Jurassic Park

About

Jurassic Park is a series of science fiction novels and films about an island theme park populated by dinosaurs that have been cloned from fossil DNA. Based on the 1990 eponymous novel by Michael Crichton, the story expanded into a blockbuster media franchise consisting of several films, comic books and video games throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

History

Jurassic Park was released on June 11th, 1993.^[1] The film stars Sam Neil as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm, two scientists and a mathematician brought to evaluate the park. It also stars Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, the park’s creator, and Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello as Tim and Lex Murphy, his grandchildren. The commercial success of Jurassic Park eventually prompted two sequels, Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997) and Jurassic Park III(2001), with a fourth film scheduled to be released sometime in 2015.

Premise

When a prehistoric mosquito is found preserved in amber, scientists are able to extract the dinosaur blood within it to create clones. John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) puts those clones on an island to create an amusement park called Jurassic Park. He invites two scientists and a mathematician to come and visit after the death of an employee at the hands of a dinosaur. The three guests, along with Hammond’s two grandchildren are dazzled by the park. Later in their trip, however, the electric fences which keep the dinosaurs penned up are deactivated by a guard hired by an outside company tasked with stealing the dinosaur’s genetic make-up. He is killed, along with several employees as the scientists and children attempt to hide from the dinosaurs and call for help. Eventually they escape the island by helicopter, collectively deciding not to open the park for the public.

Reception

Upon its box office release in 2003, Jurassic Park was a critical and commercial success. The film earned a rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes^[2] and a score of on 68 Metacritic.^[3] During its theatrical run, the film grossed more than 1 million dollars worldwide.^[4] In 2013, Jurassic Park was re-mastered in 3D and re-released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the film.

Accolades

The film won three Oscars in 1993 for Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television (John Williams) in 1994.

Online Presence

As of March 2014, Jurassic Park’s Facebook page^[5] has over 4.2 million likes and its Twitter account^[6] has over 13,000 followers. The film is available to watch in its entirety on YouTube for $2.99 through Universal Movies’ official YouTube channel.^[7]

Fandom

In addition to the branded social media presence, there are numerous fan sites for the film such as Jurassic Park Legacy^[17] and Jurassic World.^[18] There are several Tumblr blogs dedicated to the film such as loljurassicpark^[8], iheartjurassicpark and jurassiraptor.^[10] As of March 2014, the Fanifiction.net^[11] page for the film has more than 21,000 submissions on Deviant Art.^[12]

Related Memes

Parodies

On September 29th, 2011, How It Should Have Ended uploaded an animated alternative ending for Jurassic Park (shown below, left) to their YouTube channel^[13], where it gained over 9.1 million views in two-and-a-half years. On November 3rd, 2011, College Humor^[16] uploaded a video titled “Jurassic Park Character’s Awful Realization” which focuses on a minor character realizing he’s expendable (top right). As of March 2014, the video has over 1.1 million views.

On April 2nd, 2013, Screen Junkies^[15] uploaded an honest trailer for the film (shown below, left). As of March 2014, the video has over 3 million views. On February 7th, 2014, comedy channel Smosh^[14] uploaded a hybrid trailer that mixed Jurassic Park with Pokemon (right). As of March 2014, the video has over 3.8 million views.

Clever Girl

Clever Girl is a catchphrase that can be used to express respect or admiration for something has demonstrated substantial intelligence. It comes from as scene from the film in which the hunter Muldoon, played by actor Bob Peck, attempts to hunt down a raptor in the jungle. While aiming at one of the raptors with a SPAS-12 shotgun that he carefully clicks into place, a second raptor pops its head from the bush to the left. Muldoon looks at the raptor and says “Clever girl” before it pounces on him.

Holy Shit It’s a Dinosaur

‘Holy Fucking Shit, It’s a Dinosaur!’ is a parody song based on the main theme from Jurassic Park featuring comical lyrics performed in the voice of an opera singer. The song first became popular on YouTube in 2006 after it was paired with various dinosaur-related videos. On August 12th 2006, YTMND user ALMusic produced a site^[1] taking a short segment from Jurassic Park in which the main characters are dumbfounded by a dinosaur walking past them. The movie’s main theme is also playing in the background, but with additional lyrics written by ALMusic to accompany the song. Shown below is a YouTube version of the original YTMND:

KyoAni Finds A Way

“Kyoani Finds A Way” is a catchphrase used by anime fans to either criticize or praise Kyoto Animation’s (otherwise shortened as KyoAni) ability to reinvent the Moe subgenre with newer and cuter iterations of characters. The expression is derived from a memorable quote by Dr. Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park, who utters “Life finds a way” in astonishment after witnessing the living dinosaurs with his own eyes for the first time.

Jeff Goldblum’s Laugh

In a scene towards the beginning of the movie, Jeff Goldblum has a prolonged, and stange laugh.

On July 8, 2011, YouTuber IzzyMaiden^[21] uploaded a video that featured the clip on a ten minute loop. As of March 2014, the video has over 310,000 views. On September 23rd, 2012, YouTuber Rémi Enigma^[22] uploaded the clip on a ten hour loop. In two years the video gained over 59,000 views. On March 2nd, 2014, YouTuber MrTabarnaco2^[23] uploaded Goldblum’s laugh set to a club beat in a video titled “Hahahrawrrahaha (Jeff Goldblum Laugh Remix).” In less than two weeks, the video gained over 240,000 views.

JurassicSystems.com

In March 2014, computer programmer Tully Robinson created JurassicSystems.com^[19], which recreats the HMTL5/Javascript ay Arnold (Samuel L Jackson) worked with in the film, shown in the clip below.^[20] Once on the site visitors can call up the infamous “magic words GIF” by typing “access security” into the command box.

Search Interest

External References