One of the most major points of the movie is that Hammond spared many, many expenses; it’s not really a novel observation when the movie shoves it in your face.
In Hammond’s defense, the fences do actually work well. However, once Nedry cuts the electricity, they become basically useless. The fences work, but the security system around them doesn’t, and there needs to be a backup if the electricity fails.
This got me thinking back on reading the book earlier this year. Mr. Arnold really was the super star of the entire operation. Nedry might have been mostly qualified but heavily overworked, and underpaid of his own fault, but everyone would have died and much much sooner if not for Arnold. That man knew all the ins and outs of the entire park, enough to even debug and fix Nedrys code.
Right? The sticking point is that Nedry wanted more money, and he compromised the system, to get paid. If he had been paid a better wage he couldn’t have been bought as easily by a competitor.
NEDRY: (laughs) I am totally unappreciated in my time. You could run this whole park from this room with minimal staff for up to three days. You think that kind of automation is easy? [sips a soda] Or cheap? You know anybody who can network eight Connection Machines and debug two million lines of code for what I bid for this job? 'Cause if he can, I’d love to see him try.
HAMMOND: I’m sorry about your financial problems. I really am. But they are your problems.
Now, he does mention that he bid that price, so maybe he was in on the scheme from the get-go. But that, again, would be more difficult if you have loyal and better paid employees.
Yeah but systems have to be resilient. The events of the movie (haven’t read the book) show that a single point of failure was enough to cause a catastrophe. That’s unacceptable in normal circumstances, nevermind an island filled with dangerous predators.
I highly recommend reading the book. It’s a great read, more gritty, goes into more detail in many ways, has more focus on corporations being a plague on modern world (very much cyberpunk-adjacent themes), and the best thing is that some (but not all) characters that survived the movie die in the book and vice versa, so it’s still very suspenseful even if you’ve seen the movie a million times.
Yep and dangerous predators that we aren’t equipped to deal with. If a lion escapes from the zoo, guns will work on it. Will they penetrate a dinosaurs skin?
But was also an alcoholic, and shows how poorly Hammond did in cheaping out and not hiring the best outside of the scientist and their facilities.
To be fair to Muldoon though, he was probably the only wild life expert with about as relevant experience as one could have, and balls big enough to take on the challenge of carnivorous dinosaurs. He did about as good as anyone could have hoped for against the raptors in the book.
Consistent electricity is a completely unreasonable design assumption for that part of the world. Even backups aren’t enough. Zoos already have enclosures that don’t require electricity to keep animals contained.
Yeah, I totally misspoke in my comment. By “backup”, I didn’t mean e.g. a backup generator. I meant that in addition to the electric fences, there should be physical barriers like a tall, steep wall that can, at minimum, reliably hold the dinosaurs regardless of the fence. We see these in the movie, but I think the idea is that they aren’t used consistently. It’s been a while since I’ve watched Jurassic Park.
The electric fences are seemingly a 100% foolproof way of keeping the dinosaurs in while the electricity is running, and I’ll even take Hammond at his word that he can have perfect uptime without planned human interference like Nedry’s. So in that sense, the fences are more like a backup to the physical barriers, not vice-versa.
So you want (from inside–out):
Static physical barriers like water, tall walls, etc.
An electric fence. Even if unelectrified, it still offers some small, temporary protection from the smaller dinosaurs, and it’s effective at keeping out dinosaurs who somehow get past (1).
A barrier more effective than the concrete base of the fence seen in the movie so that a visitor can’t run up and get electrocuted.
Periodic shelters throughout the park for some freak accident.
One of the most major points of the movie is that Hammond spared many, many expenses; it’s not really a novel observation when the movie shoves it in your face.
In Hammond’s defense, the fences do actually work well. However, once Nedry cuts the electricity, they become basically useless. The fences work, but the security system around them doesn’t, and there needs to be a backup if the electricity fails.
This got me thinking back on reading the book earlier this year. Mr. Arnold really was the super star of the entire operation. Nedry might have been mostly qualified but heavily overworked, and underpaid of his own fault, but everyone would have died and much much sooner if not for Arnold. That man knew all the ins and outs of the entire park, enough to even debug and fix Nedrys code.
Right? The sticking point is that Nedry wanted more money, and he compromised the system, to get paid. If he had been paid a better wage he couldn’t have been bought as easily by a competitor.
Now, he does mention that he bid that price, so maybe he was in on the scheme from the get-go. But that, again, would be more difficult if you have loyal and better paid employees.
Yeah but systems have to be resilient. The events of the movie (haven’t read the book) show that a single point of failure was enough to cause a catastrophe. That’s unacceptable in normal circumstances, nevermind an island filled with dangerous predators.
I highly recommend reading the book. It’s a great read, more gritty, goes into more detail in many ways, has more focus on corporations being a plague on modern world (very much cyberpunk-adjacent themes), and the best thing is that some (but not all) characters that survived the movie die in the book and vice versa, so it’s still very suspenseful even if you’ve seen the movie a million times.
The second one is a good read too.
Yep and dangerous predators that we aren’t equipped to deal with. If a lion escapes from the zoo, guns will work on it. Will they penetrate a dinosaurs skin?
Dinosaurs weren’t made of Kevlar.
Muldoon was plenty equipped. He had two rocket launchers!
But was also an alcoholic, and shows how poorly Hammond did in cheaping out and not hiring the best outside of the scientist and their facilities.
To be fair to Muldoon though, he was probably the only wild life expert with about as relevant experience as one could have, and balls big enough to take on the challenge of carnivorous dinosaurs. He did about as good as anyone could have hoped for against the raptors in the book.
Yes, from basic science?
Consistent electricity is a completely unreasonable design assumption for that part of the world. Even backups aren’t enough. Zoos already have enclosures that don’t require electricity to keep animals contained.
Yeah, I totally misspoke in my comment. By “backup”, I didn’t mean e.g. a backup generator. I meant that in addition to the electric fences, there should be physical barriers like a tall, steep wall that can, at minimum, reliably hold the dinosaurs regardless of the fence. We see these in the movie, but I think the idea is that they aren’t used consistently. It’s been a while since I’ve watched Jurassic Park.
The electric fences are seemingly a 100% foolproof way of keeping the dinosaurs in while the electricity is running, and I’ll even take Hammond at his word that he can have perfect uptime without planned human interference like Nedry’s. So in that sense, the fences are more like a backup to the physical barriers, not vice-versa.
So you want (from inside–out):
But it’s a bigger observation in the novel.
🫡🥁