History Film / JurassicPark

* InUniverseFactoidFailure: Hammond continues to defend the concept behind Jurassic Park even after the dinosaurs have broken out and started eating people, noting that Disneyland has had its fair share of operational troubles as well. Malcolm responds by quipping that at least "if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists!". While the Pirates of the Caribbean animatronics specifically are not advanced enough to attack tourists, the attractions at Disneyland have killed over two dozen guests and workers over the years, which is a ''far'' higher bodycount than Jurassic Park or even its successor Jurassic World ever managed to achieve.

* MonsterDelay: Occurs a few times. The film keeps the appearance of the dinosaurs relatively hidden until the full reveal of the ''Brachiosaurus'' twenty minutes in, and then it takes another forty minutes before the first threatening dinosaur, the ''Tyrannosaurus'', appears in full, signalling that [[GoneHorriblyWrong it's hit the fan]].

* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: In-universe, this happens during the tour. The ''Dilophosaurus'' fails to appear during their cue, and Rexy isn't hungry yet for the goat.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Among the embryos of StockDinosaurs in the cryogenic vats are a few labelled ''Metriacanthosaurus'' and ''Proceratosaurus'', two dinosaur genera so obscure, they've never appeared in media outside of their names being mentioned in this movie and in supplementary material of the franchise.

* BaitAndSwitch: In the opening scene, we see armed guards and Jurassic Park employees watching warily as trees in some kind of jungle are pushed aside by a massive, unseen force...which turns out to be not a forklift.

* InUniverseFactoidFailure: Hammond continues to defend the concept behind Jurassic Park even after the dinosaurs have broken out and started eating people, noting that Disneyland has had its fair share of operational troubles as well. Malcolm responds by quipping that at least "if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists!". While the Pirates of the Caribbean animatronics specifically are not advanced enough to attack tourists, the attractions at Disneyland have killed over two dozen guests over the years, which is a ''far'' higher bodycount than Jurassic Park or even its successor Jurassic World ever managed to achieve.

* InUniverseFactoidFailure: Hammond continues to defend the concept behind Jurassic Park even after the dinosaurs have broken out and started eating people, noting that Disneyland has had its fair share of operational troubles as well. Malcolm responds by quipping that at least "if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists!". When the Pirates of the Caribbean animatronics specifically are not advanced enough to attack tourists, the attractions at Disneyland have killed over two dozen guests over the years, which is a ''far'' higher bodycount than Jurassic Park or even its successor Jurassic World ever managed to achieve.

* BigBad: No, not the T-rex. The Big One, the alpha velociraptor is the cause of the film's premise, by killing the worker at the beginning of the film, she made the investors nervous about the park's safety, which causes Hammond to invite experts like Grant and Malcolm to the island in order to quell their fears. Although locked in a cage, her presence is felt throughout the movie, with Muldoon fearing a potential breach at any moment. And when her pack finally breaks out, the rest of the film revolves around the protagonists trying to get the power back on and escape the island before she makes a meal out of them.

* RedemptionEarnsLife: Ian isn't a bad guy, but he is a bit of a gruff GrumpyBear about the park and self-righteous. He then risks his life to save Tim and Lex, even if it wasn't necessary, facing a ''T. rex'' for them. This merits him as being one of the survivors, albeit injured.

** Dr. Alan Grant, who starts out as a child-disliking grouch when we first meet him. Starting with the ''T. rex'' attack, He ends up not only repeatedly [[PapaWolf risking his life]] to save Tim and Lex from danger, but goes out of his way keep them calm by making jokes, reassuring them, etc.

Perhaps the most enduringly popular blockbuster film of its decade (it even celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2013 with a theatrical re-release that upgraded it into a UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie), it spawned a [[Franchise/JurassicPark franchise]] that includes several film sequels: ''Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark'' (1997), ''Film/JurassicParkIII'' (2001), ''Film/JurassicWorld'' (2015), ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' (2018), and the upcoming ''Film/JurassicWorldDominion'' (2022). It also won all three of its Oscar nominations; Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.

** When Jophrey the worker is killed at the beginning, his death is signified by a closeup of his slowly relaxing hand slipping free from Muldoon's grasp in dramatic Slow Motion.

** The film opens with a DeadHandShot of Jophrey the worker being dragged away by the ''Velociraptor''.

* AdaptationalDumbass: In the book, Muldoon was the one who spotted the raptor ambush, i.e. the classic hunting strategy of an animal he's an expert on. In the film he was the one ''ambushed'' by the raptors.

* DeathByGenreSavviness:
** Subverted, where [[spoiler:Ian Malcolm]], who has been predicting disaster from the start, is attacked by Rexy but survives.
** Played straight with [[spoiler:Muldoon]], who knows exactly how dangerous the dinosaurs are, and is killed by a ''Velociraptor''. A strange case of DeathByAdaptation, since he survived the encounter in the book specifically because of his knowledge of raptor hunting tactics.

* ShesGotLegs: Ellie. She's constantly in [[WhoWearsShortShorts shorts]], and her legs are the foreground focus of the first shot inside the helicopter on the ride to the island. Muldoon is also a rare male example of this trope.

* FromTheLatinIntroDucere: Dr. Grant starts describing ''Velociraptors'', mentioning their birdlike qualities. He declares that "Even the word 'raptor' means bird of prey!" That is true.... but only in English. The "raptor" in ''Velociraptor'' is a Latin word meaning "seizer or "thief" (it just happened to evolve into the meaning "bird of prey" in English somewhere down the line)[[note]]The novel even specifically mentions this etymology in the first chapter[[/note]] and ''Velociraptor'' was so named probably because the scientists describing it thought that they raided nests, stealing eggs and hatchlings. ''Velociraptors'' are very birdlike, but their naming is just a coincidence.

* AdultFear:
** Hammond ends up in this situation during the movie. He's hosting his grandchildren while his daughter is getting a divorce, hoping to share the wonders of his creation with them. Then the power goes out, and he has no way to contact the kids while wild animals run loose, even as he's asking Muldoon to fetch them. He manages to get through this by telling himself (and Ellie) that they're with a dinosaur expert but it's clearly tearing him up inside. In the climax, Grant calls him to let him know the kids are fine and he gets a moment's relief...only for the sound of breaking glass and gunfire to cut through the phone line. All Hammond can do at this point is scream in helplessness before driving himself and an injured Malcolm to the Visitor's Center, presumably praying they're still alright on the way there.
** There's the scene where the two kids, Lex and Tim, are trapped under the roof of the park car with the ''T. rex'' trying to break it to get to and kill them. For a little while, there's nothing the adults can do, and the kids are screaming at the top of their lungs the whole time. The absolutely horrified look on Grant's and Malcolm's faces when she flips the car and continues to crush it onto the children personifies the utter helplessness and terror that any adult would feel in such a situation and one gets the sense that Grant's EurekaMoment with the road flare is more desperation than anything else.

''Jurassic Park'' is a 1993 science fiction film directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg and the first of its [[Franchise/JurassicPark eponymous]] film franchise, [[FilmOfTheBook based on]] the [[Literature/JurassicPark novel of the same name]] by Creator/MichaelCrichton, who was also brought on to pen the screenplay for the film.

--->'''Muldoon:''' I think this was Gennaro.\\
'''Ellie:''' ''[standing several feet away]'' I think this was too.

** Nedry's wardrobe seems to be patterned after the title characters in ''{{Film/TheGoonies}}'', which Spielberg produced. He wears a Hawaiian patterned shirt with pink flowers like Chunk in his scene with Dodson, Mouth's gray windbreaker when in the operations room, and a yellow raincoat over a denim button up shirt like Mikey when attempting to flee the island.

-->'''Muldoon''': Clever girl.

* AgeLift:
** In the novel, Tim was the older sibling and Lex was the younger. Steven Spielberg swapped their ages so Creator/JosephMazzello, who he had to reject for ''Film/{{Hook}}'' for being too young, could play Tim.

* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Nedry assumes this about the ''Dilophosaurus'', and tries to distract her by throwing a stick. It doesn't work, so he figures she's just stupid. [[spoiler:Then she eats him.]] Even dogs will prefer a meaty steak to a bone.

** However, a credible reasoning for this is that, at the time the film was made, the larger ''Deinonychus'' was considered a species of ''Velociraptor'' by Gregory Paul, the primary source of reference for Michael Crichton.[[note]]Also, the much larger ''Utahraptor'' was discovered during the production of the movie. Michael Crichton once joked that "I created it in fiction, and then they discovered it in fact a bit later." In fact, ''Utahraptor'' was originally going to be named ''Utahraptor spielbergi'', after film director Steven Spielberg, in exchange for funding palaeontological research, but no agreement could be reached on the amount of financial assistance.[[/note]]

* BehindTheBlack: The big reveal of the ''Brachiosaurus'' has a massive dinosaur hiding just off-screen until Grant and the others notice her, whereupon she starts making loud calls and huge, thumping footsteps they couldn't possibly have missed; even if they could, there turns out to be an entire ''herd'' of dinosaurs just off to one side they would ''have'' to have seen on the drive in.
** As OffscreenTeleportation below details more, Rexy's BigDamnHeroes moment relies on a huge dinosaur somehow only being noticed when she snatches a lunging raptor.

** And again with Tim and a dinosaur ribcage near the end.

* GunsAreWorthless: Alan Grant's SPAS-12 loaded with slugs proved unable to even hit ''Velociraptors'' behind glass, and the weapon suffered a stovepipe jam in the end.
** In fact, nobody in this film who has possession of a gun ever benefits from having it, Muldoon's fate being a prime example.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ian Malcolm can be described as this. Although he spends most of the movie making critical comments about the park and at one point flirting with Dr. Sattler, he actually nearly sacrificed his life just to allow Dr. Grant save the kids from the ''T. rex.''

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:Gennaro leaves the two kids for dead to hide from the ''T. rex'', while Grant and Malcolm risk their lives to save them. Of the five of them, guess who ends up being eaten by the T-Rex.]]

* ProductPlacement: The Ford Explorers used on the tour (replacing the Toyota Land Cruisers from the book).
** Barbasol shaving cream. In 2015, Barbasol sold ''Film/JurassicWorld'' [[TheRedStapler themed cans]]! (This is also a change from the book, in which the shaving cream was Gillette.)

*** In ''Film/JurassicWorld'', Dr. Wu confirms that they did, in fact, use avian and reptile DNA.

* AnalogyBackfire: John Hammond tries to compare the park's problems to Disneyland not working when it opened.
-->'''Dr. Ian Malcolm:''' Yeah, but John, when ''Ride/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' breaks down, the pirates don't ''eat'' the tourists.

-->'''Dr. Hammond:''' I simply don't understand this Luddite attitude, especially from a scientist. I mean, how can we stand in the light of discovery and not act?\\

** Grant grabs a road flare to distract the ''T. rex'' that is attacking the kids' car. The ''T. rex'' roars at Grant in response, which causes him to falter slightly. He recovers quickly when he realizes that the ''T. rex'' is seeing the flare and throws it off and watches as she follows the thrown flare.
*** Which was his plan, knowing the ''T. rex'' would follow the movement. What he didn't think about was Ian grabbing another flare and leading her away. By the time Ian threw his flare away, he was running so the ''T. rex'' ignored the smaller moving target to get the larger one (Ian).

* ForScience: Hammond invokes this:

** Despite this, it comes across as a flimsy justification rather than his true motive, which is a combination between making an absolute butt-load of money and because darn it, dinosaurs are really COOL.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In-universe. Arnold mentions a "Lysine contingency" as a last-resort method of bringing the park under control. According to him the dinosaurs are genetically engineered to be unable to manufacture the amino acid lysine, and will die in 24 hours if not supplied with it in their food. The thing is there are many organisms alive right now who are incapable of synthesizing lysine and who are dependent on dietary lysine to survive — one of those species is ''Homo sapiens''! Fortunately for us, there are plenty of food sources that are lysine-rich, including fish, beef, chicken, and various kinds of beans. As the sequel later points out, there is nothing stopping the escaped dinosaurs from adopting a lysine-rich diet and surviving, too.