Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park  

Screenplay by                     David Koepp

                                     Michael Crichton

                                     Malia Scotch Marmo

Produced by                       Kathleen Kennedy

                                     Gerald R. Molen

Directed by                        Steven Spielberg

Cast List:

Sam Neill                        Dr. Alan Grant

Laura Dern                      Dr. Ellie Settler

Jeff Goldblum                  Ian Malcolm

Richard Attenborough                 Dr. John Hammond

Bob Peck                         Robert Muldoon

B.D. Wong                       Dr. Wu

Joseph Mazello                         Tim

Ariana Richards                        Lex

Samuel L. Jackson            Arnold

FADE IN:

EXTREME CLOSEUP

Of glowing honey-colored stones. Their shapes ABSTRACT as THE CAMERA EXAMINES air bubbles and crystalline patterns.

MOVING UP AND OVER this amber abstraction, the CAMERA FINDS unusual shapes and imperfections caught in the glassy stone: flecks of dirt, hairs, cracks. STILL MOVING. STARBURSTS OF LIGHT ricochet off the different surfaces of the stones.

CAMERA TURNS along a creamy stretch of amber. IT TURNS IN DEEPER, abstracting the picture further only to find a TINY BLUR that suddenly RACKS INTO FOCUS – a bug, a mosquito lodged within an amber tomb. It is folded on its back.

SLOW MOTION as the tip of a fine-pointed drill bores into the amber toward the trapped bug. Orange flecks fly. The mosquito trembles. The drill continues, stopping just before it touches the tiny body.

A SHINY PAIR of thin needle-nose pliers reach in the borehole and extricate the mosquito remains. These are dropped on a brightly lit glass slide. A conveyor belt starts, and the slide moves along. arriving under a long-lensed microscope.

IN MICROSCOPIC PERSPECTIVE, a thin needle pierces the bug and delicately removes a fragment of tissue.

PINCERS snare the fragment, dropping it into a narrow tube. The tube SPINS, faster and faster until it is a BLUR on the screen.

THE SCREEN FLOODS with an INFRA-RED LIGHT. Gray, oval shapes rock in a neutral mist.

WASH OUT TO:

HOT SUN

Overhead in a BIG SKY –

EXT. BADLANDS – AFTERNOON

Lodged in the cracked earth are the partially-exposed fossilized remains of a VELOCIRAPTER, a carnivorous dinosaur. WIDEN OUT to a SWEEPING PANORAMA of a dinosaur dig, a major excavation filled with workers shoveling earth and stone, making measurements, taking photographs, scribbling notes, and conferring with each other.

The center of all this activity is one man. In a roped-off area that circumscribes the exposed bones of the raptor, is DR. ALAN GRANT, head paleontologist. Good-looking, late 30's, with a think beard.

Grant lies on his belly, completely absorbed in a small piece of bone. A GROUP OF TWELVE STUDENTS, notebooks in hand, await his next sentence.

CLOSE ON – The tiny bone. Grant's nose touches it.

Grant brushes the bone with a toothbrush. Then he decides on a quicker way to clean it. He licks it. Excited by his discovery, he gets to his feet and addresses his students, who listen raptly.

GRANT

Right calcaneus of an adult female raptor. Mild stress fractures. What's this tell me?

Students look at each other. A tentative hand. Grant continues.

GRANT

It tells me that this bone connects to the navicula which we already found articulating to the cuboid.

OFF SCREEN, a woman SHOUTS to him.

ELLIE

(off)

Dr. Grant! Dr. Grant!

Grant looks up.

DR. ELLIE SATTLER, late 20's, sharp-eyed, tough if she wants to be, runs like a gazelle across the arid land. Exuberant, she leaves a trail of dust behind her.

She zips by a STUDENT guarding the cordoned area. He tries to stop her.

STUDENT
Dr. Sattler! Dr. Grant is thinking!

Dr. Grant waves her over enthusiastically with his bone and continues.

GRANT

So, what can we stay for sure? Stress fractures in the heel...

Uncertain students. Ellie arrives and immediately gets into it.

ELLIE

She jumps.

Grant turns around to her and smiles. She's got it. Other students to – they knew is all along.

GRANT

Right as rain, Ellie. Now, why did she jump?

No answer. Ellie gives it a try.

ELLIE

A defensive posture against a vicious, blood-thirsty T-Rex?

GRANT

(nodding)

Perhaps. Or maybe to select the smaller, more tender leaves in the higher branches with which to suckle her young?

Ellie jumps up.

ELLIE

I bet is was a mating ritual.

Students laugh. One student eyes Grant's self-conscious smile at Ellie.

GRANT

The science of paleontology can't answer these questions. Novelists and artists who dream a vision of the Jurassic period can attempt these questions with their imaginations. What we scientists can say is considering the mass and kinetic articulation of these bones, this animal had a vertical leap of about twelve feet. Not as entertaining as fiction, but absolutely fact without prejudice.

Ellie intrudes again.

ELLIE

Excuse me, Dr. Grant. But... fact is, we're late. There's the car.

She points. On the horizon, a limousine speeds toward them, leaving a dusty wake.

Grant sets the rules for his departure, giving instructions individually as Ellie pulls him away, carrying their bags.

GRANT

Jim, you keep making up the plaster batches. Whatever ratio you're using, it's perfect. Nora, no digging after five – when the temperature drops, those bones are just too brittle. Bill, I don't want any tourists walking over my raptor – I don't care if the Governor of Montana is with them, just you guys.

Grant and Ellie continue walking. She interrupts his continued barrage.

ELLIE

You know, if every scientist stuck to his method like you, there would be no body of theory – no quasars, no big bang –

Grant stops at the sight of the stopped limo and freezes.

GRANT

Jesus, a limousine. We're re-entering Hammond's world, that's for sure.

(beat)

Remind me why we're doing this, Ellie.

Ellie is gentle. She's telling him something they've discussed before.

ELLIE

We're leaving the raptor dig –

GRANT

– at a critical time –

ELLIE

– because Gennaro is paying us sixty thousand dollars to observe some resort of Hammond's in Costa Rica. And that's –

GRANT

– enough money to keep us free of commercial affiliations for two summers. All right, all right. Good.

Then, half-kidding with Ellie:

GRANT

Financial independence for fraternizing with the enemy?

(beat)

I'll do it.

She laughs. But he can't quite leave. He grabs a computer printout

GRANT

This is all could come up with, Skip?

Skip turns the printout right-side up in Grant's hand. Grant smiles.

GRANT

Wise guy. Let's go, Ellie.

Grant and Ellie board the limo amidst many good-byes from the students. The limo pulls away.

EXT. HIGH TECH BUILDING – BIOGENETIC CORPORATION HQ – SUNSET

A purple sunset irradiates the exterior glass walls of the building.

INT. BIOGEN HQ

A peanut flies in the air. Then falls into a big open mouth. THOMP.

MOUTH

Five hundred thousand is peanuts!

He tosses another peanut and misses his open mouth. This is DENNIS NEDRY, a 40 year old computer programmer. He's fat, with greasy hair and a permanently wrinkled suit. His slovenly looks are wildly out of place on the rich leather sofa where he reclines.

Across a gleaming granite coffee table is BILL BAKER, businessman. A smooth meticulous dresser, Baker is disgusted by Nedry's sloppy appearance and voracious consumption of food and drink.

Nedry finishes a coke. Over his shoulder is an impressive skyline view.

NEDRY

I'm not reneging. I'm re-evaluating.

Nedry holds the can of coke upside-down, drains the last drops.

NEDRY

You think I'm a scumbag, I know.

Nedry chuckles, lines up three peanuts on the table. One after the other, he throws them in the air. He gulps down two, misses one. It skids across the glossy floor.

Baker's head involuntarily cocks as he looks disgustedly at Nedry.

NEDRY

Look pal, you make a career in biogenetic industrial espionage, and you're bound to run across a scumbag or two. Guaranteed! Part of the job description. Look, who's to say, who is the real scumbag? After all, I know what you guys need so bad. I've heard of reverse engineering.

As Nedry continues he shovels nuts into his mouth and CHOMPS and SPEAKS.

NEDRY

Let the other guy put in all the work, all the R and D. You take the finished product, work backwards, breaking it down to reveal its genetic code. Presto! In a few measly months you have know-how that took researchers ten years to determine. You know how much Hammond has invested of his own personal wealth? Over five billion dollars! And if you guys get the jump on his – in no time, the market's wide-open.