The following contains spoilers from the novel version of Jurassic Park. It also contains details some might find disturbing. You have been warned.
For the past few days, I have been listening to the audiobook version of Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I am about a third of the way through and the death scenes are darker, more graphic, and more brutal than the movies ever were. Michael Crichton did not shy away from the grimy details when he wrote this and he showed no mercy to any of his characters.
Around the beginning of the story, we got to see a death scene that was so disturbing that it would have made the movie R-rated if it was ever included. A trio of Procompsognathus were eating a newborn baby alive in its crib. Apparently, the Compys ate the baby’s face off one piece of flesh at a time.
After hearing this section of the book, I am glad they excluded it from the film. If they hadn’t, my parents would never have let me see it until I was seventeen. Although it was disturbing for a newborn infant to be eaten alive by small dinosaurs, it demonstrated that Mother Nature does not discriminate between the innocent or the guilty. It does not matter if you’re a child or an adult, wild predators target us all the same.
Also, there is a kind of primal pragmatism with the Compys eating the baby. As predators, the Compys would target prey that was small, weak, and helpless. This way, the Compys would avoid injury and win an easy meal. It’s the same thing with every predator in the animal kingdom.
Grady P Brown - Author 