Heartwarming / Jurassic Park (1993)

I thought you hated kids, Alan.

This page is for heartwarming moments in the first Jurassic Park film specifically. For heartwarming moments in the franchise as a whole, see here.

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• Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler witnessing the Brachiosaurus for the first time... John Williams' heartfelt score perfectly captured the wonder of witnessing one's boyhood dreams finally fulfilled.
  Grant: Um, it's- it's a dinosaur.
  • Throughout that scene, Grant and Sattler geeking out like enthusiastic schoolchildren over the sight of a real, living dinosaur and Hammond's kindly old grandfather demeanor toward them. This exchange really sums it up:
    Grant: How fast are they?
    Hammond: Well, we clocked the T. rex at thirty-two miles per hour...
    Sattler: [whips around to look at him] T-T. rex? Did you say you have a T. rex?
    Hammond: Yes.
    Grant: [breathless] Say it again.
    Hammond: [giddy with excitement] We have a T. rex!
    [Grant starts hyperventilating with excitement and Sattler runs over to calm him down]
    Sattler: Put your head between your knees.
    Hammond: Dr. Grant ... my dear Dr. Sattler ... welcome to Jurassic Park.
  • The moment when Alan hears a call in the distance and he looks (and the camera pans) to see a beautiful scene of two other Brachiosaurus emerging from a nearby lake while a herd of Parasaurolophus drink from the bank. Alan has literally got tears in his eyes as he sees the subject of his life's work brought to life and so many of his own palaeontological theories proved true.
    Alan Grant: [in an awed whisper] They're moving in herds. They do move in herds.
  • During this scene the camera occasionally cuts back to Ian Malcom, who's sitting in the back of the jeep just smiling and laughing in a way that makes it seem like he's trying really hard not to cry Tears of Joy.
• The hatching of the baby raptor.
  • Even more heartwarming his Hammond's reaction to it. He doesn't view the infant raptor with the air of a businessman appreciating a new product, but as a kindly grandfather watching a newborn beginning its first moments in life, offering gentle encouragements and laughing in delight when the baby raptor pushes free of its egg. Moreover, Hammond did this for every dinosaur that was born in the labs.
    John Hammond: The imprint on the first creature they come in contact with. Helps them to trust me. I've been present for the birth of every living creature on this island.
• Grant promising to stay up all night on lookout while Lex and Tim sleep. He even tosses away his raptor claw, the one he used to scare the obnoxious kid at the dig site, signifying his Character Development.
  • And this scene being semi-repeated at the end of the movie in the helicopter, especially considering Grant's attitude toward kids at the beginning of the film.
• During the kitchen scene, Lex distracting the raptors from her brother.
• The scene where they find the Triceratops.... For many nostalgic dinosaur-lovers who watched this film as children, the opportunity to see your favourite dinosaur, something that existed only in dreams and bed-time stories, moving and living and breathing in all the ways you believed it to; that, ladies and gentlemen, is heartwarming.
  • Dr. Grant puts it into words perfectly in that very scene, too.
    Dr. Grant: They were always my favorite when I was a kid. Now, I see her and she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
  • Grant laying on the Triceratops' belly just to feel it breathe.
  • Sattler is crying tears of joy at the sight of the Triceratops.
• Ian Malcolm might have sounded like a womanizing snarker thus far and lacks Grant's dinosaur knowledge to know what he's dealing with, but he doesn't hesitate for a moment to try and help save the kids from Rexy — by drawing her attention after himself. Maybe it wasn't the smartest course of action, but it was very brave and selfless.
  Malcolm: [waving around a flare to distract the dinosaur] Hey! Hey! Hey!
  Grant: Ian, freeze!
  Malcolm: [starts running] Get the kids!
  • This wasn't originally in the script. Originally Ian was supposed to run like a coward, as he does in the book, to try and save himself. But Jeff Goldblum kept begging Steven Spielberg to let him do something heroic, even suggesting ideas to Sam Neill. Finally they decided to let him use the flare and help save the kids because they saw how important it was to him.
  • The fact that Grant screams at Ian to freeze shows that he has grown to care for him, even though he's been annoying him the entire visit and just earlier expressed romantic interest in Sattler. None of that matters to Grant here. He sees Ian in danger and immediately looks horrified.
  • Another Ian moment: when Grant comes back from asking Gennaro if their car's radio is out, too, the first thing Ian asks is if Lex and Tim are alright.
• You know that Muldoon is loyal to Hammond when he asks him to try to find his grandchildren in the T. rex paddock.
  • The fact that he risked his life trying to save a coworker in the prologue also counts, even if he failed.
• Hammond himself, when he finds out the phones are working, but hears the gunshots. He calls the chopper and personally drives Ian to the visitors center, not caring for a second that there's dinosaurs on a rampage between the bunker and center; just so he could rescue Grant, Sattler, and his grandchildren.
  • It's very clear that Hammond values human life over the welfare of his park. Accepting that they can't undo the damage Nedry did, he opts to shut down the whole system and turn it back on in the hopes of causing everything to reset to their original startups. Arnold is reluctant to do this, as doing so would mean that the whole park would go down and it might not start up again. Hammond, however, puts his foot down and forces Arnold to do it, because lives are being lost and as far as he can see it, there is no other way.
    Hammond (to Arnold): People. Are. Dying. Will you please shut down the system?
  • After they escape the T. rex at the welcome center, Grant sarcastically quips that he's decided not to endorse the park. Hammond himself shares the sentiment, proving that he doesn't care about the potential loss of wonder or income when the risks posed are just too high.
  • And the last moment on the island, when Hammond takes one last look back and Grant almost seems to comfort him.
• When Alan climbs up the tree to get Tim, Tim has the all-too-real childlike fear about getting in trouble for throwing up in the car. Alan patiently comforts him and tells him he won't tell anyone that he threw up and nervously eyes the creaking branches.
  • The car comes down just as they reach the ground and Grant immediately throws his body over Tim to shield him.
• When Grant tells Lex to wait for him while he rescues Tim from the car, she's afraid that he'll abandon her like Gennaro did when Rexy attacked. Grant, however, assures her that he won't leave.
  Grant: Lex, listen: I'm going to look after you, but I have to go help your brother, so I need you stay right here and wait for me!
  Lex: H— he left us... He left us!!
  Grant: But that's not what I'm gonna do.
• Grant and the kids' interactions with the Brachiosaurus.
• The dinosaur eggs Grant and the kids found, and the babies' little footprints wandering off.
  Grant: Malcolm was right. Life found a way.
• The very last tracking shot of the film. As they leave Isla Nublar on the rescue copter, Grant dozes and watches a flock of pelicans fly in perfect formation. Perfectly sums up all the themes in the film (like you do) in a non-Narmy way.
• Hammond talks about the reason he created Jurassic Park.
  Hammond: With this place, I want to give them something that wasn't an illusion. Something that was real. Something they can see, and touch.
  • Also, the fact that he did not wish to price gouge visitors. He wanted to make the island affordable so that anyone in the world could come to see the animals, rather than just the super-rich. Even moreso if one has read the book, as this is a far-cry from his attitude there.

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