About

Jurassic Park is a series of science fiction novels and films about an island theme park populated by dinosaurs that have been secretly cloned from fossil DNA. Based on the 1990 eponymous novel by Michael Crichton, the story expanded into a blockbuster media franchise consisting of several films, comic books and video games throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

Premise

When a prehistoric mosquito is found preserved in amber, scientists are able to extract the dinosaur blood within it to create clones. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) puts those clones on an island to create an amusement park called Jurassic Park. He invites two scientists and a mathematician to come and visit after the death of an employee at the hands of a dinosaur. The three guests, along with Hammond's two grandchildren are dazzled by the park. Later in their trip, however, the electric fences which keep the dinosaurs penned up are deactivated by a guard hired by an outside company tasked with stealing the dinosaur's genetic make-up. He is killed, along with several employees as the scientists and children attempt to hide from the dinosaurs and call for help. Eventually they escape the island by helicopter, collectively deciding not to open the park for the public.

History

The Novel

The Jurassic Park saga originally began with the eponymous science fiction novel written by American author Michael Crichton and published in 1990. Conceived as a cautionary tale on the then-still emerging fields of biological and genetic engineering technology, the novel quickly became a bestseller and received favorable reviews from the critics.

Film Adaptation

In 1993, Steven Spielberg decide to adapt the book into the blockbuster film Jurassic Park, which was released on June 11th, 1993.^[1] The film stars Sam Neil as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, two scientists and a mathematician brought to evaluate the park. It also stars Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, the park’s creator, and Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello as Tim and Lex Murphy, his grandchildren.

Sequels

The commercial success of Jurassic Park eventually led to the production of three sequel films, Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997), Jurassic Park III(2001) and Jurassic World (2015).

Jurassic Park: The Lost World

With the record-setting box office reception of the original novel's film adaptation, Crichton began working on a sequel novel titled The Lost World per popular demand from the fans and under direct pressure from Spielberg. Upon its publication in September 1995, the sequel novel was once again met with critical acclaims and immediately picked up by Spielberg for another film adaptation under the title Jurassic Park: The Lost World, which was released on May 23rd, 1997.

Jurassic Park III

The first film in the series to be not helmed by Spielberg nor based on Chrichton's novel, the third installment in the series began production on August 30th, 2000, with Joe Johnston directing the film and starring Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, and Michael Jeter. The story takes place on Isla Sorna, the same island off Central America's Pacific Coast as featured in the second film, where a divorced couple tricks Dr. Alan Grant into going in order to help them find their son. Upon its release on July 18, 2001, the film was regarded as a box office success, though it was met with mostly negative reviews for the cliched plot.

Jurassic World

About a year after the release of Jurassic Park III, the production of a fourth film in the series was confirmed by Steven Spielberg in June 2002. Over the course of the following decade, numerous rumors surrounding the plot and cast of the proposed film surfaced in the entertainment news media and Internet forums, with the production phase dragging on with repeated revisions of the screenplay and changes in screenwriting and production crew. On January 11th, 2013, the greenlight for the production was finally confirmed by Universal Studio, with Colin Trevorrow as the director, Steven Spielberg as a co-producer, and starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Omar Sy, B. D. Wong, and Irrfan Khan. On June 10th, 2015, the long-awaited Jurassic World premiered in Belgium, followed by the worldwide release on June 12th.

Reception

Upon its box office release in 1993, Jurassic Park was a critical and commercial success. The film earned a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes^[2] and a score of on 68 Metacritic.^[3] During its theatrical run, the film grossed more than $914 million dollars worldwide, and being the highest grossing film of all time until James Cameron's Titanic ^[4] In 2013, Jurassic Park was re-mastered in 3D and re-released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the film.

Accolades

The film won three Oscars in 1993 for Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television (John Williams) in 1994.

Online Presence

As of March 2014, Jurassic Park's Facebook page^[5] has over 4.2 million likes and its Twitter account^[6] has over 13,000 followers. The film is available to watch in its entirety on YouTube for $2.99 through Universal Movies’ official YouTube channel.^[7]

Fandom

In addition to the branded social media presence, there are numerous fan sites for the film such as Jurassic Park Legacy^[17] and Jurassic World.^[18] There are several Tumblr blogs dedicated to the film such as loljurassicpark^[8], iheartjurassicpark and jurassiraptor.^[10] As of March 2014, the Fanfiction.net^[11] page for the film has more than 21,000 submissions on Deviant Art.^[12]

Steven Spielberg's Dinosaur Hunting Photo

On July 13th, Facebook user Jay Brandscomb shared a photograph of Steven Spielberg posing in front of an animatronic Triceratops model on the set during the shoot of Jurassic Park with the caption:

“Disgraceful photo of recreational hunter happily posing next to a Triceratops he just slaughtered. Please share so the world can name and shame this despicable man.”

While Brandscomb's tongue-in-cheek post was understood as a mockery of the recent string of "big game hunting" controversies involving Texas Tech University student Kendall Jones and Belgian teenager Axelle Despiegelaere, it soon became inundated with critical remarks and backlashes from those who failed to recognize the famed Jurassic Park director, as well as quite a few trolls who played dumb in order to fuel the controversy. Within a week, Brandscomb's post received more than 15,000 likes and 40,000 shares on Facebook.

Related Memes

Parodies

On September 29th, 2011, How It Should Have Ended uploaded an animated alternative ending for Jurassic Park (shown below, left) to their YouTube channel^[13], where it gained over 9.1 million views in two-and-a-half years. On November 3rd, 2011, College Humor^[16] uploaded a video titled "Jurassic Park Character's Awful Realization" which focuses on a minor character realizing he's expendable (top right). As of March 2014, the video has over 1.1 million views.

On April 2nd, 2013, Screen Junkies^[15] uploaded an honest trailer for the film (shown below, left). As of March 2014, the video has over 3 million views. On February 7th, 2014, comedy channel Smosh^[14] uploaded a hybrid trailer that mixed Jurassic Park with Pokemon (right). As of March 2014, the video has over 3.8 million views.

Clever Girl

Clever Girl is a catchphrase that can be used to express respect or admiration for something has demonstrated substantial intelligence. It comes from as scene from the film in which the hunter Muldoon, played by actor Bob Peck, attempts to hunt down a raptor in the jungle. While aiming at one of the raptors with a SPAS-12 shotgun that he carefully clicks into place, a second raptor pops its head from the bush to the left. Muldoon looks at the raptor and says "Clever girl" before it pounces on him.

Holy Shit, It's a Dinosaur

'Holy Fucking Shit, It's a Dinosaur!' is a parody song based on the main theme from Jurassic Park featuring comical lyrics performed in the voice of an opera singer. The song first became popular on YouTube in 2006 after it was paired with various dinosaur-related videos. On August 12th 2006, YTMND user ALMusic produced a site^[1] taking a short segment from Jurassic Park in which the main characters are dumbfounded by a dinosaur walking past them. The movie's main theme is also playing in the background, but with additional lyrics written by ALMusic to accompany the song. Shown below is a YouTube version of the original YTMND:

KyoAni Finds A Way

“Kyoani Finds A Way” is a catchphrase used by anime fans to either criticize or praise Kyoto Animation's (otherwise shortened as KyoAni) ability to reinvent the Moe subgenre with newer and cuter iterations of characters. The expression is derived from a memorable quote by Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park, who utters "Life finds a way" in astonishment after witnessing the living dinosaurs with his own eyes for the first time.

Jeff Goldblum's Laugh

In a scene towards the beginning of the movie, Jeff Goldblum has a prolonged, and strange laugh.

On July 8, 2011, YouTuber IzzyMaiden^[21] uploaded a video that featured the clip on a ten minute loop. As of March 2014, the video has over 310,000 views. On September 23rd, 2012, YouTuber Rémi Enigma^[22] uploaded the clip on a ten hour loop. In two years the video gained over 59,000 views. On March 2nd, 2014, YouTuber MrTabarnaco2^[23] uploaded Goldblum's laugh set to a club beat in a video titled "Hahahrawrrahaha (Jeff Goldblum Laugh Remix)." In less than two weeks, the video gained over 240,000 views.

JurassicSystems.com

In March 2014, computer programmer Tully Robinson created JurassicSystems.com^[19], which recreates the HMTL5/Javascript Ray Arnold (Samuel L Jackson) worked with in the film, shown in the clip below.^[20] Once on the site visitors can call up the infamous "magic words" GIF by typing "access security" into the command box.

Search Interest

External References