PopHorror Let's Get Scared
In case you’ve been trapped in amber for millions of years, you’ve heard about Jurassic Park, a science fiction adventure film released 30 years ago on June 11, 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. Star Jeff Goldblum said of Spielberg, “He’s like a general leading a brilliant operation.” Indeed, this film is considered a landmark in cinema history due to its groundbreaking visual effects and impact on popular culture.
Jurassic Park Takes Us On a Wild Ride
Jurassic Park takes place on the fictional island of Isla Nublar, where a billionaire named John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has created a theme park filled with genetically recreated dinosaurs (later films establish another location of dinosaur engineering called Site B). He invites a group of scientists, including paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), to endorse the park and its “unique biological attractions” before its official opening. Joining them are Hammond’s grandchildren, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello), along with a few others. Samuel L. Jackson’s character delivers the iconic “Hang onto your butts” line, for example.
However, things quickly go wrong when a tropical storm hits the island and sabotages the park’s security systems… well, okay. It’s actually the park’s computer programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), who cuts the security system off, intending to use the distractive downtime to steal some dino eggs and deliver them to a corporate competitor. So yes, Jurassic Park also deals with themes of underpaid employees trying to rip their workplaces off. Yikes!
As a result of Dennis being a menace, the dinosaur “attractions” escape their enclosures and start attacking the park visitors and residual staff. The film follows the characters’ struggle for survival and their attempts to escape the island, which, for them, goes from being a tropical paradise to hell on earth.
Jurassic Park was praised for its groundbreaking visual effects, which brought the dinosaurs to life using a combination of animatronics and computer-generated imagery (CGI). Here’s a scene that still looks better than some of the CGI in big-budget pictures today:
Special Effects Built Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park was one of the first films to use CGI extensively, and the realism of the dinosaurs captivated audiences worldwide. The film won three Academy Awards for its achievements in sound, sound editing, and visual effects.
The success of Jurassic Park led to the creation of a highly popular franchise, with several sequels, including The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997 – our retro review), Jurassic Park III (2001), and a reboot trilogy that began with Jurassic World (2015), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022). The franchise was also quick to expand into other media, including video games, toys, and merchandise.
Overall, Jurassic Park is recognized as a milestone in the world of filmmaking, combining thrilling action, cutting-edge special effects, and an exploration of the ethical and moral implications of genetic engineering. Sure, in a perfect world, we could bring back dinosaurs for our viewing pleasure, but could they really essentially stay as just our pets? The film, however, remains a beloved classic that continues to captivate audiences of all ages.
The fact that Jurassic Park was ever even finished proves that ambition and determination keeps things from staying in “development hell.” If you’ve ever seen any behind-the-scenes documentaries on Jurassic Park, you’ll know that a huge part of its success was having people behind it who were willing to go the extra mile. The effort shows. It also helped that the film had a more receptive audience who were willing to see it not only as whiny critics but as people who just wanted to see dinosaur action. There are cheesier killer dinosaur movies that are fun in their own right, but Jurassic Park is the movie that set the bar pretty high. “I am dinosaur, hear me roar!”
What are your thoughts on Jurassic Park? Let us know in the comments!
