Jurassic Park: 8 Unbelievable Differences Between The Book And The Film

8. Dinosaurs In The Real World

For lovers of the Jurassic Park films, dinosaurs finding their way into normal civilisation is all too familiar. It only happens in the second movie, but what lovers of the book will know is that it actually first occurs much, much earlier.

The first movie begins with a raptor attack, followed shortly by John Hammond approaching Dr Grant and Ellie to come and check out the island. The plot swiftly gets going, and there are no signs that dinosaurs exist anywhere except Isla Nublar, but things start a bit differently in the book.

Early in the novel, a small group of dinosaurs attack a little girl while she and her family are on vacation on a remote island, similar to the first scene of Jurassic Park: The Lost World. The body of one of these tiny dinosaurs is then discovered and sent to scientists, who have no idea what the creature could be. It isn't until later that Dr Grant and Ellie identify it as a dinosaur.

It is revealed that these animals have somehow escaped from Jurassic Park, and dinosaurs getting to the mainland turns out to be a large part of the novel's narrative. Later on, a boat harbouring stowaway raptors begins a journey to the mainland, and the need to get the boat to turn around becomes a primary motivation for the characters to restore the island's power. The prehistoric threat spreads far further than the island alone, but more on that later...