Jurassic Park III is a 2001 American science fiction action film directed by Joe Johnston and written by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor. It is the third film in the Jurassic Park franchise and the final film in the original Jurassic Park trilogy, following The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). It is also the first film in the franchise not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, as well as the first not to be based on a novel by Michael Crichton, however, the film features characters and ideas created by Crichton. The film stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, and Michael Jeter, with a brief appearance by Laura Dern. Neill and Dern reprise their roles from the first film as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. The film's plot involves a divorced couple who, via subterfuge, enlist the help of Grant to find their son, who has gone missing on Isla Sorna.
After the release of Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993), Johnston expressed interest in directing a sequel. Universal Pictures announced the third film in June 1998, and Johnston was announced as director the following year. A draft written by Buchman was rejected five weeks ahead of filming in favor of a simpler story idea suggested by David Koepp, the writer of the previous two films. Payne and Taylor were hired to rewrite the earlier script by Buchman, who made further revisions to their draft. Filming lasted five months, beginning in Hawaii in August 2000, before moving to California, with a $93 million budget. A final draft of the script was never completed during production, a circumstance Johnston considered quitting over. Jurassic Park III features a combination of computer-generated and animatronic dinosaurs. A Spinosaurus replaces the Tyrannosaurus from the previous two films as the main and lead dinosaur.
Jurassic Park III premiered on July 16, 2001, and was theatrically released on July 18. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box-office success, grossing $368.8 million worldwide and becoming the eighth highest-grossing film of 2001, however, it is the lowest-grossing film in the franchise. A sequel titled Jurassic World followed in 2015.
Plot
Paleontologist Alan Grant struggles to secure funding for his Velociraptor research, where he attempts to prove his hypothesis that the dinosaurs were intellectually and socially advanced. Instead, he finds himself rebuffing the public's obsession with the events on Isla Nublar and the InGen incident in San Diego. He receives encouragement to continue from his now-married ex-girlfriend Ellie Sattler and his assistant Billy Brennan, who uses 3D printing to replicate a Velociraptor larynx. Wealthy couple Paul and Amanda Kirby offer to fund his research in return for a guided aerial tour of Isla Sorna, claiming they have permission to fly there.
Alan reluctantly agrees, flying there with Billy, two of the Kirbys' mercenary associates, Udesky and Cooper, and their pilot, Nash. When the Kirbys try to have Nash land the plane, Alan protests and is knocked unconscious by Cooper. He awakens to find they have landed and the Kirbys refuse to leave, until a Spinosaurus approaches them. They attempt to escape but the dinosaur attacks their plane during take-off and kills Cooper. The plane crashes in the forest and the Spinosaurus kills Nash and swallows Paul's satellite phone. The survivors flee, encountering a Tyrannosaurus, which is promptly defeated by the Spinosaurus as the humans escape.
The Kirbys reveal they are a divorced middle-class couple searching for their son Eric and Amanda's boyfriend Ben Hildebrand, who have been missing for eight weeks and were last seen illegally parasailing by the island. Government agencies declined to help so they deceived Alan to secure his assistance, mistakenly believing he had experience on Isla Sorna. The group searches for Eric and Ben, finding the latter's corpse attached to the parasail near a Velociraptor nest. They discover the InGen compound, where they are attacked by a pack of Velociraptors, who kill Udesky. Alan is separated from the rest of the group but is saved from the raptors by Eric, who has been sheltering in a supply truck.
The following morning, Alan and Eric reunite with Billy and Eric's parents and narrowly escape the Spinosaurus again. Alan finds Billy stole Velociraptor eggs, which resulted in the earlier attacks. Billy hoped to sell the eggs to fund their dig site, which Alan disapproves of, but keeps the eggs regardless, hoping the Velociraptors may spare the group if they are returned. The group enters an aviary and is attacked by a flock of Pteranodons, one of which takes Eric to its nest to feed him to its young; Billy rescues Eric using the parasail but is seemingly killed while the rest escape by boat along an adjacent river. They retrieve the satellite phone and Grant contacts Ellie for help while they are attacked once again by the Spinosaurus.
The following day, the group hears a helicopter overhead and arrives at the coast, but are ambushed by the Velociraptors, who have come for the eggs. Alan, finding the replicated larynx in Billy's bag, uses it to confuse the pack. Upon hearing distant helicopters, the raptors reclaim their eggs and retreat. The U.S. Marines and Navy, summoned by Ellie, land on the beach and rescue the survivors. On a helicopter, they discover that an injured Billy has also been rescued. They watch the now-freed Pteranodons fly alongside them as they leave the island.
Cast
Production
When Steven Spielberg's film Jurassic Park was released in 1993, his friend Joe Johnston became interested in directing a potential sequel. While Spielberg expected to direct the sequel, he agreed Johnston could direct a possible third film. The second film, entitled The Lost World: Jurassic Park, includes a scene showing a Tyrannosaurus rampaging through San Diego; Spielberg had intended to use this scene for a third film but later decided to add it into the second installment, after realizing he probably would not direct another film in the series.
After the release of the second film in May 1997, Spielberg was busy with other projects; when asked about the possibility of a third Jurassic Park film, he responded that it would give him a tremendous headache "just to think about it". Spielberg had no intention of returning to the Jurassic Park series as a director, stating that the films were difficult to make. He had been satisfied with directing the previous films, and felt that the third film needed someone new to take over. After the release of the second film, Johnston again asked Spielberg about directing a Jurassic Park sequel.
Pre-production Universal Pictures announced the film in June 1998, with Spielberg as a producer. Michael Crichton, who wrote the Jurassic Park novels, was to collaborate with Spielberg to create a storyline and write a script, although Johnston later said that Crichton had no involvement with the project. The film was originally set for release in mid-2000. Spielberg initially devised a story involving Dr. Alan Grant, who was discovered to have been living on one of InGen's islands. According to Johnston: "He'd snuck in, after not being allowed in to research the dinosaurs, and was living in a tree like Robinson Crusoe. But I couldn't imagine this guy wanting to get back on any island that had dinosaurs in it after the first movie".
Craig Rosenberg, who previously wrote and directed Hotel de Love, began writing the first draft of Jurassic Park III in June 1999. Spielberg and Johnston were impressed by Rosenberg's prior work, which included thriller screenplays for Spielberg's company DreamWorks. Rosenberg's draft involved teenagers becoming marooned on Isla Sorna, and it included a sequence involving the aquatic reptile Kronosaurus, which was not featured in the final film. Another scrapped scene would involve characters on motorcycles trying to evade raptors.
Johnston was announced as the film's director in August 1999, with Rosenberg still attached. Spielberg gave complete creative freedom to Johnston, who said that Spielberg "has strongly pointed out that I shouldn't try to copy him". Production was expected to begin in early 2000. The previous films were shot in Hawaii, and the island of Kauai was the preferred filming location for the third film, although no decisions would be made until the finalization of the script. Rosenberg's draft about teenagers on Isla Sorna was rejected in September 1999. Johnston said it was "not a badly written script", but he felt that viewers would not want to see such a story, also saying that it read like a bad episode of Friends.
Buchman draft Peter Buchman was hired to rewrite Rosenberg's draft, and did so going into early 2000. Buchman's draft involves dinosaurs causing a series of mysterious killings on the mainland, followed by an investigation. The script also has a parallel story that involves Alan Grant, Billy, and a family crash-landing on Isla Sorna.
The draft begins with a vacationing couple who go parasailing over Isla Sorna, becoming the latest tourists to go missing there. A representative for the U.S. State Department, Harlan Finch, goes to Costa Rica and meets environmentalist Simone Garcia, who informs him of a recent dinosaur attack. Meanwhile, Grant is seeking financial donors for a raptor research station that he wants to build on Isla Sorna. Finch offers Grant exclusive research rights to the island if he will help the U.S. government acquire jurisdiction over it. Grant agrees and is scheduled to testify along with Simone at a hearing, to be held the next day in San José, Costa Rica.
Grant also meets Paul Roby, a wealthy businessman who offers him a donation if he will host an aerial tour of Isla Sorna. Grant agrees, and they fly over the island prior to the hearing, along with Grant's graduate student Billy Hume and Paul's 12-year-old son Miles, a dinosaur enthusiast. Also on the tour is Paul's bodyguard Cooper, and Susan Brentworth, Paul's business associate and girlfriend. The plane is forced to land on the island after hitting an unidentified object. As it takes off again, it hits a Spinosaurus and crashes. The story would then alternate between the island and San José. The hearing would reveal that dinosaur attacks have taken place in various mainland locations, ranging from the Baja California Peninsula to Panama. Finch becomes concerned that the dinosaurs are breeding, thus posing a worldwide problem.
The island scenes would largely play out the same as the final film, although the aviary and InGen laboratory sequences were much longer and more complex in this draft. Part of the script would involve the humans spending the night in the laboratory and making it their base of operations, although velociraptors would eventually sneak into the lab, after Billy stole their eggs. The humans would escape on dirt bikes and later take refuge in treetops. Cooper would die to velociraptors while protecting Miles, and Billy would die to a Pteranodon during the aviary sequence. Near the end of the draft, the U.S. government sends in fighter jets to bomb the island and destroy its dinosaur population. In the process, Roby is spotted by a pilot and he and his family are rescued from the island. However, Grant refuses to leave and, in his final scene, retreats into the jungle, incorporating Spielberg's initial idea.