Hello dino fans and welcome to the discussion of Jurassic Park (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg! I had a blast watching this movie again during the week and making mental notes of how it’s different to the book, I hope you all enjoyed watching it too.

As there was some interest in reading the second book, The Lost World, later this year it would be great if we could keep the discussion to just this book/movie and not discuss the rest of the movies in the franchise; r/bookclub’s spoiler policy for reference.

The original movie trailer is on YouTube – the sound/picture quality isn’t great, but it’s notable that you barely see any dinosaurs in the trailer, and there are no full dinosaur shots. I’m not sure if that was for suspense purposes, or if the CGI wasn’t finished yet when this was released. Also, the iconic Jurassic Park music isn’t in the trailer either – the music near the beginning is actually from the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade soundtrack.

Here is another movie trailer, which is shorter but features more dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park music.

Movie summary

The film opens on the island of Isla Nublar, 120 miles west of Costa Rica. It is night and something mysterious is coming through the trees – a large cage/container being lifted by a crane, which is settled in front of an enclosure while several armed workers wearing Jurassic Park hard hats watch. A man climbs on top to open the cage door, but the velociraptor inside charges the cage, knocking the worker to the ground and attacking him. The man in charge, who we later learn is Robert Muldoon, tries to save him while yelling “SHOOT HER!”

The scene changes to the Mano de Dios amber mine (meaning ‘hand of god’ in English) in the Dominican Republic. A man wearing a suit that looks totally unsuitable for his surroundings is being pulled to shore on a raft; this is the lawyer Donald Gennaro, who seems to be a merging of the characters of Gennaro and Ed Regis from the book. He enters the mine and speaks to a miner (who is played by the shopkeeper in Seinfeld who persuades Kramer to enter Little Jerry the rooster into a cockfight), telling him that InGen is facing a $20 million lawsuit from the family of the worker who was killed in the opening scene, and that there will be a safety inspection of the park. They have already got Ian Malcolm, who is “very trendy”, on board but they want Alan Grant as well. As the miner examines a piece of amber containing an insect, he tells Gennaro that they’ll never get Grant because he’s a digger like him.

Now we’re at the Badlands near Snakewater, Montana, where an articulated skeleton of a velociraptor is being uncovered. Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler and the team look at a computer image of the skeleton and Grant points out features of the skeleton that are like birds. Some kid (why are they at a palaeontological dig?) says it doesn’t look very scary, “more like a 6ft turkey”, which is quite funny given that real velociraptors were actually about the size of a turkey. Unlike in the novel, the movie version of Grant hates children and uses this opportunity to scare the child while also providing some exposition to the audience about velociraptors and their hunting style.

A helicopter comes in and blows dust everywhere (rude!), so they scramble to cover the fossil. In their trailer, Grant confronts an old man who is going through their fridge and opening their champagne, until they realise it is their patron John Hammond. He tells Grant and Sattler that he has an island with a biological preserve – we get our first “Spared no expense” of the movie – and that he’d like them to come along and give their opinions because his investors are being difficult. He pours their Moët into tumblers, and tells them he will compensate them by fully funding their dig for the next three years.

At a restaurant in San José in Costa Rica, which is next to a beach for some reason even though actual San José is not a coastal city, a shifty-looking man wearing a hat and sunglasses sits down with Denis Nedry (“Dodgson! DODGSON! WE’VE GOT DODGSON HERE!”). I love that Nedry immediately takes the piss out of his outfit, asking him if he thinks he’s a secret agent or something. Dodgson gives him the can of shaving cream with the secret storage compartment and the coolant, and Nedry makes a dinosaur-like squeal of excitement🦖 He tells Dodgson that he has an 18-minute window to get past the security system, which will allow Dodgson to catch up on 10 years of research. When the bill arrives, he tells Dodgson not to get cheap on him – “That was Hammond’s mistake.”

On the helicopter to Isla Nublar, Hammond introduces Ian Malcolm, who “suffers from deplorable excess of personality, especially for a mathematician.” Malcolm corrects him that he’s a chaotician, and mentions chaos theory and non-linear equations.

The helicopter approaches the island, which is stunningly beautiful (this was actually filmed in Kauaʻi, one of the Hawaiian Islands; the waterfall where the helicopter lands is called Manawaiopuna Falls) and we get a full blast of the Jurassic Park theme. As they head into the island’s interior, Gennaro tells Hammond that the investors and deeply concerned, and that he will shut down the island if he isn’t convinced.

20 minutes into the movie, we see our first dinosaur, a brachiosaurus 🦕 They’re all amazed, and Gennaro says they’re doing to make an absolute fortune. Hammond casually mentions that not only have they got a T-Rex on the island but they’ve clocked it running at 32mph, and Grant has to sit down. They see other herbivores near the edge of the lake, and Grant is emotional as he notes that they move in herds.

The visitor centre is still under construction when they arrive. The guests go on the park tour, which isn’t finished. I love how the film uses Mr DNA to explain all the science, but I don’t get why they’ve designed it so that Hammond interacts – is he really going to be there for every tour? I also love the way Mr DNA pronounces ‘dinosaur’.

The group interrupt the tour because they want to see more (How do you interrupt the cellular mitosis? Can we see the unfertilised eggs?) so they push off the tours and head for the lab, where we meet Henry Wu and his pencil. An egg is hatching; Hammond insists on being there when the dinosaurs are born so they will imprint on him. Wu tells them there is no unauthorised breeding in Jurassic Park as they control the dinosaur’s chromosomes to make them all female. Malcolm says that kind of control is not possible, and Henry Wu does some fantastic pencil work to emphasise his points during his limited screen time.

Grant is worried about velociraptors being bred at the park, so the group blow off Alejandro’s Chilean sea bass lunch to go and watch the raptors being fed a cow. Robert Muldoon pops up and says the raptors should all be destroyed, which seems a bit alarmist but having watched the rest of the film he may have a point. According to him, they are lethal at eight months, have cheetah-like running speeds and are astonishing jumpers. The big female took over the pride and killed all except two, and they have been testing the fences for weaknesses.

As the group eat their lunch, Gennaro discusses how they’ll make as much money as possible. Hammond says Jurassic Park will be open to all children, and Gennaro is like yeah maybe we’ll do a coupon day for the poor children LOL. Malcolm criticises the lack of humility, saying Ingen is wielding genetic power like a child with his dad’s gun. Hammond tries to defend himself by bringing condors into it, but Malcolm points out that dinosaurs had their shot and nature removed them from existence. Sattler brings up the poisonous plants chosen for the park because they look good. Grant is also hesitant, saying we cannot have the slightest idea what to expect, and Hammond is indignant that the only person on his side is the “bloodsucking lawyer”.

Hammond's grandkids, Lex and Tim, turn up; in the movie, Lex is the older sibling. They also made Lex the one with the interest in computers, while Tim is the dinosaur enthusiast. As they leave for the jeep tour of the island, Grant tries to avoid sitting with the children (the tour voice is Richard Kiley, who was mentioned as the voice in the book as well; he was also the tour voice for the Universal Studios Jurassic Park ride). The first stop is at the dilophosaurus area, but the dilophosaurus doesn’t appear.

In the control room, John Arnold says Jurassic Park has all the problems of a major theme park and a major zoo and the computers aren’t even on their feet yet. Nedry is there too, and makes some pointed comments about finances and how much work he’s doing for the money he bid for the contract, but I’m not clear as to whether he was screwed over to the same extent as he was in the book. (When I was a child, I actually thought Nedry was Hammond’s son because of the way he says “Thanks Dad”; I guess I didn’t get the sarcasm). Muldoon tells them all to be quiet, as the tour is approaching the T-Rex paddock.

The T-Rex is not there, so a goat is put out to try to draw it out into the view of the cars. Lex is horrified, revealing that she is a vegetarian. Grant thinks the dinosaur doesn’t want to be fed, but wants to hunt. As they move on with the tour, it starts to rain. Malcolm taps on the screen and asks if there are any dinosaurs on the dinosaur tour; he tells Grant that a T-Rex won’t stick to schedules as it is the essence of chaos. He explains the butterfly effect to Sattler in quite a flirty way (you can see their chemistry; they met on this movie and were in a relationship until 1997). Grant jumps out of the moving car, and Sattler follows, which Malcolm tells himself could not have been predicted.

In the field, the group sees a sick triceratops (I’m not sure why they changed it from the stegosaurus in the book). Sattler thinks it has a pharmacological cause as the triceratops has dilated pupils, and suspects the highly toxic West Indian lilac found nearby, but will need to see the dung to be sure whether the dinosaurs eat it or not.

In the control room, Arnold tells Hammond that a storm is coming in and they’ll need to cut the tour short and pick it up the following day. Hammond is upset that the first tour had two no-shows and a sick triceratops.

Sattler doesn’t find any West Indian lilac leaves or berries in the dung, and is puzzled. The film never explains what actually happened, but we all know about the gizzard stones of course because we just read the book. She decides to stay behind while the others go back on the tour.

Nedry types ominously, then shiftily asks if anyone else in the control room wants a soda because he’s going to get one for himself. He mentions that the system will be compiling for 15-20 minutes but it’s nothing to worry about. Shortly afterwards, Arnold notices security systems going down, but Hammond is unconcerned as Nedry said it could happen. Meanwhile, Nedry sneaks into the fertilisation room and steals some embryos, putting them in the shaving cream can that Dodgson gave him.

Malcolm tells Grant that he has three kids and is married “occasionally”, and is always on the lookout for a future ex Mrs Malcolm. He asks if Sattler is available and Grant gets defensive. The car suddenly stops.

Fences are failing all over the park, but thankfully that doesn’t include the velociraptor fences. Hammond asks the others to find Nedry, while Arnold tries to get into the computer system. The phones are also out.

In the car, Gennaro dozes while Tim finds some night-vision goggles and looks around. He notices some mysterious booms, and that some water in a glass is vibrating. Gennaro wakes up and wonders if it’s just the power trying to come back on. They realise the goat is gone, and the leg lands on the car’s sunroof. Gennaro runs out of the car into a nearby bathroom, leaving the car door open. The T-Rex starts breaking the fence and steps into the road between the cars. Grant tells Malcolm to stay absolutely still as the T-Rex’s vision is based on movement.

Unlike in the book, there is no way to radio the other car, so Lex attempts to signal them using a torch. This gets the T-Rex’s attention, and it moves towards their car. Tim closes the car door, which it sees. The dinosaur roars and tries to get at them through the sunroof. When that doesn’t work, it flips the car over and goes for the car tyres while the children get mashed into the mud.

Grant uses some flares to get the dinosaur’s attention, then throws one to the side in attempt to divert it away from them. I guess he didn’t explain to Malcolm what he was planning, as Malcolm also lights up some flares but doesn’t throw them away so the T-Rex just chases him. He gets knocked aside, and the dinosaur destroys the bathroom, finding Gennaro sitting on a toilet. Gennaro gets eaten.

Meanwhile, Grant is trying to get the kids out of the overturned car but Tim is stuck. Lex screams, even though the T-Rex is nowhere near them, which of course draws it over to them. Grant tells her “Don’t move! He can’t see us if we don’t move.” The T-Rex sniffs around, blowing Grant’s hat off his head, and pushes the car in annoyance. Grant and Lex are forced to go over a cliff and abseil down some cables while the car is knocked over the edge.

Sattler decides to go and get the tour group, and Hammond asks if Muldoon could get his grandchildren.

Nedry is driving to the dock but gets lost and crashes into the sign marking the correct road. When he gets out of the car, he falls down a hill and loses his glasses. A dilophosaurus finds him (it’s noticeably smaller than it was in the book; they made it smaller for the film so people wouldn’t get it mixed up with the raptors. They also added a frill, possibly for the same reason). Nedry throws a stick for the dilophosaurus, and when the dinosaur doesn’t follow the stick he calls it stupid and says it’s no wonder they’re extinct. As he tries to go back to the car, it spits in his eyes. He staggers back to the car but hits his head, losing the can of shaving cream. When he recovers and gets into the car, the dilophosaurus is already in there (did it step over him to get into the car for extra dramatic effect?) The car shakes and we hear Nedry’s screams as the camera pans to the can of shaving cream being buried in mud.

Grant tells Lex to wait in a pipe while he goes to get Tim. She’s still freaking out that Gennaro left them, but he insists that he’s not going to do the same thing. He climbs a tree to the car and finds Tim inside, who is upset because he threw up. Grant turns the steering wheel while reaching for Tim, and the car creaks ominously as the wheels change position. They climb down the tree as the car crashes through the branches after them, and but are uninjured when it lands over them on the ground.

Sattler and Gennaro arrive at the attack site, and find parts of Gennaro strewn about but we don’t see what they see. They hear Malcolm groaning; he is injured and has applied a tourniquet. He tells them to remind him to thank John for a lovely weekend. They hear the T-Rex roaring as Sattler finds the other car; they see footprints leaving it but Grant and the kids are nowhere nearby. Malcolm, who is in the back of Muldoon’s jeep, hears the boom of the T-Rex approaching and sees water in its footprint vibrating from the impact tremors. They drive away as the T-Rex bursts through the trees and chases them, but they manage to get away.

Grant and the kids shelter in a tree, and hear a brachiosaurus singing. Grant imitates it, drawing their attention and scaring Lex. Tim tells some dinosaur jokes before the kids go to sleep, and Grant throws away his velociraptor claw.

Hammond and Sattler eat ice cream in the visitor centre’s cafeteria. He tells her about the flea circus he used to have in Petticoat Lane in London, but it was all an illusion. He says that hiring Nedry was a mistake and he sees that the park is overdependent on automation, but next time it will be flawless when they have control. Sattler says they never had control, and that was the illusion, and points out that people are dying.

Grant feeds a brachiosaurus from their tree. Lex is scared, but he tells her to think of it as a big cow. She gets sneezed on though. Shortly afterwards, while walking, Grant finds some shells of hatched eggs with tiny footprints leading away from them, and realises that the dinosaurs are breeding. He hypothesises that it’s because of amphibian DNA being used, and says Malcolm was right – life found a way.

Malcolm pants sweatily with his shirt open for some reason while Hammond tells Arnold to shut down the whole park system, as it’s the only way to undo what Nedry did. Muldoon says they could put the lysine contingency into effect, but Hammond balks at that. Arnold is finally persuaded to shut down the system, but when he restarts it, the power doesn’t come back on; they have to go and reboot it manually. Arnold goes to do that while the rest of the group goes to a bunker.

Grant and the kids see some gallimimus flocking about just like a flock of birds evading a predator, and have to run when they realise they’re coming towards them. They hide by a big tree log while the T-Rex bursts out of the trees and kills a gallimimus.

Sattler is getting nervous, as Arnold has been gone for too long; she thinks something has gone wrong. Hammond dismisses it as normal, saying that when Disneyland opened none of the rides worked; Malcolm points out “But if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.” Sattler and Muldoon decide to go and investigate, and take guns and radios with them.

They see the velociraptor enclosure fence all destroyed and dinosaur footprints going into the trees. Sattler says she can see the maintenance shed and they can make it if they run, but Muldoon says they’re already being hunted. He tells her to run towards the shed, and she makes it. Hammond guides her over the radio while following the schematic.

Grant and the kids get to the park’s perimeter fence; he tests it with a stick to see if the power is still off, then pretends to be electrocuted for the lols. He suggests breaking through the wire, but the T-Rex roar spurs them to climb it. The scene switches back and forth between them climbing the fence and Sattler switching the systems back on; Tim is still on the fence when the power returns, and Grant catches him as he is thrown towards the ground.

Sattler is delighted that the power is back on, saying they’re back in business; just then, a velociraptor bursts through some bars to attack her (this is the first time we see an adult velociraptor properly – an hour and 45 minutes into the film!) An arm lands on her shoulder and she’s like phew, Dr Arnold it’s you, but then finds it’s just an arm and not attached to anything. She runs with the velociraptor chasing her and gets back outside.

Muldoon is still stalking the velociraptor and thinks he has a good shot; just then, another one pops out of the bushes next to him. He says “Clever girl” but can’t swing the gun around to shoot her before she pounces.

Grant resuscitates Tim while Lex cries. He brings the kids to the visitor centre and leaves them in the cafeteria while he goes to find the others. He runs into Sattler outside, who tells him to run.

In the cafeteria, the kids get some food and sit down to eat it. Lex is holding a spoonful of green jelly (isn’t she vegetarian? That has gelatin in it) and starts shaking; a velociraptor is in the building. The children run into the kitchen to hide. It breathes on the door’s glass, which is further evidence that it is warm blooded.

In the bunker, Sattler tells the others that she has contained on of the velociraptors – unless they’ve figures out how to open doors, of course. We jump to the velociraptor opening the door to the kitchen, and it is quickly joined by a second one. The kids try to get to the door but a falling spoon alerts the dinosaurs. One sees Lex and charges, but luckily it is just her reflection. They lock the other one in the freezer, and run out of the kitchen while the first velociraptor revives and watches them leave.

They run into Grant and Sattler, and they go into the control room. The velociraptor tries to open the door, and Grant and Sattler try to hold the door while Lex goes into the Unix system to try restoring power and door locks. Sattler can’t reach the gun, and I don’t understand why Tim didn’t hand it to her because he wasn’t really doing anything in this scene. Lex gets the systems back online and the door locks. Grant phones Hammond in the bunker, who then listens in horror to gunshots as the velociraptor tries to break through the glass.

Grant, Sattler and the kids go up a ladder into the ceiling as the raptor breaks the glass, landing on a desk among the computer monitors. It looks up at the ceiling as they crawl through, almost getting Lex but thankfully the others grab her before she falls (Lex’s stunt double performed this scene, and wasn’t supposed to look up; they were forced to CGI her face as a result). They get through to the main hall and climb down the dinosaur skeletons, but another velociraptor is waiting for them! It pounces, breaking up the skeleton (possibly symbolic?) and they all fall to the floor. Another raptor pops through the plastic sheeting covering the unfinished section of the wall, cutting off their escape. They are trapped between the raptors, which are about to spring and there doesn’t seem to be any way out of there, but the T-Rex has come through the unfinished part of the building too and battles the raptors, providing enough of a diversion that they are able to escape out the front door.

Hammond pulls up in a car and picks them up to drive back to the helipad. Grant tells him that after careful consideration, he has decided not to endorse the park; Hammond says that so has he. Safely on the helicopter, both kids sleep while leaning against Grant, so I guess he likes children now – it just took several near-death experiences. Grant watches pelicans flying over the sea, as the helicopter flies towards the sunset.

Dinosaurs in the film

The Wikipedia section#Dinosaurs_on_screen) on how they created the dinosaurs and the dinosaur sounds for the film is really interesting! Jurassic Park was nominated for three Academy awards (Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects) and won them all. I found some really interesting videos about the sound effects and the Stan Winston animatronic models:

• Jurassic Park sound effects with Gary Rydstrom
• Puppeteering an Animatronic Triceratops Part 1 and Part 2
• How They Made Jurassic Park’s T-Rex
• T-Rex - Skinning an Animatronic Dinosaur Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
• Animatronic T-Rex Rehearsal
• Brachiosaurus Animatronic Puppet Rehearsal
• Raptor suits
• Raptor Puppet Attack Test
• Raptor Leg Rig Test for Jurassic Park’s Kitchen Scene
• Raptors in the Kitchen Rehearsal
• Animatronic Raptor Test
• Building the Dilophosaurus Dinosaur puppet

Movie trivia

Alan Grant’s character in the book was partly inspired the palaeontologist Jack Horner), who worked on excavating dinosaur nests in Montana and provided the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. Horner was a scientific advisor for the first five films; here is an interview with him from 2018 (it’s hard to find ones with no spoilers for the later movies!)

Ian Malcolm wasn’t in the original movie script, as the screenwriter said his character spent too much time talking about “esoteric scientific concepts”.

The animatronic T-Rex sometimes malfunctioned because of the rain. Kathleen Kennedy, one of the producers, said “The T. Rex went into the heebie-jeebies sometimes. Scared the crap out of us. We’d be, like, eating lunch, and all of a sudden a T. Rex would come alive. At first we didn’t know what was happening, and then we realized it was the rain. You’d hear people start screaming.”

Hurricane Iniki hit Kauaʻi in September 1992 while they were filming Jurassic Park there, and the establishing shots of the storm are from that. The crew helped clear some of the island’s roads afterwards. Richard Attenborough (John Hammond) apparently slept through the hurricane; Samuel L. Jackson (John Arnold) was also supposed to film a long sequence where his character is chased and killed by raptors, but the hurricane destroyed the set so that was scrapped.

Other scenes planned for the movie that didn’t make it in for various reasons included a sequence where Grant and kids rafted down the river, where Lex made friends with a baby triceratops and some expanded Grant/Sattler scenes showing more about their relationship (including a kiss).

The ending with the T-Rex fighting the velociraptors was a late addition to the script; the original ending had Grant using a platform machine to manoeuvre a raptor into a fossil tyrannosaur’s jaws. Having Hammond shoot the raptors was also considered.

Some of the other actors considered for the main roles; Spielberg initially offered the role of John Hammond to Sean Connery which might explain why his character has a vaguely Scottish accent (since Sean Connery cannot do anything other than a Scottish accent)

Other useful/interesting links:

• The first discussion
• The second discussion
• The third discussion
• The fourth discussion
• The fifth discussion
• Michael Crichton on Wikipedia
• Jurassic Park (novel)) on Wikipedia
• Jurassic Park (film)) on Wikipedia
• Jurassic Park (film score)) on Wikipedia
• Jurassic Park on IMDb
• Bonus Feature – Steven Spielberg Directs Jurassic Park
• Return to Jurassic Park: Dawn of a New Era
• Jurassic Park London premiere (Princess Diana arrives around 12:30 in the video)
• Jurassic Park Washington DC premiere
• Jurassic Park Stars Talk The Adventure Of Filming (Today show, 1993)
• Welcome to Jurassic Park: An oral history (EW, 2013)
• Jurassic Park According to Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill (Vanity Fair, 2022 – may contain spoilers for later movies in the franchise; they start talking about Jurassic World Dominion at around 7:25)
• The making of Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios
• McDonald’s Jurassic Park Meal Commercial - June 1993
• McDonalds Jurassic Park Dino Sized Commercial (1993)
• How ‘Jurassic Park’ changed filmmaking and our view of dinosaurs
• The iconic velociraptor scene in ‘Jurassic Park’ would have been different — and unscientific — if Spielberg had gotten his way, the film’s science advisor says
• The Continuously Evolving Picture of the World’s Largest Raptor
• This isn’t really anything to do with the book or movie, but I found this really interesting Q&A on Reddit with palaeontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta

The discussion questions are in the comments below.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in reading and discussing Jurassic Park, I had so much fun with this one!