Jurassic Park is a classic, beloved movie and blockbuster franchise . Many people know that it’s based on the novels by Michael Crichton. Some are even aware of the differences between the two versions—we’ve had plenty of time to read the books, after all. We could spend all day listing the differences, but instead we’re just going to focus on a few key details of the novels that weren’t brought over to the movie versions.
Dr. Martin Gutierrez
Dr. Gutierrez actually appeared in both Jurassic Park novels, so it is slightly odd that he didn’t make it into the movie (or any of the other movies, for that matter). His role was small but relatively important.
He’s the doctor that was called in early, when a little girl was injured due to escaped dinosaurs. Without him, it’s unlikely that they would have identified the dinosaurs that escaped (or at least, not as quickly as they did).
Many Dinosaurs Left Out
We can all agree that there were a ton of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, yes? Some of the dinosaurs shown didn’t make much sense when grouped together, but we’ll chock it up to artistic license. Still, did you know that not all of the dinosaurs mentioned in the books made it into the movie?
Apatosaurus, Microceratops, Othnielia, Styracosaurus. Euoplocephalus, Hypsilophodon, and Maisaura are all dinosaurs that played a part in the novels, yet all were either not present or replaced with other dinosaurs when it came time for the film adaptation.
The Pterosaur Enclosure
If you’ve seen Jurassic Park III, then you’re well aware of the Pterosaur enclosure. This enclosure (and the drama involved with its presence) was all actually part of the original novel. They even went so far as to film some of these scenes for the movie, but ultimately scrapped them.
One of the things that made this enclosure so terrifying was the risk of escape —these guys could easily get off the island and become a danger to the locals. Considering this was an undertone of the entire novel, it made complete sense to have them here. But that whole element was more or less dropped in the movies, and thus this scene was less of a concern.
The Toxicity of Dinosaur Bites
One thing the movie didn’t really show us was just how toxic dinosaur bites were. Then again, any character that got bitten by a dinosaur died during said attack, so there weren’t exactly many opportunities to show this.
In the novel, more than one person survived being attacked, only to later succumb to their wounds. Said wounds were described as having a white viscous fluid, implying the secondary risks involved with such a bite.
Dino Escape Artists
As mentioned above, one of the themes for the novel was the concern of dinosaurs getting off the island. One of the first scenes in the book actually proved that this was happening —the scene shown at the beginning of Jurassic Park: The Lost World actually came directly from the novel.
For reasons not fully explained in the novels, the dinosaurs were successfully breaking free from the island and finding new homes. These included several different species, but most concerning was the potential escape of the raptors.
Wu and Hammond’s Backstory
In the novel, Wu and Hammond had much larger backstories. They actually worked quite hard to get to the point they were at, with Wu working on creating many of the processes that made the park possible. Much of this credit was taken away in the films however, and given to a mysterious “them”, or past researchers. Not exactly fair, is it?
Meanwhile, Hammond was a visionary, sure, but he was also a very different person than the movie portrayed. Here he was every part the cutthroat businessman you’d expect to see running this venture.
Dr. Harding and the Veterinary Branch
One of the characters that had an extremely reduced presence was Dr. Harding. He was the leading veterinarian on the island, capable of caring for all of the dinosaurs, and when needed, the injured humans (to the best of his abilities, that is).
In the movie, Dr. Harding is represented as a technician baffled by a sick dinosaur, not even going so far as to investigate the basics that Dr. Sattler suggested. But in the novels, he spearheaded the entire division. His daughter Sarah Harding was later seen in the movies.
Intense Population Tracking
One of the things the movie seemed to cut back on was the way the dinosaurs were tracked. Obviously, there were some issues with their methods, but on the whole they did their best. They picked up on the increase in dinosaur numbers very early on – well before our dear paleontologist found a nest, certainly.
The real problem with the population increase is that it masked the numbers of the dinosaurs escaping. It became impossible for them to guess at how many dinosaurs had vacated – not without seeing the nests themselves (assuming they were perfectly preserved).
Camouflage Raptors?
Did you know that one of the raptors on the island showed a very unique— and concerning—trait? This raptor showed the ability to alter their coloration, thus effectively having a mild form of camouflage. This whole scene came about while Dr. Sattler was trying to help get the power back on. And while this may not have been quite as iconic as “clever girl” ended up being, it was close.
This may have been a minor point, relatively speaking…though one can argue that it influenced the newest set of movies.
Dino Babies
Obviously, everyone knows that life…uh…found a way. There were babies on the island. But the novel included several intentional babies that didn’t make it into the movies. Most notably, there was a T-Rex baby on the island.
And it might be tempting to assume that the baby would be less of a threat than the adult version, but that would be a fatal mistake to make—as a few of the characters in the novel found out. The baby ended up being an entire subplot and threat in itself, which is fairly impressive.
