- This article is about the Michael Crichton novel. For other uses, see Jurassic Park (disambiguation).
Jurassic Park
|
| Original paperback of Jurassic Park |
| Author |
Michael Crichton |
| Country |
United States |
| Language |
English |
| Genre(s) |
Science fiction & Techno-thriller novel |
| Publisher |
Alfred A. Knopf |
| Released |
November 1990 |
| Media Type |
Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Audio |
| Pages |
416 pp (original hardcover) |
| ISBN |
ISBN 0-394-58816-9 (original hardcover) |
| Followed by |
The Lost World |
Jurassic Park is a novel written by Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park was published in 1990. Often considered a cautionary tale on unconsidered biological tinkering in the same spirit as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it uniquely uses the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical implications to explain the collapse of an amusement park showcasing certain recreated dinosaur species. It was adapted into a film in 1993.
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Contents
- 1 Plot summary
- 2 Dinosaurs and other extinct animals featured
- 3 Biological issues
- 4 Adaptations
- 4.1 Film
- 4.2 Rides
- 4.3 Video games
- 4.4 Toys and Merchandise
- 5 Sequel
- 6 Further reading
- 7 References
- 8 Trivia
- 9 See also
- 10 External links
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Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The novel, in an "introduction", is initially presented as a brief report on the consequences of "The InGen Incident", which occurred in August 1989. This "fiction as fact" presentation had been used by Crichton before, notably in Eaters of the Dead and The Andromeda Strain. Most notably, Crichton frames his chapters between the "iterations" of chaotic behavior predicted by the character Ian Malcolm in his (book-within-a-book) report.
The narrative begins by slowly tying together a series of incidents involving strange animal attacks in Costa Rica. After paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate student Ellie Sattler enter the sequence of queried experts they are abruptly whisked off by billionaire John Hammond (founder and CEO of InGen) for a weekend visit to a "zoological preserve" he has established off the coast of Costa Rica.
Recent events have spooked Hammond's considerable investors and, to placate them, he means for Grant and Sattler to act as fresh consultants. They stand in counterbalance to a rock-star-like mathematician Ian Malcolm and a lawyer representing the investors, Donald Gennaro. Both are pessimistic, but Malcolm, having been consulted before the park's creation, is emphatic in his prediction that the park will collapse, as it is an unsustainably simple structure bluntly forced upon a complex system.
Upon arrival the park is revealed to contain cloned dinosaurs, which have been recreated from damaged dinosaur DNA (found in mosquitoes trapped in amber that sucked Saurian blood) that have been spliced with reptilian, avian, or amphibian DNA to fill in the gaps. Hammond proudly showcases InGen's secret advances in genetic engineering and parades them through the island's vast array of automated systems.
To counter Malcolm's dire prognostications with youthful energy Hammond groups the consultants with his grandchildren, Tim and Lex Murphy, who have been sent on vacation while their parents divorce. While touring the park with the children, Grant finds an eggshell seeming to prove Malcolm's earlier assertion that the dinosaurs have been breeding against the geneticists' design (the population graphs proudly introduced earlier were naturally distributed).
Malcolm suggests a flaw in their method of analysing dinosaur populations (they never bothered to set their software to search the motion detectors for more than the expected number of creatures, only less) and the park's controllers are shaken by the realization that the park has long been operating beyond their constraints.
In the midst of this the chief programmer of Jurassic Park's controlling software, Dennis Nedry, attempts some corporate espionage for Lewis Dodgson, an agent of one of InGen's competitors, Biosyn. By manipulating bugs he wrote into the system, Nedry manages to quickly steal 15 frozen embryos and smuggle them out to a contact on the docked S.S. Anne B. But his plan goes awry because of a sudden tropical storm and the Anne B departs while Nedry crashes his stolen jeep. Nedry's plan called for him to secretly deliver the stolen embryos and return to the park's control room within fifteen minutes but, without Nedry to quietly patch the system, the park's security is left off. Without the electrified fences to contain them, dinosaurs begin to escape. A Tyrannosaurus rex attacks the people on tour, thus leaving Grant and the children lost in the park.
Ian Malcolm is gravely injured and spends the remainder of the novel slowly dying as, in between lectures and morphine-induced rants, he tries to help those in the main compound understand their predicament and survive.
The park's upper management—(engineer and park supervisor John Arnold, geneticist Henry Wu, game warden Robert Muldoon, and Hammond) struggle to maintain control over the situation and for a brief while they manage to get the park largely back in order. But a series of arrogant mistakes on their part plunge the park into greater disarray. The viciously intelligent Velociraptors that were locked away close to the central compound finally escape and pick off Henry Wu and John Arnold in the ensuing carnage. Robert Muldoon sprains his ankle, and Harding and Ellie Sattler are also injured. Finally, Grant and the kids slowly make their way back to the central compound carrying news that several young raptors, raised in the island's wilds, were on board the Anne B when it departed for the mainland.
With no social order left, the survivors organize themselves and eventually secure their own lives. Just when the crisis is largely over, Hammond, furious with being ignored and desperate to regain control, has an accident, is picked apart by scavengers and dies alone. Gennaro tries to order the island destroyed as a dangerous asset but Grant rejects his authority, claiming that even though they can't control the island they have a responsibility to understand just what happened and how many dinosaurs have already escaped to the mainland. Finally Grant, Sattler, and Gennaro set out into the park to find the wild raptor nests and compare hatched eggs with the island's revised population tally. Cautious and nonviolent, they emerge unharmed.
In the end the island is suddenly and violently razed by the fictional Costa Rican Air Force. The survivors of the incident are detained indefinitely by the United States and Costa Rican governments.
Dinosaurs and other extinct animals featured
Dinosaurs and other extinct animals confirmed to be on Isla Nublar in the novels:
- Apatosaurus (Camarasaurus in some editions)
- Cearadactylus (not a dinosaur)
- Dilophosaurus
- Euoplocephalus
- Hadrosaurus
- Hypsilophodon (Dryosaurus was used in context to describe this animal)
- Maiasaura
- Microceratops (Callovosaurus in some editions, and Microceratops was renamed to Graciliceratops)
- Othnielia
- Procompsognathus(A real dinosaur at the time, but is no proven to be fake.)
- Stegosaurus
- Styracosaurus
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus
- Velociraptor
- Later editions of the novel list Microceratops in place of Callovosaurus on the population tables presented in the book. Microceratops, however, is observed by characters in the park whereas Callovosaurus is not.
- Later editions of the novel use Camarasaurus in place of Apatosaurus, although Apatosaurus remains on the population tables presented in the book.
- A dinosaur presumed to be a coelurosaurus had just begun the DNA extraction procedure at the time the story takes place.
- In addition to dinosaurs and pterosaurs, several prehistoric plants and at least one species of insect, a giant dragonfly, were also resurrected from extinction for the park.
Biological issues
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Main article: Biological issues in Jurassic Park
Scientists and fans of the movie have pointed out that much of what happens in the film is impossible for various reasons. However the novel, and to a greater extent the movie, sparked years of serious debate on the plausibility of cloning dinosaurs.
One of the themes expressed throughout this story and its sequels is that of homeothermic (warm-blooded) dinosaurs, a recent theory popularized by paleontologist Bob Bakker.
While the cinematic incarnation of Jurassic Park used ostrich eggs as vessels to facilitate expression, the novel very specifically utilized "a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell." The plastic was called "millipore", created by an eponymous subsidiary of InGen.[1]
Adaptations
Film
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Main article: Jurassic Park (film)
Universal Studios paid Michael Crichton $2 million for the rights to the novel in 1990, before it was even published. In 1993, the Steven Spielberg-directed film adaptation was released. Many plot points from the novel were changed or dropped.
Rides
There are rides based on Jurassic Park in the Universal Studios theme parks in Universal City, California, Orlando, Florida and Osaka.
Jurassic Park: The Ride premiered at Universal Studios Hollywood and was designed by Steven Spielberg while he was also working on the movie. The ride cost over $85 million to design and build when it premiered.
Universal Studios: Islands Of Adventure in Orlando, Florida has an entire section of the park dedicated to Jurassic Park which includes the main Jurassic Park: The Ride and many smaller rides and attractions based on the Jurassic Park series.
Video games
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Main article: Jurassic Park (video game)
There have been a number of Jurassic Park video games released to act as merchandise for the release of each film. The titles have appeared on a range of platforms including NES, Game Boy, Game Gear, PC:DOS/Windows, SNES, Sega Mega CD, Sega Genesis/Sega Mega Drive, 3DO, arcade, PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
Toys and Merchandise
Jurassic Park's merchandise is notable for being both heavily featured in the Movie itself (scenes taking place in the Parks Gift Shop featured much of the movies actual merchandise) and a scene decrying the use of merchandising. (Ian Malcolms 'Lunch Box' speech) As was common for such large releases, particularly of 'family' movies, at the time, Jurassic Park had a large merchandising campaign. In many ways, Jurassic Park was one of the last big film releases to have such a campaign, though the practice was common at the time.
The film spawned a series of action figures marketed by Kenner, with most of the films main protagonists, human and dinosaur represented. This included dinosurs not seen in the movie (such as the Pteradactyl) and a very confusing action figure that is named for 'villain' Dennis Nedry, but seems to bear closer resemblance in design and on package character notes to 'Hero' Ian Malcolm. The dinosaurs all featured a JP logo tattoo and id number on their skins, both as an addition or elaboration on the films story, as well as to serve the important point of helping differentiate offical movie dinosaur toys, from other similar dinosaur products that existed for years before and after. The Jurassic Park figures were one of the last movie tie-in ranges that were designed with childs play, rather than collectors, in mind, and consequently feature less articulation and accuracy that modern movie action figures, owing more to the first film 'action figures' from Star Wars (also Kenner) than to modern, Post-Mcfarlane and laser imaging toys.
Of higher mould quality were the various model kits released to tie in with movie, the launch range consisting of T-Rex, Raptor, and unwell Triceratops. There was also a model of the films For Explorer props, which perversely was possibly the most popular of the kits in the Scale-model making community.
There was also a set of candy filled 'Dinosaur Eggs' that contained small, though quite detailed for the time, replicas of various dino species. The initial run of these eggs were coloured tan, to match quite closely the raptor egg seen in the film. The later eggs contained slightly larger dinosaur models, made of a harder plastic, the egg shells now a unifrom bright artificial white. Both sets of eggs were embossed with the T-Rex silhouette logo. Production an sale of these eggs, at least in the UK, continued for many years after the films initial release, only ceasing their irregular appearance when the movies sequeal was announced. This was also true of the Jurassic Park 'Candy Sticks', whic were notable for possibly being the first of the regularly film branded sweets to use this name instead of the more common 'Sweet Cigarettes' and dropping the food dyed red tips. (Ironic considering the parks IT departments dependency on them) It was also likely the last major film release in the UK that branded these sweets, including cigarette-card style cards inside each packet, an association that goes back to at least (Spielbergs earlier family blockbuster) E.T.
These cards were seperate to the main series of trading cards, released by Topps, worldwide, (using the companies style for movie trading cards and packaging that was set 4 years earlier for Tim Burton's 'Batman') which, in addition to telling the story of the film, included subsections on both 'Behind the Scenes' making-of-the-movie, and the pencil sketch designs of Mark 'Crash' McCreery and Stan Winston, of the films non-human stars. Again this is something rarely seen in the modern era of fil, being no doubt in part replaced by DVD commentaries and web presence.
This information could also be found in the obligatory 'Magazine of the movie/Official Movie magazine' distributed worlwide with some aesthetic changes, depending on region. There was also a 'Starlog Dinosaur special' released to coincide with the movie, although it featured other dino-films alongside Jurassic Park, and featured a JP influenced lenticular hologram cover.
More directly related to the film, and of a very high standard for the time, was the 'Jurassic Park' Comic, from Dark Horse. In the US this title continued long after the films release, branching into its own storylines, much in the vein of DH's 'Aliens' and 'Predator' film licensed comicbooks had. In the UK, Dark Horse UK published these stories as part of an ongoing anthology that also reprinted other independent and international Dinsosaur coic strips, including the first UK appearances of (Japanese Manga) Gon, Dinosaurs & Cadillacs, and some completely 'silent', beautifully rendered 'Natural History' stories showing Jurassic Park familar dinos in their natural habitat.
These pieces are naturally the stand out in addition to the lunch-boxes, pencil tins, stationery sets, etc that accompanied the films release, including, for example, free baseball caps with the films logo atop in felt, that were given away with the purchase of JP branded super-sized popcorn and coke deals in UCI cinemas, such as the Empire Leicester Square (where the films UK premiere was also staged.)
Later merchandising (early 21st century) would focus on limited collectibles and movie-prop replicas, including raptor eggs and claws, as well as items from the parks technical side.
Sequel
The book has one sequel, The Lost World.
Further reading
The Science of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Or How to Build a Dinosaur. Rob DeSalle and David Lindley. BasicBooks, New York, 1997. xxix, 194 pp., illus. $18 or C$25.50. ISBN 0-465-07379-4.
References
- Cano R.J., Poinar H.N., Pieniazek N.J., Acra A., Poinar G.O. Jr. (1993). Amplification and Sequencing of DNA from a 120–135-Million-Year-Old Weevil. Nature, 363:536–538
- Weaver, R. F. (2002). Molecular Biology. McGraw-Hill, New York, p. 76. ISBN 0-07-234517-9
- Noonan, J.P., et. al. Genomic sequencing of Pleistocene cave bears. Science 309(5734):597-9, July 2005.
Trivia
- The operating system the computers used was IRIX, a UNIX variant made by Silicon Graphics.
- In the real world, Costa Rica is one of the very few demilitarized states in the world, and therefore does not have the armed forces described in the book.
- One segment of dinosaur DNA given in the book is actually the common DNA cloning vector pBR322.
- Nedry's name is an anagram for "nerdy".
- Sam Neill's character, Alan Grant, is based on real life Paleontologist and Maiasaur expert, Jack Horner.
See also
- Jurassic Park Visitors Center
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Jurassic Park (novel)
- Official site
- Jurassic Park at the official Michael Crichton website
- Jurassic Park Legacy - A JP Fan Site
Jurassic Park series
| Novels: |
Jurassic Park | The Lost World |
| Films: |
Jurassic Park | The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Jurassic Park III | Jurassic Park IV |
| Settings: |
Isla Nublar | Jurassic Park Visitors Center | The Five Deaths | Isla Sorna |
| Various: |
Michael Crichton | List of characters in Jurassic Park | List of vehicles in Jurassic Park | Jurassic Park (video game) |
Dominican Amber | Dragon curve | InGen | Biosyn |
Categories: 1990 novels | Books by Michael Crichton | Fictional museums | Fictional parks | Jurassic Park | Science fiction novels | Techno-thriller novels