{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}
{{two other uses||the book on which this film is based|Jurassic Park|the franchise based on the film|Jurassic Park (franchise)}}
Jurassic Park is a
1993The year 1993 in film involved many significant films. -Events:...
science fictionScience fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that aren't necessarily accepted by mainstream science. such as extra-terrestrial life forms, alien worlds, and time travel, often along with technological elements such as futuristic...
thriller film directed by
Steven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern...
and based on the
novel of the same nameJurassic Park is a 1990 science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton. Often considered a cautionary tale on unconsidered biological tinkering in the same spirit as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it uses the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical implications to explain the...
by
Michael CrichtonJohn Michael Crichton or Michael Crichton was an American author, producer, director, screenwriter, and medical school graduate, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
. The film centers on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, where scientists have created an
amusement parkAmusement park or theme park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a large group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, usually providing attractions meant to cater...
of
clonedCloning in biology is the process of producing populations of genetically-identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or organisms...
dinosaur{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Taxobox|name = Dinosaurs|fossil_range = {{Fossil range|230|65|earliest=230|latest=0|PS=
Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...
s. John Hammond (
Richard AttenboroughRichard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, CBE is an English actor, director, producer, and entrepreneur. Attenborough has won two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes...
) invites a group of scientists, played by
Sam NeillNigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor who was born in Northern Ireland.He has had a number of high-profile roles including: the lead in Reilly, Ace of Spies, the adult Damien in Omen III: The Final Conflict, Merlin in the miniseries Merlin, the executive officer, Capt...
,
Jeff GoldblumJeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. Currently, he stars as Detective Zach Nichols on the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Early life:...
and
Laura DernLaura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
, to inspect the park prior to its public opening. Sabotage sets the dinosaurs loose, and the technicians and visitors attempt to escape the island.
Spielberg acquired the rights to the novel before its publication in
1990The year 1990 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*J. K. Rowling gets the idea for Harry Potter while on a train ride from Manchester to London. She says "I was staring out the window, and the idea for Harry just came. He appeared in my mind's eye, very fully formed...
, and Crichton was hired to adapt his novel.
David KoeppDavid Koepp is an American screenwriter and director.-Career:As a writer, Koepp has worked on such blockbuster Hollywood films as Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, and Spider-Man. After an uncredited rewrite of the screenplay to Men in Black at his request, he was asked to write the script for...
wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence, and also made numerous changes to the characters. Spielberg hired
Stan Winston StudiosStanley Winston was an American visual effects supervisor, make-up artist, and film director. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park series, Aliens, the Predator series, Iron Man and Edward Scissorhands...
to create
animatronicsAnimatronics is the use of electronics and robotics in mechanised puppets to simulate life.Animatronics are mainly used in moviemaking, but also in theme parks and other forms of entertainment. Its main advantages to CGI and stop motion is that it is not a simulation of reality, but are physical...
to portray the dinosaurs, shots of which were then mixed with newly developed
computer-generated imageryComputer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
by Industrial Light & Magic. Paleontologist
Jack HornerJohn "Jack" R. Horner is an American paleontologist who discovered and named Maiasaura, providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. He is one of the best-known paleontologists in the United States...
aided the actors and the special effects team in creating authenticity (although aspects of the animals' depictions became outdated due to changes in evolutionary theories). Filming took place from August 24 to November 30, 1992, in
Kaua{{okina}}iKauai or Kauai is the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago and the 21st largest island in the United States...
,
O{{okina}}ahuOahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the State of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
, and
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
Jurassic Park is regarded as a landmark in the use of computer-generated imagery, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised the effects, though reactions to other elements of the picture, such as character development, were mixed. During its release, the film grossed more than
$The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
914 million worldwide, becoming the most successful film released up until that time, and it is currently the
twelfth-highest-grossing feature film (taking inflation into account, it is the
17th-highest-grossing film in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
). It is the most successful film directed by Steven Spielberg.
Jurassic Park spawned a
franchiseThe Jurassic Park franchise is a series of books, films and video games centering on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs...
, including the sequels
The Lost World: Jurassic ParkThe Lost World: Jurassic Park is a science fiction thriller film, directed by Steven Spielberg. The film was produced by Bonnie Curtis, Kathleen Kennedy, Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson. The screenplay was penned by David Koepp, based on the 1995 novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton...
(
1997The year 1997 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Star Wars original trilogy's 20th Anniversary Special Editions are released.*Production begins on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace....
) and
Jurassic Park IIIJurassic Park III is a 2001 film and the third and final in the Jurassic Park franchise. It is the first film in the series that is neither based on a book by Michael Crichton nor directed by Steven Spielberg. The film takes place on Isla Sorna, the island from the second film, after a divorced...
(
2001The year 2001 in film involved some significant events. -Top-grossing films:...
).
Plot
In Jurassic Park, located in Isla Nublar, an island approximately 120 miles West of
Costa RicaCosta Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east.Costa Rica, which translates literally as "Rich Coast", constitutionally...
, an employee for the
genetic engineeringGenetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, genetic modification/manipulation and gene splicing are terms that apply to the direct manipulation of an organism's genes. Genetic engineering is different from traditional breeding, where the organism's genes are manipulated indirectly...
company
InGen-Story:InGen is a fictional genetic engineering company appearing in the Jurassic Park series of novels, films and real world attractions. The company is based in Palo Alto, California, and has one location in Europe...
is attacked and killed while placing a
VelociraptorVelociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 mya during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Only two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V...
into a specially built enclosure, prompting a lawsuit from his family.
CEOA chief executive officer or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers or administrators in charge of total management...
John Hammond is pressured by his investors to allow a safety inspection by experts before opening the park. He invites paleontologist Alan Grant, paleobotanist Ellie Sattler,
chaos theoristChaos theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamical systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of...
Ian Malcolm, and his investors' attorney Donald Gennaro to perform the inspection. The group meets a
BrachiosaurusBrachiosaurus , meaning "arm lizard", from the Greek brachion/βραχιων meaning "arm" and sauros/σαυρος meaning "lizard", was a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic Period and possibly the Early Cretaceous Period. It was named thus because its forelimbs were longer than its...
when they set off into the park. At the park, they learn that InGen created the dinosaurs by cloning genetic material found in
mosquitoMosquito is a common insect in the family Culicidae...
es that fed on dinosaur blood, preserved in
Dominican amberDominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic. Resin from the extinct species Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics....
. The DNA from these samples was spliced with DNA from
frogFrogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by long hind legs, a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s to
fill in sequence gapsThe term DNA sequencing refers to sequencing methods for determining the order of the nucleotide bases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine—in a molecule of DNA....
. Only female
dinosaur{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Otheruses}}{{pp-semi-protected|small=yes}}{{Taxobox|name = Dinosaurs|fossil_range = {{Fossil range|230|65|earliest=230|latest=0|PS=
Descendant taxon Aves survives to present.}}|image = field_dinos_2.jpg...
s are created in order to prevent uncontrolled breeding within the park. The team is also shown the enclosure of the
Velociraptor, dubbed "raptors", extremely intelligent, aggressive and ferocious predators.
Malcolm and Sattler are worried, but Grant remains neutral. They meet Hammond's grandchildren, Tim and Alexis "Lex" Murphy, and go on a vehicular tour of the park. Ellie leaves the tour to supervise and take care of a sick
TriceratopsTriceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Tertiary...
with Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Gerry Harding. A tropical storm hits the island as most InGen employees leave for the day leaving only Hammond,
game wardenA game warden is an employee who has the role of protecting wildlife. Game wardens may also be referred to as conservation officers or wildlife officers. They have much the same role as gamekeepers in the United Kingdom.-Africa:...
Robert Muldoon, chief
engineerSystems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how complex engineering projects should be designed and managed. Issues such as logistics, the coordination of different teams, and automatic control of machinery become more difficult when dealing with large, complex...
Ray Arnold, and leading computer programmer Dennis Nedry to supervise the park and the visitors. Bribed by InGen's rival Lewis Dodgson, Nedry takes an opportunity to shut down the park's security system so he can steal dinosaur
embryoAn embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
s and deliver them to an informant at the auxiliary dock. As a result, the security systems of the whole park are shut down, allowing the
TyrannosaurusTyrannosaurus was a genus of theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids...
to break through the deactivated electric fence surrounding its pen, devouring Gennaro, attacking Tim and Lex hiding in the car, and wounding Malcolm. The children and Grant only narrowly avoid being killed and eaten. Just after they flee the wreckage, Sattler and Muldoon arrive. At first, they believe the only survivor of the attack is Malcolm, but upon further investigation they find footprints belonging to Grant and the kids. Just then, the T-rex returns and Malcolm, Muldoon, and Sattler barely escape her in their Jeep. Meanwhile, Nedry crashes his Jeep and, while trying to winch it, is killed by a
DilophosaurusDilophosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic Period. The name means 'two-crested lizard', from the two crests of the animal...
. Grant, Tim, and Lex spend the night in a tree. While hiking to safety the next morning, they discover hatched eggs, indicating that the dinosaurs are actually breeding. Grant realizes that the frog DNA is responsible: some species of frog are known to spontaneously change sex in a single-sex environment.
Arnold tries to hack Nedry's computer to turn the fences back on but fails. He does a full system restart which requires the shutdown of the entire power grid from the Visitor Center and the circuit breakers to be manually reset from the utility shed. When he does not return from the shed, Sattler and Muldoon follow and discover the raptors have escaped, the shutdown having cut off power to the electric fences around their pen. Muldoon realizes that they are near and tells Sattler to go to the utility shed herself and turn the power back on while he tries to distract the raptors and hunt them down. Sattler arrives at the shed and manages to reset the breakers when she is chased by a raptor, discovers Arnold's remains, and manages to escape the maintenance shed. Muldoon is attacked and killed by a second raptor while hunting the third raptor. Grant and the kids finally arrive at the Visitor Center, after Tim is electrocuted when the fences turned back on and revived by Grant. Grant leaves them to find the others and finds Sattler first, then joins Malcolm and Hammond in the emergency bunkers.
Raptors enter the Visitor Center and Lex and Tim narrowly escape them in the kitchen (locking one in the freezer). Grant and Sattler take Lex and Tim to the Control Room where Lex is finally able to restore the Park's computer systems in order to call Hammond to request a helicopter rescue of the survivors. Grant and Sattler hold off a raptor trying to open the door to the computer room, until the power is restored and the electromagnetic locks begin working. With the door secure, the raptor breaks into the room through the window, and the group climbs up into the ceiling crawlspace and arrive at the Visitors Center rotunda, above the skeleton display. The raptors pursue and after a scuffle on top of the fossil exhibits where the raptors block their escape route, help comes from an unlikely source: the
Tyrannosaurus suddenly appears and attacks the raptors. The T-rex and raptors fight while Grant, Sattler, Lex, and Tim escape. The four flee, climb into Hammond and Malcolm's jeep and leave. Grant says he will not endorse the park, a choice with which Hammond concurs. Meanwhile inside the T-rex tears apart one of the raptors and kills the other by hurling it at a Tyrannosaurus skeleton on display. As the group fly away in the helicopter, the children fall asleep beside Grant, who contemplatively looks out the window over the horizon at a flock of birds flying nearby, the current relatives of the dinosaurs that once lived.
Cast
{{Main|List of characters in Jurassic Park}}
- Sam Neill
Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, DCNZM, OBE is a New Zealand actor who was born in Northern Ireland.He has had a number of high-profile roles including: the lead in Reilly, Ace of Spies, the adult Damien in Omen III: The Final Conflict, Merlin in the miniseries Merlin, the executive officer, Capt...
as Dr. Alan GrantAlan Grant is a fictional character from the Jurassic Park franchise. In the film trilogy he is portrayed by Sam Neill.-Plot:In the Jurassic Park novel, Grant is described as a barrel-chested, forty-year old chief paleontologist...
: A world renowned paleontologist excavating VelociraptorVelociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 mya during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Only two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V...
fossils in the MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
BadlandsA badlands is a type of arid terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. It can resemble malpaís, a terrain of volcanic rock. Canyons, ravines, gullies, hoodoos and other such geological forms are common in badlands. They are often...
. He dislikes children, frightening one with a talon of a raptor, but he soon has to protect Hammond's grandchildren. Neill was Spielberg's original choice, but he was too busy. Spielberg then met Richard DreyfussRichard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of films, television and theater roles since the late 1960s. He is probably best known for his roles in the films Jaws, The Goodbye Girl, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Always, Mr...
and Kurt RussellKurt Vogel Russell is an American actor. He started acting as a child in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has continued appearing in a wide variety of films since, including Follow Me, Boys!, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Barefoot Executive, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China,...
, who were too expensive, and William HurtWilliam M. Hurt is an American actor. He won both the Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work in Kiss of the Spider Woman.-Early life:...
turned down the role. Spielberg then pushed back filming a month to let Neill play the character: he wound up only having a weekend's break between filming Family Pictures and Jurassic Park. Neill prepared for the role by meeting paleontologist Jack HornerJohn "Jack" R. Horner is an American paleontologist who discovered and named Maiasaura, providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. He is one of the best-known paleontologists in the United States...
. Neill scarred his wrist filming the T. rex attack when the flareA flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for signaling, illumination, or defensive countermeasures in civilian and military applications...
he held went off.
- Laura Dern
Laura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk , Blue Velvet , Fat Man and Little Boy , Wild at Heart , Jurassic Park and October Sky...
as Dr. Ellie Sattler: A paleobotanist and graduate student of Grant. Dern also met Horner and visited the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles CountyThe Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County opened in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, USA in 1913 as the Museum of History, Science, and Art. The moving force behind it was a museum association founded in 1910. Its distinctive main building, with fitted marble walls and domed and...
, learning to prepare a fossil. Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Lieutenant Ellen Ripley in the Alien film series and as Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters movies. Weaver is also a three-time Academy Award nominee for her performances in Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl...
was reportedly Spielberg's first choice, before landing with Dern.
- Jeff Goldblum
Jeffrey Lynn "Jeff" Goldblum is an American actor. Currently, he stars as Detective Zach Nichols on the USA Network's crime drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Early life:...
as Dr. Ian Malcolm: A mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
and chaos theoristChaos theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamical systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of...
. He warns of 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 he is a big fan of dinosaurs. To prepare for his role, Goldblum met with James GleickJames Gleick is an author, journalist, and biographer, whose books explore the cultural ramifications of science and technology...
and Ivar Ekeland to discuss chaos theoryChaos theory is a branch of mathematics which studies the behavior of certain dynamical systems that may be highly sensitive to initial conditions. This sensitivity is popularly referred to as the butterfly effect. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of...
.
- Ariana Richards
Ariana Richards is an American actress and professional painter. She is best known for her roles as Lex Murphy in the film Jurassic Park and as Carol Wetherby in the film Prancer.- Biography :...
as Alexis "Lex" Murphy: Hammond's granddaughter, a vegetarian and self-professed computer hacker.
- Joseph Mazzello
Joseph Mazzello III is an American actor.He was born in Rhinebeck, New York and raised in Hyde Park, New York, the son of Ginnie and Joseph Mazzello, Jr., who own a performing arts school. He has one older sister, Mary Mazzello, and a younger brother, John Mazzello, who have also appeared in a few...
as Timothy "Tim" Murphy: Lex's younger brother, into dinosaurs. He has read Grant's book.
- Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, CBE is an English actor, director, producer, and entrepreneur. Attenborough has won two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes...
as John Hammond: CEO of InGen and architect of Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park was Attenborough's first acting role since 1979The year 1979 in film involved some significant events.- Major Events :* March 5 - Production begins on Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.* May 25 - Alien, a landmark of the science fiction genre, is released....
's The Human Factor.
- Wayne Knight
Wayne Knight is an American comedic actor, perhaps best known for his role as Newman in the TV sitcom Seinfeld. His other prominent roles include Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park, Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2, Tantor in Tarzan, Don Orville in 3rd Rock from the Sun and Stan Podolak in Space Jam with...
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 embryoAn embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
s. For his character's death, Knight was shot with an air gunAn air gun is a rifle, pistol, or shotgun which fires projectiles by means of compressed air or other gas, in contrast to a firearm which burns a propellant. Most air guns use metallic projectiles as ammunition...
filled with K-Y JellyK-Y Jelly is a water-based, water-soluble personal lubricant produced by Johnson & Johnson. According to the company, "The origins of the brand name 'K-Y' are unknown. Two popular myths are that it was created in Kentucky, hence K-Y', or that the letters represent the key ingredients used to make...
to simulate the DilophosaurusDilophosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic Period. The name means 'two-crested lizard', from the two crests of the animal...
{{'}}s venomous spit. The jelly dyed the actor's hair purple, something which the actor would reminisce with the technician who shot the jelly at him when they discovered they were neighbours.
- Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor. After Jackson became involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then, films. He had several small roles, before meeting his mentor, Morgan Freeman, and the director Spike Lee...
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.
- Bob Peck
Bob Peck was an English stage, television, and film actor who came to acting relatively late in life.He was probably best known to British audiences for his role as Ronald Craven in the acclaimed 1985 BBC drama serial Edge of Darkness. The role won him "Best Actor" at that year's BAFTA Awards and...
as Robert Muldoon: The park's game warden. He is concerned about the intelligence of the raptors and would have them all destroyed.
- Martin Ferrero
Martin Ferrero is an American stage and film actor.Ferrero joined the California Actors Theater in Los Gatos, California. In 1979, he moved to Los Angeles and began to act in Hollywood. He is widely remembered for his role as the ill-fated lawyer Donald Gennaro in Jurassic Park...
as Donald Gennaro: A lawyer who represents Hammond's concerned investors.
- B. D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu: The park's chief geneticist, who is responsible for making all the dinosaurs female and lysine
Lysine is an α-amino acid with the chemical formula HO
2CCH
4NH
2. This amino acid is an essential amino acid, which means that humans cannot synthesize it. Its codons are AAA and AAG.Lysine is a base, as are arginine and histidine...
deficient. He leaves during the storm.
- Gerald R. Molen
Gerald Robert Molen is a high profile American film producer. He works very closely with Steven Spielberg, having produced five of his films, and won an Academy Award for producing Schindler's List...
, the film's producer, cameoed as Gerry Harding, the park's veterinarianA veterinarian or a veterinary surgeon , often shortened to vet, is a physician for animals and a practitioner of veterinary medicine. The word comes from the Latin veterinae meaning "working animals"...
, who appears to take care of the TriceratopsTriceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Tertiary...
.
- Cameron Thor
Gregory Cameron Thor is an actor known for playing Lewis Dodgson, a character from the film Jurassic Park. While his character was a major part of the sequel novel, The Lost World, the character was left out of the movie. He also appeared in the 1991 movie Curly Sue....
as Lewis Dodgson: The head of InGen's rival corporation Biosyn in the novel. He only appears in the film to give Nedry a shaving cream can to put stolen embryos in before he goes to Jurassic Park.
- Dean Cundey
Dean Raymond Cundey, A.S.C. is an American cinematographer.-Biography:Cundey was born in Alhambra, California, United States...
, the film's cinematographer, cameoed as the Dockworker to whom Nedry talks on the computer.
- Richard Kiley
Richard Paul Kiley was an American stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for his voice work, as narrator of various documentary series, and for having played Don Quixote in the original 1965 production of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha...
, the voice of the car tour guide.
Production
Michael CrichtonJohn Michael Crichton or Michael Crichton was an American author, producer, director, screenwriter, and medical school graduate, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted...
originally conceived a
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A play for television is known as a teleplay.- Format and style :...
about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur; he continued to wrestle with his fascination with dinosaurs and cloning until he began writing the novel
Jurassic ParkJurassic Park is a 1990 science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton. Often considered a cautionary tale on unconsidered biological tinkering in the same spirit as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it uses the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical implications to explain the...
. Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989 while he and Crichton were discussing a screenplay that would become the television series
ERER is an American medical drama series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 1994 to April 2009. It is set primarily in the emergency room of fictional County General Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment in...
. Before the book was published, Crichton demanded a non-negotiable fee of $1.5 million as well as a substantial percentage of the gross.
Warner BrothersWarner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures, or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official, sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers
and Tim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, producer, writer and artist. He is famed for his dark and quirky films, such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, which he co-wrote and produced...
, Sony Pictures EntertainmentSony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony. Its group sales in 2007 has been reported to be of $8.58 billion.-History:...
and Richard DonnerRichard Donner is an American film director, film producer, and comic book writer. The production company The Donners' Company is owned by Donner and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner. After directing the horror film The Omen Donner became famous for the hailed creation of the first modern...
, and 20th Century FoxTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation , also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox, is one of the six major American film studios...
and Joe DanteJoseph James "Joe" Dante is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and scifi content....
bid for the rights, but Universal eventually acquired them in May 1990 for Spielberg. Universal paid Crichton a further $500,000 to adapt his own novel, which he had finished by the time Spielberg was filming HookHook is a 1991 family fantasy film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Charlie Korsmo and Amber Scott. Hook acts as a sequel to Peter Pan's original adventures, focusing on a grown-up Peter who has forgotten his childhood...
. Crichton noted that because the book was "fairly long" his script only had about 10–20 percent of the novel's content; scenes were dropped for budgetary and practical reasons. After completing Hook, Spielberg wanted to film Schindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American drama film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel Schindler's Ark by...
. Music Corporation of AmericaMCA, Inc. was an American corporation in the music and television businesses. MCA published music, booked acts, ran a record company, and distributed television productions and home videos.-The Early Years:...
president Sid Sheinberg gave a green light to the film on one condition: that Spielberg make Jurassic Park first. Spielberg later said, "He knew that once I had directed Schindler I wouldn't be able to do Jurassic Park." At the time, MCA was the owner of Universal Pictures.
Spielberg hired Stan WinstonStanley Winston was an American visual effects supervisor, make-up artist, and film director. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park series, Aliens, the Predator series, Iron Man and Edward Scissorhands...
to create the animatronic dinosaurs, Phil TippettPhil Tippett is a movie director and an award-winning Visual effects Supervisor and Producer, who specializes in creature design and character animation.-Early career:...
to create go motionGo motion is a variation of stop motion animation, and was co-developed by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett for the 1980 George Lucas film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.-Technical Explanation:...
dinosaurs for long shotIn photography, film and video, a long shotor cheese faces! typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surroundings...
s, Michael LantieriMichael Lantieri is a special effects supervisor on films and also was the director of Komodo. He has worked on numerous films with Steven Spielberg....
to supervise the on-set effects, and Dennis MurenDennis Muren, A.S.C. is an American film special effects artist, most notable for his work on the films of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and George Lucas. He has won six Oscars for Best Visual Effects.-Early life & career:...
to do the digital compositing. Paleontologist Jack HornerJohn "Jack" R. Horner is an American paleontologist who discovered and named Maiasaura, providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. He is one of the best-known paleontologists in the United States...
supervised the designs, to help fulfil Spielberg's desire to portray the dinosaurs as animals rather than monsters. Horner dismissed the raptors' flicking tongues in Tippett's early animatics, complaining, "[The dinosaurs] have no way of doing that!" Taking Horner's advice, Spielberg insisted that Tippett take the tongues out. Winston's department created fully detailed models of the dinosaurs before molding latexLatex refers generically to a stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic. Latex as found in nature is a milky sap-like fluid within many plants that coagulates on exposure to air. It is a complex emulsion in which proteins, alkaloids,...
skins, which were fitted over complex robotics. Tippett created stop-motion animatics of major scenes, but, despite go motion's attempts at motion blurs, Spielberg still found the end results unsatisfactory in terms of working in a live-action feature film. Animators Mark Dippe and Steve Williams went ahead in creating a computer-generated walk cycle for the T. rex skeleton and were approved to do more. When Spielberg and Tippett saw an animatic of the T. rex chasing a herd of GallimimusGallimimus , meaning 'fowl mimic', is a genus of ornithomimosaurid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. With individuals as long as and weighing as much as , it was one of the largest ornithomimosaurs...
, Spielberg said, "You're out of a job," to which Tippett replied, "Don't you mean extinct?" Spielberg later wrote both the animatic and his dialogue between him and Tippett into the script.
Malia Scotch MarmoMalia Scotch Marmo is an American screenwriter. She wrote the screenplays for Lasse Hallström's Once Around, Steven Spielberg's Hook, and Daisy von Scherler Mayer's Madeline and had an uncredited pass at Spielberg's Jurassic Park....
began a script rewrite in October 1991 over a five-month period, merging Ian Malcolm with Alan Grant. Screenwriter David KoeppDavid Koepp is an American screenwriter and director.-Career:As a writer, Koepp has worked on such blockbuster Hollywood films as Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, and Spider-Man. After an uncredited rewrite of the screenplay to Men in Black at his request, he was asked to write the script for...
came on board afterward, starting afresh from Marmo's draft, and used Spielberg's idea of a cartoon shown to the visitors to remove much of the exposition that fills Crichton's novel. Spielberg also excised a sub-plot of ProcompsognathusProcompsognathus is a genus of small theropod dinosaur that lived during the late Triassic period , about 210 million years ago. Procompsognathus was named by Eberhard Fraas in 1913. He named the type species, P...
escaping to the mainland and attacking young children, as he found it too horrific. This sub-plot would eventually be used as a prologue in the Spielberg-directed sequel, The Lost World. Hammond was changed from a ruthless businessman to a kindly old man, because Spielberg identified with Hammond's obsession with showmanship. He also switched the characters of Tim and Lex; in the book, Tim is aged 11 and into computers, and Lex is only seven or eight and into sports. Spielberg did this because he wanted to work with the younger Joseph Mazzello, and it also allowed him to introduce the sub-plot of Lex's adolescent crush on Grant. Koepp changed Grant's relationship with the children, making him hostile to them initially to allow for more character development. Koepp also took the opportunity to cut out a major sequence from the book, for budgetary reasons, where the T. rex chases Grant and the children down a river before being tranquilized by Muldoon.
After 25 months of pre-production, filming began on August 24, 1992, on the HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
an island of Kaua{{okina}}iKauai or Kauai is the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago and the 21st largest island in the United States...
. The three-week shoot involved various daytime exteriors. On September 11, Hurricane InikiHurricane Iniki was the most powerful hurricane to strike the U.S. state of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Islands in recorded history....
passed directly over Kaua{{okina}}i, which caused the crew to lose a day of shooting. Several of the storm scenes from the movie are actual footage shot during the hurricane. The scheduled shoot of the Gallimimus chase was moved to Kualoa RanchKualoa Ranch is the landowner of Kaaawa Valley, also commonly known as Kualoa Valley, on the windward coast of the island of Oahu in Hawaii. This place was sacred to ancient Oahuans from the 13th to the 18th century, as it was where Laa-mai-kahiki settled after visiting Kauai and before returning...
on the island of OahuOahu or Oahu , known as "The Gathering Place", is the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and most populous of the islands in the State of Hawaii. The state capital Honolulu is located on the southeast coast...
and one of the beginning scenes had to be created by digital animating a still shot of scenery. The crew moved back to mainland USA to shoot at Universal StudiosUniversal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six major American movie studios. Its main motion picture production/distribution arm is called Universal Pictures. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California...
's Stage 24 for scenes involving the raptors in the kitchen. The crew also shot on Stage 23 for the scenes involving the power supply, before going on location to Red Rock CanyonRed Rock Canyon State Park features scenic desert cliffs, buttes and spectacular rock formations. The park is located where the southernmost tip of the Sierra Nevada converge with the El Paso Mountains....
for the MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
dig scenes. The crew returned to Universal to shoot Grant's rescue of Tim, using a fifty-foot prop with hydraulic wheels for the car fall, and the Brachiosaurus encounter. The crew proceeded to film scenes for the Park's labs and control room, which used animations for the computers loaned from Silicon GraphicsSilicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark and Abbey Silverstone...
and Apple.
The crew moved to Warner Bros. Studios' Stage 16 to shoot the T. rex attack on the tour cars. Shooting proved frustrating due to water soaking the foam rubber skin of the animatronic dinosaur. The ripples in the glass of water caused by the T. rex{{'}}s footsteps was inspired by Spielberg listening to Earth, Wind and Fire in his car, and the vibrations the bass rhythm caused. Lantieri was unsure of how to create the shot until the night before filming, when he put a glass of water on a guitar he was playing, which achieved the concentric circles in the water Spielberg wanted. The next morning, guitar strings were put inside the car and a man on the ground plucked the strings to achieve the effect. Back at Universal, the crew filmed scenes with the Dilophosaurus on Stage 27. Finally, the shoot finished on Stage 12, with the climactic chases with the raptors in the Park's computer rooms and Visitor's Center. Spielberg brought back the T. rex for the climax, abandoning his original ending in which Grant uses a platform machine to maneuver a raptor into a fossil tyrannosaur's jaws. The film wrapped twelve days ahead of schedule on November 30, and within days editor Michael KahnMichael Kahn is a widely recognized film editor. His credits range from TV's Hogan's Heroes to feature films directed by George C. Scott and Steven Spielberg, with whom he has had an extended, notable collaboration over more than thirty years...
had a rough cut ready, allowing Spielberg to go ahead with filming Schindler's List.
Special effects work continued on the film, with Tippett's unit adjusting to new technology with Dinosaur Input Devices: models which fed information into the computers to allow themselves to animate the characters traditionally. In addition, they acted out scenes with the raptors and Gallimimus. As well as the computer-generated dinosaurs, ILM also created elements such as water splashing and digital face replacement for Ariana Richards' stunt double. Compositing the dinosaurs onto the live action scenes took around an hour. Rendering the dinosaurs often took two to four hours per frame, and rendering the T. rex in the rain even took six hours per frame. Spielberg monitored their progress from PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Composer John WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career that spans six decades, Williams has composed many of the most famous film scores in Hollywood history, including Star Wars, Superman, Home Alone, the first three Harry Potter movies and all but two of Steven...
began work on the score at the end of February, and it was conductedConducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors.-Nomenclature:...
a month later by John Neufeld and Alexander CourageAlexander Mair Courage Jr. was an American orchestrator, arranger, and composer of music, primarily for television and motion pictures.-Biography:...
. The sound effects crew, supervised by George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic sci-fi franchise Star Wars and joint creator of the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, were finished by the end of April. Jurassic Park was finally completed on May 28, 1993.
{{See|Jurassic Park (film score)}}
Dinosaurs on screen
{{See also|Biological issues in Jurassic Park}}
Despite the title of the film, most of the dinosaurs featured did not exist until the CretaceousThe Cretaceous , Latin language for "chalky", usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago . In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows on the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
period.
- Tyrannosaurus rex
Tyrannosaurus was a genus of theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids...
, abbreviated as "T. rex", is the star of the film and, according to Spielberg, the reason he rewrote the ending for fear of disappointing the audience. Winston's animatronic T. rex stood {{convert|20|ft|m}}, weighed {{convert|13000|lb|kg}}, and was {{convert|40|ft|m}} long. Jack HornerJohn "Jack" R. Horner is an American paleontologist who discovered and named Maiasaura, providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. He is one of the best-known paleontologists in the United States...
called it "the closest I've ever been to a live dinosaur". The dinosaur is depicted with a vision system based on movement. Its roar is a baby elephantElephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant...
mixed with a tigerThe tiger is a member of the Felidae family; the largest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. Native to much of eastern and southern Asia, the tiger is an apex predator and an obligate carnivore...
and an alligatorAn Alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. The name alligator is an anglicized form of el lagarto the Spanish term for "lizard", the name by which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator...
, and its breath is a whaleWhale is the common name for marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale is sometimes used to refer to all cetaceans, but in more common English usage it generally excludes the members of the Delphinoidea superfamily, such as dolphins and porpoises...
's blow. A dogThe dog is a domesticated form of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The domestic dog has been one of the most widely kept working and companion animals in human history...
attacking a ball was used for the sounds of it tearing a Gallimimus apart.
- Velociraptor
Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 mya during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Only two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V...
(dubbed simply "raptor" in the film) also has a major role. The animal's depiction was not based on the actual dinosaur species in question (which itself was significantly smaller), rather the related (and larger) species DeinonychusDeinonychus was a genus of carnivorous dromaeosaurid dinosaur. There is one described species, Deinonychus antirrhopus. This 3.4 meter long dinosaur lived during the early Cretaceous Period, about 115-108 million years ago...
, which was called Velociraptor antirrhopus by some scientists. Crichton's writing followed this, but by the time production of the film took place, the idea had been dropped by the scientific community. Coincidentally, before Jurassic Parks theatre release, the similar UtahraptorUtahraptor is the largest known member of the theropod dinosaur family Dromaeosauridae, and dates from the upper Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous period .-Discovery:...
was discovered which proved closer in appearance to the film's raptors; this prompted Stan Winston to joke, "We made it, then they discovered it." For the attack on character Robert Muldoon, the raptors were played by men in suitsis a term originally used in Japan for a tokusatsu technique to portray a daikaiju using a suit actor in a monster suit.The term can be used when "puppet" does not apply, since the "puppet" is being worn by an actor, and when the word "costume" does not apply, since the "costume" is also being...
. DolphinDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly...
screams, walrusThe walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
es bellowing, geese hissing, an African craneCranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds of the order Gruiformes, and family Gruidae. There are fifteen species. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...
's mating call, and human rasps were mixed to formulate various raptor sounds. Following discoveries made after the film's release, most paleontologists theorized that dromaeosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus had feathers.
- Dilophosaurus
Dilophosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic Period. The name means 'two-crested lizard', from the two crests of the animal...
was also very different from its real-life counterpart, made significantly smaller to make sure audiences did not confuse it with the raptors. Its neck frillNeck frill is the popular term for the relatively extensive margin seen on the back of the heads of reptiles with either a bony support such as those present on the skulls of dinosaurs of the suborder Marginocephalia or a cartilaginous one as in the Frill-necked Lizard...
and its ability to spit poisonous fluid are fictitious. Its vocal sounds were made by combining a swanSwans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
, a hawkThe term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Europe and Asia, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...
, a howler monkeyHowler monkeys are among the largest of the New World monkeys. Nine species are currently recognised. Previously classified in the family Cebidae, they are now placed in the family Atelidae. These monkeys are native to South and Central American forests. They live in groups of usually about 18...
, and a rattlesnakeRattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes, genera Crotalus and Sistrurus. They belong to the subfamily of venomous snakes known commonly as pit vipers.-Overview:...
.
- Brachiosaurus
Brachiosaurus , meaning "arm lizard", from the Greek brachion/βραχιων meaning "arm" and sauros/σαυρος meaning "lizard", was a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic Period and possibly the Early Cretaceous Period. It was named thus because its forelimbs were longer than its...
is inaccurately depicted as chewing its food as well as standing up on its hind legs to browse among the high tree branches. Despite scientific evidence of their having limited vocal capabilities, sound designer Gary RydstromGary Roger Rydstrom is an American sound designer and director.Rydstrom graduated from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts in 1981. He began his career at Skywalker Sound, Northern California in 1983...
decided to represent them with whale songWhale song is the sound made by whales to communicate.The word "song" is used to describe the pattern of regular and predictable sounds made by some species of whales, notably the Humpback Whale...
s and donkeyThe donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family, and an odd-toed ungulate. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E. africanus. Traditionally, the scientific name for the donkey is Equus asinus asinus based on the principle of...
calls to give them a melodic sense of wonder.
- Triceratops
Triceratops is a genus of herbivorous ceratopsid dinosaur which lived during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period, around 68 to 65 million years ago in what is now North America. It was one of the last dinosaur genera to appear before the great Cretaceous–Tertiary...
has an extended cameo. Its appearance was a particular logistical nightmare for Stan Winston when Spielberg asked to shoot the animatronic of the sick creature earlier than expected. Winston also created a baby Triceratops for Ariana Richards to ride, which was cut from the film for pacing reasons.
- Gallimimus
Gallimimus , meaning 'fowl mimic', is a genus of ornithomimosaurid dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period Nemegt Formation of Mongolia. With individuals as long as and weighing as much as , it was one of the largest ornithomimosaurs...
and ParasaurolophusParasaurolophus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now North America, about 76-73 million years ago. It was a herbivore that walked both as a biped and a quadruped. Three species are recognized: P. walkeri , P...
' roles are mainly cameos. Gallimimus feature in a stampede scene where one of them is devoured by the Tyrannosaurus. Parasaurolophus appears in the background during the first encounter with the brachiosaurs.
Distribution
Universal spent $65 million on the marketing campaign for Jurassic Park, making deals with 100 companies to market 1,000 products. These included three Jurassic Park video gamesSoon after the announcement of the 1993 Jurassic Park feature film, based on the critically acclaimed novel by Michael Crichton, developers Ocean Software, BlueSky Software and Sega of America were licensed to produce games to be sold to coincide with the release of the film on the popular...
by Segais a multinational video game software and hardware development company, and a home computer and console manufacturer headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan...
and Ocean SoftwareOcean Software was one of the biggest European video game developers/publishers of the 1980s and 90s. The successor company is Infogrames UK.The company was founded by David Ward and Jon Woods and was based in Manchester...
, a toy line by KennerKenner Products was a toy company founded in 1947 by three brothers, Albert, Phillip, and Joseph L. Steiner, in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, and was named after the street where the original corporate offices were located....
that was distributed by HasbroHasbro is a U.S.-based, multinational toy and boardgame company. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States. The majority of its products, however, are manufactured overseas.-History:In 1923, two brothers—Henry...
, and a novelizationA novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
aimed at young children. The released soundtrack included unused material. Trailers for the film only gave fleeting glimpses of the dinosaurs, a tactic journalist Josh Horowitz described as "that old Spielberg axiom of never revealing too much" when Spielberg and director Michael BayMichael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. Bay is best known for making large-budget action films, such as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and producing remakes of horror movies such as Friday The...
did the same for their production of Transformers in 2007. The film was marketed with the taglineA tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
"An Adventure 65 Million Years In The Making." This was a joke Spielberg made on set about the genuine, millions of years old mosquitoMosquito is a common insect in the family Culicidae...
in amberAmber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since neolithic times. Good quality amber is used for the manufacture of ornamental objects and jewelry...
used for Hammond's walking stick.
The film premiered at the National Building MuseumThe National Building Museum, in Washington, D.C., United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning"...
on June 9, 1993, in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
, in support of two children's charities. The film made its VHSVideo Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, was a video tape recording standard developed during the 1970s. It was released to the public during the latter half of the decade. During the late part of the 1970s and the early 1980s it formed one-half of the VHS vs Betamax war, which it...
and LaserDiscThe Laserdisc is an obsolete home video disc format, and was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially marketed as Discovision in 1978, the technology was licensed and sold as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Laservision, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA...
debut on October 4, 1994, and was first released on DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
on October 10, 2000. The film was also released in a package with The Lost World: Jurassic ParkThe Lost World: Jurassic Park is a science fiction thriller film, directed by Steven Spielberg. The film was produced by Bonnie Curtis, Kathleen Kennedy, Gerald R. Molen and Colin Wilson. The screenplay was penned by David Koepp, based on the 1995 novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton...
. The DVD was re-released with both sequels on December 11, 2001, as the Jurassic Park Trilogy, and as the Jurassic Park Adventure Pack on November 29, 2005.
Following the film's release, a traveling exhibition began. Steve EnglehartSteve Englehart is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, particularly in the 1970s. His pseudonyms have included John Harkness and Cliff Garnett....
wrote a series of comic bookA comic book is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog and often including brief descriptive prose...
s published by Topps ComicsTopps Comics is a division of the American trading card publisher and gum/candy distributor the Topps Company, Inc. that published comic books from 1993–1998, beginning its existence during a short comics-industry boom that attracted many investors and new companies...
. They acted as a continuation of the film, consisting of the two-issue Raptor, the four-issue Raptors Attack and Raptors Hijack, and Return to Jurassic Park, which lasted nine issues. All published issues were republished under the single title Jurassic Park Adventures in the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and as Jurassic Park in the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. Ocean Software released a game sequel entitled Jurassic Park Part 2: The Chaos Continues in 1994 on Super NES and Game BoyThe is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America on , and in Europe on . In Southern Asia, it is known as the "Tata Game Boy" It is the first handheld console in the Game Boy line...
.
Jurassic Park was broadcast on television for the first time on May 7, 1995, following the April 26 airing of The Making of Jurassic Park. Some 68.12 million people tuned in to watch, garnering NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
a 36 percent share of all available viewers that night. Jurassic Park was the highest-ratedNielsen ratings are audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
theatrical film broadcast on television by any network since the April 1987 airing of Trading PlacesTrading Places is a 1983 comedy film starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. It was produced by Aaron Russo...
.
"The Jurassic Park Ride" went into development in November 1990 and premiered at Universal Studios HollywoodUniversal Studios Hollywood is a movie studio in the Universal City community of unincorporated Los Angeles County, California, United States, and is the original Universal Studios theme park. Woody Woodpecker is the mascot for Universal Studios Hollywood and the rest of the Universal Studios Theme...
on June 15, 1996, at a cost of $110 million. Islands of AdventureUniversal's Islands of Adventure is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida. It opened May 28, 1999 as part of an expansion that, along with CityWalk and the Portofino Bay and Hard Rock hotels, converted Universal Studios Florida into the Universal Orlando Resort...
in OrlandoOrlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region...
, FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
, has an entire section of the park dedicated to Jurassic Park that includes the main ride, christened "Jurassic Park River Adventure", and many smaller rides and attractions based on the series. The Universal Studios theme park rides have been designed to support the film's plot, with Hammond supposedly having been contacted to rebuild the Park at the theme park location.
Commercial
Jurassic Park became the most financially successful film released worldwide as of that time, beating Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Dee Wallace. It tells the story of Elliott , a lonely boy who befriends a friendly...
which previously held the title, though it did not top E.T. in North America. The film opened with $47 million in its first weekend and had grossed $81.7 million by its first week. The film stayed at number one for three weeks and eventually grossed $357 million in the U.S. and Canada. The film also did very well in international markets, breaking opening records in the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
. Spielberg earned over $250 million from the film. Jurassic Parks worldwide gross was topped five years later by James CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian film director, producer and screenwriter. His writing and directing work includes The Terminator and Titanic. To date, his directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$1.1 billion domestically, unadjusted for inflation...
's TitanicTitanic is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the...
. Yet it is still remains the oldest movie in the top 10 highest grossing movies of all times to this day.
Critical
The film received mostly positive reviews. High praise was heaped on the visual effects, although there was a lot of criticism leveled at the characterization and departures from the book. Janet MaslinJanet Maslin is an American journalist. She is best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times.-Personal:Maslin graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970, with a B.A. degree and a major in mathematics . She was once married to record producer Jon Landau...
of The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
called it "a true movie milestone, presenting awe- and fear-inspiring sights never before seen on the screen… On paper, this story is tailor-made for Mr. Spielberg's talents…[but] [i]t becomes less crisp on screen than it was on the page, with much of the enjoyable jargon either mumbled confusingly or otherwise thrown away." In Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
, Peter TraversPeter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
described the film as "colossal entertainment—the eye-popping, mind-bending, kick-out-the-jams thrill ride of summer and probably the year [...] Compared with the dinos, the characters are dry bones, indeed. Crichton and co-screenwriter David Koepp have flattened them into nonentities on the trip from page to screen." Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
noted, "The movie delivers all too well on its promise to show us dinosaurs. We see them early and often, and they are indeed a triumph of special effects artistry, but the movie is lacking other qualities that it needs even more, such as a sense of awe and wonderment, and strong human story values." Henry Sheehan argued, "The complaints over Jurassic Parks lack of story and character sound a little off the point," pointing out the story arc of Grant learning to protect Hammond's grandchildren despite his initial dislike of them. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
reported that 86% of critics gave Jurassic Park a positive write-up, based upon a sample of 33 reviews.
In 1994, the film won all three Academy AwardsThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
it was nominated for: Visual EffectsThe Academy Award for Visual Effects is an Oscar given to one film each year that shows highest achievement in visual effects.The category was called Best Special Effects when it was created in 1939. In 1963, the category was split into two: Best Special Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects...
, Sound Effects EditingThe Academy Award of Merit for Best Sound Editing is an Academy Award granted yearly to a film exhibiting the finest or most aesthetic sound editing or sound design...
, and SoundThe Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. Compare this award to the Academy Award for Sound Editing...
(at the same ceremony, Steven Spielberg, Michael KahnMichael Kahn is a widely recognized film editor. His credits range from TV's Hogan's Heroes to feature films directed by George C. Scott and Steven Spielberg, with whom he has had an extended, notable collaboration over more than thirty years...
, and John WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career that spans six decades, Williams has composed many of the most famous film scores in Hollywood history, including Star Wars, Superman, Home Alone, the first three Harry Potter movies and all but two of Steven...
took home Academy Awards for Schindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American drama film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel Schindler's Ark by...
). The film won honours outside of the U.S. including the 1994 BAFTA for Best Special Effects, as well as the Award for the Public's Favourite Film. It won the 1994 Hugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories...
for Best Dramatic PresentationThe Hugo Awards are given annually by members of the World Science Fiction Convention for the best science fiction or fantasy works. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and given in various categories.Winners for the...
, and the 1993 Saturn AwardThe Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
s for Best Science Fiction FilmThe following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Science Fiction Film:...
, Best DirectionThe following is a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Direction:...
, Best WritingThe following is a list of people who have won the Saturn Award for Best Writing....
for Crichton and Koepp and Best Special EffectsThe following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Special Effects:...
. The film won the 1993 People's Choice AwardsThe People's Choice Awards is an awards show recognizing the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is voted on by the general public. The People's Choice Awards air on CBS and are produced by Procter & Gamble....
for Favorite All-Around Motion Picture. Young Artist AwardThe Young Artist Awards also known as the 'Hollywood Young Artist Award' are presented yearly by the Young Artist Foundation. Started in 1980 by long-standing Hollywood Foreign Press member Maureen Dragone, they were envisioned specifically as awards to be presented to talented young people in...
s were given to Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello, with the film winning an Outstanding Action/Adventure Family Motion Picture award.
Legacy
The American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
named Jurassic Park the 35th most thrilling film of all time on June 13, 2001, and BravoBravo is an American cable television channel owned by NBC Universal. It is currently seen in more than 80 million homes and was the first service dedicated to film, drama, and the performing arts when it launched by Cablevision as an advertisement-free channel in December 1980...
chose the scene in which Lex and Tim are stalked by two Raptors in the kitchen as the 95th scariest of all time in 2005. On EmpireEmpire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine's fifteenth anniversary in 2004, it judged Jurassic Park the sixth most influential film of the magazine's lifetime. On Film ReviewFilm Review is Britain's longest-running film magazine. The current publishers Visimag also claim that it was Britain's first ever film magazine....
s fifty-fifth anniversary in 2005, it declared the film to be one of the five most important in the magazine's lifetime. In 2006, IGNIGN is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games...
ranked Jurassic Park as the 19th greatest film franchise of all time.
Most significantly, when many filmmakers saw Jurassic Parks use of computer-generated imagery, they realized that many of their visions, previously thought unfeasible or too expensive, were now possible. Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick was an American director, writer, producer, and photographer of films, who lived in England during most of the last 40 years of his career...
, the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke...
, contacted Spielberg to direct A.I.A.I. Artificial Intelligence, also known as Artificial Intelligence: A.I. or simply A.I., is a science fiction film directed, produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg. Based on Brian Aldiss's short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long, the film stars Haley Joel Osment, Frances O'Connor, Jude...
, George LucasGeorge Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic sci-fi franchise Star Wars and joint creator of the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
started to make the Star WarsStar Wars is an epic space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was originally released on May 25, 1977, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, spawning two immediate sequels, released at three-year intervals...
prequels, and Peter JacksonPeter Robert Jackson, CNZM is a New Zealand filmmaker, producer and screenwriter, best known for The Lord of the Rings trilogy adapted from the novel by J. R. R. Tolkien...
began to re-explore his childhood love of fantasy filmFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap....
s, a path that led him to The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy consists of three live action fantasy epic films: The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King...
and King KongKing Kong is a 2005 remake of the 1933 film of the same name about a giant ape called Kong. The film was directed by Peter Jackson and stars Naomi Watts as Ann Darrow, Jack Black as Carl Denham, Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll and, through performance capture, Andy Serkis as Kong...
. Jurassic Park has also inspired films and documentaries such as the American adaptation of GodzillaGodzilla is a 1998 American science fiction film. It is a Hollywood remake of the Japanese film of the same name. It was co-written and directed by Roland Emmerich, director of Independence Day. The film did not meet its anticipated success and was largely panned by critics and fans of the original...
, CarnosaurCarnosaur is a 1993 horror film starring Diane Ladd as a mad scientist who plans to recreate dinosaurs and destroy humanity. The movie is loosely based on a novel of the same name by Harry Adam Knight that was released in 1984, but the two have little in common...
, and Walking with DinosaursWalking with Dinosaurs was a six-part documentary television mini-series that was produced by the BBC, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, and first aired in the UK in 1999. The series was subsequently aired in North America on the Discovery Channel in 2000, with Branagh's voice replaced with that of...
, as well as numerous parodies, like the Leslie NielsenLeslie William Nielsen, OC is a Canadian comedian and actor. Although Nielsen's acting career crosses a variety of genres in both television and films, he has achieved his greatest film success in comedies, including Airplane! and The Naked Gun series of films...
comedy feature Spy HardSpy Hard is a 1996 comedy/action film starring Leslie Nielsen and Nicollette Sheridan, parodying James Bond films and other action films.-Plot Summary:Secret agent Dick Steele, Agent WD-40, has his work cut out for him...
. Stan WinstonStanley Winston was an American visual effects supervisor, make-up artist, and film director. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park series, Aliens, the Predator series, Iron Man and Edward Scissorhands...
, enthusiastic about the new technology pioneered by the film, joined together with IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating...
and director James CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian film director, producer and screenwriter. His writing and directing work includes The Terminator and Titanic. To date, his directorial efforts have grossed approximately US$1.1 billion domestically, unadjusted for inflation...
to form a new special effects company, Digital DomainDigital Domain is a visual effects and animation company based in Venice, Los Angeles, California. The company is known for creating state-of-the-art digital imagery for feature films, television advertising, interactive visual media and the video game industry...
.
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| before = Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered CountryStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise. It was released in 1991 by Paramount Pictures, and is the last of the Star Trek films to include the entire core cast of the 1960s Star Trek television series. It was directed by Nicholas...
| after = StargateStargate is an American military science fiction film released through Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer and Carolco in 1994. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the film stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye...
| title = Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction FilmThe following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Science Fiction Film:...
| years = 1993
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