Jurassic Park: Fourth Iteration: The Park (I) Summary & Analysis

Near the jungle river, Muldoon realizes that an incorrectly secured tree shorted out the fence. They’re deep in dilophosaur country, and he wants to get himself and the workmen out of the range of the venomous animals as quickly as possible. So, he decides to hold off on investigating the dim lights—possibly headlights—one of the workmen spots in the distance.

In the control room, Arnold’s mood has improved. Enough of the park systems have come back online to allow him to humor Gennaro with an explanation of the “Malcolm Effect.” Malcolm, he explains, uses computers to model the behavior of complex systems. These systems have limits; for example, Arnold could drop a bead of water onto the back of his hand, and although he can’t predict which direction it will run, he knows it must follow the surface of his hand until it drops off. Arnold tells Gennaro that Malcolm’s models tend to have “a ledge” where the drop’s motion will accelerate. He named this acceleration the “Malcolm Effect,” and it tends to cause systems to collapse. His initial report labeled Jurassic Park an unstable system destined to collapse. And, when he and Hammond got the report, they disagreed with it and ignored it.

In the park, Hammond supervises Dr. Harding and the work crews as they tranquilize and move a hypsilophodont. Hammond frets over the creature, repeatedly questioning Dr. Harding’s decisions. Harding came to Jurassic Park from the San Diego Zoo, drawn by the opportunity to write the world’s first textbook of dinosaur veterinary care. He resents Hammond questioning his expertise.  

Meanwhile, back in the control room, Arnold tries to explain to Gennaro why he and Hammond discounted Malcolm’s report. Their park project involved living things, which—unlike mechanical systems—exist in a constant state of flux. “[T]iny jiggles” signify health in a living system, although Malcolm treats them as defects, according to Arnold. Only in a mechanical system, he claims, do small wobbles tend to increase to the point of destruction. Malcolm, he insists, simply didn’t understand that tiny changes in a natural system signify health and responsivity. Gennaro suggests that Malcolm may understand the difference between natural and mechanical systems better than Arnold gives him credit for, but Arnold points to the reawakening park as evidence for the park’s stability.

In the park, Dr. Harding revives an anesthetized dinosaur, assuring Hammond of her wellbeing despite her wobbly gait. Arnold turns off electricity to the jungle fence so Muldoon’s team can repair it. When they’re done, they move on to the other shorted sections. Arnold is trying to fix the phone lines when Muldoon calls in from the field to report that the tyrannosaurs seem to have gotten into the sauropod paddock. When he finds out, Hammond wants Muldoon to subdue the carnivorous dinosaur immediately, worried about how many sauropods he might lose. But Muldoon refuses to comply; not only is it nighttime, but there isn’t anything in his arsenal capable of taking down an adult tyrannosaur. None of the tranquilizers will have an effect, and the one rocket that Hammond allowed him to buy disappeared hours earlier with Nedry.