"Jurassic Park"
Jurassic Park—the actual amusement complex located on an island free from U.S. regulatory enforcement—is the film’s most powerful symbol. Hammond’s complex takes the underlying premise of amusement parks to the next level. Evolutionarily speaking, it is nothing less than an imposition of control upon the natural world through the sophistication of virtually simulated reality in which everything can be manipulated for the purposes of profit for the owner. Hammond’s park becomes a symbol for the dream of unrestricted capitalism: the commodification of the experience of living itself.
The Flea Circus
During one of the film’s few quiet moments affording characters space for some introspection, the one perhaps least likely to take advantage shares a memory of an important moment in his life. The time he opened his very first amusement attraction and actually made a few bucks by convincing people that there really were trained fleas operating his flea circus. The fleas circus becomes a symbol that defines Hammond and, by extension, a great many people who enjoy great success in the business world. Success is dependent upon selling the illusion that people want to see, not creating the reality that they can see. The link between flea circus and Jurassic Park suggests strongly that disaster was not just predictable, but absolutely inevitable because Hammond has reached the dangerous point of now being one of those who believe they can see the fleas.
Nedry
The computer genius behind making the scientific genius of cloning dinosaurs actually work as controlled simulated reality—Nedry—dies a particularly gruesome death at the hands of a particularly unpleasant species of dinosaur. It is fitting that Nedry meets his end in this way because Nedry is the symbolic human inevitably meeting up his counterpart, the symbolic dinosaur. Together, the humans and the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park combine to create a super-symbol: the exploited worker who make men like Hammond rich. Hammond lords over Jurassic Park like a King or—more to the point—like someone who has actually contributed substantial labor to making it work. In fact, he contributed nothing to figuring out the science, nothing to actually constructing the physical elements of the park and nothing to designing the technology that will make it entertaining. Far from being the King of Jurassic Park, Hammond is pretty much as expendable as the lawyer hiding in the toilet. Nedry and the dinosaurs are indistinguishable: underpaid and under-appreciated workers to be exploited until they rebel.
"When Dinosaurs Rules the Earth"
One of the most palpable symbols in the film is the banner reading “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” that slowly floats down from its position high on the ceiling to the floor below. In concert with the banner unceremoniously becoming trash is the ferocious roar of the triumphant T. Rex. A powerful symbolic reminder of man’s place within the hierarchy of nature and the fragility of his position at the top of the evolutionary ladder.
Birds Seen from a Helicopter
The final image of the movie conflates two very different creatures in flight, combining them into one integrated symbol. Through the windows of the helicopter can be seen a beautiful image of birds in flight. The birds are a reminder of the scientific proposition made within the film that birds evolved from dinosaurs, but the perspective of looking at them from within an example of 20th century technological advancement suggests that evolution has it has existed for billions of years is now over. Man now has the power to influence the natural course of evolution and that influence may be a disaster like Jurassic Park or a miracle like allowing man to fly.
