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InGen

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InGen (International Genetic Technologies, Inc.) is a fictional genetic engineering company appearing in the Jurassic Park franchise of novels, films and other media.[1]

Story

The fictional company, InGen, is based in Palo Alto, California, and has one location in Europe.[2] Nevertheless, most of InGen's research took place on both the islands of Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar.[2]

While official records indicated InGen was just one of any number of small 1980s genetic engineering start-ups the events of the Novel and Film revealed to a select group that InGen had discovered a method of cloning dinosaurs and other animals (including a quagga) using blood extracted from mosquitoes trapped in amber during various periods in time, ranging from the Mesozoic era to the 1800's.[2]

Following sabotage during an inspection visit (Last week of August 1989 in the novel, unknown date in 1993 for the film) several people were killed by escaping dinosaurs.[2]

At this point the film continuity and books diverged.

In the books

In the novel, InGen founder John Hammond is killed in the accident and InGen files for Chapter 11 on October 5, 1989, the island is destroyed by the (fictional) Costa Rican Air force, the survivors are sworn to secrecy and by the time of The Lost World, InGen is defunct with its equipment being sold off.[2]

Lost World also reveals that much of InGen's Isla Nublar research operation was a smoke screen covering up the fact that most research occurred on the nearby island of Isla Sorna.[2] The novel reveals that in 1995 Ian Malcolm (who had survived the first incident) discovered InGen's second operation with help from a small group of associates.[2] They investigate the island and discover that Dinosaurs were left running free after the collapse of the company. Despite interference from a group attempting to steal Dinosaur eggs for research they are able to conceal the Islands status and InGen's legacy. Though the novel indicates that animals have been showing up on the mainland which may lead to the islands discovery and destruction.[2]

In the films

In the first film, InGen is not directly named (except by signage on helicopters) and for the most part the first film follows the novel except John Hammond survives and decides that the park is dangerous and no longer viable.[2] The operation is shut down and dismantled.

Unlike the novel, in the second film InGen still exists though Hammond is ill and the company has been on the verge of Chapter 11 since the accident.[2] In the film Hammond is forced out by the board of directors who plan to exploit the surviving Isla Sorna animals to restore the company's fortunes. [2]

Hammond sends a team led by Ian Malcolm to Sorna to document the animals before the InGen assault which goes badly wrong, both due to sabotage (by Malcolm's team) and underestimation of just how dangerous the animals were. A pair of T-Rex specimens were captured (one adult, one juvenile) and taken to San Diego where they were to be exhibited, however the adult T-Rex escaped and went on a rampage before finally being subdued and returned to the island.[2]

By Jurassic Park 3 the island is quarantined pending a final decision as to what to do about the animals and InGen does not appear leaving the viewer with no information as to its current status.[2]

Reception

Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction describe InGen as comparable to another "sleezy organization".[3] Other sources reference the company's receiving the baby T-Rex as an allusion to other exploitative entrepreneurs depicted in King Kong.[4] Ken Gelder describes InGen as "resolutely secretive, just like the firm in Grisham's novel."[5] Peter Ludlow did not build the San Diego site, It was already built and abandoned by Hammond to pursue the dream of an island theme park as stated by Ludlow himself in the Lost World

References

  1. ^ First appearance in Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park, 1990.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m As described in Jurassic Park and Lost World, both novels and films.
  3. ^ Kirk H. Beetz, Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: biography & resources (Beacham Pub., 1996), 2238.
  4. ^ Nigel Morris, The Cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of Light (Wallflower Press, 2007), 249.
  5. ^ Ken Gelder, Popular Fiction: The Logics and Practices of a Literary Field (Routledge, 2004), 113.
  • Malcolmson Baily, "Case 15: State of Costa Rica v. Donald Gennaro," At the Bar: Legal Cases from Literature (Montreal: Lulu.com), 127. ISBN 0978286413.
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