Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Gerald R. Molen, and starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough. It is the first installment in the Jurassic Park franchise, and the first film in the Jurassic Park original trilogy, and is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton and a screenplay by Crichton and David Koepp. The film is set on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, located off Central America's Pacific Coast near Costa Rica, where wealthy businessman John Hammond (Attenborough) and a team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of de-extinctdinosaurs. When industrial sabotage leads to a catastrophic shutdown of the park's power facilities and security precautions, a small group of visitors and Hammond's grandchildren struggle to survive and escape the perilous island.

Before Crichton's novel was published, four studios put in bids for its film rights. With the backing of Universal Studios, Spielberg acquired the rights for $1.5 million before its publication in 1990. Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen. Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters. Filming took place in California and Hawaii from August to November 1992, and post-production lasted until May 1993, supervised by Spielberg in Poland as he filmed Schindler's List. The dinosaurs were created with groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by Industrial Light & Magic, and with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston's team. To showcase the film's sound design, which included a mixture of various animal noises for the dinosaur roars, Spielberg invested in the creation of DTS, a company specializing in digital surround sound formats. The film was backed by an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with over 100 companies.

Jurassic Park premiered on June 9, 1993, at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C., and was released on June 11 in the United States. It went on to gross over $914 million worldwide in its original theatrical run, becoming the highest-grossing film ever at the time, surpassing Spielberg's own E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, a record held until the release of Titanic in 1997. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its special effects and Spielberg's direction.Following its 20th anniversary re-release in 2013, Jurassic Park became the oldest film in history to surpass $1 billion in ticket sales and the seventeenth overall. The film won over 20 awards, including three Academy Awards for its technical achievements in visual effects and sound design. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was followed by five sequels – The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park 3 (2001), Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Jurassic World Dominion (2022).

Storyline[]

Industrialist John Hammond has created Jurassic Park, a theme park of cloned dinosaurs, on tropical Isla Nublar. After a dinosaur handler is killed by a Velociraptor, the park's investors, represented by lawyer Donald Gennaro, demand a safety certification. Gennaro invites chaotician Ian Malcolm, while Hammond invites paleontologist Alan Grant and paleobotanist Ellie Sattler. Upon arrival, the group is shocked to see a live Brachiosaurus.

At the park's visitor center, the group learns that the cloning was accomplished by extracting dinosaur DNAfrom prehistoric mosquitoes preserved in amber. DNA from frogs and other animals was used to fill in gaps in the genome of the dinosaurs. To prevent breeding, all the dinosaurs were made female by direct chromosome manipulation. The group witnesses the hatching of a baby Velociraptor and visits the raptor enclosure. During lunch, the group debates the ethics of cloning and the creation of the park. Malcolm warns about the implications of genetic engineering and scoffs at the park's conceptualization, saying that it will inevitably break down.

Hammond's grandchildren, Lex and Tim, join for a tour of the park, while Hammond oversees from the control room. The tour does not go as planned, with most of the dinosaurs failing to appear and the group encountering a sick Triceratops; it is cut short as a tropical storm approaches. Most of the park employees leave for the mainland on a boat, while the visitors return to their electric tour vehicles, except Sattler, who stays behind with the park's veterinarian to study the Triceratops.

Jurassic Park's disgruntled lead computer programmer, Dennis Nedry, has been bribed by Dodgson, a man working for Hammond's corporate rival, to steal fertilized dinosaur embryos. Nedry deactivates the park's security system to gain access to the embryo storage room, and stores the embryos inside a container disguised as a shaving cream can. Nedry's sabotage also cuts power to the tour vehicles, stranding them just as they near the park's Tyrannosaurus rex paddock. Most of the park's electric fences are also deactivated, allowing the Tyrannosaurus to escape and attack the group. After the Tyrannosaurus overturns a tour vehicle, it injures Malcolm and devours Gennaro, while Grant, Lex and Tim escape. On his way to deliver the embryos to the island's docks, Nedry gets lost in the rain, crashes his Jeep Wrangler, and is killed by a Dilophosaurus.

Sattler helps the game warden, Robert Muldoon, search for survivors; they only find an injured Malcolm, just before the Tyrannosaurus returns and chases them away. Grant, Tim and Lex take shelter in a treetop and encounter a Brachiosaurus. They later discover the broken shells of dinosaur eggs, and Grant concludes that the dinosaurs have been breeding, which occurred because of their amphibian DNA—animals like West African frogs can change their sex in a single-sex environment, allowing the dinosaurs to do so as well.

Unable to decipher Nedry's code to reactivate the security system, Hammond and chief engineer Ray Arnold reboot the park's system. The group shuts down the park's grid and retreats to an emergency bunker while Arnold heads to a maintenance shed to complete the rebooting process. When Arnold fails to return, Sattler and Muldoon head to the shed. They discover the shutdown has deactivated the remaining fences and released the Velociraptors. Muldoon distracts the raptors while Sattler goes to turn the power back on before being attacked by a raptor and discovering Arnold's severed arm. Meanwhile, Muldoon is caught off-guard and killed by the other two raptors.

Grant, Tim and Lex reach the visitor center. Grant heads out to look for Sattler, leaving Tim and Lex inside. Tim and Lex are pursued by the raptors in a kitchen, but they escape and join Grant and Sattler, who have returned. The group reaches the control room and Lex uses Nedry's computer to restore the park's power, allowing them to call Hammond, who calls for help. As they try to escape by the front entrance, they are cornered by the raptors, but they escape when the Tyrannosaurus appears and kills the raptors. Hammond arrives in a jeep with Malcolm, and the group boards a helicopter to leave the island.

Jurassic Park (1993)

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Storyline[]

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Movie Trailer[]

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