Steven Spielberg’s 1993 movie Jurᴀssic Park was groundbreaking, with its best characters remaining icons today. That said, the movie and its sequel, The Lost World, were based on books by Michael Crichton, and many of the Jurᴀssic Park and The Lost World book characters are extremely different from their movie counterparts. Michael Crichton’s Jurᴀssic Park was more of a science-fiction genre novel, leaning heavily into the chaos theory explanation, but the movie added several major action scenes. The Jurᴀssic Park movie’s most powerful dinosaurs were not always the same as in the books, and many characters changed significantly.

The original Jurᴀssic Park movie has aged surprisingly well, but while the book also holds up for today’s audiences, it is still a product of its time. While the female characters in the book tend to be further from the action, with fewer chances to use the skills they have, the Jurᴀssic Park movie has been hailed as a feminist work. There are also significant differences between The Lost World movie and the book, with the movie having more of an action-driven plot than the book, which focuses more on the dinosaurs and their habitat while altering major characters.

10

Dr. Henry Wu

The Jurᴀssic Park Book Shows Dr. Wu Suffering A Gory Fate

Dr. Henry Wu is the main genetic researcher and scientific mastermind behind Jurᴀssic Park. His personality is similar in both the book and the movie, which showed him enthusiastically explaining the DNA process to Dr. Alan Grant and the other guests. The central question in both the book and movie was over the ethics of genetic experimentation, and while Dr. Wu continues his life’s work throughout the Jurᴀssic Park movies, his fate is very different in the book.

Michael Crichton’s Jurᴀssic Park books serve as a cautionary tale about genetic engineering, and Dr. Wu’s fate is presented as a consequence of his actions. The Jurᴀssic Park book kills Dr. Wu while accompanying Dr. Arnold when he leaves the compound to try and get the power back on. When the Velociraptors break free, they chase Dr. Wu to the roof of the H๏τel, where they then gut him in the same way Dr. Grant described early in the movie, and they eat him alive.

9

Lex

Movie Lex Is Given A Skill That Saves The Group From Jurᴀssic Park

One of the biggest character changes that Steven Spielberg made to his Jurᴀssic Park adaptation was Lex. The Lex in Michael Crichton’s book was a frightened eight-year-old child who pronounced “animals” as “aminals” and often behaved in a way that was much younger than her chronological age. She is portrayed as whiny and immature, making her one of the least popular characters in the book, while Spielberg’s adaptation made her one of the most likable and competent characters in the movie.

Lex is around 12 years old in the Jurᴀssic Park movie, and a self-proclaimed hacker who would rather stay at home on her computer than look around the park. Lex is still afraid of the dinosaurs, but the movie shows her growing braver and eventually using her computer skills to take control of Jurᴀssic Park. Lex had a great deal of potential for later plotlines and one of the biggest missed opportunities in the Jurᴀssic Park movies was not bringing her back.

8

Lewis Dodgson

The Book’s Major Villain Is Given A Smaller Role In The Jurᴀssic Park Adaptations

The Jurᴀssic Park movies made some of the book’s characters much more prominent, while minimizing others. While Dennis Nedry is the more memorable villain in the movie (partly thanks to his horrific death,) Dodgson is one of the major antagonists in both the Jurᴀssic Park and The Lost World novels. In the movie, Lewis Dodgson plays a small role, tasking Dennis Nedry with retrieving the embryos on behalf of the villainous company BioSyn.

While Lewis Dodgson causes havoc in The Lost World novel by trying to kill Sarah and steal dinosaur eggs, he is completely absent from the movie. Instead, the action centers on the big game hunters and the company InGen rather than BioSyn. Dodgson returns to the Jurᴀssic Park franchise in Jurᴀssic World: Dominion as the CEO of BioSyn, and the movie provides some fan service by giving him a death similar to that of Dennis Nedry.

7

Ian Malcolm

Jurᴀssic Park’s Iconic Chaotician Looked Significantly Different In The Book

Of all the characters, Ian Malcolm had some of the best quotes in Jurᴀssic Park, and his character has become one of the most iconic in the franchise. Ian was the voice of reason throughout Jurᴀssic Park and never failed to find a moment to warn the other characters about the dangers of playing with genetic experimentation. His expertise in chaos theory and eccentric personality made him both memorable and quotable, but his book counterpart is very different.

In the novel, Ian Malcolm is a very different man, even down to his fashion sense. He wears all black in both the movies and books, but Ian resembles a rock star in the movies, while the book version of Ian explains that he only wears black and grey, saying “I believe my life has value, and I don’t want to waste it thinking about clothing.” He is described as a wiry, balding, and unattractive man, while the Jurᴀssic Park movie version of Ian is charismatic and attractive.

6

Tim

Tim Is The Computer Expert And Not Lex In The Jurᴀssic Park Book

Lex is not the only one of John Hammond’s grandchildren to drastically change between the book and the movie. In Michael Crichton’s Jurᴀssic Park, Tim is the older sibling, and he is more content to play on his computer, while Lex is the sporty sibling. The movie does not show either sibling as particularly sporty, but it swaps their ages and gives Tim’s major skill to Lex. The change in the siblings is one of the biggest that Spielberg made, and it paid off.

Tim is the dinosaur-obsessed younger sibling in the Jurᴀssic Park movie, and he has read Dr. Alan Grant’s book. Like Lex, Tim’s skills and knowledge come in useful during the movie when he is able to identify the dinosaurs quickly, even when none of the adult dinosaur experts are around. Lex and Tim’s dynamic is much friendlier in the movie, and the two play a large role in the story’s outcome, which is better than the Jurᴀssic Park novel’s controversial ending.

5

Robert Muldoon

Muldoon Had A Very Different Fate

The Jurᴀssic Park movie is less gory than it sounds, and there are only three major deaths that appear on camera. Even then, these are not fully shown. One of these is Robert Muldoon, the brave and militant warden of the park, who immediately tells the guests that the dinosaurs “should all be destroyed” within minutes of meeting them. Muldoon has extensive knowledge of big game hunting, but knows less about Velociraptors, which leads to his death.

While Muldoon’s “clever girl” line is one of the most iconic in the Jurᴀssic Park movies, his fate, being eaten by Velociraptors, is very different from the novel. Michael Crichton’s Jurᴀssic Park contains a twist that reflects the character’s bravery and quick thinking, Muldoon escapes from an entire pack of Velociraptors by hiding in a pipe that was out of reach. Muldoon survives in the Jurᴀssic Park novel, and leaves the island.

4

Dennis Nedry

The Character Was Much More Serious In The Book

Jurᴀssic Park is generally an action-adventure movie, though there are some moments in the franchise that cross the line into the horror genre. That said, the Jurᴀssic Park movies have their funny moments, and Dennis Nedry is often unintentionally hilarious. With his Hawaiian shirt and “fetch the stick” moment with a Dilophosaurus, he steals the scene every time he is on camera. This writing choice was made for the movie, as Dennis is much more serious in the book.

The Jurᴀssic Park book explores Dennis’s backstory, making him a much more sympathetic character with different motivations. Dennis is blackmailed by Dodgson in the book, rather than being motivated by greed, but both the book and movie versions share a similar fate. Both are killed by a Dilophosaurus, but the Jurᴀssic Park movie changed Dennis’s death slightly, with the movie implying that Dennis died horribly, while the book described his disembowelment in great detail.

3

John Hammond

Jurᴀssic Park’s Creator Was Much More Likable In The Movie

The Jurᴀssic Park movie made major changes to John Hammond, turning him from a sinister figure as he is in the books to a likable grandfather in the movie. The book’s version of John Hammond is much more calculating, and driven by profits rather than misplaced wonder and naivety. Hammond in Michael Crichton’s novel more closely resembles the movie’s lawyer, Donald Gennaro, and a scene from the book shows Hammond talking about how Jurᴀssic Park must be made “for children who can afford it.”

Jurᴀssic Park‘s John Hammond is different from the book, and serves a very important purpose for the story. Hammond has great ideals but very little practicality, and the character perfectly illustrates how even people with the best of intentions can have a key role in causing a catastrophe. As the movie made him into a much more pleasant character, he survived the story, while the book’s version of John Hammond had a very disturbing ending, being eaten alive by a pack of Compsognathus.

2

Donald Gennaro

The Movie Turns The Lawyer From A Moralistic Hero To A Sleazy Stereotype

One of the unintentional villains of the Jurᴀssic Park book was John Hammond, while Donald Gennaro was one of the voices of reason. Steven Spielberg’s Jurᴀssic Park changed Gennaro from a more well-rounded character into a sleazy lawyer stereotype. This change is one of the few criticisms that reviews tend to mention when comparing the book with the movie. Gennaro is a greedy and unpleasant person in the movie, and his undignified death involving a toilet is one of the movie’s funnier scenes.

In the book, Gennaro is tasked with investigating Jurᴀssic Park’s potential financial success, but he goes against the orders of his superiors when he realises the danger that the park will pose. Rather than prioritizing his job and instructions, he sets about trying to rein John Hammond in, and make the park a safer place. The Gennaro in the movie abandons Lex and Tim, leaving viewers with little room for sympathy when he dies, while the books version survives the island.

1

The Velociraptors

The Book’s Velociraptors Are Modeled After A Different Dinosaur

Though Velociraptors are described as hunting in packs, only three are seen onscreen in Jurᴀssic Park, which includes the nail-biting kitchen scene where two stalk Lex and Tim. This is explained by Muldoon, who says that one of them killed all but two of the others. This goes against Dr. Grant’s original speech about Velociraptors, but illustrates how little the characters know about the behavior of the genetically-engineered dinosaurs in Jurᴀssic Park.

It appears that Jurᴀssic World: Rebirth will get more accurate Velociraptors, but even Michael Crichton’s novel does not describe them accurately. This is because Crichton took inspiration from the Deinonychus when he wrote his groundbreaking novel, rather than Velociraptors. Still, the Velociraptors in the Jursᴀssic Park novel also behave differently from the ones in the movie, flocking like birds and preparing to migrate, which is a different and much more ominous ending than the film’s optimistic final scene.