jurassic park
first draft
by
michael crichton
re-write by
maria scotch marmo
3/14/92
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extreme closeup of glowing honey-colored stones. their shapes abstract
as the camera examines air bubbles and crystalline patterns.
moving up and over this amber abstraction, the camera finds unusual
shapes and imperfections caught in the glassy stone: flecks of dirt,
hairs, cracks. still moving. starbursts of light ricochet off the
different surfaces of the stones.
camera turns along a creamy stretch of amber. it turns in deeper,
abstracting the picture further only to find a tiny blur that suddenly
racks into focus - a bug, a mosquito lodged within an amber tomb. it is
folded on its back.
slow motion as the tip of a fine-pointed drill bores into the amber
toward the trapped bug. orange flecks fly. the mosquito trembles. the
drill continues, stopping just before it touches the tiny body.
a shiny pair of thin needle-nose pliers reach in the borehole and
extricate the mosquito remains. these are dropped on a brightly lit
glass slide. a conveyor belt starts, and the slide moves along.
arriving under a long-lensed microscope.
in microscopic perspective, a thin needle pierces the bug and delicately
removes a fragment of tissue.
pincers snare the fragment, dropping it into a narrow tube. the tube
spins, faster and faster until it is a blur on the screen.
the screen floods with an infra-red light. gray, oval shapes rock in a
neutral mist.
wash out to:
hot sun overhead in a big sky -
ext badlands - afternoon
lodged in the cracked earth are the partially-exposed fossilized remains
of a velocirapter, a carnivorous dinosaur. widen out to a sweeping
panorama of a dinosaur dig, a major excavation filled with workers
shoveling earth and stone, making measurements, taking photographs,
scribbling notes, and conferring with each other.
the center of all this activity is one man. in a roped-off area that
circumscribes the exposed bones of the raptor, is dr. alan grant, head
paleontologist. good-looking, late 30's, with a think beard.
grant lies on his belly, completely absorbed in a small piece of bone.
a group of twelve students, notebooks in hand, await his next sentence.
close on - the tiny bone. grant's nose touches it.
grant brushes the bone with a toothbrush. then he decides on a quicker
way to clean it. he licks it. excited by his discovery, he gets to his
feet and addresses his students, who listen raptly.
grant
right calcaneus of an adult female
raptor. mild stress fractures. what's
this tell me?
students look at each other. a tentative hand. grant continues.
grant
it tells me that this bone connects to
the navicula which we already found
articulating to the cuboid.
offscreen, a woman shouts to him.
ellie (off)
dr. grant! dr. grant!
grant looks up.
dr. ellie sattler, late 20's, sharp-eyed, tough if she wants to be, runs
like a gazelle across the arid land. exuberant, she leaves a trail of
dust behind her.
she zips by a student guarding the cordoned area. he tries to stop her.
student
dr. sattler! dr. grant is thinking!
dr. grant waves her over enthusiastically with his bone and continues.
grant
so, what can we stay for sure? stress
fractures in the heel ...
uncertain students. ellie arrives and immediately gets into it.
ellie
she jumps.
grant turns around to her and smiles. she's got it. other students to
- they knew is all along.
grant
right as rain, ellie. now, why did she
jump?
no answer. ellie gives it a try.
ellie
a defensive posture against a vicious,
blood-thirsty t-rex?
grant
(nodding)
perhaps. or maybe to select the smaller,
more tender leaves in the higher branches
with which to suckle her young?
ellie jumps up.
ellie
i bet is was a mating ritual.
students laugh. one student eyes grant's self-conscious smile at ellie.
grant
the science of paleontology can't answer
these questions. novelists and artists
who dream a vision of the jurassic period
can attempt these questions with their
imaginations. what we scientists can say
is considering the mass and kinetic
articulation of these bones, this animal
had a vertical leap of about twelve feet.
not as entertaining as fiction, but
absolutely fact without prejudice.
ellie intrudes again.
ellie
excuse me, dr. grant. but ... fact is,
we're late. there's the car.
she points. on the horizon, a limousine speeds toward them, leaving a
dusty wake.
grant sets the rules for his departure, giving instructions inspanidually
as ellie pulls him away, carrying their bags.
grant
jim, you keep making up the plaster
batches. whatever ratio you're using,
it's perfect. nora, no digging after
five - when the temperature drops, those
bones are just too brittle. bill, i
don't want any tourists walking over my
raptor - i don't care if the governor of
montana is with them, just you guys.
grant and ellie continue walking. she interrupts his continued barrage.
ellie
you know, if every scientist stuck to his
method like you, there would be no body
of theory - no quasars, no big bang -
grant stops at the sight of the stopped limo and freezes.
grant
jesus, a limousine. we're re-entering
