JURASSIC PARK 4
JURASSIC PARK 4
Cast Of Characters
Dr. Allen Grant: Ben Stiedel
Even after swearing he would never return to the dreaded islands where the dinosaurs were bred and kept (Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar), Dr. Grant goes against his better judgment again. He does this in part to close the book on a tragic past that has been haunting him since his fist visit there in 1993. He is also motivated by a deep love for Dr. Sattler. After a stint as lovers on their first trip to the island they parted ways due to Allen’s dinosaur obsession and Ellie’s post-traumatic stress. Ellie got married, but neither she nor Allen ever really let go. She came to his rescue on his second daring foray into the Jurassic zone, thus strengthening their bond even more. Danger has always brought them together, and this trip Allen assumes, could be the way to win her back.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: Hannah Hunt
Despite her therapist’s advice to stay as far away from Jurassic Park and it’s neighboring isles as possible, Dr. Ellie Sattler has decided to risk it all again for love and science. She is still semi-happily married to Mark Degler, but of course the flame reserved for Dr. Allen Grant has yet to be fully extinguished.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: George Chen
Malcolm is back and more tripped-out than ever. There is no end to his babble of codes and chaos and fractals and invisible roads between universes and strings and mutation and reptilian love, etc. Of course he still has the hots for Ellie and a feeling of jealousy towards Dr. Grant. With his gymnast daughter in college (and therapy) he is free to wander the world in search of wacky dangerous situations. Islands filled with dinosaurs are but one stop in this thrill-ride world tour known as Ian Malcolm’s life.
Tyrannosaurus Rex: Dean Bein
While the raptors have the T Rex beat in the intelligence category, it can’t be disputed that he is the king of the dinosaurs. He doesn’t know much, but he knows he likes to eat scientists.
Raptor 1: Sandra
This is the lead raptor. The others look to him for guidance. He has the longest claw.
Raptor 2: Leah Garza
These guys hang with Raptor 1.
Giant Squid: Caitlin
Many more prehistoric creatures were DNA-cloned than we (the viewer) have seen. Enter the giant squid (architeuthis dux). Known as the modern world’s largest invertebrate, the giant squid is a living fossil. However, today’s squids live in hiding in the deep ocean. To procure one for Dr. Hammond’s intended underwater aquarium-style area of Jurassic Park (uncompleted do to the dinosaur mutiny of 1993), scientists extracted DNA from the fossilized parasitic trilobites they had uncovered. The squid grew up in a small bay on Isla Sorna, but just as the dinosaurs learned how to change from female to male in order to procreate, the squid has learned to breathe oxygen in order to hunt.
Brontosaurus: Ryan
A very small, but important role. This guy convinces Ellie that their mission is wrong.
Act 1 Scene 1
Dr. Allen Grant paces back forth in a laboratory. He obviously has something serious weighing on his mind. After a moment Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm enter from side stage.
Ellie: Allen, What’s up?
Malcolm does some sort of bow towards Dr. Grant…’cause he’s eccentric.
Dr. Grant: I called you both here to discuss the situation at Jurassic Park.
Ellie: Oh Allen no! I…
Dr. Grant interrupts: Ellie listen! We can’t ignore the fact that there are scads of dinosaurs breeding and killing and that sooner or later they’ll find a way to the mainland. For the past five years I’ve been working on a virus. If enough dinosaurs were infected with it, this virus could wipe out the entire population. In short, they will become extinct…again. The only problem is, we need to infect them. As far as I can tell we’re the only ones with enough knowledge of both science and the islands to make it work. I know Jurassic Park is the last place any of us wants to go, but if we don’t, the human race itself could become extinct. So can I count on your help?
Malcolm: What is extinction but the exchange of energy? Is matter all that matters?
Ellie: I just don’t know, Allen. I have a family to think about.
(This obviously hurts Allen to hear)
(Music begins)
Song 1
Allen:
We cloned and bred
We caged and fed
Now all we can do is
Total up our dead
We played at god
But who’d have thought
That this would happen and
That we’d get caught
With Such a consequence
All in the name of science
(Spoken) So what are we going to do about it?
We created life
We caused pain and strife
We “spared no expense” (Allen makes quotes with his fingers here)
But it wasn’t right
Now it’s obvious
That it’s up to us
To go back and end
What turned monstrous
Ellie (spoken): I don’t know Allen…
Malcolm (Spoken): Well, I’m in!
Malcolm and Allen (sung):
What a consequence
All in the name of science
Allen (sung to Ellie all soft and romantic):
We have to try
And though we could die
There’s no one else I’d rather
Have by my side
(Sung louder)
Listen to my plan
And you will understand
Why we have no choice, but
Go back to the island
(Malcolm and Grant sing: With such a consequence, all in the name of science quietly while Ellie sings her part)
Ellie:
I know I’ll regret it
But I’m starting to get it
The past is the past
But I can’t forget it
All three: Oh such a consequence
All in the name of science
The song ends and they look at each other.
Ellie: So when do we leave?
End Scene 1
Act 2 Scenes 2
The setting should be that of a small private airport. Planes painted on a backdrop. The scientists are loading their gear onto a cart or dally or something that Malcolm is holding. Grant has a few large boxes and one small case. There should also be some big guns being packed. They always bring them and they never do any good. But humanity never learns.
Allen: This is the refrigeration unit (small case) I mentioned earlier. Please handle it with great care. Our entire mission depends on it. And this is full of syringes, and plants infected with the virus. While herbivores haven’t posed any severe threats in the past, we’re really trying to cover our tracks here. No dinosaur left alive. Period.
Once we get there we’ll only have a few hours to infect the animals and plant the plants where they’ll be eaten. Once it is consumed the fatal virus will infect the dinosaurs that ate it. If one of them bites another dinosaur it will be spread. If an infected dinosaur is eaten it will spread. They will only live a few hours. Even if their dead flesh is consumed those dinosaurs will meet the same fate. In fact, we can even infect a carcass…it should still do the job of spreading the creatures’ demise. Hopefully we can destroy the entire population in a matter of days.
Ellie: And if we can’t?
Allen: Then we should have at least infected enough so that an almost natural extinction can take place.
Malcolm: I wonder if their deaths will affect humanity in any noticeable way. They are a part of life now. Their departure will be felt.
Allen: And if we fail their arrival will be felt as well. They will eventually find their way onto US soil. And then who knows how many there will be. Now lets get going.
They exit the stage. I would be nice to have a small toy plane on a string to be pulled across the stage or something to indicate that they’re going to the island…
End of Scene 2
End of Act 1
Act 2 Scenes 1 (The Island)
The scene opens in the jungles of Isla Sorna. There are plenty of tropical plants. The herbivore walks by, nibbles a leaf, moves on. The 3 raptors enter.
Music starts and the raptors do a dance routine. They don’t sing or talk, but they screech and show their claws. They make 3 sounds: a screeching one, a low trilling almost purring one, and something that sounds like “QUONK!”. No joke, watch the movies…it’s true.
This is a way to introduce all the prehistoric characters. As the raptors finish the T-Rex enters, followed by the Herbivore and even the Squid. They do a synchronized routine that sets the audience up for the brilliant visual displays to follow throughout the show.
After the dance the lights dim, the dinos exit, and the sound of a plane is heard. A few minutes later the lights come back on and the 3 scientists enter.
Ellie: I can’t believe we’re here.
Allen: Well, lets hope we can leave soon.
Malcolm: It’s as if we’ve entered a parallel Paleolithic universe. One of the eleven universes.
Allen: Yes…well, let’s get to work. I’ll transfer the virus into three syringes. With luck we’ll find enough carrion to not need to infect a living dinosaur.
Ellie: So, we’ll infect the carcass, wait for it to be eaten , then wait for those who have eaten it to be eaten, and so forth? How will we know if it worked?
Allen: Well once they start dying we can only hope the epidemic will run it’s course. We’ll have to leave the island as soon as possible. After a few weeks we’ll survey the island by plane. Once we’re sure they’re all dead we’ll go in and do what we should have stuck to in the first place: studying dinosaurs from what they left behind.
We should split up to look for meat to infect. Here take one of these rifles (everyone gets a gun). We’ll meet back here in an hour.
They all leave in different directions. After Malcolm is off stage Allen returns, and turns to follow Ellie.
Act 2, Scene 2
The scenery is almost the same, but it should be obvious that Ellie has walked away from where scene 1 took place. Maybe we could do a spool of a backdrop or something? Ellie has found a recently killed dinosaur. Allen approaches while she’s getting a syringe ready so she can infect the meat.
Allen: Oh Ellie! I guess we ended up going the same way.
Ellie: Allen…yes well, I found some meat we should be able to use.
They kneel by the corpse and when the syringe is readied they both reach for the same piece of meat to inject it. Their hands touch and they turn to see the others’ reaction to the physical contact. Their eyes and hands remain entwined for just enough time that they either need to separate or start making love right then and there…that’s some intense connection these two have. Right before it gets romantic a huge roar kills the mood.
As the two ex-lovers run to hide behind something (a rock or a tree or whatever is easiest for the prop person to make), the T-Rex makes his grand entrance.
Music begins and the T-Rex will have some dance routine. Ellie and Allen sing in the background. The music is upbeat. T-Rex has really little arms.
Ellie and Allen:
If you don’t move he can’t see you
If you do, you know he’ll eat you
Why does no one ever listen?
Why does everyone always run?
His mind is primitive
His arms diminutive
But he is big and fast
Why does everyone always run
Allen: Just stay still (repeated in the background)
Ellie:
Resist the urge to flee!
You know he can’t see!
Please listen to me!
AND JUST DON”T RUN!
T-Rex sees the infected meat and starts eating it (you know they (scientists) recently said the T-Rex was a scavenger?) After eating he starts to exit. At that moment Malcolm comes running into the scene shouting about infecting a brontosaurus and how plants and fractals are so closely linked. Of course T-Rex notices him (because he is not standing still). A chase scene ensues. My fantasy is that the backdrop could be on a long piece of paper and they could run in place while it gets pulled by…that would really charm the crowd I think. Anyway, shots are fired (to no avail), hearts are all pounding, but right before Ian’s certain demise, the virus takes effect. T-Rex has a dramatic, yet quick death. Ellie and Allen run in. Ellie runs to see if Malcolm is okay. Allen is obviously irked as her attention leaves him.
Ellie: Oh Ian, are you okay?
Allen: He should have been more careful.
Malcolm: I agree Allen, but at least we’ve learned that the virus works.
They go to make sure the T-Rex is really dead.
Ellie: This just doesn’t feel right, to have killed such an epic beast.
Allen: It would have killed you if it had the chance.
Ellie: I know, but that’s just its nature. Is this the role we were meant to play?
Malcolm: Ellie, this entire Jurassic Park fiasco is a real mind-fuck for all of us. It’s as if two universes have melded and elliptic curves have straightened and time has stopped, and then re-started in the form of a song…long and rambling like an old dirt road…a road we’ve been walking far too long. Do you see what I’m saying?
Ellie: No…not really at all…
Music starts. Malcolm sings:
The unexpected variables have aligned
The human race must be resigned
To create order in this insane
3rd Dimension we call our plane
Prehistoric butterflies were so large
The flap of their wings could change
The direction the earth spins
And the magnetic field it’s in
So what do we do?
We’ve got to take them out together!
And we’ll make this world better!
Don’t think of it as “them or me”
Just think of it as energy
Don’t think of it as killing
Think of it as destiny fulfilling
This place was never meant to be
But we will rewrite history
And time and space and atoms and strings
Will combine and hear us sing
And what will we tell them?
We’ve got to take them out together!
And we’ll make this world better!
So what do you say?
Shall we go get it done?
The time is now and forever!
Now lets go get it done
Allen: I agree…well, with the parts that I could understand. Lets go “get it done” (he uses quote fingers to quote the last line in the song).
As Ellie is about to agree the brontosaurus saunters in. It looks at them. I want to find some way to show that it cries a single tear before it collapses, dead on the ground. They all stand and stare for a moment.
Ellie: This just isn’t right. I can’t do this. I need some time to think.
She storms off stage.
Malcolm: Women…am I right? (He elbows Allen in a male-bonding-style gesture)
Allen exits as well. Malcolm shrugs and follows him.
Act 3, Scene 2
Okay…let’s get to the giant squid! The backdrop should show water in the distance…but remember that this architeuthis dux hangs out on land sometimes. We need another dance routine here. I’m going to connect the squid’s legs with fishing line so they all move at the same time. I think this will give quite a lovely effect. Ellie enters after the dance and the squid hides.
Ellie: I don’t know why, but this just doesn’t feel right. We created these creatures…we brought them back! And for what? Just to slaughter them?! I can’t do it. These noble beasts should not bear the brunt of our mistakes.
Who are we to put ourselves above them? Maybe this whole cloning experiment was our “giant asteroid” (again with the quote hands). Maybe we weren’t meant to survive.
This is when the squid attacks. She screams. It chases Ellie around. Ian and Allen come running up.
Allen: Ellie!
The squid looks over at them.
Malcolm: Ellie run!
Ellie looks at her fellow scientists.
Ellie: Allen, Malcolm…this just isn’t right. I’m sorry.
She walks towards the squid. There should be some heart-wrenching/funny death scene here. It ends with Allen falling to his knees and screaming “Noooooooo!” (All plays should have this in them).
The lights go down.
Act 4, Scene 2
It is assumed that the squid’s thirst was sated with Ellie’s blood, so Act 4 takes place after the squid has exited. The two remaining scientists are devastated, both having loved Ellie since the 1990’s. All attempts to do any good related to Jurassic Park have led to human casualties. Every fucking time.
Malcolm: Well, we have to decide what to do now.
Allen: Does it even matter? I brought Ellie here first and foremost because she’s courageous and a phenomenal scientist. But I also wanted her to be here because I love her. And I never even got a chance to tell her!
Malcolm: She knows man…she knows.
Allen: I guess all we can do is continue with our mission. We’ll do it for Ellie!
Malcolm: But she was against it! She died to stop it! I think we might need to rethink our priorities, our values. Should Jurassic Park be destroyed?
Allen: Well, what are you suggesting we do instead?
Malcolm: I’m suggesting that we let life play its course.
Malcolm, sage-like at this point in his madness begins to sing.
We live in an age, an age of science
We think that the world will always stand by us
But this could be the paradigm shift
This curse could turn out a gift!
What if we what if we what if we let them win?!
Allen (sung):
Malcolm you’ve always been crazy
I don’t know how you’ve made it
This isn’t what Ellie would have wanted
We can do it if we aren’t daunted
Malcolm:
What are you even living for?
To kill and study dinosaurs?
You’re living in a past that you created
I think it’s too long we’ve waited
So what if we what if we what if we let them win!
If we do this now
Your reward will be nothing but bones
Theirs and hers and all of ours
And you’ll still be alone
Do you know we could all become fossils?
Would that really be so awful?
Allen (sung):
I want to deny it
But now I want to try it
What do we have to live for?
Poverty, corruption, war?
The second death of dinosaurs?
The two men look at each other and nod. Music swells. They both sing:
So what if we what if we what if we what if we what if we what if we LET THEM WIN!
Act 1, Scene 3
The scientists enter carrying the case containing the virus. They dig a hole and drop it in. On top of that they drop their guns and bags.
Allen: You know that by doing this we are probably putting an end to the human race?
Malcolm: No, we’re merely putting an end to our role in this sick game John Hammond began when he cloned these beasts. The rest is up to the universe.
Allen: I wonder if the dinosaurs we did infect are enough to destroy the species.
Malcolm: Life always finds a way Dr. Grant.
They give each other knowing looks. Just then a radio transmission comes through (they’ll have a radio…or something)…
Radio: Dr. Grant? Malcolm? Dr. Sattler? What are your coordinates? Is Operation Infectasaurus going as planned? What are your coordinates? Do you read me?
They throw the radio into the hole with the virus.
Radio: Do you copy? Dr. Grant?
They fill in the hole.
Malcolm and Grant shake hands, then think better of it and embrace. They each go their separate ways into the jungle, never to return.
The group of raptors enters. They do another dance and then follow them men into the woods. We assume they are clawed and eaten.
The scene ends with a lot of dinosaur sounds.
Act 5, Scene 1
The backdrop is that of a cityscape. A narrator says:
By 2012 the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park found their way to San Diego. They then made way to the East Coast. The humans that did survive did so by learning to respect and love these noble creatures.
This last scene is an all-dinosaur dance routine in which all the buildings (made of painted cardboard boxes) are knocked over.
And I think that’s it.
There’s a bunch of bowing and stuff.
Then a party!
Yes!