Fan Showcase: Rick Carter’s Jurassic Park Audio Drama

April 3, 2021

Rick Carter’s Jurassic Park was a fan-made audio drama that adapted an unused script for the movie Jurassic Park. The audio drama was produced by Jurassic Time, who is famous for the publication of John Hammond‘s audio recordings from Trespasser as well as the preservation of other Jurassic material. The project had started in 2020 when Derrick Davis of Jurassic Time teamed up with music composer Bernard Kyer to create an audio drama based on Carter’s script that Derrick had found. To enhance the audio drama experience, the team included various pieces of concept art from Jurassic Park as well as original illustrations by artist Felipe Humboldt. A large majority of the artwork used in the production had been given to Derrick by the beloved collector and fan,  Astríd Vega, who had shared everything she could for an early version of the production. Without her, the project would not be as comprehensive as it was. The entirety of the audio drama is dedicated to her.

The Audiodrama

If you are interested in experiencing Rick Carter’s Jurassic Park without having to read through the script, check out Jurassic Time’s Audiodrama that was posted on their YouTube channel.

Jurassic Time’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/JurassicTime

Rick Carter’s Jurassic Park Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-CovX2THxY&list=PLIACT8MUZTgOwb0OMwdeGkWO-E13m6gpX

If you want to download the audio drama and listen to it on your own: https://jurassictime.bandcamp.com/album/rick-carters-jurassic-park-an-audio-drama

Jurassic Time’s website: https://jurassictime.wixsite.com/memoirs

If you want to read up on the creation of the score, check out Bernard’s blog: https://www.bardmediamusic.com/blog

If you want to download the soundtrack and listen to it on your own: https://bardmediamusic.bandcamp.com/album/jurassic-park-audio-drama-promo

The Team Behind the Audio Drama

Voice Cast

Original Music & Sound Design Created by

  • Bernard A. Kyer

Video Directed & Edited by

  • Derrick Davis

Fan-Made Illustrations by

  • Felipe Humboldt

History of Rick Carter’s Script

Rick Carter had been brought onto Jurassic Park approximately 2 years before they started shooting the film. The film was so early in production that he helped in the breakdown of the novel and discuss what should or shouldn’t be in the film. Before the creation of his script, Michael Crichton had produced several drafts of the screenplay. To best present his ideas to Spielberg who had been working on Hook at the time, Rick Carter had produced his own script by using Crichton’s original draft.

The script was based on Michael Crichton’s January 19th, 1991 final draft and it contained revisions and edits made by the production designer Rick Carter. It was completed on March 7th, 1991.

After the last script meetings for the film, Carter had written notes and ideas for the films and “collaged” them into Crichton’s latest script. Eventually, he went through the entire script to include his revisions.

The script was a rough draft and it was only intended to serve as a stepping stone for whoever was going to rewrite the film. It was never intended to be a final draft. The majority of the changes between it and Crichton’s final draft occurred in the first third of the script as well as the last third of it.

The draft was completed in 1991, however, it would be unused as David Koepp would sign on to the film and re-work the script based on Michael Crichton’s final draft. This version of Jurassic Park is notably different from what we actually got in 1993.

Notable differences

The following is a list of notable differences between the final film and the script. Smaller details were omitted.

  • The film opening took place at a clinic in Costa Rica where an InGen Helicopter was transporting an injured construction worker to seek medical attention. It is incredibly close to the scene we get in the novel.
  • Ed Regis is in the film while Donald Gennaro is absent.  Aspects of Gennaro’s character were adapted to Regis.
  • Grant digs up the skeleton of a “Velociraptor Antirrhopus” (he states the name as such) alongside some students
  • Ellie Sattler is confirmed to be Grant’s wife.
  • John Hammond emerges from the helicopter to speak to Grant and Ellie before they continue to talk in the trailer. 
  • Malcolm was not on the helicopter ride with Grant, Ellie, and Hammond.
  • The first stop before the Visitor Centre was at “The Lodge”. This is where Grant and Ellie meet Regis.
  • The grandchildren are already on the island, they do not arrive later.
  • Tim is 11 years old and Lex is 7 years old.
  • Hammond’s presentation is narrated, and the animation is represented by a CG animated short. There is no Mr. DNA.
  • A scene takes place in the Visitor Centre’s Nursery. The group meets a baby Velociraptor. The conversation about the dinosaurs being female is longer.
  • The Control Room is another stop on the tour of the Visitor Centre. The group meets John Arnold.
  • The tour begins, the first stop has the guests see a Hadrosaur and two Apatosaurus. Grant’s reaction to them is a lot more emotional as he cries and laughs.
  • There are five raptors inside of the pen instead of three. Wu and Hammond watch the raptors being fed and they decide not to breed any more raptors.
  • Upon reaching the Tyrannosaur paddock, the tour cars have a decent view of the docks and a supply ship. Ed Regis points it out. This serves as a setup for later.
  • The triceratops paddock is another stop on the tour. The guests walk out of the car to approach it like in the film, however, Gerry Harding has been replaced by Muldoon, who is described as a “Park Ranger”.
  • The Triceratops is sick for an unknown reason, Muldoon implies that it could be related to the dinosaur’s tooth decay. Grant can’t stop thinking about tooth decay and believes that is a sign of a bigger problem that InGen was trying to hide.
  • Nedry uses a portable incubator instead of the Barbasol Can.
  • There is a scene where Hammond is talking with workers in the rotunda of the Visitor’s Centre about the rex skeleton, Nedry slips past them.
  • Wu and Arnold discover that the phone lines are down. They are suspicious of Nedry.
  • Nedry actually makes it to the docks where he meets his informant, Freddy, who is in on the scheme. Since the tour cars stopped at the Tyrannosaur paddock, Tim spots Nedry at the dock by using the night vision goggles. He recognizes the incubator that Nedry handed to Freddy. The guests are unable to communicate with the control room due to Nedry’s sabotage. They have 18 hours before the boat reaches the mainland.
  • Wu and Arnold discuss what could be going on and then they notice the electric fence was turned off.
  • Regis runs away from the vehicles during the Rex breakout as the Tyrannosaurus breaks out of its paddock. The Rex chases Regis down and kills him. The Rex then returns to the Land Cruisers. It tries to get to the kids however it fails and, in its frustration, the Rex lifts the vehicle in the air and tosses them down the moat and into the trees below. While this is happening, Malcolm runs out of the car toward the bathroom where the Rex chases him down. Malcolm is tossed into the building and it collapses.
  • Grant discovers that the Rex cannot see movement. This sequence of events plays similarly to the novel.
  • As Nedry is returning to the Visitor’s Centre, and his car gets stuck on a concrete embankment because he swerved his car to avoid hitting an escaped dinosaur on the road. As he is trying to fix his predicament, he is attacked by the Dilophosaur. Instead of being killed in the car, he is dragged out of the car and into the jungle.
  • While on their way back to the Visitor’s Centre, Muldoon and Sattler happen upon the Rex paddock. They find Malcolm in the wreckage of the bathroom building.
  • The Emergency Bunker is replaced by the Lodge. Muldoon, Hammond, Sattler, Malcolm are inside the lodge while Wu and Arnold are in the control.
  • When sleeping in the trees, Grant and the kids, are awakened by a Hadrosaur. The scene plays out similarly to the novel.
  • There are lava fields on Nublar.
  • Grant and the kids run into an injured baby raptor. The raptor gets excited when the group reaches a drain pipe. The three enter to find a Raptor Den. This scene seemingly replaces the egg discovery.
  • There is a scene where Sattler and Arnold use the Park’s Computer to increase the number of Dinosaurs being tracked to find Grant and the Kids. Originally, they were tracking only 238 dinosaurs (the number of which they bred), but soon discover there are 292 dinosaurs in the park.
  • The river chase scene with the Rex is included.
  • There is a scene where Sattler is studying the Triceratops cells in a lab, and Wu walks in on her and she interrogates him.
  • Muldoon discovers Nedry’s body.
  • The Auxiliary Power fails, and the Park fully loses power. The power had managed to come back after Nedry’s sabotage, but the park was running on Auxiliary Power.
  • Muldoon uses a rocket launcher instead of a shotgun.
  • Hammond is adamant about saving the dinosaur embryos and save the park, this eventually leads to his death. He manages to retrieve some dinosaur embryos and dinosaur eggs.
  • Grant discovers Arnold’s dead body.
  • Sattler, Muldoon, Malcolm, and Wu are trapped in the Lodge and the raptors are attacking it. It plays out similarly to the novel.
  • Grant heads to the maintenance building to turn on the power instead of Sattler.
  • John Hammond is wounded by a Velociraptor inside the control room. The wound is lethal and he is left dying on the floor. An egg rolls out of the incubator that Hammond held.
  • A raptor catches Grant and the kids inside the Nursery, however, when Lex frees the baby Raptor they had met earlier, the adult raptor picks it up and walks away.
  • Grant finds the dying Hammond and speaks to him. The egg that rolled away begins to hatch and a baby Triceratops emerges from it.
  • Grant calls for help in the control room. While speaking with someone on the mainland, Grant mentions the boat with the stolen embryos. He tells them that the boat must be stopped.
  • Ellie, Muldoon, Malcolm, and Wu, reach the helicopter that was sent for them first. They are waiting for Grant and the kids.
  • Grant and the kids escape in Muldoon’s Jeep, however, halfway through they continue on the foot. The rex is chasing them.
  • The rex runs past Grant and the kids to attack the helicopter, it bites down on the helicopter skid. The skid breaks off the copter. Grant, Tim, and Lex jump onto the helicopter during this moment of distraction and it flies away. The helicopter flies over the island for one last view before abandoning the island.