Saturday, November 17, 2007

Jurassic Park



On Isla Nublar, an InGen employee is killed while releasing a Velociraptor into a specially built enclosure, prompting a lawsuit from his family. CEO John Hammond is pressured by his investors to allow a safety investigation by experts before opening the park. He invites paleontologist Alan Grant, paleobotanist Ellie Sattler, chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm and his investors' attorney Donald Gennaro, to perform the inspection. The group meets a Brachiosaurus when they set out into the park. At the park, they learn that InGen recreated the dinosaurs by cloning genetic material found in mosquitoes that fed on dinosaur blood, preserved in Dominican amber. The DNA from these samples was spliced with DNA from frogs to fill in gaps: during this process, the dinosaurs are bred as females to control the population. The team is also shown the Velociraptor enclosure seen at the beginning of the film, which contains the ferocious and intelligent adults.

The Tyrannosaurus escapes from her paddock.
The Tyrannosaurus escapes from her paddock.

Malcolm and Sattler are concerned, but Grant remains neutral. They meet Hammond's grandchildren, Alexis and Tim Murphy, and go on a vehicular tour of the park. Ellie leaves the tour to take care of a sick Triceratops. A tropical storm hits the island and most InGen employees leave, except for Hammond, game warden Robert Muldoon, chief engineer Ray Arnold, and lead computer programmer Dennis Nedry. Commissioned by rival businessman Lewis Dodgson, Nedry takes an opportunity to shut down the park's security system so he can steal dinosaur embryos and deliver them to an auxiliary dock. Soon, a Tyrannosaurus breaks through the electric fence surrounding its pen, killing Gennaro, wounding Malcolm, and then attacking Tim and Lex hiding in the car. The children and Grant only narrowly avoid being killed and eaten. Meanwhile, Ellie and Muldoon rescue Malcolm and are almost caught by the T. rex during an intense chase. Nedry crashes his car and after trying to fix it is killed by a Dilophosaurus. Grant, Tim, and Lex spend the night in a tree and while hiking to safety the next morning discover some of the dinosaurs are actually breeding. Grant realizes that the frog DNA is responsible, as some species of frog are known to spontaneously change gender in a single-sex environment.

A pair of Velociraptor enter the kitchen.
A pair of Velociraptor enter the kitchen.
Arnold tries to hack Nedry’s computer to turn the power back on and fails, so he does a full system restart, which requires the circuit breakers to be manually reset from the utility shed. When he fails to return, Ellie and Muldoon follow and discover the Raptors have escaped. Muldoon tells Ellie to go to the utility shed herself and turn the power back on while he hunts the Raptors that have been stalking them. Muldoon is attacked and killed by a lurking Raptor while Ellie escapes from another after discovering Arnold's remains. After managing to turn on the power and escaping the Raptor, she meets up with Grant. They both go back to Malcolm and Hammond, and Grant grabs a shotgun after learning that two Raptors have escaped their pen and a third has been contained. Lex and Tim narrowly escape two of the Raptors in the kitchen, and Lex is finally able to restore the Park's computer systems in order to call Hammond to request a helicopter rescue of the survivors. Grant and Ellie hold off a Raptor trying to open the door to the computer room, until the power is restored and the electromagnetic locks begin working. With the door secure, the team climbs up into the ceiling crawlspace and arrive at the Visitors Center skeleton display. After a scuffle on top of the fossil exhibits where the Raptors block their escape route, help comes from an unlikely source when the Tyrannosaurus suddenly appears and kills both Raptors; unintentionally saving Grant, Ellie, Lex and Tim in the process. Grant, Ellie, Lex and Tim climb into Hammond and Malcolm's jeep and leave. Grant says he will not endorse the park, a choice with which Hammond concurs. Flying away in the helicopter, the children fall asleep beside Grant, who contemplatively watches the birds flying nearby, the surviving relatives of the dinosaurs they escape

No comments: