I don’t know of very many instances where the movie rights for a book were sold for over a million dollars before it’s even written, but when your concept is one of those once-in-a-lifetime ideas – like scientifically reproducing extinct dinosaurs to create the ultimate zoological park – you can afford to name your price. Michael Crichton sold the rights for $1.5 million after alerting Spielberg of the idea, and he received an additional $500,000 to write the original draft of the script. It was worth every penny. Spielberg was the best man for the job because of his experience with creature features and technological advancements in film, as well as his knowledge of what the audiences want.

John Hammond has created the theme park, Jurassic Park, on Isla Nublar, but when a velociraptor kills one of its handlers, the investors for the park get nervous. To prove the safety of the park, a lawyer representing the investors, chaos theorist Ian Malcolm, paleontologist Alan Grant, and paleobotanist Ellie Sattler are invited to visit the park and give their comments. All four are in shock and awe when they see a brachiosaurus on their drive to the visitor center. At the center, they learn how the dinosaurs are bred and genetically controlled to be female only and prevent breeding. Malcolm warns Hammond that their control won’t last because “life, uh, finds a way”. Lex and Tim, Hammond’s grandchildren, arrive and go on the tour of the park with everyone else while Hammond watches them from the control room. On the tour, none of the dinosaurs appear causing Grant and the others to step out of their vehicles and go looking for them. They come across a sick triceratops and Sattler stays behind to take care of it while the others return to the cars as a storm comes in. Dennis Nedry, the computer programmer for the park, uses the storm as an opportunity to restart the computer and security systems so he can go steal embryos and send them to a competitor. When he tries to get to the dock during the storm, he gets lost and is killed by a dilophosaurus.

While the system is down, the tyrannosaurus escapes its pen and terrorizes the tour vehicles that are stalled. The tyrannosaurus eats the lawyer, injures Malcolm, but Grant, Lex and Tim are able to escape. Sattler and Robert Muldoon, the game warden, searches for survivors and find Malcolm just as the tyrannosaurus returns and chases them away. Grant, Lex and Tim survive the night in the park, and the next morning, discover hatched dinosaur eggs, proving Malcolm’s theory from earlier. Hammond and Ray Arnold, another computer programmer, decide to reboot the entire park system to get things back online. Hammond, Sattler and Muldoon hole up in a bunker while Arnold goes to reset things, but when Arnold doesn’t return, Sattler and Muldoon go out to do it. They are attacked by velociraptors and Muldoon is killed, but Sattler successfully resets things and escapes. Grant, Lex and Tim get back to the visitor center and Grant goes back out to find Sattler. The raptors attack Lex and Tim but they make it to the control room with Sattler and Grant. Lex is able to reboot the system and get the park back up and running, but the raptors pursue them. The group is eventually saved by the tyrannosaurus and they, along with Hammond, escape the island.

Anyone who knows me knows I have a deep love of film scores. It’s impossible to enjoy film scores and not have John Williams on your playlist, but on the whole, I’ve never been the biggest Williams fan. Having said that, the score for Jurassic Park is some of his best work next to Indiana Jones and deserves all the recognition it gets. The models, puppetry and computer-generated graphics to create the dinosaurs were innovative at the time of the film’s release. The computer technology was a precursor to Pixar and if it weren’t for the success of Jurassic Park, there would be no Titanic or Lord of the Rings. There would be no increased infatuation with dinosaurs or paleontology. Ross on Friends would have had some other boring career. The Toronto Raptors wouldn’t exist. It cannot be overstated the impact Jurassic Park has had on our culture. It also cemented Spielberg’s status as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Bonus Review: Twister

Spielberg and Crichton created on another movie just a few years after Jurassic Park – Twister, a disaster movie following storm chasers as they follow after some incredibly destructive tornadoes. Spielberg was originally attached to direct, but instead only produced and let Jan de Bont (who had just had major success with Speed) take the wheel. The production was plagued with difficulties. The script went through several rewrites and production halted briefly after the Oklahoma City bombing occurred on April 19, 1995. De Bont was either too inexperienced or otherwise too erratic to handle the intense filming and made some of the lighting crew walk off set. A week of no work went by until another crew could come in to replace them. The changing of the scenes on location in Oklahoma caused filming to have to move to Iowa toward the end of production. However, all’s well that ends well, I guess, because the movie is an exciting thrill ride and you wouldn’t know it was a difficult process if I didn’t spoil it for you.

A young girl named Jo and her family take shelter from a tornado in their Oklahoma home. Their farm is destroyed and Jo’s father is dead before it passes. 27 years later, Jo is a meteorologist who leads a team of storm chasers. Bill, Jo’s former husband, arrives with his new fiancée, Melissa, to receive Jo’s signature on their divorce papers. Jo shows Bill a completed “Dorothy” a device Bill came up with that contains and releases hundreds of small weather sensors to get a more accurate visual of the inside of tornadoes. A forming tornado forces Jo to get to chasing, and Bill and Melissa follow since she has yet to sign the papers. Another storm chaser, Jonas, has stolen Bill’s idea and created his own “Dorothy” and intends to take full credit for the idea if it’s successful. Bill is enraged and decides to help Jo launch her “Dorothy” first. The team visits Jo’s aunt Meg for food and to rest amidst their chases and Melissa learns more about both Bill and Jo. Another tornado develops and the team chases after it, but Melissa is in a second vehicle while Jo and Bill ride together. They separate from the others following an unpredictable tornado path and unsuccessfully try to launch a “Dorothy”. After their failure, Bill confesses he still loves Jo, but Melissa overhears the confession on a communication radio. While at a drive-in theater, a surprise tornado hits and forces everyone into a garage pit to stay safe. The tornado destroys several vehicles and injures several individuals. The tornado heads toward Aunt Meg’s place, but before the team goes after it, Melissa breaks up with Bill and convinces him to reunite with Jo. The tornado destroys Meg’s house but the team rescues her. Another tornado develops and they attempt to release a “Dorothy” one last time, and this time, they’re successful.