Jurassic Park

Overview

Jurassic Park has been the name of many dinosaur oriented media things. It all started with Micheal Chrichton's book Jurassic Park. Later, Universal Studios and director Steven Spielberg, made a movie based on this book. The book had a

One of the many variants of the JP logo.

sequel, The Lost World, which then had a movie. after this, the movie Jurassic Park III was created. Unlike the first two movies in the franchise, it was not directed by Steven Spielberg, nor was it based on a Micheal Chrichton novel. Jurassic Park is often referred to as "JP" for short, by its fans. Now there are dozens of video games, action figures, etc belonging to the "JP" lineage.

Jurassic Park, The Book

Jurassic Park was written by author Micheal Chrichton, and published in 1990. It is a sci-fi novel, that achieved much popularity, but was overshadowed by the blockbuster film that was based off of the book.

Plot Summary

The story starts when strange attacks begin to occur in Costa Rica. The perpetrators turn out to be little green "lizards" which are later identified to be the dinosaur Procompsognathus. Soon after, we meet paleontologist Alan Grant, and paleobotanist Ellie Sattler, who were working on a dig in Montana. They get a call from one of their chief sponsers, a multi billionaire by the name of John Hammond, who is the CEO of the bioengineering firm, INGEN. He whisks them off to his private island off the coast of Costa Rica for a "weekend visit" to a "biological preserve" he set up. Also on the trip was mathematician Ian Malcolm, and lawyer Donald Gennaro. The island's name was Isla Nublar, and the name of this biological preserve was Jurassic Park. On this island INGEN's scientists had managed to clone dinosaurs. They found dinosaur DNA in amber, or fossilized tree sap. Sometimes, they explained, a mosquito would bite a dinosaur, extracting the blood, then land on the branch of a tree, where it might get stuck inside the sap. When the sap hardened, the mosquito and the dinosaur blood was preserved. However there were problems. In fact this "weekend visit" is really intended to secure expert endorsement from Grant. Sattler, and Malcolm to dodge some legal troubles. All of the dinosaurs bred in Jurassic Park were female, therefor they couldn't breed allowing the population to be regulated. Shortly after arrival, Grant, Sattler, Malcolm, Gennaro, and Hammond's grandchildren Lex and Tim went on a tour of the park in automated jeeps. This is when things really begin to go wrong. The kids spot Velociraptors hitching a ride of the island on a departing cargo ship. It is then discovered that Jurassic Park's population control efforts have failed. The scientists had made the critical mistake of using Amphibian DNA to fill gaps in the dinosaurs genetic code. Some frogs, Grant tells them have the ability to change gender in a single sex environment. A trait unwittingly passed on to the dinosaurs. With more dinosaurs than the part can apparently control, the situation goes from bad to worse. The chief designer of Jurassic Park's computer system, a man by the name of Dennis Nedry, attempts to steal dinosaur DNA for Lewis Dodgson, a sinister "scientist" with a nasty reputation for stealing more ideas than thinking them up. On the payroll of Dodgson, and the company Biosyn, that he works for, Nedry easily hacks the security system he designed to give himself access to the DNA. However, he also shuts down the miles of perimeter fencing containing the dinosaurs, and just about everything else. The guests' jeeps stop just outside the Tyrannosaur paddock, and the tyrannosaur breaks out, injuring Malcolm. Grant and the children escape into the jungle, and the others make it back to the Visitors Center. Eventually. With carnivores running rampant across the island, Dennis Nedry tries to escape in a stolen jeep, and the park's staff tried to get the situation under control. Nedry was killed by Dilophosaurs. Eventually, the survivors manage to get contact with the outside world and not only warn the cargo ship that they are about to release vicious raptors upon the rest of the world so they can avert the tragedy but also call hte Costa Rican government to save them. However, Hammond is killed before they escape, and Malcolm is horribly wounded. The survivors are detained by the Costa Rican government as part of a cover up operation. There fate is uncertain at the end of the book.

The Movie

Made in 1993 by Steven Spielberg and Universal studios, Jurassic Park was one of the first movies to utilize modern CG (Computer Generated) effects. It also used several full sized animatronics like a a T-Rex. An actual full sized robotic

From left to right: Gennaro(Martin Ferraro), Ellie Sattler(Laura Dern), John Hammond(Richard Attenborough), Alan Grant(Sam Neill) and Ian Malcolm(Jeff Goldblum)

Tyrannosaur! The film was an instant success, and featured stars like Jeff Goldblum, and Samuel L. Jackson. The film won 3 Academy Awards, and these are: best visual effects, best sound and best sound effects editing. One notable thing is that it won all 3 nominations it was nominated for.

Plot Summary

The plot of the movie is overall very similar to that of the book. One difference is that there were no escaped dinosaurs at the begining of the story. Also, there were no major problems before Nedry crashed the park's computers. Lastly, Gennaro died, but not Hammond in the movie. The characters were also slightly different personality wise, and some minor characters were cut from the movie. Either only mentioned by other characters, or gone completely.

Other Differences

One noticeable difference is that the Dilophosaurs are completely different sizes. In the book, they are twenty feet long, close to actual size. In the movie they are closer to six feet. Also there are more raptors in the book, and the Tyrannosaur is reddish as opposed to its green color in the movie.

JP's animatronic T-rex.

Inaccuracies of Jurassic Park

The most notorious and most talked about flaw is the fact that in the book and movie the Velociraptors were six feet tall. That was an absolute howler of a mistake, as the only two dromaeosaurs that were over 6ft tall were Deinonychus and Utahraptor. However, Grant did state "The Deinonychus are now considered Velociraptors", and it is true that at the time of the movie's creation, Deinonychus was classified as a Velociraptor. This may be why they were larger. In reality, Velociraptors were the height of German Sheperds. Also, the dilophosaurs had frills that extended from the side of their heads when angry, and could spit venom. While this is not technically impossible, there is abosutely no evidence to support this. This is not to mention that it would likely be a long shot trying to clone dinosaurs from amber. However, in representing the dinosaurs otherwise, Spielberg's team, and Michael Chrichton were very accurate, even ahead of their times.