When Dinosaurs Ruled the Cinema – 25 Years of Jurassic Park

As the dinosaur blockbuster celebrates its 25^th birthday, we look back at the impression it made on its release in 1993, and the impossible benchmark it raised for future filmmaking.

It might not amount to a blink in Earth’s history, but 25 years is still a long time – and it’s been that long since Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park landed with a heavy, ground-shattering stomp and a screen-splitting roar. Based on the late Michael Crichton’s bestselling novel of the same name, it sees a group of scientists pitted against genetically-engineered dinosaurs when they break free from their enclosures in a remote Costa Rican theme park. The film was met with both financial and critical praise on its release, largely for its seamlessly-interwoven use of the jaw-dropping practical and digital effects - courtesy of ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) and the late Stan Winston - that would dramatically change the course of cinematic history.

Something you can see and touch

But it wasn’t just a film that inspired intrigue among audiences - it ignited the debate as to whether scientists could (even if they weren’t to stop and think if they should) clone prehistoric animals using fossilised DNA. Like 1989’s Back to the Future II, the film had seemingly set a real-world scientific challenge, though one far more ethically-questionable than self-tying shoes and hover-boards. In reality, though, ILM’s creations are probably the closest we’ll ever get to seeing real dinosaurs, but it was this topic that led to the film being labelled as “science eventuality” rather than “science fiction” at the time, thus inviting more curiosity and accentuating the ever-appealing “what if” factor of the common sci-fi.

Science fiction or science fact?

However, it’s the film’s importance in cinema that cannot be overstated, having been the first one to use CGI in complex ways, bringing to life – or perhaps recreating – long-time extinct animals. Today, even the film’s animatronic dinosaurs remain no less impressive and frighteningly-real. And that’s just the flesh to the bones of Spielberg’s masterpiece. Not only does the film intelligently combine suspense and terror, along with humour and some of those charming Spielbergian undertones, it uses only 15 minutes of dinosaur screen-time to do so. The result is an atmosphere that’s both incomparable and as dense as the jungle from which the film’s scaly villains emerge.

Objects in picture are smaller than they appear

Perhaps, though, and beyond the fact that it’s actually a hybrid of not one, but two original concepts (a dinosaur-inhabited safari park and the genetics-based resurrection of dinosaurs) it’s the film’s true sense of wonder that rendered it an instant classic. Never before had audiences seen such convincing dinosaurs – or any animal, for that matter - onscreen, let alone been completely terrified by them at the same time.

Do you remember the first time you saw a dinosaur?

Its cast – then mostly unknown with the exception of late veteran actor Lord Richard Attenborough and the charisma-spewing Jeff Goldblum – were brilliant, and are now as iconic as the film’s prehistoric characters. But it was the talents of child actors Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello, who played siblings Lex and Tim Murphy, respectively, that helped make Jurassic Park a film that would terrify children the world over in the same way Spielberg’s Jaws terrified an entire generation of swimmers; immersing the younger audience members into the backseats of a car that’s under siege from a twenty-foot T.Rex during a thunderstorm, and onto the cold hard floor of a dark open kitchen where menacing raptors lurk.

The film's protagonist made quite the impact

Following Jurassic Park’s success, to no surprise it went on to spawn its own film series, with the fifth entry Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom due for release in June 2018. But its sequels never quite made the same impact, at least not critically. Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) - based on Crichton’s critically-acclaimed follow-up novel The Lost World - captured the atmosphere of the original, but failed, in part at least, to make audiences go “ooh” and “aah”, even when the running and screaming started. And its hugely-dissatisfying 2001 successor Jurassic Park III, directed by Joe Johnston, marked the beginning of a 14-year hiatus for the franchise, seemingly rendering it extinct at the time.

Jurassic Park III failed to impress

However, the long-awaited, nostalgia-powered Jurassic World, directed by Colin Trevorrow, breathed new life into the fossilised franchise and even hungrily devoured a meaty $1.6bn during its global cinematic rampage. Even if the film itself is arguably a clone of the original, Trevorrow had ingeniously rebranded the franchise, slapped it back on the same plastic lunchbox, and re-sold it. And while it’s unlikely this year’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will break new ground (although there is an earthquake in the film), it will no doubt make as big a dent in the box office as its predecessor. After all, the Jurassic Park brand – even if it’s now more commonly known as “Jurassic World” - is stronger than it’s ever been.

Jurassic World took a big bite out of the box office

The fact that a fifth film upon us, though, is remarkable. It seems only like yesterday that the original sent vibrations through pop drinks in theatres worldwide. But that’s because of its truly timeless storytelling and special effects that, even to date, show no signs of fossilisation. It also helps that its iconic characters and lines have been immortalised in countless forms of media and merchandise. So it’s fair to say that the life of Jurassic Park really did “find a way”, because no matter what catastrophes may come in the form of sequels, it will never go extinct.

Life finds a way

J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and will see the return of Jeff Goldblum. It hits theatres in the UK on June 6 and in the U.S. on June 22.