Jurassic Park (1993)

Movie review coming on 10/2/2023

February 10, 2020

845 4 minutes read

Film and Plot Synopsis

Jurassic Park takes place on a remote island. There a wealthy entrepreneur secretly creates a theme park featuring living dinosaurs taken from prehistoric DNA. Before opening the attraction to the public, he invites a top paleontologist, a paleobotanist, a mathematician/theorist, and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park, and help calm anxious investors. However, the park visit is anything but tranquil when its security system goes haywire. The prehistoric creatures are then able to break out of their enclosures.

‘Jurassic Park’ Movie Summary

The summary below contains spoilers.

Jurassic Park begins on the island of Isla Nublar off the coast of Costa Rica. We meet the billionaire, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), who has created an animal theme park that will feature cloned dinosaurs. Following an accident at the site, lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferraro) orders that the safety of the island be evaluated and certified by a group of experts. Hammond recruits paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and mathematician and chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to conduct the evaluation.

Each of the scientist are shocked to see living dinosaurs. Hammond reveals that his company InGen created the dinosaurs through cloning. InGen found the dinosaurs DNA from extracting blood from prehistoric mosquitoes that were trapped in amber. Whenever there was a gap in the DNA string, the scientists used frog DNA to fill in missing genomes. When the scientists ask about the breeding practices of the dinosaurs, Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) reveals that all the dinosaurs have been bred female. Dr. Malcolm theorizes that eventually life will find a way around the scientists’ restrictions.

As part of their evaluation, the scientists are given a vehicle tour of the island. Hammond sends his two grandchildren, Tim (Joseph Mazzello) and Lex (Ariana Richards), along with the group. The tour does not go well, with most of the dinosaurs not showing up. When a violent tropical storm threatens the island, the tour is cut short and the cars head back to main building.

Meanwhile, Hammond’s lead computer programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), begins deactivating systems so that he can access the protected frozen dinosaur embryos. Nedry is unsatisfied with the financial compensation that Hammond has given him, so he has decided to supplement his income by stealing and selling the embryos. He steals the embryos, but while he is in route to get them to boat to be taken to the mainland, he crashes his Jeep and ends up being killed by a Dilophosaurus. Now there remains no one to reactivate the security systems.

At the same time, the tour cars shut down in front of the Tyrannosaurus Rex pen. With the electrical fences deactivated, the dinosaurs are free to move from pen to pen. The T-Rex breaks free of the pen and begins destroying the tour car that Gennaro, Tim, and Lex are in. Gennaro is eaten by the T-Rex, and Malcolm is severely injured when he tries to save the kids. Grant is able to get the kids out of the car, but the trio is forced to retreat into the jungle to get away from the T-Rex. They end up sleeping in a tree to stay away from any dinosaurs. They are awoken by a Brachiosaurus eating on the leaves of the tree they are sleeping in.

Back at the main building, Hammond sends the park’s game warden Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck) to retrieve his grandchildren. Muldoon is joined by Dr. Sattler and they find the injured Malcolm outside the T-Rex pen. Once they load Malcolm onto their Jeep, the T-Rex appears again and begins pursuing them, which the trio just barely escape from.

The next day, Grant finds some broken dinosaur egg shells while walking through the jungle with the kids. Grant realizes that the dinosaurs have overcome the scientists’ manipulation by using some of the amphibian DNA that allows frogs to change sex in a single-sex environment. Shortly afterwards, the trio is almost crushed when a herd of Gallimimus almost run them down after the dinosaurs are startled by the pursuing T-Rex. Afterwards, the trio continue on towards the main building.

Meanwhile, back at the visitor center, Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) theorizes that they may be able to bypass Nedry’s damage if they shut off all the power. Arnold believes that it will reboot all the computer systems. However, once the power is turned off, the breakers are tripped. Arnold goes to reset the breakers, but he is killed by a Velociraptor along the way.

When Arnold does not immediately return, Muldoon and Sattler go to investigate. Muldoon realizes that the raptors are loose, and chooses to distract them while Sattler makes a break for the electrical shed. The raptors work together to kill Muldoon. Sattler is able to reset the breakers and finds out that Arnold was killed. She retreats back to the visitor center while being pursued by the raptors.

At the same time, Grant, Tim, and Lex arrive at the visitor center. They work together to try to reset the computers and reactivate the island’s security systems while fighting off the raptors. They are pursued all over the visitor center. Eventually, the raptors are able to corner Sattler, Grant, Tim, and Lex, who are saved at the last minute by the timely arrival of the T-Rex who kills the last two remaining raptors.

The foursome meet Hammond and Malcolm in a Jeep in front of the center. Grant announces that he will not endorse the park, which Hammond agrees to. They drive to the helicopter pad and take off from the island.

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