Jurassic Park starts almost like a detective novel in that it tries to make sense of a series of mysterious events--making logical connections from a series of reports that all include cryptic animal attacks in the fictional Isla Nublar and Costa Rica. From there the story then focuses on wealthy businessman and visionary John Hammond, CEO and founder of the InGen company, hastily recruiting the services of Paleontologist Alan Grant and his Paleobotanist graduate student Ellie Sattler as scientific consultants for his biological preserve that he’s built 120 miles off the coast of Costa Rica. In truth, he recruits Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler as consultants to help pacify InGen’s investors whose confidence has been considerably shaken by the news of the recent mysterious animal attacks. John Hammond intends to have the two contrast the negative opinions of the unpopular “chaotician” Ian Malcolm and Atty. Donald Gennaro, who represents InGen’s investors.
Both Dr. Malcolm and Atty. Gennaro express their cynicism towards the park, certain that it is a failed venture, especially Dr. Malcolm. He actually predicts that the park will breakdown miserably as there are too many wild factors that cannot be accounted for properly. The scientist/consultants finally arrive at the island and are shocked to discover that “reserve” contains actual living dinosaurs. They were cloned from genetic material gathered from prehistoric mosquitoes who had been feeding on dinosaurs and were then, in turn, preserved in crystalized amber. Time however, had damaged some of the dinosaur DNA and to bridge the gaps the park’s scientists filled them in with either existing reptile, avian, or amphibian DNA.
As John Hammond showcases his company’s creations he also makes it a point to boast about the fail-safe measures they’ve incorporated into the dinosaur's biological make up. He reveals that all the dinosaurs in the park have been bred to be female and are incapable of synthesizing the amino acid lysine in their bodies. This makes the creatures thoroughly dependent on the lysine-enriched food supplied by the veterinary staff. He also proudly shows off the islands’s vast collection of high tech surveillance and security systems.
While touring his guests Hammond plays up the part of the gracious host to a tee. He tactfully and enthusiastically rebuts Dr. Malcolm’s prophecies of doom, even bringing in his grandchildren, Tim and Alex Murphy, to the park as a show of his complete confidence that the park is safe. During the tour Dr. Grant discovers an eggshell--hard evidence that Dr. Malcolm’s predictions of the park systems failing to adequately control the dinosaur population--are spot on. Park management later on grudgingly admits that they have been operating the park’s safety measures beyond it’s intended capacity.
As the park’s safety is thrown into question, Dennis Nedry, Jurassic Park’s control and monitoring software chief programmer, has been quietly performing corporate sabotage. Conspiring with Lewis Dodgson, an agent of Biosyn, InGen’s top rival company, he agrees to smuggle out 30 viable, frozen dino embryos in exchange for a considerable amount of cash. He cripples the park’s security system, causing widespread confusion by activating a shut down program. His plan was to sneak out amidst all the chaos he's caused to meet with a Biosyn contact who was supposed to be waiting at one of Jurassic Park’s auxiliary docks and make the trade.
This plan goes horribly wrong however as a sudden tropical storm hammers the island and Nedry is badly lost, finding himself at a dead end. He leaves the safety of his jeep in an attempt to regain his bearings but is savagely attacked by a Dilophosaurus, blinding him with venom then mauling him. Dennis Nedry’s untimely death now creates an entirely new problem: without him to reactivate and run park security systems the dinosaurs are can now roam unimpeded.
An adult Tyrannosaurus Rex escapes its enclosure and begins rampaging. In the resulting pandemonium, Dr. Grant and the Murphy children are lost in the park. Dr. Malcolm is severely injured in the T-Rex attack but is rescued by Jurassic Park’s game warden, Robert Muldoon and Gennaro. He remains in this badly injured state throughout the duration of the book. Despite this though he still actively tries to help out the other characters via lectures and musings of the situation. The combined efforts of CEO John Hammond, chief geneticist, Henry Wu, park supervisor/engineer, John Arnold, and park warden Muldoon manage to bring a semblance of order to the park, albeit temporarily.
The Velociraptors in the park though prove to be more intelligent than initially expected, causing more trouble for the characters in the novel. They manage to escape, injuring Muldoon, then killing Engr. Arnold and Dr. Wu, causing widespread mayhem. Amidst all the carnage, Dr. Grant and the Murphy kids finally arrive at the central compound after managing to round up as many juvenile wild raptors as they can from various points on the park, trying to ensure that the ‘raptor population remains manageable. Dr. Grant, Dr. Satler, Atty. Genaro, and the Murphy kids then manage to escape the marauding ‘raptors and restore power to the park, reactivating the safety devices around the dinosaur enclosures.
Outraged and horrified by the ordeal Atty. Genaro attempts to have the island and the park completely obliterated, viewing it as a complete disaster and a potential danger to the nearby human population. Dr. Grant refuses this move though, stating that they are now accountable to the rest of the world to figure out what happened, i.e. learn how the dinosaurs manage to breed despite the genetic failsafe that was bred into them and determine just how many breeding dinosaurs have already made their way into the mainland.
Eventually, the surviving parties begin exploring Jurassic Park once more to assess the damage and to locate feral Velociraptor populations to correct the InGen team’s ‘raptor/dino census. Dr. Grant’s team finally determine that the dinosaurs were able to breed because frog DNA was used to fill in missing genetic material during the cloning process. This addition unwittingly enabled them to change gender as needed in order to breed, as some frog species are known to do. The team takes all the necessary precautions, leaving nothing to chance, and return unharmed; John Hammond however gets careless and sustains an injury while surveying the park. While injured he is attacked by a large mob of prowling Procompsognathi and is eaten.
The novel ends with the Costa Rican Air Force quickly and savagely bombarding the island. They then proceed to detain the survivors of the Jurassic Park fiasco for questioning and eventual release. Dr. Grant is contacted later on by Dr. Martin Guitierrez, a biologist stationed in Costa Rica. Dr. Guitierrez reports that he has found the remains of a Procompsognathus.
He also reports that he has been receiving accounts from local farmers of animals presumed to be either juvenile raptors or compys ravaging both soybean crops and poultry farms--food rich in the amino acid lysine--the protein that InGen bred animals were engineered to be incapable of synthesizing on their own. He tells Dr. Grant that none of the survivors of the Jurassic Park incident, save perhaps the Murphy kids, will be going back to the US anytime soon as their experience will be needed to respond to the growing but thusly unknown threat of feral dinosaurs.
