History Film / JurassicPark1993

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** The idea of a dinosaur theme park is viciously torn apart in many ways throughout the story, as many people point out all the issues either the park has, or that it will have. The lunch scene in particular has everyone save Gennaro pointing out how flawed the park is. For example, Ellie points out that Hammond has poisonous plants in the Visitors' Center because of RuleOfCool, but that they are still ''poisonous'' and are now in an environment completely alien to them. She states that the animals will defend themselves, violently if necessary. The main point that she, Ian, and Alan all make is that there is no way to predict how dinosaurs will work in a theme park, which no amount of expensive technology can fix.
** What kicks off the plot? An employee's death at the hands of one of the raptors causing Hammond's investors to begin thinking of backing out unless the park is verified as safe by experts. Investors are not going to want to invest in something that can make them liable for mistakes or accidents happening, especially with something as unknown as a dinosaur theme park. The employee's family is also filing a $20 million lawsuit, which is also concerning the investors.
** Both Tim and Lex make some pretty stupid choices during the movie, but they are still kids after all, kids who have never seen dinosaurs and unlike the adults, have no remote idea of what to do in a dangerous situation. Naturally, when the two get into situations where they have no idea what they are dealing with, they both make mistakes. Similarly, many of the adults who aren't paleontologists end up making mistakes simply because they have no idea how dinosaurs act, such as when Ian tries to distract the ''T. rex'' with a flare but runs with it instead of throwing it right away, causing her to target him and not the flare.
** Unlike the original novel, the tour goes poorly even before things officially go to hell in the park. None of the dinosaurs show up as the car passes by their enclosures, and attempts to bait the ''T. rex'' with live prey fail (until the worst possible time). It's impossible to get an animal to do exactly what you want, up to and including coming into viewing distance when they've got so much territory to cover.
--->'''Hammond:''' So much for our first tour: two no-shows and one sick ''Triceratops''.

* AppealToNature: Malcolm states that bringing back dinosaurs is bad partly because that's going against natural selection. The way he phrases it is particularly unfortunate, making it sound like he sees nature as an intelligent {{God}} that "decides" which species deserve to live.[[note]]While he may have had a point if he meant to refer to the ethics of suddenly introducing genetically altered megafauna to a region with existing wildlife, his actual point is just that "they had their chance"[[/note]]

* AppealToNature: Malcolm states that bringing back dinosaurs is bad partly because that's going against natural selection.[[note]]While he may have had a point if he meant to refer to the ethics of suddenly introducing genetically altered megafauna to a region with existing wildlife, his actual point is just that "they had their chance"[[/note]]

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "People — are — ''dying!"''

* QuizzicalTilt: Rexy gives [[spoiler:Gennaro]] one just before eating him. The ''Dilophosaurus'' gives several to Nedry while it's sizing him up before it strikes.

* RaptorAttack: The TropeCodifier as it's this very film that propelled ''Velociraptor'' to mainstream pop culture along with several inaccurate attributes associated with them. They are intelligent, human-sized, reptilian monsters with sickle-like claws on their feet and a taste for killing. Though the film does connect them with birds, it's not as apparent compared to the sequels starting with ''Film/JurassicParkIII'', which play up the bird connection more so than here.

** One inexcusable example is that ''Tyrannosaurus'' "eyesight is based on movement", since Grant mentioned before he even knew of the park's existence. While at the time, not much research had yet been done on ''T. rex'' eyesight, the statement was still pure speculation, and has now long since been debunked (''Tyrannosaurus'' is currently believed to have had exceptional eyesight, better than those of humans or even birds of prey). This is an example of artistic license only in the film, as in the novels it was retconned similar to the examples above.

* ImprobableTaxonomySkills: Grant is able to perfectly describe the exact hunting methods used by raptors, despite only having their bones to work with. And then there's them knowing that Rexy hunts by motion...

---> '''Gennaro:''' Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with...AAAAAHHHHHH!

* TemptingFate: The raptors are contained, right? "Unless they figure out how to open doors." Guess what happens. Taken to ridiculous extremes in the Podcast/RiffTrax.

** When the storm hits the island, the tour is cut short and the tour vehicles are turned around to return to the Visitors' Center. When the power then goes out, the vehicles stop right in front of the ''T. rex'' paddock, the perfect place for the big action scene.

* BioPunk: Arguably the TropeCodifier. The story focuses heavily on the themes of scientific ethics, man's hubris and the force of nature being beyond our control.

* BookEnds: The crisis at Jurassic Park begins with the ''T. rex'' breaking loose and attacking the guests. It ends with the ''T. rex'' breaking into the Visitors' Center and attacking the ''Velociraptors'' that threaten the surviving guests.

** Lewis Dodgson's role is reduced to a single scene, while in the book, he was arguably the closest thing to a human BigBad.

* DrawAggro: Both Alan and Ian try to get Rexy to go after them when she's attacking the kids. They succeed, but Ian is injured and separated from the rest and Gennaro is killed.
** Later on Muldoon tries to draw the raptors away from Ellie when they go to restore power. He succeeds with two (at the cost of his own life) but the third ends up going after Ellie anyway.

* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: While the film got an authentic transfer in the 2012 Ultimate Trilogy boxset, the version released in 2014 was rife with this. It featured a BlueAndOrangeContrast color grade, various odd sizing changes such as the size of Rexy's head and making Muldoon's thighs bigger, removing Rexy chomping on the head of a ''Gallimimus'', or just cleaning up Jeff Goldblum's hair for a specific scene (not to mention heavy use of Digital Noise Removal, removing a lot of the finer details). On the other hand, various infamous goofs are fixed, such as a light in the back of a shot or the cables used to flip the Jeep in the ''T. rex'' breakout scene.

* HackedByAPirate: Probable inversion, as the hacker screen came up only after Arnold's attempt at hacking Nedry's computer to restore security.

* KarmaHoudini: Dodgson, who essentially set the conflict in motion by bribing [[spoiler:Nedry]] to steal the embryos. [[spoiler:However, this finally changed when he returned in ''Jurassic World: Dominion'']].

* NightVisionGoggles: Relatively realistic ones, too.

** The look on Grant's face when the car starts to slide out of that tree. Not to mention the looks on everyone's faces when they realize what happened to the goat...

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Sam Neill's American accent holds up pretty well, except for one line during the scene where he throws the stick at the fence.

* PacifiedAdaptation: While there is still plenty of danger and peril in the film, the human characters usually survive dinosaur encounters with a combination of quick thinking and some incredibly lucky breaks, whereas in the novel several characters proactively fight back against the dinos and even manage to kill a few.

* PrehistoricMonster: Averted with the herbivores, who are all depicted as peaceful animals, but PlayedWith with the carnivores.

** Barbasol shaving cream is prominently featured as part of the scheme to steal dinosaur embryos. In 2015, Barbasol sold ''Film/JurassicWorld'' [[TheRedStapler themed cans]]! (This is also a change from the book, in which the shaving cream was Gillette.)

* RunOrDie: Pretty much the only thing anybody can do against the ''T. rex'' and the raptors.

** One of the largest selling points of the film after the visual effects was that ''Jurassic Park'' was one of the standard-bearers of the "Dinosaur Renaissance" in the public consciousness, which began with the discovery of ''Deinonychus antirrhopus''[[note]]ironically, the dinosaur that ''Jurassic Park's'' ''Velociraptor'' was based on[[/note]] in 1964. Considerable press was focused on ''Jurassic Park'' being what was [[ScienceMarchesOn then]] the most scientifically up-to-date depiction of dinosaurs in film, based on all the most current research.

* SoundOnlyDeath: That poor unfortunate bull.

** Pretty much the entire workforce of the park just disappeared once the dinosaurs escape. The last we ever get is one employee serving Ellie and Hammond in the restaurant/gift shop if not the helicopter pilot at the very end. Granted, this is because most of them left on the ship at the East Dock when the storm hit, leaving behind only the tiny skeleton crew in the control room.

* PrehistoricMonster: Averted with the herbivores, who are all as depicted peaceful animals, but PlayedWith with the carnivores.

** Played straight with the ''Dilophosaurus'' and ''Velociraptor''. The ''Dilophosaurus'' is depicted to have monstrous, fictitious traits such as a neck-frill and [[ToxicDinosaur a venomous spit]] to hunt bigger prey while the ''Velociraptor'' is far larger than the real-life animal and is intelligent enough to [[ForTheEvulz hunt humans for sport]].

* RaptorAttack: The TropeCodifier as it's this very film that propelled ''Velociraptor'' to mainstream pop culture along with several inaccurate attributes associated with them. They are intelligent, human-sized, reptilian monsters with sickle-like claws on their feet and a taste for killing. Though the film does connect them with birds, it's not as apparent compared to the sequels, which does play up the bird connection more so than here.

* TerrifyingTyrannosaur: It's expected that Jurassic Park would have a ''T. rex'' as the star attraction for guests (especially kids) to enjoy. And this film reminds us of why ''T. rex'' has a terrifying reputation, with Rexy breaking out of her paddock and attacking a jeep in an attempt to eat the kids inside. It redefined the ''T. rex'' species for generations to come, giving the king of the dinosaurs iconic attributes such as [[BadVibration thundering footsteps]], MightyRoar, and a LivingMotionDetector bad eyesights]].

* PrehistoricMonster: Averted with the herbivores, who are all depicted peaceful animals, but PlayedWith with the carnivores.

** Played straight with the ''Dilophosaurus'' and ''Velociraptor''. The ''Dilophosaurus'' is depicted to have monstrous, fictitious traits such as a neck-frill and [[PoisonousDinosaur a venomous spit]] to hunt bigger prey while the ''Velociraptor'' is far larger than the real-life animal and is intelligent enough to [[ForTheEvulz hunt humans for sport]].

* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: The ''Velociraptor'' pen is absolutely tiny, only about fifty feet by thirty feet ''at best'', and we're supposed to believe it was meant to contain at least ''nine'' tiger-sized predators together. No wonder they kept trying to break out.

** Pretty much the entire workforce of the park just disappeared once the dinosaurs escape. The last we ever get is one employee serving Ellie and Hammond in the restaurant/gift shop if not the helicopter pilot at the very end.

* OnlySaneMan: Of all of Hammond's staff, only Robert Muldoon seems fully aware of how dangerous the park is, suggesting the ''Velociraptors'' all be destroyed (albeit as a cynical introduction to the guests at the raptor pen) and having a brief "IToldYouSo" moment about the need for locks on the vehicle doors when everyone disembarks upon seeing the sick'''Triceratops''.

* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Satler, Malcolm and Grant show detailed relevant knowledge in areas far outside their specialties: tropical modern botany ("Is this West Indian Lilac?"), veterinary toxicology ("microvesicles", "These are dilated."), amphibian reproductive biology ("Some species of West African frog are known to spontaneously change sex"), cellular biology ("How do you interrupt the cellular mitosis?"), and DNA extraction ("Lloyd extraction hasn't recreated an intact DNA strand." "Not without massive sequence gaps.").

%% * ObviousBeta: The park itself. %% InUniverse

** When the power goes out, the Jeeps stop right in front of the ''T. rex'' paddock. This is especially weird because the Jeeps had already passed by the ''T. rex'' enclosure, so did it go backwards or loop all the way around again?
*** Partially excused because the tour was cut short for a tropical storm and the Jeeps were taking the guests back to the visitor center.

* AmoralAttorney: Donald Gennaro, though much more lacking in morals than in the original novel. Highlighted when he abandons the kids when the ''T. rex'' shows up, only to then be eaten by said ''rex''.