John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is a wealthy entrepreneur and founder of a major corporation called InGen. His pride and joy is an animal themed park located on an island called Isla Nublar, an island located off the coast of Central America. The name of the park is Jurassic Park. Unlike other theme parks, the big attraction here is dinosaurs. These dinosaurs are genetically engineered from DNA retrieved from ancient blood sucking insects that were trapped in amber millions of years ago. In addition to the animal exhibits the park includes an extensive laboratory manned by the best genetic scientists. In charge of the operation is Henry Wu (B.D. Wong).
When an accident occurs that results in the death of a dinosaur handler the investors in the park want to have more safety features in dealing with the dinosaurs. In addition to upgrades in the various park systems they want the park inspected by outside experts that have nothing to do with owning, running or maintaining the park. The attorney for the investors, Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) says that they insist on having a well-known paleontologist inspect the park and give his honest opinion on it.
Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is a paleontologist and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) is a paleobotanist working on a dig in Montana. While working, a helicopter lands near their site. On board is Hammond. He manages to talk both of them into coming to the park to see how it is run and give it their blessing. As an incentive he offers to fund their current dig for a few years. They readily agree.
On the helicopter to Isla Nublar they meet mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). Later another helicopter arrives with Hammond’s grandchildren aboard, Tim and Lex Murphy (Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards). Hammond arranges for everyone to take a tour of the park in electric jeeps that run of a track that circulates around the park.
Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) is the computer programmer responsible for installing, programming and maintaining the computer systems that run the park. Nedry is in a bit of a bind money wise. To finance his lifestyle, he steals the DNA of many of the major dinosaurs in the park to sell to Hammond’s competitor. To do that, he shuts down many of the computer systems to cover up his theft. In addition, there is a major tropical storm heading for the island. The combination of the storm and the computer virus breaks down the safety protocols and knocks out the power to the dinosaur paddocks and the jeeps containing the kids and the scientists. Now the dinosaurs are loose and hunting humans.
“Jurassic Park” was released in 1993 and was directed by Steven Spielberg. It is an American science fiction action film. The movie was based on the 1990 novel by “Michael Crichton. There are seven films in the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, if you include the 8-minute short “Battle at Black Rock”. An eighth full-length film, “Jurassic World Rebirth” is in development. This film is more of a reboot than a sequel. It is expected to be released in July of 2025.
The filmmakers may have gotten some details wrong when it comes to what dinosaurs look like and act, but no one cares. It also may be a cautionary tale about the hubris of mankind but again no one cares. It’s the dinosaurs that are the draw. They were created by the use of animatronics and groundbreaking computer animation techniques developed by Industrial Light and Magic, owned by George Lucas. The combination of the talents of Spielberg and Lucas plus input from Harry Winston and Phil Tippett resulted in the most amazing dinosaurs ever seen on screen. The film features seven different species of dinosaur. The film is a must see for anyone even remotely interested in dinosaurs.
The roar of the T-Rex was a mix of a dog, penguin and tiger growls, an alligator’s gurgle, and a baby elephant’s squeal. The full-size T-Rex head and torso weighed approximately 12,000 pounds.