 Herd (one is killed by Juvenile (novel only))
 * Apatosaurus
 * 1 Herd (one is killed by Juvenile (novel only))
 * Parasaurolophus
 * 1 Herd in the Sauropod Paddock
 * Stegosaurus
 * One individual attacked by juvenile (novel only)

Appearances

 * Jurassic Park (novel)
 * Jurassic Park (film)
 * All game incarnations of the film
 * Jurassic Park: The Game
 * The Lost World (novel) (Mentioned only)
 * The Lost World: Jurassic Park (film) (Mentioned only)
 * The Lost World: Jurassic Park (video game) (Special Edition only)
 * Jurassic World (Mentioned only)