I Rewatched Jurassic Park & Realized the Exact Canon Change That Saved the Franchise

When adapting a novel into a film, remaining accurate to the source material is generally touted as a strength, but there are instances in which deviating from the original story can be beneficial. This is exemplified by the success of Steven Spielberg's 1993 film Jurassic Park. It made a long list of substantial changes to the 1990 Michael Crichton novel upon which it was based, such as toning down the violence, altering the fates of several characters, and even changing the personalities of key figures.

But one of the most important changes made to the Jurassic Park films' canon was also one of the least noticeable. The removal of a single moment from the end of the original film was responsible for the franchise's enduring success. But it was overlooked by most fans at the time, because its true impact was not felt until over two decades later.

Jurassic Park Altered the Original Story's Ending

Both the novel and film versions of Jurassic Park concluded with the heroes escaping the dinosaur-infested island of Isla Nublar via helicopter. However, while the film ended on a peaceful note, the novel went out with a literal bang. After learning about the incident at the park, the Costa Rican military deemed the dinosaurs too great a threat to leave alive and decided to bomb Isla Nublar.

As the rescue helicopter flew away in the chapter "Approaching Dark," Dr. Alan Grant looked back and saw "white-hot explosions that burst rapidly, one after another, until it seemed the entire island was glowing, a diminishing bright spot in the darkening night." The next novel, The Lost World, confirmed that this attack had eradicated all traces of InGen's work on Isla Nublar.

In the chapter "Interior," Dr. Ian Malcom said that "the park and all its dinosaurs were destroyed." Because of Isla Nublar's annihilation, the sequel was instead set on the nearby island of Isla Sorna, where InGen had secretly bred the dinosaurs before delivering them to Jurassic Park.

In the films' continuity, Isla Nublar was merely abandoned rather than razed following the incident. This change was not immediately relevant because The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III followed Crichton's lead by taking place on Isla Sorna. But that changed in 2015 with the fourth installment, Jurassic World.

Isla Nublar Became a Recurring Location in the Jurassic World Franchise

Jurassic World returned to Isla Nublar, revealing that the Masrani Corporation had built a new and improved theme park around the ruins of the original. The film included plenty of nostalgic nods to the first Jurassic Park, such as when the Mitchell brothers discovered the old visitor center. Even Rexy, the fan-favorite Tyrannosaurus Rex from the first film, made an appearance in Jurassic World.

In fact, Rexy played a pivotal role in the plot, battling the Indominus Rex that terrorized the film's heroes. If Isla Nublar had been bombed like in the novel, Jurassic World would have needed to take a very different form, as would the animated series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, which was likewise set on the island.

Crichton only authored two Jurassic Park stories, so he was not concerned about cutting himself off from the possibility of returning to Isla Nublar. Spielberg's adaptation, on the other hand, was just the beginning of a massive film franchise that benefited from the option to go back to where it all started.

Isla Nublar was eventually destroyed in the films' continuity due to a volcanic eruption in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. However, at that point, the filmmakers had already squeezed all the nostalgia they could from the setting, and they had secured the series' future by bringing dinosaurs off the island to eventually spread across the entire planet. If Spielberg had not contradicted the novel by leaving Isla Nublar intact, there is no telling the state in which the Jurassic Park franchise would find itself today.