Jurassic
Park (novel)
Hard cover for the Jurassic Park novel
Jurassic Park is a 1990 science fiction
novel written by Michael Crichton, divided into seven sections (iterations).
Often considered a cautionary tale on unconsidered biological tinkering in the
same spirit as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it uses the metaphor of the
collapse of an amusement park showcasing genetically recreated dinosaurs to
illustrate the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical
implications. A sequel titled The Lost World, also written by Crichton, was
published in 1995. In 1997, both novels were re-published as a single book
titled Michael Crichton's Jurassic World, unrelated to the film of the same
name.
In 1993, Steven Spielberg adapted the book
into the blockbuster film Jurassic Park. The book's sequel, The Lost World, was
also adapted by Spielberg into a film in 1997. A third film directed by Joe
Johnston and released in 2001 drew several elements, themes and scenes from
both books that were ultimately not utilized in either of the previous films,
such as the aviary and boat scenes. A fourth entry directed by Colin Trevorrow
was released on June 12, 2015.
The novel began as Crichton conceived a
screenplay about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur in 1983.
Eventually, given his reasoning that genetic research is expensive and
"there is no pressing need to create a dinosaur", Crichton concluded
that it would emerge from a "desire to entertain", leading to a wildlife
park of extinct animals. Originally it was told from the point of view of a
child, but Crichton changed it as everyone who read the draft felt it would be
better if told by an adult.
The narrative begins in August 1989 by
slowly tying together a series of incidents involving strange animal attacks in
Costa Rica and on fictional Isla Nublar, the main setting for the story. One of
the species, a strange, small, lizard-like creature with three toes (thought at
the time to be a new species of basilisk lizard), is eventually identified as a
Procompsognathus. Paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate
student, Ellie Sattler, are abruptly whisked away by billionaire John Hammond —
founder and chief executive officer of International Genetic Technologies, or
InGen — for a weekend visit to a "biological preserve" he has
established on a remote island off the coast of Costa Rica.
Upon arrival, the preserve is revealed to
be Jurassic Park, a theme park showcasing cloned dinosaurs. The animals have
been recreated using damaged dinosaur DNA found in blood inside of gnats and
ticks fossilized and preserved in amber. Gaps in the genetic code have been filled
in with reptilian, avian, or amphibian DNA. To control the population, all
specimens on the island are lysine-deficient females. Hammond proudly touts
InGen's advances in genetic engineering and shows his guests through the
island's vast array of automated systems.
Recent events in the park have spooked
Hammond's investors. To placate them, Hammond intends that Grant and Sattler
act as fresh consultants. They stand in counterbalance to a famous
mathematician and chaos theorist, Ian Malcolm, and a lawyer representing the
investors, Donald Genaro. Both are pessimistic about the park's prospects.
Malcolm, having been consulted before the park's creation, is especially
emphatic in his prediction that the park will collapse, as it is an
unsustainable simple structure bluntly forced upon a complex system.
Ian Malcolm created dragon curves to
simulate the actions that were to take place in the park.
Countering Malcolm's dire predictions with
youthful energy, Hammond groups the consultants with his grandchildren, Tim and
Alexis "Lex" Murphy. While touring the park with the children, Grant
finds a Velociraptor eggshell, which seems to prove Malcolm's earlier assertion
that the dinosaurs have somehow been breeding against the geneticists' design.
Malcolm suggests a flaw in their method of analyzing dinosaur populations, in
that motion detectors were set to search only for the expected number of
creatures in the park and not for any higher number. The park's controllers are
reluctant to admit that the park has long been operating beyond their
constraints. Malcolm also points out the height distribution of the
Procompsognathus forms a Gaussian distribution, the curve of a breeding
population, rather than the distinctive pattern that a population reared in
batches ought to display.
In the midst of this, the corrupt chief
programmer of Jurassic Park's controlling software, Dennis Nedry, attempts
corporate espionage for Lewis Dodgson, a geneticist and agent of InGen's
archrival, Biosyn. By activating a backdoor he wrote into the park's computer
system, Nedry manages to shut down its security systems and steal frozen
embryos, two for each of the park's fifteen species. He then attempts to
smuggle them out to a contact waiting at an auxiliary dock deep in the park.
However, during a sudden tropical storm, he exits his stolen vehicle to get his
bearings and is killed by a Dilophosaurus. Without Nedry to reactivate the
park's security, the electrified fences remain off and dinosaurs escape. The
adult Tyrannosaurus rex attacks the guests on tour, while the juvenile rex
attacks public relations manager Ed Regis, killing him. In the aftermath, Grant
and the children become lost in the park.
Malcolm is gravely injured during the
incident, but is soon found by Gennaro and park game warden Robert Muldoon and
spends the remainder of the novel slowly dying as, between lucid lectures and
morphine-induced rants, he tries to help those in the main compound understand
their predicament and survive.
When trying to
restore the park to working order, they fail to notice that the system has been
running on auxiliary power since the restart; this power soon runs out,
shutting the park down a second time. Furthermore, since the auxiliary
generators did not produce enough electricity to power the fences, the fences
were not reactivated when the system was reset, meaning all the fences —
including the holding pen containing the park's Velociraptors, quarantined due
to their superior intelligence and aggression — had been offline the whole
time.
Escaping their enclosure, the Velociraptors kill Wu and Arnold and injure
Muldoon, Genaro, and Harding. Meanwhile, Grant and the children slowly make
their way back to the Visitor Center by rafting down the jungle river, carrying
news that several young Velociraptors, bred and raised in the island's wilds,
were on board the Anne B, the island's supply ship, when it departed for the
mainland.
While Ellie distracts the Velociraptors,
Grant manages to reactivate the park's main power. After escaping from several
Velociraptors, Grant, Genaro, Tim, and Lex are able to make it to the control
room, where Tim is able to contact the Anne B and tell them to return to the
island. The survivors are then able to organize themselves and eventually save
their own lives. Word soon reaches them that the crew of the Anne B has
discovered and killed the Velociraptor stowaways.
Genaro tries to order the island destroyed
as a dangerous asset, but Grant rejects his authority, claiming that even
though they cannot control the island, they have a responsibility to understand
just what happened and how many dinosaurs have already escaped to the mainland.
Grant, Ellie, Muldoon, and Genaro (the latter against his will) set out into
the park to find the wild Velociraptor nests and compare hatched eggs with the
island's revised population tally.
Cautious in this pursuit, they emerge
unharmed. Meanwhile, Hammond, taking a walk around the park and contemplating
making a park improving on his previous mistakes, hears a T-Rex roar and falls
down a hill where he is eaten by a pack of Procompsognathus. With regard to the
dinosaurs' breeding, it eventually transpires that using frog DNA to fill gaps
in the dinosaurs' genetic code enabled a measure of dichogamy, in which some of
the female animals somehow changed into males in response to the all-female
environment.
In the conclusion, before boarding
helicopters, the group warns the fictitious Costa Rican air force that the
dinosaurs had been killing people. The air force then say that the island is
dangerous and releases napalm over the island, destroying it and the dinosaurs.
It is stated that Malcolm dies. Survivors of the incident are indefinitely
detained by the United States and Costa Rican governments at a hotel. Weeks
later, Grant is visited by Dr. Martin Guitierrez, an American doctor who lives
in Costa Rica and has found a Procompsognathus carcass. Guitierrez informs
Grant that an unknown pack of animals has been migrating through the Costa
Rican jungle, eating lysine-rich crops and chickens. He also informs Grant that
none of them, with the possible exception of Tim and Lex, are going to leave
any time soon.
Credits to Jurassic Park Wiki - Wikia for additional information and images.
Credits to IMDb for information references.
