Skip to main content
Games Radar Newsarama Total Film Edge Retro Gamer SFX
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The smarter take on movies
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
Trending
  • Best Netflix Movies
  • Best movies on Disney Plus
  • Movie Release Dates
  • Best Netflix Shows
Don't miss these
Jurassic Park: Survival
Survival Games Jurassic Park: Survival has quietly been 35 years in the making, and it's taking us back to where it all began
A T-rex roars at the screen in Jurassic World: Survival
Stealth Games I've spent 32 years dreaming of a game that looks like Jurassic Park: Survival, and this slice of pre-alpha footage and the devs' work on Space Marine 2 have me more hopeful than ever
A close-up of a dinosaur roaring in an enclosure during one of the best Jurassic Park games, Jurassic World Evolution
Games After careful consideration, I've decided to endorse these Jurassic Park games ahead of Jurassic World Evolution 3
Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson in The Long Walk
Horror Movies The Long Walk screenwriter says that major ending change was made "for fans of Stephen King" and to honor the horror author's work: "When we heard back that he liked the idea, it was off to the races"
The Long Walk
Horror Movies The best Stephen King adaptations ranked, from Carrie to The Long Walk
Stephen King
Horror Movies Stephen King names his favorite movies of all time, excluding his favorite Stephen King adaptations
Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Ben Wang and more in The Long Walk
Horror Movies The Long Walk screenwriter says he had to "go through the motions" to adapt the upcoming dystopian horror thriller: "We had to ask Stephen King if he was OK with it, and thank God he was"
Jurassic Park: Survival announcement screenshot with a woman holding a flare and a roaring T-Rex.
Stealth Games Jurassic Park: Survival – Everything we know so far about the new Jurassic Park game
Stephen King drinking from a straw in IT: Chapter 2
Horror Movies Stephen King reveals the horror movie that got "its cold little fingers under [his] skin"
Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson in The Long Walk
Horror Movies The Long Walk ending explained: Who dies? Who wins the contest?
The Long Walk
Horror Movies 46 years later, Stephen King says he was able to fix one mistake he made in his original novel in upcoming horror movie The Long Walk
Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson at gunpoint in The Long Walk
Horror Movies The Long Walk review: "One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made"
Glen Powell in The Running Man trailer
Horror Movies Upcoming Stephen King movies and TV shows
Glen Powell in The Running Man trailer
Action Movies Edgar Wright's adaptation of The Running Man will change the book's ending, but it got Stephen King's seal of approval: "I think you did a great job"
Ferocious gameplay showing a herd of dinosaurs standing beneath cliffs in an overgrown jungle
Survival Games I've been waiting 20 years for a spiritual successor to Peter Jackson's King Kong game, and it might just be Ferocious
  1. Entertainment
  2. Movies
  3. Action Movies
  4. Jurassic Park

The 10 craziest Jurassic Park book scenes that should have made the movie

Features
By Ben Skipper published 15 June 2017

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Book to movie

Book to movie

Jurassic Park is one of the best page-to-screen adaptations ever, but its not one of the most faithful. Spielberg's thrill-ride shares its characters, setting, and its most prominent dino-stars with the book, but Michael Crichton's novel is a very different beast. The book is drenched in scientific detail, technical mumbo jumbo, and lavish lashings of blood and gore. It's a scarier, darker story with numerous scenes that wouldn't have suited Spielberg's family-friendly classic. So here's 10 scenes I'd have loved to have seen in the film.

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Isla Nublar gets napalmed

Isla Nublar gets napalmed

Following the films events, as the action moves to Isla Sorna (Site B) for films two and three, the fate of Isla Nublar is never addressed. In the book there's no doubt what happens to Nublar--as the survivors are ferried to safety, the island erupts in flame as its inhabitants suffer a napalm-y death. Luckily this didn't happen in the film, meaning director Colin Trevorrow could take the action back to Nublar for Jurassic World.

Read more: Here's everything we know about Jurassic World 2 so far

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
Muldoon blows up a raptor with a bazooka

Muldoon blows up a raptor with a bazooka

What else is there to say? Muldoon is even more of a badass in the book than he is in the film. Spielberg's 'clever girls' get the better of our favourite game warden, but in the book Muldoon wins emphatically when he takes a bazooka to a dinosaur brawl. Read on dear reader, read on: "The animal on the left simply exploded, the upper part of the torso flying into the air, blood splattering like a burst tomato on the walls of the building. The lower torso collapsed to the ground, the legs kicking in the air, the tail flopping."

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Raptor siege

Raptor siege

A dinosaur siege might just be the coolest, scariest thing imaginable. As the island descends into chaos Ian Malcolm--in a morphine-induced stupor--is moved to the relative safety of the visitors living quarters. There he's joined by game keeper Robert Muldoon, John Hammond, Dr Henry Wu, and Ellie Satler. Satler ends up playing bait to draw the raptors away from the skylight they're chewing their way through and in the ensuing chaos Wu meets a horrifying end as he's torn open and eaten alive by the terrifying raptors.

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
Timmy's tyrannosaurus tonguing

Timmy's tyrannosaurus tonguing

You read that right. It's a scene that would serve as inspiration for a particular instance in the sequel, but in the original novel it isn't a snake-fearing palaeontologist getting terrorised by a T-Rex in a waterfall. It's Lex and Tim. Not quite able to reach them, the Rex wraps its tongue around Tim's head, then drags him toward his gaping maw. It would have been a truly creepy scene, but would have proved a nightmare to make a reality on screen.

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Nedry's blind date

Nedry's blind date

Dennis Nedry's death in the book is largely the same, save for one little, nightmarish detail. Rendered blind by the toxic spit of a dilophosaurus, Nedry re-enters his car only to feel a sharp stabbing in his stomach. "Nedry stumbled, reaching blindly own to touch the ragged edge of his shirt, and then a thick slivery mass that was surprisingly warm, and with horror he suddenly knew he was holding his own intestines in his hands." Eww.

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
Velociprators aren't the best foster parents

Velociprators aren't the best foster parents

Towards the end of the book Lex and Tim find a baby raptor in a dinosaur nursery where new-borns are reared. The baby is playful, almost happy to see the humans--a far cry from the adult raptors, who are depicted as animalistic, borderline-psychopathic killers. Not long after finding the infant, adult raptors arrive--and as a distraction Tim throws the baby their way before he's spotted. As Tim (who is older in the novel) leads Lex to an escape he looks back to see the baby raptor in the jaws of its elder, before another raptor tears at its limbs. All three raptors proceed to fight over the baby's remains. Nom.

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Alan Grant: raptor killer

Alan Grant: raptor killer

Perhaps the most intense scene of the book sees Grant cornered in a laboratory by three raptors. His plan is to inject the labs unfertilised eggs with a deadly toxin before rolling them towards his scaly foes for them to eat. As the raptors stalk him, a delayed reaction kills the first raptor as it charges Grant down, the second is killed by the first as his 'friend' attempts to eat him, and the third gets a more personal death as Grant plunges the poison directly into its tail.

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Hammond's fitting end

Hammond's fitting end

Richard Attenborough's John Hammond is cuddly, eccentric, and naive, but in the books those first two points are a front for a venomous perfectionist determined to control the life he has created. Seemingly safe, Hammond's fate is ultimately down to the grandkids he inadvertently brought into harm's way. As the kids play with the rebooted security system they unleash a Tyrannosaur roar over the visitor centres speaker system. Startled, Hammond stumbles down a hillside, breaking his ankle in the fall. As he sits injured a pack of procompsognathus--compys--gather, nipping at him with their venomous bite. The poison makes victims feel sleepy, and before long Hammond drifts off as the compys gather for a feast.

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Raptor boat stowaways

Raptor boat stowaways

All the action of the latter half of the book is running against the clock, as a boat that left the island with stowaway raptors aboard heads toward Costa Rica. The islanders need the power back on to contact the boat and stop them reaching the mainland. At the end of the book they alert the boat who find and kill the raptors before they make the coast.

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Gennaro dies of dysentery

Gennaro dies of dysentery

In Crichtons follow-up novel The Lost World, lawyer Donald Gennaro gets a brief mention as the author informs us that some time after the original events of Jurassic Park, he died of dysentery while on a business trip. In the book Gennaro is much braver and useful, with the character in the film being more of a amalgam of that character and the unused character of the island's cowardly PR manager Ed Regis. It would hardly make for a thrilling film scene, but Gennaro pooping himself to death? I can dig that.

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Ben Skipper
See more Movies Features
Read more
Jurassic Park: Survival
Jurassic Park: Survival has quietly been 35 years in the making, and it's taking us back to where it all began
 
 
A T-rex roars at the screen in Jurassic World: Survival
I've spent 32 years dreaming of a game that looks like Jurassic Park: Survival, and this slice of pre-alpha footage and the devs' work on Space Marine 2 have me more hopeful than ever
 
 
A close-up of a dinosaur roaring in an enclosure during one of the best Jurassic Park games, Jurassic World Evolution
After careful consideration, I've decided to endorse these Jurassic Park games ahead of Jurassic World Evolution 3
 
 
Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson in The Long Walk
The Long Walk screenwriter says that major ending change was made "for fans of Stephen King" and to honor the horror author's work: "When we heard back that he liked the idea, it was off to the races"
 
 
The Long Walk
The best Stephen King adaptations ranked, from Carrie to The Long Walk
 
 
Stephen King
Stephen King names his favorite movies of all time, excluding his favorite Stephen King adaptations
 
 
Latest in Action Movies
Mia Goth as Maxine in Ti West's X
Blade star Mia Goth says "it's for the best" that the Marvel reboot has gone back to the drawing board "They want to do it right"
 
 
The Justice Gang flying in Superman
One death in Superman had a bigger knock-on effect than expected as James Gunn reveals Rick Flag's motivations behind his Salvation plan
 
 
Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past
X-Men star Evan Peters would "love" to play Quicksilver again to properly explore the mutant's backstory: "I always sort of played it like a guest spot"
 
 
Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man
Despite stealing the show in No Way Home, Andrew Garfield doesn't think The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will ever happen
 
 
Milly Alcock as Supergirl
Supergirl is a "space adventure" like Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn says
 
 
Gambit (Channing Tatum) in Deadpool and Wolverine
Channing Tatum says his unmade Gambit movie had something "Marvel and Disney would never do": mutants having sex
 
 
Latest in Features
Aaron Paul's character Robert Robertson in Dispatch, stood holding a dog in an elevator filled with strange superheroes
Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul has "always wanted" to be in a game, but The Boys-esque superhero comedy Dispatch was the first truly irresistible role: "Nothing really felt like the right fit"
 
 
Olden Era
I've been playing Heroes of Might and Magic since I was 6, and after putting 10 hours into Olden Era's huge Steam demo, the strategy series has never felt better
 
 
Photo of a black gaming mouse sitting on a Final Fantasy TCG playmat, with a Lorcana playmat to its left.
I swear by using TCG playmats as mouse pads, and that's never going to change
 
 
Atsu riding her horse in Ghost of Yotei with the black bars disabled
Ghost of Yotei's art director wanted the RPG to look like a "living painting," but the detail required stresses even me out: "When the wind blows, the trees know how strong the wind is"
 
 
Yahya Abdul Mateen II in Wonder Man (2025)
Wonder Man release date, trailer, cast, plot, and more news about the upcoming Marvel show
 
 
Silksong Karmelita boss header image
It took 8 hours of losing to find my favorite thing about Hollow Knight: Silksong
 
 
  1. A pink-haired trainer and a Chikorita sit outside a cafe in Pokemon Legends: Z-A.
    1
    Pokemon Legends: Z-A review: "Fast fluid real-time fights and a world worth exploring make this finally feel like the anime come to life"
  2. 2
    Little Nightmares 3 review: "An overly safe, uneven, and half-baked follow-up where co-op is a hindrance instead of the evolution it should've been"
  3. 3
    With a new season on the way, is Blood Bowl's second edition still worth a look?
  4. 4
    Battlefield 6 review: "More refined than innovative, this FPS is on target with multiplayer even if its campaign is just a big shrug"
  5. 5
    Absolum review: "Classic beat 'em up systems pair beautifully with a run-based structure in this fleet-footed, wonderfully varied Hades-like"
  1. Tron: Ares
    1
    Tron: Ares review: "Misses out by swapping the Grid for the real world"
  2. 2
    One Battle After Another review: "One of the best studio movies in years and an instant classic"
  3. 3
    The Conjuring: Last Rites review: "Not bold or memorable enough for the Warrens' final chapter"
  4. 4
    Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle review: "Roars past Mugen Train as Demon Slayer's best adventure yet"
  5. 5
    The Long Walk review: "One of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made"
  1. Splinter Cell Deathwatch
    1
    Splinter Cell: Deathwatch review: "A pale imitation of the long-dormant stealth franchise"
  2. 2
    Marvel Zombies review: "A fun expansion of the What If episode with delightful MCU Easter eggs and truly gross R-rated kills"
  3. 3
    Gen V season 2 review: "As strong as the first season, if not stronger"
  4. 4
    Wednesday season 2 part 2 review: "Ortega shines, but it's a zombie who steals the entire show"
  5. 5
    Peacemaker season 2 review: "Darker and sadder than the first year, but there's still a lot of fun to be had with the 11th Street Kids."

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...