Jurassic Park — Using Theme to Craft Character

Did anybody else have all the Jurassic Park toys?! Which was your favorite? (The T-Rex was mine, obviously)

Should we use AI?

This is such a great video. JP's staying power definitely lies in its themes and how they present themselves in almost every scene. Fantastic film.

I adore Jurassic Park. And none of the others exist

The book is awful compared to the film. Not darker at all, more comedic and over the top. It reads like a bad hollywood film

Can't help but think of things like AI art, ChatGPT, and deep fakes watching this.
Amazing technologies conceptually and somewhat in practice, but being misused for immoral and greedy purposes.
Instead of being used to better humanity it could be used to cause more to suffer, if not worse....

Haha, I TOO read the book at an age when I was much too young to read and understand something so heavy. My dad looked through it beforehand to see if it was age appropriate, but let me read it anyway, warning me "this book is MUCH scarier than the movie." Which is was. But still one of my favorite novels, to this day (I'm 40). I recently got the audible of Jurassic Park and the Lost World and listened to it.

I will not allow any jp 3 slander on my watch
It's better then the world movies and 2

When you watch it as a kid and your strongest takeaway is "Ooh old man Hammond is blind and stupid, and the young guy and the kids are in trouble!", and you watch it now to see you can analyze up the medium and even across to other shows. Did the Pokémon movie borrow from this, or the other way around, or were there anti-progress/ conservative films like this from the beginning? Some Like It Hot?

This is such a great video Michael. Please do more like this.

Man I remember waiting on this movie to come out on VHS. It was absolutely BRUTAL and the most highly anticipated object ever. My parents did everything they could to pacify me lol!

I love the moment with the toy T-Rex and your child-like grin.

Naaah I always thought the moral of Jurassic Park was: NEVER HIRE A NEDRY!!! But if you do, and if you 'spare no expense'... might as well raised his salary if he did not stop bitching.

Your actually wrong. Hammons knew full well of the dangers bringing dinosaurs back would be. Hammond's just thought he was smart enough to contain them without fail. The only problem is, cant rely on others with a job that serious, someone always gets 2 greedy.

I can so relate to Alan Grant. That scene where he touched the monitor and it messed up is exactly what happens to me with stuff. And how it took a dangerous situation to bond with kids.

Dude your videos are amazing and so well done editing, music everything please don't stop doing what you do!

good content

Wow. Amazing analysis. You made me think about certain scenes even more. Alan is forced to face the failure of technology and presence of children head-on in the midst of danger; John is forced to watch the failure of technology and the absence of children in isolation. This forced John to see even in the control room, the very place where “control” should be established, that they have none. Furthermore he realizes progress at all costs was very titillating only when he was involved in the park but emotionally removed. Now, he’s physically removed from the rest of the park, and emotionally invested with his grandkids out there. Even when his workers died earlier; he felt nothing. Now, it’s questioning everything.

And the ice cream scene 😱 I never thought about it being the physical representation of lack of power. The literal lack of electrical power resulted in the enjoyable parts of the park starting to go bad, and melt. He can’t clean up and fix anything in the park, so he puts what little power he has into cleaning up and saving the only mess he can (ice cream).

For Alan: Ellie booting the system and almost killing Tim at the exact same time Alan has to LITERALLY CLIMB AND RISE ABOVE his avoidance of technology (the fence) with kids as fast as possible to escape danger (Rex) is a metaphor for what he loves (Ellie) forcing him to acknowledge he can’t stay in the past, that change is unstoppable, and he has to overcome it. The first half of the movie was Ellie passively trying to convince Alan to change. Now, Ellie legitimately (though inadvertently) forces him to cement his need to change by electrocuting Tim. He can either stand by and watch or he can jump in and save a child.

Lex booting up the system at the computer was proof that the two things he couldn’t stand (kids and technology) could come together to be good, and literally saved his life in the presence of immediate danger (the raptor trying to get through the door)...which is ironic considering failure of technology and the kids’ poor decision-making (especially her) were what got him pulled into danger and almost killed throughout the entire Rex breakout. He was content to sit and in darkness in the car (no technology, no interaction) to avoid danger when the Rex walked out. But the Rex, being the metaphor for change, forced him to throw himself into the situation instead of sitting by and letting things happen to him. Be active, be the cause of change. That was the first test, with everything that happened after that I stated above further testing his need to change and embrace it...or sit by and die; go extinct.
In the tree, he accidentally turns the steering wheel and destabilizes the tires: one small decision that causes major change. The car chasing him and Tim down the tree as a result was a metaphor for a decision he made that caused major change, the future, to be unavoidable, and having to embrace it (embracing Tim) as it landed on top of them.
When they come across the Gallimimus flock being attacked, he starts to embrace it, enjoying the change even in the presence of danger that almost killed them earlier (Rex).
When they come across the fence, the epitome of danger and technology, he doesn’t hesitate to touch it. He’s embracing change, even smiling when it fails to hurt him, almost like an acknowledgment that he’s on the right path and changing for the better. Ellie cementing that change when she boots it just in time for him to get off is confirmation that he made the right choice to change, just in time, and not to look back...just bring the future (Tim) with him. Save him.

He jumped into danger earlier instead of avoiding change, saving the kids who pulled him into danger, with technology (the flashlight) and he had to use technology (the flare) to make a change. That was the setup. He makes decisions that keep furthering change. He overcomes the obstacle of technology (the fence) and cements his change for the kids by saving Tim once Ellie forced him too. This is the character arc. Once Lex saved them all with technology when they were about to die, that was the pay off.

Boys and Girls, learn this Lesson and learn it well, there's a Difference been Themw and Message

If they only stopped at the original

Clearest explanation of interaction between theme and character I have ever read (heard). Thank You!

I remember reading about the producer who asked the writers of "Fiddler on the Roof" "What's the story about?" And every time they replied "It's about a milkman and his five daughters and they-" "No, what's it ABOUT?" "It's Shalom Aleichem stories about a shtetl and-" "No, what's it ABOUT?"
And this continued until they realized "Wait, this is about Tradition versus Progress, and whether or not a man can grow with the times." And they went back to the studio and wrote "Tradition," and whaddaya know, the story worked ever after. Theme is vital.

I seen this movie on the day I graduated from High School. My local theater had a deal that if you wore your cap and robe in on graduation day, you got a free movie! This is my all time favorite movie.

You had me pretty well up until you said the book was great, which it is decidedly not very well put together. The movie is an absolute wonder of adaptation.

I do also feel like Grant is not super keyed into a potential romantic rivalry with Malcom. If this was intended by the film makers it does not translate. Instead it feels like a comical addition. That's not to say your analysis of this doesn't hold up, I think that of course, Malcom is challenging something fundemental to Grant's character, but this is an area where Grant is more than resiliant. This is a part of him which is not at all under threat, and the fact that he isn't defensive, that he doesn't feel the need to protect Ellie is super refreshing and adult. He trusts her, she doesn't show any sign of being wooed away. She just enjoys her interaction with another adult.

This was awesome. Loving your videos!

Another great thing about the film is that the audience asks themselves how dinosaurs were brought back to life, and the characters want to know too, so the film gives us an exposition dump and we learn with the characters how the dinosaurs were brought back to life. That's more believable than the characters already knowing what they're being told.

This is one of the most incredible videos about Jurassic Park on the internet.

I pity the people who never got to see this in a theater.

Great video!

The "he left us!" X50 used to drive me nuts as a kid

I remember reading a book about the advancement of technology. A quote that stuck out to me was "technology is not good. It is not bad. And it's not neutral."

Интресна мисль про технолги ще дого буде актална

Обзори мало на парк йсуго периода рат наткнтса

I'm blown away! No one explained the use of themes like this ever before , atleast in my experience. This definitely does add a new layer to my thinking when approaching new scripts

book vs movie

Great video.

ok, over a thousand comments and every single one I've seen so far is favourited. There's no way he read all of them?

Nuhh uhh uhh, you didn't say the magic word

Nuhh uhh uhh, you didn't say the magic word

thank you so much for clearing up "theme" with a great in-depth example. It really gets confusing when you write your own screenplay. You lose track of theme quickly.

Spared no expense.

Your analysis and observations on this beloved classic film were spot on. And very revealing. Loved the storytelling style too. Thank you, and kudos!

Its a Unix System ! ...Clever Girl XD

The only voice I can hear when I saw her was "purple hair, purple hair", I still suffered from post "Rise of Skywalker" disorder some how...

Michael Crichton is my favourite author, best book to movie...Congo!

Me gustaría saber inglés, por suerte están los subtítulos al español.

this is crazy all i remember from this movie was the water and the T-rex hahah

Jurassic Park was the first movie theater experience I had as a 6 yr old an always gilded a special place in my heart. The way you broke down the film at the end was just so beautiful spoken it had me in tears from all the joy I’ve had with this filming. Thank you. Simply thank you!