Jaws = Jurassic Park.
Nine Surprising Similarities Between Jaws and Jurassic Park That Prove Spielberg’s Cinematic Genius.
Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) and Jurassic Park (1993) are among the most influential films in cinema history. While they may seem worlds apart — one set in the ocean, the other in a dinosaur-filled theme park — they share numerous cinematic techniques that reveal Spielberg’s signature storytelling style.
1. Directed by Steven Spielberg.
Both Jaws and Jurassic Park were directed by Steven Spielberg, one of Hollywood's most legendary filmmakers. While Jaws marked his breakthrough, Jurassic Park cemented his status as a master of blockbuster filmmaking. Despite the advancements in technology, many of Spielberg’s signature cinematic techniques remained consistent across both films
2. It started with a kill.
The opening scenes in both films follow a similar pattern: a victim is attacked by a mysterious force. In Jaws, the shark strikes a swimmer, and in Jurassic Park, a velociraptor kills a park worker. The victims’ desperate struggles and eventual demise set the stage for the horror that follows. Both victims desperately cling on to life with their arms and hands before they are finally dragged away under the water, and into the raptor cage respectively.
3. Greed is bad.
In both films, human greed exacerbates the already dangerous situation. In Jaws, the Mayor of Amity Island keeps the beaches open despite the shark threat, driven by financial interests. In Jurassic Park, Dennis Nedry sabotages the park’s security to steal dinosaur embryos, ultimately triggering chaos. Both characters’ actions lead directly to tragic consequences.
4. Animatronics and Computer Generated Imagery (CGI).
Jaws was made before CGI had really taken off and relied on an animatronic shark (Bruce). Spielberg complained both that the model shark wasn’t believable enough, and that it kept malfunctioning, so he reduced his reliance on it using various techniques to hint at the shark’s presence, and show the aftermath of its actions.
Similarly, in Jurassic Park, it was suggested to Spielberg that all of the dinosaurs could be portrayed using CGI. As good as the effects were, Spielberg rejected this as not good enough and chose to use models and animatronics as well, particularly for close ups of the head and teeth of the velociraptors and the T-Rex.
In Jurassic Park, Spielberg used similar techniques to Jaws. The ripples in puddles and cups of water and the falling goat leg all hinted at the menacing presence of the T-Rex, without showing it.
5. Parallel story arcs: Slow build to action.
Both films follow a two-part narrative structure: the first half builds tension, sets the scene and builds tension while the second half unleashes the full-scale action. Spielberg masterfully paces the unfolding danger, keeping audiences on edge before the climactic monster confrontations.
6. The imagery of shredded and bloodstained fabric.
In one of the most iconic scenes in Jaws, the young boy Alex Kintner is paddling in the sea on an air bed when he is attacked and killed by the shark. However, the aftermath is key. As terrified swimmers stream out of the sea to safety, Alex’s mother desperately searches for her son, to no avail.
Then the torn and bloodied fabric of the airbed slowly drifts to shore.
In the feeding of the velociraptors scene in Jurassic Park, a cow in a harness is lowered into the cage. The dinosaurs are not shown, just the violent movement of the undergrowth within the cage, their screams, and the reactions of Dr Grant and Dr Sattler to seeing the animals feed.
Then the torn and bloodied fabric of the harness is slowly raised out of the cage.
7. Quint and Muldoon : The experienced hunters.
Robert Shaw’s Quint in Jaws, and Bob Peck’s Robert Muldoon in Jurassic Park are very similar characters. Both are experienced hunters, outdoorsy types with a gruff masculine demeanour. They are experts and know about the animals they are facing but on more of a practical than academic level. They meet their ends at roughly the same stage of the films, dying in an attempt to save their colleagues from the monsters.
8. Matt Hooper and Dr Alan Grant: The academics.
Richard Dreyfuss’ Matt Hooper and Sam Neill’s Dr Alan Grant are also very similar characters. They are academics who study the animals they are to face, Hooper at the Oceanographic Institute and Dr Grant as a palaeontologist, digging up dinosaur bones.
Both display great knowledge of the creatures they are up against, and give advice to their colleagues on the best ways to tackle them.
They find themselves taken away from the academic and theoretical study of the animals and are thrown into a real, life and death battle with them. They both survive.
9. The music of John Williams.
John Williams’ scores for Jaws and Jurassic Park are iconic, each enhancing the tension in ways only he can. The ominous Jaws theme, with its gradual buildup, mirrors the relentless pursuit of the shark, while the soaring theme of Jurassic Park invokes a sense of awe, giving way to faster, higher-pitched scores during the raptor and T-Rex attacks
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