"Jurassic Park" Thoughts: How Dennis Nedry Ruined Entertainment

Just saw "Jurassic Park" for the first time ever -- and Jeff Goldblum in that movie is my fucking hero!

It's a tribute to Spielberg that he didn't just kill off "The Cynic" or make him have some sudden revelation at the end that the world was all unicorns and rainbows. Of course, "Jurassic Park" itself marks a new period of cynicism and darkness for the director's work, though at the same time hearkening back to his first box-office success, "Jaws."

I don't so much have a crush on Goldblum in this movie as I recognize a kindred spirit. His attitude and philosophy really mirrors my own. People ask me what I think of comic books, politics, entertainment, technology, the future of our species, and I'm like: "Chaos theory chaos theory chaos theory: here are my predictions. You can't hold back nature." I feel that at the very least, there is always the potential for some fucking greedy Dennis Nedry with his fucking fake can of Barbasol to screw up our best-laid plans.

It's too easy for me to interpret "Jurassic Park" as an allegory about "science-gone-mad." I really see it more of a statement on the new era of entertainment that was dawning in the early-to-mid Nineties, and that would mutate and take over movies, TV, video games, and comics. I also read Wayne Knight's Nedry (an anagram for "nerdy") as the proto-Fanboy/"Neo-Nerd"* character that he would later define in "Toy Story 2" as the obsessive collector Al McWhiggin.

Indeed, the Jurassic Park souvenir shop with its love-lovely JP-branded merchandise (almost identical to the real ones being sold to tie-in with the actual movie) would be catered to a fellow like McWhiggin, who would probably buy the collectibles in twos or threes (one to open, several to invest).

In Jurassic Park, mad-scientist/Disney stand-in John Hammond states that he created the park for children to enjoy; but it is the selfish Nedrys of the world who will take it over and turn it into something truly bloated and monstrous, designed to stoke their own arrested-development adolescent fantasies rather than create content that the next generation can enjoy and learn from. This is so poignantly represented by Nedry stealing the fetuses and stashing them in the shaving-cream can -- literally, burying the interests of the children in exchange for that of "adults" (read: old enough to shave) like himself.

Greedy.

Say what you will about Spielberg, he didn't make his reputation creating entertainment for babymen (and, later, babywomen) endlessly reliving their childhoods through the prism of their rehashed cherished icons. Instead, he had a pretty good grasp on the wonder of being a child and discovering cool things for the first time (reference "the Spielberg Face"). But by the early Nineties, he saw the writing on the wall with the newest crop of "blockbuster" films...he knew his era of movies was swiftly coming to an end.



The cinematic child, as defined by Elliot in "E.T."...

Gets replaced by that of John Connor in "Terminator 2" in 1991:

Both children have experienced trauma and loss, but John is almost a jaded adult in miniature. Elliot watches his hero ascend to the heavens at the end, but John's hero is lowered into a molten pit. John seems like he will never recover any of his childhood innocence. His spiritual "sister" is the strangely sexualized Mathilda in "Leon The Professional," which is released one year after "Jurassic Park":

Interesting to note that the dinosaurs in JP are all females trapped in an adolescent phase of development, their sexuality manipulated down to their DNA by a mostly (all?) male team; Ian Malcolm thinks this is a recipe for ultimate chaos and destruction:

It is here that I must point out the most "guilty" character in all of "Jurassic Park," even worse than Nedry: Hammond. The Disneyland/JP metaphor could not be more clear in this film. Hammond is more dangerous than Nedry because he is an Icon, a sacred cow. It's easy to hate on Nedry. But Hammond is a cuddly old man, charismatic, generous, witty...

...and yet he actively covers up the death of one of his employees**! He is the Joe Paterno of this story. More, he knows that his creation is potentially unsafe, and yet sends his own grandchildren into the heart of the park!! It's like something out of ancient times, sacrificing your kids to the Minotaur. Those kids = a literal kid, the young goat tied to a pole to feed to the dinosaurs.

Young Sacrifices

Further, when the Dennis Nedrys of the world are called out on their shit, they inevitably default to trotting out the mythology of the paternal John Hammond-like figure. These are the "elder gods" of popular culture that they use as a "shield." But there were problems with those elder gods and some of their philosophies. They are not sacred cows. Remember what happens to the cow in "Jurassic Park"? It is lowered into a pit of "DNA-raped", half-mad young female raptors and shredded to bits.

the slaughter of the sacred cow

"It's over," Hammond says ruefully at the end of "Jurassic Park." Yes, John...I think it is.

But if it is any consolation at all, please remember the immortal words of Ian Malcolm, Chaos Expert:

*I use the term "Neo-Nerd" as to distance this character type to the previous, Eighties version personified by "Revenge of the Nerds" and Anthony Michael-Hall's roles in "Sixteen Candles," "Breakfast Club," and "Weird Science." 

**Anyone else feel that the fact they used a nameless character of color as the raptor victim in the beginning of the movie "allowed" some viewers to let Hammond off the hook? What if that character was someone like Ellie Sattler instead? How would opinion towards Hammond change?