It’s been almost thirty years since Jurassic Park made its unforgettable debut onto the big screen. Maybe it’s the original music that brings people back. Maybe it’s the use of CGI and animatronics that was considered groundbreaking for its time. Maybe it’s the storyline, the almost child-like wonder that surfaces when actually faced with a world where dinosaurs exist.
Perhaps it also has to do with the dialogue, how many of the franchise's most memorable quotes relate to life, how the movies constantly dance around the idea of humans' need for control. Jeff Goldblum's character Dr. Ian Malcolm put it best with arguably the franchise's most famous line when he said, "Life finds a way." Fans have been gearing up for the final chapter in the Jurassic World series to hit theaters in June 2022. They can be sure it'll include more reflections on life and science that helped make the entire franchise so special.
Ian Malcolm To John Hammond
"Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn't Stop To Think If They Should."
Ian Malcolm is known as the truth spewing, often snarky doctor of the franchise. In this scene from the original movie, he tells Hammond about the importance of discipline when attaining a certain kind of power. He thinks that their whole operation hasn't been fully thought through.
In many ways, he's the voice of reason throughout the franchise, the one who puts logic and reason before ambition and goals. His quote in this scene is a nugget of wisdom that in other words reminds people to think before they act.
Ian Malcolm To John Hammond
"If There Is One Thing The History Of Evolution Has Taught Us It's That Life Will Not Be Contained. Life Breaks Free, It Expands To New Territories And Crashes Through Barriers, Painfully, Maybe Even Dangerously."
This is perhaps among the most powerful and widely known quotes of the entire franchise. It comes as a rebuttal when Hammond explains the dinosaurs in the park cannot procreate because they were all created female.
Malcolm argues that he cannot know that for sure, that the type of control he's attempting is not possible. In a way, his character serves as a constant source of foreshadowing. For as intelligent as the human species is, there is still a world of information they don't know. Life continues to surprise even the brightest.
Alan Grant To Everyone
"T-Rex Doesn't Want To Be Fed. He Wants To Hunt. Can't Just Suppress 65 Million Years Of Gut Instinct."
In Jurassic Park, Dr. Alan Grant says this on their tour of the park when passing by the T-rex perimeter. When the dinosaur remains hidden, the scientists present a goat to bait her. And yet, she's still nowhere to be found.
It goes back to the idea that humans have no idea what dinosaurs are capable of. Humans weren't around 65 million years ago so how could they even pretend to know what dinosaurs need for survival? How could they possibly imagine how humans could live among them?
Ellie Sattler To John Hammond
"You Never Had Control, That's The Illusion! I Was Overwhelmed By The Power Of This Place. But I Made A Mistake, Too, I Didn't Have Enough Respect For That Power And It's Out Now."
While Dr. Grant, Lex, and Tim try to survive the night with dinosaurs loose in the park, Hammond and Dr. Sattler (played by Laura Dern) share a meal and discuss how to move forward. A true visionary, Hammond still thinks they can gain back control, while Ellie knows different.
Dr. Sattler realizes how small humans are in the grand scheme of things. Humans, while they may be intelligent and ambitious, don't always know their place. Or as Ellie says, "their power." She makes the audience wonder if our incredible wealth of knowledge is sometimes our own worst enemy.
Owen Grady To Simon Masrani
“You Made A Genetic Hybrid. Raised It In Captivity. She Is Seeing All Of This For The First Time. She Does Not Eve Know What She Is. She Will Kill Everything That Moves."
In Jurassic World, the Indominus Rex outsmarts the humans and breaks free from its cage. Owen Grady, the animal behaviorist, delivers this chilling line not to scare everyone but to remind them that he knows more about what the dinosaurs might think and feel.
Whereas Ian Malcolm is the brain, Owen Grady is the heart. He connects with the dinosaurs because he sees them as more than just prehistoric creatures. They have thoughts and feelings the way humans do. Though he's not naive. He may be kind, but he's also smart. This quote reminds fans that he may have come from the navy but he's first and foremost an animal behaviorist.
Simon Masrani To Claire Dearing
"Remember Why This Place Was Made, Claire. Jurassic World Exists To Show Us How Very Small We Are. Very New. You Can't Put A Price On That."
Claire Dearing is very committed to her job. She puts data and numbers before family and connection. When Masrani says this line while flying a helicopter, it's a reminder for her to drop the books and marvel at the beauty and the wonder around her.
But it also serves as a warning, a reminder to how vulnerable and meager humans are in comparison to dinosaurs. Not to mention insignificant in size and stature. Dinosaurs have years upon years of experience walking the planet compared to humans.
Ian Malcolm To The Senate
"Change Is Like Death. You Don't Know What It Looks Like Until You're Standing At The Gates."
At the senate hearing in the beginning of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, legislators sit down to discuss whether or not the animals on Isla Nublar should be rescued from the volcano that is soon to erupt, likely wiping out every dinosaur left. Animal rights activists believe the dinosaurs have just as many protective rights as other animals on the verge of extinction. Ian Malcolm believes otherwise.
This quote shows his fixed opinion on the matter. That by wielding their genetic engineering power, humans have altered the course of nature. He argues that if they continue down this path, they could face unforeseen change destructive to the planet. One of the senators asks him what kind of change he means and his answer, in its unknowability and ambiguity, is both thought-provoking and unnerving.
Ian Malcolm To The Senate
"In The Last Century, We Amassed Landmark Technological Power And We've Consistently Proved Ourselves Incapable Of Handling That Power."
This line also comes from the senate hearing seen in the beginning of Fallen Kingdom. Ian Malcolm urges the senate leaders to look at the mistakes humans have made and to learn from them. He says "our beloved, magnificent dinosaurs should be taken out by the volcano."
This is perhaps the main point that the entire franchise drills into the audience: humans are driven by power, but when they have it, they don't always know how best to handle it.
Ian Malcolm To The Senate
"We're Causing Our Own Extinction. Too Many Red Lines Have Been Crossed. And Our Home Has, In Fundamental Ways, Been Polluted By Avarice And Political Megalomania."
These come as the closing lines in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It reads as a warning to what may become of the world now that at least eleven species of dinosaurs have been unleashed.
Malcolm may be a mathematician who specializes in chaos theory but he certainly knows a little about human nature as well as what history has taught humans about their mistakes.
John Hammond To The Public
“These Creatures Require Our Absence To Survive, Not Our Help. And If We Could Only Step Aside And Trust In Nature, Life Will Find A Way.”
This quote comes back to what the series is truly about - the love of the natural world. Perhaps when humans force their hand, they make things worse.
In Jurassic Park: The Lost World, it's Hammond's way of having learned the hard way and admitting that perhaps instead of trying to control everything, humans should let life be.