What Jurassic Park Says About Storytelling

Jurassic Park says storytelling is all about conveying a simple message in effective ways, and you can do this through small, authentic moments that people will tune into.

A lot of people have seen Jurassic Park, or at least one movie from the Jurassic Park franchise. It’s a classic Hollywood blockbuster, one of the best films of the ‘90s with great special effects that evoke a sense of awe and wonder people love when going to a film.

Even though the effects are amazing in Jurassic Park, it’s not actually what makes it a great movie. The story does. The most recent movie in the franchise Jurassic World: Dominion, even though they brought back some of the cast from the original film and had plenty of stellar effects, was a bad movie because the story didn’t cohere. The movie clocked in at almost 3 hours, Chris Pratt gave a very uninspired performance, and the whole plotline seemed a bit disjointed and convoluted.

I’m going to show you a couple tricks that make the original Jurassic Park a great story, and how you can use these elements to share your story. Let’s get into it!

Good storytelling is simple

The number one thing to remember when sharing your story is to keep it simple. Create a compelling message you can share with people in a sentence or less (lead with this in a social media post or short video).  Why?

Because having a simple, compelling message upfront is memorable for your audience. The premise of Jurassic Park can be shared in one sentence: Billionaire brings group of experts to preview his genetically engineered theme park of dinosaurs before everything goes wrong. Now, the narrative does become more complicated, but the film never wanders away from the premise around a theme park of dinosaurs.

Simple stories have less puzzle pieces for their audience to put together. They’re easier to create for you as the storyteller, and it’s more engaging, more memorable for your audience.

When you watch or read a good story, it’s like a puzzle where all the pieces fall into place for you. You get to know the characters, you may even have an emotional investment in them. Good storytellers get you caught up in the narrative. They get you thinking and focused on the story.

Complex stories require more skill from the storyteller [Think Victorian novel].  You know when you encounter a story you don’t like, there’s jarring moments to it that don’t feel natural. This is where the puzzle pieces don’t fit because the plot doesn’t add up or we have no emotional investment in the characters. It’s forgettable.

Try writing your own simple story sharing your personal or professional self in one sentence or less.

Storytelling is about small, relatable moments

One of the reasons Jurassic Park is such brilliant storytelling is because the scenes are relatable for people. In most science fiction and fantasy films, we relate to the characters emotions, but not actually who they are or what they do.

This isn’t the case for Jurassic Park. Not only do we get emotionally invested in the characters, but we also get drawn in through something ordinary in the scene that could happen to us in everyday life.

The scene where we see the first dinosaur is masterfully done, as we see them land in the helicopter, get into the Jeeps, and drive off. There’s trepid excitement, but also skepticism, especially with the archaeologists Alan played by Sam Neill and Ellie played by Laura Dern. Is the ultra-wealthy John Hammond out of his mind or did he make the scientific discovery of the century?

Before seeing the dinosaur, almost all sound goes dead except for the running of the cars and Alan getting himself up to stand in the Jeep and take off his sunglasses. We see his face of awe and wonder, then we see the shot of the brontosaurus as the film’s famous score rises to a crescendo.

You’ve had this face before at one point in your life when looking at something amazing, something you only feel like could be in a dream or in your imagination, but now is here before you in real life. Alan’s face before seeing the dinosaur supposedly primes us to relate or recall this emotion, then the music pushes us further into those feelings and finally the visual of the dinosaur hopefully brings back that little kid in you that says, “Whoa!”

Other relatable moments

The opening Jeep scene is one of many moments in Jurassic Park where everyday life scenarios are paired with dinosaurs to make the story more relatable and immerse us in its narrative.

Another is where Dennis Nedry played by Wayne Knight loses his glasses and ends up dead. Dennis is the computer geek who shuts off power to the park to sell and smuggle the dino DNA to a rival corporation. As someone who wears glasses and can’t see without them, I know what it’s like. Well, not traversing a roaring creek in a nasty tropical storm and getting killed by a carnivorous dinosaur. More like getting out of bed and forgetting where I put them. Without his glasses though, he can’t actually drive to the dock for the handoff, not to mention he unknowingly loses the precious vials of DNA.  After being killed by the Dilophosaurus, the camera pans to his lost glasses being buried in mud.

There’s also the infamous scene where the cars get stranded along the cable track by the T-Rex paddock. Most people have stalled out or been stranded in a vehicle at one point in life. There’s a feeling of loneliness as others zoom by on the road. In this scene, it starts with just the noises of the people shuffling in the car, the rain, but there’s really no music. You get the sense that they’re stranded and then after realizing the electric fence isn’t working, hear the cables snap. That’s when you know they’re trapped as it turns the tone of the movie from wonder to horror.

The next day, there’s a chase scene where they’re trying to escape the T-Rex. During the chase, there’s a shot of the sideview mirror. The T-Rex’s head, roaring, fills the mirror with the disclaimer on the bottom, “Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.” This disclaimer, something almost everyone has seen, heightens the tension and suspense with this everyday object. You know how close they are to being eaten, but you know there’s hope they’ll get away.

The other message of Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park’s commentary, its message in the end is that people try to tell versions of a story they can fit into the box that makes sense for them. Those boxes though, those stories people tell themselves are sometimes illusions.

Dr. Ian Malcom played by Jeff Goldblum talks about chaos theory, which in short suggests that systems are predictable for a while, and then appear to become random through tiny variations. Hammond believes his theme park could be the next Disneyland, a cultural craze that will rake in the cash. But it doesn’t even get off the ground. Chaos takes over just as the park is getting on its feet.

He believes he can have control over the dinosaurs, but he doesn’t. And subsequent sequels have proved that. This is the story that people keep telling themselves in Jurassic Park movie after Jurassic Park movie that’s just an illusion.

Work with me at MP Storytelling

Our world in 2025 is chaotic. There’s a lot going on. But effective, simple messaging breaks through, especially when it’s authentic and from the heart. Now its your turn. Create a story sharing more about your personal or professional self with a simple, engaging story.

Need support creating a great story for you or your business? I’m here to help at MP Storytelling. Soon, I’ll be offering video editing with DaVinci Resolve as a new service. I’d love to work on creating a stellar video for you! Book a call to talk about geting started.