If you know me at all, then you know that one of my all-time favorite films is Jurassic Park. I love this movie with nearly all of my heart. My love for it is never ending. Now, even though I love this film, that does not mean that I can’t see its flaws or the flaws of the characters. The character we will focus on today will be the creator of said park, John Hammond.

Now, movie John Hammond is better than book John Hammond. I’ll say that right off the bat. There’s no doubt. But, movie John Hammond still isn’t great.

The three points I will touch on will be: 1. The Lysine Contingency 2. Sexism in survival situations and 3. “Spared no expense”.

The Lysine Contingency
Now, for those of you that know the film  (or the book), you know that the Lysine Contingency is as follows: In order to remain having some kind of control over the dinosaurs, Henry Wu, the scientist, created a genetic alteration within the dinosaurs. If they are not provided the amino acid by the staff, all of the dinosaurs, within a couple of days, would slip into a coma and die. Muldoon suggests, as they are in the control room and everything is going wrong, that they put the Lysine Contingency into effect. Hammond says no. He’s absolutely against it. Now, in the book, it goes into greater detail as to why he says no (InGen is going bankrupt and it costs so much money to make dinosaur embryos in the first place), but in the film, they do not go into those reasons. Hammond simply says no. This very closely echoes book Hammond who seems more concerned about his precious dinosaurs than about the human lives that are at stake.

Sexism in Survival Situations
Hammond: “It ought to be me really going.”
Sattler: “Why?”
Hammond: “Well, I’m a……and you’re, um, a……”
PAHLEASE. Ellie Sattler can handle this. And, I’m happy that she calls him out on it,

That moment has always infuriated me. Hammond is old. He doesn’t move as well. For goodness sake, he walks with a cane. There’s no way he would have been able to do get that power back on. The raptors would have 100% gotten him. He would have died at the hand of his own creation. And, another thing to add here, when Hammond grabs the schematics, he puts them down right on top of Malcolm’s wounded leg, clearly causing him pain. Talk about inconsiderate.

Now for the biggest one, and the one that probably needs the smallest amount of explanation.

“Spared no expense”
Oh wait. Except you did. With Nedry. That’s literally why he turns to the other genetics company, when they offer to pay him a bunch of money to steal the embryos. How are you going to underpay the guy who has made it possible for you to run an entire park from one control room, huh? Like, this whole thing would have never happened had you just paid him enough.