List of characters in Jurassic Park
The following is a list of characters from Michael Crichton's novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World. Details are also given on the characters' roles in Steven Spielberg's film adaptations, Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, as well as Jurassic Park III, directed by Joe Johnston. The latter is not an adaptation but contains characters and events based on Crichton's novels.
Recurring characters
These characters appear in more than one film/novel.
Dr. Alan Grant
Appears in: Jurassic Park (novel and film), Jurassic Park III
Dr. Alan Grant, portrayed by Sam Neill in the film, is a key figure in the Jurassic Park franchise and an expert renowned in his field of paleontology. John Hammond (founder of InGen) convinces Grant and his coworker (and girlfriend in the movie) Dr. Ellie Sattler to take a tour of the preserve and later to endorse the park itself. Following the discovery that InGen had successfully cloned dinosaurs, Grant quickly found out the danger of tampering with nature. Mayhem struck when the dinosaurs escaped. Grant, who previously disliked children, found himself becoming a father figure and hero for Lex and Tim. In the novel Grant had a strong affinity for children - particularly because of their interests in dinosaurs. The screenwriters made the change to add tension between Grant and Tim & Lex, especially between Grant and Tim who idolizes the man in both film and novel.
He is mentioned only once in the novel version of The Lost World by Richard Levine, who claims he had proposed a ridiculous theory that the Tyrannosaurus rex could not function in rainy climates.
In the third film, he visits Isla Sorna with his student, Billy Brennan. While there, he studies Spinosaurus and Velociraptor behavior.
He is rumored to play Dr. Grant in Jurassic Park IV.
Dr. Martin "Marty" Guitierrez
Appears in: Jurassic Park (novel), The Lost World (novel)
A doctor from the United States who moved to Costa Rica to practice, he plays an expository role in both novels. He is Richard Levine's best, and perhaps only, friend. He did not appear in any of the three movies. In the first book he is the one who at the end tells Grant that some dinosaurs may have escaped the island.
John Hammond
Appears in: Jurassic Park (novel and film), The Lost World (film)
John Hammond is the creator of Jurassic Park and founder of InGen. He is likened to Walt Disney with Disneyland (he comments at one point in the Jurassic Park film: "Why didn't I build in Orlando?"). He is portrayed by Richard Attenborough. In the film, he appears as a sympathetic grandfather, but in the book he is depicted as an eccentric, polite CEO solely interested in profit and dinosaurs. In the novels; he is killed near the end of Jurassic Park and is mentioned briefly in the second book; but in the films, he survives in the first film, and is seen again in the second film's beginning and end. He was also briefly mentioned in the third film.
In the original novel, he survives until after the power has been turned back on. He denies that his park has become a failure. Once all of the raptors are away from the lodge, he goes outside for a walk and hears a Tyrannosaurus roaring. Not knowing that it is just his grandchildren fooling around with the speakers, he jumps down a hill and breaks his ankle. Before he can climb up the hill, he is killed by a large group of Procompsognathus. This was reworked into The Lost World film, but with Dieter Stark replacing Hammond, and the Procompsognathus being regular Compsognathus.
Dr. Ian Malcolm
Appears in: Jurassic Park (novel and film), The Lost World (novel and film)
Dr. Ian Malcolm, alongside Dr. Grant, is another Key Figure in the Jurassic Park Films, and Novels, He is a mathematician specializing in the study of the chaos theory and refers to himself as a "chaotician". Jeff Goldblum portrayed Malcolm in the Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park films. Malcolm is John Hammond's primary critic in both the novel and film, accurately predicting the instability of Hammond's creation. Malcolm is seriously injured in the first book, and presumed dead. However, he returns in the second book, The Lost World, alive but crippled. He survives the film with a comparatively minor leg injury, and was returned with a minor limp for the film adaptation of The Lost World: Jurassic Park. In both the films and books Malcolm is an eccentric character who dresses entirely in black; he is described as having the mannerisms of a rock star in the original Jurassic Park, but is sobered by his experiences there and returns as a much more moody, darker character in The Lost World. Acting as the protagonist in "The Lost World", Ian serves as Grant's opposite and rival.
Dr. Ellie Sattler
Appears in: Jurassic Park (novel and film), Jurassic Park III, Jurassic Park IV
She is Dr. Alan Grant's graduate student specializing in prehistoric botany. She joined him on the tour of InGen's dinosaur preserve. In the film, it could be interpreted that she is in a relationship with Grant, as Grant's dismissive confirmation to Malcolm in the car could also be seen as simply friendly protection from the rock-star mathematician.
In the book she is engaged to a doctor. (In the film Jurassic Park III we learn that the relationship between her and Dr. Grant did not work out, although they remain close friends. In the third movie she is married to a man named Mark Degler)
Laura Dern portrays Ellie in Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III and Jurassic Park IV.
Lewis Dodgson
Appears in: Jurassic Park (novel and film), The Lost World (novel)
An ambitious, unethical rival scientist, Dodgson is not above corporate espionage and theft to advance Biosyn's technology. In the first novel and film, Dodgson hires Dennis Nedry to steal embryo samples for reverse engineering.
In the sequel novel, Dodgson is much more ambitious. He takes a team to Isla Sorna in an attempt to collect fertilized dinosaur eggs. He is ultimately killed when a Tyrannosaurus feeds him to a nest of T. rex newborns. In the second film, Dodgson's attributes are split between the characters of Roland Tembo and Peter Ludlow. In the film Jurassic Park, he is played by Cameron Thor.
Jurassic Park
These characters only appear in Jurassic Park.
Ray Arnold
Ray Arnold (played by Samuel L. Jackson in the film) ran the main control center from within the visitors center. After Dennis Nedry turned off the power to the park, Arnold volunteered to go outside and restore it, but was killed by a raptor in the shed before he could. In the book, Arnold's first name was John, though in the movie he was renamed Ray Arnold, and was killed by raptors, off-screen; this is confirmed when Ellie found his arm behind some tangled wires in the maintenance shed.
Donald Gennaro
Gennaro, portrayed by Martin Ferrero in the film, was the lawyer that accompanied the first group to Isla Nublar. In the film he was killed by a Tyrannosaurus while hiding from it in one of the park's bathrooms. In the novel Gennaro survives but is mentioned as having died of a dysentery sometime in between the first novel and its sequel. In the film he is portrayed as an egotistical, worried, greedy person. In the film he abandons Tim and Lex when the Tyrannosaurus escapes its paddock, though ironically that leads to him being eaten by the carnivore while everyone else survives. In the book he's a large, brave man who helps Muldoon shoot the Tyrannosaurus but is afraid of the raptor nest while in the movie he is neither large nor seemingly brave.
Dr. Gerry Harding
Jurassic Park's chief veterinarian, who makes a brief appearance with the sick Triceratops in the first Jurassic Park film. In the first book he appears to help a sick Stegosaurus and then helps Ian Malcolm recover. He survives a Velociraptor jumping onto him from the roof, unlike Henry Wu, and is rescued at the end of the book. He thinks that Malcolm is dead but actually manages to revive him in time. It is not made clear whether he is related to Sarah Harding; Crichton later revealed that this was the case. In the novel The Lost World, Sarah informs Ian Malcolm that her father was a veterinarian specializing in birds. Harding is played by Gerald R. Molen, the film's producer. The character is not given a first name in the novel, but it is assumed that "Gerry" is derived from "Gerald."
Robert Muldoon
Jurassic Park's game warden. Muldoon was from Kenya, and had been a long-time employee of John Hammond, working at Hammond's animal park in his homeland. Muldoon was aware of the dinosaurs' threats and felt that they should be destroyed. In the novel, Muldoon has a larger arsenal of weapons and is an alcoholic, while the film counter-part only has a Franchi SPAS-12 and is much more serious. In the film, Muldoon is killed by raptors, but in the novel, he manages to kill a few of them instead and escapes the island. He is not mentioned in the novel's sequel. Interestingly, the non-canon Jurassic Park comic sequels published by Topps comics depict Muldoon surviving the Raptor attack as well. The pretense for this was that Muldoon had become so acquainted with the raptors that they were prone to play around, and the attack seen on film was ostensibly just the raptors playing with him. This heavily contradicts Muldoon's very negative opinion of the creatures in both the novel and film. Muldoon was portrayed by Bob Peck in the film adaptation.
Alexis Murphy
"Lex" is Tim Murphy's sister and John Hammond's granddaughter. In the film she is the older sibling and enjoys dealing with computers. In the novel, she is a sporty young girl who loves baseball and is relatively outgoing. She was played in the film by Ariana Richards, and made a brief cameo in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Tim Murphy
Tim is Lex's brother and John Hammond's grandson. He is very intelligent for his age and easily annoys and is annoyed by his older sister. In the movie, he and Dr. Grant strike up a friendship because of Tim's interest in and knowledge of dinosaurs. Although he and his sister are very wealthy, they do not show any pompous action towards others. In the novel, Tim is older than Lex, but in the film, their ages are reversed. He was portrayed by Joseph Mazzello in the first film, and also made a brief cameo in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
Dennis Nedry
Nedry worked for John Hammond and was in charge of networking Jurassic Park's computers. In the book, Nedry doesn't know what InGen does: he was ordered to program without many details, and was called to the island to fix numerous bugs. However, Hammond refused to pay him any extra money for his work. Eventually Lewis Dodgson of Biosyn offered Nedry $1.5 million to steal embryos from Jurassic Park's labs. In order to do this - and make a swift escape from the visitor center - Nedry had to shut down the park's security systems, including the electric fences surrounding the dinosaur paddocks. Without power, the fences go out, and the creatures escape. In both the book and the movie, Nedry is poisoned and subsequently killed by a Dilophosaurus. His death in the novel is far more graphic than in the movie (his death is not shown in the movie; however, he is assumed dead) as Nedry's stomach is slashed open and his corpse is eaten by compsognathi. Just before he dies, he drops the shaving cream can containing the frozen embryos. Wayne Knight played the role of Nedry in the film adaptation.
His death is an example of poetic justice as he was killed by one of the creatures he himself allowed to break loose, thus sharing the fate of those he endangered.
His name might be a play on the word "nerdy" (he is a computer programmer).
Ed Regis
Appears in novel only
Regis was a Publicist for InGen who acted as a babysitter during Dr. Grant's visit to the park. He meets a fate similar to the film version of Donald Gennaro, namely that of being eaten by Tyrannosaurus after running out of the car (though he hides between two rocks and is instead eaten by the younger T. rex). He was written out of the movie, and certain aspects of his character were given to Gennaro.
Dr. Henry Wu
Wu was the chief geneticist in Jurassic Park and head of the team that created the dinosaurs. In the movie he reveals that all the dinosaurs on the island are female. In the novel, Wu has a much larger part; he proposes genetically altering further Saurian creations to make them more manageable, something that Hammond opposes.
In the novel, he and the other survivors are holed up in the lodge while Ellie is making a distraction for the raptors so they won't attack Grant, who is trying to restore the park's power. Wu thinks this is a bad idea, so he goes outside to tell her to stop. However, a raptor jumps down from the roof and kills him. The film does not explain Wu's fate, but it's likely he left the island on the last boat to the mainland before the power failure. In the film Wu was portrayed by B.D. Wong.
The Lost World
These characters appear only in The Lost World.
Jack 'Doc' Thorne
Appears in novel only
Jack Thorne is a Material Engineer who specializes in building field equipment, vehicles and weaponry for scientists all over the world. He is an eclectic mix of character traits, relying on both practical expertise and Eastern philosophy, and claiming that one needs to know philosophy and history to succeed in engineering. His company, Mobile Field Systems, is hired by Richard Levine to outfit his expedition to study the dinosaur population on Isla Sorna. Thorne's contribution to Levine's mission includes a large research trailer called the "Challenger," along with a smaller, second trailer; an electric SUV and Motor Bike; a pair of Lindstradt air rifles; and a modified one-pound Satellite phone. When Levine goes missing on the island, Thorne ends up heading to Sorna along with Ian Malcolm and Eddie Carr to retrieve him. Once the rescue team reaches Site B, they often find that they are in need of rescuing, and Thorne ends up saving his friends multiple times, and is one of the survivors of Isla Sorna.
Ajay Sidhu
Appears in film only
Ajay Sidhu, played by Harvey Jason, is Roland Tembo's hunting partner from India. He appears only in the film. He helps Tembo in many ways. He tries to tell Tembo's men to stay out of long grass, which is where raptors are hidden. He is ultimately killed by the raptors. This is confirmed when Nick Van Owen finds Ajay's bag, and then hears him scream. Ajay's passing changes Roland Tembo's mind about hunting.
Eddie Carr
Eddie is the field equipment expert. He becomes a part of the team sent to the island since the vehicles he designed were Field tested. In the novel, he is described as a slender and strong 25 year old who prefers the city, while his film version is much older at 46. He has black hair and is balding. In the movie he is ripped in half in mid-air by the mother and father T. rex while attempting to save Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding and Nick Van Owen from the overturned trailers. Furthermore, his heroic actions earn him a mention later on in the film, when Tembo claims "the rex just fed", Malcolm counters; "Why don't you show him some respect, he saved our lives by giving his." In the novel he is killed by the raptors when they attack the high hide, where he, Levine, Arby and Kelly are. In the movie he is played by Richard Schiff.
Kelly Curtis (Malcolm)
Appears in novel and edited in film
Kelly is the closest friend of Arby's. Like Arby, she is smart, yet, in all other issues she is completely different; she is white, adventurous and free-spirited. She lives with her recently divorced mother in a middle-class neighborhood. Unlike her classmates, Kelly is fascinated by science and idolizes Sarah Harding. It was her idea to accompany Malcolm and Thorne once she learned that Harding would join the group later, but she left the planning to Arby. The movie features Kelly, however, her character was merged with Arby's, creating a female African-American. She is Malcolm's daughter and was portrayed by Vanessa Lee Chester.
R.B. "Arby" Benton
Appears in novel only
Better known as Arby, R.B. Benton is a young African American who is friends with Kelly. His character was not in the film adaptation, having merged with Kelly's characteristics to form an entirely new persona.
Dr. Sarah Harding
Dr. Harding (played by Julianne Moore) is a behavioral paleontologist, and the girlfriend of Ian Malcolm in the movie. In the novel, it is revealed they once had a relationship which did not work, causing them to become close friends instead. She is very intelligent, but has little common sense at moments, and puts herself in danger many times. Because of her last name and mentioning her father being a veterinarian, it is very likely she is Dr. Gerry Harding's daughter.
Howard King
Appears in novel only
Howard is an assistant to Lewis Dodgson. Once a successful biologist employed by Biosyn, he lost credibility when his research
on blood-
George Baselton
Appears in novel only
Baselton is Stanford University's Regis Professor of Biology and assistant to Lewis Dodgson. It is his job to keep Dodgson and Biosyn in the clear, no matter what happens. He has hardly any spoken dialogue in the novel, and is the first casualty on the island. When he and Dodgson are trying to steal Tyrannosaurus eggs, the sonic device Dodgson is using to keep the rexes at bay becomes unplugged and both men stand absolutely still, falsely believing the rexes' vision is based on movement. The rex knocks Baselton over, steps on him and rips off his arm. He is then eaten by the rex, and possibly fed to the baby rexes. Sarah Harding sees his severed foot later in the novel, which is apparently all that is left of him.
Richard Levine
Appears in novel only
Levine is one of the world's most brilliant paleontologists, as well as one of the richest; unfortunately, he is also one of its most egotistical. Dr. Marty Guitierrez seems to be his only real friend, though he eventually forms a prickly working relationship with Ian Malcolm. His egotism and enthusiasm about the "aberrant forms" from Costa Rica annoy Malcolm severely. The children Arby Benton and Kelly Curtis look up to him, and it takes the children to break through his seemingly uncaring facade; when he believes Arby is killed by Velociraptors, Levine decides he wants to kill every one of them. He does not appear in the movie.
Roland Tembo
Appears in film only
A big-game hunter determined to kill a male T. rex, he was played by Pete Postlethwaite in The Lost World. He is not in the novel. A realist and a survivor, his outlook on hunting predators is changed when his lifelong hunting partner is brought down by Velociraptors. He is one of the only members of the hunting team to survive.
Nick Van Owen
Appears in film only
A wildlife documentarian who accompanies Sarah Harding on her expedition to Isla Sorna. He did volunteer work with Greenpeace and traveled to Rwanda, Chechnya, and Bosnia with Nightline. Disgusted by InGen's treatment of the animals in the park, he opens their cages with disastrous results. He is played in the movie by Vince Vaughn.
Peter Ludlow
Appears in film only
The new CEO of InGen after John Hammond leaves, Ludlow is Hammond's nephew. Ludlow decides the best way to correct InGen's plummeting stock offerings is by capturing the animals roaming Isla Sorna and bringing them back to a zoo-like setting in San Diego. His ambition proves to be his downfall when he brings a male Tyrannosaurus and its infant to San Diego. Believing the authorities will kill the adult dinosaur, he attempts to recapture the infant, only to be caught by the adult. The T. rex breaks Ludlow's leg and uses Ludlow as hunting practice for the Tyrannosaurus infant, which kills him. He is played by Arliss Howard.
Dieguito
Appears in novel only
Dieguito is Levine's guide on Isla Sorna. He is a young, enthusiastic Costa Rican. He went to the island several times as a boy and thus knows the land better than anyone else. However, he does not believe there are dinosaurs there and when Levine warns him to be quiet he simply says that they have nothing to fear, as only birds live on the island. He seems to annoy Levine many times, not only through his insistence that only birds live on the island, but disobeys his orders when using items like cigarettes while on Isla Sorna. Diego is killed by a Carnotaurus when, while he and Levine watch a Mussasaurus in total awe, a Carnotaur silently ambushes Diego and pulls him into nearby bushes.
Dieter Stark
Appears in film only
Dieter Stark is a hunter from South Africa with Swedish origin. He was hired by Ingen to be Roland's second in command. Dieter is sadistic to the Compys and zaps on, because he thinks they are scary. Dieter is later killed by a pack of Compys. Dieter is played by Peter Stormare.
Jurassic Park III
These characters only appear in the third film.
Paul Kirby
The owner of a hardware store who poses as a wealthy businessman in order to lure Grant onto Isla Sorna to help the Kirby's search for their son. He is played by William H. Macy.
Amanda Kirby
Paul's ex-wife who accompanies the group to Site B, feeling guilty for having lost Eric. She is played by Téa Leoni.
Billy Brennan
A young and overenthusiastic graduate student at Grant's digsite whose impulsive actions land the entire rescue party in danger. He later redeems himself by saving them from pterosaurs. Although the pterosaurs gave him many injuries, he survived and was rescued by the navy and marines sent by Ellie. He is played by Alessandro Nivola.
Eric Kirby
The 12-year-old son of Paul and Amanda who ends up stranded on Site B for eight weeks, and must fend for himself. He found a way to collect T. rex urine and to collect a Raptor Claw. Dr. Grant said he had a fossil one, from the first film, but Eric's reply was that this was a new one. He is played by Trevor Morgan. A separate series of books entitled 'Jurassic Park Adventures' documented Eric's time on Isla Sorna (as well as other related stories) before Grant and the others arrive (written by Scott Ciencin)
Udesky
A meek but sardonic mercenary "booking agent" who travels with his two associates to the island when the man who was supposed to go falls ill. He gets lost when the group runs through a forest (and climb up a tree) and is wounded by raptors, who allow him to approach the tree in order to draw the others down. This plan fails, and the raptors then just kill Udesky. He is played by Michael Jeter.
Cooper
A tough and quiet mercenary who is killed by the spinosaur on the Site B runway. He was played by John Diehl and was named after a similarly ill-fated character from Dino Crisis
M.B Nash
The Kirby's mercenary pilot who abandons Cooper and is subsequently eaten by the Spinosaurus. He was carrying a satellite phone given to him by Paul Kirby at the time he was eaten, which acts as a warning to the other humans. When they hear the chimes of the phone, audible from within the dinosaur's belly, they know that the Spinosaurus is near.
Charlie Degler
The young son of Ellie and Mark, who thinks of Alan Grant as "The Dinosaur Man"
External links
| Jurassic Park franchise | |
|---|---|
| Novels | Jurassic Park · The Lost World |
| Films | Jurassic Park · The Lost World: Jurassic Park · Jurassic Park III · Jurassic Park IV (in development) |
| Settings | Isla Nublar · Jurassic Park Visitors Center · The Five Deaths · Isla Sorna |
| Various | Characters · Inaccuracies · Parodies · InGen · Biosyn · Video games · Dominican amber · Dragon curve · Michael Crichton · Steven Spielberg · Joe Johnston |
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