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Dr.[4] John Parker Hammond was the CEO of InGen and creator of Jurassic Park. He founded the company InGen and the Hammond Foundation. He had at least one daughter, two grandchildren (Tim and Lex Murphy), a sibling (as Hammond's nephew has the surname of Ludlow, not Hammond) and a nephew, Peter Ludlow.
Hammond is the overarching protagonist of the Jurassic Park franchise, serving as the tritagonist of Jurassic Park, the overarching protagonist of The Lost World: Jurassic Park and the posthumous overarching protagonist of Jurassic Park III, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, Jurassic World: Dominion and Jurassic World: Rebirth.
History[]
Background[]
John Hammond was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom, in 1913, although the exact date of his birth is unknown. Family details are scarce, but he is known to have had at least one sister, whose name and date of birth have not currently been revealed.
During his younger years in the 1920s and 1930s, Scotland faced a severe economic depression. The Hammond family would have been affected by this. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Second World War came to Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom; Since Hammond would have been twenty years old during the war, he would have been drafted into the army to fight the Nazis. His role in the war is unknown, including whether or not he saw active combat. World War II ended on September 2, 1945, at which time Hammond would have been thirty-one or thirty-two years old.
At some point in his life, Hammond married and had a daughter. His daughter had two kids, Lex and Tim, making him a grandfather. He also had a nephew named Peter Ludlow who is likely the son of his sister. Hammond also made a flea circus.
Hammond at some point became business partners with Benjamin Lockwood. The two were good friends and they shared a dream of bringing back dinosaurs from extinction. In order to pursue this dream, Hammond and Lockwood used their respective fortunes and built a laboratory in the subbasement of Lockwood's home. They hired geneticist Dr. Henry Wu to aid them in the genetics work. Hammond and Dr. Wu cloned baby elephants, before moving on to dinosaurs.[5] They succeeded in 1986 and together (at some point) created InGen, a genetics company whose goal was to continue development of cloning dinosaurs. In 1982, they acquired Isla Sorna where the dinosaurs were bred.[6]
Eventually, the company also acquired Isla Nublar on which they built Jurassic Park, a zoological attraction intended for guests around the world to see dinosaurs up close (after Hammond abandoned Jurassic Park: San Diego). This was to complete Hammond and Lockwood's dream and also build up the funds for the massive expenses of cloning dinosaurs.
Jurassic Park[]
- "Welcome to Jurassic Park!"
- —John Hammond's famous line(src)
John Hammond in Jurassic Park.
In the film, John Alfred[7] Hammond is a flamboyant venture capitalist from Scotland, building his fortune in Petticoat Lane, England. He also held parks in Kenya, Costa Rica, and other tropical locations.
The only similarities of the film's Hammond to the novel's Hammond are eccentricity and value for money but he is not as much of a dark character. While the novel's Hammond is cold, ruthless and in many ways the stereotypical businessman (i.e., uncaring about people, Machiavellian in his attempts to control his creation), the film's Hammond is affable and kind and is genuinely concerned about the well-being of his grandchildren and the other visitors as well as his employees at the park. He also cares about his dinosaurs at the same time, but understands the circumstances when the park fails. The novel's Hammond's personalities are seen instead in Donald Gennaro.
The turning point for film's Hammond is when Ellie Sattler bluntly tells him that he "never had control" and that the only thing that matters now is the survival of the people they love. Hammond is visibly struck by Ellie's words and spends the remainder of the film doing whatever he can to make sure that they all survive Jurassic Park. Unlike his novel appearance, John escapes Jurassic Park and agrees with Dr. Grant that the park was a failure and should not be endorsed, though he was understandably depressed about the failure.
Several days after Hurricane Clarissa, Hammond found out that Lockwood's infertile daughter Charlotte Lockwood is using the cloning technology as a means of undergoing trials to create a child of her own. Hammond disagrees with Charlotte's intentions as he opposes human cloning, finding it to be 'unholy', but Lockwood defends his daughter's actions, resulting a fallout between Hammond and Lockwood.[7] With the partnership ended, Hammond takes full control of InGen while Lockwood is left at his manor in seclusion.
(game-only)[]
Hammond does not physically appear in Jurassic Park: The Game, although his helicopter is briefly seen at the end of Episode 1. In the InGen Field Journal, it is revealed that he had replaced Dr. Laura Sorkin as InGen's lead geneticist with Henry Wu, as Wu's method of combining frog DNA sped up the cloning process.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park[]
- "You were right and I was wrong there, did you ever expect to hear me say such a thing?"
- —John Hammond to Ian Malcolm(src)
Four years after the Isla Nublar Incident, John has resigned from his role as CEO of InGen and passed the baton over to his nephew, Peter Ludlow. He had become a naturalist rather than continue being an industrialist. John is seen in his lavish mansion, clearly declining in health. He was seen talking with Ian Malcolm about sending a team to Isla Sorna to document the animals. Ian becomes concerned when John revealed that he had allowed his girlfriend Sarah Harding to go to Isla Sorna, but reluctantly goes. He is briefly seen in the San Diego Incident CNN broadcast saying that the dinosaurs should be left alone on Isla Sorna and ends with Ian's quote, "life will find a way."
Jurassic Park III[]
- "Now what John Hammond and InGen did at Jurassic Park, is create genetically-engineered, theme-park monsters, nothing more, and nothing less."
- —Alan Grant(src)
Hammond is only mentioned by Dr. Grant in a conference, with the former declaring he still did not agree with John's original intentions.
Death[]
Hammond's memorial statue in the Innovation Center.
John Hammond died shortly before midnight on 31 December 1997; seven minutes later, at 00:05am on the 1st of January, he was briefly revived by his medical staff before passing away again.[8]
Legacy[]
Simon Masrani, CEO of the Masrani Global Corporation and son of Hammond's personal friend Sanjay Masrani, bought InGen in 1998.[9] In 2005, a new dinosaur theme park opened on Isla Nublar: Jurassic World.[10]
Jurassic World[]
Two decades after the original disaster, John Hammond's dream has finally come true in the form of a new fully-functional dinosaur park. The cloning facility on the island is named after Hammond: Hammond Creation Lab. Ever looking towards the future, his statue stands in the Innovation Center, before the entrance to the Hammond Creation Lab, in remembrance of his heart, passion and imagination.[10]
Masrani tells his employee Claire Dearing that Hammond entrusted him with his dying wish. When Claire tells Masrani that they have the best structural engineers, Masrani sarcastically states "so did Hammond." When Masrani berates Wu for the creation of the Indominus rex and tells him to shut down all activity, he even mentions that Hammond wouldn't be there to protect him this time.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous[]
Season 1[]
When the campers of Camp Cretaceous are visiting Henry Wu's lab in Jurassic World, Brooklynn who was one of the campers told Wu that he could let Hammond and Masrani take the credit, in order to stroke his ego and convince him to be part of her video about Jurassic World for views.
Season 3[]
When campers Darius, Kenji and Yasmina come across the original park, Yasmina says she heard a rumour about Hammond breaking his ankle there before being eaten alive by the Compies. However, Darius refutes this by revealing that Hammond actually died of natural causes following the San Diego incident.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom[]
Three years later, when Claire goes to Lockwood Manor to meet with Lockwood, she sees a portrait of Hammond. Hammond is mentioned from time to time during the film. Benjamin Lockwood's employee and murderer Eli Mills eventually tells Owen, Claire and Maise that what drove Lockwood and Hammond apart was that Lockwood (apparently) cloned his deceased daughter Maisie, ultimately revealing that Maise was a clone of Lockwood's deceased daughter, and not Lockwood's granddaughter like he said she was.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory[]
Season 1[]
"That Night"[]
While in Brooklynn's secret apartment, Darius mentions John Hammond alongside Simon Masrani and Daniel Kon as people who exploited dinosaurs for profit.
Jurassic World: Dominion[]
When Maisie and Beta end up being kidnapped by Biosyn agents and taken to the Biosyn Sanctuary (run by Lewis Dodgson), Maisie meets up with Wu, who explains the truth about her origins: rather than being cloned by Lockwood, she was asexually conceived by her mother Charlotte. Wu explained that Charlotte attempted to use the cloning technology to combat her infertility following the 1993 incident, and when Hammond found out and opposed Charlotte's actions, Charlotte refused to give up her dreams and Lockwood stood by to defend his daughter's actions, thus explaining why Hammond and Lockwood broke their partnership in the first place. Following Charlotte's death weeks after giving birth to Maisie, Lockwood created the cover story of himself using Charlotte's DNA to clone Maisie, all just to ensure that no one would criminalize Charlotte for her actions just like Hammond did.
Family[]
| Hammond Family | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Hammond† | Mrs Hammond† | John Hammond's Sister† | John Hammond's Brother-In-Law† | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mrs Murphy | Mr Murphy | Peter Ludlow† | Peter Ludlow's Wife | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lex Murphy | Tim Murphy | Peter Ludlow's Eldest Child | Peter Ludlow's Second Child | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Relationships[]
Benjamin Lockwood[]
Lockwood was business partners with Scottish businessman and billionaire John Hammond. The two were good friends and they shared a dream of bringing back dinosaurs from extinction. In order to pursue this dream, Lockwood and Hammond used their respective fortunes and built a laboratory in the subbasement of Lockwood's manor.[7]
According to Eli Mills, the friendship between the two ended when Hammond learned that Lockwood had used cloning technology to clone his deceased daughter, but seeing as Maisie was created by Charlotte herself, it seems much more likely that John and Benjamin never stopped being friends and that the former simply promised to keep silent about Maisie's origins.[7]
When John died in 1998, Lockwood was very distraught, and eventually kept the dream of dinosaurs by trying to save them from the Mt. Sibo explosion in 2018. However, the dinosaurs were auctioned off by Lockwood's aide Eli Mills.[7]
Lex Murphy[]
John truly loved his maternal granddaughter very deeply and allowed her and her brother to accompany the team to Jurassic Park while her parents his daughter and son in law got a nasty divorce. He is very sadden when she and her brother got lost in the park but is happy to be reunited with them at the end thanks to Alan Grant someone Hammond deeply trusted and knew would bring his grandchildren to safety.
Tim Murphy[]
John loved his maternal grandson deeply and invited him and his sister to accompany the team to Jurassic Park while their parents his daughter and son-in-law got a nasty divorce. John is very sadden when Tim and Lex get lost in Jurassic Park but is happy to be reunited with them at the end thanks to Alan Grant who John trusted and knew could get his grandchildren back to safety. At the end John is seen carrying Tim to the helicopter to leave the island.
Donald Gennaro[]
John hated lawyers but knew that he had to hire one to represent him in opening Jurassic Park so he chose Donald Gennaro. At first Gennaro told John that if he wasn't convinced Jurassic Park would work he would shut him down but Hammond convinced him that in 48 Hours he would be accepting hid apologies to which Hammond was right because when Gennaro saw the Brachiosaurus he changed his mind and realized that they could make a fortune with Jurassic Park. During lunch Gennaro suggested that the park could charge people to come for $2,000 a day and $10,000 a day and they have a coupon day for the not super rich people however Grant Malcolm and Sattler aren't sure because they don't how the animals would react to human tourists to which Hammond made the comment that the only person he had on his side was the blood suckling lawyer to which Genarro thanked him for. When Genarro was killed by the T. rex it never showed how John reacted to his death although he possibly was sad.
Robert Muldoon[]
John hired Robert Muldoon to be the game warden at Jurassic Park and deeply trusted him to take good care of the animals to which Muldoon did but believed that the Raptors should of been destroyed after a worker accidentally got killed and eaten by one. When the power shut down John asked Muldoon to go get his grandchildren and bring them back to which Muldoon did with Ellie Sattler accompanying him. When they get to the T. rex fence they discovered that Alan and Lex and Tim had left and only found the remains of Donald Gennaro's dead body and Ian Malcolm alive, and brought the latter back to the visitors center. After Hammond sent Ray Arnold to the maintenance shed to turn the power back on and doesn't return, Hammond had Muldoon and Ellie go to the maintenance shed to see what happened. Muldoon has Ellie go into the shed while he hunted down a raptor to which he gets eaten by another raptor while hunting the 1st one. It is never shown how John reacted to Muldoon's death but it is likely he was deeply sadden by it.
Dennis Nedry[]
John hired Dennis Nedry to be one of the computer programmers for Jurassic Park but soon took a quick dislike to him when he saw Nedrys selfish greedy side and wouldn't pay Nedry the amount of money he wanted. John failed to notice that Nedry had secretly stolen embryos from Jurassic Park and left to take them to the east doc to be sold to Lewis Dodgson and he believed Nedry just left the park on his own and discovers that Nedry was the one who shut down Jurassic Park except for Raptor Fences. John later admitted to Ellie that hiring Nedry was a big mistake and it remains unknown if he found out about Nedry's death by him getting eaten by a Dilophosaurus on his way to the east dock.
Henry Wu[]
John hired Henry Wu to be a doctor to take care of the dinosaurs and formed a good relationship with him and always happy to be with Wu when the baby dinosaurs hatched from their eggs to which he brought Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Donald Genarro, and Ian Malcolm to watch a baby female raptor be born.
Ray Arnold[]
John hired a second computer programmer for Jurassic Park named Ray Arnold whom he seemed to have a better relationship with than Dennis Nedry.
Alan Grant[]
TBA
Ellie Sattler[]
TBA
Ian Malcolm[]
TBA
Peter Ludlow[]
TBA
Nick Van Owen[]
TBA
Trivia[]
- Hammond is usually likened to the famed cartoon producer Walt Disney and his park to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Even both director Steven Spielberg and Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton describe the character as "the dark side of Walt Disney."
- Interestingly, the character Preston B. Whitmore from the 2001 Disney animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire was based on Hammond by the film's directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale.
- Hammond was the only character on the island to have stayed there during the Isla Nublar Incident and not be harmed or confronted by the carnivorous dinosaurs.
- In one script he was supposed to fall down a hill like in the novel, but he hits his head and becomes unconscious, and then drowns in a puddle of water. And before the end credits a fly should have land on his hand.
- With the movie Hammond changed to a protagonist, his novel counterpart's death is written into Dieter Stark in the second film.
- It should be noted, that Hammond has a different middle name in the novel canon than in the film canon. In both Trespasser and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, his middle name is said to be Parker. However, in the novel, Donald Gennaro describes "...and John Alfred Hammond had gotten his money..."
- His catchphrase through out the first Jurassic Park film was "spared no expense."
- Hammond's middle name has changed throughout the franchise. In a deleted scene from The Lost World, it is revealed that Hammond's middle name is 'Parker'. This name was continued through to Jurassic World, where a mural on the Innovation Center wall confirms his name is John Parker Hammond. However, in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Eli Mills refers to him as John Alfred Hammond, which coincides with the novel, and officially is his name.
- Hammond walked with a pronounced limp in the first two films, the reason for which was never revealed. In the first film, he often used a cane to walk, although he proved capable of walking without it for short distances. Hammond's cane was tipped with an oval-shaped piece of amber containing a mosquito, a reminder of the basis on which his dream was built upon.
- In both the novel and Trespasser canon, Hammond says he had a child's idea of science: test tubes, explosions, and miracles. However, the film states that he is a "Doctor". It's possible his doctorate is an honorary one and he chooses to style himself this way, or this may represent a difference between continuities.
- In the original film, he stated that he witnessed the births of every dinosaur on the island.
- Although not considered a human antagonist, his actions indirectly resulted in the deaths or injuries of multiple people; for fishermen (mentioned by Carlos) and those who stumbled across Isla Sorna, on the island, S.S. Venture, and San Diego, while showing no remorse afterwards. Therefore, he's considered one of the most controversial protagonists of the franchise.
- The rumour Yasmina heard is a reference to John's death in the book series, a Tyrannosaurus' roar scares him down a cliff and breaks his ankle (it was his grandkids messing with him from the Control Room), a pack of Procompsognathus then eat him alive, however the Hammond's death is more brutal, as the Compsognathus in the book have a poison which makes the victim drowsy, John falls asleep around his creations, torn apart, his remains are eventually discovered by Robert Muldoon.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Timeline in the Innovation Center (see picture).
- ↑ MasraniGlobal website (Backdoor).
- ↑ Jurassicpedia timeline
- ↑ The Interview with John Hammond in The Lost World: Jurassic Park expressly shows his name as "Dr. John Hammond", meaning he is a doctor
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oV3JZop1BU
- ↑ Dinotracker.com
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- ↑ Jurassicpedia timeline
- ↑ InGen Technologies. (2014, November). Retrieved from http://www.masraniglobal.com/about/divisions/ingen/index.html
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Our Founder. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.jurassicworld.com/our-founder/
