Line #8 Creator/MichaelCrichton


1	[[quoteright:226:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/michaelcrichton.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:226:[[ForScience They were so busy trying to see if they could]], [[GoneHorriblyRight they never stopped to think if they should.]]]]
3	->''"Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it."''
4
5	John Michael Crichton, M.D. (October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was a bestselling American writer, most commonly working in the science fiction genre. He is known for his extremely technical writing style which [[ShownTheirWork openly favored scientific detail over character development]] and could be somewhat formulaic. The overall thrust of his books was the threat posed by [[ForScience blundering scientists who toyed with nature]]. Toward the end of his life, his stories were becoming more political and thus controversial.
6
7	His works often expressed a cynical view of corporate America and the scientific community. Many credited him with inventing the techno-thriller, although he himself acknowledged precursors such as Creator/JulesVerne, Creator/HGWells and Creator/ArthurConanDoyle.
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9	As a young man, Crichton wrote spy novels under the name John Lange to pay for medical school. However, after a more serious effort written under a new alias, called ''A Case of Need'' -- a murder mystery which featured an in-depth analysis of the issue of abortion -- received widespread attention and won him an Edgar Award, Crichton decided to focus on writing rather than medicine.
10
11	His first novel under his own name was ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', a very spare science fiction thriller about a team of scientists isolating and analyzing an extremely deadly single-celled organism of extra-terrestrial origin. It was a surprising runaway success, establishing Crichton very rapidly. He compounded his success with popular novels such as ''Literature/TheGreatTrainRobbery'', a somewhat fictionalized historical novel about the Great Robbery of 1885, and ''Literature/{{Congo}}'', a modern take on old-fashioned African adventure stories, as well as the less popular ''Literature/TheTerminalMan'' and ''Literature/EatersOfTheDead''. All of the aforementioned were snapped up by Hollywood, although ''Congo'' and ''The 13th Warrior'' were not filmed until the 1990s. Nonetheless, by the end of the 1970s Crichton was a very wealthy man.
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13	After a long hiatus during the eighties, during which Crichton traveled extensively and became interested in mystical concepts such as ESP, he returned to fiction writing with ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'', which combined his trademark hard-line science with more fanciful ideas about psychic powers. Many of Crichton's fans regard ''Sphere'' as his finest work.
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15	In 1990 he released his most successful work, the novel ''Literature/{{Jurassic Park\|1990}}'', about a theme park where dinosaurs are created using genetic engineering. Not only did it sell millions of copies worldwide and get adapted into a [[Film/JurassicPark1993 massively successful film]] by Creator/StevenSpielberg (in fact, the highest-grossing ever made at the time), it sparked a renewed interest in Crichton, his older books getting reprinted and bought on a large scale, including ''A Case of Need'', the nonfiction ''Five Patients'', and the John Lange-era ''Literature/{{Binary}}''. Film adaptations of Crichton's works also became suddenly commonplace, including adaptations of ''Film/{{Congo}}'' and ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'', although all but ''Film/JurassicPark1993'' were met with mostly negative reactions.
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17	Crichton realized that ''Literature/{{Jurassic Park\|1990}}'' provided him with significant ProtectionFromEditors, and took advantage of this to begin writing more controversial fare: ''Literature/RisingSun'', which analyzed US–Japanese relations; most specifically the statement that "Business Is War". Those versed in economics point out that he [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics broke several laws of the universe]] (including making the standard "export good, import bad" mistake) in order to [[StrawCharacter set up the Japanese]] as the BigBad poised to conquer the world, though this did not seem to detract from its popularity at the time. The point was rendered moot with the collapse of the Tiger economy, making Crichton seem rather paranoid in the process. He followed that up with ''Literature/{{Disclosure}}'', [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale a gender role reversal of a typical sexual harassment case]] set in an early-'90s technology company.
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19	He returned to technothrillers for a while after that, calming his critics by writing ''Literature/TheLostWorld1995'', his only sequel; ''Literature/{{Airframe}}'', a book ostensibly about an incident on an airplane but more substantially about irresponsible journalism; ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'', a foray into TimeTravel which [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] YeGoodeOldeDays in a memorable fashion, and ''Literature/{{Prey}}'', about runaway nanotechnology.
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21	His Protection thus restored, he wrote the most controversial novel of his career, the GlobalWarming-critique ''Literature/StateOfFear'', which [[BrokenBase severely divided his fan base]]. The controversy over this novel continues to this day.
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23	As this backlash annoyed his editors, he followed this up with ''Literature/{{Next\|2006}}'', a relatively comedic look at genetic research, technology and copyright issues. Unfortunately, his tendency to run off on author tracts remained, as he spent a full page talking about a Washington journalist named Mick Crowley who was on trial for raping a baby and "had a small penis". This character just happened to share the same name and profession as a journalist who had been critical of Crichton's ''State of Fear'', was [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment entirely unimportant to the plot]], and [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never appeared again]].
24
25	He also wrote nonfiction works such as ''Five Patients'', ''Jasper Johns'', ''Electronic Life'', ''Travels'', and many essays and articles published in magazines and on his website.
26
27	Crichton was also a director and screenwriter, most famously of ''Film/{{Westworld}}'', about a futuristic fantasy resort populated by [[AIIsACrapshoot robots who eventually break down and turn on the guests]], as well as adaptations of Robin Cook's ''Literature/{{Coma}}'' and his own ''Literature/TheGreatTrainRobbery''. However, his first attempted summer blockbuster, ''Film/{{Runaway}}'', fizzled: With a multimillion-dollar budget, big-name actors and a world-famous author as both writer and director, it was planned as 1984's major science fiction draw. However, it was overshadowed by a low-budget feature, starring B-list actors, and written and directed by an unknown -- Creator/JamesCameron's unprecedented blockbuster, ''Film/TheTerminator''. His directorial career essentially ended, and he would not succeed with a summer blockbuster for another twelve years until the movie ''Film/{{Twister}}'', which he co-wrote with his then-wife Anne-Marie Martin (who also played Dori Doreau on ''Series/SledgeHammer'').
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29	He also created and produced the hugely successful TV medical drama ''Series/{{ER}}''. The show was based on an unfilmed screenplay that Crichton had written in 1974; Apart from updating some of the medicine, the script was largely unchanged when it finally made the air in 1994. The show's success made Crichton the first writer to have written the number one television show (''ER''), the number one film (''Jurassic Park'') and the number one book (''Disclosure'') in the United States at the same time.
30
31	Michael Crichton died at the age of sixty-six after a long and protracted battle with lymphoma on November 4, 2008.
32
33	The first of three posthumous works, ''Literature/PirateLatitudes'', was published on November 24, 2009. It is set in seventeenth century Jamaica and follows the adventurers of Captain Edward Hunter, a {{privateer}} in service to England's King Charles II, as he raids Spanish shipping.
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35	The second, ''Literature/{{Micro}}'', was published on November 22, 2011. It's best described as [[InTheStyleOf Crichton's version]] of ''Film/HoneyIShrunkTheKids''.
36
37	A third posthumous novel, ''Dragon Teeth'', based on the notorious real-life rivalry between paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh in the 1870s, was released in May 2017.
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39	Though Crichton himself had nothing to do with it, his name is on ''The Andromeda Evolution'', a sequel to ''The Andromeda Strain'' written by [[Literature/{{Robopocalypse}} Daniel H. Wilson]] with the blessing of Crichton's family.
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41	Fun facts: He stood 6'9" (about 206 cm) tall. Before his illness, he was noted to [[OlderThanHeLooks look much younger than his actual age]] (in the page image, he was sixty years old). He has an uncredited cameo in the 1971 movie ''Film/TheAndromedaStrain'' as a doctor standing in the back of the operating room when Mark Hall is pulled from performing an appendectomy. He also climbed to the top of Mount Everest.
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43	----
44	!!Books written by him:
45	[[index]]
46	* ''Literature/ACaseOfNeed'' (1968)
47	* ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'' (1969)
48	* ''Literature/DrugOfChoice'' (1970)
49	* ''Literature/{{Binary}}'' (1972)
50	* ''Literature/TheTerminalMan'' (1972)
51	* ''Literature/TheGreatTrainRobbery'' (1975)
52	* ''Literature/EatersOfTheDead'' (1976)
53	* ''Literature/{{Congo}}'' (1980)
54	* ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'' (1987)
55	* ''Literature/JurassicPark1990''
56	* ''Literature/RisingSun'' (1992)
57	* ''Literature/{{Disclosure}}'' (1994)
58	* ''Literature/{{The Lost World\|1995}}'' (1995)
59	* ''Literature/{{Airframe}}'' (1996)
60	* ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' (1999)
61	* ''Literature/{{Prey}}'' (2002)
62	* ''Literature/StateOfFear'' (2004)
63	* ''Literature/{{Next\|2006}}'' (2006)
64	* ''Literature/PirateLatitudes'' (2009)
65	* ''Literature/{{Micro}}'' (2011)
66	* ''Dragon Teeth'' (2017) [[note]] Originally written in 1974, but was not published until its manuscript was discovered. [[/note]]
67	[[/index]]
68
69	!!Other works:
70	[[index]]
71	* ''Film/{{Westworld}}'' (1973) - Wrote and directed.
72	* ''Literature/{{Coma}}'' (1978) - Wrote and directed the film adaptation.
73	* ''Film/{{Looker}}'' (1981) - Wrote and directed.
74	* ''Film/{{Runaway}}'' (1984) - Wrote and directed.
75	* ''Series/{{ER}}'' - (1994-2009) - Creator, writer and executive producer
76	* ''Film/{{Twister}}'' (1996) - Co-writer and producer.
77	* ''Film/TheThirteenthWarrior'' (1999) - Wrote the original novel, and was the producer and director of reshoots.
78	[[/index]]
79
80	!!His works contain examples of:
81	* ActionGirl: In most of his works there's a woman in the band of protagonists who really can kick ass, to the point that she has a skill that ends up being critical to saving others.
82	** ''Literature/{{Micro}}'': Karen is fully trained in martial arts, plus has extensive knowledge of weapons. When the main characters are turned into micro-humans, she's the best fighter in the situations they get in where they have to survive - better than the men.
83	** ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'': Kate is an avid rock climber, a skill which turns out to save the characters when they are in the Middle Ages.
84	* ArtisticLicense: Lots of it, spread over multiple categories. Mostly justified in order for there to be a story, and his novels certainly lean more towards hard sci-fi rather than soft, but considering how closely he tries to match real-life science and technology, some of it isn't.
85	* AssholeVictim: There's usually one character (either the outright BigBad, or a minor (but crucial to the story) character who's betraying both the bad and good guys) that is a complete jerk with no redeeming qualities - and they usually get a CruelAndUnusualDeath.
86	* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: An increasingly frequent element of his fiction as time went on. Literature/{{Airframe}} and Literature/StateOfFear both rely largely on the premise that OldMediaAreEvil.
87	* CreatorThumbprint: Skepticism of the media and corporations. The dangers of unchecked scientific development. [[ShownTheirWork Extensively well documented research]] into the subject matter. And theme parks.
88	* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Most of his books start with a band of 6 to 8 "good" people, and only about 2 of them survive until the end. And make no mistake, "bad" guys drop like flies too.
89	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: ''How'' [[CharactersDroppingLikeFlies the characters drop like flies]] is described in gruesome detail, and it's nasty.
90	* DecoyProtagonist: His books' first one or two chapters often follow a person, only to then switch to and introduce the ''real'' protagonists. Usually because they are killed (i.e. in ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', the protagonists of the first chapter quickly die from the eponymous strain).
91	** In ''Literature/JurassicPark'' this happens multiple times (a doctor treating a victim of a supposed "construction accident" at a remote Costa Rican clinic, an American family vacationing at a secluded beach, the doctor treating the American family's daughter after she is injured by a strange lizard) although in this case none of the viewpoint characters are killed.
92	* GoneHorriblyWrong: Rich men developing new technology often results in this: Hammond's dinosaur park goes horribly wrong in ''Literature/JurassicPark'' when the dinosaurs break loose and even escape the island; the time travelling to the middle ages in ''Timeline'' also results in a disaster for all involved [[spoiler:(well, except for [[BornInTheWrongCentury Marek]])]].
93	* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Frequently happens to the villains, or to well-meaning but reckless characters.
94	** ''Literature/JurassicPark'': [[spoiler:John Hammond, the owner/inventor of the titular park, is killed by his own dinosaurs he created]]. In the book at least - the movie changed the character's nature and motivation, and his fate at the end.
95	** ''Literature/{{Micro}}'': [[spoiler:Nanogen CEO Vincent Drake is killed by his own microbots]].
96	** One for Crichton himself: Despite his extensive research, sometimes Crichton would simply make up facts, present them as real, and cite them in his footnotes. But he didn't always remember which facts he made up, which would sometimes lead him to spend hours or days attempting to chase down an obscure book or article only to find out that he'd made up the entire thing.
97	* {{Reconstruction}} - Many of his works (read: the ones that [[MostTropersAreYoungNerds got trope pages first]]) are SpeculativeFiction reconstructions of classic pulp concepts, tales, or genres. ''Literature/JurassicPark'' is ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912'', ''Literature/{{Sphere}}'' is a CosmicHorror take on ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea''. ''Literature/TheTerminalMan'' is a cyborg slasher story. ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' is ''Literature/AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt''. ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'' started this trend, being a [[TruthInTelevision (frighteningly)]] scientifically plausible version of an alien invasion story.
98	* ScienceIsBad: A common perception of his novels, where new technology running amok is often a theme.
99	* ScienceIsWrong:
100	** A common complication of placing his novels on the [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness sliding scale of sci-fi hardness]] is his approach to cutting edge theories and technologies. In other words, it's not so much that [[Film/JurassicPark1993 velociraptors didn't really look like that]] and so ''he's'' wrong, it's more that he's writing from the perspective that [[ScienceMarchesOn deinonychus is actually a misidentified fossil of a mature velociraptor]]. As a consequence, his OneBigLie is often either an untested or somewhat fringe scientific theory that would have interesting and fantastical consequences if it were true, such as the theory that [[Literature/EatersOfTheDead isolated neanderthal populations survived into modern history]] or [[Literature/{{Sphere}} closed timelike curves are possible and traversable]].
101	** The other complication is his cynicism about [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer media reporting on scientific research]], a commonly held pet peeve of scientists and science writers. Often times a story's conceit will rest on (''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', ''Literature/JurassicPark'') or be in resistance to (''Literature/StateOfFear'', ''Literature/{{Airframe}}'') the hypothetical version of a scientific story that the media might report instead of the reality.
102	* ScienceHero: Attentive readers will notice that it is actually the ''exploitation'' of science by big business or government before new developments are fully understood that is being decried. Many of his heroic characters are scientists and experts who refuse to sell out and are forced to use their knowledge to survive the CharactersDroppingLikeFlies.
103	* ScienceMarchesOn: A lot of what his novels considers cutting-edge or about to be realized in the scientific community would be subsequently disproven.
104	* SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Tends towards the harder end. A common development is that a SpeculativeFiction concept will create the circumstances for a much more fantastical element.
105	** ''Literature/JurassicPark'' - The search for genetic data untouched by regulatory or patent restrictions drives In-Gen to seek out pre-historic DNA. Realizing the opportunity, they combine it with modern reptile DNA to create a theme park for dinosaurs.
106	** ''Literature/TheTerminalMan'' - A cranial implant is used to treat an epileptic with slight electric pulses. Classical conditioning instead makes his brain go into epileptic fits more frequently and violently, turning him into an unstoppably ferocious murderous android.
107	** ''Film/{{Westworld}}'' - A theme park company seeks to use precision robotics not merely in building their animatronic entertainment robots but also in designing them. AI turns out to be better at designing AI than humans are, and as a consequence robot cowboys and knights go on a rampage.
108	** ''Literature/EatersOfTheDead'' - A work of real historical ethnography, Ahmad ibn Fadlan's account of traveling the "lands of darkness" and encountering Volga Vikings, is expanded to send him to their homeland on a [[{{Demythification}} pastiche of Beowulf]]. Ambiguity in the archeological record is exploited for OneBigLie: The titular eaters of the dead that the [[MarketBasedTitle also titular]] thirteen warriors battle are a lost tribe of neanderthals.
109	** ''Literature/{{Timeline}}'' - Quantum Computing finally works out. A tech company tries to make a "[[{{Teleportation}} 3d fax machine]]" only to discover the hard way why it's called space-time. Subsequently, they use it as a time machine with the intention of researching past events to make more accurate historical recreations and [[RunningGag theme parks]].
110	** ''Literature/ElectronicLife'' - A non-fiction series of essays on [[TechnologyMarchesOn then-modern computing]] speculates on the future implications of AI, not just in [[{{Zeerust}} "the future" but "right now"]]. A key sister work to ''Literature/TheTerminalMan''.
111	* TechnologyMarchesOn: A lot of it, but computers in particular. A lot of time in early novels is dedicated to discussing the incredibly powerful mainframe computers of the 70's and early 80's, and their capabilities - none of which could hold a candle to the processing power and capability of your average modern mobile phone.

Context Creator / MichaelCrichton