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- "But, John. If the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."
- —Ian Malcolm(src)
The 1993 Isla Nublar Incident was a catastrophic event that took place at the original Jurassic Park, in which several people died, and the park facilities had to be abandoned. The aftermath of the incident pushed InGen to the verge of bankruptcy, and ultimately set the stage for other catastrophic incidents down the track.
Prior to the Incident[]
- Main article: Jurassic Park Accident
Sometime prior to the incident, Jurassic Park was on the verge of completion, and the workers were in the process of moving the cloned dinosaurs from Site B to Isla Nublar. InGen bred eight Velociraptors, and had originally planned for them to be in an open enclosure. However, they were systematically testing the fences of their paddock for weaknesses by attacking them, and so the decision was made to move them to a holding pen where they could be controlled more easily.
Just weeks prior to the incident, sometime around April[1], workers were moving the Big One from the main paddock to the holding pen. The gatekeeper, Jophery Brown, was opening the transfer cage's gate, when the Big One charged, causing the locks holding the cage in place to fail. He was knocked to the ground, and the Big One immediately starting attacking him. After repeated attempts to subdue her, Muldoon ordered that she be shot, but it was too late, and Jophery died from his injuries.
Shortly after this, the Brown Family filed a $20 million lawsuit against InGen, and this scared the investors and insurance underwriters, who feared that Jurassic Park was unsafe. They insisted that lawyer Donald Gennaro and selected scientists to undertake a "serious investigation of the stability of the island." So, on June 11th, Donald Gennaro, Dr. Ian Malcolm, Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Dr. Alan Grant, alongside John Hammond arrived at the park to begin a weekend tour of the park's facilities.
At around the same time, unbeknownst to the rest of the park, the disgruntled employee Dennis Nedry had a clandestine meeting with a representative from Biosyn, a competitor to InGen, and made a deal for $1.5 million, in which he would steal one of each embryo from the park's Cold Storage Room. It is implied that InGen is far ahead of the curve in genetics research, when Nedry remarks "18 minutes, and your company catches up on 10 years of research." However, unbeknownst to the representative, Nedry intended to shut off the park’s security systems.
Incident[]
June 11th[]
On June 11th, 1993, the group arrived at Jurassic Park to begin their inspection. Initially in awe after witnessing a live Brachiosaurus feeding on a tree, followed by groups of dinosaurs covering a large paddock. When asked by Dr. Grant, "how did you do this?", Hammond replied "I'll show you".
The group moved to the Visitor Center, where they watched a pre-prepared video which explained how the dinosaur cloning worked. After a short ride that toured the Genetics Lab, and the Fertilization Lab/Hatchery, the group watched a Velociraptor hatch, which concerned Dr. Grant, being versed in the unique behavioral traits, and perceived intelligence of raptors. The group moved to the Velociraptor Holding Pen, where they saw the three adult Velociraptors the park had contained in the holding pen, and discussed different aspects of their behavior, with game warden Robert Muldoon explaining their intelligence and speed to Dr. Grant, and Hammond explaining the security precautions in place to Dr. Sattler and Dr. Malcolm. Muldoon expresses concern that the Velociraptors would escape, and his fears ultimately turn out to be warranted.
After this, the group went to the V.I.P. Dining Room and discussed their concerns about resurrecting creatures that had been extinct for at least 65 million years, while Gennaro and Hammond defended the park and its mission. After this discussion, the group was surprised with the addition of two people from the park's "target audience", Tim and Lex Murphy, Hammond's grandchildren. The group began the Tour Program, while Hammond, Muldoon, John Arnold, and Dennis Nedry watched from the Control Room.
After failing to see either the Dilophosaurus or the Tyrannosaurus rex, the Control Room was warned about a severe tropical storm due to hit the island just before nightfall, when the decision was made that the tour would have to be cut short until the storm passed. Before they could turn the cars around, however, the scientists saw a gas-powered Jeep in the Triceratops Paddock, and exited the vehicles, to see a paleo-veterinarian caring for a sick Triceratops. After spending some time with the dinosaur, Gennaro insisted that the group return to the tour vehicles, as the storm was picking up. Dr. Sattler insists she stays with Dr. Harding, which she does.
As per his earlier deal with BioSyn, Nedry prepares to steal the embryos. Since he created the park's security from the ground up, he creates a virus called the "white rabbit object" to wreak havoc in the park's systems. Right before he executes the program, he warns the other people in the Control Room that because he debugged the phones that "the system is going to be compiling for 18-20 minutes, so some of the monitor systems might go on or off, but it's nothing to worry about". One minute after he executes the program, the door locks in the Visitor Center begin failing, and the security cameras shut off, allowing Nedry to enter the cold storage room and steal the embryos.
John Arnold remarks "that's odd, the door security systems are shutting down", to which Hammond replies "well, Nedry did say a few systems would go offline, didn't he?", allaying suspicion for a few minutes. Shortly after this however, the crisis begins when the park fences (barring the Velociraptor Fences) begin shutting down, which causes Hammond to start a search for Nedry, which fails. By this time, Nedry has already left the Visitor Center, and after manually overriding the Park Gate, he begins his journey to the East Dock.
The virus Nedry created also shut down the Tour Vehicles, with them stopping just outside the T. rex Paddock. After some time spent sitting about waiting for the cars to start again, Tim Murphy notices a deep loud booming noise. A glass of water in the front of the car begins to shudder, and then Lex Murphy remarks "where's the goat?". At this point, the goats leg hits the top of the car, and the Tyrannosaur can be seen eating the remains of the goat.
In panic, Gennaro abandons the children, and hides inside a toilet just off the main track, while the fence begins to creak and snap as the Tyrannosaur breaks through it. While Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm know to stay still, Lex and Tim Murphy don't, and immediately turn on a torch which attracts the T. rex to them. The T. rex attacks the vehicle repeatedly before overturning it with the kids still inside.
As this happens, Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm light flares to lead the dinosaur away, and in the process, the T. rex knocks down the toilet building, exposing Gennaro, who the dinosaur then eats as the first victim of the incident. As the toilet collapses, Dr. Malcolm sustains severe leg injuries. Dr. Grant pulls Lex out of the car, and while trying to get Tim out, is pushed over the edge of a concrete moat and forced to let Tim be pushed off the cliff inside the car, which gets lodged in a tree. Dr. Grant is able to get Tim safely out of the tree, while almost being crushed by the Tour Vehicle.
Just as this is happening, Nedry is racing toward the East Dock, when he misses his turn and crashes his car, getting it stuck on a log. While attempting to tow his car off the log, he encounters a Dilophosaurus. He comments "oh, that's nice, time to go". He doesn't notice the dinosaur following him until he is almost back to his car, at which point it flares out its neck frill and spits its deadly venom at him. When he gets up to his car, the Dilophosaurus spits venom directly into his eyes, and after hitting his head on the car door, the slips and his stolen embryos fall out of his jacket pocket, and get buried in mud. He makes it into his car, only to find that the Dilophosaurus is in the car with him, and he is subsequently killed.
After this, Dr. Sattler, Mr. Arnold, and John Hammond resolve to get the people stuck in the tour vehicles back to the Visitor Center, but upon arriving, they find that the area has been wrecked, and one of the cars is missing. They find Ian who is badly injured, and the remains of Donald Gennaro. After a brief encounter with the T. rex, they are able to escape back to the Visitor Center.
Hearing the commotion with the T. rex, Dr. Grant takes the kids up a tree, where they witness a herd of Brachiosaurs singing. At the same time, Dr. Sattler finds Hammond eating ice cream in the restaurant, where Hammond initially resists the idea of abandoning the park, but after a tense conversation concedes that despite his good intentions, there was nothing he could do, and the only thing that mattered now was getting everyone safely off the island.
June 12th[]
The next morning, Dr. Grant, Lex, and Tim wake to find a Brachiosaurus grazing on the tree they're sleeping in, and after briefly panicking, Lex tries to pat the dinosaur, at which point it sneezes and covers her in mucus. As the group continues their trek to the Visitor Center, they briefly stop to examine a nest of dinosaur eggs, at which point Dr. Grant makes the revelation that the dinosaurs are able to breed after all, because of frog DNA used to fill in gene sequence gaps in the dinosaurs' genetic code.
A while later, the group witnesses the T. rex hunting a herd of Gallimimus, and after briefly watching from behind the log, Lex begs Dr. Grant to leave, and so they do.
Although working through the night, Mr. Arnold is not able to reverse the damage caused by the White Rabbit Object, and is still locked out of the system. Hammond suggests that they shut down the entire system to reset the park systems, which Arnold refuses to do as he fears that the system may not turn back on, and then they wouldn't be able to do anything. After a brief argument, he reluctantly agrees, and shuts off power to the control room. When he turns everything back on, it looks as though it hasn't worked, until he sees that the computers are showing "system ready".
He deduces that the shutdown tripped the circuit breakers, and makes the trip to reset them at the Maintenance Shed, on the other end of the Visitor Center compound. After being gone for much longer than he should've been, Dr. Sattler decides to go out herself with Muldoon to investigate. As they walk over to the shed, they notice that the Raptor Holding Pen has been damaged and that the raptors must be loose. The trio had discovered that the power to the pen had been cut and had used the opportunity to escape. Sattler and Muldoon continue on until they can see the Maintenance Shed, when Ellie says they can make it, Muldoon responds "No, we can't. Because we're being hunted". He makes Ellie run to the shed on her own, as he sets up his gun to shoot one of the raptors.
Dr. Sattler makes it to the shed, and after getting briefly lost, find the circuit breakers, and begins the process of restoring power to the park. At this time, Dr. Grant, Tim, and Lex have made it to the Perimeter Fence, and begun climbing. When the main circuit breaker is reset, a blue light starts flashing, and an alarm goes off at the Perimeter Fence. Lex and Alan are able to get down in time, but Tim is electrocuted when the power is restored. He was able to be resuscitated by Dr. Grant.
At this time, the lights in the maintenance shed turn on as the park's systems come back online, while Dr. Sattler is celebrating her victory however, a Velociraptor breaks through a bundle of cables and attempts to attack her. She manages to briefly trap the dinosaur in the Circuit Breaker compound, before encountering the severed arm of John Arnold, who had presumably been killed by the raptor. Dr. Sattler manages to escape the maintenance shed, and close the door behind her, effectively trapping the raptor.
Muldoon is hunting the raptor in his sight. He carefully sets up his gun ready to shoot. However, from his left, another raptor appears through the foliage. Impressed by the trap, Muldoon mutters “clever girl” and turn to shoot. However, the raptor pounces on him and kills him.
Dr. Grant, Tim, and Lex manage to make it back to the Visitor Center, only to find it abandoned. Dr. Grant sets out to find where everyone has gone, and leaves the kids in the dining room. After some time gorging on the deserts and other foods in the dining room, the kids encounter another Velociraptor. They escape into the kitchen, and close the door behind them. To their horror, however, the raptors have figured out how to open doors, and manage to get inside the kitchen. After a brief skirmish, Tim locks one of the raptors in the walk-in freezer, and Lex manages to briefly knock the other out, and they are able to get out of the kitchen.
They find Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler, and all retreat into the control room. Once they get their, Dr. Grant attempts to lock the doors, but finds that those systems are not online. The raptor manages to escape the kitchen, and tries to open the door to the control room. At this time, Ellie stops trying to reboot the park's system to help Dr. Grant hold back the raptor. Luckily, Lex knows how the operate the Unix-based system that runs the park, and after some searching, reboots the parks systems, and the door locks.
Dr. Grant phones Hammond in the emergency shelter, and tells him to call the mainland to send helicopters. At that point, Dr. Grant drops the phone as the raptor tries to break through the glass into the control room. The group is able to ascend into the ceiling just before the raptor breaks through, and after some near misses, they make their way through the air ducts into the main Visitor Centre atrium. After jumping onto the suspended dinosaurs fossils to get out of the building, the raptor jumps at the group, and destroys the fossils, leaving the group suspended in mid air.
Following an extended standoff with the raptors (the raptor in the Maintenance Shed had successfully escaped by this point), the T. rex crashes through the side of the Visitor Centre and fights the raptors, allowing the group to escape into a waiting car which takes them to the heliport, and the survivors leave the island.
Aftermath[]
The Isla Nublar Incident caused massive financial losses for InGen, and the company was to never fully recover from it. The "demolition-deconstruction" of the Isla Nublar facility alone cost InGen upwards of US$126 Million, while payoffs and lawsuits to keep survivors from revealing what happened cost tens of millions of dollars. To add to the financial blows, InGen's backup facility "Site B" on Isla Sorna had to be abandoned following massive devastation caused by Hurricane Clarissa, and Hammond's use of the companies limited remaining funds to protect the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna pushed InGen to the brink of bankruptcy.[2]
The final straw for the board of InGen was when Cathy Bowman, a young British girl, was attacked by Compsognathuses while on Isla Sorna with her family. The lawsuit that followed caused the board of InGen to remove Hammond as CEO, and be replaced by his nephew Peter Ludlow, who only saw the dinosaurs as assets. The series of financial calamities up to this point arguably led to the decision to bring two Tyrannosaurs rexes to San Diego, triggering an incident there when the adult T. rex escaped containment.
At some point after this, InGen was saved by the Masrani Global Corporation, who bought out the company, and used their technology to build Jurassic World.
People involved[]
Endorsement team[]
- Dr. Alan Grant
- Dr. Ellie Sattler
- Dr. Ian Malcolm
- Donald Gennaro (killed by Rexy, movie only)
- Lex Murphy (personal guest of Hammond)
- Tim Murphy (personal guest of Hammond)
Jurassic Park employees[]
- Dr. John Hammond
- Robert Muldoon (killed by Velociraptors, movie only)
- John "Ray" Arnold (killed by Velociraptors)
- Dennis Nedry (killed by Dilophosaurus)
- Dr. Gerald Harding
- Jophery Brown (killed by Velociraptors, movie only)
- Dr. Henry Wu
Dinosaurs involved[]
- Brachiosaurus
- 1 Herd
- Compsognathus
- 1 Pack (game-only)
- Dilophosaurus
- All Juveniles
- Herrerasaurus
- 1 Pack (game-only)
- Gallimimus
- 1 Herd (one killed by Rexy)
- Parasaurolophus
- 1 Herd in the Sauropod Paddock
- Pteranodon
- 1 Trio of Adults (game-only)
- Triceratops
- 2 Individuals (game-only)
- Tylosaurus
- 1 Individual (game-only)
- Tyrannosaurus rex
- 1 Adult named Rexy
- Troodon
- 1 Pack (game-only)
- Velociraptor
- The Big One
- Scarred Raptor Leader (game only)
- 4 other packmates (game-only)
Appearances[]
- Jurassic Park
- All Jurassic Park video games based on the film
- Jurassic Park: The Game
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park (mentioned)
- Jurassic Park III (mentioned)
- Jurassic World (mentioned)
- Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (mentioned)
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (mentioned)
- Jurassic World: Dominion (mentioned)