It has been quite some time since we’ve done one of these! “What If” has been absent for two years, so I feel honored to be able to revive the series. The What If series asks the question, “what if a movie that didn’t have a viral marketing campaign, had a viral marketing campaign?” And then we attempt to answer that question by creating a campaign for the featured movie. Hold on to your butts, because we’re going all the way back, 20 years ago, to 1992 and create a viral for Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.
Author’s Note: The websites contained in this article are meant to be fictional websites. They may or may not be active, as they have not been checked. MovieViral bares no responsibility for the potential content on these sites.
Jurassic Park was based on the book of the same name by sci-fi thriller author Michael Crichton. Before the book was even published, studios entered a bidding war to acquire the screen rights. In 1990, Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios won the rights and hired Crichton to adapt the film for an additional $500,000.
The film was regarded as a landmark in the use of CGI and is currently the 20th highest grossing film in history, as well as the most financially successful film for Universal and Spielberg. Jurassic Park also won 3 Academy Awards: Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. Two sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Based on Michael Crichton’s book sequel) and Jurassic Park III, were made with a third rumored to be in development.
Stage 1: InGen Website
The viral campaign for Jurassic Park would begin in the of Fall 1992. Pretending that the internet was back then what it is today, players come across www.ingen.com. Here, you will read about the history of the company and its founder, John Hammond. You can also apply for a position at InGen, and in two week’s time, your application will be processed, and you can then proceed to create an ID badge (which will be mailed to you).
Stage 2: The Jurassic Park Project/Employees Only
There is an “Employees Only” section of the site that requires a password to access. This problem is solved when the ID badges arrive in a very official envelope. There is a letter from the head of human resources which states what job you have in the company (Geneticist), and also contains your login information for the InGen site. There are several official documents watermarked with red letters saying, TOP SECRET. Mostly unimportant information, but players will pick up on the names of two islands off of the coast of Costa Rica, Isla Nublar (Site A) and Isla Sorna (Site B). In these documents there is also mention of the Jurassic Park Project.
A welcome letter from John Hammond himself is also included in the pack which talks a little about the project and what you’ll be doing. After logging in to the site, you are instructed to familiarize yourself with the employee interface as this is where you will do most of your work.
On your interface desktop, you will find a folder labeled TOP SECRET. Opening it, you will discover a document titled “Jurassic Park Project”. After reading you will realize that you will be helping to make dinosaurs. The first puzzle assignment you will come across is recovering DNA from a mosquito trapped in amber. You control a robotic arm, by inputing command codes, that will drill into the amber to retrieve DNA. If you put in the wrong code, you could end up destroying your specimen. There are 10 levels, and each one is harder than the last. When you complete the assignment, you will receive achievement badges, “Extractor” for 5 levels and “Dino DNA” for completing all 10 levels.
Back on the home screen, you see several more assignments need to be completed, but only one is available; synthesizing the DNA you just recovered. Before you can proceed, a video clip plays that explains how InGen makes dinosaurs (see an abridged clip below):
Afterwards, you may start synthesizing the dinosaur DNA and filling in the missing code with frog DNA. After completing 10 levels you are awarded the badge “Baby Dinosaur”. If you complete all 25 you get the badge “Splice Master”. Now the rest of the jobs are available to do. Completing each will result in you receiving a badge and when all are done you are asked to verify your address. In a few weeks, you will receive a piece of amber with a fossilized mosquito in the mail.
Stage 3: Field Operations
Biosyn (www.biosyn.com), InGen’s rival company, plots to steal dinosaur embryos from the Jurassic Park Project. You are sent secret documents by an unknown source which mention a mole working for InGen as well as a meeting between the mole and Dr. Lewis Dodgson, Biosyn’s Head of Research. Your role in this has just changed from InGen geneticist to InGen spy. In cities around the world, certain players will participate in a dead drop experience in which they will have to hunt down possible moles in the company. Players will never encounter a mole, but they will uncover a Barbasol can that can be unscrewed. Inside, players will find 9 tiny vials with embryos. Embryos in the canister include:
- Proceratosaurus
- Gallimimus
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Velociraptor
- Stegosaurus
- Metriacanthosaurus
- Triceratops
- Brachiosaurus
- Dilophosaurus
Players will also find an envelope with access codes for the BioSyn website and instructions.
Use your InGen employee interface username and password to log into the site below and enter the BioSyn access code, also found below.
After completing the task a message appears on the screen
Keep the embryos safe. InGen is going to continue to search for the mole, we think they may strike again.
Players who complete the dead drop get a “Field Work” badge.
For players who were not able to participate in the dead drop experience, the first teaser for the movie is released on the InGen employee interface once all of the codes from the field have been entered.
WHAT IF: JURASSIC PARK IS CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE!
Stage 4: Welcome to Jurassic Park/The Doctors
Out of the game, a few months have passed since the dead drop, and we are now in mid-May 1993, a few weeks away from the opening of Jurassic Park. Back in the game, Jurassic Park is nearly ready to open but InGen investors aren’t happy.
Your employee email inbox is overflowing with emails from the InGen corporate offices. Apparently a terrible accident has occurred at Site A which resulted in the death of an employee. The emails include details about a lawsuit filed against InGen by the deceased employee’s family. An email from InGen lawyer, Donald Gennaro, lists several experts John Hammond has invited to come to Site A and make sure the park is safe for opening. He says he wants to make sure that these are the best people to come to the park. He also says he will be accompanying the group on the tour of the facility, so he wants the heads up on who he’ll be dealing with. Gennaro also includes links to a couple websites.
Following the first link leads to Dr. Grant’s Facebook fan page. Not many fans, only 57. There aren’t many posts on the page either, only a few from early 1991 about Hadrosaurs. There is also a brief bio in the page ‘About’ section:
Dr. Alan Grant is said to be one of the world’s most renowned paleontologists, his specialty being the hadrosaurs, and other duck-billed dinosaurs such as Maiasaura.
Players who check back often over the next few weeks will start to see new updates from Dr. Grant. The two most important updates will foreshadow events and occur during the events of the movie.
I received a phone call from a man named John Hammond today. He was very excited and talking fast, telling me about a park he was building. I couldn’t really understand him, the phone lines out here aren’t very good. I think he was inviting me to come tour the place or something. Anyway, I told him I couldn’t talk right then because we just got some new equipment in (more on that later). He stopped talking for a moment and said he’d be in contact soon.
I have no interest in visiting an amusement park. Maybe I’ll send Ellie in my place. -AG
Soon, the page will be updated with this:
You won’t believe who showed up at the site today! John Hammond, CEO of InGen, the man who called me a few days ago! Ellie and I are going away for the weekend, apparently Mr. Hammond wants to fund our research in exchange for us coming to check out his theme park. We leave in a few hours, so I’ll be out of touch for a while. When I get back, I’ll try to answer all of the questions that I can. That is, if they don’t have use sign non-disclosure agreements or something like that. -AG
The second link leads you to Dr. Ellie Sattler’s Twitter page. Dr. Sattler is a paleobotanist, so most of her tweets are about prehistoric plant life and how the animals and other plants interacted with each other. Her most recent tweets are about working with Dr. Grant on a dig site in the Badlands near Snakewater, Montana. In several tweets she describes a new device that just arrived, some sort of ground penetrating sonar unit, or “Fossil-Finder”. The Fossil-Finder will allow the group to locate buried fossils without digging. In another, she shares a laugh with her followers about Dr. Grant’s phone call with John Hammond.
A third link takes you to a profile page on the Santa Fe Institute Mathematics department’s site. An image of Dr. Ian Malcolm stares at you with a rundown of a few of Dr. Malcolm’s theses, as well as an advertisement for his upcoming book, “Chaos Theory: The Mathematics of the Butterfly Effect”. You can read a few excerpts from the book as well as send an email to Dr. Malcolm. You will receive an “out of office” response that reads:
I’ll be out for a few days. You won’t be able to reach me where I’m going, so I’ll get back to you when I return.
-Dr. Ian Malcolm
Stage 5: John Hammond’s Weekend Soiree
We’re nearing the end of the viral campaign, as it’s now June 1993. The final stage of the viral will lead players to a big payoff. After reviewing the websites sent to you by Donald Gennaro, a new email appears in your inbox with travel documents. There is a flight plan for the InGen corporate helicopter, showing various destinations including the Santa Fe Institute and Dr. Grant’s dig site in Montana. As well as a trip manifest showing who is going to be flying in on the helicopter: John Hammond, Dr. Grant, Donald Gennaro, Dr. Sattler and Dr. Malcolm. A second flight plan and manifest for the InGen corporate jet shows that two more guests will be joining the group: Mr. Hammond’s grandchildren, Tim and Alexis.
A message in the body of the email reads:
Mr. Hammond wants everyone to know that the unfortunate death of the Jurassic Park employee who was attacked by one of the animals last month will not be the end of our endeavors here. At the request of the investors and InGen Board of Directors, Mr. Hammond will personally be escorting a group of guests to the island this weekend to get their views on the park and any possible advise they have to increase the safety of our guests and staff. As you can see from the trip manifest and the profiles Mr. Gennaro sent out, these people are highly qualified and they will be a great addition to the Jurassic Park team.
Mr. Hammond also wanted to invite you to come check out the park as well. If you’re available, please follow the link below and register for the chartered trip to Isla Nublar this weekend! – Jurassic Park HR
Following the link in the email, you will be taken to a site, asked to log in and are awarded the “Welcome to Jurassic Park” badge to celebrate completing of the game. After, you will get to register for an advance screening of the movie (in select cities).
So what did you think? Would you have been a part of the Jurassic Park ARG? I must say that I had a great time writing this piece and I hope you had as much fun reading it. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below, I’d love to hear them.
The Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy is available now on Blu-ray and DVD!
