10 Best and Not So Best Michael Crichton Films
Born 23 October 1942, Michael Crichton had the time of his life writing books and in the peak of his writing career and success, turn most of his books into films. He had even written successful scripts which became the basis for the successful multi awarded medical drama television series ER. Unknown to most of his friends and colleagues, Michael Crichton had been battling throat cancer since he had been diagnosed with lymphoma in early 2008. He was undergoing chemotherapy at the time of his demise, a sad loss for a great man whose accumulated wealth would have made the difference to prolong his life as he had depicted the edge of technology and survival of the species in his powerful films like The Terminal Man, The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. Michael Crichton died 4 November 2008 but his inclusion as the 10th Top Earning Dead Celebrities in 2009 as published by Forbes magazine does prove one thing. His brainchild allowed him to impart life through his books, films and works forevermore.
1. The Terminal Man (1974) - This film was one of the earliest films to use the plot of mind control and the influence of computers. A computer programmer suffers an epilepsy and the doctors implant electrodes through surgery and the course of the story took its direction. The film stars George Segal and although it was a flop during its release, it certainly has a place as one of the early cyber-psychological thrillers of the period.
2. The First Great Train Robbery (1979) - Loosely based on the Great Gold Robbery of 1855 (as Wikipedia puts it) the plot of the story was about the careful planning of a robbery to seize gold coins and ingots carried aboard a freight train. With Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland on the cast, the film has the perfect combination of actors that fitted the story well. It won the Edgar Award in 1980 as Best Motion Picture Screenplay.
3. Rising Sun (1993) - The second film to capitalize on Sean Connery’s credibility, this was again based on Michael Crichton’s novel of the same title. Basically one of Crichton’s best grossing films, the plot revolves around the death of a professional escort at the US headquarters of a Japanese corporation. Wesley Snipes teams up with Sean Connery as a police detective assigned to unravel the culprit behind the case. The film also utilized the implication of using the connection of the dreaded Japanese organization (Yakuza) in big Japanese corporations.
4. Jurassic Park (1993) - Here was the greatest gem of them all inspired by amber that provided the rational approach at cloning dinosaurs. Then those mighty species come to life roaring with the accompanying tremors at each giant steps. Steven Spielberg directed the movie with Stan Winston in charge of creating animatronic dinosaurs and the rest fall into place, the glory of science then the usual human flaw that switches to the plot of a scientific experiment gone wrong. From $63,000,0000 film budget, the movie grossed $ 914,691,118.
5. Disclosure (1994) - This film was based on Crichton’s novel of the same title and casted Michael Douglas and Demi Moore and shows just where these two film stars were good at. Set at the heights of a corporate environment with a mixture of office politics and sexual harassment issues, this was the film that rocked the top executives and management consultants of multinational corporations off their seats. The film grossed $214,015,089 out of $ 55 million budget.
6. Congo (1995) - This film was basically a monkey story and if anyone should be talking about monkey business, this was it. However this will be a few of those monkey businesses that proved itself having grossed $ 152,022,101 out of $ 50 million budget. The story plot capitalized on the concept of a painting gorilla who was actually painting a jungle scene (all over again) depicting a place deep at the rainforest of Congo where a doomed expedition team searching for diamond mines were mysteriously killed and most of them mutilated. The search party sent to verify the incident with the painting gorilla added to the adventure and the thrilling course of the story.
7. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) - With the worldwide success of Jurassic Park, moviegoers couldn’t help but avail of the tickets to the theatres for this sequel 4 years after. With the direction of Steven Spielberg, what else could go wrong? Michael Crichton was actually pressured by fans and Steven Spielberg himself to work on the sequel and it took years for it to complete. In this film, a second island was brought out to the viewers aside from Isla Nublar. In this island, dinosaurs were left on the wild after a hurricane destroyed the facility. John Hammond’s nephew who wants to redeem InGen from bankruptcy sends mercenaries to the island to capture dinosaurs to be taken to the mainland and the course of the story took to the extent where a mother T. Rex managed to slip on a ship to go after her baby smuggled by mercenaries to reach the mainland. The thrilling part is the T. Rex chase at the heart of the city. The film had a budget of $73,000,000 and grossed $618,638,999.
8. Sphere (1998) - This film was a flop but some viewers will admire the arrangement of the set inside the mysterious “space ship” under the sea. A near perfect star cast was also assembled with Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote and Queen Latifah. A strange feeling of adventure, curiousity and suspense as the whole crew unravel the secret behind the mysterious space ship. Made with an $80,000,000 budget, the gross revenue after the showing only accumulated not even half of the budget cost at $ 37,020,277.
9. The 13th Warrior (1999) - Another flop in Michael Crichton’s list of his film adaptations from his books but would still be an excellent movie for some. Of course compared to reading the original book from where this film was based, many will rather choose to watch this movie. The role of Antonio Banderas was actually perfect added by a credible cast and persuasive screenplay. However so, public acceptance must decide and this film was considered a flop.
10. Timeline (2003) - Based on the novel of the same title and had the mix of prominent stars of the period like Paul Walker (Fast and Furious series), Gerard Butler (Tomorrow Never Dies), Frances O’Connor (Artificial Intelligence, Bedazzled, Windtalkers) and Billy Connoly (Indecent Proposal, The Last Samurai) among others. An archaeology class with its professor was sponsored by a corporation to excavate ruins somewhere in France. Then the professor developed some doubts about the purpose of the corporation and left the students to do the digging while he confronted the sponsors. The students find a clue in the excavation which shows a message from the professor back in the past through an old parchment and they themselves were met by confusion and contacted the sponsors for some light to the matter. The corporation invited the students to their facility and told them they have constructed a time machine and beamed the professor back in the past at the site of the excavation where he was trapped to return to the present. The students were then sent to the past for the rescue and the story took its course. A great plot in time travelling but the film flopped in ticket sales.
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