Jurassic Park: A Reflection on Dreams and Nightmares

I was in the second grade when Jurassic Park (1993) was released, and like most second graders, I LOVED DINOSAURS! Rawr. I couldn't wait to see the movie, and the previews showing the most realistic depictions of dinosauras I've ever seen tantalized my young mind.

REMEMBER, this is what dinosaurs used to look like in the 90's:

So when I saw Dinosaurs that looked like this for the first time, my jaw dropped through the floor.

It was a dream come true, which curiously, is also a predominant theme of the movie. Dr. Alan Grant spends his entire life studying these dead beasts, Richard Hammond made it his life's work to bring back extinct species, and the "blood-sucking lawyer" always wanted to be rich. For a time, these three main characters all felt their dreams were coming true.

However, as the cynical Ian Malcom puts it, "Life uh finds a way," and their dreams quickly transform to nightmares as the greedy Dennis Nedry shuts down power to all the fences. Dennis Nedry is approached by a competing genetics company to steal dinosaur embryos, and Dennis Nedry's failed attempt proves disasterous for every one on the island.

It's fascinating how some movies will leave an impression with you, but then some moves really leave a mark and touch the core of your being. This movie touched me deeper than any movie, and I've spent a lot of time reflecting on it. Certainly dinosaurs being cool was part of the appeal, but I've come to the conclusion that it is really much, much deeper.

It's so easy to get your hopes up sky high, only to have them dashed by the cruel nature of reality. Many new crypto adopters who started in 2021 during the last bull run can certainly relate to this, but in 1993, I was going through a lot more. In a sense, Jurassic Park helped me through my parents' divorce, the death of my dog, buddy, and temporarily being taken away by Child Protective Services.

When the children looked with unbridled joy at the dilophosaur exhibit expecting to see their first dinosaurs to the point where Ian Malcom tapped on the camera, and sarcastically asked if there would be any dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour ride, the theme of unrealized expectations resonated with me. I think in some sense, this is the sort of theme that everyone can relate to on some level.

Then as the horror unleashed by Dennis Nedry's selfish actions takes hold of the park, disappointment becomes terror as the cast enters a life and death struggle to get off the island.

Some movies inspire, and some movies change you in ways you never thought a piece of cinema could. For me, no movie even comes close to the level that Jurassic Park had on my young psyche, as I processed the pain I experienced at that young, young age when Dinosaurs still inspired only joy. I experienced pain I thought I would never recover from, but, in the words of Ian malcom, "Life, uh, Life finds a way." 😃