﻿ Jurassic Park: The Survivors

For the Adherent of Pop Culture

Episode Studies by Clayton Barr
enik1138 at popapostle dot com
"The Survivors"
Jurassic Park: The Game (Telltale Games)
Video game
November 2011

Our heroes come to the end game.

Notes from the Jurassic Park chronology

This story takes place on Isla Nublar shortly after the events of the first Jurassic Park film.

Didja Know?

Jurassic Park: The Game was published by Telltale Games in November 2011. The game is broken up into four distinct episodes (each composed of multiple chapters) that make up a larger story and serves as a kind of sequel to the original Jurassic Park film. I have chosen to write a separate study for each of the four episodes.

This is the study of the concluding episode, Episode 4, of Jurassic Park: The Game.

Didja Notice? 

Trust Issues

Read the summary or view the walkthrough of this chapter at Park Pedia

Nima says, "Huele a excremento." This is Spanish for "Smells like poop."

Nima describes the Troodon eyes as "like ojos de lobo." "Ojos de lobo" is Spanish for "wolf's eyes."

Home Invasion


The Final Intersection


This chapter reveals there is a desalination plant on Isla Nublar. Presumably this is to process sea water into potable drinking water, though you'd think there were already freshwater springs that could be tapped.

Dr. Sorkin spots a breakout box on the tunnel ceiling that helps her find the direction the group needs to go to get to the marine facility. A breakout box is an electrical device which separates electrical power flow towards individual devices or destinations.

When the group finds the blueprints of the JP tunnel system on a drafting board, notice there is a cardboard JP coffee cup holding down a corner of one of the blueprints and another cup is sitting on its side, with coffee spilled onto the drafting table.

Several of the electrical banks in the room in which the group finds themselves are labeled HVAC. This is an abbreviation of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning.





Nima says, "Por el amor de Dios!" This is Spanish for "For the love of God!"

Nima reveals to Gerry that it has been nearly 12 years since she was last on the island. She lived in a fishing village there as a girl.

Nima tells Harding that when she was growing up on the island she used to love the ocean and loved to swim in it, which is why her father called her Nima. She also says that her father was an awa, who sang for Sibo, who created the Earth. I have not been able to translate the terms "nima" and "Sibo" from Spanish; most likely they are meant to represent words from her island tribe's own language, not Spanish. She mentions that Sibo is one of the mountains on the island and later seems to indicate that "nima" means "little fish".

Harding remarks that Jess loves to climb on things, "She can't not climb." This may be a nod to Ian Malcolm's remark about Harding's older daughter, Sarah, in The Lost World: "She can't not touch."

Nima reveals that InGen moved the native human inhabitants off Isla Nublar when they bought the island from Costa Rica.

Nima reveals that she has a daughter named Atlanta, whom she calls "my Mariquita." "Mariquita" is Spanish for "ladybug".

Nima says "como se dice". This is Spanish for "how do you say". 

The Marine Facility


Yoder reveals that InGen plans to send a wing of B-52s to essentially napalm the island, killing all the dinosaurs on it. The B-52 Stratofortress is a U.S. Air Force bomber that has been in active use since 1955 and still going strong...in fact plans are to keep it in service until 2040 if not beyond!

Hearing about the B-52s, Nima says, "Dios mio!" This is Spanish for "My god!"

A diagram of what appears to be a few ichthyosaur types is hanging on the wall of the marine facility.

An exhibit in the marine facility states the Paleozoic Era took place from 542 to 251 million years ago. This is correct.

   Dr. Harding explains that the marine facility actually houses modern day marine creatures that are considered "living fossils" because they've evolved very little since dinosaur times. He remarks that InGen couldn't expect to find insects that had bitten and drank the blood of marine creatures hundreds of meters under the sea. (However, it soon is revealed that InGen does somehow have a cloned mosasaur, an apex predator of the sea during the Cretaceous Period).
   "Living fossil" is an actual term used to describe modern day species that are essentially unchanged from fossils and which have no other living relatives.

The six periods shown as part of the Paleozoic Era in the marine facility exhibit are accurate in order and time.

In the marine facility, Harding and Jess look at the silhouette image of what he guesses is a mosasaur.

Ethics, Part 1


Jess' description of nitrogen narcosis is more-or-less accurate.

On her phone call, Dr. Sorkin first asks to speak to Mr. Maguire before changing her mind and asking for Peter Ludlow. "Maguire" may be a reference to one of the InGen board members in the script of The Lost World (he is referred to as Mr. Nicolas in the actual film). Peter Ludlow is the nephew of John Hammond and becomes the CEO of InGen after Hammond's retirement and is seen in that position in The Lost World.

Stepping in while Dr. Sorkin is making her secret phone call to InGen, Harding says, "Oh, I have a bad feeling about this." This may be a reference to the Star Wars franchise, in which many characters have been known to say, "I have a bad feeling about this."

The console at which Harding speaks to Sorkin through the intercom has a label reading "mosasaur", giving us a clue as to what is coming, i.e., Sorkin soon releases a living mosasaur into the lagoon. (Although it's never officially identified, the marine reptile that menaces the nuclear plant in "Redemption" Part 5 may also be a mosasaur.)

Ethics, Part 2


After Yoder betrays the rest, Nima refers to him as "desgraciado". This is Spanish for "disgrace".

As Harding looks at the scuba tanks on the shelf, the green and yellow diamonds printed on them are symbols indicating compressed gas and oxidizing agent, respectively.

As the group prepares to don scuba suits, Jess remarks that "neoprene makes everyone look good." Neoprene is a synthetic rubber that is used in the making of wetsuits.

The feeding chart in the marine facility shows dates of 6/11-6/14, with 6/12 circled, presumably representing "today". The Jurassic Park film was released on 6/11/1993. And in the timeline of the video game story, it would now be the next day, 6/12/1993.

Dr. Harding indicates that his older daughter Sarah got away from him and he doesn't want the same thing to happen between him and Jess. 

The Swim


Fight to the Death


This chapter reveals there is a lighthouse on the island. From the design, it is likely it was built by InGen as they were building the park. 

Old Friends


Dr. Harding runs away from the T. rex along the length of the dock and just manages to jump aboard the fleeing vessel before the carnivore can grab him up in its jaws. But shouldn't he have dived off the edge of the dock into the water before then? It seems unlikely the rex would have jumped in after him, and he could have swum out to the boat.

Notice that we never get an explanation of how InGen was able to obtain mosasaur DNA.

The storyline of the game suggests that Isla Nublar was firebombed shortly after the ending of this story, to eliminate all life on the island. Since we never see it happen, it might be argued that the U.S. military intervened and prevented it in order to set up an experimental base there as seen in the ongoing storyline of the Topps JP comic books which take place shortly after Jurassic Park.

If the game player chooses to have Nima go after the Barbasol can instead of helping Jess in this chapter, an alternate ending is created in which Nima is eaten by the T. rex. In this ending, Dr. Harding mentions to Jess that he may try to get his old job back at the Dallas Zoo. In both the Jurassic Park and The Lost World novels, and in "The Intruder", he is said to have previously worked at the San Diego Zoo, so he must have been employed at the Dallas Zoo before that. And, since it's implied that Jess lives in Dallas with her mother, it's probable he would like to work there again to bring him closer to his daughter, though the Dallas Zoo has only been open since 1988, so that doesn't give him much time to have bounced from the Dallas Zoo to the San Diego Zoo to Jurassic Park in just five years! (In the "happy ending" version, Harding suggests to Nima that she and her daughter should come back to Dallas with them.)

Memorable Dialog

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