Jurassic Park (novel)#Biological issues and accuracy

In 1989, strange animal attacks occur throughout Costa Rica. Evidence collected from the attacks points to Procompsognathus, an extinct dinosaur. Paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist colleague Ellie Sattler meet with an EPA official to discuss the attacks, but are abruptly whisked away by billionaire John Hammond, the founder of bioengineering firm InGen, for a weekend visit to a "biological preserve" he has established on the remote island of Isla Nublar.

The "preserve" is a cover for the construction of "Jurassic Park", a theme park showcasing living dinosaurs recreated using ancient DNA found in the blood inside insects that were fossilized and preserved in amber. Gaps in the genetic code were filled in with reptilian, avian, or amphibian DNA. To control breeding, all of the park's specimens are raised as females with a genetic flaw that makes them lysine deficient and unable to survive outside captivity.

The recent attacks have made Hammond's investors skittish. Hammond requests that Grant and Sattler tour the park and endorse it ahead of the park's opening. They are joined by mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm, and a lawyer representing the investors, Donald Gennaro, both of whom are pessimistic about the park. Malcolm, consulted before the park's creation, is emphatic that it will collapse. Hammond also invites his grandchildren, Tim and Alexis 'Lex' Murphy, to join the tour. The park staff present comprise senior engineer John Arnold, biotechnologist Henry Wu, game warden Robert Muldoon, PR director Ed Regis, chief programmer Dennis Nedry, veterinarian Harding, and several laborers.

While touring the park, Grant finds a Velociraptor eggshell, seemingly proving Malcolm's assertion that the dinosaurs are breeding against the geneticists' design. Grant deduces that using frog DNA to fill gaps in the dinosaurs' genetic code resulted in an environment that was conducive to dichogamy, causing some of the female dinosaurs to become males and establish a breeding population. The park's automated tally system failed to account for the newborns, having been programmed to only register the expected number of dinosaurs.

Nedry, angered by Hammond refusing to pay him for months of overwork, commits corporate espionage for Lewis Dodgson, an employee of InGen's rival, Biosyn. Activating a backdoor he wrote into the park's software, he disables the security systems and steals frozen embryos for the park's fifteen dinosaur species. Attempting to rendezvous with Dodgson's agent, he becomes lost due to a tropical storm. Nedry's sabotage disables the electric fences around the park's enclosures, allowing most of the dinosaurs to escape. He is killed by a Dilophosaurus, and a Tyrannosaurus rex attacks the tour group. Grant rescues Tim and Lex, but Malcolm is severely injured and left behind while Regis is killed and eaten. Muldoon and Gennaro later retrieve Malcolm and leave him in Harding's care.

A botched attempt by Arnold to reboot the control room's computers causes the park's main generators to short-circuit, leaving only the overtaxed auxiliary generator operational. It quickly breaks down, disabling the entire island's power. The park's dangerous and untamed Velociraptors escape their enclosure and kill Arnold and Wu. Grant and the children make their way back to the island's control complex by rafting down a jungle river on an inflatable boat, narrowly escaping multiple dinosaur attacks. Grant and Tim restart the main generators and regain control of the park's systems. Warned by Grant, Gennaro contacts the island's departing supply ship; finding two raptors aboard, the crew kills them.

Hammond, walking outdoors while contemplating InGen's future, is killed by a pack of Procompsognathus after he falls down a hill and breaks his ankle. Grant, Sattler, Muldoon, and Gennaro find the wild raptor nests and compare hatched eggs with the island's revised population tally; realizing that the dinosaurs will likely escape from the island (which Malcolm had predicted), Gennaro has Muldoon use heavy munitions to wipe out the raptors.

Malcolm dies from his injuries. Everyone is evacuated by the Costa Rican Air Force, which declares the dinosaurs hazardous and razes the island with napalm. The survivors are detained in a Costa Rican hotel. Weeks later, Grant is visited by Dr. Martin Gutierrez, an American doctor who lives in Costa Rica. Gutierrez informs Grant that an unknown pack of animals has been migrating through the Costa Rican jungle, implying that the surviving dinosaurs have adapted to Earth's ecosystem.

File:MichaelCrichton 2.jpg, pictured in 2002]]

Crichton began working on the project in 1981, but soon set it aside because there "seemed to be an enormous mania about dinosaurs" at the time, and he was hesitant to "ride a current fashion". He eventually proceeded after concluding that the public's fascination with dinosaurs "was permanent." The novel began as a screenplay, completed by Crichton in 1983, about a graduate student who recreates a pterosaur.{{Cite AV media|title=Michael Crichton on the Jurassic Park Phenomenon|date=2001|people=Crichton, Michael|publisher=Universal|medium=DVD}} According to Crichton, "It was a very different story. It was about the person who did the cloning, operating alone and in secret. It just wasn't satisfactory." He said further, "I just waited to see if I could ever figure out how to make it work. It took quite a few years." He struggled, in part, to make the story believable from a scientific perspective.{{cite web |last=Papamichael |first=Stella |title=Jurassic Park Trilogy: The Ultimate Collection DVD (1993-2001) |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/08/19/jurassic_park_ultimate_collection_dvd_review.shtml |website=BBC |access-date=March 10, 2025 |date=August 19, 2005}}

Crichton revived the idea around 1988. 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."Return to Jurassic Park: Dawn of a New Era", Jurassic Park Blu-ray (2011) Crichton initially avoided the park idea, finding it too similar to his 1973 film Westworld. Once he accepted it, Crichton chose to proceed with the story as a novel rather than a screenplay, later explaining "it wasn't clear that anyone would ever make this story into a movie, because it would be very expensive."{{cite web |last=Biodrowski |first=Steve |title=Jurassic Park: Michael Crichton on Adapting his Novel to the Screen |url=http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/1993/08/jurassic-park-michael-crichton-on-adapting-his-novel-to-the-screen/ |website=Cinefantastique |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420074556/http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/1993/08/jurassic-park-michael-crichton-on-adapting-his-novel-to-the-screen/ |archive-date=April 20, 2013 |date=August 1993}} He sought to avoid certain ideas that had already been done in media, such as dinosaurs in a city, instead setting the story on a tropical island.

The novel was originally told from the perspective of Hammond's grandchildren, who are present at the park as the dinosaurs escape. Crichton had a handful of people whom he relied upon to give opinions on his early drafts; the group unanimously "hated" his first draft of Jurassic Park but could not pinpoint why. Crichton wrote two more drafts, which also failed to impress the group. One of the readers then realized that the story would function better if it were told from an adult point of view. Crichton followed this advice and eventually won over the group.{{Cite web|title=Jurassic Park|url=http://www.michaelcrichton.com/jurassic-park/ |website=MichaelCrichton.com |access-date=November 12, 2024}} He also added "a tremendous amount of material" on chaos theory that would come from Malcolm, who had been only a minor character up to that point in development.{{cite book |last1=Shay|first1=Don|last2=Duncan|first2=Jody|title=The Making of Jurassic Park: An Adventure 65 million Years in the Making |publisher=Boxtree Limited |year=1993 |pages=3–5 |isbn=1-85283-774-8}}

File:Tyrannosaurus skeletal diagram.jpg published by Henry Fairfield Osborn, which was the basis of the novel's cover.]]

In May 1990, Crichton submitted his manuscript to publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Chip Kidd, then a junior designer at Knopf, was told to create a cover that would suggest live dinosaurs without actually featuring a flesh and blood animal in it. After going by unsuccessful ideas like shadows, footprints, and close-ups of dinosaur skin, Kidd eventually sought inspiration visiting the dinosaur exhibit of the American Museum of Natural History. He concluded that "You’ve got all different kinds of animals represented, but the T. rex sort of commands the room." He made a sketch of its skeleton and bought a textbook on dinosaurs at the gift shop, where he found an illustration of the Tyrannosaurus by Henry Fairfield Osborn that served as the basis for the final product. Kidd noted that his option for the silhouette of a skeleton "brings to mind somewhere in between the remains of the animal and the animal itself." That concept saw approval along with the suggestion that it would be a wraparound image that extended to the spine and back cover, to "get a sense that it’s big, that it can’t be contained on one surface. It has to be free to roam around the entire jacket. Not just the front." The font aimed to be as utilitarian as the signage in an actual amusement park.{{cite web|url=https://sparkandfire.com/chipkidd/|title=Book designer Chip Kidd on Jurassic Park|author=Cohen, June|publisher=Spark and Fire|accessdate=January 31, 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.grapheine.com/en/logo-news/the-story-of-the-big-bad-jurassic-park-logosaurus|title=The story of the big bad Jurassic Park logosaurus|date=27 November 2019|publisher=Grapheine|accessdate=January 31, 2025}}

Jurassic Park was released in October 1990.{{cite news |last=Hicks |first=Ann |title=Fall books please people watchers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/252300201/ |work=Gannett News Service |date=October 21, 1990 |access-date=March 10, 2025 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription}}{{cite news |title=A Reading on New Books |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/504133743/ |work=The Windsor Star |location=Canada |date=October 29, 1990 |access-date=March 10, 2025 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=subscription |quote=Due out soon are Cold Fire, by writer Dean Koontz, and the thriller Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Each has been released in floods of about 350,000 copies.}}{{cite web |title=Jurassic Park miscellaneous notes |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/80025/jurassic-park#notes |website=Turner Classic Movies |access-date=March 10, 2025 |quote=Michael Crichton's novel was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 1990.}} For the novel's 30th anniversary, the Folio Society published a special edition in 2020, featuring six illustrations based on scenes in the book.{{cite web |last=Weiss |first=Josh |title=Jurassic Park: Folio Society edition offers six jaw-snapping illustrations of Michael Crichton's dinosaur opus |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/jurassic-park-folio-society-edition-exclusive |website=Syfy |access-date=February 14, 2025 |date=October 12, 2020}}{{cite web |last=Elderkin |first=Beth |title=Jurassic Park Gets a Scarily Gorgeous Collector's Edition for Its 30th Anniversary |url=https://gizmodo.com/jurassic-park-gets-a-scarily-gorgeous-collectors-editio-1845367829 |website=Gizmodo |access-date=February 14, 2025 |date=October 14, 2020}}

Jurassic Park critiques the dystopian potentialities of modern science. Ian Malcolm is the conscience that reminds John Hammond of the immoral and unnatural path that has been taken. The final condition of the park is epitomized by the word "hell" which highlights the sacrilegious nature of Hammond's attempt.{{Cite journal|journal=Contemporary Literary Criticism|volume=242|url=https://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CH1100078863|title=Rediscovering the Island as Utopian Locus: Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.|last=Gallardo-Terrano|first=Pedro|date=2008|via=Gale Academic OneFile|access-date=2018-08-02}}

Crichton's novel is another version of Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, where humanity creates something without truly knowing anything about it. Henry Wu is unable to name the things that he creates, which alludes to Victor Frankenstein not knowing what to call his flawed imitation of God's creation. The immorality of these actions lead to human destruction, echoing Frankenstein.{{Cite journal|journal=Contemporary Literary Criticism|volume=242|url=https://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CH1100078866|title=Replicating a Dinosaur: Authenticity Run Amok in the Theme Parking in Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park and Julian Barnes's England, England.|last=Miracky|first=James|date=2008|via=Gale Academic OneFile|access-date=2018-08-02}}

As Dale Speirs notes at p. 18 of "Vanished Worlds: Part 6" in Opuntia 483 (Sept. 2020),{{Cite journal|journal=Optunia|volume=483|url=https://efanzines.com/Opuntia/Opuntia-483.pdf|title=Vanished Worlds: Part 6|last=Speirs|first=Dale|date=2020|access-date=2022-11-06}} Jurassic Park resembles Katharine Metcalf Roof's November 1930 Weird Tales story "A Million Years After", about dinosaurs hatching from millions-of-years-old eggs.{{Cite magazine|magazine=Weird Tales|volume=16|issue=5|url=https://archive.org/details/Weird_Tales_v16n05_1930-11_sas/mode/1up|title=A Million Years After|last=Roof|first=Katherine|date=1930|access-date=2022-11-06}}

Similar to how his other novels represent science and technology as both hazardous and life-changing, Crichton's novel highlights the hypocrisy and superiority complex of the scientific community that inspired John Hammond to re-create dinosaurs and treat them as commodities, which only lead to eventual catastrophe. Crichton uses the opening of the book to highlight the shift of scientific research from occurring in universities for the betterment of all mankind, to private labs where research is conducted "...in secret...in haste, and for-profit". The similar fears of atomic power from the Cold War are adapted by Crichton onto the anxieties evoked by genetic manipulation.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CCX3661700048|encyclopedia=Books to Film: Cinematic Adaptations of Literary Works |title=Jurassic Park |editor-last=Grant|editor-first=Barry Keith|volume=1|last=Geraghty|first=Lincoln|date=2018|via=Gale Academic OneFile|access-date=2018-08-02}}

The book became a bestseller and Crichton's signature novel, with largely favorable reviews by critics. In a review for The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt described it as "a superior specimen of the [Frankenstein] myth" and "easily the best of Mr. Crichton's novels to date".{{cite news|last1=Lehmann-Haupt|first1=Christopher|title=Books of The Times; Of Dinosaurs Returned And Fractals Fractured|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/15/books/books-of-the-times-of-dinosaurs-returned-and-fractals-fractured.html|access-date=27 September 2015|work=The New York Times|date=November 15, 1990}} Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Gene Lyons held that the book was "hard to beat for sheer intellectual entertainment" largely because it was "[f]illed with diverting, up-to-date information in easily digestible form".{{cite magazine|last1=Lyons|first1=Gene|title=Jurassic Park|url=http://www.ew.com/article/1990/11/16/jurassic-park|access-date=27 September 2015|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=November 16, 1990}} Both Lyons' Entertainment Weekly piece and Andrew Ferguson's review in the Los Angeles Times, however, criticized Crichton's characterization as heavy-handed and his characters as clichéd. Ferguson further complained about Ian Malcolm's "dime-store philosophizing" and predicted that the film adaptation of the book would be "undoubtedly trashy". He conceded that the book's "only real virtue" was "its genuinely interesting discussions of dinosaurs, DNA research, paleontology and chaos theory".{{cite news|last1=Ferguson|first1=Andrew|title=The Thing From the Tar Pits : JURASSIC PARK By Michael Crichton (Alfred A. Knopf: $19.95; 413 pp.)|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-11-bk-5972-story.html|access-date=27 September 2015|work=Los Angeles Times|date=November 11, 1990}}

Jurassic Park had sold nine million copies as of 1993.{{cite news |last=Warren |first=Tim |title='Jurassic Park' strikes again |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/08/20/jurassic-park-strikes-again/ |access-date=February 14, 2025 |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=August 20, 1993}} Three years later, it was awarded the Secondary BILBY Award.{{cite web |url=http://www.cbcaqld.org/uploads/2/6/2/2/26224528/previous_bilby_to_2014.pdf |title=Previous Winners of the BILBY Awards: 1990 – 96 |website=www.cbcaqld.org |publisher=The Children's Book Council of Australia Queensland Branch |access-date=4 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151119061148/http://www.cbcaqld.org/uploads/2/6/2/2/26224528/previous_bilby_to_2014.pdf |archive-date=19 November 2015 |url-status=usurped}}

Sean Guynes, writing for Tor.com in 2022, felt that Jurassic Park overlooked the dinosaurs as mere plot devices, and was critical of the prose and character development. He simultaneously praised the book for posing questions about the impact of scientific advancements on society, calling it Crichton's "smartest novel" for this reason. He wrote that Jurassic Park "was a bestseller, but it was never acclaimed and isn't remembered with much fondness. It was, for all intents and purposes, a mediocre thriller novel. But it asked big questions and it started something even bigger—a franchise". He went on to call the novel "an important look at scientific ethics and possibility that deserves to be reconsidered as a masterpiece" of the science fiction genre.{{cite web |last=Guynes |first=Sean |title=Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park Is a Terrible Masterpiece |url=https://www.tor.com/2022/01/11/michael-crichtons-jurassic-park-is-a-terrible-masterpiece/ |website=Tor.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003112506/https://www.tor.com/2022/01/11/michael-crichtons-jurassic-park-is-a-terrible-masterpiece/ |archive-date=October 3, 2022 |date=January 11, 2022}}

The novel eventually led to the Jurassic Park franchise, starting with a 1993 film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg. It was distributed by Universal Pictures, which acquired the film rights to the novel in 1990. Crichton performed early work on the film's screenplay, with David Koepp eventually taking over.

The film adaptation excised much of the scientific dialogue, with Crichton saying, "I feel very strongly that books should be the best books they can be, and you should not worry about what the movie will do. In movies, a little bit of that kind of dialogue goes a long way. A movie like Jurassic Park is not the format to have extended discussions on the scientific paradigm." Crichton had also included explicit violence in his novel, including evisceration, believing that it worked well to immerse the reader by establishing the dinosaurs as serious threats. However, he considered film to be a poor format for such violence, believing that it distracts audiences and breaks viewer immersion.{{cite web |last=Gross |first=Ed |title=Creating Jurassic Park: A Classic Interview With Author Michael Crichton |url=https://sffgazette.com/sci_fi/creating-jurassic-park-a-classic-interview-with-author-michael-crichton-a1296 |website=Sci-fi & Fantasy Gazette |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240620000306/https://sffgazette.com/sci_fi/creating-jurassic-park-a-classic-interview-with-author-michael-crichton-a1296 |archive-date=June 20, 2024 |date=May 11, 2023}}

The film was a critical and commercial success,[http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=jurassicpark.htm Jurassic Park (1993)]. Box Office Mojo (1993-09-24). Retrieved on 2013-09-17. leading to a sequel novel by Crichton, titled The Lost World and published in 1995. Spielberg returned to direct the 1997 film adaptation, titled The Lost World: Jurassic Park. No further novels were written by Crichton, although the film series would continue, with Spielberg involved as executive producer. Jurassic Park III was released in 2001, and the Jurassic World series began in 2015. Although not based directly on the novels, these films do include elements from the novel that were unused in the first film.{{Cite web |date=2022-06-13 |title=Jurassic Park movies in order: The full timeline explained |url=https://www.pocket-lint.com/tv/news/156500-jurassic-park-movie-order-timeline |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=www.pocket-lint.com |language=en-gb}}

{{Portal|United States|Novels|1990s|Dinosaurs|Speculative fiction|}}

• John W. Campbell's 1938 story Who Goes There?, about an alien monster in the Arctic thawed out and revived after 20 million years
• The Cursed Earth, a Judge Dredd storyline by Pat Mills in 2000 AD from 1978 that introduces the idea of a dinosaur theme park, with dinosaurs cloned from DNA
• Westworld, Crichton's earlier 1973 film also about a malfunctioning theme park
• Carnosaur, a 1984 novel with similar themes

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |title=The Science of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Or How to Build a Dinosaur |first1=Rob |last1=DeSalle |name-list-style=amp |first2=David |last2=Lindley |publisher=BasicBooks |location=New York |year=1997 |isbn=0-465-07379-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/scienceofjurassi00desa}}

{{Wikiquote|Jurassic Park (novel)}}

• [http://sites.google.com/site/HZTomassi/isla-nublar-map Isla Nublar novel map] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920052455/https://sites.google.com/site/hztomassi/isla-nublar-map |date=2017-09-20}}
• {{Official website|http://www.jurassicpark.com}}
• {{ISFDB title|id=1678|title=Jurassic Park}}
• [http://www.michaelcrichton.com/books-jurassicpark.html Jurassic Park] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617045255/http://www.michaelcrichton.com/books-jurassicpark.html |date=2015-06-17}} at the official Michael Crichton website

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