Prologue Summary
The Bite of the Raptor
As the tropical rain falls in the village of Bahìa Anasco on the west coast of Costa Rica, Roberta Carter sighs and watches from the clinic window. She came here to spend two months as a visiting physician and expected to find sun and some relaxation after spending two years in an emergency medicine residency at Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital. Instead, it has rained every day of the three weeks she has been here.
Costa Rica has one of the most advanced medical systems in the world and the clinic is clean and well supplied. Manuel Aragòn, her paramedic, is intelligent and well trained, so the level of medicine she practices here is the same as in Chicago. They hear a helicopter hovering above the clinic, looking for a place to land. The chopper belongs to InGen, the construction company which is building a resort on an island more than a hundred miles offshore. Once it lands on the beach, two black crewmen carry a stretcher and a red-headed white man in a yellow raincoat and red Mets cap accompanies it. He introduces himself as Ed Regis and says the man on the stretcher is very sick. Carter suggests they fly another twenty minutes to San Jose, the capital city, but they cannot fly over the mountains because of the weather.
The patient is an eighteen-year-old-boy with a gaping slash on both his shoulder and his leg. He is unconscious, and Regis believes the boy will probably die. His wounds suggest that the boy was somehow mauled, as his shoulder and leg are both ripped open to the bone. When asked about it, Regis says he did not see the accident but was told a backhoe ran over the boy. Back in Chicago, Carter saw a child who had been attacked by a rottweiler and a circus performer who was attacked by a Bengal tiger. Animal attacks have a distinctive look, and that is what she sees in this boy’s wounds. When she says so, Regis is nervous and edgy, insisting it was a construction injury.
A closer examination reveals no dirt in the wounds, just an unusual froth which seems like saliva and a rotten stench, the smell of “death and decay.” Regis leaves and Aragòn refuses to help after the boy sits up and repeats the word raptor. The natives are superstitious about hupia, vampire-like ghosts who kill children at night.
The boy’s hands are covered with cuts and scratches, typical of defensive wounds, and Carter takes pictures. Suddenly the boy sits up, vomits blood several times, and goes into convulsions before dying. When Aragòn calls him, Regis quickly reenters the room. He says he is sure Carter did all she could and then takes the boy and leaves immediately in the helicopter. Later, Carter realizes her camera is gone and, curious, she looks up the word raptor. It is a bird of prey.
First Iteration: Almost Paradise Summary
In Dallas, thirty-year-old Ellen Bowman convinces her husband to take their daughter, eight-year-old Christina, to Costa Rica. Her husband Mike, a real estate developer, eventually agrees to go for a two-week vacation. Once they arrive, however, Ellen reveals her true motivation to come to the tropical nation: the cheap plastic surgery in luxurious private clinics. This deceit infuriates Mike; he refuses to comply with her wishes. The couple has a significant fight over the matter.
Mike drives a Land Rover through the Cabo Blanco Biological Reserve, admiring the gorgeous views of the Pacific from the road at the top of a cliff....
(This entire section contains 487 words.)
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It seems as if perhaps his vacation has finally begun. Both Ellen and Tina wonder if they are on the right road, but Mike assures them this is the way to the secluded beach they want to find, though they have not seen another vehicle in fifteen minutes.
As the Land Rover descends, a “small, black shape” flashes across the road and into the jungle. From the back seat, Tina shrieks and her mother wonders if it was perhaps a squirrel monkey, different from the howler monkeys that are common in the area. Tina wants to add it to the list of animals she has seen on her trip, but Mike is not certain that is what they saw. The book Tina has says they are likely to find howler and white-faced monkeys, three-toed sloths, and coatimundis near Cabo Blanco’s beaches.
When they arrive at the beach, there is no one anywhere within miles. Tina starts to run on the beach and Ellen worries about snakes. Bowman assures her that reptiles cannot control their body temperatures and snakes would therefore “be cooked” in the ninety-degree sand.
The girl runs until she has to stop and then sits; the water is warm and the waves are gentle. She sees her mother waving at her to come back, but she does not want to return. Her mother continues calling her, but soon Tina moves back up the beach into the shade of the palm trees where she sees many bird tracks. Costa Rica is famous for its birds, and the country has three times as many as Canada and the Americas, despite its small size.
She hears a rustling behind her and soon a lizard appears, standing about a foot tall on its hind legs, balancing with its thick tail. It leaves three-toed footprints like a bird, has a long, skinny neck, and chirps as it walks toward Tina. The girl assumes it is tame because it is protected in the park, and she holds out her hand to the creature. It immediately jumps onto her hand, pinching her palm with its feet and pressing her arm down with its weight. Suddenly it climbs up her arm and toward her face.
As they search for their daughter, the Bowmans suddenly hear Tina scream.
First Iteration: Puntarenas Summary
The Clínica Santa Maria is the modern hospital in Puntarenas; it is “spotless and efficient,” but Mike Bowman is still nervous as Dr. Cruz lowers the oxygen tent around Tina. She is “desperately ill” and the Bowmans are very far from Texas.
When he got to his screaming daughter on the beach, her left arm was bloody and covered with bites the size of thumbprints and flecks of what seemed to be “foamy saliva.” Even before he could get her to the Land Rover, her arm began to redden and swell. As Bowman drove, the swelling moved up to her neck and Tina began having trouble breathing.
Now the swelling has subsided and Cruz thinks the girl will survive. He cannot identify the quickly fading bites, but he takes photos. The bites are like nothing he has ever seen, and he takes three samples of the sticky saliva. One will go to his office, one will be sent to San Jose, and one will remain at the Clínica, frozen, in case it is needed. The two men look again at the picture Tina drew of the animal which attacked her; it is unfamiliar to both of them. Cruz has sent for Dr. Guitierrez from the Reserva Biológica de Carara, since no researchers have been working on Cabo Blanco beach for the past several months.
Guitierrez is an American, a former Yale field biologist who has been in Costa Rica for the past five years. After examining Tina and the photos and asking some pointed questions, Guitierrez says he is confident the girl will recover and knows the animal that bit her. Only a dozen of the six thousand species of lizards walks upright, and only four of them can be found in Latin America. It was a Basilisk amoratus. It is not poisonous, but fourteen percent of all people are allergic to reptiles, and Tina is undoubtedly one of them.
While lizard bites are not uncommon, Guitierrez is perplexed when Bowman explains that Tina was sitting still when the lizard attacked, but he dismisses the incident, saying Tina only got a few things wrong in the drawing. The neck is too long, the tail is too thick, and she drew three toes instead of five. Bowman assures him those are particulars his daughter was adamant about, but Guitierrez is undeterred in his assessment.
Hospital biologists stop testing the saliva when they hear about Guitierrez’s identification, despite the irregularities they see. The sample is discarded but the tube marked for San Jose is eventually sent. Before Tina is released from the hospital, Cruz asks her again how many feet the lizard has. She is convincing when she tells him the lizard had three toes and walked, neck bobbing, like a bird.
Later Cruz calls Guitierrez about this conversation, and the biologist finds all of it puzzling but is reasonably certain Tina was not bitten by a basilisk. If there are any other lizard bites reported at the hospital, he asks Cruz to contact him.
First Iteration: The Beach Summary
In the shade of the mangrove trees on Cabo Blanco beach, Marty Guitierrez is sitting in the spot he thinks Tina Bowman was sitting when she was attacked by the lizard. While he told the Bowmans that lizards do bite, he has never heard of a basilisk lizard bite or of anyone being hospitalized by any kind of lizard bite.
After making some calls and doing some research, Guitierrez discovered that several small children along the coastline have been bitten by lizards of some kind over the past two months. Now the biologist suspects the existence an unknown species of lizard, not surprising in Costa Rica, a country rich with diversity in its plants, insects, animals, and birds. New species are being discovered all the time here, mostly caused by deforestation as civilization encroaches on the forests.
While such discoveries are exciting, they also present the looming specter of new diseases, and that is why he is here today, hoping to find the creature and test it for disease. Toward evening, he finally gives up and starts walking up the beach when he sees a lone howler monkey walking ahead of him. It is not an unusual sight, and Guitierrez looks for more of the monkeys which usually travel together. This one is alone, and he is eating what Guitierrez recognizes as a basilisk lizard.
Immediately Guitierrez shoots the monkey with a dart from his air pistol and the creature drops the lizard before running off. Guitierrez will write the preliminary report but plans to send the lizard remains to the acknowledged lizard expert in New York: Edward H. Simpson, emeritus professor at Columbia University.
First Iteration: New York Summary
The name, Tropical Diseases Laboratory of Columbia University (TDL), sounds much grander than it really is, according to its head, Doctor Richard Stone. It is much smaller than it once was, and is quite unprepared for the package which arrives this morning. The label on the package reads “Partially masticated fragment of unidentified Costa Rica lizard.” Since Ed Simpson is in Borneo for the summer, his secretary had called to ask Stone to examine the lizard because of the possibility of a communicable disease.
The cylinder is the size of a half-gallon milk container; it is locked with metal latches and has a screw top. It is marked “International Biological Specimen Container” with warning stickers and labels written in four languages, designed to keep customs officials from opening it. The warnings worked, and Stone dons his protective gear before unscrewing the top. He hears the “hiss of escaping gas” and sees white smoke roll out; the canister turns “frosty cold.”
Inside is a zip-lock sandwich bag with something green in it. Stone shakes the contents onto a surgical drape and a lump of “frozen flesh” hits the table. The accompanying documents explain that this unidentified species of lizard has been biting children, and Guitierrez asks for both an identification of the species and any possible diseases which might be transmitted by the bite. Also enclosed is the picture Tina drew, and the preliminary identification is listed as “Basiliscus amoratus with three-toed genetic anomaly.” Stone knows he cannot identify the species until Simpson returns, but he does ascertain that there is no evidence that the animal poses a threat of any communicable disease to humans.
Guitierrez makes two assumptions from Stone’s memo. First, he assumes his identification of the lizard as a basilisk has been confirmed by Stone because his memo also calls it a Basiliscus amoratus with a genetic anomaly. Second, Guitierrez assumes that the recent spate of lizard bites “poses no serious health hazards for Coast Rica.” In fact, it reinforces his belief that the lizards have simply been pushed from their natural habitats and are coming into contact with humans for the first time. Guitierrez is confident the biting incidents will soon diminish.
It is nearly midnight and a rainstorm has knocked out the power at the Bahia Anasco clinic. The midwife, Elena Morales, is working with a patient by flashlight and hears a “squeaking, chirping sound” in the next room where the newborn baby is sleeping. She assumes it is birds escaping the rain, but when she shines the light she sees three dark green lizards “crouched like gargoyles” over the crib. They do not flee at the light, and Morales is horrified when she sees “blood dripping from their snouts.” One of the lizards tears a “ragged chunk of flesh” from the baby’s face before they all flee into the darkness. Morales screams and runs futilely to the dead infant. The only remaining sign of the chirping lizards is their three-toed footprints in the baby’s blood.
First Iteration: The Shape of the Data Summary
Once she calms down, Elena Morales decides not to report the lizard attack, fearful that the incident might somehow be seen as her carelessness. Instead she tells the mother the baby died of SIDS and sent the same conclusion to San Jose on the required forms. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is a relatively common though unexplained phenomenon, so her report is never challenged.
The San Jose university lab which tests the saliva sample from Tina Bowman’s arm is surprised to discover a protein with the stunning molecular mass of nearly two million, “one of the largest proteins known.” The venom seems to be similar to that of a cobra, though it is much more primitive. The lab also detects an enzyme which is a marker for genetic engineering; however, the technicians assume that came from a contaminant in the lab and do not note it in their report to Doctor Cruz, the referring physician in Puntarenas.
Nothing might have changed if it were not for a random moment back at the Columbia University laboratory. Alice Levin, a technician, sees the picture of the lizard Tina drew and immediately wonders at its similarities to a dinosaur, something her sons routinely draw. Doctor Stone is surprised at the comment, but Levin (claiming to be an unofficial expert because of her sons) says the long neck, small head, thick tail, and hind legs on which it stands are all features of dinosaurs. The smallest dinosaurs were only about a foot tall.
Stone shows her the frozen remnant and she suggests he take it to a natural history museum for examination, but he refuses to be embarrassed and insists it is a lizard. He decides it will remain in the freezer until Doctor Simpson returns from Borneo and can identify it.
Second Iteration: The Shore of the Inland Sea Summary
Doctor Alan Grant does not notice the excessive heat or the discomfort of his aching knees or his lungs breathing in dust; he is intent on the six inches of sand in front of him because it contains the remains of a baby carnivorous dinosaur. It was two months old when it died seventy-nine million years ago; and, if it is complete, it is the first infant skeleton ever to be discovered.
Snakewater, Montana, is a barren inland sea (land which was once covered with water) which poses infinite discoverable possibilities to the forty-year-old paleontologist because it is known for its dinosaur nesting grounds. Grant is interrupted by the arrival of Bob Morris, a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency. Grant and his team, including Doctor Ellie Sattler, have been working here since June; Morris observes that the tiny fragments of bones look like they came from birds.
Morris gets to the point of his visit: the EPA is suspicious about the Hammond Foundation, which only sponsors dinosaur digs above the forty-fifth parallel and has stockpiled millions of dollars worth of amber, a substance which has no commercial or defense value. Grant’s project has received nominal funding from the rich, old eccentric, John Hammond, but Grant is equally puzzled by this information. The Hammond Foundation has also leased a large island, Isla Nublar, from the Costa Rican government, supposedly to create a biological preserve.
Isla Nublar is located about a hundred miles offshore and is perpetually covered with fog. Hammond Foundation lists Grant as one of the consultants for the project, which is why Morris is here. When Morris show him the cancelled check, Grant remembers; however, his consultation had nothing to do with an island.
Grant discovered the first clutch of dinosaur eggs in 1979 but did not publish his findings until 1983; when he did, the world clamored for him to speak and write more about his findings, but he just continued working. In 1984, a representative from InGen (A Hammond Foundation holding) offered him fifty thousand dollars for a research summary on what baby dinosaurs ate for use in a children’s museum; because that was a fortune for his research, Grant wrote the summary. Unfortunately, the company’s attorney, Donald Gennaro, ceaselessly called him for more details and specifics, so Grant finally called off the deal and settled for twelve thousand dollars. Though he cannot prove Hammond is doing anything illegal, Morris is convinced he is.
InGen has shipped three gigantic computers and twenty-four gene-sequencing machines to Isla Nublar—an outrageously high number. InGen has created the largest genetic engineering lab in the world in a country without any regulations.
Any unusable bones Grant’s team finds are sent to a lab, Medical Biological Services in Salt Lake. Morris wonders what else could be done with the research Grant gave InGen. Grant laughs and says they could be feeding baby dinosaurs, of course.
While Grant and Morris were talking, Alice Levin called; she needs Grant to identify some remains.
Second Iteration: Skeleton Summary
Doctor Alan Grant returns Alice Levin’s call and is sure what she describes could not be a basilisk lizard, but she will fax him the x-ray for him to examine. Grant is excited about his latest find and tells his assistant, Doctor Ellie Sattler, that he has uncovered the head of a two- to four-month-old velociraptor and hopes to uncover an intact skeleton.
This is a distinctive find, as the Snakewater research team has only uncovered the remains of duckbilled hadrosaurs. Their evidence indicates that as many as twenty thousand of them, in herds like buffalo, once lived here. What Grant has not yet discovered is any evidence of predators. Researchers would not have expected to find many large predators, based on the predator/prey ratios determined in African and Indian game parks. What is surprising is that they have not discovered any small predators. Where there were eggs, there must have been a lot of three- to six-foot predators, but they have discovered no evidence of them. Grant has always wanted to study the infant-rearing behavior of carnivorous dinosaurs, just as he has done with herbivores; now he might get the chance.
Grant is stunned at what he sees in the x-ray Levin just faxed him. No three-toed lizard “has walked on this planet for two hundred million years,” so the creature was not a lizard. It is almost impossible to fake an x-ray, so Grant and Sattler agree that this is the apparent skeleton of a Procompsognathus, a dinosaur so obscure people who study dinosaurs rarely know it.
The Procompsognathus is a predator which grew only to about a foot tall, and paleontologists have always assumed because of their size that they were scavengers. It is not an impossible thought that they might bite an infant, as the accompanying report suggests, but it is unlikely it would have bitten an eight-year-old child. This Procompsognathus might be a legitimate rediscovery, similar to several others in recent history, but the date is all wrong and it should not have survived the drastic changes in land and climate.
The phone rings. It is John Hammond and he does all the talking. Hammond is disgusted with Morris, the EPA agent who is conducting an unofficial investigation into Isla Nublar. Hammond insists Grant would love the biological preserve and must join some other consultants who are coming down just for this weekend. Grant says he has to study a recent discovery, a living procompsognathid. This stops Hammond’s spiel and he asks when and where the creature was found. He is on speaker phone, and both Grant and Sattler are puzzled by the old man’s sudden agitation.
Hammond finally admits he is having some trouble on Isla Nublar and would like both Grant and Sattler to fly there, at a consulting fee of twenty thousand dollars each per day. Grant cannot afford to refuse the money and accepts the offer. They will fly in Hammond’s plane from Choteau early the next morning, no passports needed.
Second Iteration: Cowan, Swain and Ross Summary
Donald Gennaro is in the San Francisco offices of Cowan, Swain and Ross, and his boss (Daniel Ross) is unhappy. After talking to John Hammond, Gennaro tells Ross that the firm can no longer trust Hammond, as he is under investigation by the EPA, is behind schedule, and rumors of trouble in Costa Rica have made investors nervous. The latest news about some kind of living dinosaur is the latest problem.
The firm has just learned of the potential problems from a local investor and firm is now requiring Hammond to conduct independent weekly site inspections of the project for the next three weeks, despite Hammond’s insistence that the site has extravagant security precautions. Gennaro helped the eccentric Hammond gather funding for this project years ago, and the firm now owns five percent of the project—too much, according to Ross. Gennaro reminds Ross that, at the time, no one thought Hammond would be able “to pull it off.”
The first inspectors are going to Costa Rica this weekend: a paleontologist (Grant), a paleobotanist (Sattler), a mathematician (Ian Malcolm, who was against the project from the beginning), and a computer systems analyst. Hammond has made it seem like more of a social visit, and Ross tells Gennaro to go along and resolve the problems within a week.
Once Ross leaves, Gennaro casually calls Grant to say he will also be going to Costa Rica; what he really wants to know is where the procompsognathus is being kept so he can “run down that specimen for Mr. Hammond who’s very excited about it.” Gennaro is certain Grant would like to look at it, too, and suggests he might be able to have it delivered to the island this weekend. Grant gives him the information and Gennaro quickly ends the call.
Second Iteration: Plans Summary
Hammond sends Doctors Grant and Sattler a complete set of blueprints for the resort he is building on Isla Nublar with a note saying he is looking forward to seeing them. The entire document is riddled with security warnings and marked as the exclusive property of InGen Inc. The topographical map shows the plans for a resort, but there is little detail about any of the buildings other than the Safari Lodge. The rest of the island appears to be open areas subdivided into six curving sections marked with some kind of code.
The plans rather resemble a zoo; however, each subdivision is separated by a thirty-foot-wide concrete moat and electric fences. The buildings, too, seem more like fortifications or bunkers than typical resort buildings. Both scientists think the plans seem quite odd.
The excavation of the velociraptor continues, using computer-assisted sonic tomography (CAST) to capture an x-ray image of the bones so the excavating can be done more efficiently. When the system works correctly, Grant can see the perfect skeleton of the young creature on his computer screen; the only odd thing about this one is that the head and neck are bent back toward the creature’s posterior. In addition,"this particular skeleton is twisted laterally, so that the right leg and foot are raised up above the backbone.” The distortion seems odd to others, but Grant has seen this before and says it is just the effects of time on the bones.
Grant knows it is difficult for most people to imagine time in geological terms; for them time is measured in the mundane human experience and they cannot even fathom the eighty million years which have passed since this tiny creature was alive. This velociraptor does not look very menacing, but as an adult it could have eaten as much as twenty-five percent of its weight in a single meal, the “most rapacious dinosaur that ever lived.” Though it weighed only as much as a leopard, about two hundred pounds, it was “quick, intelligent, and vicious.” It could attack with sharp jaws, devastating clawed forearms, and a deadly single claw on its foot. Velociraptors hunted in packs and were extremely fast and vicious predators, even leaping onto the backs of larger animals in order to kill them.
The current mortality rate of infants in the wild is nearly seventy percent, so it is impossible to know of which cause this particular infant creature died. Though they know much about the social (group) behavior of current predators, such as lions, scientists still know very little about those aspects of dinosaurs. Even after one hundred and fifty years of research and excavating, no one knows very much about these creatures.
Sattler and Grant leave for the airport.
Second Iteration: Hammond Summary
Donald Gennaro does not want to go to Costa Rica this weekend; he will be missing his daughter’s fourth birthday party, and neither his wife nor his daughter is happy about his being gone. His secretary had to purchase him a suitcase and a few essential items of clothing, and as Gennaro leaves the office, Dan Ross tells him to have a good trip. He makes one thing clear, however: if there is a “problem on that island, burn it to the ground.” Even if it is a large investment, and no matter what Hammond says, Ross wants it done.
Hammond’s Gulfstream II jet is heading to Choteau to pick up the scientists. Gennaro has forgotten how short Hammond is; his feet do not even touch the carpet below his seat. Hammond is nearly eighty years old and has a childlike quality about him, but he looks much older than Gennaro remembers him from five years ago, the last time he saw the old man.
Hammond has always been a rather flamboyant and eccentric showman; in the 1980s he used to travel everywhere with a nine-inch elephant in a cage. He kept it covered as he solicited investors for his new genetic company; when he unveiled the tiny creature, everyone in the room gasped with delight, eager to invest in the venture. What he failed to tell them was that the elephant was not created through any kind of genetic modifications. It was a dwarf-elephant embryo implanted in an artificial womb with some hormonal modifications—a distinct feat, certainly, but not exactly what he implied to his investors.
Norman Atherton, a Stanford geneticist and Hammond’s partner, was never able to replicate the tiny elephant, despite the demand. Other attempts produced elephants with some defects; even worse, Hammond did not reveal the changes which occurred from the miniaturization process. Though the creature looked docile, in reality the tiny elephant acted more like a vicious rodent that would bite at anyone’s fingers, so no one was allowed to touch or feed the animal. Hammond’s project was anything but a certainty, and he also neglected to reveal that Atherton had terminal cancer. Despite these things, as well as his insistence on “absolute secrecy” and no return on investment for at least five years, Hammond got nearly nine hundred million in investments.
Hammond reassures Gennaro that everything on the island is fine and developing just as he planned and just as he promised his investors. The hotel is finished, and all the animals and equipment for the “most advanced amusement park in the world” are in place. He has two hundred and thirty-eight animals ready to “capture the imagination of the entire world.” Any delays have been typical for a project of this size and scope. It is true that three men have died—two while building a cliff road and one in a bulldozer accident—but the old man assures Gennaro that “everything on that island is perfectly fine.”
Second Iteration: Choteau Summary
Paleontology research, unlike most other scientific research fields, does not receive any government funding; instead it is dependent on “money men” like Hammond. Doctor Grant despises having to cater to these investors, but Doctor Sattler reminds him it is a necessary part of the job. Though he is curious about the Costa Rican island, Grant is going this weekend because he understands Hammond needs him to go and that is how patronage works.
The jet arrives, and Grant is surprised at how cramped it is inside, despite its luxuriousness. Hammond introduces Grant and Sattler to Donald Gennaro, calling Gennaro his associate. Grant immediately dislikes the man, and when Gennaro speaks his surprise that Sattler is a woman, Grant can tell that she does not like Gennaro either.
Hammond explains to his associate that Grant and Sattler are paleontologists and they spend their time “digging up old bones.” He is apparently amused by his description and laughs. The flight attendant asks them all to be seated. Hammond apologizes for the rush, but Gennaro thinks it is imperative that they get to Isla Nublar as quickly as possible. The pilot announces the jet will stop in Dallas for fuel before flying to Costa Rica, arriving there tomorrow morning.
When Grant asks how long they will be in Costa Rica, Gennaro says it depends, as there a “few things to clear up.” Hammond tells Grant with certainty that they will not be there more than forty-eight hours. Grant asks if the island is some kind of secret, as he has never heard of it before now. Hammond says it is a kind of secret and it is imperative that nobody know about it until the day the island opens to a “surprised and delighted public.”
Second Iteration: Target of Opportunity Summary
This is the first emergency meeting Biosyn Corporation of Cupertino, California, has ever called. The Board of Directors is waiting for its last member to arrive from San Diego so they will have a quorum; they will be asked to vote on something significant tonight. Lewis Dodgson wishes he had not had to call this meeting, but the head of the company was adamant that Dodgson needed to get approval for this decision.
Thirty-four-year-old Dodgson is “famous as the most aggressive geneticist of his generation, or the most reckless.” He was ousted from Johns Hopkins as a graduate student for planning a regimen of gene therapy without his patient’s permission before being hired by Biosyn to conduct the “controversial rabies vaccine test in Chile.” Now he is head of product development and reverse engineers competitors’ products so Biosyn can make its own version of the products. In reality, however, his job is more like industrial espionage, and its primary target is InGen.
In the 1990s, the demand for “consumer biologicals” was high, and Dodgson developed a more visible pale trout to help eliminate complaints to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. It worked, but no one discussed the fact that many of these genetically altered fish die of sunburn or that their flesh is “soggy and tasteless.”
The meeting finally begins. Dodgson reviews the clues he has been gathering about InGen: unusual donations to zoos all over the world, stockpiles of amber, the purchase of Isla Nublar, the transport of three supercomputers, the hiring of paleontologists and phylogeneticists, the recent acquisition of a new plastic which can be used to simulate an avian eggshell, and the ruse of developing an exotic resort. The board is impatient at the recitation until Dodgson concludes with the shocking news that InGen has managed to hatch animals from the past and created an exotic zoo filled with dinosaurs.
The directors are stunned; however, cloning dinosaurs has been discussed for at least a decade, though it would require significant amounts of DNA to accomplish such a feat. If a company had enough bone fragments, it might be possible to extract enough DNA to clone a dinosaur if anyone were interested. InGen has obviously done it.
InGen has created the “greatest single tourist attraction in the history of the world” and will be able to charge whatever exorbitant price they want for such a novelty—in addition to the limitless marketing strategies connected to such a venture. Since genetically engineered animals can now be patented, according to a 1987 Supreme Court decision, InGen will “own its dinosaurs and no one else can legally make them.”
Dodgson suggests Biosyn can recreate a dinosaur different enough to evade the patent restrictions and asks the directors for permission to obtain some DNA from the dinosaurs through a disgruntled employee who will have to act within the next twenty-four hours. None of the men says anything, but all of them nod their permission for Dodgson to act.
Second Iteration: Airport Summary
Lewis Dodgson, with a ridiculous straw hat for a disguise, is late for his meeting with a man in the coffee shop of the departure building of the San Francisco airport. For six months, Dodgson has “cultivated this man, who has grown more obnoxious and arrogant with each meeting.” Dodgson is forced to overlook this behavior because the stakes are too high for both of them.
“Weight for weight,” bioengineered DNA is now the most valuable commodity in the world. A single specimen of some materials, too small to see except under a microscope, could be worth billions of dollars to the right investor. This phenomenon has created industrial espionage, and Dodgson is quite good at it. Many items are comparatively easy to acquire; however, what he needs from InGen is much more difficult. He wants frozen embryos, and he knows they will not be easy to get through InGen’s sophisticated security measures.
Dodgson needs an InGen employee who is able and willing to get them. More than a year ago, he discovered this man; today, finally, the man is going to have unprecedented access to the frozen embryos. All the man cares about is the money—seventeen hundred and fifty thousand dollars for gathering embryos from all fifteen species of dinosaur if he successfully delivers them to a connection in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Dodgson gives him a can of shaving cream which is actually a container with coolant inside in which the man is to transport the embryos. Dodgson is nervous but the man impatiently insists he is perfectly capable of completing this task; he insists that the money must be waiting for him at the airport, before he ever leaves Costa Rica. Dodgson assures him it will be there.
Second Iteration: Malcolm Summary
At about midnight, a man boards Hammond’s waiting jet. Thirty-five-year-old Ian Malcolm is dressed completely in black and smiles at Hammond’s “forced graciousness.” Malcolm introduces himself as a mathematics guy to the other three passengers and seems amused by his description.
Doctor Grant has heard of Malcolm, “one of the most famous of the new generation of mathematicians” who is openly interested in the real world rather than the cloistered world of academia. This new group of mathematicians breaks with tradition and uses computers, works with nonlinear equations, uses mathematics to describe things which actually exist, and scandalously acts “like rock stars.”
Once Malcolm is seated, Doctor Sattler comments that black is likely to be hot in the Costa Rican temperatures; he insults her by commenting on her legs and reminding her that black is actually a deflector of the sun. Besides, he only wears black or gray because they are appropriate colors for any occasion and will match even if he is careless when dressing. Sattler is agape as Malcolm expresses his disdain for fashion—and nearly everything else. Hammond drily notes that Malcolm is a man of strong opinions.
He tells Hammond he should be glad Malcolm agreed to come along, as it seems obvious that there are significant problems with the project, just as he predicted in his paper, and he is certain Hammond is going to have to shut down the entire project. Hammond gets upset, insisting there is no problem, and leaves the room. Malcolm suggests it is a long flight, which will give the others time to read his paper.
Grant flips through the lengthy paper but asks Malcolm to explain his findings. Linear equations have served to explain most things for hundreds of years, but they do not work with anything which experiences turbulence and change, such as weather. Anything which has variables of change can only be expressed accurately by nonlinear equations, known as chaos theory. It is a way to find the hidden regularities within a complex system containing confusion and unpredictability.
Unfortunately, however, this method of prediction is flawed because predictions can only be made several seconds into the future because immediately everything, even small flaws and imperfections, begin to have an impact on future predictions. Though it is just a theory, Malcolm is certain this theory is true for the island, and soon things will begin to “behave in unpredictable fashion.” He claims that something is wrong with the island and it is “an accident waiting to happen.”
Second Iteration: Isla Nublar Summary
Dennis Nedry, a fat, slovenly man who claims to do something with computers on the island, joins Hammond’s group in San Jose. The helicopter ride to the island takes about forty minutes, and the terrain below them is rugged until they cross the mountains and see the a vast expanse of beach and water. The pilot points out the Cabo Blanco preserve below them.
Isla Nublar is “not a true island” but an upthrusting of volcanic rock from the ocean floor, which partially explains why it is almost always shrouded in fog. When he sees the island for the first time, Malcolm thinks it looks like Alcatraz. Hammond says the island is eight miles long and three miles wide, totaling twenty-two square miles, which makes Isla Nublar the largest privately owned animal preserve in North America.
Hammond seems worried by the unusually thick fog. He regrets having to land on the island because it upsets the animals and is “sometimes a bit thrilling.” The pilot interrupts to announce that they are about to land and warns his passengers to “hang on.”
As the helicopter descends in an impossibly confined landing space atop a mountain, Grant is stunned at the pilot’s astonishing proficiency in the midst of a jungle until Grant notices the lit helipad below. All of them are relieved to land safely. A red-haired man in a baseball cap runs to greet them, introducing himself as Ed Regis.
They walk down the mountain and below Grant can see the roofs of large, white buildings among the tropical forest. He is surprised by their elaborate construction. On the south side of the island, Grant sees a lone tree trunk without leaves—then the huge stump moves, turning to face the new arrivals, and he realizes it is not a tree.
Second Iteration: Welcome Summary
All of the new arrivals on Isla Nublar are stunned.
Doctor Sattler’s first thought is that the dinosaur is stunningly beautiful, graceful, dignified - nothing at all like the lumbering, ponderous beasts typically portrayed in books. This sauropod looks at the humans alertly and makes a “low, trumpeting sound, rather like an elephant.” In a moment, three more heads rise above the foliage.
Genarro is shocked. Though he had known about the project for years and knew what to expect, he somehow never expected the creatures to be real. Genetic technology had always seemed to be just a vague concept to him, and now all Genarro can think is that this island is going to make everyone involved with the project quite rich. He hopes the island is safe.
Grant stares at the “gray necks craning above the palms.” He feels dizzy and can barely breathe. This is a sight he never expected to see. These creatures are perfect, medium-sized apatosaurs, herbivores from the Jurassic period, commonly called brontosaurs. The remains of these creatures were first discovered in 1876 in Montana. They were thought to spend most of their time in the water to help support their tremendous bodies. Grant notes that, based on his research and hypothesis, the brontosaur is moving much too quickly and in a “surprisingly active manner.” He laughs, realizing he has already accepted the existence of the creatures and is beginning to answer “longstanding questions in the field” as he watches them.
The animals trumpet again, and Regis says they are welcoming their guests to the island. Grant is entranced by the sound. Hammond has arranged a complete tour of the island this afternoon and will answer any questions. Regis leads them to the nearest buildings, past a rustic, hand-painted sign welcoming them to Jurassic Park.
Third Iteration: Jurassic Park Summary
As the group walks toward the visitor building, they are struck by the extensive and elaborate planting” which makes them feel as if they are entering another world. Grant wants to examine the dinosaurs more closely, but for now he agrees with Sattler that the animals “look good.”
Paleontology has been nothing but a matter of deduction for the past one hundred and fifty years, ever since the first gigantic dinosaur bones were discovered; these scientists have examined the clues and made their best, most reasoned deductions. One of the biggest current debates is whether or not dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Early research classified them as cold-blooded reptiles, but in the last fifteen years a group of paleontologists, including Grant, have argued that the evidence actually supports the idea that dinosaurs were probably warm-blooded animals based on posture, metabolism, speed, location, and social behaviors.
If it is true that dinosaurs can be effectively cloned, paleontology, museums, laboratories, and scholarly study will all be changed. The possibility has always been discussed; the only shock is how soon it happened, and Grant wonders where InGen acquired the dinosaur DNA, as fossilization destroys most DNA.
Ed Regis points out that even the foliage is authentically from the Jurassic period. Sattler examines the ferns surrounding the swimming pool; they are, indeed, authentic, but whoever placed them here did not know that the spores from this plant contain a “deadly beta-carboline alkaloid.” Simply touching the fronds could make an adult sick, and any child who ingested a mouthful of the spores would almost certainly die from the powerful toxin. Sattler is dismayed at this carelessness and the fact that few people understand anything about plant evolution. She knows that plants have evolved “as competitively as animals, and in some ways more fiercely.” Over time, each plant, so innocuous in appearance, fought for enough sun and to ensure their own survival by interacting with the animals around them. In any case, the Jurassic Park designers have obviously not been as careful about such things as they should have been.
The weekend visitors are staying at Safari Lodge. The television channels are each designated for viewing different areas of the park, though for now there is only static on the screen. The skylight over the bed is protected by heavy metal bars, the windows are all made from tempered glass set in steel frames, the doors are all steel-clad, and the fencing is all twelve feet high with inch-thick bars of steel. Grant and Sattler note that the park seems more like a fortress and that none of these apparent safety precautions were in the original plans.
Third Iteration: When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth Summary
Ed Regis begins the tour at the high-tech and highly fortified visitor building. It is filled with unfinished exhibits, such as the one called “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth.” Before they go any further, Gennaro explains to the group that they are here to make a very important decision. This is a park full of genetically engineered dinosaurs moving freely through the mostly natural setting. Before tourists are allowed to visit the park, this group must determine if the island is safe for visitors and if the dinosaurs are safely contained.
Gennaro presents two pieces of evidence which must be considered. First is the unknown dinosaur species from the west coast of Costa Rica which Grant examined via x-ray back in Montana. A similar creature bit a young girl on the beach and other bites have been reported; the remains are being sent here from the laboratory in New York where they can be examined more directly. The second piece of evidence is the sudden change in infant mortality rates in towns along the country’s west coast over the past year.
Ian Malcolm, the mathematician, quickly claims to have the explanation. First he believes that some animals have undoubtedly escaped from the park, since complete isolation of anything is impossible to achieve. Second, the fluctuating infant mortality rates are “almost certainly unrelated to any animals that have escaped.” Malcolm claims the statistics have shifted in a nonlinear pattern which would require that hundreds of the animals have escaped from the park; since that is not likely, Malcolm concludes that the statistical changes are due to something else, such as a new strain of flu.
A helicopter arrives and Gennaro expects it to be the dinosaur remains for which he is waiting. When the group goes to meet the chopper, he is furious to discover that Hammond has invited two of his grandchildren to the island for the weekend. Hammond wants the kids to enjoy an outing away from their parents who are in the process of a divorce. Gennaro heatedly reminds Hammond that this weekend is not a social outing; it is an investigation of how dangerous the island may be and to determine whether it should be shut down altogether. Undeterred and unfazed by the implied threat, Hammond intends to demonstrate his confidence in the safety of the island by inviting people he loves to spend some time here.
Third Iteration: The Tour, Part 1 Summary
Tim Murphy is about eleven years old; his sister is seven or eight. Both of them can tell immediately that something is wrong. Their grandfather, John Hammond, is arguing with a younger man (Gennaro); the other adults are standing back, looking uncomfortable. Ed Regis makes the introductions. Tim realizes that Grant is the author and illustrator of his favorite book on dinosaurs. As the tour continues, Grant walks with Tim and discovers the boy is an avid dinosaur enthusiast, both knowledgeable and passionate. Regis is unhappy at being relegated to a babysitter for Hammond’s grandchildren for the weekend; he is head of public relations for Jurassic Park and has plenty to do before the park opens next year. No one at InGen takes him seriously; for instance, he should not have had to handle the situation with the injured workman in January.
Caution, danger, and hazard signs are prominent, and Tim grows more excited as he reads them and begins to realize what the signs imply. The group’s first stop is a laboratory where geneticist Doctor Henry Wu explains that he extracts dinosaur DNA from amber, “the fossilized resin of prehistoric tree sap.” Insects trapped inside have sucked the blood of dinosaurs, among other things, and Wu extracts that blood to create whole DNA. Grant is impressed. The process works only because dinosaurs’ red blood cells are similar to those of modern birds. Dinosaurs are not reptiles but “big leathery birds.”
The DNA is identified by powerful computers in an extremely complex process. Dennis Nedry is bored, as he is the one who designed the program used by these computers to store the huge amounts of data. He had not been told what data would be stored, and now he has been summoned here to fix his “bugs,” which he could have avoided if anyone had told him exactly what InGen was doing.
The fertilization laboratory contains a big walk-in freezer containing shelves of individual frozen embryos. Next they all visit the hatchery, hot and humid with a high level of oxygen, just as it might have been during the actual Jurassic period. They are warned not to touch any of the eggs here because there are already too many things that can go wrong. InGen’s current hatch rate is four percent, and most of them do not survive.
Some of the more than two hundred live animals are now fully grown, since they mature rapidly. In the nursery they see a six-week-old velociraptor. It jumps into Tim’s arms; he is surprised to learn that all raptors can jump. Wu says none of the dinosaurs in the park can reproduce for two reasons: all of them have been irradiated (made sterile) and all of them are female.
The raptor cuddles with Tim but grows distraught when Grant begins to examine it. Regis insists that Grant stop, as baby dinosaurs prefer close body contact and easily die from stress. The tour moves outside to see the dinosaurs in their created habitats.
Third Iteration: Control, Part 1 Summary
Ian Malcolm asks Doctor Wu how many species of dinosaurs he has created in his laboratory; Wu thinks the number is fifteen, but he is not sure because sometimes he discovers genetic flaws in the animals as they develop and is forced to start again. What he does know is that he has created “an unusually large number” of procompsognathids, which he calls “compys.” They are scavengers, similar to jackals, and Wu wanted plenty of them to help keep the park clean.
Two overwhelming problems exist in the park. One is the amount of food needed to feed the dinosaurs (food is imported to the island every two weeks) and the other is the amount of excrement the creatures produce. Unfortunately, the droppings of the larger animals are the size of soccer balls and they do not decompose well; compys eat the droppings and easily redigest them into pellets which do decompose easily.
The fifty compys Wu created are monitored and counted daily. Even if one managed to escape, as Malcolm suggests happened with the little girl on the beach, it could neither reach the mainland a hundred miles away nor survive without lysine. Wu genetically modified every creature on the island to require this enzyme to live and therefore they cannot survive “in the real world.”
The tour is delayed by the arrival of the ship which brings them supplies, and Grant asks how Wu knows when an animal is not developing correctly, and Wu has to admit it is a bit of a guess. When Grant asks to see the eight adult female velociraptors, Wu is nervous but Regis cheerfully says they are in a holding pen as they have not been “integrated into the park setting just yet.” Lex Murphy and Regis play pickle while the others go to look at the raptors—after being warned not to get too close to the fence.
On the way, the others review what they know about these animals: they are small carnivores which hunt in packs and were probably quite intelligent. They pass enormous generators and a herd of goats before they get to the fence. A moment passes before anyone sees the dinosaurs. In a moment it becomes clear that the raptors are examining them, and Grant feels as if the six-foot-tall animals are hunting them. Suddenly three of them attack, screeching and jumping fiercely at the fence before getting shocked and falling on the ground, hissing.
An employee asks if the visitors are okay and says the raptors do this all the time. Malcolm comments that the creatures must not be too bright, but the man is silent for a moment before he tells them to be thankful for the fence. Velociraptors look like reptiles but have the speed and agility of birds. Grant confirms that these animals, like lions, are not born man-eaters; they only kill humans because they learn that humans are easy to kill. Malcolm wonders how these creatures learned that.
Third Iteration: Version 4.4 Summary
Hammond and Henry Wu are in Hammond’s comfortable and elegant bungalow at the northern end of the park. Hammond asks the geneticist if the visitors seemed to believe everything Wu told them. Wu says they did because everything he told them was broad in scope and it is only the “details that get sticky.”
Thirty-three-year-old Wu suggests that the “sticky” issues can all be thought of as aesthetics, though of course there are “practical consequences,” as well. Wu repeats his recommendation to his employer: they should move to phase two of the project, Version 4.4, and replace the current stock of animals. Hammond finds it difficult to understand Wu’s reasoning, but he listens to his argument.
Hammond does not spend much time on the island, so Wu is not sure how best to explain this to the older man. Wu suggests that these dinosaurs, though they are real and just what Hammond asked for, are perhaps too real for visitors to accept. They are too fast and too vicious, so he wants to genetically manufacture more docile and domesticated dinosaurs. Hammond is outraged, claiming people want to see the “real thing.” Wu claims what the people want to see is what they expect to see. The park is about entertainment, and entertainment is ”antithetical to reality.”
Hammond is still not convinced, but Wu reminds him that they have not recreated the past, as that is an impossible task; what they have done is reconstruct a version of the past—and Wu thinks he can make a better version of it. He wants to create animals which are more acceptable to visitors and easier for park workers to handle. When Hammond rues the fact that the dinosaurs would no longer be real, Wu reminds him they are not real now. Hammond thinks it is just a matter of nerves for the geneticist now that park is nearing completion and is certain the public will be satisfied with what they see here.
Wu reminds Hammond that all the state-of-the-art equipment they bought to keep the dinosaurs under control are not fast enough or strong enough now. Muldoon even wants military equipment such as missiles and laser-guided devices. Hammond is dismissive, and Wu knows that Hammond sees his park as nothing but a grand zoo and, after five years of work, is no longer listening to anyone.
Hammond did listen to Wu when the project began. After Hammond’s business partner, Atherton, died, Hammond asked Wu (whom Atherton had told him was his best geneticist graduate student) to leave academia and move to the private research sector where all the significant recent scientific advancements have been made. Hammond offered Wu cloning research with unlimited resources which was compelling to the young man who desperately wanted to make himself known in the world.
While everything has not gone as Hammond promised him, Wu knows his work is about to be revealed to the world. Hammond dismisses Wu without agreeing to any of his recommendations.
Third Iteration: Control, Part 2 Summary
The control room depresses Grant, as he neither likes nor understands computers. Both Gennaro and Malcolm seem to be just the opposite, and the head engineer, John Arnold, is eager to show them everything.
Arnold demonstrates how he can track animals both in real time and in patterns over time. He can see all two hundred and thirty-eight of them at one time within five feet. The tracking system is updated every thirty seconds and is accomplished with motion sensors and image recognition; even if no humans are watching, the computers are doing so constantly. The only errors happen when tracking the baby dinosaurs because they are so small, but Arnold is not worried because the babies always stay with the herd of adults.
Every fifteen minutes, the computer tallies what it sees into lists of dinosaurs, totaled by species expected and found. The system works, as there have been several animal deaths and, when the numbers do not match the computer sounds an alert within five minutes. One other item, the version of each animal, is listed on the report. Arnold explains that Wu is currently on version 4.3 of the animals. Equating living dinosaurs to computer software, “subject to updates and revisions,” makes Grant uneasy.
Malcolm wants to know more about the counting system. Arnold explains that motion sensors cover ninety-two percent of the island; the other areas are not feasible for this kind of tracking equipment to be effective. The controller can get a visual on any animal at any time and the animals cannot escape their enclosures.
These animals are rare and expensive and are therefore treated well. The first obstruction is the twelve-foot moats with water from twelve to thirty feet deep. Next is fifty miles of twelve-foot-high electrified fences carrying ten thousand volts. If an animal does escape, he can be quickly stunned and returned to its confinement; if it manages to get away, it will die within twenty-four hours because it is genetically engineered not to survive outside of the park.
And yet there are problems. Caring for dinosaurs is new to everyone, and disease is a concern. People are not affected by a sick animal, but other animals can be. The rides are not running yet, another concept Grant finds disturbing. The park is automated enough that all the animals can be fed and watered without any human participation for forty-eight hours; this is the system Nedry created, though he is here to fix a “few bugs.”
Before the tour continues, Malcolm asks to see a graph of all the animals by height and weight; Arnold pushes a button and a perfectly shaped bell curve graph appears on the screen. Gennaro is convinced no animals could have left the island; Malcolm is equally convinced they have already done so. Jurassic Park is intended to be a controlled world which emulates a natural world; however, based on what Wu told them earlier, such a perfect population distribution should never happen here.
Third Iteration: The Tour, Part 2 Summary
A woman distributes helmets stenciled with “Jurassic Park” as Regis herds the visitors into a line of driverless Toyota Land Cruisers. Grant, Sattler, Malcolm, and Gennaro are in the first electric cable car. Regis and Tim and Lex Murphy are in the second car. Tim is fascinated by all the electronics and the radio transmitter. The radio channel is open between the two cars, and the second car hears Gennaro yelling at Malcolm about “playing mind games” rather than helping him make a very important decision. Regis presses the intercom button and talks briefly about what they will be seeing—and gently reminds the men that everything they say can be heard back here. Gennaro is dismayed because he has to be able to speak freely in order to make his decision, but Regis again cuts him off by starting the computerized tour.
The narrator explains the foliage as the cars drive through it; the fences and barriers are so well covered that it appears to the passengers that they are passing through a real and untouched jungle. The narrator tells the riders to look left to catch a glimpse of the hypsilophodonts, the first dinosaurs on the tour. As the passengers strain to see any animals, the computer screen on the vehicles begin to whir as the motion sensors are searching to provide images of the creatures for the passengers.
With his binoculars, Tim can see an othnielia perched in a tree as the narrator talks about the small dinosaur. Lex is bored, as none of the animals are doing anything; however, the narrator emits a mating call and suddenly all of the animals grow alert. The dinosaurs return to their inert positions until the call is sounded again and the animals again respond, eerily in the exact way they had done before.
The narrator notes that these animals have the same relative intelligence as a cow and explains that if the visitors notice any of the creatures scratching, it is due to an unexplained fungus or an allergy. The Jurassic Park veterinarians are working to discover a cure but have not yet been successful because, of course, these are the first dinosaurs ever to be studied to alive.
As the cars prepare to move on, the hypsilophodonts are surprised by the noise and hop away rather like kangaroos. The narrator tells the visitors that the next animals they see will be quite a bit larger, and the cars move forward through the man-made jungle.
Third Iteration: Control, Part 3 Summary
In the control room, Arnold can hear that the gears on the Land Cruisers are grinding and orders someone to check them. Hammond enters the room and says that is a small thing, but Arnold reminds him that every detail is important. Arnold is acutely aware that this is the first time visitors have been sent into the park; very few park employees even do that. Almost everyone just watches from the control room, and now Arnold thinks of all the things which could go wrong.
Arnold is a systems engineer who worked first on submarine missiles and then on amusement park rides at Disney World and other amusement parks. His job for the past few years has been to “get Jurassic Park up and running,” and he is worried. Two years is not enough time for such an ambitious and unprecedented undertaking, and he is not certain it will be properly ready to open on time. Arnold reminds Hammond that Jurassic Park has to worry about all the traditional amusement park issues (ride maintenance, food, trash disposal, living accommodations, security) plus all the issues of a zoo (animal care, feeding, cleanliness, protection from pestilence and disease, barrier maintenance, safety). Even worse, the park is dealing with animals which no one has ever before tried to maintain.
Hammond is still dismissive, but Arnold lists some problems: tyrannosaurs which drink from the lagoon and sometimes get sick; triceratops females which attack one another and have to be separated into smaller herds; stegosaurs which get tongue blisters and diarrhea; hypsilophodonts which get skin rashes. When Arnold mentions the velociraptors, Hammond cuts him off; he is tired of hearing about how vicious they are. Arnold does not quit, giving specific reasons why the park is inherently unsafe. Hammond still believes dinosaurs will adjust their behavior to their surroundings, as animals do in a zoo; however, they have not done so.
Nedry is working on the more than one hundred and thirty computer glitches, some of which are significant, which he needs to repair while he is on the island. The security system and lights do not always work, among other things, and Nedry was shocked when he saw extensive list. He had been told he needed to repair a few things over the course of the weekend, but this much more than that. He will be using every phone line from Isla Nublar to the mainland all weekend just to transfer data to his office in Cambridge.
The tour narrator informs the visitors in the Land Cruisers that the carnivorous dilophosaurs are poisonous; Tim is amazed at this information but Lex is nervous. The next dinosaurs on the tour are the slow-moving, nearsighted, easygoing triceratops, and Lex is disgusted that the docile creatures are doing nothing. She and Tim are both looking forward to seeing the next animals on the tour: the tyrannosaurus rex.
Third Iteration: Big Rex Summary
The Land Cruisers stop at the top of a hill; the passengers looking down on a valley with a lagoon can almost believe this is part of the “vanished world” of dinosaurs. Grant is unimpressed and wants to know where the tyrannosaurs are. Regis explains that the little one is often at the lagoon, catching fish by putting his head under the water. The “little one” is an eight-foot-tall two-year-old which weighs three thousand pounds. The full-grown tyrannosaurus generally conceals himself in the foliage during the day because its skin is sensitive to the sun.
The visitors wait impatiently to spot the creature; just as Regis assures them it will not be long, an underground cage appears and deposits a goat into an open field. Hammond watches the scene from the control room and knows the visitors are thrilled by the danger, as he knew they would be. Fifty-year-old Robert Muldoon is nervous as he watches.
Muldoon was raised in Kenya and spent his life first as a tour guide for big-game hunters, like his father, and then as a wildlife consultant. A year ago Hammond offered him the job of game warden at Jurassic Park. When he arrived he was stunned to learn that he was now supposed to care for a “collection of genetically engineered prehistoric animals.” He has a pragmatic view of animals, and he believes many of the creatures in this park are too dangerous to be kept in a park environment.
One reason for this is how little any of them know about the dinosaurs. For example, none of them knew the dilophosaurs were poisonous until they watched them bite rodents and then wait for them to die, or that they could spit poison until a handler was almost blinded by the sprayed venom. None of the scientists has been able to discover where the animals secrete this poison. The only way to discover it is through an autopsy, but Hammond refuses to allow any of them to be killed.
Muldoon is even more concerned about the velociraptors: they hunt and kill for pleasure as well as hunger, are speedy, can jump, have lethal claws on all four limbs, and powerful jaws for tearing. Even worse, they are intelligent and seem to be “natural cage breakers,” just like monkeys, elephants, and moose. One velociraptor escaped and killed two men and maimed another before it was recaptured. At Muldoon’s insistence, two powerful laser weapons are locked in a basement room, and he has the only key.
The visitors smell the rankness of the tyrannosaurus before they see it; the creature is twenty feet tall and has a gigantic body. It is cautious but then quickly kills the goat and then waits to be sure no one is going to challenge him for his kill. Soon he begins eating the goat but eventually carries it off and hides once again. Malcolm is enthralled at what he has seen; Gennaro is horrified.
Third Iteration: Control, Part 4 Summary
Everyone in the control room, including Henry Wu, is listening to what the touring visitors are saying after seeing the impressive adult tyrannosaurus rex. They are afraid that if the creature ever broke free of his enclosures there “would be no stopping it,” both because of its size and the fact that it has no natural predators. Hammond is disgusted at how negative the men are; Wu is surprised because he was certain he had succeeded in allaying those fears.
Just as Wu believes that his DNA work on the dinosaurs is “fundamentally sound” and believes the park is safe for human visitors. Any problems with either the DNA or the park are not foundational and can be easily repaired or corrected. He finds it “offensive to think that anyone would believe him capable of contributing to a system where such a thing could happen.”
Hammond is disgusted with Malcolm who is trying to instill his negativity in the other men; Hammond hopes that Gennaro will not be panicked by it and try to shut down the park. Though he is not likely to succeed if he tries, Hammond knows Gennaro could cause a lot of trouble for the park and for himself.
Muldoon goes to basement where the rest of the Land Cruisers are kept, along with several Jeeps boldly marked with a red stripe which seems to deter the triceratops from charging them. One of the veterinarians has one of the Jeeps; after unlocking the weapon room and putting a Randler Shoulder Launcher and a case of canisters in the back seat, Muldoon heads into the park in the other Jeep. Thunder begins to rumble.
The visitors are watching some brontosaurs near a swamp. Each of these animals weighs more than thirty tons, as much as an entire herd of elephants. The narrator explains that none of the animals in the park are capable of breeding, but the adults all accept the babies which are introduced to the herds.
Tim sees something and screams for Regis to stop the cars, explaining that he saw a raptor at the edge of the herd below. He recognized the yellow skin with brown stripes but Regis is certain the boy is wrong. Still, Tim is adamant. Malcolm calmly asks Tim how old he thought the raptor was; the boy says it was older than the baby but younger than the adults they saw earlier. Regis continues to insist that Tim could not possibly have seen a raptor and must be mistaken. In any case, the cars cannot go backward, only forward, so there is no way to check.
In the control room, Hammond is disgusted that the visitors are not experiencing wonder at what they see. The captain of the ship which is unloading cargo needs to leave before the storm hits, as the pier is pathetic. He does not have time to deliver the last three equipment containers; they will have to wait until the next delivery in two weeks.
Third Iteration: Stegosaur Summary
The Land Cruisers proceed to the south side of the island, a place with more volcanic activity than anywhere else on Isla Nublar. The area is swathed in mist as the storm still threatens, but the visitors can see a black Jeep with a red stripe near an unmoving stegosaur. Regis explains that Doctor Harding, the veterinarian, is here to tend to the sick animal. Grant jumps out of the car and joins the vet; soon all the others are gathered around, as well, listening to the laborious breathing of the sick dinosaur.
Ellie Sattler notices an offensive fishy smell, something she vaguely recognizes, and is surprised. Herbivores generally do not have such a smell; only the carnivores and their droppings have a “real stink.”
Harding explains that this is a consistent problem with the stegosaurs. They develop blisters on their tongues and experience imbalance, disorientation, labored breathing, and serious diarrhea every six weeks or so. It is not likely to be their food, as they eat five or six hundred pounds of plants every day and if it were that, they would constantly be sick.
Grant and Sattler find the stegosaur’s condition puzzling but eventually discover a pile of gizzard stones which leads them to the cause of the animals’ cyclical illness. The animals consume stones to help them digest their food; once the stones are worn smooth they are no longer effective and the animals regurgitate them and swallow new ones. Near the pile of smooth regurgitated stones are some poisonous berries which the creature would not normally eat; however, the stegosaurs must be taking in some of the berries each time they ingest a new stone—every six weeks.
Gennaro plays catch with Lex as he asks Malcolm about his theory. Malcolm explains that the applicable part of the chaos theory is simple: “there are great categories of phenomena that are inherently unpredictable.” He warned Hammond, before he ever started this project, that releasing a bunch of genetically engineered prehistoric animals on an island is inherently unpredictable. He even warned Hammond about the most unpredictable elements, including the fact that the very air these animals would be breathing is not the same as the air they originally breathed. More importantly, Malcolm warned Hammond that it is the nature of all life forms to find a way to break their barriers and “expand to new territories.”
The men in the control room hear Harding say he now knows what is wrong with the stegosaurs. Hammond is pleased and says he knew the problem would be “solved sooner or later.” Back in the valley, Gennaro has a small white shell fragment on his finger. Despite Harding’s insistence that it must be the shell of a bird egg, Grant has seen this shell before during his excavations and is absolutely certain this is the shell of a velociraptor egg. That should be impossible, since all of the animals in the park are females, but it is a dinosaur egg.
Third Iteration: Control, Part 5 Summary
The men in the control room heard Grant’s proclamation that the bit of shell Gennaro discovered is from a dinosaur egg, specifically a velociraptor. Hammond finds the idea preposterous and says of course that cannot be true because only female dinosaurs have been created.
Malcolm suggests they should do a simple test to confirm Grant’s conclusion. Through the communication system in Harding’s Jeep, Malcolm asks Arnold to run a computer tally on the number of animals in the park and transmit it through the vehicle’s computer system. Hammond is smugly satisfied when the numbers appear just as expected. The data shows that there are two hundred and thirty-eight animals on the island, the exact number that should appear.
Malcolm calmly asks if Arnold can ask the computer to search for a different number of animals. He can. Malcolm asks him to try two hundred and thirty-nine, and now the list of found and expected animals does not match. The computer expected to find forty-nine procompsognathids, but it found fifty. There is one new compy on the island.
Now Malcolm asks Arnold to have the computer search for three hundred animals, and Hammond is visibly confused and upset. This request takes a little more time, and the number gradually increases from two hundred and thirty-nine to two hundred and ninety-two. Hammond is stunned and blames Nedry for a faulty program, but Arnold says the program is not flawed. Arnold has always used the same base count because he assumed there could not be any more animals than the expected number.
Both Hammond and Arnold are convinced the disparity can be explained by faulty visual detectors, but Malcolm points out that they were so busy worrying about losing dinosaurs that they failed to consider that they might be gaining them. Wu insists none of the animals he created are capable of breeding, but Malcolm calmly reminds him that the numbers indicate something different. To prove it, he asks Arnold to display the population graph for the compys, and it is a perfect bell curve.
Malcolm reminds Wu that he released three batches of compys into the park at six-month intervals, so there should be three distinct arches on the graph indicating the population spike when they were released. Wu is perplexed, but Malcolm continues. He assures the men in the control room that the compys, the othnielia, the maiasaurs, the hypsys, and the velociraptors are all breeding.
Muldoon is distraught that there are obviously velociraptors loose in the park. Hammond takes comfort in the fact that only five species are breeding, and Wu still insists it is impossible. The population of the big animals has only increased a little, but that of the little animals has increased significantly. Grant concludes that the numbers are correct and breeding is happening in all over the island.
Fourth Iteration: The Main Road Summary
Tim Murphy wears night vision goggles and is able to see Grant and Malcolm in the Land Cruiser behind him. Grant uses the radio to tell Regis and the Murphy children to stay in the vehicle during the storm. Tim realizes their electric cars are stopped because of a power outage near the tyrannosaurus paddock. He hears a great thumping on the ground outside. A large, dark figure runs between the two Land Cruisers. Tim is watching intently now; Lex is starting to get upset.
Grant and Tim both see the tyrannosaur at the same time and communicate carefully over the radio so they will not upset Lex. Tim watches the gigantic dinosaur as it looks back and forth between the two vehicles, and the creature stares directly at him. Suddenly Regis sees the tyrannosaur push the fence and is immediately terrified; he is the only one in the vehicles who knows what a dinosaur attack looks like. When the dinosaur roars, a terrifying “scream from another world,” Regis wets himself in fear, opens the car door, and runs off in the rain and away from the terrifying creature.
Lex is upset and Grant wants to know what is happening. Tim tries to close the door and realizes the electric fence is not working. Tim gets out to close Lex’s door and tells the men the electric fence is no longer working. The storm rages as the animal crushes the cyclone fence with its rear leg. Grant calmly tells the children to stay down and silent.
Now the tyrannosaur’s body is between the two vehicles, its head far above them. Soon it moves to the side of the car where both Regis and Tim had been and looks inside; in a moment it smashes its head into the windshield. The creature bangs its head on the hood of the car several times. It rips off the spare tire and rakes its claws across the roof.
Just as Tim crawls to the front seat to find Lex, seemingly unconscious on the floor, the tyrannosaur crashes through the roof and opens its mouth. Tim smells its rank breath and feels “the hot lather of dinosaur saliva,” but its head is too big to fit into the vehicle. It grabs the vehicle in its strong jaws and shakes it. Lex falls out and Tim, hanging crazily from the car, cannot help her before he passes out.
In a flash of lightning, Grant and Malcolm are horrified to see that the other car is gone. Malcolm decides to run and is kicked into the air like a ball by the tyrannosaur. Grant stands motionless as the animal is clearly frustrated but obviously cannot see him. It bellows, trying to make Grant move, but the paleontologist realizes what is happening and remains motionless: that is the only thing that saves him as the creature crushes the car. In frustration, the animal kicks the mutilated vehicle, and Grant, through the air.
Fourth Iteration: Return Summary
Harding, Sattler, and Gennaro are in the gas-powered Jeep. Harding is driving them back to the compound when he discovers the road is blocked by a tree which apparently fell during the storm. He tries to call Arnold in the control room and realizes the radio lines must be down, as well. He is not able to reach anyone in the Land Cruisers, either, and assumes the cars must already be back at the camp by now. Harding does not believe they should stay here and wait, as it could be hours before a maintenance crew will be able to move the tree.
He puts the Jeep in reverse, backs into the turnaround, and finds the maintenance road, part of the secondary road system off limits to visitors but necessary for park employees. It is a longer drive, thirty or forty minutes, but his passengers may be able to “get a glimpse” of some of the animals by night.
Lightning flashes, and everything in the control room goes black. Arnold is distraught; though the main power circuits are surge-protected, he is not sure how this will affect the computer modems. He knows it is possible for the entire system to be destroyed by a lightning pulse. Just then the monitors come back to life, and Arnold is relieved. He wonders again where Nedry is.
Arnold sent guards to look for him, but they have not returned. Muldoon appears and announces that the Jeep is gone. Arnold says the Land Cruisers are not answering his radio call, but he assumes Harding will pick the visitors up on his way back. No one has told Hammond where his grandchildren are. Arnold cannot turn the systems back on; it seems Nedry has done something to jam the system. Everyone decides Nedry must be found quickly.
Fourth Iteration: Nedry Summary
Though the ten thousand-volt electric fence is clearly marked with a danger sign, Nedry opens it with his bare hand before driving the Jeep out of the garage and then closing the door again behind him. He is inside the park, no more than a mile from the east dock, where he is supposed to meet someone very soon; he is driving too fast in the storm, but he has to stay on his schedule.
Nedry fears the rain might ruin all of his careful plans. If Dodgson’s boat is not waiting for him, as planned, at the east dock, he cannot afford to wait very long. The plan was for him to get the embryos, drop them off, and return back to the control room before his absence was noticed. Nedry meticulously planned every move of this scheme, including taping his conversation with Dodgson at the airport, his motivation the million-plus tax-free dollars he will earn when the embryos are delivered. He had thought of every detail but one, and now the storm might ruin everything.
A large, white, rat-looking creature flashes across the road in front of him. He knows he should have arrived at the dock by now and is shocked to round a bend and find the road blocked by a concrete barrier. Nedry barely manages to slide the vehicle into a stop; once he recovers for a moment, he gets out of the Jeep to see if he can find the dock. When he walks around the barrier he hears the trickle of water and he realizes he is near the jungle river rather than the ocean. Seven minutes have already passed, and Nedry knows he is in trouble.
In the forest, an animal hoots like an owl, but Nedry is too consumed with rethinking his plan to notice. His only option now is to return to the control room, contact Dodgson, and try to schedule another meeting at the dock for tomorrow night. Though there are still some details to think about, Nedry knows he has to get out of the park and back to the compound before he is missed.
“Drenched and miserable,” Nedry begins walking back to his car; this time he does hear the soft hooting sound which is coming from somewhere nearby in the jungle to his right. It is followed by a crashing sound, as if something big is moving slowly toward him through the jungle. As he realizes the creature must be a dinosaur, he begins to run; he is relieved as he turns the corner, knowing he is almost to the safety of the Jeep.
Then he sees that the ten-foot-tall dinosaur is waiting there for him. It is yellow with black spots, and it does not attack. Instead it spits its poison at him, and Nedry painfully and almost immediately becomes blind. He is terrified. The dinosaur rips open Nedry’s stomach; as his entrails fall to the ground, Nedry prays the attack will soon end.
Fourth Iteration: Bungalow Summary
In Hammond’s cozy bungalow in a secluded corner of the park, he and Wu have just finished dinner. Wu notices something different about the old man, a new kind of stubbornness. It is an “insistence on having his own way” and a “complete refusal to deal with” the current situation in the park.
After being presented with the evidence that his genetically engineered female dinosaurs are breeding, Wu wanted to go immediately to his laboratory and do some checking, as the implications of breeding dinosaurs capable of living in the wild are terrifying. Hammond, however, insisted that Wu join him for dinner.
Wu notices Hammond’s computer monitor is not working. Hammond assumes it is out because of the storm; when he cannot reach the control room, he assumes it is because Nedry is working on the system. Wu wants to check, but Hammond insists he stay for dessert. Wu is worried about Hammond’s grandchildren being frightened in the storm. Hammond says if anything were wrong he would have heard about it. Hammond does admit to one fear: he created Jurassic Park for children and is afraid he will not live long enough to see the wonder on their faces as they view his creation.
When Wu suggests there are other, more important things to be worried about on the island, Hammond is dismissive and repeats an argument Wu has heard many times before. Hammond believes government and business restrictions make it virtually impossible to do beneficial research and make money. No one needs entertainment so it is not regulated; therefore, the potential is limitless. Already InGen has purchased land for two new Jurassic Parks. Hammond estimates it will soon be a twenty billion dollar a year industry.
The guards return to the control room and tell Arnold that Nedry left the building with one of the Jeeps ten or fifteen minutes ago.
Harding screeches the Jeep to a stop as a small herd of apatosaurs, about the size of horses, crosses the road. The animals are unhurried and take no notice of the Jeep; Harding explains that while the dinosaurs see the vehicle, it is of no interest to them because it represents no threat to them. Like most amphibians, they do not see things that are not moving.
Wu warns Hammond that he may well find himself the target of governments and scientists who want to contain or even stop the research InGen is doing. Hammond retorts that he owns this island and can therefore do whatever he wishes with it, and nothing can stop him from “opening Jurassic Park to all the children of the world.”
The Jeep is near the jungle river, and soon a herd of precompsognathids is crossing the road. It is odd for compys to be out at night, but they are scavengers and are probably going to feast on a dead or dying animal. Sattler would like to follow them, and Harding is curious enough to turn around and follow the creatures.
Fourth Iteration: Tim Summary
In the mutilated Land Cruiser, Tim Murphy slowly regains consciousness. Everything aches and all he wants to do is sleep; still he sits up a bit, promptly vomits, and tries to “get his bearings.” He is still in the vehicle, which has been flipped over on its side, and the rain has almost stopped. Tim sees the broken windshield but cannot remember how it happened. In fact, all he remembers is talking to Doctor Grant on the radio when the tyrannosaur stopped between the two cars.
He waits for the nausea to subside and realizes the car is swaying back and forth. When he is finally able to stand up and look out of the broken windshield, he is horrified to see that the Land Cruiser is laying on its side in the branches of a tree—twenty feet above the ground.
As he absorbs this reality, the car begins to shift, dropping several feet. Tim knows he must get out before it crashes to the ground, but none of the doors will open and he does not know what else to try. Below him the recovered stegosaur lumbers through the forest. Tim finally gets the back door open and it promptly falls onto a branch several feet below, leaving a narrow opening he thinks he can squeeze through. He manages to fall with a thud onto a lower branch and is then forced to climb quickly when the Land Cruiser also begins to fall. When he is twelve feet off the ground, Tim is forced to jump or be crushed by the falling car, so he jumps. The vehicle falls next, landing with a crash and a “sudden hot burst of electrical sparks that sting his skin and sputter and sizzle on the wet ground around him.”
The stegosaur plods back toward the wreck. Tim throw rocks at it to deter the animal. When he hits it in the head, the dinosaur slowly shuffles away. Tim needs to figure out where he is and find the others and remembers the night vision goggles. Soon he discovers the other mutilated vehicle laying on its side. It is empty, but he sees his sister’s baseball laying in the mud. He feels panic rising and begins to holler Lex’s name. Finally he sits down in the mud and cries; when he stops, he hears a quiet whimpering somewhere ahead of him.
In the control room, Muldoon distributes six emergency portable radios; after twenty minutes of charging, they will be ready to use. There is still no sign of Nedry.
In the fertilization laboratory, Wu notices that someone has been in the embryo freezer. He wonders why Grant was sure that the use of supplemental frog DNA has something to do with the animals breeding. Wu runs the computer program to see on which animals it was used and is shocked that the only five breeds of dinosaurs to have frog DNA are the same five which are now breeding. Grant was right.
Fourth Iteration: Lex Summary
It is black outside, but with his night vision goggles Tim Murphy discovers his sister in a one-meter drainage pipe under the road. Lex has her baseball glove in her mouth and is rocking and hitting her head on the back of the pipe as she whimpers, but she seems unhurt and Tim is relieved. His attempts to cajole her out are futile at first. The girl is terrified of the animals, particularly the tyrannosaur, but eventually she emerges and Tim is relieved to see that, other than some dried blood on her forehead, she seems to be unhurt. Lex asks about Grant, whom she had seen earlier; she begins to holler for him and in a moment Grant appears. Other than a torn shirt, he seems unhurt as well.
After Regis panicked and ran from the Land Cruiser and the children, he sought refuge in some boulders before the shame and guilt overcame him. Though he always assumed he would be “cool under pressure,” he had been compelled to run by an overwhelming panic. Now, a half hour later, he is ready to move and is repulsed by the leeches he realizes attached themselves to him when he rolled down the hill in the mud. He hears Lex calling for Grant and notices there is no panic in her voice. The others must have survived and the tyrannosaur must be gone, and this realization suddenly boosts his resolve. He begins to think rationally again, planning what should be done next. As he starts to walk up the hill toward the vehicles, he realizes they are no longer there and Lex is no longer calling. Since something might have happened to her and he is already much closer to the compound from the bottom of the hill, he turns in the eerie silence and starts walking back to camp.
Doctor Grant examines the children. Lex is fine, but Tim has a broken nose and his right shoulder is badly bruised and swollen. Grant’s chest is torn and sore from the tyrannosaur’s claws when it kicked him, but all three of them are able to walk. They have to tell someone about the raptors on the ship, but Grant remembers the smaller dark shape he saw before the tyrannosaur attacked; it must have been the young tyrannosaur.
Suddenly they see Regis walking at the bottom of the hill and they silently watch as the juvenile tyrannosaur suddenly bounds to the man and appears to be playing with him. The creature seems confused by all of Regis’s sound and movement, but eventually it wearies of the game and takes a large bite of the man’s flesh. It is an especially horrifying sight to Tim, who is wearing the night goggles, and he drops them and tries to fight back his nausea. They fall with a “metallic clink,” just loudly enough to attract the dinosaur’s attention. When the tyrannosaur looks up at them, Grant grabs both children’s hands and begins to run.
Fourth Iteration: Control, Part 1 Summary
Harding, Gennaro, and Sattler are in the Jeep, following the moving group of compys; just as they see what they think what may be headlights on the road ahead of them, the radio begins to crackle. The transmission is intermittent, but Harding manages to understand that the Jeep he is driving is needed back at camp so Muldoon can go rescue the rest of the visitors; he is not able to understand why, but he turns around and drives back to the visitor center. Muldoon is greets them, shouting and waving his arms.
Hammond is in the control room, cursing at Arnold and insisting the man bring Hammond’s grandchildren back to safety immediately. Wu watches, stunned. Unlike Hammond, Arnold knows that screaming and insisting will not expedite matters; in fact, Hammond’s ranting is ineffectual in the face of this problem since technology does not care who yells at it.
Arnold has realized that Nedry is unlikely to come back, so he must discover the code which will help him determine what went wrong and how to fix it. The “painstaking job” requires calm concentration, so he asks Hammond to go downstairs to the cafeteria; assuring him that someone will get him when there is any news about the children. Hammond leaves, insisting he does not “want a Malcolm Effect here.” Arnold assures him that will not happen.
Arnold begins examining the computer code and realizes the Jurassic Park computers contain more than half a million lines of undocumented, unexplained code which must be inspected. He and Wu both understand the impossible task ahead.
Fourth Iteration: The Road Summary
Muldoon and Gennaro race in the Jeep toward the last known location of the Land Cruisers and, presumably, the visitors. No one has heard anything from them in the past hour, and both men fear something must have happened to them.
At the bottom of the hill near where the cars stopped during the power outage, the men see “something white, lying among the ferns by the side of the road.” Muldoon stops the car and Gennaro is appalled to see a human leg wearing the same shoe Ed Regis had been wearing. Muldoon examines the limb and determines that it was torn, not bitten, from the rest of the body. He is certain this was done by the T-rex and wraps the bloody limb in a tarp before handing it to a nauseated Gennaro to wedge into the back of the Jeep so it will not roll around.
Muldoon accelerates the car up the hill; when the men reach the top, the headlights point down and they see one of the mutilated Land Cruisers. They finally see the other one, crumpled under a tree twenty yards away. Gennaro is shocked when Muldoon explains that the tyrannosaur must have thrown the cars. Muldoon takes a deep breath before going to look for the visitors.
When he worked in Africa, Muldoon saw many animal attack scenes and knows that they are not likely to find the gory, mangled spectacle which Gennaro is undoubtedly afraid of seeing. Most of the time, the victims were bloodlessly killed and then taken away, leaving little or no evidence behind; so he does not expect to find anything here. But he is surprised to find something in the first vehicle.
Muldoon discovers a broken watch, a broken radio, and some fresh vomit. The watch no longer works, but the band is not broken. It is likely that the boy realized the watch, like the radio, was broken and took it off; it seems clear that Tim survived the crushing attack on the Land Cruiser and, for whatever reason, decided to leave the car. Muldoon examines the ground for footprints, but Gennaro does not share the man’s hopefulness and is determined to shut the park down immediately.
The signs indicate that at least one child, maybe two, and at least one adult survived the attack, and Muldoon begins to follow their tracks. Suddenly they hear a soft wheezing; it is not an animal and it is not the wind. It is Malcolm, hidden in the foliage. He appears unhurt until Gennaro shines the flashlight on the man’s legs. Malcolm has used his belt to make a tourniquet on his twisted and bloody right leg. Malcolm tries to tell them where Lex went but cannot.
The park is too big to search randomly, so the men take Malcolm back to the compound to save his life and will use motion sensors to find the visitors. Gennaro will have to tell Hammond about his grandchildren.
Fourth Iteration: Control, Part 2 Summary
Gennaro is shocked at Hammond’s reaction after Gennaro told the old man that his grandchildren are missing somewhere in the park. Hammond calmly eats ice cream and insists they will be found as soon as the equipment is running again. After all, he designed the park for kids and this is just a “regrettable, unfortunate accident.” He is confident Muldoon will have the children back even before he finishes his ice cream.
In the control room, Wu suggests that Arnold check the safety systems at the main panel; the Keycheck safety system records every keystroke made by every operator who has access to the system. Arnold follows the codes Nedry entered and can see that Nedry had been trying to turn off all the safety systems so no one would see what he was doing. Nedry did not know, however, that no one was allowed to turn off the safety systems without “manually flipping switches on the main board.”
The last code Nedry entered was whte_rbt.obj. An “object” is a block of code which can be moved around and can serve many kinds of functions. Arnold searches and finally discovers that whte_rbt.obj is a command, and both Arnold and Wu are stunned to see that what they assumed was a bug in the park’s computer system is actually a trap door. This command “links the security and the perimeter systems and then turns them off.” This one command afforded Nedry complete access to every area in Jurassic Park.
Now that this command has been identified, Arnold will be able to turn everything back on once he figures out the command to do so; in the meantime, Wu remembers that someone had been in his freezer and goes to the fertilization room to count his embryos.
Sattler answers the knock on her door, assuming it is Grant; instead Muldoon is standing there. He is dirty and wet and has a plastic-wrapped package tucked under his arm. He is sorry to bother her but explains that Malcolm needs a doctor immediately; Muldoon needs her to help Harding, who is on his way. The phone lines are out so there is no way to get another doctor to the island.
Sattler asks about Grant and the children, but all Muldoon tells her is that they seem to be alive together somewhere in the park. After he leaves, Sattler does not panic as she remembers how Grant had once been stranded for four days in the Badlands. Even with a broken leg, he managed to get himself to safety. If the children are lost in Jurassic Park, they are lucky to be with a dinosaur expert who knows how to survive impossible circumstances.
Fourth Iteration: Into the Park Summary
It is almost nine o’clock. Lex is tired and insists that Grant carry her. While he and Tim walk, Grant is trying to discover where they are. He suspects they are in the tyrannosaurus paddock, a dangerous place to be even though there is no sign of either dinosaur. The positive thing is that as soon as they reach some kind of fence or barrier, they will know they have left this most dangerous area.
Lex falls asleep and Grant asks the boy how he is holding up. Tim says he is doing fine and agrees that they are in the tyrannosaur area. Grant wants to move into the woods so he can navigate by the numbers on the motion sensors, which appear to be numbered in descending order. Tim realizes the numbers are getting smaller as they approach the visitor center, and Grant commends his acuity.
Tim says his parents are getting a divorce. His father has already moved out; he never carries Lex anymore and he says Tim has “dinosaurs on the brain.” Tim does not really miss his father, and he is not sure how he feels about his mother’s new boyfriend. Tim often hears his mother and the man arguing loudly.
Grant says his wife died a long time ago. Tim assumes Grant and Sattler are now dating, but Grant explains that Sattler is actually his student who will be marrying a doctor in Chicago sometime next year. Grant has no children and has no plans to marry. Neither does Tim.
The group has to keep walking for at least a few more hours; they have another fifteen hours before the ship arrives on the mainland. Both Grant and Tim are concerned about where they will spend the night. Grant remembers the blueprints he saw and remembers that outbuildings are scattered throughout the park, though he has no idea what or where they might be. The group cannot just wander and hope to find one, so Grant climbs a high tree to survey the area.
Grant is surprised to see how close they are to the end of the forest; the fence and moat marking the end of the tyrannosaurus area is just ahead of them. He puts on the night goggles and sees what he is looking for. About a quarter of a mile from here he sees a service road which leads to a low-roofed outbuilding. Grant is concerned that more than two hours have passed since the blackout occurred and still the lights and sensors are not working.
Though Tim is afraid of heights, all three of them climb the twelve-foot fence and wade through the smelly water in the moat. Soon they are at the outbuilding and hear the distant roar of a tyrannosaur. The building is open, blocked only with a gate. All three are able to slip through the bars and they settle into the hay together and sleep.
Fourth Iteration: Control, Part 3 Summary
Muldoon and Gennaro enter the control room just as Arnold discovers the command he needs to restore the original security code. The new command also erases all evidence that anyone had ever manipulated the security system, something Arnold says is “pretty slick.” He enters the command and immediately the lights in the park begin to shine; it will take a little longer for all the electric fences and motion sensors to be fully operational. It is nine thirty and everything is operating correctly again.
Grant wakes up for a moment when the lights shine, and he knows all he has to do is get the attention of the nearest motion sensor and someone will come get them; however, he decides he can wait just a few more moments and falls back asleep.
In the control room, Arnold identifies three areas which are experiencing some kind of short circuit. One is where the tyrannosaur knocked the fence out, another is near the sauropod maintenance building, and the third is near the jungle river. The motion sensors have now counted everything that moves, and there is no indication of Grant or the children. Arnold assures Gennaro that the three visitors have undoubtedly found a sheltered place to hide or are sleeping (and therefore motionless) and so were not counted. The adult tyrannosaur is also not accounted for and probably sleeping.
Muldoon will take the maintenance crew and begin herding the stray dinosaurs back into their proper areas; he will need Harding in about an hour to “supervise the herding.” Arnold will update Hammond on what is being done.
Gennaro meets Sattler in the Safari Lodge as she is boiling the dressings for Malcolm’s wounds. The mathematician is doing very well, a little high on the morphine Harding is administering but also in some pain. He is suffering from a compound fracture of his leg, and it is probably septic. He explains that he began running away from the Land Cruiser and from the tyrannosaur in the rain; he was panicked or he would have realized he could not outrun the gigantic creature. Malcolm remembers being swooped up in the animal’s mouth and shows Gennaro the “broad semicircle of bruised punctures” running from his navel to his shoulders.
The tyrannosaur shook him around a bit, but Malcolm was still fine until the creature threw him to the ground. That is when he broke his leg. Despite the fact that the animal weighs eight tons, Malcolm somehow feels as if he did not have the dinosaur’s “full attention” when it attacked him. It was more as if the creature were playing with him.
Harding and Gennaro have to leave, and Malcolm says he will be fine with Sattler and his IV morphine as long as there is no Malcolm Effect. He modestly does not explain the phenomenon named for him and then falls asleep. Harding wants a helicopter from the mainland to retrieve Malcolm because he requires surgery.
Fourth Iteration: The Park Summary
Muldoon and two maintenance men finally find the cause of the short-circuited area of the fence near the jungle river. A tree which had been tied down with guy wires and metal turnbuckles fell onto the fence in the storm, and the metal pieces caused the outage. It should only take twenty minutes to repair, which is good since Muldoon knows that the dilophosaurs stay close to the river and can spit their poison even through the fence. One of the men points out the faint lights which look like the lights of an unmoving car. After the fence is repaired, they will investigate.
In the control room, Arnold is feeling good about how things are progressing on the island, so he indulges Gennaro and explains the Malcolm Effect. It is a complicated theory about predictability in the midst of chaos, but in its simplest terms, Malcolm wrote a report claiming his chaos theory proves the “inherent instability” of Jurassic Park. No one on the island believes the report; after all, the park is replete with living systems, not computer models. Living systems are always changing, and Malcolm’s model does not account for the necessity of those changes. Missiles work because of a theory called “resonant yaw,” which means if even one thing is slightly off—if it “wobbles”—the entire system is compromised and will not work. Those same wobbles are necessary in living systems.
Hammond shouts at the men to be careful as they hoist the seven-foot-long tranquilized hypsilophodont onto a flatbed truck so they can move it back to its own paddock. Harding insists they are being careful as he checks the dinosaur’s temperature. Harding had been chief of veterinary medicine at the San Diego Zoo and is the world’s leading authority on avian care. Professionally he had accomplished everything, and when Hammond first approached him, Harding declined the offer. It was only when he learned exactly what Hammond had created that Harding agreed to come to Jurassic Park. The idea of being the first to learn and write about the care of an entirely new species, dinosaurs, had been too enticing. He has never regretted that decision. When the animal is back where it should be, Hammond gives an injection and the dinosaur will be fine within the hour.
The section of the fence near the sauropod maintenance building is bloody and has been knocked flat; it is clear the adult tyrannosaurus has moved into the sauropod paddock. Hammond is distressed at the thought of losing any of his precious creations, but Harding says they have nothing big enough to tranquilize the huge animal because Hammond never wanted any of his precious dinosaurs to be hurt and ordered no equipment. The only possible weapon which might work on the tyrannosaur is in the car Nedry took.
Arnold is still confident that in a couple of hours, by dawn, everything in the park will be completely under control.
Fourth Iteration: Dawn Summary
Grant is dismayed that he fell asleep, but it is only five o’clock when he wakes and there is still enough time to contact the ship before it reaches the mainland. Grant sees the maintenance building for the sauropod paddock and enters; he tries the phone and gets nothing but static. Then he hears Lex's voice and investigates.
Lex is feeding hay to a round, pink baby triceratops which is as big as a pony. The creature’s head is stuck through the metal bars of the building and it munches contentedly; it almost purrs when she pets it. She has named the animal Ralph and wants to ride it, but just then Ralph starts to get agitated. His mother, six feet long, has come for her baby; after peering intently at Grant and Lex, she gently nudges Ralph ahead of her into the field.
Grant wants to set off the motion sensors so they can be rescued; so all three of them slip through the bars and into the park. It is dawn and the park is warm and humid. In the distance, a group of duckbilled hadrosaurs at the edge of the lagoon peacefully eat foliage; in the far distance, a giant apatosaur swivels his head harmlessly above the trees. A huge dragonfly lands on Tim’s arm before flitting away again. The scene is so peaceful that Grant cannot imagine any danger this morning. The nearest sensor is not working, so the visitors walk toward another one across the field. In the distance they hear the roar of a large animal.
In the control room, Arnold is frustrated because the telephones remain out although everything else is working again. Nedry jammed them, and Arnold has not been able to discover the command to return them to service. Wu suggests Arnold shut the entire system down in order to reset the computer, but Arnold is reluctant. He has not done that before and cannot be certain everything will come back on if he does.
Gennaro storms in and demands that a doctor be contacted, as Malcolm is getting worse. Though Arnold explains his reluctance to reset the system, Gennaro insists that no more people should die here, so Arnold flips the switch. Everything goes black and he turns the system back on in thirty seconds.
As they walk through the field, Lex smells something rank and the hadrosaurs are suddenly agitated, as if they smell it, too. Suddenly the tyrannosaur bursts from the trees fifty yards away. Ignoring the humans, it goes straight for the hadrosaurs. Grant and the children hide among some boulders as the herd of five-ton hadrosaurs thunder past them. Finally the ground stills.
The reset works. Gennaro notices the strange swirling pattern on the motion monitor. It is stampeding hadrosaurs near the lagoon. After the dust clears, Arnold can see that the tyrannosaur has stopped; he assumes it killed one of the hadrosaurs near the lagoon. He sends Muldoon to go see “how bad it is.”
Fourth Iteration: The Park, Part 2 Summary
Grant and the children sit in a tree when they see a duck-billed hadrosaur nibbling leaves off the branch they are on. The herbivore is not threatening (it rather reminds Grant of a cud-chewing cow), and Grant does an experiment. When he coughs, both the hadrosaur and its baby are frightened; however, it is clear to Grant that the animal standing only a few feet from him cannot see him. When Lex moves a bit, the animals move in agitation again. Soon the adult returns to the tree and begins eating. Grant’s theory is confirmed: dinosaurs cannot see humans unless the humans move.
In the control room, Arnold is methodically checking the park for the Jeep Nedry took. Muldoon is adamant that it be found because it contains the most powerful weapon on the island. Hammond summons Arnold to the genetics lab where he is waiting with Henry Wu.
In the shed, Grant finds detailed plans of the park and Tim finds a compressed-air pistol with six tranquilizer darts. As the visitors walk out of the shed toward a dock on the river, they suddenly find themselves a mere twenty yards from the giant tyrannosaur. All three humans immediately freeze, and Grant realizes the dinosaur is sated from his hadrosaur meal and is now sleeping, though it is sitting up. Rafting down the river will return them to the compound much more quickly than walking, so Grant inflates the raft, gathers life jackets and oars, and summons Tim and Lex to come—always fearing the tyrannosaur might wake up. It does not, and soon they are settled into the raft and beginning to move.
Unfortunately, Lex cannot stifle her coughing due to a sudden tickle in her throat. Grant steers the raft to the center of the river as the giant creature slowly and awkwardly rouses. In a moment it has entered the river and Grant realizes the dinosaur is walking on the riverbed; only its eyes and the top of his head are visible above the water. The tyrannosaur looks exactly like a gigantic crocodile.
Now the enormous head is only a few yards away, and Grant knows the plastic oars are ineffectual weapons. The creature opens its jaws and lunges at the raft, but his aim is off and it sinks below the surface. When it reappears, Grant shoots it in the face with one of the tranquilizer darts. This angers the animal and it roars. The visitors are terrified and hear an answering roar from land. It is the juvenile tyrannosaur, claiming the hadrosaur kill. The adult dinosaur responds immediately, swimming to shore to go protect its kill.
The defiant youngster takes a bite of flesh as it runs into the forest once the enraged adult arrives. Grant is relieved and can barely breathe after straining so hard at the oars. It is seven fifteen: the raft is floating north toward the hotel and Grant collapses into sleep.
Fifth Iteration: Search Summary
Gennaro and Muldoon drive to the site of the hadrosaur-tyrannosaur skirmish to survey the damage. It is clear the tyrannosaur has been here as the site looks like a battleground, but the men have no weapons to combat it if they encounter the giant dinosaur. Gennaro mistakenly believes the Jeep can outrun the dinosaur, but Muldoon assures him that is not the case. They carefully leave the vehicle and examine the mutilated carcass; Muldoon determines that the young animal fell behind the herd and was caught and killed by the tyrannosaur. Muldoon calls Arnold and gives him the identification number of the dead animal. Arnold also has news: he has found Nedry.
The men drive to the other Jeep which Arnold found, and Muldoon tells Gennaro that Nedry stole millions of dollars worth of frozen embryos. They see Nedry’s body covered with small green compys, but after they scamper away, still close enough to watch the humans, Muldoon see that Nedry was actually killed by poison from a dilophosaur and thinks the man’s horrible death was a kind of justice for his crime. As Gennaro retrieves the weapons from the back seat of the Jeep, the procompsognathids are jumping and squeaking impatiently. As soon as the men drive away, the compys again begin feasting irreverently on Nedry.
The raft containing Grant and the children is still drifting lazily down the jungle river. It is eight o’clock and Lex is hungry. She wants to eat some of the berries she sees some small dinosaurs eating, but Grant will not let her. She wishes her father were here, as she thinks he always knows what to do. Tim is exasperated and says their father never knows the right thing to do. Lex knows Tim only thinks that because she is their father’s favorite and he does not appreciate his son’s interest in computers and dinosaurs instead of sports. The siblings begin to bicker until they hear a “bloodcurdling shriek, from somewhere downriver.”
Muldoon and Gennaro are back at the sauropod paddock and they still do not see the tyrannosaur. Arnold finally decides to check the motion sensors for the creature, and Muldoon is disgusted that he has not already been doing such a simple check to keep track of the most dangerous dinosaur in the park as well as the unprotected visitors. Arnold tells them the motion sensors have not detected either the T-rex or the humans. All he can tell Muldoon and Gennaro to do is wait.
Ahead of them, along the riverbank, Grant and the children see the large dome of the aviary; Grant remembers the plans showed a second lodge near the aviary so they decide to stop there. Time is running out and they need to find a working telephone.
Fifth Iteration: Aviary Summary
Arnold talks to Malcolm over the telephone, tired and frustrated that he has been unable to locate the tyrannosaur or the humans. The coughing mathematician reminds Arnold that the motion sensors only cover ninety-two percent of the park; it is likely that the remaining eight percent is contiguous and that is where the dinosaur, and perhaps the humans, are likely to be. Malcolm suggests Grant may have the kids with him in a raft on the river. Arnold hopes that is not the case because it passes so close to the aviary.
The original plans for Jurassic Park called for a treetop lodge to be built overlooking the aviary, but it remains unfinished because the workers discovered the large birds in the aviary are “fiercely territorial.” The dactyls will attack any other creature that enters the territory they have marked out for themselves. The thirty-pound winged creatures fly to the top of the aviary, fold their wings in, and dive. The impact is enough to knock a man unconscious. Several workers were seriously injured before the project was scrapped.
Arnold hopes Grant and the children are nowhere near the aviary, but that is exactly where they are. Once they discover the lodge is unfinished, they walk back to the raft. Above them, first one and then four or five large dactyls are flying. They have a fifteen-foot wingspan, furry bodies, and heads like crocodiles. Grant realizes they are fish-eating cearadactyls and assumes they will not harm humans. Suddenly they attack. One pecks Lex on the head; she is too heavy for the dactyl to carry away but it is “jabbing at her head with its long pointed jaw.”
There is a furious flurry of claws and wings, but suddenly the dactyls fly away. They have taken Lex’s baseball glove and left. Before they do, Grant is amazed to see one of the creatures walk on its wings like legs. They quickly get in the raft and leave.
It is eight-thirty; they only have two and a half hours left to get word to the ship. The river is barely wider than the raft and the current is moving them more quickly now. As Grant answers Tim’s question about frog DNA, the giant Tyrannosaur’s head swoops down from above but is stopped from attacking by the thick foliage. It tries again, unsuccessfully, before moving off downstream.
Malcolm tells Sattler to gather water and other emergency supplies, as he expects something catastrophic to happen. The morphine makes him philosophical, and he talks about the irresponsibility of scientists who are compelled to "make something unnatural happen."
The raft has to stop because two dilophosaurs are standing right on the bank ahead of them. Grant determines they are involved in a pre-mating ritual which could take hours, but they are interrupted by the appearance of the tyrannosaur. When the creatures turn to honk at the intruder, Grant takes advantage of the distraction and floats the raft past them.
Fifth Iteration: Tyrannosaur Summary
Arnold locates the tyrannosaur moving along the riverbank and radios the information to Muldoon and Gennaro in the Jeep. When Arnold reminds Muldoon not to hurt the most popular attraction in Jurassic Park, Muldoon is disgusted that anyone still considers the park a tourist attraction. He asks Gennaro to prepare the canisters of tranquilizers. As they drive closer, Muldoon tells Gennaro that dinosaurs are difficult to classify because they are all so different; however, raptors are so smart that if any of them ever escaped their enclosures there would be more trouble than one could imagine.
They watch the tyrannosaur walk and snap at something along the riverbank, as if it were stalking prey which is just out of its reach. After Muldoon turns the Jeep around, Gennaro gets into the driver’s seat and straps on his seat belt while Muldoon kneels ten yards behind the Jeep and takes aim at the tyrannosaur’s head.
He misses his first shot but captures the animal’s attention. After he takes a second shot, the tyrannosaur roars and thunders toward him. He manages to get inside the Jeep and screams at Gennaro to gun it. The dinosaur follows for a short time before emitting a final roar and turning around. Muldoon thinks his second shot missed, too, because the battery for the laser sight is dead.
The raft is moving fast; when he realizes there is a waterfall ahead, Grant jams an oar into the mud and stops the raft just before it makes the fifty-foot drop—where the tyrannosaur is waiting for them. Suddenly the raft breaks loose and its passengers are thrown into the water. Once he hits the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, Grant grabs a branch on the bank and manages to drag himself out of the current. He also grabs Tim, but above them they see that the tyrannosaur has Lex’s orange life vest in his mouth.
Grant manages to drag Lex ashore. They begin to run back the way they came, as the dinosaur looks for them downstream. They follow a service road behind the waterfall where Grant discovers a door leading to what he hopes is an electric car. The door slams shut behind him, separating him from the children.
Grant gropes and finds a flashlight; he sees the electric cart and a young, frightened velociraptor which immediately attacks him. Grant shoots the tranquilizer gun. It is a young male raptor, and Grant is excited to realize the creature has been bred in the wild. He is trapped here unless the door is opened from the outside.
The tyrannosaur suddenly bursts its head through the waterfall and roars. Its grotesque four-foot tongue gropes for the children until it finally starts to drag Tim toward its foul mouth. Lex tries to hold him and Tim feels his death is inevitable until the tongue miraculously relaxes and releases the boy. The animal’s jaws snap shut and bite into its tongue and its giant head slips backwards and disappears.
Fifth Iteration: Control Summary
In the control room, Muldoon realizes his second shot hit its mark but it took the animal an hour to react. Just as Arnold is gloating that none of Malcolm’s dire predictions have come true and the park is “completely under control again,” a blinking light warns that auxiliary power is running low. This is puzzling, since Arnold does not think anything is running on auxiliary. Suddenly the power is gone.
Tim sees a dart piercing the tyrannosaur just behind its ear. The animal’s labored breathing fills Tim with compassion and he reminds Lex that it was only trying to eat them because that is what carnivores instinctively do. Suddenly the waterfall trickles to a halt and the door behind them opens. The power has obviously gone out, but Grant appears and takes them to the electric car.
Auxiliary power is supposed to come on after a reset and then trigger the main power switch, which it did not do. For the past five hours, the electric fences have not been on. Muldoon immediately fears the velociraptors have gotten out of the enclosures. Muldoon gives commands: Wu will man the computers, Arnold will manually turn on the main power, and Hammond will lock himself into the lodge and wait. When Hammond whines about what will happen to his animals, Muldoon snaps that he should be more worried about what those animals might do to them. He and Gennaro get the remaining six tranquilizer canisters to fight the eight raptors.
Outside, they find Arnold trapped against the maintenance shed by three velociraptors closing in for the kill. Muldoon shoots one of them and it explodes. The distraction allows Arnold to enter the shed, but the remaining raptors turn on Muldoon and Genarro. The raptors let Gennaro go and focus their attack on Muldoon.
Once it is quiet outside, Arnold props the door with his shoe and carefully maneuvers the catwalk until he sees the thin strip of light is blocked by a velociraptor sniffing his shoe. He moves quietly, but the creature is able to jump. The raptor kills him.
Muldoon stuffs himself into a drainage pipe and the raptors are keeping their distance since he blew one of their legs off; he hopes the other end of the pipe is not open.
Everyone is waiting for the power to come back on as Gennaro quietly enters the maintenance shed and discovers a bloody raptor. He gropes in the dark for a weapon; when he holds his hand out, the creature bites down and jerks his head, throwing Gennaro to the ground.
Malcolm is weaker but when he hears the horrific sounds outside, he knows his dire predictions for the park have come true. Hammond is a fool because he created what he knew nothing about and then assumed his creations would simply obey him. This is the “end of the scientific era,” and Malcolm says none of them have any idea how close to death they all are.
Sixth Iteration: Return Summary
Grant drives the cart with the children and the young velociraptor; it is ten o’clock. At the visitor center garage, they cage the raptor before going upstairs and finding a horrible scene of death and destruction. Grant grabs a radio and tries to explain to Muldoon that they must contact the ship, but Muldoon says there is no electricity and the survivors in the safari lodge only have about another fifteen minutes to live. The raptors are able to chew through metal and are even now working on the metal bars above them.
Muldoon is injured and Wu has to run the computers, so Sattler decides to act as “bait,” distracting the raptors from the roof and allowing Grant time to turn the power back on. Sattler rattles the fence to draw the raptor’s attention and is barely able to protect herself as they crash into the fence trying to attack her, giving Grant time to reach the dark maintenance shed.
Wu gives him directions over the radio and soon the power is back on; now Grant has to go to the control room and let Wu talk him through manually restoring the system. Grant hears Gennaro shouting that he is in a truck and Grant runs to him. Gennaro escaped the raptor because it was wounded and hid in the truck to avoid all the compys.
As Tim prepares to cook something for Lex, he sees a six-foot tall velociraptor slinking through the dining room towards the kitchen. Tim hides Lex in a corner to protect her before placing some steaks in a path to lure the creature into the freezer and then trying to make himself as unobtrusive as possible. It is a maddeningly terrifying process, but the raptor eventually takes the last steak and the children lock the roaring animal in the freezer.
Though breeding dinosaurs validates Wu’s ambitions, he is disturbed by the raptors’ behavior at the fence and realizes that the animals have a plan. He opens the door to warn Sattler and is snatched from above and eaten. Sattler races to a tree and climbs up on the roof, knowing there is a door there. It is locked. She jumps off the roof into a swimming pool below; the raptors do not follow. She hears Harding call to her and knows he has opened the roof door; the raptors are heading to him. She runs inside and Harding manages to close the door on the clawing raptors.
Grant and Gennaro run to the visitor center. Tim and Lex go to the control room to find a radio. No one in the lodge knows how to work the computers, so Tim does his best and eventually restarts the systems. They can see Malcolm, Sattler, and Muldoon on one monitor; raptors on the roof of the lodge are on another; and on a third is the ship about to dock in Puntarenas on the mainland. Muldoon shouts at Tim to turn the power grid on now.
Sixth Iteration: The Grid Summary
Tim is in the control room, struggling to return to the main computer screen as Lex screams in his ear and jumps up and down, making him even more nervous. Finally he gets to the correct screen but is not familiar with the commands. In frustration he starts punching all kinds of buttons, and he has no idea what to try next. Lex finally demands his attention and makes him listen to the noise in the hallway. The velociraptors have arrived.
Above Malcolm’s bed, the raptors have almost bitten through the second metal bar and are already sticking their heads through the shattered glass to threaten the humans below. In another few minutes the rapacious creatures will be able to drop in from the roof. Muldoon calls Tim on the radio but gets no answer.
Tim quietly looks out the door and sees a raptor at the other end of the hallway near the balcony. He wonders how it managed to escape from the freezer until suddenly another raptor appears from below. Tim makes the stunning realization that it did not escape; these are different creatures and they must have jumped from ten feet below with their incredible leg strength. He tries to think but is struggling, especially when he sees a third raptor jump onto the balcony. The creatures mill about aimlessly for a moment before heading, single file, toward the control room.
As Tim pushes backwards, trying to open the control room door so he and Lex can escape before the dinosaurs see them, the children see that a light outside the door is now glowing red. The security system has been activated; the door is now locked and can only be opened with a security card. In a panic, Tim looks around and sees that every other door in the hallway also has a glowing red light and is therefore also locked. The siblings have nowhere to go.
Tim sees a dead guard lying at the end of the corridor and the children dash to retrieve the man’s security card before being seen. Tim is able to grab the card, but the raptors have spotted them and are blocking the hallway back to the control room. The creatures fan out, circling the children, as their heads rhythmically bob and duck. An attack is imminent.
Tim only has one option: he slides the security card into the slot of the nearest door and shoves his sister inside before the door begins to close slowly behind them. The animals hiss and charge.
Sixth Iteration: Lodge Summary
Malcolm is dying and Harding is extremely concerned. Sattler is wrapped in a blanket, shivering, and Muldoon is sitting on the floor against the wall. Hammond just stares upward in silence. They are all listening for any noise on the radio, but it remains silent. Malcolm calls the velociraptors ugly and Hammond says he could never have imagined his grand plans ending this way. Malcolm claims he did not imagine it; he calculated it.
Hammond does not want to hear any more defamation, but Malcolm is undeterred. He continues his tirade, saying Hammond tried to control nature and now he knows that nature will not be controlled. The old man does not comprehend what the mathematician is saying. They all hope Tim is doing what they are all trying to do, “get control of the situation.” They wonder where Grant is.
Grant returns to the visitor center and discovers the doors have been security-locked and he does not have a security card. He runs around the building looking for the children where he left them, but they are gone. Grant hears the snarling raptors in a nearby hallway.
Tim shrieks in fright when he feels the reptile skin against his face and the claws tear his shirt. They are in the nursery. The baby raptor burrows into his neck, terrified, and Tim realizes the poor thing must be starving. The animal hops onto Lex’s shoulder then back to Tim’s and is now hopping up and down in agitation. Lex realizes the door to the hallway did not close behind them and the first velociraptor is coming through the door, followed by the second.
Tim pulls Lex to the back of the nursery as the two raptors fight over their next meal, the baby. While they are distracted, the children enter the next room. They hear the raptors pursuing them and run through the laboratory and through a door. The children run down the dark corridor in terror and despair—until they literally run into Grant and Gennaro.
Grant insists he has a plan and makes Gennaro take the kids into the control room; he watches the raptors silently regroup and come toward him like a pack of trained hunters. Behind him Gennaro and the children watch through the glass window. It is up to Grant now.
He enters the hatchery where biohazardous toxins are kept. As the raptors search for him in the dark, Grant finds a needle full of poison and injects some dinosaur eggs, rolling them at the creatures. Two raptors eat the eggs and die; the third gets distracted but is still in pursuit. Grant remembers the radio in his pocket and commands Sattler to talk. He sets the radio down and the raptor is drawn to the sound. When the creature is unbearably close, Grant jabs the needle into its tail and injects the poison. The velociraptor is furious and kicks at Grant several times before it finally falls. Gennaro and the children rush in and take Grant to the control room.
Sixth Iteration: Control Summary
The computer screen in the control room flashes on and off and Tim does not know why. Grant does not understand computers, so Tim sits at the controls and presses buttons until he brings the video monitors to life. On one screen they can all see the ship; it is only about two hundred yards from the dock at Puntarenas. On another monitor they see the raptors on the ceiling of the room in the lodge, and they can hear the snarling creatures over the radio. Lex spurs her brother to get the power working again.
The computer screen says the auxiliary power is failing, and Gennaro remembers that Tim must turn on the main power. For a frustrating moment or two Tim struggles to follow the commands on the screen, but soon the computer asks in which grid he wants to return power. “For a frozen interminable moment,” he cannot remember the grid number for the lodge; he finally remembers the code and enters it.
On the monitor, the group watches the raptors, “caught between the bars, writhing and screaming in a hot cascade of sparks.” Below, Muldoon and the others begin cheering. In the control room, the men heartily congratulate the boy. Lex points to the monitor and reminds them that they have to do something about the ship. It is just about to dock.
Tim tries to figure out the telephone on the computer screen and dials what he thinks is the right number; however, the screen says his call cannot be completed as dialed. He does not know what else to do so he dials the number again. When the man answers, everyone in the control room scrambles to find the right receiver with which to conduct the call. Tim finds it and immediately tells the man, Freddy, he must not land the boat.
Freddy, the captain, does not understand the call and assumes the boy is pulling some kind of prank. Gennaro asks Tim to quickly find the man’s name and tries to stall for time until the boy can find it. The captain says he has work to do and insists the caller identify himself. Tim has discovered the man’s name, Frederick Farrell, and Gennaro makes things perfectly clear to him: if Captain Farrell does not return to the island immediately, he will be “found in violation of Section 509 of the Uniform Maritime Act” and immediately lose his license, be fined more than fifty thousand dollars, and spend five years in jail.
The captain is silent for a moment before giving the order to return to the island. On the monitor, Lex sees the boat turn around and she cheers. Gennaro’s speech, of course, was pure fabrication, and he is relieved that the “hard part’s finished.” Grant says the most difficult thing is still ahead.
Seventh Iteration: Destroying the World Summary
Once the velociraptors have been destroyed, Malcolm is moved to a clean bed and Hammond somehow seems to have revived. Hammond is thankful that disaster has been averted and the dinosaurs will not destroy the planet. Malcolm is weak but has the energy to scorn Hammond’s ridiculous egotism and remind the foolish old man that the planet has survived billions of years of upheaval and it will most certainly survive Hammond.
Hammond says surely a radiation accident would kill the planet, but Malcolm insists that even if every visible plant, animal, and human dies in a radiation accident, “life would survive somewhere.” Perhaps in Arctic ice or under the ground, some life would begin the evolutionary process once again.
Hammond keeps trying, suggesting that the planet will not survive if the ozone layer gets any thinner, but Malcolm points out that while some things will undoubtedly die because of increased ultraviolet rays, other things will thrive because of its powerful energy. He points out that the earth has “an atmosphere of pure poison…incompatible with life,” yet life exists.
Malcolm contends that the planet knows how to take care of itself and survive. It is not the planet which is in jeopardy; it is humans who are at risk. Humans do not have the ability either to destroy or save the planet; however, it might be possible for humans to save themselves.
Seventh Iteration: Under Control Summary
Four hours have passed, and things seem to be functioning properly. Of the twenty-four people who had been on the island, eight are now dead and six are missing. The Safari lodge and the visitor center seem to be secure and the northern perimeter of the island appears free of dinosaurs. The authorities in San Jose have been notified and the Costa Rican National Guard is on its way, along with an air ambulance to take Malcolm to the mainland. Undoubtedly there have been conversations between the authorities in San Jose and Washington, as well. The three raptors found on the ship have been killed. It is getting dark; if the helicopters do not arrive soon they will have to wait until tomorrow.
The only thing the survivors can do now is wait. The computer count shows only two hundred and three animals, far less than the expected two hundred and ninety-three. Gennaro is upset, but both Grant and Sattler agree that the numbers represent a true balance in the park. The dinosaurs are intermingling and beginning to live—and die—as they would in their natural environment.
Muldoon tells Grant if he wants to find the dinosaur nests he should do so before the military arrives, as the park will undoubtedly be seen as a threat and destroyed. Gennaro hopes the military bombs the island and kills everything on it, but Grant is furious at Gennaro and believes they must take care of the problem themselves. Grant accuses Gennaro of neglecting his responsibilities from the beginning. Gennaro invested, and sold other investors, on something he did not understand and failed to supervise; he believed Hammond, a known liar, and allowed him to “screw around with the most dangerous technology in human history.” Gennaro cannot escape blame, and he must see the project to its end. Every animal, born and unborn, must be accounted for before Isla Nublar is destroyed.
After gathering anything which can be used as a weapon, the survivors (minus Hammond) discover a storm cellar containing gas masks and countless grenades filled with nerve gas. After putting a radio collar on the baby raptor born in the wild, everyone piles into the Jeep and releases the creature into the foliage; they will use him to help locate the velociraptor nest. Grant’s expertise is not useful now, as he has only ever studied fossilized dinosaur nests.
The Jeep follows the radio signal to the southern volcanic fields. Gennaro is frightened, but Grant is about to see something he has always wanted to see. They discover the nest, with the help of a juvenile raptor and a camera, in a black hole surrounded by rocks. The nest must be observed before the animals are killed. Gennaro is terrified but Grant reminds him that his efforts and money created the dinosaurs and he has no right just to kill them now because they make him “a little nervous.” Grant slips down the hole and is amazed at what he sees.
Seventh Iteration: Almost Paradigm Summary
Ian Malcolm has slipped into a coma and may die before the air ambulance comes to get him. Hammond is “impatient and uncomfortable,” and when he considers the possibility that Malcolm might not live, he is filled with “anxiety and dread.” These feelings are intensified by the fact that Hammond so dislikes the mathematician, as Malcolm’s death represents the “final rebuke” which he could not bear.
Harding keeps watch over the dying man and Hammond feels he must escape the putrid smell of the decaying flesh of Malcolm’s leg. He goes outside and through the gates where he looks with satisfaction at his creation. No matter what others say or whether Gennaro has it burned to the ground, Hammond knows his idea “has promise.” Even if this park is destroyed, dozens of frozen embryos are stored in InGen’s California headquarters; if there were any problems which happened here, he would solve them and create a new park somewhere else in the world.
Hammond blames everyone but himself for this failure: Wu and Arnold lacked vision, Regis and Harding were weak, Muldoon is a drunk, the native workers are insolent, and Costa Rica was a poor choice. The juvenile tyrannosaur is near; Hammond panics and breaks his ankle in a fall. He hears his grandchildren playing over the park intercom and he wishes he had not brought them here; he only did it to keep Gennaro from destroying the park—which is going to happen anyway. A hundred feet from his bungalow, Hammond has to stop and begins to call for help.
Malcolm talks in his delirium, mumbling about a paradigm shift, a scientific change in how the world is viewed. Malcolm smiles and says he does not care about anything because “everything looks different on the other side.”
Seventh Iteration: Descent Summary
Sattler wants to see the dinosaur nest and slides down the hole just as Grant did a few moments before. Gennaro tells Muldoon he is not going to follow the "crazy" paleontologists, but Muldoon reminds him that the doctors are waiting for him and calmly threatens Gennaro with a shock stick and eventually the frightened man climbs head-first into the hole.
It is a rough descent, but soon Gennaro lands at the bottom of the hole and the two doctors are whispering and prodding him to see if he is okay. He is, and he asks why they are whispering. Sattler points and Gennaro begins adjusting to the dark. He sees dozens of “glowing green eyes” everywhere around him.
The humans are on a raised ledge behind some large steel junction boxes which block them from the view of the two adult velociraptors standing only five feet in front of them. The dark green animals are standing upright and using their tails for balance. At the feet of the silent and watchful adults are chirping babies, and further back some juvenile raptors are playing.
Gennaro now sees that this is a man-made structure and there are more than thirty velociraptors in the underground cave. Grant whispers that this is a colony, including half a dozen adults and at least two hatchings, one last year and one this year. The youngest creatures appear to be about four months old. It is clear that none of the animals see the humans, and they have to stay long enough to count the raptors.
Grant counts three nests, each tended by two adults. The raptor with the radio collar now rubs against Sattler’s leg and she sees that the collar is chafing the animal’s neck. She quietly rips the Velcro band off; the animals hear the sound and one starts walking toward her. Grant cannot throw a grenade because Sattler is not wearing her gas mask, but she readies the shock stick. Soon the animal leaves and the counting can begin.
As they count the eggs, the youngest hatchlings, and the juveniles, Sattler notices some odd behavior. Whenever the raptors are not playing or doing something with one another, they all face a certain direction and line up in a row, almost as if they are standing on an imaginary line in a very definite order. The paleontologists theorize about the behavior but have no real explanation for it. A moment later, the young raptors begin to “squeak and hop excitedly” as the curious adults watch for a moment; then all the dinosaurs suddenly turn and run down the concrete tunnel into blackness.
Seventh Iteration: Hammond Summary
John Hammond sits down heavily on a hillside and struggles to catch his breath. It is hot and humid, making breathing even more difficult. Forty feet below, the stream trickles by; despite his purple, swollen ankle, he has reached this position by hopping on one foot. Hammond cannot place any weight on his broken foot, and his good leg is now burning from the extreme exertion.
He is also thirsty, despite the fact that he recently drank some water from the stream—something he knew was not a good idea. From below he thought he heard footsteps several times on the path at the top of the hill and had shouted loudly; however, no one answered and soon he realized he would have to get himself up the hill if he wanted anyone to help him.
It has been an hour and he is only a third of the way up the hill; he also feels dizzy and is afraid he might faint. Though he is close to his bungalow and does not feel as if he is in any danger, Hammond is tired and does not want to go any farther. This is not surprising for a man who is seventy-six years old, despite the fact that he is in good physical condition. He plans to live until he is at least a hundred years old, as he has “other parks to build” and “other wonders to create.”
He hears some small animals chirping and squeaking above him and soon a small herd of compys begins descending the hill. Hammond knows these creatures, who move a lot like chickens, are scavengers that prey on crippled animals. Hammond thinks the animals are stupid until he realizes that he is the crippled animal they intend to kill next.
At first the creatures stay out of his reach; he throws stones at them and tries to keep them away by brandishing tree branches at them. The animals are undeterred. Hammond remembers one of the handlers who had been bitten by a compy told him that the poison “was like a narcotic—peaceful, dreamy. No pain.” For a moment he considers succumbing to the creatures but then continues to fight.
As he does, Hammond is unable to keep his balance or his position, and he eventually falls back down the hill. First one compy bites him and then another; as the creatures continue their rather gentle but deadly attack, the toxin courses through his body and he begins “to feel strangely relaxed, detached from himself.”
Hammond realizes Malcolm’s analysis was completely incorrect, as there is absolutely nothing wrong here on his island. Soon Hammond is surrounded, like a flock of chattering birds, by the compys; one of them hops on his chest and bites his neck.
Seventh Iteration: The Beach Summary
Grant follows the group of velociraptors through the dark tunnel that ends up on the beach. At first the young raptors frolic on the sand, but they inexplicably move into the shade of the palm trees at the edge of the beach. There, they turn to face the water in the same peculiar way as they did down in the nesting site. They all face the same direction, north-northwest. Sattler and Grant still cannot explain their behavior, but they do realize that this is how the raptors have been escaping the fences in the park.
Out of the fog a freighter appears on the horizon; the animals must have heard it. The dinosaurs grow active again and Grant is fascinated to see that there is a hierarchy and order among the herd that he had never expected. As a paleontologist, he studies many physical attributes of dinosaurs; however, he has forgotten that old bones reveal little about the animals from which they came lived.
The raptors are now lined up, in a precise and organized manner, along the edge of the beach. Suddenly Grant understands what he is seeing. Gennaro assumes the creatures are eager to escape from the island; however, Grant is certain that what they really want to do is migrate.
Seventh Iteration: The Approaching Dark Summary
Sattler is thrilled at the idea of the velociraptors migrating and so is Grant, but they do not know where the animals want to go. Military helicopters “burst through the fog, thundering and wheeling over the landscape.” As the choppers circle around and land on the beach, the raptors scatter. Uniformed men speaking Spanish immediately run to Grant, Sattler, and Gennaro. Grant sees that Muldoon and the children are already in the helicopter, and one of the soldiers speaks to Grant in English.
He asks the adults to come with them now because they are out of time. Grant examines the beach but sees no sign of the raptors; it is as if they had never existed. Grant follows the soldiers to the waiting aircraft where Muldoon tells him the military is going to destroy the island now and needs to get the survivors away immediately. A soldier asks Grant if he is in charge of the group, and he says he is not. They ask Gennaro the same thing; they do not even think to ask Sattler.
Muldoon tells Grant that Malcolm died and Hammond had an accident and was killed by compys; everyone else has already been evacuated. Grant is “too tired to feel much of anything.” As the helicopter flies away, Grant looks back and sees the young tyrannosaur hovering over its latest hadrosaur kill. Then the explosions begin and Lex begins to cry. Sattler does her best to comfort the girl.
Grant thinks about the raptors on the beach who wanted to migrate and wonders where they wanted to go; he is both sad and relieved to realize he will never know. Again someone asks Grant who is in charge; Grant says that no one is. Isla Nublar glows behind the helicopter in the darkening sky.
Epilogue Summary
The Costa Rican government keeps the survivors in a fine hotel in San Jose. They are free to go where they choose and talk to whomever they wish but are not allowed to leave the country. Every day an American Embassy representative visits and asks if they need anything; he always assures them that Washington is doing everything it can to get them home.
The reality, though, is that many people died on a territorial possession of Costa Rica and an “ecological disaster had been narrowly averted.” Because it feels as if it were lied to by Hammond, the government is not particularly eager to release the survivors. Neither Hammond nor Malcolm is allowed to be buried, and every day Grant is taken in for questioning about Hammond and his project. It is the same set of questions and answers each day.
A man named Marty Guitierrez (he found the original Procompsognathus specimen) introduces himself to Grant. Grant tells the man he is eager to get home so he can do a little work before winter. After a few moments, Guitierrez tells Grant about something strange that the government is not willing to tell Grant.
The so-called lizard bites on infants have stopped; however, this spring in the northern region some “unknown animals ate the crops in a very peculiar manner.” The crops were eaten in a long row, in a straight-line formation, as the animals migrated north from the coast, through the mountains and into the jungle.
The government is worried that there may be more animals. Guitierrez agrees with Grant that it is possible these animals are escapees from Jurassic Park. Guitierrez assumes the government will send the children home and tells Grant to enjoy his stay, as none of the rest of them are going anywhere.