Representation of Science in Hollywood:
Jurassic Park
Stephen Nottingham
Contemporary developments in science have provided the source of threat in horror and science
fiction narratives since the early days of cinema. In the 1930s surgical techniques and electricity were
vital for the creation of life, for example, by that archetypal mad scientist Victor Frankenstein; nuclear
energy and its capacity for mutation started to feature in the 1950s; environmental pollution produced
monsters in the ecologically conscious 1970s; while in the 1990s, genetic engineering emerged as the
new technology by which mankind could create or modify life. In addition, the Hollywood films of
today display an unprecedented attention to scientific detail. This reading uses Jurassic Park (1993), the
first genetic engineering blockbuster, to discuss how science is represented in Hollywood films of the
1990s.
Jurassic Park has been described as Jaws (1975) meets Westworld (1973). Jaws, like Jurassic Park, was
directed by Steven Spielberg and features a creature - a great white shark - that threatens humans.
Westworld was written and directed by Michael Crichton, who wrote the novel Jurassic Park.
Westworld is set in a futuristic theme park, where robotic attractions interact with humans in fantasy
situations, most memorably on a western set. However, due to complex computer technology, the
robots develop minds of their own and rebel, turning murderously against the human visitors. Michael
Crichton's novels have consistently explored the dangers of technology, particularly in cases where
scientific advances outpace human understanding and effective regulation. Jurassic Park depicts the
unregulated application of genetic engineering for the pursuit of profit by the entertainment industry.
Genetic engineering is used in Jurassic Park to give a novel twist to the dinosaur movie. Previous
films featuring prehistoric creatures had either used a time travel device to send people back in time,
or used stone age characters and ignored the inconvenient fact that dinosaurs and humans never
co-existed on the earth, or proposed isolated lost worlds where life somehow still existed as it did in
prehistoric times. The use of genetic engineering in Jurassic Park provides a more plausible way in
which humans can interact with prehistoric monsters. The realistic present day setting also allows
concerns about the use of technology to be addressed.
Throughout pre-production, scientific consultants, including laboratory technicians, were hired to make
the mise-en-scene and the scientific content of the film as authentic as possible. The laboratory was
made to resemble a modern molecular biology laboratory, while the narrative incorporated recent
discoveries in the analysis of ancient DNA samples. A scientific paper published soon after the film
went into production, for example, described the extraction of DNA fragments from an insect
fossilized in amber. Cloning dinosaurs is far beyond current technology. However, major technical
advances have recently been made in this area of science, with human cloning now at least
theoretically possible, while DNA fragments have been obtained from around six extinct animals,
albeit much more recent than dinosaurs, including a mammoth.
The six dinosaur species in the film were recreated with close regard to scientific evidence and are
more realistic than dinosaurs portrayed in previous films. Recent theories on dinosaur behaviour were
also used in the animation of the dinosaurs, for example, the probability that they were warm-blooded
and bird-like, rather than cold-blooded and reptile-like, and the likelihood that they moved in flocks
or herds. Being warm-blooded, the dinosaurs were quicker and more agile than those seen in previous
movies.
In the film, soon after the two palaeontologists, Alan Grant (played by Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler
(Laura Dern), the chaos theoretician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) and the lawyer Donald Gennaro
(Martin Ferrero) arrive on the island, they are given an introductory film and laboratory tour by John
Hammond (Richard Attenborough), the man whose money and vision has made the dinosaur theme
park possible. This seven minute sequence, filmed as if in real-time, introduces the science on which
the storyline is based.
The visitors arrive at the Visitors Centre through the jungle. The jungle is used throughout the film in
opposition to the man-made structures, to represent the wild environment forever present and
ultimately outside of human control. Hammond leads his guests into the Visitors Centre, through a
museum with dinosaur skeletons, representing the old-style dinosaur museum, and into a small movie
theatre. Here Hammond uses a script to appear to interact with a film of himself on the screen. He
pricks the film Hammond's finger, who is visually cloned from the blood to give a row of
Hammonds, while a cartoon character called 'Mr DNA' explains how DNA is used to produce clones.
The camera keeps returning to a point of view position in a row behind the visitors, to make the
audience identify with them. We are made to feel part of the tour and are party to their whispered
comments. This point of view is reverse cut to reaction shots of the visitors watching the film. The
actors, backlit by the light of the projector for dramatic emphasis, are called to give looks of
amazement. The actors generally exaggerate their emotions throughout the film. The dialogue is
concise
and information-rich, in keeping with the role of this sequence in the film.
The theme-park style cartoon provides the means by which the potentially difficult task of explaining
recombinant DNA technology is carried out. The cartoon is filmed in a simple graphic style with
primary colours and is accompanied by cartoon-style music on the soundtrack. These cartoon shots are
short and edited together with images of DNA being extracted from an insect fossilised in amber, a
scientist using a virtual reality headset to explore a complex molecule in 3-D, and general shots of a
laboratory. The cartoon character explains the stages by which "dino-DNA", extracted from prehistoric
mosquitoes, is used to clone dinosaurs.
The cinema then suddenly turns into a vehicle for a theme park ride, as bars come down to restrain
the visitors in their seats, while the screen slides away to reveal a window looking into the laboratory
that was seen in the film. At this point one of the two jokes that lighten this sequence occurs, when
the lawyer asks Hammond if the scientists are autoerotica (meaning animatronica, computer-controlled
robotic models frequently seen in theme parks, and a technology used by the film-makers to animate
the dinosaurs in later scenes). As the ride threatens to move on, the three scientists rebel by breaking
free of their restraints and insist on seeing more of the laboratory.
The laboratory is far from being filled with the pseudo-scientific clutter of, for example, the
Frankenstein movies from the 1930s, but is filled with genuine state-of-the-art molecular biology
equipment. In the foreground is an injection microscope, necessary for introducing DNA into
embryos, while elsewhere can be glimpsed other optical instruments and gene sequencers. The
attention to detail is demonstrated by the water baths, flasks of growing cells (food dye in the film),
microfuges, pipette tips and blue absorbent paper that could be seen in any genetics laboratory. Flasks
and bottles are credibly labelled, biohazard stickers are authentically placed on refrigerators and
freezers and even fake notebooks are filled with appropriate jargon. Eight white-coated scientists are
engaged in a variety of research activities in the background, for example, watching monitor screens,
discussing data or wandering between pieces of equipment.
However, authenticity has its limits in the movies. Once the consultants had set up the laboratory,
Spielberg and his Art Directors came in and rearranged it for dramatic and compositional purposes.
The sinks and some other equipment were sidelined for aesthetic reasons, while a circular egg hatchery
was improbably set up in an adjacent area. The hatchery is spotlighted in the film, while the lighting is
subdued around it, to allow attention to be focused on the dinosaur eggs. The hatchery has an
unlikely robotic arm which rotates the eggs, and also delivers the second joke as it grabs back an egg
that Neill has removed from the nest. The camera is constantly tracking around the room, as we see
the room from the perspective of an inquisitive visitor.
When the visitors enter the laboratory, we see Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), the head geneticist, leaning
against the hatchery and writing in a notebook. He is introduced to them, which initiates the dialogue
that establishes each character's positions on the use of cloning to recreate extinct creatures. The
camera
focuses in on the hatchery as the first dinosaur egg is seen to hatch. Music is again heard on the
soundtrack, but this time it is celestial choral synthesizer music to enhance the sense of wonder felt by
the visitors. Reaction shots of the two palaeontologists are predominant and we are aware that they
could learn more in a few days on the island that they would learn in a lifetime of traditional
dinosaur studies. Grant is the film's hero figure, who was first introduced Indiana Jones-style digging
for fossils in a desert, and whose point of view is most frequently taken during the film. Grant and
Sattler's enthusiasm for knowledge tempers any concern they have about the dangers of the
technology. Hammond's megalomania becomes apparent in this scene when he talks to the hatching
dinosaur, which will become imprinted on him like all the previous ones. He sees them as his
creations and is blind to any possible consequences of his actions; he is reminiscent of the mad
scientist archetype in a long line of monster movies. Dr. Wu comes across as arrogant, and is irritated
by the questions of Ian Malcolm, the film's voice of scepticism, who warns that life will find a way to
break free and the creatures cannot be contained. Malcolm's speech, predicting that the creatures will
escape, cuts to Neill, at the moment he realises that the hatchling is a velociraptor, a ruthless carnivore
that hunts in packs. The chirps of the hatchling are dissolved into the roar of an adult as the scene
cuts to an outdoor cage containing an adult. The sense of threat is clearly established for the first time.
Jurassic Park therefore uses recent developments in genetics to refresh the well-worn prehistoric
creature storyline. It is also typical of the 1990s Hollywood blockbuster in that it seeks greater
scientific authenticity than seen in movies of previous decades. Its modern-day setting and
incorporation of cutting edge genetic techniques also enables it to ask important moral questions, in
particular whether DNA cloning, although now viable, is morally acceptable. While raising interesting
questions in early scenes, however, the film later becomes a more traditional adventure/monster movie
to please its predominantly young audience. The novel's message warning of the dangers of greedy
corporations exploiting risky technology for entertainment, or other relatively trivial applications, is
unsurprising lost in the story's translation into a high-tech major studio picture, complete with its
associated merchandising and Universal Studios Tour theme park ride.
Bibliography
Mestel, R. (1995) Lab coats in Tinseltown. New Scientist. 9 December 1995. pp. 28-32.
Newman, K. (1993) Jurassic Park. Sight and Sound 3 (8): 44-45. August 1993.
Shay, D. and J. Duncan (1993) The Making of Jurassic Park. Boxtree, London.
Tudor, A. (1989) Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie. Basil
Blackwell, Oxford.
Wollen, P. (1993) Theme park and variations. Sight and Sound 3 (7): 7-9. July 1993.
1892 words. Jan. 1998.
This reading forms part of a chapter in the first draft of my manuscript "Screening DNA:
Representations of genetics in the Movies".
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http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Stephen_Nottingham/
cintxt3.htm June 1998 SFN.