Ian Malcolm

"There is a problem with that island. It is an accident waiting to happen."

- Ian Malcolm

Ian Malcolm is a mathematician who specializes in a branch of mathematics known as "Chaos Theory". He was present on Isla Nublar during the Incident.

Jurassic Park
Ian Malcolm was invited to the park by Donald Gennaro as an insurance consultant as Donald apparently felt that Ian, as a fiduciary, would be able to notice any dangerous shortcomings the park had. On the helicopter ride to Isla Nublar, he met John's consults, Paleobotanist Ellie Sattler and Paleontologist Alan Grant, and traveled with them, along with John and Donald, into the park where he was stunned by the astonishing sight of a living Brachiosaurus. He then traveled to the visitor's center and learned how the dinosaurs of the park were created, and watched an infant Velociraptor hatch. While his colleagues remained in awe of the event, Ian expressed skepticism of the Park's ability to control the animals they were breeding, and explained to his colleagues that "life finds a way".

Ian later went on the tour through the Park only to express disapproval when none of the dinosaurs showed themselves. Bored, he took to flirting with Ellie, much to Alan's chagrin, while attempting to explain chaos theory. After watching the sick Triceratops, he returns to the tour with Alan Grant, only to have it break down in front of the Tyrannosaurus rex paddock. The T. rex escapes, and attacks Donald's car, which Donald had earlier abandoned with the children inside. In an attempt to lure the rex away, Ian and Alan grab and ignite flares to cause a distraction, but the rex isn't fooled by Ian and chases him to the bathroom, where he is tossed several feet and injures his leg.

Alan escapes with the kids and Ellie and Robert Muldoon arrive to help Ian, only to be set upon by the Tyrannosaurus. Having put Ian in the jeep, they escape after a short but intense chase.

Ian is brought to the control room where he helps formulate a plan to restart the power. Ian is brought to a bunker where he and John talk Ellie through the process of turning the power back on. After the systems come back online, Ian and John drive back to the visitor's center to pick up Alan, Ellie, and the kids, all of whom then drive to the helicopter, leaving the island.

The Lost World
"The Lost World" takes place four years after "Jurassic Park". After the events of the first film, Malcolm tries to go public about his experience on Isla Nublar, only to be discredited by Hammond's nephew, Peter Ludlow, who tells the public that Malcolm is crazy and does not know what he is talking about. Despite this status, Malcolm manages to develop a relationship with an accomplished biologist named Sarah Harding. Malcolm is eventually summoned to Hammond's house where Hammond reveals to a shocked Malcolm the nature of Site B; a separate island where the dinosaurs were bred before being moved to the main island. Hammond then unveils his plan to send a team of researchers to the island to photograph the animals in their natural habitat in order to create public sympathy and discourage corporations, such as Ludlow's InGen, from profiting off the island. Malcolm, who is invited along, initially refuses, but changes his mind when Hammond reveals that Sarah was also hired and has already left for the island. Malcolm then meets up with Hammond's other men, Eddie Carr and Nick Van Owen, and makes preparations to leave for the island.

Upon arrival, the team immediately begins searching for Sarah using a satellite phone, and eventually find her following a herd of Stegosaurus. After a brief encounter with the creatures, they return to the trailer, where Malcolm finds that his daughter, Kelly, has stowed away on board. He attempts to convince Sarah to leave with him, but is interrupted when a fleet of helicopters bearing the InGen logo and carrying various automobiles arrive over the island. The team follows the new arrivals and watch as they chase down various dinosaurs in jeeps and violently capture several of the creatures. That night they watch as Ludlow, who is in charge of the group, gives a presentation to his shareholders and announces his plan to recreate Jurassic Park in San Diego. He is interrupted however when Sarah and Nick set the captive dinosaurs loose, destroying the camp. In an attempt to avoid the chaos, Malcolm takes Kelly back to the trailer, and later to the high-hide when Sarah and Nick arrive at the trailer with an injured infant Tyrannosaurus. However after hearing the unmistakable bellows of the infant's parents Malcolm leaves the safety of the hide and runs on foot back to the trailer just as the adult Tyrannosaurs arrive, and helps return the healed infant to its parents. However, the tyrannosaurs remain unimpressed and, seeing the trailer and its inhabitants as a threat, promptly push the trailer until it hovers precariously over a cliff. After barely saving Sarah from falling, Malcolm and Nick are rescued by Eddie who, in the process, is eaten by the tyrannosaurs.

The three are then helped back onto the cliff by Roland Tembo, who is in charge of Ludlow's team. With all of InGen's equipment and automobiles destroyed, Roland decides that an uneasy alliance is the best method for escaping the island. Reunited with Kelly, Malcolm and his team agree to trek to the destroyed facility at the island's center. Along the way, Malcolm attempts to coerce Ludlow into realizing the error of his ways, but is unsuccessful. That night, the team is set upon by the tyrannosaurs, who followed the smell of the infant T.rex's blood on Sarah's jacket. The team is separated in the chaos, with most of them being chased in a massive stampede to a waterfall. Malcolm, Sarah, Kelly, and Nick end up separated from the InGen group, who are ambushed by Velociraptors in the long grass surrounding the facility. The four make it through the grass unscathed, but Malcolm is briefly hurt and Nick goes on ahead to call for help. Eventually Ian, Sarah, and Kelly follow, only to be attacked by three raptors. They eventually escape the compound where they board a helicopter that Nick called in, departing the island for good.

Unfortunately however, their troubles are not yet over as they eventually find that Tembo has tranquilized the buck Tyrannosaur and the team are bringing him back to the mainland. Ian and Sarah try to visit the dock where Ludlow is holding a press conference when the freighter holding the animal suddenly crashes through the dock, releasing the Rex. As the animal goes on a rampage through San Diego, Malcolm and Harding drive to the site of the new Park and steal the infant. They then find the father and lure him away using the infant. After a brief chase, they bring the animals back to the freighter and drop the infant in the cargo bay, where it is followed by a greedy Ludlow, as well as the adult rex, who kills Ludlow. Malcolm then re-boards the ship and closes the cargo bay, locking the beast inside.

In the aftermath, Malcolm is last seen resting on his couch with Sarah, while Kelly watches a news program showing the freighter returning to the island. The public finds out that Malcolm was telling the truth and his reputation is restored.

Jurassic Park III
Dr. Malcolm is mentioned by Alan Grant and Eric Kirby in a conversation. Eric didn't like the book Malcolm had published, calling him "preachy" and "high on himself". Eric also states that Malcom talked too much about "chaos". Alan smiled and remarked "that's two things we have in common", though his tone indicates he is not being entirely serious.

Jurassic World
After Zara Young had collected Claire Dearing's nephews, she briefly read one of Malcolm's books, during their trip to the hotel. Another one of his books is seen inside the Control Room.



Jurassic Park
Along with Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm was one of the consultants who was hired by John Hammond to provide information to aid in building Jurassic Park. Along with Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler, Malcolm was invited by Hammond to visit his theme park on Isla Nublar, and give his opinion on it. Malcolm was the most pessimistic of the consultants, and was confident from the beginning that the park would fail.

Malcolm went along with the others on a tour of the park. When disgruntled computer programmer Dennis Nedry shut down the power in the park to gain access to frozen dinosaur embryos, he inadvertently caused the electrified fences to shut down, allowing the dinosaurs to escape from their enclosures. When the T. rex escaped and attacked one of the cars near its paddock, Malcolm, who was in the other car, panicked and ran outside. The T. rex then chased him and picked him up in its jaws, then shook him and threw him down. Malcolm broke his leg in the fall.

Muldoon and Gennaro later found Malcolm, and took him to the Safari Lodge, where he was taken care of by Gerry Harding. He was administered morphine, and spent the rest of the novel giving emotional rants about science and philosophy, while attempting to help the others survive. His condition continued to deteriorate, and by the time the Costa Rican Air Force finally arrived at the end of the novel, he was assumed to have died.

The Lost World
The novel begins with Ian Malcolm giving a lecture on Extinction and Chaos Theory. Though he was declared dead at the end of the first novel, he explains that the declaration was premature. After the lecture, while he and ex-lover Sarah Harding were having lunch, they were approached by a rich, pompous paleontologist named Richard Levine who wanted Dr. Malcolm (and possibly also Sarah) to help him find a "lost world", where "extinct" creatures may have actually survived from antiquity. Ian refuses to go several times, but his curiosity eventually gets the better of him, and he and Richard set out to find Site B. He injures his leg once again during a T.rex attack but, nevertheless, survives and escapes.

Family

 * Unnamed father (mentioned in The Lost World)
 * Unnamed mother (mentioned in The Lost World)
 * Various ex-wives
 * Sarah Harding (girlfriend)
 * Kelly Malcolm (daughter)
 * Two other children (mentioned in Jurassic Park)

Jurassic Park
Dr. Grant: "We're out of a job."

Malcolm: ''"Don't you mean extinct?" ''

"God help us we're in the hands of engineers" 

"Life, uh, finds a way."

"God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs. God creates Man. Man destroys God, Man creates dinosaurs."

"N-Now, eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your-on your dinosaur tour, right?"

''"Nobody could have predicted that Dr. Grant would suddenly-suddenly jump out of a moving vehicle!" [Ellie follows Alan out of the car] "There's uh, another example. [chuckles] See, here, now I'm sitting by myself, uh, er, talking to myself. That's-that's chaos theory."''

"When you gotta go, you gotta go"

''"Boy, do I hate being right all the time." ''

"That is one big pile of shit."

''"[Sarcastically] Remind me to thank John for a lovely weekend." ''

"C'mon, c'mon, we gotta get out of here, let's go, let's go, c'mon hurry!"

"Must go faster."

"You think they'll have that on the tour?"

"Yeah, but John, when the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists!"

"Yeah. Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."

"[pounds table] You're selling it, you're gonna sell it. well..."

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Hammond: "I'm not making the same mistakes again."

Malcolm: "No, no. You're making all new ones."

"Ah, where you're going is the only place in the world where the geese chase you."

''"Actually, it would put them at a very convenient biting height." ''[regarding the 'high hide']

''"Oh 'ooh aah', that's how it all starts. Then there's running, and then screaming..." ''

"Mommy's very angry."

"Just fed? I presume you're talking about Eddie? Hey, you might show a little respect! The guy saved our lives by giving his!"

''"They say talent skips a generation, so I'm sure your kids will be sharp as tacks." ''

Sarah: "Ian, Ian, slow down a little."

Ian: [glances at the pursuing Tyrannosaurus'] '' "Um....I don't think so." ''

Ian (to Peter Ludlow): "Now you're John Hammond."

"Hang on to something !"

Sarah: "How are we going to find her?"

Ian: "Follow the screams."

Chaos Island: The Lost World
Malcolm appeared in Chaos Island: The Lost World, as one of the playable units in the game. He moves slower than the other characters due to the wounds he sustained in the first film.

Jurassic Park: Builder
He's one of the characters to appear in Jurassic Park: Builder.

LEGO Jurassic World
Ian Malcolm will appear as a character in the video game Jurassic World. He can use flares that he can throw to illuminate dark areas, as well as solve puzzles with his mathematics skills.

Cameo

 * He is a playable character in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (SEGA Genesis Game), for Player 2.
 * He also appeared in the bonus ending of The Lost World: Jurassic Park (console game), which can be earned by collecting all DNAs in all of the levels.
 * He is a playable character in Jurassic Park (mobile game), alongside Dr. Grant.

Trivia

 * Malcolm seemed to have died in the first novel, but in the second novel it is revealed that he was merely unconscious and still alive, likely to correspond with the film canon, in which Malcolm survived. It also makes a note to state that he was only 'slightly dead' and a lot of press reported his death. It took about 6 months to recover from his injuries and he walks with a cane more often than not. It is also worth noting, there are only 2 (3 at a stretch) comments on his death in the first novel, all of which are characters points of view, more than reports of true events.
 * Malcolm's personality seemed to have changed drastically in the second movie, though he retains his sense of humor and sarcasm from the first film.
 * Kyoryu Black of Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, Ian Yorkland is named after him.