Jurassic Park (film)

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Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and the first installment of the Jurassic Park Series. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, with a screenplay written by Crichton and David Koepp. Starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, and more, the film focuses on the fictional Isla Nublar, a tropical island off the coast of Costa Rica, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife entertainment park of cloned dinosaurs.

Before Crichton's book was published, four studios put in bids to acquire the film rights. Spielberg, with the backing of Universal Studios, acquired the rights for $1.5 million before publication in 1990, and Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen. David Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters. Filming took place in California and Hawaii between August and November 1992, and post-production rolled until May 1993, being supervised by Spielberg in Poland as he filmed Schindler's List. The dinosaurs were created through groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by Industrial Light & Magic in conjunction with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston's team. To showcase the film's sound design, which included a mixture of various animal noises for the dinosaur roars, Spielberg invested in the creation of DTS, a company specializing in digital surround sound formats.

Following an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with 100 companies, Jurassic Park grossed over $900 million worldwide in its original theatrical run. It surpassed Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial to become the highest-grossing film at the time. The film was well received by critics, who praised it for its special effects and Spielberg's direction but criticized the writing. The film won more than 20 awards (including 3 Academy Awards), mostly for its visual effects. Following a 3D re-release in 2013 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Jurassic Park total gross eclipsed $1 billion, making it the 17th film to do so. It currently ranks as the 14th-highest-grossing film worldwide, the 16th-highest-grossing film in North America (unadjusted for inflation), and the highest-grossing film released by Universal and directed by Spielberg. Jurassic Park is considered by many as one of the greatest science fiction films ever made, as well as a landmark in the vector of visual effects, in regards to computer-generated imagery and animatronics. The film was followed by two sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, which both became box office successes but received a mixed critical response. A second trilogy was started in 2015 which included Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and Jurassic World: Dominion

Plot[]

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), the founder and CEO of bioengineering company InGen, has created a theme park called Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar, a tropical island near Costa Rica, populated with cloned dinosaurs. After a park worker is killed by a Velociraptor, the park's investors, represented by the lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), demand that experts visit the park and certify it as safe. Gennaro invites the mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) while Hammond invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). Upon arrival on Isla Nublar, the group is stunned to see a Brachiosaurus and a herd of Parasaurolophus in the distance.

At the visitor center, the crew learns through an explanatory video and a tour through a laboratory that the cloning was accomplished by extracting the DNA of dinosaurs from mosquitoes that had been preserved in amber. However, the strands of DNA were incomplete, so DNA from frogs was used to fill in the gaps. The dinosaurs were all cloned genetically as females in order to prevent breeding.

The group is then joined by Hammond's grandchildren, Alexis "Lex" and Timothy "Tim" Murphy (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello) for a tour of the park, while Hammond oversees the trip from the park's control room. However, the tour does not go as planned, with most of the dinosaurs failing to appear and a Triceratops becoming ill. As a tropical storm approaches Isla Nublar, most of the park employees depart on a boat for the mainland and the visitors return to the electric tour vehicles, except Ellie, who stays with the park's veterinarian to study the Triceratops.

During the storm, Jurassic Park's computer programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), who has secretly been paid by a corporate rival to steal dinosaur embryos, deactivates the park's security system to allow him access to the embryo storage room. Most of the park's electric fences are deactivated, leading the Tyrannosaurus to attack the tour group. Grant, Lex, and Tim narrowly escape while the T. Rex devours Gennaro and injures Malcolm and shoves one of the vehicles over the side and it lands in a tree. On his way to deliver the embryos to the island's docks, Nedry becomes lost, crashes his Jeep, and is killed by a Dilophosaurus.

Sattler assists the park's game warden, Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck), in a search for survivors, but they only find Malcolm before the Tyrannosaurus returns, chasing them in one of the vehicles and ultimately failing to catch them. Unable to decipher Nedry's code to reactivate the security system, Hammond and the park's chief engineer Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) opt to reboot the park's computer and electrical network. The group shuts down the park's grid and retreats to an emergency bunker, while Arnold heads to a maintenance shed to complete the process of rebooting the system. When he fails to return, Sattler and Muldoon head to the shed themselves. They discover the shutdown has disabled the remaining fences and released the velociraptors; Muldoon distracts the raptors while Sattler turns the power back on, discovering the severed arm of Arnold afterwards. Soon after, the raptors ambush and kill Muldoon.

Alone in the park, Grant, Tim, and Lex discover the broken shells of dinosaur eggs. Grant concludes that this means the dinosaurs have been breeding, which occurred because they have the genetic coding of frog DNA—West African bullfrogs can change their gender in a single-sex environment, which the dinosaurs were able to do as well. On the way back to the visitor center the trio encounter a herd of Gallimimus when suddenly the Tyrannosaurus appears out of the jungle and kills one. Grant, Tim, and Lex reach the visitor center, and Grant leaves them there as he goes searching for the others. After finding the bunker, Grant and Sattler head back to the visitor center, where the children are being attacked by two velociraptors. The four head to the control room, where Lex restores full power, which allows the group to call for rescue. While trying to leave, they are cornered by the raptors but escape when the Tyrannosaurus suddenly appears and kills both raptors. Hammond arrives in a Jeep with Malcolm, and the entire group flees together. Before they board a helicopter to leave the island, Grant says he will not endorse the park, a choice with which Hammond concurs.

Cast[]

Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, a leading paleontologist.
Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist.
Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician and chaos theorist.
Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, InGen's billionaire CEO and the park's creator.
Ariana Richards as Alexis "Lex" Murphy, Hammond's granddaughter.
Joseph Mazzello as Timothy "Tim" Murphy, Hammond's grandson.
Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon, the park's game warden.
Martin Ferrero as Donald Gennaro, a lawyer who represents Hammond's concerned investors.
Wayne Knight as Dennis Nedry, the disgruntled architect of the park's computer systems.
Samuel L. Jackson as Ray Arnold, the park's chief engineer.
Cameron Thor as Dr. Lewis Dodgson, the head of InGen's rival, BioSyn.
Miguel Sandoval as Juanito Rostagno, the Mano de Dios amber mine's proprietor.
Gerald R. Molen as Dr. Gerry Harding, the park's veterinarian.
B. D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, the park's chief geneticist.
Richard Kiley as himself, providing audio narration for the park's main tour.
Greg Burson as Mr. D.N.A., the animated DNA strand that explains the miracle of cloning.

Fauna Featured[]

Despite the title of the film referencing the Jurassic period, most of the dinosaurs featured did not exist until the Cretaceous period, with the exception of Brachiosaurus and Dilophosaurus, both of which lived in the Jurassic period.^[1] The screenplay acknowledges this when Dr. Grant describes the ferocity of the Velociraptor to a young boy, saying "Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous period..."^[2]

Tyrannosaurus (Tyrannosaurus Rex)
Velociraptor
Brachiosaurus
Dilophosaurus
Triceratops
Gallimimus

Tyrannosaurus was acknowledged by Spielberg as "the star of the movie", even leading him to rewrite the ending to feature the T. rex for fear of disappointing the audience.^[3] Winston's animatronic T. rex stood 20 feet (6.1 m), weighed 17,500 pounds (7,900 kg),^[4] and was 40 feet (12 m) long.^[5] Jack Horner called it "the closest I've ever been to a live dinosaur".^[5]
Velociraptor has a major role and it is also the main villain. The animal's depiction was not based on the actual dinosaur genus in question (which itself was significantly smaller). Coincidentally, shortly^[6] before Jurassic Park's theatre release, the similar Utahraptor was discovered, though was proven bigger in appearance than the film's raptors; this prompted Stan Winston to joke, "We made it, then they discovered it."^[5]
Dilophosaurus was also very different from its real-life counterpart, made significantly smaller to make sure audiences did not confuse it with the raptors.^[7]
Brachiosaurus is the first dinosaur seen by the park's visitors. It is inaccurately depicted as chewing its food, and standing up on its hind legs to browse among the high tree branches.^[8]
Triceratops has an extended cameo, being sick with an unidentified disease. Its appearance was a particular logistical nightmare for Stan Winston when Spielberg asked to shoot the animatronic of the sick creature earlier than expected.^[9]
Gallimimus are featured in a stampede scene where one of them is devoured by the Tyrannosaurus. The Gallimimus was the first dinosaur to receive a digital version, being featured in two ILM tests, first as a herd of skeletons and then fully skinned while pursued by the T. rex.^[3]
Parasaurolophus appear in the background during the first encounter with the Brachiosaurus.^[10]