"Jurassic Park" (1993) Saturday Monster Movies

It starts with wonder. That moment when a towering Brachiosaurus rises into view, when the music swells and Dr. Grant falls to his knees, is one of cinema’s great expressions of awe. But in Jurassic Park, the wonder doesn’t last. The film quickly becomes a cautionary tale, not just about dinosaurs, but about what happens when human pride tries to take the place of divine authority. The park’s creator, John Hammond, wants to astonish the world. He sees no problem in reviving ancient creatures and confining them to a theme park. He is convinced that because the technology works, it is right. That kind of thinking is as old as Eden.

The characters keep saying variations of the same thing: you didn’t earn the knowledge, you didn’t respect the power, and you have no idea what you’re unleashing. And they are right. The dinosaurs are not simply dangerous animals. They are a mirror to human pride, a reminder that control is an illusion. Fences fail. Systems break down. Nature is not a machine, and life cannot be caged. What begins as scientific triumph becomes an ethical disaster, not because anyone intended harm, but because no one stopped to ask whether they should have done it in the first place.

Jurassic Park offers a vivid picture of what happens when we confuse curiosity with wisdom and power with righteousness. It insists that creation is not ours to shape according to our desires. We are not the masters of the world. We are its stewards. The film’s most honest moments come when the characters realize just how small they are in the face of something bigger, older, and wilder than they can imagine. It is not science that saves them. It is humility. Humility tells the truth about our limits. It confesses that we are not in control, that we are not God, and that when we act like we are, the results are always destructive. Jurassic Park may be about dinosaurs, but what it really puts on display is the human heart. And the thing we need most in response is the wisdom to fall to our knees, just like Dr. Grant, and admit that we are not the ones who hold life in our hands.