Joy H. Books

It’s the stuff of legends, the interest of excited schoolchildren, the fascination of scientists around the world, the subject that’s caught a global collective imagination.

It’s dinosaurs.

Of course, for most people, dinosaurs remain forever in the pages of textbooks or as bones strung into standing skeletons at national museums. For John Hammond, however, dinosaurs were real. Like . . . VERY real. The Scottish businessman had always dreamed of awing children and parents alike with attractions that upturned expectations and sparked an interest in the world. Before, it was small-time novelties. Now, with the help of gene science, it was the real stuff.

Real dinosaurs.

Of course, the park had its detractors. A pesky lawyer was buzzing around like the proverbial mosquito, trying to report back to investors if the live-dino park was safe. To help in his mission, the lawyer recruited a paleontologist, a paleo-botanist, and a chaos-theory expert. The three newbies (Alan, Ellie, and Malcolm, respectively) didn’t know the secret of Jurassic Park, that the dinosaurs were alive. They didn’t know that there were thousand pound, previously-extinct, might-have-an-ax-to-grind, very-toothy behemoths chilling behind zoo enclosures. They didn’t know about the infamous, hyperintelligent velociraptors . . . or the T-Rex.

They didn’t know, that is, until they climbed into a Jeep and got a tour of the dinosaur-theme park-island.

What could possibly go wrong?

Chaotic Origins

The first drive through of Jurassic Park is surprisingly safe. Alan, Ellie, and Malcom get out and look around at the plant-eating dinos. The T-Rex doesn’t show up for viewing, and everyone makes it back for dinner in one piece. John Hammond’s set up a nice dinner to woo and wow the guests.

That’s when things get volatile, though.

The lawyer, for one, is thrilled at the money-making opportunity Jurassic Park presents. He’s practically dialing his investors with news of potential riches before they get through the main course. Malcom, on the other hand, is aghast with horror. As a chaotician, he can’t fathom how prideful Hammond and Co. must be to assume genetically-modified dinosaurs won’t be a catastrophic problem. “Life finds a way,” Malcom explains grimly. Whatever safety systems Hammond has in place, the dinosaurs are sure to break through eventually–and when they do, it will be unpredictable. With the power of science and dollar signs on their side, humans played with the natural order of the Earth.

Malcolm delivers the condemnation with serious earnest. The normally sarcastic man is not messing around–as someone who made a whole career out of studying chaos, nothing says chaos like killer dinos locked behind electric fences on an isolated island.

John Hammond is nonplussed, still confident in his creation. And Alan and Ellie, the other guests? Ellie’s beginning to share concerns with Malcom. Alan, though, is more overwhelmed by Hammond’s young grandchildren, who have joined the expedition for a fun-filled weekend. While Alan can rattle on about prehistoric sauropods, he’s notoriously bad with children. He doesn’t know how to handle them, and he’s not so sure he’d ever be a good father. It’s a serious dilemma that might lead to the extinction of his and Ellie’s budding relationship.

Basically, all-in-all, the first day on Jurassic Park can be described by chaos. There’s people-eating monsters behind flimsy enclosures, ill-equipped scientists thrown together with grandchildren and a greedy lawyer, and . . . oh yeah. Add in that one of John Hammond’s employees is about to go rogue to make a quick buck. It’s an action that might trip the safety system on the island and punch out the power grid. Just a little chaos.

And it’s only the beginning.

Jeeps, Jell-0, and family bonds

Jurassic Park was the start of a beloved film franchise known for its thrills, nostalgia, and impressive dinosaur graphics. Directed by Stephen Spielberg, the movie was a (pre)historic success, winning 3 Oscars and generating 6 sequels to date.

While it’s most famous for its scenes of hungry velociraptors, terrifying pterodactyls, and T-Rexes rampaging through amusement parks (often eating bad guys and arrogant wealthy crooks in the process), Jurassic Park packs some surprisingly meaningful lessons beneath it’s toothy, amber-coated veneer.

Across all seven films, the Jurassic Park franchise offers up stories of family. In the first iteration, Alan learns that a father-like figure would do anything to protect his children. Later sequels touch on themes of being a present father, sacrificing for loved ones, supporting a sibling, protecting innocent lives, and finding a chance at redemption. For a story mostly about dinosaurs who escape and eat people, Jurassic Park often drills down to the real stuff in life that matters.

After all, being chased by a 20 ft. T-Rex tends to put things in perspective.

Jurassic Appetite

Jurassic Park has another meaningful message to share–and it’s the same one that Malcolm was trying to tell everyone about before the dinos (predictably) got out. It’s a message not only about greed and a hunger for power (although the film has plenty to say about THAT). One thing that Jurassic Park reminds us well is that nature has a beautiful order.

Past dino-eat-dino philosophies, the team sees beauty in the world. There’s behemoths that inspire awe, balance within the ecosystem, and blessings that appear in the form of creativity, innovation, and family bonds. The Earth as God intended it is a pretty awesome place–because He made it that way. Sadly, sin’s effects are potent. Families are torn apart, animals (and people) harm one another, and the natural order is sometimes thrown off-balance. Still, vestiges of the Garden-like way the world is supposed to run can be seen peaking through the jungle foliage of the present. When we work in harmony and care for the people and creation around us, it’s a cool way to worship Jesus and enjoy a reflection of the way the world’s supposed to be.

You don’t have to walk barefoot on the grass (although that’s always pretty fun) but there are so many other ways that humans are designed to care for and enjoy and work with the Earth around us.

And, as you may have guessed—genetically modifying dinosaurs and unleashing them as amusement park attractions isn’t the best way to go about that. What may have started as a creative scientific venture quickly devolved into greed and a “if we can, we should” mentality. While we may not have pterosaurs and T-Rexes roaming our city streets today, we certainly have a penchant for Hammond-esque tech.

From virtual reality and AI chatbot friends to smart-eyewear and instant movie streaming, people have jumped into some unnatural, brain-changing tech before you can say, “Micropachycephalosaurus.” (Yup, that’s a real dinosaur). And while VR and AI and what-have-you aren’t all bad and do have good applications, our glib acceptance of it as humanity can be dino-level dangerous.

A good question to ask oneself before plunging into the tropical jungle of new trends is: “Does this go against the grain of how God meant us to live, or with it?” Is it too unnatural to play with? Is it actually going to honor the way that God meant life to be lived?

As Malcolm tells John Hammond: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

So maybe the lesson of Jurassic Park is to stop and think.

Conclusion

Family bonds, nature’s beauty, and looking-before-you-leap . . . who knew that a movie about survival could touch just as much on thriving? That’s the end game of the Jurassic Park film series, and a lesson that many characters learn and talk about. It’s not just about going through the motions and coming out through life simply “uneaten.” Sometimes it takes a big event (or a big dinosaur) to shake awake someone and make them question: what does living really look like? What does Jesus say it looks like?

So the once-extinct dinosaurs brought back with them a story of survival, hope, and remembering the important stuff. Pretty deep lessons for a film whose primary running time focuses on velociraptors hunting down park guests.

But it’s an important and hope-filled truth about life: we were meant to live fully in the kind of life that God designed for people. No Jeep or amber-mosquito required. 🦕

Credits

Title image: from Microsoft, edited in Canva

Quotes from Spielberg, S. (Director). (1997). Jurassic Park. [Film]. Universal Pictures.