[HorrorScience] Jurassic Park (1993)

Reading time: 9 minutes

Qualification

jurassic park

Year

1993

Duration

125 minutes

Director

Steven Spielberg

Distribution

Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Joseph Mazzelo, Ariana Richards, Martin Ferrero, Wayne Knight, Samuel L. Jackson, BD Wong

Script

Michael Crichton (original story), David Koepp, Malia Scotch Marmo

The film I am going to talk about next needs no introduction, as it must be one of the most influential in the history of recent cinema, both on a technical and commercial level.

I am aware that practically everyone has seen Jurassic Park, but even so I think it deserves a comment in this section, because after the premiere of Jurassic World, we may find ourselves facing the resurrection of the franchise that began with this 1993 feature film.

It all begins when one of the workers loses his life while transporting one of the park's dinosaurs. Faced with this situation, the victim's family is demanding compensation from the owner, billionaire John Hammond, and the park's investors are considering withdrawing their support for the project if they are not certified that the place is safe. These circumstances force the trip of a mathematician (Ian Malcolm), a paleontologist (Alan Grant) and a botanist (Ellie Sattler) who will spend a weekend at the Hammond facilities in order to convince investors of their safety and success, something that their representative (Donald Gennaro) seems to see the moment they arrive on the island and see the first dinosaur.

Given the unknowns raised about how Hammond has managed to bring the colossal animals back to life, visitors are explained that everything was possible thanks to prehistoric mosquitoes that, after sucking the blood of a dinosaur, were trapped in amber and preserved until today, where thanks to advances in science (and with the help of frog DNA) the genetic code can be remade and the dinosaurs can be brought back.

Despite a tremendously positive first impression, Grant and Sattler begin to see that Hammond has gone against nature and that Ian Malcolm's dire predictions may end up coming true due to how impossible it can be to contain a hand-made ecosystem without any notion of necessity, based only on including what is beautiful or striking. Of course, it doesn't help that among the dinosaurs found in the park there are such lethal species as Tyrannosaurus or overgrown Velociraptors.

[HorrorScience] Jurassic Park (1993) — John Hammond and his guests on the island

Convinced of his success, Hammond decides to have the experts, Gennaro and his two grandsons (Lex and Tim) tour what will be the main attraction of Jurassic Park, believing that once seen through the eyes of the tourists they will be convinced of the safety of the park and will give it their resounding approval.

Unfortunately, this security is compromised when computer scientist Dennis Nedry decides to deactivate some of the security systems to steal dinosaur embryos, which he will sell to a rival company to obtain a handsome reward. This action will unleash chaos, especially because the visitors' cars have stopped in the area of the Tyrannosaurus, which begins to roam freely through the park, after seeing that the electric fence that contains it has stopped working.

The Rex's attack claims its first victim and causes the group to dissolve, leaving Alan Grant in charge of the two terrified children. Upon his return to the Visitor Center, Grant discovers that things are worse than they seem, because although Hammond and his team created all the dinosaurs as females as a population control measure, some of them have managed to breed in the wild, thus multiplying the risk.

After discovering Nedry's betrayal, Hammond, Ellie and several of the park's men decide to restart the system, which seems to be the only way to regain control of the park, although of course, the risk of doing so is very high, since all the systems would turn off for a few seconds, releasing all the dinosaurs, including the fearsome Velociraptors.

jurassic park It can be considered a practically perfect film, because the only flaws that I am able to see are some changes with respect to what happens in the book. I can understand that for reasons of length interesting scenes such as the one in the Pteranodon aviary (which was used in Jurassic Park III) that of the raptor nest, one of the most important themes of the book was ignored (that the dinosaurs have managed to escape from the island on more than one occasion) or even that the ending was changed to give more prominence to the Tyrannosaurus.

However, when it comes to evaluating the human protagonists, some changes left me with a bittersweet feeling, as I will explain below.

The heroes (Ian, Ellie and Alan) come out well, despite some slight changes made to them, such as the inclusion of the always forced romance between the last two (so forced that fortunately it seems to dilute until it disappears during the film). The children also pass the test, even though their personalities and ages have been reversed compared to the book (where Lex is the youngest and Tim is the computer expert).

But then we come to three other important characters such as Donald Gennaro, Dennis Nedry and John Hammond. The first goes from being a guy who, despite his fears, actively collaborates in helping the group and regaining control of the park to becoming a pathetic jester who not only abandons the children when the Tyrannosaurus appears, but also considers it appropriate to relieve himself with the tremendous predator just a few meters away. It is not surprising that he is one of the first victims.

Dennis Nedry is a character created to be hated and his representation is practically identical to that of the book except for a reason that humanizes him and makes him much more complex and believable. As he tells us in the novel, Jurassic Park has such a large number of technical errors that it practically works like a miracle. The person responsible for correcting these errors is Dennis Nedry, who tries to convince Hammond that what he is asking him to do is too much and he is not capable of covering it within the indicated time frame. With the possibility that Dennis resigns from his job and the park's opening is delayed, John Hammond blackmails him, forcing him to work for him tirelessly under threats to ruin his future thanks to the contacts he has. Seen this way, it is understandable that Nedry wanted Hammond to fail and compromise the safety of the park, right?

And the last character that I think changes too much is John Hammond himself, who is constantly beatified in the film. Isn't he the grandfather we all wish we had? (and I'm not saying that because he's rich or has dinosaurs, but because he's adorable). Unfortunately Hammond is also a millionaire man and Jurassic Park is a business in which he has invested a lot of money. Hammond is a businessman and although he is affable and friendly, he shows his real face when problems start in the park; I'm not just talking about the extortion of Dennis, but that he is able to blame everyone (the workers, the experts he has brought to the park, even his grandchildren) for the park's problems, which doesn't fit too well with the affable Hammond of the movie (although there are a couple of scenes in which it seems that they tried to show that part of his character, but backed off in time).

These changes in Gennaro, Nedry and Hammond do not affect the film itself, but they simplify the characters so much that they strip them of part of their humanity to simply make them "the fool", "the bad one" and "the good one".

Even with everything, jurassic park It is exceptional, it has moments of authentic tension and terror, memorable scenes, interesting characters, special effects that are still credible today and a variety of situations above average. The effort they put into this film is very noticeable and I think the fame he achieved is totally justified.

Curiosities about the film:

When Nedry and Hammond are arguing about money, you can see that Nedry is watching the movie on a computer screen. Shark.
Richard Attenborough had been retired for years, but Spielberg insisted that he play John Hammond and got him to return to acting.
Hurricane Iniki slightly interrupted the final part of filming, forcing actors and film crews to take shelter in buildings. Richard Attenborough didn't even notice because he was sleeping.
Thanks to jurassic park The image of the Tyrannosaurus leaning forward became popular, a posture that according to scientists is more correct than that of the upright animal, which had been popularized by films such as king kong or the Gwangi Valley. Unfortunately, the idea that Dilophosaurus were poisonous and that Velociraptors were almost two meters tall also became popular, both of which were completely false.
All kinds of special effects were used to represent the dinosaurs in the film, from computer generated effects, to huge animatronics and the always reliable costumes.