The Interesting Differences Between The 'Jurassic Park' Novel And Film
Michael Crichton's modern Modern Prometheus follows in the footsteps of many a science fiction novel before it by detailing exactly the consequences of meddling man. This idea was reflected in the 1993 Steven Spielberg film adaptation of the novel Jurassic Park with several story changes that led to an overall different tone and ending message for the audience. The novel conveys this theme in several distinctly different ways and with characters who share names, but few other characterizations. While the characters speak and act differently than their film counterparts and with more than one difference in overall fate, the roles are expertly filled by actor and author alike. Here we will be examining through character and story differences, how the change of principal artists, Crichton to Spielberg, changed the story, and what aspects of each, novel and film, worked better.
The most noticeable and obvious differences between film and novel are the changes in characters, including their motivations, actions, and inevitable fates. This is best displayed by the seemingly minor characters of Dr. Henry Wu, Robert Muldoon, and John Hammond. Fans of the Jurassic World franchise will be familiar with Henry Wu, the talented Stanford geneticist who was hired direct out of graduate school by John Hammond. A bright-eyed young Wu is seen briefly in Jurassic Park, blindly confidant in his superiors and in the safeguards used by the InGen corporation to ensure control of the dinosaurs in the park. His naivety comes from his own inflated ego as well as the inflated pocket books of the guy who signs his paychecks, John Hammond. In the novel, Wu pays for these mistakes with his life. During the second phase of the disaster, as the T-Rex is sedated and control is being regained, Velociraptors are let loose in the "Safari Lodge" compound by the failure of auxiliary power. Wu, while trying to warn Dr. Ellie Sattler of impending doom, is pulled from safety and gutted by a raptor. In a rare instance of the Jurassic World franchise exceeding the storytelling of Crichton, Wu leaves the island prior to the disaster in Jurassic Park and lives to help build Jurassic World. Here he is cold, calculated, arrogant, and greedy and generally a more interesting character than the way he is written in the book. He seeks to monetize the dinosaurs for his own good, exhibiting an attitude that leads to many deaths over the course of the franchise, "we created dinosaurs, we patented them, we own them." A patent didn't save any of the lives lost in five films of the Jurassic franchise, and yet it doesn't seem as if Wu is remotely phased by the increasing death toll dinosaurs have caused in this world. Perhaps we will see the aging doctor get his comeuppance in upcoming films.
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Robert Muldoon, former white hunter in Kenya and snappiest dresser in the park, complete with badass hat and shorts combo, was hired by Hammond to be the game warden of Jurassic Park. On the surface, this Hemingway-esque "man's man" seems similar in book and film. A famous hunter up to any challenge so long as he has a firearm in his hand and whiskey on his breath. His use in the story is where his character path truly diverges. Novel-Muldoon is aggressive, brash, and sarcastic not unlike Roland Tembo, a character from the Lost World film that novel-Muldoon clearly inspired. Muldoon is noted as carrying a bottle of liquor on more than one occasion in the novel, including while trying to tranquilize an adult T-Rex after it attacks the tour group. While Crichton excels at writing these characters, this seems to be one of the characters who is least suited for survival in the novel. While he is exceedingly competent and dangerous, he lacks the reverence for the dinosaurs that most of the other survivors exhibit. Seeing them as another troublesome man-eating beast to be put down. This could be due in part to his aggressive natural and willingness to send the dinosaurs back to extinction to protect the other people in the park during the disaster. As film-Muldoon says concerning the Velociraptors, "they should all be destroyed." This proves to be a wise sentiment as park employees, specifically Samuel L. Jackson, quickly become some of their favorite prey. The largest difference here of course is that film-Muldoon is picked off by the "clever girl" and her pride of raptors. Perhaps Muldoon in the film plays the role of the novel's Dr. Wu, paying for the mistakes and crimes of others with his life. Spielberg makes this price to pay even more steep by the nature of Muldoon's guardian archetype, dealing the survivors a devastating blow by killing off a valuable character.
Finally, we come to the man behind the madness, John Hammond. Eccentric billionaire, capitalist, and entertainment enthusiast. His child-like wonder in the movie helps to redeem his blind ambition. While he footed the bill, hired the professionals, and started a bioengineering company to clone dinosaurs that then killed dozens of people, at his heart he was very relatable. A dreamer hoping to do something impossible, make his mark on the world, and witness the shared wonder of millions of park guests. In the end, Hammond is able to set aside his selfish desires when he realizes he has made a terrible mistake and has cost lives because of it. This is not remotely the case with Crichton's Hammond. A greedy, dragon-like hoarder of wealth, Hammond's sole desire with the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park is to make as much money as possible with this amazing biotechnology that he "wields like a child who found his dad's gun" according to Dr. Malcolm. Hammond is a small man who is impetuous, arrogant, and childish in his demand to get his way. This is perfectly illustrated by his reaction to the park breaking down around him. As Dr. Alan Grant and Hammond's grandchildren, Lex, and Tim are struggling to pioneer their way through the think jungles of Isla Nublar, Hammond is confronted by John Arnold and Muldoon. They confront Hammond with the fact that they have a full blown ecological disaster on their hands that has resulted in numerous casualties and Hammonds reaction is to stop on the floor, flail about, and scream "no." Hammond has to learn the hard way that there are some things even money can not fix. This comes to pass as the elderly man falls down a hill breaks his ankle and strands himself alone in a ravine. Unable to climb to his bungalow and surrounded by Procompsognathids, Hammond is cornered and injured, perfect prey for the jackal-like compys. This is exacerbated by the bite of the compy, whose venom delivers an opiate-like effect to their victim. Crippled, delirious, and poisoned, Hammond meets an unglorified end, devoured by his own creation that he sought to exploit.
While there are notable differences between movie and novel, both stories are strong enough to stand on their own, something increasingly rare in modern book-to-film adaptations. In fact, the first two novels and films both seem to be a part of a separate, narratively stronger world than the third film or the Jurassic World franchises. Undoubtedly a credit to Michael Crichton's source material as both films adapt and employ components of the novels more effectively than the later films. Both Jurassic Park and The Lost World stories masterfully use dinosaurs to reveal man's arrogance, overconfidence in science, and, to quote Dr. Ian Malcolm, "a lack of humility before nature." These "terrible lizards" ruled the earth for millions of years and their representation as both a force of nature and the inevitability of man's downfall are powerful, poignant, and relevant themes worth reflecting upon by reader and viewer.