Someone is posting the first draft of the Jurassic Park script on Facebook! — Page 2

Wha?
I don’t have time because I have a job and responsibilities and showers to take and clothes to wash.
Not because I’m busy with twitter, complaining and smelling bad!

We all know Millennials can’t do dishes because eating cereal is too hard anyway.

And no problem, Ray! It’ll probably be better to sit down and read them all in one go, but there was no way I was just going to let this go unarchived.

40-43

Nedry’s Delimma, the Anne B, a no-show Rex, and we move on towards the stegosaurus as the storm builds.

Looks like the sick animal will be a stego again, like the book, considering we passed the triceratops already. I’m wondering if Harding has become Muldoon this time?

I also realized that we had no scene establishing Nedry’s relationship with BioSyn in this draft, unlike both the book and the film. Crazy! I see how it makes sense to preserve the reveal, but I prefer knowing about it. There’s something about Jurassic Park where you understand how Malcolm’s Chaos Theory predicts the collapse of the park (and a lot of this is delivered on the pages as you see the iterations become more complex).

Wow. Things got so nuts here that I almost forgot this before bed.

44-47

We meet the sick stego, and more importantly, Muldoon! He does replace Dr. Harding in this, which makes me sad because he’s actually connected to The Lost World: Jurassic Park (through his daughter Sarah). Also, Nedry begins his plan as Grant and Malcolm voice their suspicions.

48-51

Nedry enacts his plan. Ahh modems. Back when you couldn’t use the internet and make a call at the same time. That ruse would never work these days. We see a bit more character development (Wu has a larger role here) and the assembling of the lobby skeletons. We get to see Chekhov’s (or in this case, Muldoon’s) Gun, too.

There’s also a lot more detail on Nedry’s plans and the origin of the issue for the mainland. I won’t spoil that though, suffice to say it’s very different!

The rest stop is an odd idea. Kinda slows the movie down.

Needless to say, I’m excited to see how the plot differences play out! Things are about to get spicy now.

52-55

Animals. On the boat.

darth_ender said:

Tyrphanax said:

40-43

Nedry’s Delimma, the Anne B, a no-show Rex, and we move on towards the stegosaurus as the storm builds.

Looks like the sick animal will be a stego again, like the book, considering we passed the triceratops already. I’m wondering if Harding has become Muldoon this time?

I also realized that we had no scene establishing Nedry’s relationship with BioSyn in this draft, unlike both the book and the film. Crazy! I see how it makes sense to preserve the reveal, but I prefer knowing about it. There’s something about Jurassic Park where you understand how Malcolm’s Chaos Theory predicts the collapse of the park (and a lot of this is delivered on the pages as you see the iterations become more complex).

Read the book for the fifth time last summer (the first time since high school though), so it’s still pretty fresh in my head. As I recall, the BioSyn scene never actually states that Dodgson is meeting with Nedry. He’s just meeting with an unnamed man. Crichton may have described his physique, but we never surely make the connection till he implements his plans. Since Crichton wrote the first draft of the screenplay, I’m sure he was still trying to keep this reveal as best as one can in the film medium. I agree though, the final film version is better. It’s still a bit of a surprise in the movie when Hammond asks if Nedry had butterfingers and the same guy who met with Dodgson turns around in the swivel chair. Better reveal for a movie.

Yeah I think you’re right about the book.

Uploading the next batch now!

56-59

Tyrannosaur.

The reveal is honestly a bit anticlimatic here, I feel like the goat bit in the movie really adds to it, as does the slower buildup. Regis is also a bit anticlimatic in the draft, the book was much more interesting. It’s interesting to see Crichton continually referring to the Rex as “he”, as well.

Malcolm visits the restroom. Tim climbs a tree.

The Hammond scene is a bit silly. I prefer his talks with Wu in the bungalow (which is a word that will forever instantly bring up memories of the book).

Arnold and Wu realize the gravity of the situation.

I know you’re all following this thread religiously, but it seems that my source has failed to update their page with today’s batch.

Just as things were starting to get exciting in the story, too.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring more!

Love you, Frink.

darth_ender said:

Tyrphanax said:

56-59

Tyrannosaur.

The reveal is honestly a bit anticlimatic here, I feel like the goat bit in the movie really adds to it, as does the slower buildup. Regis is also a bit anticlimatic in the draft, the book was much more interesting. It’s interesting to see Crichton continually referring to the Rex as “he”, as well.

Again I’m pretty sure Wu even acknowledged they do that in spite of the fact that all the dinosaurs are female in the scene where he describes how they ensure that they are female. Maybe it was Regis who describes it. Can’t remember. Anyway, sounds like chrichton really wanted to follow his book as closely as possible.

Yeah, Wu (I’m pretty sure it’s Wu) mentions that even though they’re all female that they tend to refer to certain dinosaurs (like the Rex) as “he”. I just found it interesting that Crichton did that himself while writing the script.

60-67

Many pages! Lots of action!

The Rex breaks things, Nedry gets his (less graphically and more quickly), Grant and the kids run a lot, Muldoon, Ellie, and Gennaro pick up the pieces, while Malcolm tells everyone about the boat and we’re about to learn why everything went to hell.

It’s interesting that everyone’s learned about the boat already. In the book, there’s a race against time for Grant and the kids to get back to the control room to tell everyone before the boat lands. I feel like the script is going to take it in the direction that everyone is too stubborn to believe that it’s happening. I guess the trick here is that the boat has the DNA and nobody knows about it yet. I’m interesting to see what happens with the first batch that Nedry got off the island already, that’s a really interesting plot point.

The Rex chasing Grant and the kids is a new thing, and it’s interesting but I feel like it’s a bit unrealistic, and I feel like the jeep chase from the film is much more exciting. I also enjoyed the book’s cruel description of Nedry’s demise much better, as he really deserved it for being scummy. At least the dilophasaurus is the right size and doesn’t have the goofy frill.

Maybe you can convince Superman to wear it then since you love them so much!

Let down at the source again tonight, guys. Sorry!

Edit: Spoke too soon!

68-71

292 animals. Things are getting real now! Everything’s falling apart!

This scene in the book is one of my favourites aside from the part where they start getting it all back together and then… well, book people know. I’m a bit sad that they didn’t take some time to talk a bit more about the tracking system and how it worked before the tour.

Tyrphanax said:

Maybe you can convince Superman to wear it then since you love them so much!

Let down at the source again tonight, guys. Sorry!

Edit: Spoke too soon!

68-71

292 animals. Things are getting real now! Everything’s falling apart!

This scene in the book is one of my favourites aside from the part where they start getting it all back together and then… well, book people know. I’m a bit sad that they didn’t take some time to talk a bit more about the tracking system and how it worked before the tour.

It’s a nice way to show the dinos breeding but it seems odd that the designers of the park didn’t know that there was a set limit for the tracker. I mean every time they bred a new animal and set it free, SOMEone would have to update the number…

Well they did know there was a set number, that’s how it was designed, it’s just that they didn’t ever think to check for more than their maximum number because they didn’t think that there was any reason to until they added another animal to the park, in which case they’d update the “maximum expected animals” number and everything would be okay. If I recall correctly, there was a system to alert them if the tracker reported for a number lower than expected, but never higher than expected, because they didn’t think it was possible. That’s why I wish they explained it more in the script here, because the book makes their hubris more obvious.

It’s one of the many oversights that led to the downfall of the park, as we’ll see.

I should have been more clear: why is it Malcom that comes up with the idea to increase the number? How does he know this and not the people who set up the park? Seemed a bit… Odd.

I think he just realized that since the computer was looking for 238 animals but wasn’t finding Grant and the kids that it must only be looking for 238 animals.

This happens much later in the book because all of those systems are down until Grant actually makes it back to the lodge with the kids.

72-75

Grant and the kids feeding the herbivores. We get to see a cameo by Ralph the Triceratops and a raptor nest, and we move on to the lagoon, one of my favourite scenes in the book. The whole river chase is amazing, in my mind.

Almost forgot!

76-79

This is the continuation of one of my favourite parts of the book, and our first taste of the Muldoon/Gennaro Dream Team! The discovery of Nedry is a bit more humourous here than in the book, which is alright with me, but (so far) the river ride is almost verbatim from the book. Ellie digging deeper into the stegosaurus affliction is different than the book and the film, but interesting as well. We end just as the Rex feels the dart, another great scene from the book!

I definitely want to pick the book up again now. I usually re-read it once a year, because Jurassic Park had a very large role in my formative years and thus holds a very special place in my heart. Plus it’s a great book!