Jurassic Park is a science fiction-adventure-drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based upon the novel of the same name, written by Michael Crichton. The story involves scientists visiting a safari amusement park of genetically engineered dinosaurs on an island over one weekend. Sabotage sets the carnivorous dinosaurs on the loose, and the technicians and visitors attempt to escape the island.
The film began its genesis right before the novel was even published, and Crichton was hired to write a script that skimmed down its plot. Spielberg hired Stan Winston Studios' puppets and worked with Industrial Light and Magic to develop cutting edge CGI to portray the dinosaurs. The film stars Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Richard Attenborough. It reached near-universal acclaim.
Since its release it has grossed $914,691,118, becoming the highest grossing film of all time, and is currently the twenty first-highest grossing feature film of all time. Most significantly, the film inspired a new breed of films that primarily used CGI for special effects.
The film was followed by The Lost World: Jurassic Park on May 23, 1997, Jurassic Park III on July 18, 2001, and Jurassic World on June 12, 2015, none of which were as critically acclaimed as the first. The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III weren't as financially successful as the first film, but Jurassic World beat the first film in terms of profit. The film was re-released twice, first in the cinemas of U.K. on September 23, 2011 then in 3D on April 5, 2013.
Plot
Welcome to Jurassic Park!
On the volcanic island of Isla Nublar, an InGen employee is attacked and eaten by a Velociraptor, possibly a pack leader known as the Big One, while attempting to transport it to a heavily fortified enclosure. This prompts the worker's family to file a lawsuit against the company, and it successfully scares InGen's investors into thinking that the park is not safe. The CEO of InGen, John Hammond, decides to reassure the investors by bringing a group of experts to his park in order to gain their approval of it. Among the group he invites are Paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant and Paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, two scientists whose digs he's been funding, Ian Malcolm, a mathematician (or "chaotician" as he calls himself) and his investor's lawyer, Donald Gennaro. Meanwhile in Costa Rica, Dennis Nedry is meeting with Lewis Dodgson, a rival scientist of InGen working for Biosyn. Dennis is a computer programmer working for John on Isla Nublar and has recently become dissatisfied with his treatment by InGen. Dennis agrees to steal dinosaur embryos for Dodgson for a price.
Inside the Jurassic Park helicopter.
The group assembled by John arrive on the island via helicopter and then take two jeeps out into the park, where they come across a Brachiosaurus and a whole herd of hadrosaurs, to their utter amazement. John then takes his stunned guests to the Visitor Center, where they see the birth of an infant Velociraptor and learn that InGen were able to recreate dinosaurs using DNA taken from mosquitoes who had feasted on dinosaur blood, and had been preserved in amber. The DNA taken from the mosquitoes was spliced with DNA from frogs to fill in the gaps of the genetic code. InGen scientists only cloned female dinosaurs, thus eliminating the threat of uncontrolled breeding of the animals.
John Hammond and an infant Velociraptor.
They are then taken to the Velociraptor enclosure at Alan's request, where they meet park warden Robert Muldoon. Robert tells the group about how vicious and intelligent the raptors are. He explains there are only three raptors all together because the Big One, who has taken over as the alpha female, had "killed all but two of the others", a total of eight raptors. Meanwhile, the scientists lower a cow into a dinosaur's enclosure and observe it eating the cow, destroying the support cables and fabric harness in the process. After the experiment, the scientists head indoors for lunch.
During the lunch, Alan, Ian and Ellie start to express doubt in the park after the initial shock has worn off. Ian questions the ethical morality in cloning species that had not lived for thousands of years. Ellie expresses concern that the scientists may not be thinking of the repercussions that might occur of what they are cloning. Alan remains fairly neutral on the issue though he advises John to be careful. Donald is the only one who completely approves, thanks to the amounts of money they could make off the island. Hammond puts it eloquently, "I don't believe it. You're meant to come down here and defend me against these two characters and the only one I have on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer!"
Dilophosaurus fence
After the lunch, the team will start on a tour through the park. The visitors are toured around in electric Tour Vehicles. John's grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy, also take the tour. Both of them instantly take a liking to Alan, who doesn't appreciate the attention, as he dislikes children. While on the tour, a goat is released out in the wild close to the fence to attract the dinosaur and eat it, while the visitors observe it. The tour goes disappointingly, with most of the dinosaurs failing to appear. Ellie leaves the tour to take care of a sick Triceratops with the veterinarian Dr. Harding.
T. rex attacks a car
A tropical monsoon storm hits the island, and most InGen employees leave, except for John, game warden Robert, and chief systems engineer Ray Arnold. During the storm, Dennis shuts down park security (except for the raptor fences) and as a result, the Tyrannosaurus breaks through the deactivated electric fence surrounding its pen, kills and eats the abandoned goat and eats Donald Gennaro, attacking Tim and Lex hiding in the car, which gets submerged partway into a swamp of mud and wounding Ian. The children and Alan only narrowly avoid being killed.
Nedry's final moments.
Just after they flee the wreckage, Ellie and Robert arrive. At first, they believe the only survivor of the attack is Ian, but upon further investigation they find two sets of footprints: one is Alan's and one belongs to one of the kids. Just then, the Tyrannosaurus returns, and Ian, Robert, and Ellie barely escape her in their jeep. Meanwhile, Dennis crashes his car, and while trying to winch it, he is killed by a juvenile Dilophosaurus, who spits out a tar-like venom at him before the obese saboteur gets in his Jeep. When Nedry thinks he's safe, he turns his head and the Dilophosaurus eats him The canister used to smuggle the embryos gets lost in the process.
Alan, Tim, and Lex spend the night in a tree. While hiking to safety the next morning, they discover hatched eggs, which means that the dinosaurs are actually breeding. Alan hypothesizes that the frog DNA is responsible: some species of frog are known to spontaneously change sex in a single-sex environment.
Muldoon's death
Ray tries to hack Dennis' computer to turn the power back on but fails, so he does a full system restart, which requires the circuit breakers to be manually reset from the utility shed. When he does not return, Ellie and Robert follow and discover the raptors have escaped; the shutdown cut off the power to the electric fences around their pit. Robert realizes that they are near and tells Ellie to go to the utility shed herself and turn the power back on while he tries to hunt the raptor. Ellie manages to turn back on the power. After narrowly escaping the raptor that followed her, she meets Alan, and they both go back to Ian and John in the emergency bunkers. Lex and Tim narrowly escape the Big One and her fellow raptors in the kitchen. The raptors set a trap for Robert and he is tackled and eaten by the Big One. Ellie escapes from another after discovering Ray's severed arm in the maintenance shed. After outsmarting the Raptors (locking one in the freezer and knocking the Big One out for several minutes), and Lex is finally able to restore the Park's computer systems in order to call John to request a helicopter rescue of the survivors.
The T. rex kills The Big One.
Alan and Ellie hold off the Big One trying to open the door to the computer room, until the power is restored, and the electromagnetic locks begin working. With the door secured, the raptor breaks into the room through the window after Grant shoots at it through the glass, and the group climbs up into the ceiling crawlspace and arrive at the Visitor Center skeleton display, only after Lex is almost killed by the Big One leaping up at her. The raptors pursue, and after a scuffle with the Big One on top of the fossil exhibits and the raptors block their escape route, help comes from an unlikely source when the Tyrannosaurus suddenly appears and kills both raptors, saving Alan, Ellie, Lex, and Tim in the process. The four then climb into John and Ian's jeep and leave. Alan says he will not endorse the park, a choice with which John concurs. As all fly away in the helicopter, the children fall asleep beside Alan, who contemplatively watches a flock of pelicans flying nearby, the surviving relatives of the dinosaurs they escaped.
Cast
- Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant: A paleontologist excavating Velociraptor fossils in the Montana Badlands. He dislikes children, frightening one with a talon of a raptor, but he soon has to protect Hammond's grandchildren. Neill only had a weekend's break between filming Family Pictures and Jurassic Park, and had prepared for the role by meeting Jack Horner. Velociraptor is both Grant's favorite Dinosaur and his worst nightmare.
- Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler: A paleobotanist and Grant's girlfriend. Dern also met Horner and visited the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, learning to prepare a fossil.
- Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm: A mathematician and chaos theorist. He forewarns the danger of resurrecting dinosaurs and becomes Hammond's main opposition. He also falls for Sattler, another in a long line of romantic interests. Goldblum was Spielberg's first choice and is a big fan of dinosaurs. To prepare for his role, Goldblum researched Chaos theory, which included arranging a meeting with James Gleick and Ivar Ekeland to discuss the theory. Coincidentally to their romantic tension in the film, Goldblum began a real life romance with Dern.
- Richard Attenborough as John Hammond: CEO of InGen and architect of Jurassic Park. Attenborough had not acted in a film since 1979 in film The Human Factor.
- Martin Ferrero as Donald Gennaro: A lawyer who represents Hammond's concerned investors and he was also a member of the inspection team. He is killed by the T. rex.
- Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon: The park's game warden. He is concerned by the intelligence of the raptors, and would have them all destroyed. He is killed by a Velociraptor.
- Ariana Richards as Alexis "Lex" Murphy: Hammond's granddaughter, a vegetarian and self-professed computer hacker.
- Joseph Mazzello as Timothy "Tim" Murphy: Lex's younger brother, into dinosaurs. He has read Grant's numerous books.
- Samuel L. Jackson as Ray Arnold: The park's chief engineer. He switches off the main power to reboot the mainframe — but unwittingly unleashes the raptors in doing so. He is killed by a Velociraptor.
- Wayne Knight as Dennis Nedry: The disgruntled architect of Jurassic Park's computer systems. He is bribed by Biosyn agent Lewis Dodgson for $1.5 million to deliver frozen dinosaur embryos. He is killed by a Dilophosaurus.
- B.D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu: The park's chief geneticist. He made all the dinosaurs female and lysine deficient. He leaves during the storm.
- Gerald R. Molen as Gerry Harding: The park's veterinarian who helps Ellie Sattler with a sick Triceratops.
- Cameron Thor as Lewis Dodgson: Head of research at Biosyn. He bribed Dennis Nedry into stealing dinosaur embryos for him.
- Dean Cundey as the Dockworker who Nedry talks to on the computer.
- Christopher John Fields as Billy: One of Dr. Grant's assistants at the dig site.
- Richard Kiley as himself, as the voice of the car tour guide.
Click here for a complete list of cast and crew.
Dinosaurs on screen
Template:JPI Dinosaurs
Reception
Critical
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. As stated by Rotten Tomatoes critics, the film earned a high "B"/low "A" grade. One thing that critics disliked was the various differences between the novel and movie. And along with the film's positive feedback, it also received many awards - including the Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction (Steven Spielberg), Best Writing (Michael Crichton and David Koepp) and Best Special Effects - as well as several other ones. Overall, the movie was a humongous success, and is also one of Spielberg's most notable works.
Legacy
Merchandise
When the movie was released it came with a very large merchandise of games, toy lines, comics and collectables.
Media
Click here: Jurassic Park (film)/Media for images and videos related to this article.
Images
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Videos
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Mistakes
Main Article: Jurassic Park Film Goofs
In recent years, fans have noted many mistakes that are quite big, but because of the films fast moving pace they are mostly unnoticeable unless the movie is paused or watched again. This is some of them, but for more information see Jurassic Park Film Goofs section.
- When the chopper comes down near the waterfall the cars are already right next to the helipad. However once the chopper lands, they are seen backing up to collect the guests, despite already being there.
- When the jeeps stop to look at the Brachiosarurus, they are in the sun but in the next shot they are in the shade and behind trees.
- Also in that scene when Grant and Sattler are looking at the herd of animals, Sattler was to the left of Grant but in the next shot she is suddenly to the right of him.
- The goat's leg that lands on top of Lex and Tim's car vanishes a few seconds later.
- When the T. rex pushes Lex and Tim's car over a stage light, a potted plant and a steel cable can be clearly seen.
- When the Dilophosaurus that kills Nedry squirts the venom on him he grabs a bit and pulls it up to see what it is. However if one pauses the movie they can see that where he pulls the venom, there is none, but when he grabs his top he actually puts more on his chest.
- When The Big One manages to get into Lex and Tim's hiding place it is possible to see someone's hand being placed on the raptor's tail.
- When the kids are sleeping on the helicopter in Grant's arms, their heads move position between shots.
Changes from the book
- The beginning sequence of the book with the Bowman family is written out (it is later ultimately used in The Lost World).
- The scene with the Procompsognathus and the Bowman girl is ultimately replaced with the Velociraptor killing Jophery.
- Dr. Marty Guitierrez does not appear.
- Donald Gennaro's family is not mentioned.
- Brachiosaurus ultimately replaces the slightly smaller Apatosaurus and Camarasaurus.
- The velociraptors do not escape before the power break.
- There are eight velociraptors in the novel. But in the film, it is instead explained that five were killed by the Big One.
- The Park Drive's tour is completely changed.
- The sick Stegosaurus' is ultimately replaced with a sick Triceratops but its name is ultimately shown when Dennis was stealing the embryos for BioSyn(though spelled incorrectly).
- There is only one female Tyrannosaurus while the book only has two including an infant (it is later ultimately used in The Lost World).
- Ed Regis does not appear.
- Henry Wu does not have a larger role and actually survives and leaves for the boat.
- Gerry Harding also does not have larger role and leaves for the boat though The Game reveals that Gerry missed the boat.
- Gennaro is killed earlier, which may have been related to Ed's death in the novel.
- The auxiliary power does not come on.
- Half of the people that would be stranded have left aboard the Anne B.
- The velociraptors boarding the Anne B never happens (a very similar scenario is ultimately used in The Lost World but was only a Tyrannosaurus)
- The Gallimimus scene ultimately replaces the Hadrosaurus stampede.
- There are no more velociraptors than three.
- Tim is not nearly eaten by the T. rex (the scene was later ultimately used for The Lost World)
- The aviary is completely absent (it is later ultimately used in Jurassic Park III).
- Dr. Sattler goes to turn on the power instead of Gennaro and Grant.
- Muldoon is killed.
- The nursery scene is written out.
- The exploration of the raptor nest is written out.
- Hammond ultimately survives.
- Ian Malcolm does not die (however this is later changed in the novel canon as it was changed when The Lost World was released).
- The bombing is not at all explored.
- The survivors are not detained at Costa Rica.
Adaptations
A manga adaptation of Jurassic Park was created by Kazumi Sakamoto in 1993. The manga takes several liberties with the movie's storyline.
Trivia
- Although called "Jurassic Park", many of the dinosaurs within the park are not from this era. However, Brachiosaurus and Dilophosaurus are from this era. Though its name only appeared in the scene with Dennis Nedry stealing the dinosaur embryos, Metriacanthosaurus and Stegosaurus (impoperly labelled "Stegasaurus") are also from the Jurassic era.
- The name of the Tianchisaurus species nedegoapeferima is formed from the first letters of the surnames of the film's main stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Ariana Richards, and Joseph Mazzello.
- Jurassic Park once grossed $920 million in the box office becoming the highest grossing movie of all time before being surpassed by Titanic in 1997.
External links
- Official site
- Jurassic Park at Box Office Mojo
- Jurassic Park at SpielbergFilms.com
- A list of major and minor gaffes, goofs, and bloopers
- Jurassic Park Brasil (Jurassic Park Brazil)
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