Jurassic Park
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 First edition cover |
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| Author | Michael Crichton |
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| Cover artist | Chip Kidd |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction / techno-thriller |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
| Publication date | November 1990 |
| Pages | 416 (original hardcover) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-394-58816-9 (original hardcover) |
| Followed by | The Lost World |
Jurassic Park is a techno-thriller novel written by Michael Crichton that was published in 1990. Often considered a cautionary tale on unconsidered biological tinkering in the same spirit as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it uses the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its philosophical implications to explain the collapse of an amusement park showcasing certain genetically recreated dinosaur species. It was adapted into a blockbuster film in 1993 by director Steven Spielberg.
The book has one sequel, The Lost World, in 1995, which was also adapted by Spielberg into a film in 1997.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In its introduction the novel is presented as a report on the consequences of "The InGen Incident", which occurred in August 1989. This "fiction as fact" presentation had been used by Crichton before, in Eaters of the Dead and The Andromeda Strain, and is used again in Rising Sun.
The narrative begins by slowly tying together a series of incidents involving strange animal attacks in Costa Rica and on Isla Nublar, the main setting for the story. After paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate student Ellie Sattler enter the sequence of queried experts they are abruptly whisked away by billionaire John Hammond (founder and CEO of International Genetic Technologies, or InGen) for a weekend visit to a "zoological preserve" he has established on an island 120 miles west off the coast of Costa Rica.
Recent events have spooked Hammond's considerable investors and, to placate them, he means for Grant and Sattler to act as fresh consultants. They stand in counterbalance to a well-known mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm and a lawyer representing the investors, Donald Gennaro. Both are pessimistic, but Malcolm, having been consulted before the park's creation, is emphatic in his prediction that the park will collapse, as it is an unsustainably simple structure bluntly forced upon a complex system.
Upon arrival the park is revealed to contain cloned dinosaurs, which have been recreated using damaged dinosaur DNA (found in mosquitos that sucked Saurian blood and were then trapped 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 bred to be female as well as lysine-deficient. Hammond proudly showcases InGen's advances in genetic engineering and shows his guests through the island's vast array of automated systems.
Countering Malcolm's dire preditions with youthful energy, Hammond groups the consultants with his grandchildren, Tim and Alexis "Lex" Murphy. While touring the park with the children, Grant finds an eggshell, which seems to prove Malcolm's earlier assertion that the dinosaurs have been breeding against the geneticists' design (the population graphs proudly introduced earlier were naturally distributed, reflecting a breeding population, rather than displaying the distinct pattern that a population reared in batches ought to display).
Malcolm suggests a flaw in their method of analysing 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.
In the midst of this, the 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 back door he wrote into the system, Nedry manages to shut down the park's security systems and quickly steal 15 frozen embryos. He then attempts to smuggle them out to a contact waiting at the auxiliary dock deep in the park. But his plan goes awry: during a sudden tropical storm Nedry becomes lost and stops his stolen jeep at a dead end. He exits the jeep to determine his location. A Dilophosaurus approaches him from afar and blinds him with its poison saliva. Nedry's plan called for him to secretly deliver the embryos and return to the park's control room within fifteen minutes, but, without him to quietly patch the system, the park's security is left off, leaving the electrified fences deactivated. Without the barriers to contain them, dinosaurs begin to escape. The adult and juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex attack the guests on tour, destroying the vehicles, killing InGen public relations manager Ed Regis, and leaving Grant and the children lost in the park.
Ian 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, in between lucid lectures and morphine-induced rants, he tries to help those in the main compound understand their predicament and survive.
The park's upper management — engineer and park supervisor John Arnold, chief geneticist Henry Wu, Muldoon, and Hammond — struggle to return power to the park. For a time they manage to get the park largely back in order. But a series of errors on their part plunge the park into greater disarray. The viciously intelligent Velociraptors finally escape and pick off Wu and Arnold. Finally, Grant and the kids slowly make their way back to the central compound, carrying news that several young raptors, bred and raised in the island's wilds, were onboard the Anne B, the island's supply ship, when it departed for the mainland.
With no social order left, the survivors organize themselves and eventually secure their own lives. Just when the crisis is largely over, Hammond, furious at being ignored and determined to restore the park to its original state, becomes injured and is killed and eaten by a pack of compys. Gennaro 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. Finally Grant, Sattler, Muldoon, and Gennaro set out into the park to find the wild raptor nests and compare hatched eggs with the island's revised population tally. Cautious and nonviolent, they emerge unharmed. Word soon reaches them that the crew of the Anne B had discovered and killed the raptor stowaways.
In the end the island is suddenly and violently razed by the fictional Costa Rican Air Force. The survivors are told that Malcolm has succumbed to his injuries and died (Although he is shown to have survived in the sequel The Lost World). Survivors of the incident are indefinitely detained by the United States and Costa Rican governments. However, reports have surfaced from a Costa Rican doctor that an unknown pack of animals has been killing livestock and eating crops as they migrate toward the Costa Rican jungle.
[edit] Dinosaurs and other extinct animals featured
Dinosaurs and other extinct animals confirmed to be on Isla Nublar in the novel:
- Apatosaurus (Camarasaurus in some editions)
- Cearadactylus
- Dilophosaurus
- Euoplocephalus
- Hadrosaurus
- Hypsilophodon (Dryosaurus was used in context to describe this animal)
- Maiasaura
- Microceratops (Callovosaurus in some editions)
- Othnielia
- Procompsognathus (the shorthand form "Compy" is used in the book)
- Stegosaurus
- Styracosaurus
- Triceratops
- Tyrannosaurus rex
- Velociraptor mongoliensis (the shorthand form "Raptor" is used in the book)
Later editions of the novel list Microceratops in place of Callovosaurus on the population tables presented in the book. Microceratops, however, is observed by characters in the park whereas Callovosaurus is not. Later editions also use Camarasaurus in place of Apatosaurus, although Apatosaurus remains on the population tables presented in the book. In the story, it is mentioned that a dinosaur presumed to be a Coelurosaurus had just begun the DNA extraction procedure as events are unfolding. In addition to dinosaurs and pterosaurs, several prehistoric plants and at least one species of insect, Meganeura, was also resurrected from extinction for the park.
[edit] Biological issues
Scientists have argued that much of the book's content is impossible for various reasons, most notably the suggested means of recovering dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes trapped in fossilized tree sap. While this theory is largely a plot device by Crichton, both novel and movie sparked debate on the feasibility of cloning dinosaurs.
Four arguments why it would not be possible to obtain dinosaurs with this process are summarized thus:[1]
- Dinosaur DNA would be very difficult to correctly sequence without a complete, intact DNA strand for comparison. It would be unlikely to find a complete sequence because DNA is typically unstable outside living organisms (unless it is in the proper buffer).
- Any gaps in the resulting DNA sequence must be filled with dinosaur DNA; using frog DNA as the story suggests would likely produce an organism that varied from the original animal.
- In order to clone a complete DNA sequence, an oocyte from the same organism is required. Since no Mesozoic dinosaurs are alive today, this would be impossible.
- A dinosaur embryo would not be able to develop correctly without an egg from its own species.
Furthermore, it is likely that any prehistoric DNA obtained from a fossilized mosquito would be combined with the mosquito's own, again making it problematic to clone an 'accurate' and viable organism.
A theme expressed throughout the story and its sequel is that of homeothermic (warm-blooded) dinosaurs, a then-recent theory popularized by paleontologist Bob Bakker. While the cinematic adaptation of Jurassic Park used ostrich eggs as vessels to facilitate expression, the novel described "a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell." The plastic was called 'millipore', invented by an eponymous company subsequently bought by InGen (Millipore Corporation is also the name of a real company that manufactures materials for use in biological sciences, although they are not known to make dinosaur eggshells).
Ironically, most of the dinosaurs featured in the novel are not from the Jurassic period; they are actually from the Cretaceous period, the last period dinosaurs lived. However, this may be chalked up to an ignorant or naive marketing decision on InGen's part.
[edit] Differences to the film adaptation
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Universal Studios paid Michael Crichton $2 million for the rights to the novel in 1990, before it was even published. In 1993, the Steven Spielberg-directed film adaptation was released. Many plot points from the novel were changed or dropped. David Koepp wrote the screenplay for the film, with Crichton's assistance.
Crichton also wrote a sequel to Jurassic Park, called The Lost World, which was also made into a film. Jurassic Park III, a film not based on a Crichton book, came out in 2001.
Some significant changes include:
- The book includes several scenes with the Procompsognathus dinosaur. All these sequences and any reference to the dinosaur was dropped from the film adaptation resulting in significant plot differences.
- The book's opening chapter shows a young American girl vacationing at the shore with her family in Central America getting attacked by Procompsognathus while her parents are not looking. Instead, the film's opening showed the events that are alluded to by the bedridden patient in the book's prologue. This is because the film drops the Procompsognathus dinosaur and also the entire subplot about dinosaurs escaping from the island, consequently this scene, the climax of the book in the raptors' nest and the scene with raptors on the boat were all deemed useless. The sequence was later recycled as the opening of the film The Lost World: Jurassic Park, with a British family cruising to Isla Sorna instead of the mainland.
- In the novel, Dr. Grant is described as having red hair, a full beard, and loves children. In the film, he is brown haired with no facial hair, and initially dislikes children.
- The identities of Lex and Tim were swapped in the film; in the novel, Tim is the eldest and good with computers, although still interested in dinosaurs, while Lex is a young tomboy. In the novel, Lex is very close to her father, who thinks Tim is too childish and should grow up.
- The entire sequence involving the pterosaur enclosure is dropped from the film. Like the Procompsognathus scenes, this was recycled for usage later in the film series (in Jurassic Park III).
- Another sequence involving Dr. Grant and the children being chased by the T. rex down a river on an inflatable raft, was also dropped from the film, However, this river raft sequence became the inspiration for Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, a ride based on the film.
- In the novel, the tour cars are Toyota Land Cruisers, but in the film they are Ford Explorers. In subsequent material outside the films, the cars are typically referred to as Land Cruisers regardless of their make.
- In the novel, Dr. Ellie Sattler disembarks from the tour to tend to a sick Stegosaurs. In the film, a sick Tricerotops was used instead.
- The name of the character John Arnold was changed to Ray Arnold in the film.
- In the novel, John Hammond is killed by compys, however, in the film he is unharmed.
- In the film adaptation Robert Muldoon, the Game warden, is killed by the Velociraptors, while in the novel he survives the attack by diving into a pipe where the raptors cannot follow.
- In the novel, Donald Gennaro is not killed by the T-Rex and escapes off the island with the other survivors.
- The character of Ed Regis is absent from the movie.
- Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler are not romantically involved in the book.
- In the novel, there are more Velociraptors, which is referred to in the movie when Muldoon said they had originally bred eight.
- Dr. Grant restores power to the park in the novel, while in the movie, Dr. Sattler does.
- The Velociraptor pen is described as a chain-link enclosure in the novel.
- Only one Velociraptor follows Tim and Lex into the kitchen in the novel.
- The sequence where Grant and the children climb over the electric fence takes place shortly after the T-Rex attack in the novel. As well, Tim is not electrocuted by the fence in the novel.
- Tim escapes from the tour car in the tree by himself in the novel.
- The T-Rex shows up much earlier in the novel, killing the goat shortly after it is put in the pen.
[edit] References
- Cano R.J., Poinar H.N., Pieniazek N.J., Acra A., Poinar G.O. Jr. (1993). Amplification and Sequencing of DNA from a 120–135-Million-Year-Old Weevil. Nature, 363:536–538
- Weaver, R. F. (2002). Molecular Biology. McGraw-Hill, New York, p. 76. ISBN 0-07-234517-9
- Noonan, J.P., et al. Genomic sequencing of Pleistocene cave bears. Science 309(5734):597-9, July 2005.
Noonan shortly died after the production of the film.
[edit] Further reading
The Science of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Or How to Build a Dinosaur. Rob DeSalle and David Lindley. BasicBooks, New York, 1997. xxix, 194 pp., illus. $18 or C$25.50. ISBN 0-465-07379-4.
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Jurassic Park at the official Michael Crichton website
- Jurassic Park Legacy - A JP Encyclopedia
- JPdb - Jurassic Park Database
- The Jurassic Park Wiki
- Jurassic Park: Horizontal Evolution by Harrison Mujica-Jenkins at latephilosophers.com
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