Jurassic Park (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jurassic Park

Theatrical release poster

Directed by

Steven Spielberg

Produced by

Kathleen Kennedy Gerald R. Molen

Screenplay by

Michael Crichton David Koepp

Based on

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Starring

Sam Neill Laura Dern Jeff Goldblum


Music by Cinematography Editing by Studio Distributed by Release date(s) Running time Country Language Budget Box office

Richard Attenborough Bob Peck Martin Ferrero BD Wong Samuel L. Jackson Wayne Knight Joseph Mazzello Ariana Richards John Williams Dean Cundey Michael Kahn Amblin Entertainment Universal Pictures

June 11, 1993 126 minutes United States English $63 million[1] $1,023,553,882[1]

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and the first of the Jurassic Parkfranchise. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, with a screenplay by Crichton and David Koepp. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello, Martin Ferrero, Samuel L. Jackson and Bob Peck. The film centers on the fictional Isla Nublar near Costa Rica's Pacific Coast, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs. Before Crichton's book was published, four studios put in bids to acquire the film rights. Spielberg, with the backing of Universal Studios, acquired the rights for $1.5 million before publication in 1990, and Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen. David Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters. Filming took

place in California and Hawaii. The dinosaurs were created through groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by Industrial Light & Magic in conjuction to life-sized animatronic dinos built by Stan Winston's team. Following an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with 100 companies, Jurassic Park grossed over $900 million worldwide, surpassing another Spielberg film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, to become the highest-grossing filmreleased up to that time (it was surpassed four years later by Titanic). Following a 3D re-release to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary on April 5, 2013, Jurassic Park has grossed over $1 billion at the box office making it the 17th film to gross over $1 billion and currently ranks as the fifteenth highest grossing film worldwide, and 16th-highest-grossing film in North America, unadjusted for inflation. It is the highest-grossing film released by Universal and directed by Spielberg. The film was also wellreceived by critics, with praise to the effects and Spielberg's direction, but criticism on the writing, and won many awards, mostly for its visual effects. It is considered by many as one of the greatest science fiction films ever made, as well as a landmark in the use of computer-generated imagery. The film was followed by two sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Parkand Jurassic Park III which both became box office successes, but received mixed critical acclaim. A fourth film is scheduled for release in 2015.
Contents
[hide]

1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production

o o o o

3.1 Development 3.2 Filming 3.3 Post-production 3.4 Music

4 Dinosaurs on screen 5 Release and promotion

5.1 Theatrical re-releases

6 Reception

o o o

6.1 Box office 6.2 Critical reception 6.3 Accolades

7 Legacy

o o

7.1 Sequels and merchandise 7.2 Home media

8 References 9 External links

Plot[edit source | editbeta]

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), the founder and CEO of bioengineering company InGen, has created on Isla Nublar, a tropical island near Costa Rica, a theme park populated with cloned dinosaurs called Jurassic Park. After a park worker is killed by aVelociraptor, the park's investors, represented by the lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero), demand that experts visit the park and certify it as safe. Gennaro invites the mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) while Hammond invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern). Upon arrival on Isla Nublar, the group is stunned to see a Brachiosaurusand a herd of more dinosaurs in the distance. On the visitor center, the crew learns through a explanatory video and a tour through a laboratory that the cloning was accomplished by extracting the DNA of dinosaurs frommosquitoes that had been preserved in amber. However, the strands of DNA were incomplete, so DNA from frogs were used fill in the gaps. The dinosaurs all were cloned genetically as females in order to prevent breeding. The group is then joined by Hammond's grandchildren, Lex and Tim Murphy (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello) for a tour of the park, while Hammond oversees the trip from the park's control room. However, the tour does not go as planned, with most of the dinosaurs failing to appear and a Triceratops becoming ill. As a tropical storm approaches Isla Nublar, most of the park employees depart on a boat for the mainland and the visitors returns to the electric tour vehicles except Ellie, who stays with the park's veterinarian to study the Triceratops. During the storm, Jurassic Park's computer programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), who has secretly been paid by a corporate rival to steal dinosaur embryos, deactivates the park's security system to allow him access to the embryo storage room. Most of the park's electric fences are deactivated, leading the Tyrannosaurus to attack the tour group. Grant, Lex, and Tim narrowly escape while the T. rex devours Gennaro and injures Malcolm. On his way to deliver the embryos to the island's docks, Nedry becomes lost, crashes his Jeep, and is killed by a Dilophosaurus. Sattler assists the park's game warden, Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck), in a search for survivors, but only find Malcolm before the Tyrannosaurus returns and chases them in one of the vehicles, but ultimately fails to catch them. Unable to decipher Nedry's code to reactivate the security system, Hammond and the park's chief engineer Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) opt to reboot the park's computer and electrical network. The group shuts down the park's grid and retreats to an emergency bunker, while Arnold heads to a maintenance shed to

complete the process of rebooting the system. When he fails to return, Sattler and Muldoon head to the shed themselves. They discover the shutdown has disabled the remaining fences and released the velociraptors; Muldoon distracts the raptors while Sattler turns the power back on, discovering the severed arm of Arnold afterwards. Soon after, the raptors ambush and kill Muldoon. Alone in the park, Grant, Tim, and Lex discover the broken shells of dinosaur eggs. Grant concludes that this means the dinosaurs have been breeding, which occurred because they have the genetic coding of frog DNA West African bullfrogs can change their gender in a single-sex environment, which the dinosaurs were able to do as well. Grant leads Tim and Lex back to the visitor center, and leaves them there as he goes searching for the others. After finding the bunker, Grant and Sattler head back to the visitor center, where the kids are being attacked by two velociraptors. The four head to the control room and Lex restores full power, which would allow Hammond to call for rescue. While trying to leave, Grant's group is cornered by the raptors but escapes when the Tyrannosaurus suddenly appears and kills both raptors. Hammond arrives driving a jeep carrying Malcolm, which the group then climbs into. Before they head to a helicopter that would take the survivors back home, Alan says he will not endorse the park, a choice with which John concurs.

Cast[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: List of Jurassic Park characters

Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, a leading paleontologist. Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist and Dr. Grant's girlfriend. Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician and chaos theorist. Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, InGen's billionaire CEO and the park's creator. Ariana Richards as Lex Murphy, Hammond's granddaughter. Joseph Mazzello as Tim Murphy, Hammond's grandson. Bob Peck as Robert Muldoon, the park's game warden. Martin Ferrero as Donald Gennaro, a lawyer who represents Hammond's concerned investors. Wayne Knight as Dennis Nedry, the disgruntled architect of the park's computer systems. Samuel L. Jackson as Ray Arnold, the park's chief engineer. Cameron Thor as Dr. Lewis Dodgson, the head of InGen's rival, BioSyn. Miguel Sandoval as Juanito Rostagno, the Mano de Dios amber mine's proprietor. Gerald R. Molen as Dr. Gerry Harding, the park's veterinarian. B. D. Wong as Dr. Henry Wu, the park's chief geneticist. Richard Kiley as himself, providing audio narration for the park's main tour. Greg Burson as Mr D.N.A. (Voice)

Production[edit source | editbeta]

Development[edit source | editbeta]
Michael Crichton originally conceived a screenplay about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur; he continued to wrestle with his fascination with dinosaurs and cloning until he began writing the novel Jurassic Park.[2] Even before publication, Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989 while he and Crichton were discussing a screenplay that would become the television series ER.[3] Before the book was published, Crichton demanded a non-negotiable fee of $1.5 million as well as a substantial percentage of the gross. Warner Bros. and Tim Burton, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Richard Donner, and 20th Century Fox and Joe Dante bid for the rights,[3] but Universal eventually acquired them in May 1990 for Spielberg.[4] Universal paid Crichton a further $500,000 to adapt his own novel,[5] which he had finished by the time Spielberg was filming Hook. Crichton noted that because the book was "fairly long" his script only had about 10 to 20 percent of the novel's content; scenes were dropped for budgetary and practical reasons.[6] After completingHook, Spielberg wanted to film Schindler's List. Music Corporation of America (then Universal Pictures' parent company) president Sid Sheinberg gave a green light to the film on one condition: that Spielberg make Jurassic Park first. Spielberg later said, "He knew that once I had directed Schindler I wouldn't be able to do Jurassic Park."[3] The director later declared that by choosing a creature-driven thriller, "I was really just trying to make a good sequel to Jaws, on land."[7] To create the dinosaurs, Spielberg at first thought of hiring Bob Gurr, who designed a giant mechanical King Kong for Universal Studios Hollywood's King Kong Encounter. Upon considering that the life-sized dinosaurs would be too expensive and not all convincing, Spielberg instead decided to look after the best effects supervisors in Hollywood. Brought in were Stan Winston to create the animatronic dinosaurs, Phil Tippett to create go motion dinosaurs for long shots, Michael Lantieri to supervise the on-set effects, and Dennis Murenof Industrial Light & Magic to do the digital compositing. Paleontologist Jack Horner supervised the designs, to help fulfill Spielberg's desire to portray the dinosaurs as animals rather than monsters. This led to the entry of certain concepts about dinosaurs, such as the theory that dinosaurs had very little in common with lizards. Thus, Horner dismissed the raptors' flicking tongues in Tippett's early animatics, [8] complaining, "[The dinosaurs] have no way of doing that!" Taking Horner's advice, Spielberg insisted that Tippett take the tongues out.[9] Winston's department created fully detailed models of the dinosaurs before molding latex skins, which were fitted over complex robotics. Tippett created stop-motionanimatics of major scenes, but, despite go motion's attempts at motion blurs, Spielberg still found the end results unsatisfactory in terms of working in a live-action feature film. Muren declared to Spielberg that he thought the dinosaurs could be built through computer-generated imagery, and the director asked him to prove it.[8] ILM animators Mark Dippand Steve Williams developed a computer-generated walk cycle for the T. rex skeleton, and was approved to do more.[10] When Spielberg and Tippett saw an animatic of the T. rexchasing a herd of Gallimimus, Spielberg

said, "You're out of a job," to which Tippett replied, "Don't you mean extinct?"[8] Spielberg later wrote both the animatic and his dialogue between him and Tippett into the script, as a conversation between Malcolm and Grant.[11] Although no go motion was used, Tippett and his animators were still used by the production for knowing how the dinosaurs should move correctly. Tippett acted as a consultant regarding dinosaur anatomy, and his stop motion animators were re-trained as computer animators.[8] Malia Scotch Marmo began a script rewrite in October 1991 over a five-month period, merging Ian Malcolm with Alan Grant.[12] Screenwriter David Koepp came on board afterward, starting afresh from Marmo's draft, and used Spielberg's idea of a cartoon shown to the visitors to remove much of the exposition that fills Crichton's novel.[13] Spielberg also excised a sub-plot of Procompsognathus escaping to the mainland and attacking young children, as he previously found it too horrific.[14] This sub-plot was eventually used as a prologue in the Spielberg-directed sequel, The Lost World. Hammond was ultimately changed from a ruthless businessman to a kindly old man, because Spielberg identified with Hammond's obsession with showmanship. [15] He also switched the characters of Tim and Lex; in the book, Tim is aged 11 and into computers, and Lex is only seven or eight and into sports. Spielberg did this because he wanted to work with the younger Joseph Mazzello, and it also allowed him to introduce the sub-plot of Lex's adolescent crush on Grant.[16] Koepp changed Grant's relationship with the children, making him hostile to them initially to allow for more character development.[3] Koepp also took the opportunity to cut out a major sequence from the book, for budgetary reasons, where the T. rex chases Grant and the children down a river before being tranquilized by Muldoon. This scene was eventually revived in part in Jurassic Park III with the Spinosaurus replacing the T. rex.[13]

Filming[edit source | editbeta]

One of the Ford Explorers featured on the film.

After 25 months of pre-production, filming began on August 24, 1992, on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.[17] The three-week shoot involved various daytime exteriors.[4] On September 11, Hurricane Iniki passed directly over Kauai, which caused the crew to lose a day of shooting.[18] Several of the storm scenes from the movie are actual footage shot during the hurricane. The scheduled shoot of theGallimimus chase was moved to Kualoa Ranch on the island of Oahu and one of the beginning scenes had to be created by digitally animating a still

shot of scenery.[11] Additional scenes were filmed on the "forbidden island" of Niihau.[19] The crew moved back to the mainland U.S. to shoot at Universal Studios's Stage 24 for scenes involving the raptors in the kitchen.[4] The crew also shot on Stage 23 for the scenes involving the power supply, before going on location to Red Rock Canyon for the Montana dig scenes.[20] The crew returned to Universal to shoot Grant's rescue of Tim, using a fifty-foot prop with hydraulic wheels for the car fall, and the Brachiosaurusencounter. The crew filmed scenes for the Park's labs and control room, which used animations for the computers lent from Silicon Graphics and Apple.[21] While Crichton's book features Toyota cars on Jurassic Park, Spielberg got a deal with the Ford Motor Companyto get jeeps and Ford Explorers.[22] The Explorers were modified by ILM's crew and veteran customizer George Barris to create the illusion that they were autonomous cars by hiding the driver in the car's trunk.[23] The crew moved to Warner Bros. Studios' Stage 16 to shoot the T. rex's attack on the SUVs.[21] Shooting proved frustrating due to water soaking the foam rubber skin of the animatronic dinosaur, which caused the animatronic T. rex to shake and quiver from the extra weight when the foam absorbed the water.[24] The ripples in the glass of water caused by the T. rex's footsteps was inspired by Spielberg listening to Earth, Wind and Fire in his car, and the vibrations the bass rhythm caused. Lantieri was unsure of how to create the shot until the night before filming, when he put a glass of water on a guitar he was playing, which achieved the concentric circles in the water Spielberg wanted. The next morning, guitar strings were put inside the car and a man on the ground plucked the strings to achieve the effect.[25] Back at Universal, the crew filmed scenes with the Dilophosaurus on Stage 27. Finally, the shoot finished on Stage 12, with the climactic chases with the raptors in the Park's computer rooms and Visitor's Center.[26] Spielberg brought back the T. rex for the climax, abandoning his original ending in which Grant uses a platform machine to maneuver a raptor into a fossil tyrannosaur's jaws.[27] The film wrapped twelve days ahead of schedule on November 30,[4][28][29] and within days, editor Michael Kahn had a rough cut ready, allowing Spielberg to go ahead with filming Schindler's List.[30]

Post-production[edit source | editbeta]

Special effects work continued on the film, with Tippett's unit adjusting to new technology with Dinosaur Input Devices:[31] models which fed information into the computers to allow themselves to animate the characters traditionally. In addition, they acted out scenes with the raptors and Gallimimus. As well as the computergenerated dinosaurs, ILM also created elements such as water splashing and digital face replacement for Ariana Richards' stunt double.[8] Compositing the dinosaurs onto the live action scenes took around an hour. Rendering the dinosaurs often took two to four hours per frame, and rendering the T. rex in the rain even took six hours per frame.[32] Spielberg monitored their progress fromPoland during the filming of Schindler's List.[33] The sound effects crew, supervised by George Lucas,[34] were finished by the end of April. Jurassic Park was finally completed on May 28, 1993.[35]

Music[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: Jurassic Park (film score) Composer John Williams began scoring the film at the end of February, and it was conducted a month later. John Neufeld and Alexander Courage provided the score'sorchestrations.[35] Like with another Spielberg film he scored, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Williams felt he needed to write "pieces that would convey a sense of 'awe' and fascination" given it dealt with the "overwhelming happiness and excitement" that would emerge from seeing live dinosaurs. In turn more suspenseful scenes such as theTyrannosaurus attack earned frightening themes.[36] The first soundtrack, released on May 25, 1993, included unused material.[37] For the 20th anniversary of the release of the film, a new soundtrack was issued for digital download on April 9, 2013 including four bonus tracks personally selected by Williams.[38]