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Jurassic Park (film)

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Jurassic Park
Directed bySteven Spielberg
Written byMichael Crichton
David Koepp
Produced byKathleen Kennedy
Gerald R. Molen
StarringSam Neill
Laura Dern
Jeff Goldblum
Richard Attenborough
Joseph Mazzello
Ariana Richards
Wayne Knight
Samuel L. Jackson
Music byJohn Williams
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Amblin Entertainment
Release dates
June 11, 1993
Running time
127 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$62,000,000 (estimated)

Jurassic Park is a novel written by Michael Crichton and published in 1990. It was later adapted as a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. Often considered a cautionary tale on unconsidered biological tinkering in the same spirit as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it uniquely uses the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical implications to explain the collapse of an amusement park showcasing certain recreated dinosaur species.

Plot summary (novel)

Template:Spoiler

The novel, in an "introduction", is initially presented as a brief report on the consequences of "The InGen Incident", which occurred in August 1989. This "fiction as fact" presentation had been used by Crichton before, notably in Eaters of the Dead and The Andromeda Strain. Shortly after the story begins, a group of scientists (including paleontologist Alan Grant and chaos theory mathematician Ian Malcolm) are invited on an all-expense-paid preview visit to Jurassic Park, a zoo-like amusement park set up by billionaire John Hammond (founder of InGen) on the island of Isla Nublar (near Costa Rica). Hammond wishes to hear the opinions of the scientists and eventually win their approval of the park; Malcolm expresses misgivings from the beginning.

The park contains dinosaurs, which have been recreated from damaged dinosaur DNA found in mosquitoes trapped in amber that sucked their blood that have been spliced with amphibian DNA to fill in the gaps. Hammond and his genetic engineers take great delight in explaining the ways that they created the dinosaurs. The scientists grow apprehensive when they discover that the dinosaurs have been breeding, despite InGen's efforts to keep them sterile.

The action begins when Dennis Nedry, chief programmer of the Jurassic Park controlling software, tries to steal dinosaur embryos as per a deal with Lewis Dodgson, who works for one of John Hammond's competitors, Biosyn. In order to do this, he has to turn off the electricity to the park's many electric fences, and a number of dinosaurs — including a Tyrannosaurus rex and eight Velociraptor — escape from their enclosures, and have a number of encounters with the scientists, who remain inside the park.

Eventually several of the characters escape the island alive (although many do not) and the island is razed by the Costa Rican Air Force, although there is disturbing evidence that several Raptors may have escaped, as well as a number of procompsognathids. The survivors of the incident are detained indefinitely by the Costa Rican government.

The book has one sequel, The Lost World.

One of the themes expressed throughout this story and its sequels is that of homeothermic (warm-blooded) dinosaurs, a recent theory popularized by paleontologist Bob Bakker.

The novel is considerably darker in tone and content than the movie, with graphic violence and a higher body count.

Movie

File:Jurassic Park screenshot 3.jpg
Dennis Nedry stealing the dinosaur embryos
File:Jurassic Park screenshot 1.jpg
A mosquito in amber
File:Jurassic Park screenshot 2.jpg
A Brachiosaurus seen by John Hammond, Alan Grant, & Ellie Sattler

Steven Spielberg later directed the Jurassic Park movie, filming at the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai in September 1992. Opening on June 11, 1993, it starred Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. Many plot points from the novel were changed or dropped, and the cautionary aspect of the novel was reduced. A subplot involving animals escaping to the mainland was dropped, and the cast of dinosaurs was made smaller and more manageable. Many secondary characters were also dropped. Many scenes are left intact from the novel, but have the species of the relevant dinosaurs changed. The film was extremely popular though, grossing $919,700,000 worldwide, the highest ever at the time, and the sixth-highest worldwide box office take for a feature film as of 2006.

Largely credited for the movie's success were its special effects. Through the use of CGI and conventional mechanical effects, the dinosaurs in the film appeared relatively lifelike, due to the experience ILM had on previous effects films such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Jurassic Park marked the Hollywood effects industry's transition from conventional optical effects to digital techniques

The movie won Academy Awards for Visual Effects, Sound Effects Editing, and Sound, and spawned three sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park III (2001). Jurassic Park IV (IMDb) is currently in pre-production. There are rides based on Jurassic Park in the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, California and Osaka.


Trivia

  • It is reported that following on from the films release, the worldwide price of amber increased by a factor of ten.
  • For the film version, Spielberg had a multitude of casting options for the key roles. He considered Richard Dreyfuss and William Hurt for the role of Alan Grant before settling on Sam Neill.
  • Spielberg originally wanted Sigourney Weaver to play Ellie Satler.
  • Jeff Goldblum and Sir Richard Attenborough were first choices in casting.
  • Modified Ford Explorer's were used as the tour cars.

Changes from the novel

Name Status at the end of the book Status at the end of the movie
Ian Malcolm Wounded by tyrannosaurus, taken back to the lodge where he is declared dead despite medical attention given by Harding and Sattler; returns in The Lost World revealing he had simply come near death Escaped with a broken leg; returns perfectly healthy in The Lost World.
Donald Gennaro Survives raptor attack, rescued after radioing to stop raptors from getting to the mainland. Eaten by Tyrannosaurus rex
John Hammond Killed by compys while denying that his park is a failure, and planning to start afresh elsewhere Left on a helicopter, repenting for his creation
Robert Muldoon Wounded chasing velociraptors with Gennaro; still kills several and is later rescued by Costa Rican forces Killed by velociraptor
Dr. Henry Wu Killed by velociraptors at visitor center Leaves for mainland by boat prior to the disaster
Ray Arnold Killed attempting to restore power to the park (Named John Arnold) Killed attempting to restore power to the park.
Dennis Nedry Got lost trying to get to the east dock. Eaten by a dilophosaurus. Got stuck on a hill and was eaten by a dilophosaurus.
Ed Regis Eaten by a tyrannosaurus Not mentioned

A fair number of differences exist between the book and the movie. Some of these differences are the subtraction of characters, an altered timeline, and changes to the novel's depiction of the characters themselves.

  • Ian Malcolm, as he appears in the book, is a rather sardonic but brilliant man who couldn't truly appreciate the accuracy of his failure theories because he is badly injured and immobilized by a dinosaur attack. Malcolm's vitriolic monologues are toned down for the film. In the book, Ian is also described as balding, and much less physically robust than Jeff Goldblum (who plays him in the movie).
  • Grant's relationship with Ellie Sattler in the book was purely professional, whereas in the film they are involved romantically.
  • Dr. Grant wears a beard in the novel and is somewhat shorter and paunchy. Whereas the film Grant hates children, the novel Grant likes them from the very beginning of the book.
  • Ellie Sattler is 24 (she seems older in the film) and is engaged to a doctor.
  • Donald Gennaro is described as muscular and athletic in the novel, and is in his early to mid-forties. In the movie, though, he is short, thin, obnoxious and and somewhat stupid, a combination of John Hammond's personality and Ed Regis' actions from the book. Regis, InGen's head publicist in the book, is called to Latin America after workers die and brings in the scientists for PR purposes, then abandons the kids in the car and is killed by a Tyrannosaurus after the vehicle attack (just like Gennaro in the movie). But personality-wise they are different — Regis is tall, red-haired and somewhat charming, whereas it is Hammond who is impatient, out-of-touch and whiny (like the movie's Gennaro).
Jurassic Park display at Times Square location of Toys "R" Us in New York City.
  • In the book, Gennaro is sort of the "everyman" character, alternating between acts of bravery (going to turn the power on, hunting the Tyrannosaurus with Muldoon, entering the Raptor nest and operating the radio after it comes back on) and cowardice (hiding in a truck from compys, abandoning Muldoon). Some Italian-Americans were upset by the changes in the movie, as Gennaro went from being a genuine character to a stereotype whose stupidity, greed and obvious Catholicism (he says the "Hail Mary" right before being eaten) rendered him a caricature and a punchline.
  • The character of John Hammond is also distinctly different — in the book he ultimately dies at the jaws of small dinosaurs ("compys") while trying to climb a hill to his bungalow despite his broken ankle. During this climb, his head is filled with plans to rebuild somewhere else ,and he's irritated at his guests and his grandchildren. In the movie, he escapes completely unharmed, humbled and awed by the monstrosity he created. In the book, he is also portrayed as a greedy, foolish old man. He is much wiser and "nicer" in the film.
  • In the novel, Lex Murphy is younger than Tim and portrayed as tomboy, while Tim is a computer hacker with a dinosaur obsession. In the film, Tim is the younger of the two and his hacker personality is portrayed by Lex.
  • In the book, Muldoon is a large, savvy and boistrous man of South African descent with an alcohol problem, who nonetheless dispatches several dinosaurs with a decent amount of weaponry (rockets, guns and lethal poisons). In the movie, he is very quiet, only has one weapon at his disposal (an Italian Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun, not a good hunting weapon) and is immediately outwitted by the raptors. The inability of anyone in the movies to kill the dinosaurs is largely attributed to director Steven Spielberg, who is famous for his reluctance to make heroes of gun users or hunters after Indiana Jones.
  • In the book, the scene where the T-Rex attacks the stalled Land Cruisers is longer and has a darker, more claustrophobic feel.
  • Dr. Gerry Harding, the vet, has a more important role, surviving a raptor attack and saving Malcolm.
  • The geneticist, Henry Wu, also has more important role. He and Arnold work together get the computer back up, and he spars with John Hammond over the running of the park.
  • In the novel, the Jurassic Park staff and employees do not leave on a boat for the mainland, whereas in the film version they do, resulting in fewer deaths.
  • In the book, Arnold and Wu are able to turn the security systems back on without shutting down the whole system. In doing so, though, they lose the ability to find out what happened to the phones. At Gennaro's insistence (to call for a helicopter for Malcolm) they shut entire system down, and upon reboot get the phones back. They think everything is fine, and Muldoon goes out to re-capture the escaped animals. About twelve hours later, though, right after Muldoon brings down the Rex, the power shuts out again. Arnold and Wu realize that when they re-booted they started on auxiliary power instead of standard, because the main generator needs a charge from the auxiliary to start back up. They were fooled because the lights, computers, video systems and door locks worked, but nobody checked the security fences (which the auxiliary generator isn't strong enough to run). It was during THIS time that the raptors escaped and began to wreak havoc. This is much more true to chaos theory — the notion that there are too many variables in living systems for human beings to account for, and just one oversight can prove fatal. In the movie, though, Wu is a nonfactor, and Arnold can't turn ANY systems back on without completely shutting off the system. After he does that and goes to re-start the main generator the raptors see him and escape, following him into the shed and killing him.
  • In the book, the T-Rex has a prehensile tongue and uses it to nearly devour Tim.
  • During the tour, the characters get out of the Land Cruisers to see a sick stegosaurus in the novel. In the movie, it is a sick triceratops.
  • In the novel, the tour group has actually finished the tour and are on their way back when the power goes out.
  • In the novel, Hammond does not visit Grant and Dr. Sattler, but a government worker does. Instead Hammond phones Grant and invites them to Jurassic Park.
  • The novel has many scenes which become part of Jurassic Park: The Lost World including the beginning incident with the girl and the "compys", the shorter dactyl scene, etc.
  • In the novel Muldoon and Gennaro find Dennis Nedry's body very mangled, in the movie he is forgotten once he is killed.
  • Grant, Lex and Tim all sleep in a tree in the movie but the book places them in a maintenance building.
  • The motion sensors which Grant tried to trip (to get attention) weren't mentioned in the movie.
  • At the end of the movie, the survivors merely flee nature, and the audience has no idea what happened to the remaining dinosaurs. At the end of the book, though, there is one of Crichton's most famous scenes — Ellie, Grant, Gennaro and Muldoon go to investigate the raptor nest in the volcano. In one of the book's most haunting passages, it finally strikes the survivors how alien the dinosaurs are when they witness the evolution of the migration instinct ninety million years after it happened — yet for the raptors, it is still new. This drives home Malcolm's point that Earth's systems are the way they are because of the cumulative effects of aeons, aeons which the dinosaurs missed. They, alone among the planet's animals, have no natural reactions to anything that evolved after their respective extinctions and are no longer a part of Earth's processes; hence, they are no more "natural" then Frankenstein's monster or a genetically engineered mythical animal. Jurassic Park wasn't just a zoo — it was a modern-day Island of Dr. Moreau, where things that had no business being in the world were just one human error away from being able to destroy the equilibrium of every ecosystem on the planet.
  • In the book, Dr. Alan Grant loves talking with Tim, whereas in the movie he is rather annoyed by him.

Differences between media

File:I10-57-JurassicPark.jpg
Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Bob Peck in a scene from Jurassic Park

There are key differences between the novels, movies, games, and comics in the Jurassic Park series. The differences are in not only the architectural layout of the island, but also in the dinosaurs, dates, and even the characters used. Therefore each medium should be seen as its own seperate version of the same story, not neccesarily impacting any other version. Examples of this include:

  • The comics illustrate Isla Nublar with an undetermined amount of dinosaurs, and even bring Robert Muldoon back to life.

The Universal Studios theme park rides themselves act as a kind of sequel to the films, and their storylines are not reflected in the other media. The rides' premise is that Universal Studios ignores the cautionary tales (featured in the films) in an effort to reconstruct John Hammond's park and send visitors on a thrilling journey that includes dangerously escaping menacing raptors and the T. rex herself. They supposedly contact Hammond to rebuild his park in their Orlando or Hollywood locations (depending on the ride location).

Original ending

File:Jurassic Park screenshot 4.jpg
The Tyrannosaurus rex in the Jurassic visitor center with the overhead banner "When dinosaurs ruled the Earth" falling.

Originally, the movie was to end with the T. rex skeleton (in the Visitor Center) to fall, crushing a raptor in the fossil jaws before it could attack Alan Grant, Tim, Lex, and Ellie Sattler. Another raptor would then be crushed in the supports for the cherry picker that the group was standing on as it lowered. Hammond arrives and is then able to gun down the last raptor with a shotgun.

Later when the original ending was seen as too simplistic a resolution, the skeleton was replaced with a living T. rex that attacks the raptors, saving Grant and the others. This ending also eliminates the shooting of the raptors. In both versions, the surviving humans quickly flee with Hammond in his jeep to the helicopter and escape the island.

The original ending was used in the original Sega Genesis Jurassic Park video game. The scrapped ending is used as the ending for Grant's campaign, with a minor alteration, in which the player uses concussion grenades to cause the skeletons to fall. Alternatively, if a player chooses to play as the raptor, the end of the game involves kicking the skeletons' bases, causing them to collapse, thereby defeating Dr. Grant.

These are dinosaurs and other extinct animals confirmed to be on Isla Nublar in the movies:

Dinosaurs and other extinct animals confirmed to be on Isla Nublar in the novels:

Biological issues

During the movie's production, the effects supervisors acknowledged that the Velociraptors featured in the movie were sized identically to the larger Deinonychus. However, during the filming of the movie, paleontologists came across a larger dromaeosaurid species named Utahraptor, and the larger raptors remained, even though Utahraptor was substantially larger (21 feet long) than the movie's raptors.

Michael Crichton's novel Raptors, following through to the film Raptors, were larger than the species going by the name because during the writing of the novel, a specimen was found and named Velociraptor. He wrote his novel based on the idea of a human sized raptor, but after the publication--when the movie was already in production--the name of the specimen was changed from Velociraptor to Deinonychus.

The Procompsognathus in the novel secrete a venom described as similar to that of a cobra, although more primitive. This ability to incapacitate their prey is absent in the films. At the moment, however, Procompsognathus is no longer a dinosaur, but a lizard (due to a recent find), but the animal classification has switched back and forth between being a lizard, a bird, and a dinosaur since its discovery.

The Dilophosaurus in the movie is smaller than their 6 m (20ft) real-life counterparts, and has a totally speculative frill like the Australian frill-necked lizard. The frill was one of many ways the film showed that we can never know everything about the animals we resurrect because not eveything about them would be fossilized. The frill/venom is an ability that Michael Crichton decided to add and is purely crative liscence. The issue of their size may be explained by Nedry's comment about "big brothers" and this one not being "so bad" — perhaps it is a juvenile. Also, in "The Lost World", several dinosaur information props state that the "Dilophosaurus" is normally 20ft long, signifying the animal in JP was indeed, a jouvenile.

The Brachiosaurus in the movie was shown to be chewing its food, like a cow. In reality, it couldn't as its teeth were specialized in stripping leaf matter from the branches, to then be swallowed whole. In the stomach there were "gastroliths", rocks swallowed to grind up the plant matter to enable the animal to digest the plants.

Though the movie's theory is that the Tyrannosaurus rex would be unable to "see" someone if they were to remain still, some argue that it would still be able to smell them. The book was ambiguous on the subject. While the theory is put forth by Grant, Ed Regis is eaten by the juvenile tyrannosaurus after he thought it had walked past without seeing him. Most paleontologists consider Jurassic Park's use of the "amphibian visual cortex" here to be inaccurate, and that the dinosaur would be able to perceive static prey. This is acknowledged in the sequel novel The Lost World: a character attempts to evade a tyrannosaurus by freezing. The man is promptly eaten alive and is criticized by paleontologist Richard Levine, commenting that an animal's first instinct is to freeze, and so a T. rex would have to be able to still see them, or else it would starve. Levine then says that the tyrannosaurus in the original work was simply full and did not consider the humans worth the bother.

Other issues

During the scene where Dennis Nedry is busy stealing the dinosaurs' DNA, some of the tubes on which the dinosaurs' names are printed have the names spelled incorrectly, including Tyrannosaurus. It also shows Dennis Nedry opening up a liquid nitrogen-filled cryogenic container and handling the supercooled tubes filled with dinosaur DNA without thermal gloves. Doing this without gloves causes severe frostbite. It is also quite painful. However, it can be done for very brief periods, as shown. Also, the antennae of the fossil mosquito trapped in amber at the beginning of the film are fuzzy. This indicates that the insect is male; however, only the females are bloodsuckers.

Biotechnological background

The dinosaur DNA is extracted from fossilised mosquitos, and this small amount is then amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This has been done before, for example with a Cretaceous weevil in Cano et al. (1993) (no dinosaur DNA was found).

There are some problems with this approach:

  • Foremost, the DNA featured in the movie is said to be from mosquitoes enclosed in Dominican amber. Dominican amber is approximately 30 million years old. Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.
  • None of the dinosaurs featured in the movie are known to have existed in the Dominican Republic 65 million years ago.
  • The mosquito had to have had just one species of dinosaur as its food source to avoid a mix-up.
  • It is unknown which dinosaur the sample contains. It would be impossible to tell which "species" it is, because the DNA sequences would fit somewhere between that of birds and crocodiles. The book does address this, stating that they "just grow it and find out", to Malcolm's annoyance.
  • The dinosaur DNA has to be correct (it has to contain every chromosome) and should contain no gaps.
  • The DNA is mixed with mosquito DNA. PCR is extremely sensitive, and will amplify that too.
  • Present-day PCR can't amplify large quantities of DNA (the entire dinosaur genome). Even if this was possible, it would take a very long time.
  • PCR needs parts of the DNA to start the reaction (the so-called primers). To get them, the genome needs to be mapped beforehand.
  • Because DNA is broken down by nucleases and proteolytic enzymes in the mosquito gut, the mosquito would have to be preserved immediately after feeding.

Furthermore, in the fossilization process, molecules are altered. Nevertheless, amber is the best preservative, because organic material is preserved. But DNA cannot survive completely without gaps for tens or hundreds of millions of years.

Tens of thousands of DNA base pairs were recently sequenced from 40,000-year-old skeletal remains of cave bears without using PCR, establishing that, in principle, large-scale genomic sequencing of fossilized remains is possible. Of course, the remains used in this study are orders of magnitude younger than anything from the dinosaur era, and the technique might not extend to those creatures.

In the book the gaps in the DNA are filled by hybridizing the DNA with frog DNA. This is extremely difficult, as one would need to know which dinosaur genes are homologous with frog genes. The use of frog genes is probably a plot device, to allow some females to change sex and breed nevertheless (although natural sex change is also possible in some more advanced vertebrates).

The next step would be bringing the DNA strands to expression. For that, one would need to inject the dinosaur DNA into the nucleus of a fertilized egg cell of a close relative of dinosaurs (birds or crocodiles, not frogs). This technique is based on reproductive cloning, which was used to clone Dolly. In the movie, ostrich eggs are used for this purpose. However, the development of an embryo is regulated by hormones in the egg/uterus and the environment. These (bird or crocodylian) hormones need to have the same effect as their original dinosaurian counterparts. For that, they have to recognize particular pieces of dinosaur DNA, which they could hardly do. New research in plastics, however, has allowed for the creation of synthetic eggs to nurture embryos through their development regardless of species (this technique, or one similar to it, was used in the book). Extra hormones are needed from the original parent specimen, however, or constructed precisely from using the genome in order for the embryo to flourish.

Notes

While the cinematic incarnation of Jurassic Park used ostrich eggs as vessels to facilitate expression, the novel very specifically utilized "a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell." The plastic was called "millipore", created by an eponymous subsidiary of InGen.[1]

References

Further reading

The Science of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Or How to Build a Dinosaur. Rob DeSalle and David Lindley. BasicBooks, New York, 1997. xxix, 194 pp., illus. $18 or C$25.50. ISBN 0-465-07379-4.

Video games

See Jurassic Park (video game).

There have been a number of Jurassic Park video games released to act as merchandise for the release of each film. The titles have appeared on a range of platforms including NES, Game Boy, Game Gear, PC:DOS/Windows, SNES, Sega CD, Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive, 3DO, PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Music

The musical score was composed by John Williams and orchestrated by John Neufeld and Alexander Courage. Jurassic Park is most recognized for two of its several themes/motifs themes. The first theme being the triumphant, brass theme heard at the arrival, and the other is the serene piano piece, with string accompanyment heard at the end of the film. The score also features the carnivore theme which is played during sequences involving either the T. rex, or the Velociraptors. The carnivore theme is featured most prominently in the final sequence in the kitchen with the Velociraptors and in an unused Cue for "Raptors in the Shed," that can be heard as the End Credits for "Making of Jurassic Park" video. The track "My friend the Brachiosaurus," used partially during the Sick Triceratops scene and also the morning when the children and Grant are in the tree, has also been featured in many concerts and recordings. The film has inspired several bands, both in style and in content. One of these bands is the American punk rock band Jurassic Horror.

Sequels

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