Jurassic Park (franchise)
Jurassic Park, later referred to as Jurassic World, is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. It began in 1990 when Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment bought the rights to Crichton's novel Jurassic Park before it was published. The book was successful, as was Steven Spielberg's 1993 film adaptation. The film received a theatrical 3D re-release in 2013, and was selected in 2018 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Crichton's 1995 sequel novel, The Lost World, was followed by a 1997 film adaptation, also directed by Spielberg. Crichton did not write any further sequels in the series, although Spielberg would return as executive producer for each subsequent film, starting with Jurassic Park III.
In 2015, a second trilogy of films began with the fourth film in the series, Jurassic World. The film was financially successful, and was followed by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion. The Jurassic World films were co-written by Colin Trevorrow, who also directed the first and third installments in the trilogy. Jurassic World Rebirth, a new film set after the preceding trilogy, was theatrically released on July 2, 2025, without Trevorrow's involvement.
Numerous video games and [|comic books] based on the franchise have been created since the release of the 1993 film, and [|several water rides] have been opened at various Universal Studios theme parks. Lego has produced [|several animated projects] based on the Jurassic World films, including Lego Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar, a miniseries released in 2019. DreamWorks Animation also produced two animated series for Netflix, Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous and Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, both set during the Jurassic World trilogy.
As of 2000, the franchise had generated $5 billion in revenue, making it one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The film series is also one of the highest-grossing of all time, having earned over $6 billion at the worldwide box office as of 2022. The original Jurassic Park was the first to surpass $1 billion, doing so during its 2013 re-release. This was followed by each installment in the Jurassic World trilogy.
Background
Premise and dinosaurs
The Jurassic Park franchise focuses on genetically engineered dinosaurs running amok on an island theme park off the coast of Costa Rica. The dinosaurs are cloned by extracting ancient DNA from mosquitoes, which sucked the blood of dinosaurs and then became fossilized in amber, preserving the DNA. Scientists then fill gaps in the genome using frog DNA. Although the films primarily take place on fictional islands located in the Pacific coast of Central America, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion see the dinosaurs relocated throughout the world, including the U.S. mainland. The seventh installment, Jurassic World: Rebirth, is centered on an island off the Atlantic Coast of South America.The film series is notable for its recreation of dinosaurs, achieved primarily through animatronics and computer-generated imagery. The first film was praised for its dinosaur effects, and created an increased interest in the field of paleontology, while changing the public perception of dinosaurs with its modern portrayal.
The World trilogy largely ignored recent paleontological findings to maintain continuity with the Park trilogy, leading to criticism among paleontologists. Both Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World include a scene where a character states that any inaccuracies in the dinosaurs can be attributed to the fact that they are genetically-engineered animals. To better reflect modern discoveries, Jurassic World Dominion expanded upon the concept of feathered dinosaurs which was first introduced in Jurassic Park III.
InGen
International Genetic Technologies, Inc. is the fictional company responsible for cloning the dinosaurs. According to the novels, it is based in Palo Alto, California, and has one location in Europe as well. Nevertheless, most of InGen's research took place on the fictional islands of Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar, near Costa Rica. While the first novel indicated InGen was just one of any number of small 1980s genetic engineering start-ups, the events of the novel and film revealed to a select group that InGen had discovered a method for cloning dinosaurs, which would be placed in an island theme park attraction.InGen was well established in the first novel as the entity behind the park, but for simplicity the first film emphasized the Jurassic Park brand. The InGen name is visible in the film — on computer screens, helicopters, etc. — but is never spoken. InGen's corporate identity is more prominent in the second film. By the time that Jurassic World takes place, InGen and all its intellectual property have been absorbed by the Masrani Global Corporation. After Masrani Global Corporation went defunct, it is revealed in Jurassic World Rebirth, that pharmaceutical company ParkerGenix had obtained InGen's files and dinosaur tracking systems for their agendas.
Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction describes InGen as comparable to other "sleazy organizations". Other sources reference the company's receiving a baby T. rex as an allusion to other exploitative entrepreneurs depicted in the 1933 film King Kong. Ken Gelder describes InGen as "resolutely secretive", like the tax firm in John Grisham's 1991 novel The Firm.
Biosyn
In the novels, Biosyn Corporation is InGen's corporate rival, based in Cupertino, California. The company is controversial for its industrial espionage in the genetics industry. Lewis Dodgson, an employee of Biosyn, helps the company in its theft of corporate secrets. Biosyn is interested in acquiring InGen's dinosaur DNA, believing the animals present a variety of uses such as hunting trophies and pharmaceutical test subjects.Dodgson makes only a minor appearance in the first film, and his employer is not named. However, Biosyn is featured in several video games.
The company, as Biosyn Genetics, makes its film debut in Jurassic World Dominion. By the time that the film takes place, Dodgson has become the company's CEO. Biosyn's employees now include geneticist Dr. Henry Wu and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm, the latter working as the company's in-house philosopher. With dinosaurs loose around the world and captured by governments, Biosyn has a contract to house the animals at its headquarters in the Dolomites mountain range in Italy. In addition to performing pharmaceutical research on the dinosaurs, the company has also captured 14-year-old orphan Maisie Lockwood and unleashed giant locusts to devour their rivals' crops. By the end of the film, this plot is foiled and exposed to the public. The film's director, Colin Trevorrow, described Biosyn not as an "evil" corporation, but rather an entity with thousands of employees who have the best intentions in mind, only to feel betrayed by Dodgson upon learning of his actions.
Isla Nublar
Isla Nublar is a fictional Central American island that serves as the main setting in the first novel and its film adaptation, as well as Jurassic World. According to the novel, its name means "Cloud Island" in Spanish. The tropical island is located west of Costa Rica and has an inactive volcano. In the first novel and film, Isla Nublar is the location of Jurassic Park, a dinosaur theme park proposed by InGen, but it fails to open after the animals escape. In the novel, the Costa Rican government declares the island unsafe and has it napalmed; in the film series, the island continues to exist until the Jurassic World trilogy.In Jurassic World, the theme park idea has been carried out successfully by Masrani Global Corporation. By the end of the film however, the island is overrun by dinosaurs once more following the Indominus rex incident.
In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Isla Nublar is destroyed when its volcano becomes active again and erupts.
In the films, several Hawaiian islands stood in as Isla Nublar, including Oahu and Kauai. Some filming also took place on sound stages, in California for the original film, and in Louisiana for Jurassic World.
Isla Sorna
Isla Sorna, also called Site B, is another fictional Central American island. It is southwest of Isla Nublar, and west of Costa Rica. It is the main setting for the second novel and its film adaptation, as well as the third film. Isla Sorna is where InGen conducted much of its dinosaur research. It is here that the dinosaurs were bred before being shipped off to Isla Nublar; a laboratory on the latter island was built only as a showroom for tourists. Isla Sorna is significantly larger than Isla Nublar and has various climates including tropical, highland tropical and temperate rainforest. It is part of a five-island chain known as Las Cinco Muertes, although the other islands do not play a role in the novels or films. However, they are used as the main setting for the 2018 video game Jurassic World Evolution.InGen abandons Isla Sorna after the events of the first novel and film, and the dinosaurs are left to live freely and reproduce. At the end of the second film, it is stated that Isla Sorna has been set up as a biological preserve for the animals, after a failed attempt to relocate them to a new theme park in San Diego. The status of Isla Sorna is not mentioned in Jurassic World, while a promotional website for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom states that the island ecosystem suffered a breakdown after illegally-cloned animals were introduced there. The surviving dinosaurs were relocated to Isla Nublar for the opening of the Jurassic World theme park, leaving Sorna abandoned. Jurassic World Dominion shows the two adult Tyrannosaurus from Isla Sorna encountering the Tyrannosaurus from Isla Nublar. In the same film, Ramsay Cole mentions that Isla Sorna's dinosaurs have been relocated to Biosyn's valley along with those from Isla Nublar that have been rounded up. The island briefly appears in video footage from 1986 shown to Maisie Lockwood by Henry Wu.
For the second film, Humboldt County, California served as the primary location for scenes set on Isla Sorna, giving it a forest climate. Filming also took place on sound stages at Universal Studios Hollywood, and a beach scene was shot on Kauai. The third film largely uses Oahu and Kauai to represent Isla Sorna, as the original film had done for Isla Nublar. A jungle set was also built on a sound stage at Universal Studios.