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‘Jurassic Park’s Greatest Quote Has a Whole New Meaning 33 Years Later
Jurassic Park is primarily remembered for its revolutionary special effects, but it is no slouch in the writing department. Not only does Steven Spielberg‘s iconic 1993 adventure blockbuster have an immaculate story construction, but it also features a handful of memorable lines, courtesy of screenwriter David Koepp.
Amid all the dinosaurs running amok on the remote island that’s reviving the extinct organism through DNA, the most profound moment in the original movie that spawned an additional two sequels and a legacy series with four installments comes from a line reading by scene-stealer Jeff Goldblum as the rock-star mathematician, Ian Malcolm. When discussing the reproduction of new dinosaurs on Earth, Malcolm utters a vague but deep aphorism: “Life finds a way.” 33 years later, this remark has taken on a new, somewhat poignant, meaning, regarding the immortal nature of the Jurassic Park franchise.
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As soon as Jurassic Park became a global phenomenon and box office champion, a sequel was inevitable. Excluding Indiana Jones, Steven Spielberg has wisely avoided the franchise pratfalls, but he, perhaps to his own detriment, returned for The Lost World in 1997. While it’s plenty of fun, it doesn’t feel like Spielberg’s heart is fully in the film. Following a third installment in 2001, directed by Joe Johnston, Jurassic Park was on ice on the big screen until, during the peak of franchise/IP expansion in the 2010s, the series was revived by Universal with Jurassic World, which inspired three sequels that have all performed like gangbusters at the box offices but were received with tepid interest from critics.
With each Jurassic Park sequel being less and less admired by critics and audiences, you’d think this would signal at least a temporary dormant period for the long-running franchise that has failed to even touch the greatness of the original. The only Jurassic property that pushes the franchise forward is on television, with the two Netflix original series, Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous and Jurassic World: Chaos Theory. There’s been no official confirmation yet from Universal, but a follow-up to 2025’s Jurassic World Rebirth, which starred Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey would be a safe bet. Jurassic also has real estate in merchandise, theme parks, and other expanded media.
‘Jurassic Park’ Predicted the Future With One Line by Ian Malcolm
Compared to what transpired in the next three decades, the original Jurassic Park, based on the novel by Michael Crichton, is a film of humble roots. However, as Ian Malcolm proclaimed, life finds a way, and that way, in Hollywood, is typically to churn out a franchise. Jurassic World Dominion and Rebirth were met with a fair share of negative reviews, but no amount of one-star reviews could ever hinder the production of future movies.
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The classic book received an infamous remake in 2025.
As the cynic of the group, which also includes paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Ian Malcolm identified the long-reaching aftershocks of cloning dinosaurs. No matter how many guardrails Grant and Sattler place on Hammond’s experiment, someone else will come along and try to serve as a God-like figure by reviving the species. Malcolm also talks about the cyclical nature of life, where God creates humanity only for humans to become gods themselves.
It’s ironic that a film that warned us about the grave dangers of reviving dead organisms resulted in a franchise that feels like the pinnacle of franchise regurgitation that audiences have been living through for the last 15 years. If there’s one shot in Steven Spielberg’s original film that symbolizes Jurassic Park as a whole, it’s when Ellie Sattler steps out of the Jeep and sees a dinosaur for the first time, gazing at this towering creature in awe. The future installments try to re-create that sense of Spielbergian wonder. However, even as CGI and special effects have improved, the revival of dinosaurs and the franchise itself continues to feel more artificial with every film.
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