Jurassic Park: “Life, uh, finds a way.”

Originally a series of two books published in 1990 and 1995 from Michael Crichton (the man behind the original Westworld of 1973), Jurassic Park is a cautionary tale on genetic engineering and an illustration of the mathematical chaos theory. Immortalized on camera by legendary director Steven Spielberg in 1993, Jurassic Park was the highest-grossing movie ever at the time and received more than 20 awards after its release. As a pioneer in the development of computer-generated imagery and animatronic visual effects, the movie hasn’t aged a bit today.

“Welcome… to Jurassic Park!”

The Jurassic Park movie of 1993 took some liberties with Michael Crichton’s original book, leaving behind many violent scenes and some characters. Directed by Steven Spielberg in the midst of his golden age, with a script written by David Koepp and Crichton himself and with computer-generated imagery from Industrial Light & Magic, Jurassic Park was a recipe for success.

The story follows paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, who is invited along with his girlfriend paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler by billionaire and philanthropist John Hammond, CEO of International Genetic Technologies (InGen), to visit his island populated by genetically recreated dinosaurs. This island, Isla Nublar near the coast of Costa Rica, is home to Jurassic Park, the first amusement park featuring living dinosaurs. After an accident with a velociraptor which led to a worker’s death, the shareholders of InGen demands that specialists inspect the park before its opening. The team is made of Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, the shareholder’s lawyer Donald Gennaro and famous mathematician and chaos theorist Ian Malcolm. Later joined by Hammond’s two grandchildren, the guests are soon trapped on the island because of a tropical storm. Dennis Nedry, the park’s leader computer programmer, is bribed by InGen’s rival to steal DNA samples of dinosaurs. To do so, he cuts down power to the park, leaving the dinosaurs to roam freely which threatens the guests and staff. The rest of the story, you probably already know, as almost everyone has seen Jurassic Park at least once in their lives.

“Spared no expense!”

The movie is one of the most impressive achievements in recent cinema history. Its computer-generated imagery and animatronics were one of a kind when the movie was released, and can still impress most viewers to this day, 25 years later. The characters from the book were wonderfully portrayed by Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough, and the movie was a real cornerstone in Goldblum’s career. Overall, Jurassic Park was praised as an amazing movie, and astonishing adaptation of an already excellent book, and an incredible step forward in movie technology. The movie received 3 Academy Awards, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects. It is still considered today as one of the best film ever made by many professionals and amateurs and is a fan-favorite for many 1980s kids.

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