Note this entry was originally published 9/20/2009 and revised, expanded, and republished 9/5/2026
JURASSIC PARK (1993)
Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure/Survival
THE MOVIE:
I have a complex relationship with the Jurassic franchise. On one hand, Michael Crichton’s novel is one of my top five favorite books. When I first got my hands on the paperback in the summer of 1991, I ate it up and was obsessed with it. The book was a fun way for me to dive back into my childhood love of dinosaurs and was a great mix of paleontology, then-cutting edge biotech, and real danger and gore. People who only know Jurassic Park from the relatively wholesome movie don’t know the darkness, violence, and fierce social commentary of the book.
I saw the movie on its release day with a couple of friends and couldn’t help but be a little underwhelmed by it. As a dinosaur movie, it’s awesome but it leaves much of the book on the table (for valid reasons of time technology) and, worse, it takes Crichton’s dark cautionary tale about the dangers of biotech in the hands of entitled and irresponsible rich a-holes and turns it into a movie about how awesome dinosaurs are and, yay, nature, or something. That said, it’s still the greatest dinosaur movie ever made.
Where would monster movies be without Jurassic Park? Although, not strictly speaking, a “monster movie” (Spielberg was very conscious of making his dinosaurs animals and not movie monsters,) Jurassic Park helped usher in a new era of creature features and for the first time applied CGI to the task of creating photorealistic creatures. Over the next few years when this technology became cheaper and easier to use it helped usher in a whole wave of CGI-aided monster movies such as Anaconda (1997), The Relic (1997), Mimic (1997), Deep Rising (1998), Deep Blue Sea (1999,) Eight-Legged Freaks (2002) and a whole slew of others. Jurassic Park took a B-movie premise and gave it a respectful presentation, with an A-List director.
Jurassic Park is an adaptation of the late Michael Crichton’s blockbuster novel about an island theme park featuring dinosaurs cloned from amber-preserved DNA. This clever premise skirts actual science just enough to sound plausible. With the unprecedented realism of its visual effects, Jurassic Park has the feel of credible speculative fiction. Although, how cool would it have been if Spielberg had chosen to realize it as a faux documentary, the genre closest to what the book purports to be? If this movie ever gets remade (and there is good reason to do it) this is the route that they should go. The movie also launched Crichton-mania in the mid to late 1990's with (among others) adaptions of Congo, Sphere, and Disclosure rushing into production in Jurassic Park's wake as well as the Crichton-developed TV series E.R..
A small group of scientists are recruited to evaluate the island theme park prior to its public unveiling when a combination of a tropical storm and industrial espionage take out the Jurassic Park’s security systems causing the dinosaurs to escape their enclosures and overrun the island. A grumpy paleontologist must shepherd a pair of kids back to safety through the dino-infested island. As Hammond says in the movie, "Who better to get the children through Jurassic Park than a dinosaur expert." The heroes must then do everything they can to escape the island.
Jurassic Park was a pop cultural phenomenon when it was released. It was a movie whose sheer size and visuals had to been seen (not to mention heard) in a theater to be done justice. Even people who don’t normally go in for big summer special effects movies wanted to get a glimpse of Spielberg’s dinosaurs. One could actually make the ironic argument that the CGI technology used to bring the dinosaurs to life for the movie was a bit like Hammond’s technology to bring his dinosaurs to life in the story. It was a bit of a circus atmosphere: pay your $6 at the door and get a glimpse of the most realistic dinosaurs you’ll ever see. I vividly remember going to see it with a couple of high school buddies. June 11, 1993. Regardless, until Titanic was released, Jurassic Park enjoyed a four-year reign as the all-time box office champ.
One of the things that I genuinely love about the movie that I don’t think people talk about enough is the iconic production design which captures a kind of 1990’s tropical theme park adventure aesthetic. The movie is so rich in details that bring the nascent theme park to life. Everything from unmistakable red and neon green range rovers, the dinosaur fossil relief panels that decorate the visitors’ center, the painted velociraptor mural in the kitchen is all instantly recognizable. The on-location shooting was done in Hawaii and it gives the park a believable character and a sense of geography. Yes, Jurassic Park is a terrible idea and the product of humanity's overweening hubris, but I really want to go there. And layer the majestic John Williams score on top of that and it’s not hard to understand why many people consider this movie a classic.
THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:
The effects have held up nicely over the decades and feature a seamless blend between CGI, animatronics, and even some suitmation. At some points (such as the raptor kitchen chase) the three techniques are so deftly blended together that it is next to impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.
The filmmakers were pushing technology to its limits when they made this movie so some of the more demanding sequences from the book were probably cut from the movie (such as the T-rex river chase later adapted in both Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World Rebirth) for technical and financial reasons and scenes like the annoying car-in-the-tree sequence were probably added as “filler.” Of course, they more than made up for this in the sequels which featured a veritable orgy of dinosaurs.
While this movie is famous for its ground breaking use of CGI to bring the dinosaurs to life in certain scenes requiring extended mobility and performance this was not the original plan. Jurassic Park went into production with the plan of using stop-motion dinosaurs in the full Ray Harryhousen tradition. The story of how a young ILM employee took it upon himself to bring CGI into the project could be a movie in itself and is told various places including the great Disney Plus documentary Light and Magic.
The sound design must also be given credit. As amazing as the visual effects were, the sound effects and vocalizations created for the dinosaurs are equally impressive. Who can ever forget the earsplitting roar of the T-Rex? The same is true for the more avian and unnerving raptor calls and screeches. Not to mention the distinctive Dilophosaur hiss. I don’t think hissing has ever been done better. Not even by my cat.
BOOK TO MOVIE
So obviously, the story is streamlined from the book.
Here are some of the major differences:
The version of the park in the book is a lot farther from opening than the movie. The guest facilities and most of the attractions are very much under construction in the book. The world of the book is a lot less polished and therefore a little more dangerous.
A major and fascinating subplot is the fact that at the start of the book some of the smaller dinosaurs have already gotten off the island and are disrupting both the ecosystem and the human population of Costa Rica. In fact, the investigation into these events really provides the jumping off point for the rest of the story. This subplot is completely omitted from the movie. It is briefly followed-up on in Crichton’s sequel, The Lost World, but that book was written in the wake of the huge success of the movie and is a strange hybrid of a sequel to both the book and the movie which recons certain elements of the novel, like Malcolm’s death. Crichton seemed disinclined to write sequels as a rule so who knows if he would have ever followed up on Jurassic Park if there had not been pressure from Amblin and Universal to create a sequel. It seems that the novel sets up a book about the escaped dinos spread into the world which would have been awesome. I know a version of this happens in the Jurassic World movies but it happens in Crichton's books in a way that is more dangerous and insidious.
One of the biggest changes is in the characterization of Hammond who is less a kindly grandfather concerned with bringing joy to the world’s children than a rapacious and irresponsible capitalist who is using this powerful and transformative technology for purely frivolous entertainment purposes without a thought to the human or environmental consequences. And that's not even to mention on the dinosaurs themselves. On a related note Elon Musk has recently indicated he wants to clone dinosaurs. So, yeah. Lessons learned.
Grant and Sattler are not a couple here so the in-retrospect uncomfortable age and status gap is not a factor in the book. Grant specifically likes children in the book because they like dinosaurs. The changes they imposed on Grant in the movie are all about giving him some kind of tiresome domestication arc. Malcolm is largely the same character in the book but there is much more of him in the novel to the point where he is very much Crichton’s mouthpiece for the themes of the book and his criticisms of out-of-control scientific progress and, implicitly, to the out-of-control capitalism that enables it.
The sound design must also be given credit. As amazing as the visual effects were, the sound effects and vocalizations created for the dinosaurs are equally impressive. Who can ever forget the earsplitting roar of the T-Rex? The same is true for the more avian and unnerving raptor calls and screeches. Not to mention the distinctive Dilophosaur hiss. I don’t think hissing has ever been done better. Not even by my cat.
BOOK TO MOVIE
So obviously, the story is streamlined from the book.
Here are some of the major differences:
The version of the park in the book is a lot farther from opening than the movie. The guest facilities and most of the attractions are very much under construction in the book. The world of the book is a lot less polished and therefore a little more dangerous.
A major and fascinating subplot is the fact that at the start of the book some of the smaller dinosaurs have already gotten off the island and are disrupting both the ecosystem and the human population of Costa Rica. In fact, the investigation into these events really provides the jumping off point for the rest of the story. This subplot is completely omitted from the movie. It is briefly followed-up on in Crichton’s sequel, The Lost World, but that book was written in the wake of the huge success of the movie and is a strange hybrid of a sequel to both the book and the movie which recons certain elements of the novel, like Malcolm’s death. Crichton seemed disinclined to write sequels as a rule so who knows if he would have ever followed up on Jurassic Park if there had not been pressure from Amblin and Universal to create a sequel. It seems that the novel sets up a book about the escaped dinos spread into the world which would have been awesome. I know a version of this happens in the Jurassic World movies but it happens in Crichton's books in a way that is more dangerous and insidious.
One of the biggest changes is in the characterization of Hammond who is less a kindly grandfather concerned with bringing joy to the world’s children than a rapacious and irresponsible capitalist who is using this powerful and transformative technology for purely frivolous entertainment purposes without a thought to the human or environmental consequences. And that's not even to mention on the dinosaurs themselves. On a related note Elon Musk has recently indicated he wants to clone dinosaurs. So, yeah. Lessons learned.
Grant and Sattler are not a couple here so the in-retrospect uncomfortable age and status gap is not a factor in the book. Grant specifically likes children in the book because they like dinosaurs. The changes they imposed on Grant in the movie are all about giving him some kind of tiresome domestication arc. Malcolm is largely the same character in the book but there is much more of him in the novel to the point where he is very much Crichton’s mouthpiece for the themes of the book and his criticisms of out-of-control scientific progress and, implicitly, to the out-of-control capitalism that enables it.
Also, lest I come off painting Michael Crichton as some kind of woke, leftie figure I don't think that was the case as all. He was actually famous in the later years of his life as a climate change denier. I don't know what all his politics were but I'm sure they were complex. That said, I stand by my reading of this book in that it is implicitly critical of the kind of irresponsible venture capitalism that enabled Jurassic Park. What we are supposed to take away from this book is that Jurassic Park is a terrible idea. This is so much the case that the book ends with the military bombing the island and killing all the dinosaurs.
This also happens off screen in the continuity of the movies but is very much at odds with the tone of the film which is very "aww, dinosaurs are majestic and beautiful." The fact that the movie series for some reason decided to do this also has caused a lot of unnecessary complexity and confusion to the lore such as the need for second and third islands, moving dinosaurs around between the various islands, a second park on the ruins of the first, etc.
“Your kids, Crichton. We’ve got to talk about your kids!”
Tim and Lex are also in the book. They are not a Spielbergian addition. The long and ignoble tradition of Jurassic series child endangerment starts squarely with Crichton’s novel. To Spielberg’s credit, the kids in the movie are far less annoying than in the novel. The ages in the movie have been swapped, so that Lex is now a preteen instead of an eight year old. Look, you are not ready for book Lex who is one of the most aggravating characters in fiction and someone is stubbornly determined to be difficult and unhelpful in a series of high-stakes crisis situations. By contrast, movie Lex has some useful skills and is mostly calm, down-to-earth, and acts like a normal human being.
As with the movie, much of the book is following Grant and the kids attempting to get from the Tyrannosaur paddock back to the visitor center. The journey in the book is a bit more extensive involving run-ins with both Tyrannosaurs (including a juvenile which is scary in a different way than the adult), on a river (a great scene finally recreated in Jurassic World Rebirth) and through a waterfall (a scene repurposed in The Lost World), through an abandoned aviary filled with pterosaurs (Jurassic Park III) and finally evading raptors through the InGen labs in the visitor center.
Perhaps most striking is the tonal difference between the book and movie. Crichton’s novel recounts the story’s many dinosaur attacks in sometimes graphic, medical detail. Many of the book’s characters are mauled or eaten alive and the book does not spare on the details.
Finally, the book features a different and slightly larger roster of dinosaurs including Compys, Stegasaurs (replaced by Triceratops in the movie),flying Cearadactyls, Microceratops, and Styracasaurus.
It should be noted the book version of the Dilophosaurus is more accurate to the actual animal in that it is considerably larger and lacking the neck frill, although its being venomous started with Crichton's book.
MONSTERS FEATURED:
Tyrannosaurus Rex
Dilophosaurus
Brachiosaurus
Tricerotops (lying down only)
Velociraptors – Introduced the word velociraptor into common speech.
Parasaur
Gallimimus
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE:
There are many amazing sequences in this movie but my personal favorite is a quick shot right after Grant and all land on the island. After you see the first Brachiosaurs there is a beautiful long shot of a herd of dinosaurs bathing in the lake in the golden sunlight. They should make a poster of this:
WHERE TO WATCH:
Widely available on Bluray and in various combo packs with its sequels. Back in the old days of the VCR, Jurassic Park was the movie with which you showed off your home theater system.
SEQUELS:
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001), Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World Dominion (featuring Malcolm, Grant, and Sattler), Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)
MINORITY REPORT:
First casualty: A black Costa Rican worker gets munched on by a caged raptor.
The only black character of consequence is a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel L. Jackson, who makes a novice minority-character-in-a-horror-movie mistake: He leaves the group to turn the lights on. No! If you are black and in a monster movie, you never leave a group of white people!
Minority Survival Threshold: 26%
Annoying-Ass Kid Survival Threshold: 100%
SEE ALSO:
King Kong (2005)
Primitive War (2024) While this dinosaur war movie has little to do with the Jurassic series it seems to go out of its way to feature many of the same dinosaurs in a more scientifically-accurate presentation and a level of gore and violence that is in keeping with Crichton’s novel.
READ ALSO:
Check out The Science of Jurassic Park by Rob Desalle and David Lindley. And also Crichton's novel.
Not that I condone reading.
THE TRAILER:
TRIVIA:
Actual velociraptors were only the size of a turkey and lived in Asia, so Grant would absolutely not be digging one up in Montana. The raptors in the movie resemble another species, Deinonychus which did live in what was now North America. Interestingly, around the time of the movie's release a related species, Utah Raptor, was discovered that more closely sized to the velociraptors in the movie (a bit larger actually.)
Patrick Garone
Chicago-based writer & director. Author of City of the Gods and We Lowly Gods.
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