What Would Jurassic Park Have Looked Like with James Cameron Directing?

As the years keep rolling by one can’t help but hear the continued praise and criticism of the Jurassic Park franchise, which is rather typical since the feeling is that the first movie was a revolutionary step forward at the time it was created since it brought to life titans from millions of years ago that people have been interested in for quite some time. But the criticism that these dinosaurs are lab creations that bear only a passing resemblance to the actual creatures that used to roam the land has been noted and either given a good deal of attention or disregarded with the thought that Jurassic Park is a movie, and doesn’t need to be one hundred percent accurate. But one question has come to the attention of many people lately as a Reddit user managed to ask what might have happened if the first movie would have had a different director, such as James Cameron. One obvious change feels as though it’s too easy to guess since many believe that this movie would be a lot darker had Cameron managed to put his name on it, especially when it comes to thinking of the movies he’s made throughout his career. 

From the moment that the first velociraptor was being caged in the movie to the ending, Cameron would have likely included plenty of action and the deaths might have been a lot more gruesome, at least, if he’d been allowed to do so. It’s been seen over the years that Cameron isn’t bound to delve into the gore-filled moments in his movies with wild abandon since even Aliens managed to show a great deal of horror and gut-churning moments, but they weren’t overwhelming in any way. That feels as though it might have been the goal had he been able to take on this project, though it’s fair to say that had he managed to reach out and take the movie before Spielberg did, things might have gone a lot differently. Who knows, maybe John Hammond wouldn’t have made it out of the first movie. 

A couple of things that a lot of people still didn’t know is that John Hammond did end up dying in the first book of this franchise, as Michael Crichton ended up writing the part of Hammond as less of a caring but ambitious grandfather figure and more of a grasping and way too ambitious individual that received his comeuppance in the end. The other thing is that Cameron did try to take on this movie, but was late on the draw and lost the opportunity to Spielberg, who wasn’t about to be moved aside from this movie. But the truth of the book that inspired this movie and eventually the franchise is that Jurassic Park was initially a lot darker than it turned out to be in the movies. Just imagining what Cameron would have done to it is kind of fun since it means that the airy, kind of carefree, and almost positive demeanor the movie took on might have been a little more like Aliens, with darker hues here and there and a stark contrast between the light and dark colors within the movie. 

It’s also likely that the dinosaurs would have been a little more vicious as well since the fringed-lizard dinosaur that killed Dennis Nedry might have been given a much more aggressive appearance and attitude, or the T. Rex might have been a lot more savage than it was. Perhaps the velociraptors wouldn’t have been as easy to trick, or maybe we would have seen more of what happened to Mr. Arnold, given that the only part of him to make a final appearance was his severed arm. There are a dozen ways, possibly more, that James Cameron would have made this movie a lot darker and probably would have upped the stakes since one thing that Cameron isn’t always known for are movies in which safety is a possibility no matter how dangerous things are. There’s always something that’s about to happen or that could happen or that will happen in a Cameron movie, while Spielberg ends up giving us great visuals and a fun story, but isn’t always known for his more terrifying moments. 

Granted, a dinosaur movie in which modern-day lab creations are allowed to run amok on an island while the humans that are stuck there with them have to find a way to survive is terrifying to those that let themselves get drawn into the story, but thinking of how much worse it could have been is interesting. Cameron appears to have calmed down over the years when it comes to his storytelling, but back in the day, it’s possible that Jurassic Park would have been a lot more aggressive than what people have been enjoying for years.