John Hammond (novel)

"Hammond was flamboyant, a born showman."

- Donald Gennaro on John Hammond

Dr. John Hammond is one of the main antagonists in the novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. While he was the main antagonist in the book, his portrayal in the film was changed into a heroic character.

He was portrayed by the late Richard Attenborough.

Biography
John Hammond's early life is never given. He attended university, possibly, but he developed a hatred of universities. John Hammond scoffed at academia and said that action was happening in laboratories not universities. He recruited several famous intellectuals, including Robert Muldoon and other scientists, through this university/laboratory lecture.

John Alfred Hammond started his career by showing a genetically altered miniature elephant to potential investors, raising almost $900,000,000 in the process with the help of Donald Gennaro—the elephant behaved like a feral rodent, and the creator, John Atherton, could not make another, two facts Hammond did not mention. Eventually, after using this money to create InGen, Hammond used his capital to buy $17,000,000 worth of amber and various security systems for his most formidable and ambitious project: a theme park featuring living dinosaurs. With the help of a fresh-out-of-college geneticist Henry Wu, dinosaurs were brought back to life by extracting blood from insects trapped in amber. He also leased a small island, Isla Nublar, from the Costa Rican government, hiring several locals to work at the park. To save money, Hammond decided to invest all of his security and maintenance in computers, hiring Dennis Nedry to create the system. However, he never told Nedry the full extent of the project and refused to pay him fairly for the massive undertaking, even blackmailing him and threatening him with lawsuits to keep him in line, prompting an embittered Nedry to do a sloppy job out of spite and accept a bribe from a rival company, Biosyn, to commit corporate espionage against InGen. In August 1989, mere months before the scheduled opening, a series of problems, such as workers being killed by the dinosaurs and some of the animals escaping to the mainland and wreaking havoc, forced Hammond to allow an inspection of the island to ensure its safety. He invited Alan Grant and Ellie Satler, a paleontologist and paleobotanist (respectively), to partake in the inspection; Gennaro came along, taking Ian Malcolm, a chaos theoretician who was extremely pessimistic about the park, as well, much to Hammond's annoyance.

Hammond attempts to present the park in the best possible light, but while some of the inspectors are impressed, Malcolm remains adamant in his belief that Hammond's cost-cutting and the arrogance of the staff will cause the park's eventual downfall. To counter this, Hammond invites his grandchildren to the park, and the tour begins. Things initially seem to be going well, until Grant discovers an egg shell while the group is analyzing a sick Stegosaurus, which suggests that the dinosaurs are breeding—which goes against Dr. Wu's arrogant claim that all the dinosaurs in the park are sterilized, lysine-deprived females. Hammond is also skeptical, but at Malcolm's insistence, the exact number of animals in the park is checked, and turns out to be much larger than initially believed. Hammond tries to brush this off, but more trouble ensues as Nedry attempts corporate espionage for Biosyn, turning off all the power in the park and leaving the tour group at the mercy of the dinosaurs. Nedry is killed before his plans can succeed, leaving no one to turn the power back on. Hammond is initially angered by this, but quickly calms down and smugly believes that he is in complete control of the park, even as it falls to pieces around him. Malcolm is injured by a T. Rex and is brought to Hammond's bungalow, where the mathematician once again tries to emphasize the park's doom, but Hammond still doesn't listen.

Eventually, after several mishaps and the deaths of several of the senior staff, the park is largely placed back under control. Deciding to take a walk, Hammond goes on a lengthy internal monologue, blaming everyone but himself for the disaster and planning to make another park with just as much cost-cutting and "better" employees. However, he hears a Tyrannosaur roar (actually his grandchildren fooling around in the control room) and falls down a hill, breaking his ankle. When his cries for help fail to reach anyone, Hammond attempts to climb back up the hill, but is swarmed and eaten by a pack of Procompsagnathus. His remains were later found by Robert Muldoon, the park's game warden. Soon after, the island is destroyed, and Hammond's plans died with it.

Personality
Unlike his film counterparts who had redeeming qualities, having soft spot on dinosaurs, and deeply cared with everyone that his intention to build the park was reintroducing dinosaurs via cloning, Hammond (in the novel) was evidently greedy, cunning, deceitful, manipulative, and bereft of positive traits and such remorse, as well as opposite of his film incarnation in many ways. He was very pompous, arrogant, and indifferent with others' well-being, mistreated Dennis Nedry that made him more eager to betrayed him in retaliation, outright refusing to hear Malcolm's chaos theory regarding park's future and fact that men cannot truly under control over nature, and refused to take responsibility over his actions.

He loathes universities, scoffed at academia and said that action was happening in laboratories not universities.

Trivia

 * According to author, John Hammond is portrayed as a darker version of Walt Disney.
 * Since his film incarnation did not die in the first film, John Hammond's death was given to that of another character who appeared in the second film.