Jurassic Park (1993) – What Happened to This Adaptation?

Here at JoBlo Horror Originals we talk a lot about gateway horror films. Depending on the generation you belong to, that can be a few different things. Kids of the 70s will always have Jaws as an introduction to horror and that movie is still a great way to introduce newer generations to the genre after almost 50 years. Two of my favorites from the 80’s, and two films that both my sons have seen, are The Gate and The Monster Squad. Again, both great and both still hold up as not only fun horror flicks but great ways to ease in the younger crowd. As a kid born in 1985, I am much more a child of the 90s so even if you hadn’t read the title of the video you clicked, you could probably guess that I saw Jurassic Park in theaters, it scared and enthralled me and made me want more. It became a billion-dollar franchise just in films but spawned comics, video games, toys, amusement park attractions, and nearly everything else you can license. It started as a massive blockbuster novel from one of sci-fi’s greatest and the adaptation was a sure thing. Both are regarded as musts in their respective medias, but which is better and how well did they get it from page to screen? Hold on to your butts as we see if the creators were so preoccupied with if they could adapt this work that they never asked if they should as we find out what happened to this adaptation.

The Movie

Steven Spielberg already had a relationship with famed author Michael Crichton before they worked on the film adaptation of Jurassic Park together. The two actually worked on creating the TV show ER and that’s when Spielberg learned of his author pal’s idea about dinosaurs being brought back to life for a theme park. Crichton, ever the smart businessman, knew what his 1990 novel had the potential to be so he asked for 1.5 million and a fairly large % of the movies theatrical gross for the option rights. Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Columbia all threw out bids along with their top talent to direct with Tim Burton, Joe Dante, and Richard Donner respectively all in the mix. Universal would win out with Spielberg, who famously had done a blockbuster or two, with James Cameron apparently missing out just hours before the bidding was won. The author was given an additional 500k to write the first screenplay.

That screenplay wasn’t the final product although Crichton was given a credit for the screenplay. After Hook screenwriter Malia Marmo was given a go at it in 1991, the studio decided to also bring in David Koepp to further tweak the screenplay. While Crichton felt that only 10 to 20% of the book would be able to be put on screen, Koepp was able to make it with only a couple major scenes left out even if, as you will see, the movie is quite different from the book overall. Koepp has a long and fun resume that also includes Carlito’s Way, The Shadow, the first Mission: Impossible, Panic Room, and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man to name a few. Spielberg is obviously a known entity and his other movies that dip their toe in horror or suspense are also mostly great with Duel, Jaws, and War of the Worlds all being worth your time. Crichton, as we discussed in Congo, also has Westworld, The Great Train Robbery which was based on his book and boy did I screw that up last time, Coma, and Looker to name only a few.

The cast is iconic in their roles, enough to bring back over and over again, but many of them were not the first choices. Sam Neill would play Dr. Alan Grant, but that role almost went to William Hurt, Kurt Russell, Richard Dryfuss, Harrison Ford, and Tim Robbins. Neill has also done great genre work with In the Mouth of Madness, Dead Calm, Possession, and The Omen III. Laura Dern was the first choice for Dr. Ellie Sattler, but it almost went to Robin Wright, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Helen Hunt. Dern hasn’t done much horror but did show up in Grizzly II and Inland Empire is nightmare fuel. Jeff Goldblum beat out Jim Carrey, Richard Attenborough was the only choice for Hammond, and Wayne Knight was cast after Spielberg saw his performance in Basic Instinct. Bob Peck, Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Ferrero, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazello, and B.D. Wong were also cast, and they all do wonderful jobs in their roles.

The movie was released wide on June 11th, 1993, on a 63-million-dollar budget and, to put it lightly, became one of the biggest films of all time. After a couple re-releases it sits at over a billion dollars at the box office and won all 3 Oscars it was nominated for with best sound, best effects sound editing, and best effects for visual effects that went to greats like Stan Winston and Phil Tippett. Also lost in the awards shuffle is an incredible score from John Williams. As stated before there were immediate toys, video games, comics, and the movie series continues with its seventh movie coming out in 2025.

The Book

We discussed Michael Crichton at length last time so let’s focus a bit on the development of the book itself. Crichton actually wrote the first version as a screenplay in 1983 about a graduate student who ends up recreating a dinosaur. This changed when he felt that the science behind it would be extremely expensive and that there was no practical need for a dinosaur. People will still do things when they don’t make any sense so the author reasoned that dinosaurs would be brought back as entertainment and so the theme park angle was thrown in too. The book was originally from the perspective of a child but anyone that read the first few drafts felt that an adult’s view would capture more.

The book is what the author is most known for and is one of his best received. It is seen as a Frankenstein allegory with Dr. Henry Wu tinkering with things he doesn’t understand by bringing back the dinosaurs from extinction without actually knowing that what they do will or in some cases what to call them. It follows a similar vein in that humanity pays the price for the carelessness of men playing God. The characters were seen as mostly inserts and not very well fleshed out, something that Crichton had to deal with his whole career but the entertainment value and understandable science behind the scenes made it more palatable. One critic did say that the movie would be a trashy cash-in, so that aged well. Crichton would actually release a sequel called The Lost World that would also get the movie treatment that would also be directed by Spielberg. While Crichton would be productive in books and film for a good while after, Jurassic Park will always be the first line of his legacy.

What is the Same?

There is an accident that has to do with the impending opening of a nature preserve/theme park called Jurassic Park that is being planned to be opened and funded by John Hammond. He has found a way to bring dinosaurs back by extracting their DNA from fossilized mosquitos that have been stuck and preserved in amber. The investors in the park have become worried due to these issues and ask for specialists in specific fields to be brought in to sign off on the opening to the public. These include paleontologist Alan Grant, Paleobotanist Ellie Sattler, Mathematician Ian Malcolm who specializes in chaos theory, and lawyer Donald Generro. The park has light staffing that includes main engineer Arnold, biotech Henry Wu, Game Warden Robert Muldoon, lead park vet Harding, and main programmer Dennis Nedry. The park is also hosting Hammond’s Grandchildren Tim and Lex.

A tour begins and the weather turns while Nedry turns off all the security in the park and steals DNA samples as he thinks he is underpaid and underappreciated by Hammond. He acts as a spy and covert employee for Biosyn and agent Lewis Dodson who is the chief rival to Hammonds Ingen. The power being shut down results in the tour group being attacked and the race being on to get off the island. The dinosaurs have also somehow begun to breed which was thought impossible due to the nature of them being brought back by science but it is theorized that the extra DNA that was used to fill the gap by frogs was a species that could change their gender and the dinosaurs also did that. Several of the characters die in the process including Nedry by a Dilophosaurus, Arnold by Raptors, and others but the group eventually does make it off the island while avoiding T-rex and Velociraptors.

What is different?

Sorry to my oldest son and one of my closest friends who are reading the book soon but here be spoilers. I won’t go into every single detail as this isn’t that type of video and it would be too long but while the main idea and story is the same from page to screen, the journey and many of the characters are quite different. The opening incident in the book is an attack on a child in Costa Rica that initially is the reason that Grant and Sattler are brought in, to identify the injuries to specific animals. The movie opens with an accident while moving some of the dinos into the park and it is very Spielberg and reminiscent of Jaws. Another smaller change that doesn’t make or break for the title is that Hammond’s grandkids are switched around a bit with Tim being older than Lex and also being the one that can hack security while Lex is the little sister. These roles are reversed in the film with Lex being older and having knowledge of computers.

Getting into some of the bigger plot changes we have Grant and the kids taking the river back to the main center to try and escape as well as an end scene with several characters using nerve gas to kill off the remaining raptors. In terms of characters, Harding has a much larger role in the novel and the character of Gennero plays the role of two book characters. While Donald Generro is the lawyer from the book, he is also a strong and caring character who makes it to the end and helps save people and destroy dinos. The character that shares a similar death as well as the cowardly aspects of movie Generro is publicist Ed Regis who does not exist at all in the movie. Characters also have different fates between the two worlds with Muldoon living in the book but Wu, Malcolm, and even Hammond all dying in different ways. Finally, the character Hammond is also more of a careless villain in the book as opposed to his movie counterpart who is stubborn, but ultimately understanding and cares more about the people than the park. There are many other changes, but the big ones make the two different enough experiences to hopefully get you to explore both.

Legacy

It is difficult to say which one is better particularly when they are as different as these two are. I remember reading the book in high school almost 10 years after watching the movie and being very confused. I personally think this is one of the rare cases where the movie is objectively better than the book, but I can easily see where if you read the novel first, that would be your preference. Both are mandatory to read and watch and you will be entertained either way. There is also countless other avenues to quench your Jurassic needs should you want more. As Weird Al said, Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark but this is a trip worth sparing no expense for.

A couple of the previous episodes of What Happened to This Adaptation? can be seen below. To see the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!