The sounds of the jungle of Isla Nublar fade in while the Universal Pictures logo is still on the screen.

We fade in on Isla Nublar...this is Spanish for Cloud Island.

The thrashing of the jungle trees in the opening scene of the movie is meant to make audience members think a dinosaur is about to come stomping through...but it turns out to be just a tractor arm carrying a cage holding a Velociraptor, whom we barely see. This is the kind of scene Spielberg loves to do, where he tricks the audience into expecting one thing but he delivers another.

As the raptor pulls the hapless gatekeeper into her cage, there's a nice split-second shot, barely noticeable, of the raptor's eye and Muldoon's eye as he tries to save the gatekeeper.

We are first introduced to lawyer Donald Gennaro as he arrives at the Mano de Dios amber mine in the Dominican Republic. Mano de Dios is Spanish for Hand of God. Perhaps a foreshadowing of the attempt by human scientists to play God by creating (prehistoric) life?

It's amusing that at 4:42 on the DVD, the foreman at the mining site tells Gennaro to watch his head about two seconds after he hits it on a beam in the mine!

Dr. Alan Grant's fossil dig is said to be in the Badlands near Snakewater, Montana. Although Montana does have Badlands territory, there is no place known as Snakewater.

At 5:52 on the DVD, there is a carton of Reynold's Wrap Aluminum Foil in the upper right corner of the screen. I guess the paleontologists must use it to wrap the fossils in when they're dug up.

When Grant says he hates computers, Dr. Ellie Sattler replies, "The feeling's mutual." She doesn't mean she also hates computers, but that computers also hate him.

At 6:39 on the DVD, we can see that a makeshift cardboard shield has been placed around the computer monitor to keep the sunlight off the surface of the screen. 

The dinosaur skeleton found underground at the Snakewater site is said to be a Velociraptor. However, Velociraptor species were native to the regions of Mongolia and China in their time, not the North American continent. Again, Deinonychus is the more likely candidate seen here.

There is a blond-haired girl at the Montana dig site dressed in a reddish plaid shirt and jeans. Perhaps an homage to Holly Marshall of Land of the Lost, also a blond-haired girl in reddish plaid shirt and jeans?

Girl at Montana dig	Holly Marshall from Land of the Lost.

As Dr. Grant demonstrates to the obnoxious boy how a raptor would kill him, he slashes the petrified raptor claw first across the boy's chest, then groin, then belly.

As Grant enters the trailer at the Montana dig site at 10:15 on the DVD, we see the expected fossil fragments, dinosaur toys, and posters...and what might be a fly swatter made out of a thong sandal on the right hand side of the screen! (These are actually available at various stores around the country.)

At 10:25 on the DVD, there is a newspaper clipping hanging on the refrigerator that says "Space Probe Finds Dinosaurs on Mars". This is a headline from the Weekly World News tabloid which was published from 1979-2007 and now features its stories on a website, weeklyworldnews.com. It features mostly satirical, non-real news stories.

Another Weekly World News headline on the fridge is visible at 11:26 on the DVD, "Space Aliens Stole My Face". At 12:27 we see another pinned to the wall, partially obscured, "Dinosaurs on Mars!"

At 13:27 on the DVD, in the background, the taxi driver makes a rude gesture toward Dodgson, presumably for failing to tip!

Nedry and Dodgson's meeting place is described in the subtitle as being in San Jose, Costa Rica. But a beach and ocean shoreline are visible behind Nedry and San Jose is not located on the coast!

Dr. Grant's struggle with the seatbelt on the InGen helicopter demonstrates both his adversarial relationship with mechanical devices and his ingenuity in working around them (he ties the two ends of the seat belt around his waist when he can't get them buckled).

Chaos theory, espoused by Dr. Ian Malcolm, is an actual field of study in mathematics, physics, and other areas of science, concerning the seemingly-random states of disorder that can be found to actually be governed by deterministic laws related to even the most minor conditions of the subject's environment.

Hammond somehow appears to have swapped seats with Grant by the time the helicopter lands; he was seated at the far left for the interior shots but has moved to the far right seat when the copter lands and the passengers disembark.

The gas-powered Jeeps used in Jurassic Park are 1993 Jeep Wrangler models.

Gennaro seems to mix up his words and phrases frequently. At 19:24 on the DVD, while explaining to Hammond his need to report to the investors on the current inspection of the island, he says, "In 48 hours if they're not convinced, I'm not convinced." Shouldn't that be the other way around? (At the Flubs of Jurassic Park web page, Wesley Treat argues that Gennaro is referring to the scientists when he says "if they're not convinced", making Gennaro's statement accurate). At 27:24, during the tour in the Visitor Center, he asks if the scientists seen working in the lab are "autoerotica". He means "animatronic"! At 37:54, Hammond remarks in exasperation at the scientists' reactions that "the only one I've got on my side is the blood-sucking lawyer" to which Gennaro responds, "Thank you," in all sincerity!

At 19:47 on the DVD, as the Jeep slows to a halt, Ellie is holding a large leaf which she is inspecting. Where did she get it? She didn't have it when the ride started. There must have been a scene cut in which she grabs it from the roadside either at a brief stop or while the vehicle was moving. She comments that it "shouldn't be here" and that the plant species has been extinct since the Cretaceous period. Presumably, InGen has also managed to resurrect some prehistoric plants along with the dinosaurs. (The movie trailer shows a scene of Ellie grabbing the leaf from a bush as the Jeep speeds down the dirt road.) In the novel, it is acknowledged that InGen has cloned a number of extinct plant species from the time of the dinosaurs.

Notice that the door of the Jurassic Park Visitor Center is designed with the impression of an egg shape. And even the door handles form an oval!

While Hammond is treating his guests to lunch, there are various projector images of the park and its environs and background flashing on the walls around them. At 35:09 on the DVD, there is an image of the Visitor Center under construction; this appears to be a legitimate still of the Visitor Center exterior being constructed by the film crew. At 35:59 there is an image of a man holding out the front of his necktie which appears to have the pattern of a DNA helix printed on it! At 36:02, a slide is partially obscured by Malcolm's head so we can't see the whole thing; it shows some red flowers and the word "Jurassic Tenn--", the rest of the word is cut off; I can't figure out what the "Tenn--" could stand for in Jurassic terms! Maybe it's saying there are tennis courts available at the resort! At 37:06 there is a slide that seems to be promoting plans for a Jurassic Park Europe!
DNA tie	Jurassic Park Europe

At 38:14 on the DVD, Hammond's grandchildren, Tim and Lex, show up, running and shouting, and Sam Neill's reaction in the background is great as Grant suddenly freezes in mid-step on the stairway and Eliie turns to look at him with a bright smile that suddenly turns to a frown as she sees his reaction. Classic.

Tim is clutching a book as he regales Grant with questions and comments about dinosaurs. A young correspondent in the Jurassic Page of The Lost World #2 (the four-issue mini-series adaptation of the JP sequel film), claims that the book is Digging Dinosaurs by Jack Horner; the title of Tim's book can't be made out on the screen, but it does not quite look like any of the three cover designs I've been able to track down of this book.

Tim tells Grant that he read a book by a guy named Bakker, who definitely doesn't think that dinosaurs evolved into birds. Presumably, Tim is talking about real world paleontologist Robert Bakker; but Bakker does accept the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Perhaps Tim was actually referring to Professor Backer, whom we first meet in "Redemption" Part 1, and who is a satirical representation of Robert Bakker; however the JP movie script does spell it "Bakker", suggesting he is referring to the real world paleontologist, not a fictional one.

The giant gate entrance to Jurassic Park proper is reminiscent of the giant gate on Skull Island beyond which lies the territory of Kong in the 1933 film classic King Kong. In fact, Malcolm even remarks on it as they drive through the gate: What've they got in there..?

Hammond comments that the voice describing the dinosaur areas through which the tour is passing is that of Richard Kiley. Kiley's voice is known from the many narrations he has done of film and television documentaries.

As the tour drives by the Dilophosaurus paddock, at 42:19 on the DVD we see a sign hanging on the electrified fencing, "Caution, Keep Windows Up!". Presumably the window warning is due to the Dilophosaurs' ability (as depicted in JP) to spit venom!

There is no real world evidence that Dilophosaurus had an inflating neck fringe and ability to spit poisonous venom, but it is logical to assume that if dinosaurs could be resurrected in the modern world, we would learn things about many of them we'd never previously guessed.

At 46:24 on the DVD, the vehicle windows are suddenly damp with rain drops even though the rain hasn't started yet! And the moisture disappears in the next scene.

Throughout the film we see that Dennis Nedry's work area is filthy, with food wrappers and trash lying all about the desk and floor!

I think young Lex may have a slight crush on Dr. Grant. Notice how she plays with her hair when she first talks to him about riding in his car and how she continues to hold his hand after she trips and he helps her up. In fact, was the stumble faked in order to attract his physical attention? And for Tim's part, he has a case of hero-worship for Dr. Grant. So that leaves the child-resistant doc in somewhat of a bind! (The book The Making of Jurassic Park confirms that screenwriter David Koepp added the girl's crush on Grant as a deliberate character point.)

During the tour, Ellie assists the park veterinarian in investigating the recurring ailment that is striking the Triceratops, even staying behind on site while Grant and the others continue on in the automated vehicles. But then we never learn of the diagnosis or conclusions reached by her and the team! The resolution was cut from the film, but it is explained in the novel and comic book that the Triceratops was ingesting the large, brown berries of the West Indian Lilac plant growing on the island as if they were stones, which are intended to help grind down plant material in the gizzard, just like birds do. But West Indian Lilac is poisonous, so, even though the creature was not eating the plant per se, the ingested pods were still releasing poison into her system.

Although it's never explicitly stated in the films or novels, the park veterinarian seen here, Dr. Gerry Harding, has been stated by author Crichton as the father of Dr. Sarah Harding who appears in The Lost World. Both novels mention that the senior Dr. Harding was a vet specializing in birds at the San Diego Zoo. It's appropriate that he specialized in birds, seeing as how birds are now believed to be descended from dinosaurs.

Notice that at 53:30 on the DVD, Dr. Grant appears to have stepped in some dino dung!

At 53:33 on the DVD, Nedry has a Jurassic Park mug and what appears to be a wind-up dinosaur toy on top of one of his monitors. We also see two cans of Jolt Cola; Jolt is a high-caffeine energy drink.

At 54:17 on the DVD, Nedry is supposedly looking at live video of the ship's first mate as the two converse over the phone. But the progress bar at the bottom of the video window suggests it is a prerecorded file!

As Nedry steals the dinosaur embryos, we see him take Proceratosaurus, Gallimimus, Tyrannosaurus rex (misspelled as Tyranosaurus), Velociraptor, Stegosaurus (misspelled as Stegasaurus), Metriacanthosaurus, Triceratops and one of which we never see the label. We know there are quite a few other species of dinosaurs on the island, so where are the embryos? There are most likely other embryo cold-storage units but Nedry does not have time to collect, nor storage space for, them all. Also Dodgson tells Nedry to get all 15 species off the island, but the Barbasol cold-storage can looks like it could only hold 10-12 vials! And why the misspellings?! I guess even scientists (and prop masters) can't get those names right.

At 58:55 on the DVD, Nedry appears to have a photo of a donut taped to his work terminal! At 58:59 we see a photo of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the Manhattan Project and so-called father of the atomic bomb.

At 59:55 on the DVD, the commands typed by Arnold into the computer don't quite match what he is muttering as he does so. He says, "Access main program. Access main security. Access main program grid."

Grant seemingly fills up a plastic canteen with rain water by holding it outside the door in the rain. But with the mouth of the container being so narrow, it would take hours for it to fill to a level where he could get a decent swig out of it!

When the bloody goat leg suddenly lands on the sunroof of the dead vehicle, Gennaro looks even more scared than Lex!

What is Nedry's little cartoon version of himself supposed to be at 1:00:03? It almost looks like a cartoonish drawing of Princess Leia with Nedry's head.

The T. rex that appears in this film is called Rexy by the park staff according to The Evolution of Claire.

When Gennaro runs in fright from his vehicle to the restroom, Grant and Malcolm wonder what he's doing and Malcolm presumes, "When you gotta go, you gotta go." This also mirrors the earlier statement of the first mate of the ship about to carry the park's employees back to Costa Rica when he says, "The captain says we gotta go, we gotta go."

And why is there a public restroom in the middle of an automated tour? To borrow Malcolm's Disneyland comparison, you can't hop out of the boat in the middle of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride to use the restroom!

When Gennaro flees the vehicle, he leaves the driver's side door open. But it is later seen variously open and closed from 1:03:21 till 1:04:58 when Tim closes it.

In my study of the Land of the Lost (1990s) episode "Tasha", I commented that the T. rex in the 1970s version of Land of the Lost (Grumpy) has a much more impressive roar than the one in the 90s version (Scarface). The JP T. rex has them both beat! Listen: Scarface (LOTL90), Grumpy (LOTL70), JP T. rex. (It's also better than the LOTL movie Grumpy.)

At 1:07:27 on the DVD, as Gennaro hides in the restroom and the T. rex approaches, we can just make out that he is muttering the Hail Mary prayer.

It is very difficult to see without DVD freeze frame, but at 1:07:32, the form of Ian Malcolm can be seen as his body is pushed through the restroom wall by the head of the T. rex!

When the rex plucks Gennaro off the toilet, the toilet tips over backward as if there were no bolts or pipes at all to hold it down!

Why is there suddenly a cliff on the other side of the T. rex fence starting at 1:09:01? Is was solid ground before when the rex was still penned behind it!

Ray Arnold finds that Nedry has written a program called White Rabbit that has disrupted the Jurassic Park systems so he can carry out his secret plan. "White Rabbit" is a reference to the character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

When Dennis Nedry slips in the water after running his Jeep off the road at 1:11:26 on the DVD, there is a cartoonish prat-fall musical note in the soundtrack! Listen: prat-fall. Possibly the sound could be dismissed as the chirp of a watching Dilophosaurus!

The dilophosaurs encountered by Nedry are smaller than the known size of adults in the fossil record, but perhaps these in the film are juveniles.

When the dilophosaurs display their neck fringe, they seem to make a rattlesnake-like rattling sound. Whether the sound comes from the quivering fringe or the creature's vocal apparatus is not clear. Listen: Dilophosaur rattle (The "Making of Jurassic Park" extra on the DVD confirms that a rattlesnake was one of the sounds used for the dilophosaurs.)

   After Nedry is taken out by the Dilophosaurus, the dropped Barbasol can of stored dino embryos is shown at the bottom of the hill, getting covered with the flowing mud from the storm run-off. Some viewers took this as a set-up for someone to discover it in a sequel and launch a new series of dino-problems. But I think Spielberg included the shot more as a way to show that the embryos have been disposed of and have not made it to the mainland; after all, the embryos require cold storage and the can would not be able to maintain that for very long at all (in the novel, Dodgson says the coolant in the can will last only 36 hours).

   The Barbasol can does return, however, in Jurassic Park: The Game, which takes place during and shortly after the events of this film.

Both the film and novel mention that the dinosaurs have been genetically engineered to be unable to produce the amino acid lysine. Lysine is an essential amino acid for all animals. The strange thing about Crichton's use of it in the story though, is that members of the animal kingdom are naturally incapable of producing lysine in the first place! All animals must obtain it from food sources. Did Crichton intend to suggest that dinosaurs are so different from existing animals that they normally were capable of producing it themselves? Although that still doesn't explain why preventing the dinosaurs' cells from making their own lysine would be helpful when the amino acid is fairly easy to obtain from natural food sources in the wild like other animals do. (This does at least explain how the dinosaurs have been able to survive unsupervised in all the various JP spin-off stories to follow.)

As Grant climbs the tree to rescue Tim, what sounds like various dinosaur roars and calls can be occasionally heard in the distance.

As he's climbing up, Grant is muttering to himself that he hates trees and hates climbing! Shortly, as he is trying to calm Tim for the climb down, he tells the boy that the thing about climbing is "you never, never look down," at which point Grant himself looks down and gets a shocked, nervous look on his face!

I never noticed before even though Ellie says it when she discovers him, that Malcolm put a tourniquet (his belt) on his own bleeding leg after being left behind by the T. rex. This can be seen at 1:19:08 on the DVD.

Is it just me or is Ellie screaming "Shit!" over and over as the T. rex chases the Jeep at 1:20:53 on the DVD? Listen: Shit!

At 1:20:57 on the DVD, it's a great joke that the Jeep's side view mirror has "OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE LARGER THAN THEY APPEAR" printed on it...but it's on the driver's side! The driver's side mirror always has a 1:1 ratio of reflection by distance, it's the passenger side mirror that is sometimes distorted to show more width of field.

At 1:24:58 on the DVD, we see a book on the gift store shelf at the park. It is The Making of Jurassic Park by Don Shay and June Duncan, presumably about the building of the park (although since the park is not yet complete it seems a bit premature!). But these are also the title and authors of a real book about the making of the film!
The book in the movie	The real book

Hammond tells Ellie that the first attraction he built after he came to the States from Scotland was a flea circus called Petticoat Lane, presumably named after the Petticoat Lane Market which has existed in eastern London, England for a couple of centuries. A flea circus is a miniature sideshow in which "trained" fleas pull wagons and perform other stunts. Some, like the one Hammond describes, did not actually use fleas, just mechanical and electronic methods of moving the props so that it appeared that small fleas were doing the work.

We're not supposed to notice it, but at 1:28:26 on the DVD, there is netting visible in the background in the upper left of the shot. The netting must have had plastic leaves and branches hanging on it to make the set look like an actual jungle.

At 1:31:36 on the DVD, Mr. Arnold appears to be wearing pink socks!

In the book The Making of Jurassic Park, dinosaur animation supervisor Phil Tippett points out that, in the Gallimimus herd sequence, the parent dinosaurs keep the little ones in the middle of the group for protection.

When the Gallimimus herd stampedes towards Grant and the kids, Lex's question of whether they are "meatasauruses" goes unanswered. The truth is that Gallimimus was probably an omnivore, eating both plant material and small animals.

As the T. rex makes a meal out of one of the Gallimimus', another Gallimimus in the background seems to stop and watch the carnage as the rest continue to flee. Was it the mate or parent of the one that was just killed?

Hammond defends the current problems in Jurassic Park by commenting that when Disnyeland opened in 1956, nothing worked. Disneyland actually opened in 1955, not '56.

When Muldoon tells Ellie to run to the shed while he moves to take down the raptor, as she starts to run it sounds like there may be a couple of raptor screeches in the background, perhaps the raptors signaling to each other that one of the humans is making a break for it? It's a bit hard to make out over the action-packed musical score, but listen for the screeches at about the 3-second mark and 8.5-second mark in the following wave file: raptor screeches

The Velociraptors seen in the film are larger than the real ones were. Actual Velociraptors stood only a few feet high. The raptors in the film are closer to being Deinonychus, a related species. In "Jurassic Time", Hammond remarks that they never did figure out why the raptors grew so large.

When freeze-framing the raptor's attack on Muldoon, it appears she has her mouth open so wide as to engulf Muldoon's head. And one of the hind feet appears to be on his stomach. So it seems highly unlikely that Muldoon could have survived the attack (despite what later issues of the Topps JP comic book say!).
It also sounds like you can hear Muldoon scream: Muldoon's scream.

It's odd that Ellie, nor anyone else, ever wonders what became of Muldoon. No one was around to witness his death and you'd think Ellie at least would have been looking for him after escaping the power bunker.

At 1:48:42 on the DVD, a crewmember's hand can be seen reaching out and steadying the raptor as it pushed the kitchen door open and peers inside!

At 1:49:56 on the DVD, it can be clearly seen that the raptors' sickle-claw is on the inside toe of each foot. But earlier, at the Montana dig site, Grant said it was on the middle toe; he is correct, the fossil record shows Velociraptor had its sickle-claw on the middle toe.

When Tim and Lex are hiding in the kitchen from the raptors and the ladle falls loose from its hook, giving away their location at 1:50:25 on the DVD, if you look closely you can see the hook twist on its own to make the ladle fall. Obviously it was rigged so that a crewmember could twist it from off camera at the right moment.

Lex comments that she recognizes the computer system she sits down at as a Unix system. Unix is a real world operating system developed in the late 1960s and continuously modified to newer versions and is still in use today.

At 1:55:03 on the DVD, the raptor which has broken into the Control Room looks up to the ceiling through which our heroes have gained escape. For some reason, an image of a long string of amino acid sequences is seen projected on the raptor. Presumably one of the Control Room projectors is projecting the image on a screen after the power reboot and the raptor is standing in the path of the beam.

When the fossil dinosaur rib cage breaks from its mountings and falls over Tim, he is saved by being right in the hollow area of the rib cage as it lands. This is similar to when he and Dr. Grant were saved from the tour vehicle falling from the tree by the open storage area of the vehicle earlier in the film.

Earlier in the film, Muldoon indicated that the park had started out with 8 raptors, but the big one killed all but two of the others, leaving 3 total. Now, at this point in the film, one has been locked in the power bunker and one in the kitchen's walk-in freezer, leaving just one free raptor. Yet, two raptors show up for the climax with the T. rex. However, it does seem possible that the one that was locked in the bunker was able to open the door, as we saw one of the others do in the kitchen, and escape. (Given the pin lock on the freezer door, it seems unlikely that that one could have escaped, even with the outside help of another raptor.)

As the two raptors move in to attack Grant, Ellie, Tim and Lex, the T. rex suddenly drops in to save the day. Some viewers have wondered how the rex could get inside the Visitor Center building. But at 1:57:05 on the DVD, it appears that one wall of the center is still open, covered only with a plastic tarp (though it does seem odd that the building seems to be nearly finished except for a large segment of exterior wall!).

Just a few seconds after the scene described above, the shadow of the T. rex can be seen falling over the raptor just before the attack. 

And just another couple seconds after that (1:57:10 to be precise), as the rex is shaking the raptor back-and-forth in its jaws, the raptor disappears for a split second! You have to use freeze frame and move frame-by-frame to see it.
T. rex with raptor	Raptor disappears

At 1:57:45 on the DVD, blood can be seen on the mouth of the T. rex from the raptor he chomped down on just a few seconds earlier.

As the T. rex stands triumphant in the rotunda of the visitor center, a banner falls from the ceiling which reads "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth". This may be a reference to the 1971 Hammer film of that name.

As the human survivors escape the island in a helicopter, they watch a flock of birds fly out over the ocean. Possibly this is a symbolic representation of Grant's own theory that many dinosaurs evolved into birds.

(Be sure to check out the Flubs of Jurassic Park web page, where Wesley Treat has listed even more interesting tidbits from the film.)

Notes from the Making of Jurassic Park (DVD extra)

Steven Spielberg reveals that the dinosaurs in the film were originally going to be produced through Phil Tippet's go-motion model studios, but when Industrial Light and Magic brought back a fabulous test run of CGI dinosaurs, Tippet immediately said, "I think I'm extinct." Fortunately, Tippet's expertise with animating the motions of animals allowed him to slide into place as the dinosaur supervisor to ILM's CGI team. In addition, Tippet's comment about extinction was split into two lines for Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm when Grant sees the genetically recreated dinosaurs at the park and says to Ellie, "We're out of a job," and Malcolm interjects, "Don't you mean extinct?"

Notes from "Early Pre-Production Meetings" (DVD extra)

When the lead raptor is seen walking down the kitchen aisle searching for Tim and Lex, her sickle claw is seen tapping up and down on the floor a couple of times. Spielberg wanted it to seem as if the raptors might also communicate through a tap-code with their claws.

Notes from the Production Storyboards (DVD extra)

The storyboards depict the original ending confrontation between the humans and raptors. One of the raptors falls into the open jaws of the T. rex skeleton in the rotunda, which falls down, the weight of the skull crushing the raptor bloodily in its jaws. The second raptor is shot by Hammond as he arrives to drive the survivors to the helipad. Spielberg thought up the rescue by the living T. rex at the last minute, deciding that the audience would want to see the king of the dinosaurs one more time and, what's more, defeating the upstart raptors!

Maps of Isla Nublar

(from the Making of Jurassic Park book by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, 1993 and Jurassic Park Official Souvenir Magazine published by Topps, 1993)

Different versions of the map of Isla Nublar and the park are found in various source materials.
Map of Isla Nublar from The Making of Jurassic Park (this is not quite the same island outline seen in the film on road signs and computer screens)	Map of Isla Nublar from Jurassic Park Official Souvenir Magazine (this is not quite the same island outline seen in the film on road signs and computer screens)
Image of Isla Nublar as seen on a computer screen as the storm approaches at 52:14 on the DVD	Map of Isla Nublar from Jurassic World

Notes from The Making of Jurassic Park book by Don Shay and Jody Duncan, 1993

The film's production designer remarks, in regards to a theme park filled with living dinosaurs, "What people would go to see in Jurassic Park would be the dinosaurs in their natural habitat, not a lot of man-made stuff. For the first ten years, at least, it would probably be taken very seriously--until somebody started making sideshow freaks out of the dinosaurs." This sounds like a harbinger of some of the ideas said to be present in the script of the latest JP film, Jurassic World, currently in production for a summer 2015 release.

Notes from the Jurassic Park novel by Michael Crichton (The page numbers come from the First U.S. Ballantine Books paperback edition, published December 1991)

The novel has an introduction called "The InGen Incident", a semi-fictional account of biotechnology advances which led to InGen's disastrous turns on Isla Nublar. These introductory pages are numbered ix-xii.

Page x mentions Genentech and its founders Robert Swanson and Dr. Herbert Boyer. This is a real company founded by these two men in 1976.

Page xi reveals that InGen is a portmanteau of International Genetic Technologies, Inc.

Page 1 mentions the fishing village Bahia Anasco, Costa Rica. This appears to be a fictional village.

Page 1 also mentions Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. This was a real hospital at the time but was closed and demolished in 2009.

Page 2 reveals that while the park is being constructed on Isla Nublar, a cover story is being used that it is a new resort under construction.

Page 2 mentions an InGen Sikorsky helicopter. This is a reference to the helicopters built by the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation.

Page 2 also mentions San Jose. This is the capital city of Costa Rica.

Page 5 mentions the Spanish word hupia, described as "night ghosts, faceless vampires who kidnapped small children". This is a real term and belief in the native Taino cultures of the Caribbean.

Page 11 mentions the Cabo Blanco Biological Reserve. This is presumably a reference to the real world Cabo Blanco Absolute Natural Reserve.

Pages 12-15 depict a scene in which a father, mother and their young daughter visit a pristine Central American beach and the girl is attacked by what seem to be small Procompsognathus dinosaurs. Although the scene does not appear in the movie Jurassic Park, it was borrowed for the first film sequel The Lost World.

Page 16 mentions the Reserva Biológica de Carara. This is a real biological reserve in Costa Rica.

Page 18 mentions a village in Costa Rica called Amaloya. This is a fictional village.

Page 18 also mentions the Clinica Santa Maria. This is an actual medical laboratory in Chile.

Page 20 mentions an American computer database called the International Biosciences Services. This is fictional.

Page 21 mentions the towns of Vasquez and Puerta Sotrero, Costa Rica. These appear to be fictitious.

Page 21 also mentions CSE, central saurian encephalitis. I have been unable to find any evidence of this as a real world affliction.

Page 22 mentions zoologist Dr. Edward H. Simpson at Columbia University, New York. Though Columbia University is real, there does not appear to have ever been a zoologist by the name of Dr. Edward H. Simpson there. There is a statistician by the name of Edward H. Simpson in Great Britain who may have been an inspiration for the character of Dr. Ian Malcolm. (However, in the Acknowledgements of the novel, Crichton credits scientist Heinz Pagels' work in chaos theory as the inspiration for Dr. Malcolm.) 

Page 23 mentions the Tropical Diseases Laboratory of Columbia University. As far as I know, this particular laboratory has never existed at Columbia.

Page 24 mentions several diseases spread by a mosquito vector. These are all real diseases.

Page 26 reveals that Procompsognathus has a venom similar to that of a cobra.

Page 33 mentions the Blackfoot and Sioux Native American tribes. These are real tribes in the state of Montana (and elsewhere in North America).

Page 34 reveals that Dr. Grant is a professor of paleontology at the University of Denver.

Page 35 mentions paleontologists Bob Kerry and John Weller. These are fictional people as far as paleontologists go, but both names belonged to men who were senators and governors from U.S. states. Perhaps author Crichton had some kind of attachment to them?

Page 36 reveals that Isla Nublar (Cloud Island) is so named because it is almost perpetually covered in fog due to combinations of wind and current. Page 77 also attributes the fog partially to the island's volcanic origins, with steam vents still found in many places. The idea of a fog-shrouded island was probably borrowed by Crichton from the 1933 film King Kong.

Page 36 also reveals that InGen headquarters is on Farallon Road, Palo Alto, CA. Although Palo Alto is a real city in California (near San Francisco), there is no Farallon Road there.

On page 39, the Office of Technology Transfer is suspicious of InGen's activities in Central America. The OTT is an actual U.S. government organization.

Page 39 mentions Cray computers (revealed to be Cray XMPs on page 66) and Hood sequencers. Cray is a maker of supercomputers in the U.S., the XMP their fastest model from 1982-1985. Hood sequencers appear to be a fictitious method of working out genetic code with machines.

Page 40 mentions a rival corporation of InGen's, Biosyn. Although there is a real company using the portmanteau of Biosyn (Bio-Synthesis, Inc.), it does not appear to be related to the Biosyn presented in the JP universe.

Page 40 reveals that Lewis Dodgson (Dennis Nedry's contact for selling the InGen embryos) was involved in Biosyn's immoral test of a rabies vaccine on unsuspecting peasant farmers in Chile.

On page 41, Dr. Grant says that a company called Medical Biologic Services in Salt Lake City, Utah provides his research dig with genetic identifications of dinosaurs from bone fragments. Medical Biologic Services appears to be a fictional business.

On pages 44-45, Grant talks about the living fossils of the coelacanth, Australian mountain pygmy possum, and a New Guinea fruit bat. These are all true stories of prehistoric species that were believed to be extinct until discovered living in the 20th century.

Page 48 mentions the city of Choteau, Montana. This is a real city in central Montana.

On page 49, Gennaro's law firm of Cowan, Swain and Ross decides that an expert inspection of Hammond's island is due because of the reports of unusual lizards on the mainland attacking people.

Page 51 reveals that Dr. Ian Malcolm is a mathematician at the University of Texas in Austin.

Page 53 reveals that Dennis Nedry is a project supervisor from Integrated Computer Systems, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is an indirect reference to this in the film version when, after Nedry's program shuts down the park's security systems and he disappears, Hammond tells Ray Arnold to call Nedry's people in Cambridge.

Grant receives a packet of information from Hammond to prepare he and Ellie for their weekend trip to help inspect the park. At this point they still don't know exactly what the park is. Looking at a topographical map included in the packet, he sees the island marked off with locations of buildings and large, fenced-in areas marked by notes: /P/PROC/V/2A, /D/TRIC/L/5(4A+1), /LN/OTHN/C/4(3A+1), VV/HADR/X/11(6A+3+3DB). See page 54 in the novel. I'm not sure what all those notations mean, but some must be abbreviations of the dinosaur species present in a particular area: PROC=Procompsognathus, TRIC=Triceratops, OTHN=Othnielosaurus and HADR=Hadrosaurus. Possibly the number-letter combinations at the end signify the number of adults + juveniles, with the 3DB in the Hadrosaurus equation representing "3 due birth". (Page 107 later confirms part of my assumptions, saying TRIC=Triceratops and STEG=Stegosaurus.)

Page 55 mentions that the technique being used at the Snakewater dig site to reveal images of fossils underground is called CAST, computer-assisted sonic tomography. This appears to be a fictional process made up by Crichton for the novel.

Hammond flies to Choteau, MT to pick up Grant and Ellie in a Gulfstream II jet. This is a real twin engine business jet built by Gulfstream Aerospace.

Page 59 reveals that Hammond used to bring a caged miniature elephant, 9 inches high and a foot long, bred by his business partner, Stanford geneticist Norman Atherton, in order to impress investors into putting money into the formation of InGen.

Page 60 reveals that John Hammond's middle name is Alfred. This conflicts with "Jurassic Time" in which Hammond himself (Richard Attenborough) states his middle name as Parker. The Parker name is also found in the script of The Lost World. Since the novel is set within its own JP universe, I think we have to give the weight of authority to Richard Attenborough's performance as John Hammond in the JP movie universe and conclude his middle is Parker.

On page 61, Hammond comments how he wants to go beyond the animatronic environments that many amusement parks have. He mentions "the haunted house" and "the pirate den" (veiled references to Disneyland), the wild west (possibly a reference to Crichton's earlier script and film Westworld), and "the earthquake" (a reference to the Universal Studios attraction based on the film Earthquake).

Page 65 reveals that Dodgson was dismissed from Johns Hopkins as a graduate student "for planning gene therapy on human patients without obtaining the proper FDA protocols". John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland is one of the world's leading medical schools.

Page 66 mentions that Hammond has donated to the New York Zoological Society. This is a real organization (currently known as the Wildlife Conservation Society) founded in 1895 and based out of the Bronx Zoo.

Page 66 also mentions Hammond giving to the Ranthapur Wildlife Park in India. This park appears to be fictitious.

Page 68 mentions the Supreme Court ruling in 1987 that allows genetically engineered animals to be patented. This is true.

Page 69 describes bioengineered DNA being the most valuable material in the world, weight for weight, and mentions a few examples of such. All the mentioned examples are real world examples of bioengineered DNA, including the science-fictional sounding ice-minus bacteria.

Page 70 describes Dodgson meeting with Nedry monthly at Carlos and Charlie's Restaurant in Silicon Valley. There has been a real restaurant chain by that name since 1963 (mostly in Mexico) but I have found no evidence of one in Silicon Valley.

In the JP film, Dodgson gives Nedry a refrigerated container disguised as a can of Barbasol shaving cream for smuggling out the frozen embryos. In the novel, the can is disguised as Gillette Foamy.

In the JP film, Hammond describes Malcolm as suffering from a "deplorable excess of personality". In the novel the description is given to chaoticians in general by a senior mathematician.

Page 78 describes the high, forested parts of the island as looking similar to the Olympic Peninsula of the Pacific Northwest. The peninsula is located on the west coast of the United States in the state of Washington.

Page 78 introduces the character of Ed Regis, an InGen publicist. Possibly this character was named after the American science writer of the same name.

On page 79, Grant and the others watch as the heads of several apatosaurs rise from the forest tree-tops to look at them. This is similar to the scene that occurs at a later point in the movie when Grant, Tim, and Lex watch a number or Brachiosaurs raise their heads through the jungle canopy.

Page 80 mentions that fossils of Apatosaurus (previously known as Brontosaurus) were first discovered by E.D. Cope in 1876. This is true. Cope was an American paleontologist in the late 19th century.

Page 80 also mentions paleontologists Berman and McIntosh. This is a reference to D.S. Berman and J.S. McIntosh, who wrote a paper in 1975 identifying Cope's original Brontosaurus skull as actually that of Diplodocus.

Page 83 mentions Yale paleontologists John Ostrom and Robert Bakker as the lead proponents of dinosaurs being warm-blooded. This is true. Young Tim even mentions Bakker to Grant before their ride into the park. And in the JP sequel film of The Lost World, the character of Robert Burke is based on Robert Bakker. Oddly, yet another Bakker clone (figuratively speaking) shows up in the JP comic book mini-series Redemption.

Hammond's guests on the island stay at the not-quite-completed resort hotel called Safari Lodge. The television in Grant's room has a card on top describing the channels, all relating to areas of the park: Channel 2: Hypsilophodont Highlands, Channel 3: Triceratops Territory, Channel 4: Sauropod Swamp, Channel 5: Carnivore Country, Channel 6: Stegosaurus South, Channel 7: Velociraptor Valley, Channel 8: Pterosaur Peak.

Page 88 mentions the lizard attacks in Costa Rica, ranging from Ismaloya to Puntarenas. Ismaloya appears to be a fictional town but Puntarenas is an actual city.

On page 91, Malcolm mentions the Aswan Dam, which he seems to consider a fiasco. The Aswan Dam is a real series of dams in Aswan, Egypt, designed to control the flow of the Nile River. It is true that the damming of the Nile has caused a number of problems for the region and its culture in addition to the benefits.

On page 92, Tim and Lex's ages seem to be the reverse of those in the film, with Tim being the older (about 11) and Lex younger (7 or 8).

Page 93 reveals that Grant's book is called Lost World of the Dinosaurs and that the illustrations in it were done by Grant himself.

In the film, Grant is uncomfortable around children but in the novel he seems quite comfortable with them.

On page 97, the laboratory is labeled with a sign of CAUTION, TERATOGENIC SUBSTANCES, PREGNANT WOMEN AVOID EXPOSURE TO THIS AREA. Teratogenic substances are those that are known to cause congenital malformations.

On page 99, Dr. Wu mentions that some DNA can be obtained from the Loy antibody extraction technique directly from fossilized bones. As far as I can tell this technique is a fictional one invented by Crichton for the novel.

Page 103 describes Nedry's visit to a friend working for Symbolics in Cambridge. This is a real computer company.

Page 104 mentions the Human Genome Project. This project, to map all the genes of the human genome, started in the United States in 1990 and was more-or-less completed in 2003.

On page 105, Dr. Wu mentions using some deadly poisons to interrupt the cellular mitosis at precise instances, citing helotoxins, colchicinoids, and beta-alkaloids. These are actual chemical compound types.

Page 108 suggests that baby raptors do not yet have teeth.

On page 108, Dr. Wu says that to prevent breeding by the dinosaurs, not only are all of them engineered as females, the gonads are destroyed with x-rays.

Page 112 reveals that the compys are allowed to more-or-less roam the entire park because they act as waste disposal, eating the droppings left by herbivorous dinosaurs.

Page 118 compares the raptors to the secretary bird and the cassowary. These are modern day large birds, the secretary bird a bird of prey in Africa and the cassowary an omnivore in New Guinea.

Page 123 reveals that Muldoon wanted to get LAW (Light Anti-Armor Weapon) missiles to use against the large dinosaurs in the event of a disaster.

On page 135 Richard Kiley's tour narration mentions several plant genera which all existed during the times of the dinosaurs and which Jurassic Park has cloned along with their dinosaurs: cycads, bennettitaleans and ginkgoes. Some species of cycads still exist today and one species of ginkgoes still exists. Bennettitaleans are completely extinct.

Page 138 goes into a bit of Arnold's history. He was a systems engineer on the U.S. Polaris missile and left the defense industry to work as an engineer at various theme parks like Disney World in Orlando, FL, Magic Mountain in CA, Old Country, VA and Astroworld in Houston, TX. These are all real theme parks, though Astroworld was closed in 2005 and demolished in 2006.

In the novel, Mr. Arnold's first name is John. In the movie it is Ray.

Page 142 reveals that the dilophosaur venom is a hematotoxin. Hematotoxins destroy red blood cells and cause general tissue damage.

Page 143 reveals that the JP restaurant is called Les Gigantes. Chef Alain Richard comes from the famous Le Beaumaniere in France. Le Beaumaniere appears to be a fictional restaurant. Chef Alain Richard is also fictional, though it is the name of a French politician who went on to become the French Minister of Defense from 1997-2002.

Page 145 gives some background on Muldoon, his early renown as a big game hunter and later work as a wildlife advisor to wildlife parks and conservation groups. He and his work designing zoos is compared to renowned golf course designer Robert Trent Jones. Jones was a real world golf course architect who died in 2000.

Page 146 mentions TigerWorld in Kashmir. This appears to be a fictional wildlife park.

Page 147 reveals that the raptors are at least as intelligent as chimpanzees. In the real world, raptors are believed to have been only about as intelligent as a housecat.

On page 151, Muldoon loads a Randler Shoulder Launcher into a Jeep in preparation for trouble with the dinosaurs. This seems to be a fictional device which Muldoon later uses to fire small tranquilizer missiles at the T. rex.

In the novel our heroes encounter a sick Stegosaurus on their park tour (instead of a sick Triceratops as seen in the movie).

On page 156, the tomboyish Lex asks if anyone wants to play a game of pickle. Pickle is sort of a cross between baseball and tennis.

On page 158, in explaining chaos theory, Malcolm mentions a few real world scientists and their theories:

On page 165, Malcolm and Wu discuss the Poisson distribution of animals on the island. Poisson distribution is a type of probability estimation introduced by Simeon-Denis Poisson in 1838.

On page 170 Malcolm discusses Mandelbrot's scales of sameness. Benoit Mandelbrot, the father of fractal geometry, discovered that objects (and even series of events) look the same at different scales, just as Malcolm describes. The illustrations that appear in the novel as Iterations 1-7 are an example of a Mandelbrot set of sameness at an increasing scale.

Page 175 describes Nedry's feeling that he was blackmailed by Hammond into working free overtime to make extensive modifications to the system he built. Lawsuits had been threatened between InGen and Nedry's company and letters to other clients threatened to be sent which would imply that Nedry was unreliable. This justifies in Nedry's mind the deal he strikes with Dodgson and the theft of the embryos.

In addition to the previously mentioned Genentech, Hammond brings up Cetus on page 200 as another early biotechnology company. Cetus was a real company founded in 1971 which merged with Chiron Corporation.

On page 201, Hammond says that Jurassic Park Europe will be in the Azores and Jurassic Park Japan on an island near Guam. The Azores are a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. Guam is an island in the Pacific Ocean region of Micronesia.

On page 202, Dr. Harding reveals that park personnel have discovered that the dinosaurs' visual acuity is based on movement, like amphibians. This is a bit more robust explanation than what is given in the movie, where Dr. Grant tells us that the tyrannosaur's vision is based on movement but he never tells the audience how he knows this. I remember being surprised by his statement when I first saw the film and tried to look it up in books (and later on the internet) and never could find confirmation or paleontological evidence for it! (On page 261, Grant makes the realization himself of the dinosaurs' visual acuity being based on movement during his and the kids' encounter with the Maiasaurs. However, in The Lost World novel, Crichton takes this all back, even having one of his new characters call the theory idiotic!).

In the movie, the lawyer, Gennaro, is the one who talks about how high a price they can charge for entrance to the park and Hammond says the park wasn't built to cater only to the super-rich. But in the novel, it is Hammond who is interested in making as much money as possible and not being concerned about the non-wealthy being able to see the animals.

On page 217, the juvenile T. rex seems to play (terrifyingly) with Ed Regis in the way that the papa T. rex does with Ludlow in the movie version of the JP sequel The Lost World.

On page 223, Muldoon mentions the scenes of animal attacks he had observed in Africa at Amboseli and Meru. Amboseli is a reference to Amboseli National Park and Meru is a city. Both are located in Kenya.

Page 235 reveals that Grant was once married but his wife died in an unrevealed manner. Also, in the novel, he is not dating Ellie; she is merely his student and she is engaged to a doctor in Chicago. Possibly the doctor in Chicago was Crichton's subtle way of inserting himself into the novel; he was an M.D., originally from Chicago.

On page 245, Arnold delivers the chaos theory example of a drop of water falling down the side of a person's hand to Gennaro. This example is delivered by Malcolm to Ellie in the movie.

On page 254, a giant dragonfly with a six-foot wingspan lands on Tim's arm. Grant explains that the Jurassic was a time of huge insects. So, InGen has apparently also cloned extinct insects. But with flying creatures such as the dragonfly, without the benefit of an enclosure, wouldn't there be concern about them being able to escape the island and making a life on the mainland?

In the novel, it is a herd of hadrosaurs that is attacked by the T. rex, as depicted on pages 256-259, instead of the Gallimimus herd seen in the film.

On page 260, it is a maiasaur that greets Grant and the kids as they wake up in the treetop in the morning. In the film it was a brachiosaur.

Page 260 also mentions that Grant, along with John Horner, was the first to describe a Maiasaur paleontologically. As mentioned previously, John Horner was one of the inspirations for the character of Dr. Grant. In the real world, Horner and fellow paleontologist Robert Makela were the ones to describe a Maiasaur (in 1979).

On page 266, the T. rex is described as scratching behind its ear with its hind foot just like a dog!

On pages 266-268, the T. rex swims, crocodile-like, after Grant and the kids as they flee down the river on an inflatable raft. This was probably the inspiration for the water chase scene in "No Wimp's Land" in Return to Jurassic Park #3 and a similar one with the Spinosaurus in Jurassic Park III.

Speaking of the river scene, I wonder if Crichton himself was inspired by the opening credits of Land of the Lost in which Rick Marshall and his kids Will and Holly make their way down a river on an inflatable raft. Here, father-figure Dr. Alan Grant and the brother and sister, Tim and Lex, do the same.

On page 278, Grant and the kids enter the aviary from the river. The aviary in Jurassic Park III was inspired by this brief scene here. Arnold says the pterosaurs in the aviary are actually Cearadactyls, missing the distinctive head crest of the more popularly familiar Pteranodon.

On page 281, when he sees the pterodactyl walk quadrupedally on its feet and folded wings, Grant muses that Lederer was right. I have been unable to find a real world reference to the name Lederer in connection with pterodactyl walking. However, the quadrupedal walking of pterosaurs is currently a generally accepted theory.

On page 289, Muldoon shows Gennaro a cylinder of MORO-709, which he describes as a standard animal tranquilizer. The large cylinders of the drug are used to tranquilize the large dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex. I have not been able to find a real world reference to the drug. The cylinders are stored in a stainless steel Halliburton case. Halliburton, of course, is the infamous oilfield and fuels corporation, once headed by former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney.

On pages 294-298, Grant and the kids hide from the T. rex in a cave behind a waterfall and the rex attempts to swipe them out of the cave with her tongue, similar to the scene that later appears in the JP movie sequel The Lost World.

The novel makes a few references to Tican workers on the island (e.g. page 309). I have been unable to find a real world reference to Tican that seems to apply here. The closest I can think of is that is a slang/abbreviated version of Costa Rican.

In the novel, Tim is the one who knows something about computers (although he's not a hacker as Lex describes herself in the film).

On page 395, the survivors of the incident on Isla Nublar are rescued by military helicopters on the beach, in a scene foreshadowing the rescue at the end of Jurassic Park III (although in this case it is the Costa Rican military, not the U.S.).

As the humans flee Isla Nublar in the helicopters, the military essentially napalms the entire island to destroy all the prehistoric life left there. But unknown to them, it is revealed on page 381 that Hammond still had some frozen embryos stashed at InGen HQ in Palo Alto. Besides that, how to do you keep InGen from using the cloning technology again?

Unlike the film version, Gennaro survives the incident and Hammond and Malcolm both die.

Page 398 reveals that Hammond supported almost exclusively digs that were in northern latitudes because intact genetic material was more likely to be recovered in colder climates.

Page 399 reveals that some unknown animals have been ravaging parts of the farmland in Costa Rica, eating plants rich in lysine. This would indicate that perhaps some dinosaurs (besides just the compys) have somehow escaped to the mainland and are eating the lysine-rich plants to gather the lysine their bodies need which they can not produce on their own due to the genetic deficiency placed in them by the JP scientists. (One of the lysine-rich plants mentioned are agama beans; as far as I can tell there are no such legumes by that name! There is a genus of small lizards called agama and the Spanish translation of "agama" is "asexual". Either of these contexts of the word might be applied in a vague way to the content of the novel, but not to the context of a lysine-rich plant.)

Page 399 also suggests that, while Tim and Lex will probably be sent back home to the States, the adults will be kept in Costa Rica against their will for quite some time due to the Costa Rican government's anger and suspicion about Hammond's operation on Isla Nublar.

Unanswered Questions

In the novel, Grant concludes that the dinosaurs' penchant for moving and arranging themselves on a NE/SW axis is due to an instinct to migrate in those directions. But why do the dinosaurs want to move NE/SW for migration? Modern birds, who seem to be the descendants of dinosaurs, migrate N/S, as commonly known. Does it have to do with some change in the Earth's magnetic or polar alignment since the time of the dinosaurs? 

Notes from the Jurassic Park comic book

Written by: Walt Simonson

Pencils by: Gil Kane

Inks by George Perez

Topps Comics published a 4-issue mini-series adapting the movie in comic book format.

Issue #1: The cover of issue #1 features a scene that appears to be a raptor leaping out of the jungle, about to land on Tim! However, after reading the issue it's clear that the scene is meant to represent Dr. Grant's scenario of a pack of raptors attacking the young boy at the Montana dig site who thinks the raptor fossil doesn't look very scary ("more like a six-foot turkey"). The scenario is scary stuff, but amusingly the boy's right foot appears to be stepping in a pile of dino dung! Click on the image.

Issue #1: Instead of Muldoon directing the action in the opening "caged raptor" scene, an unnamed man who looks a lot like Dr. Malcolm is in charge!

Issue #1: At the Montana dig site, Grant and Ellie have discovered the fossils of four raptors grouped together and Grant says the taphonomy suggests they died together. Taphonomy is the study of how fossils form from the remains, parts, or products of living organisms. Nearby they also find the dismembered bones of a Tenontosaurus which was apparently a meal for the raptors. Tenontosaurus was a primitive iguanodont.

Issue #1: On page 13, in the dig site's work trailer, there are several large, transparent containers on a table in which bones are seen to be soaking in some solution. Strangely, one of the containers seems to hold a human skull!

Issue #2: After the Mr. DNA film, the "ride" continues. On page 11, we see Grant, Eliie, Malcolm, and Gennaro sitting in two rows of seats as the ride shifts to the Genetics and Fertilization Lab, but then, on page 12, the four are suddenly all sitting in a single row of chairs!

Issue #2: Instead of Richard Kiley narrating the tour through Jurassic Park, in the comic book it is said to be James Earl Jones!

Issue #3: Lex is looking wistfully out the window of the tour car, saying, "I think Mr. Grant is really...smart," lending credence to my theory that she has a crush on the good doctor!

Issue #4: On page 3, panel 3, Arnold is sitting at Nedry's computer, trying to restore the system. Notice the gigantic keys on the keyboard. I guess its a special ergonomic keyboard for pudgy-fingered people!

Issue #4: The Dilophosaurus appears only on page 5 and the creature's twin crests are depicted as merely hollow golden arches!

Issue #4: Although the novel gives Mr. Arnold's first name as John (same as Hammond's), in the comic book he is referred to as Ray (as in the movie).

Issue #4: Page 13, panel 2 depicts the raptor attack against Muldoon and shows the raptor sinking its claws into his face in a splatter of blood. This doesn't seem to support Topps' later depiction of Muldoon having survived the encounter.

Issue #4: Page 20 depicts the scene from the movie of the raptor in the kitchen being fooled by the reflection of Lex in the metal and knocking itself out briefly. But for some reason, the reflective surface shown in the comic appears to be a sheet of glass hovering in mid-air at the end of the kitchen aisle!
 

Notes from the Jurassic Park collectible card set by Topps

Card #13 describes John Hammond as seventyish and "walks with a slight limp and cane which might only be for show."

Card #14 describes Tim as 9 years old.

Card #15 describes Lex as 12 years old.

Card #66 states that the dinosaur skeleton that our heroes climb onto after emerging from the air ducts near the end of the movie is that of an alamosaur.

Memorable Dialog

he's a digger.wav

we won't even have to dig anymore.wav

six-foot turkey.wav

try to show a little respect.wav

what's so wrong with kids.wav

we were saving that.wav

petting zoo.wav

small versions of adults.wav

we've got Dodgson here.wav

don't get cheap on me.wav 

Ian cackles.wav

a deplorable excess of personality.wav

the concept of attraction.wav

rock star.wav

in 48 hours.wav

it's a dinosaur.wav

he did it.wav

we're gonna make a fortune.wav

we have a T rex.wav

Welcome to Jurassic Park.wav

don't you mean extinct?.wav

Mr. DNA.wav

autoerotica.wav

pull up the dinosaurs skirts.wav

life finds a way.wav

they should all be destroyed.wav

spared no expense.wav

coupon day.wav

the lack of humility before nature.wav

now you're selling it.wav

could/should.wav

the rape of the natural world.wav

blood-sucking lawyer.wav

I'm going to ride with Dr Sattler.wav

which car were you planning on?.wav

she said I should ride with you.wav

hold on to your butts.wav

what've they got in there.wav

Dilophosaurus.wav

major theme park and major zoo.wav

Thanks, Dad.wav

they're approaching the tyrannosaur paddock.wav

woman inherits the Earth.wav

he's gonna eat the goat.wav

he wants to hunt.wav

I really hate that man.wav

that's chaos theory.wav

big pile.wav

two no-shows and one sick Triceratops.wav

a future ex-Mrs. Malcolm.wav

maybe it's the power trying to come back on.wav

when you gotta go, you gotta go.wav

boy, do I hate being right.wav

stick, Stupid.wav

a lovely weekend.wav

I'm fairly alarmed.wav

they're not monsters.wav

I guess we'll have to evolve.wav 

veggiesaurus.wav

life found a way.wav 

look at how much blood.wav

the pirates don't eat the tourists.wav

sexism in survival situations.wav

that's not funny.wav

respect.wav

clever girl.wav

unless they figured out how to open doors.wav

after careful consideration.wav