The 7 Most Underrated Characters in the Jurassic Park Franchise

If you show up for a Jurassic Park movie, you’re there for the dinosaurs. Even the human actors populating these titles would freely admit that the various T-rexs or winged critters are the star attraction in this long-running blockbuster saga. However, don’t discount the value the various Jurassic Park humans have brought to the saga. Ian Malcolm and his bare sweaty chest became a meme for a reason. Meanwhile, Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler or Richard Attenborough’s Dr. Hammond have distinctive personalities as memorable as any groundbreaking piece of visual effects.

Not every human being that’s strolled through this Jurassic Park saga has been an unforgettable character people are still talking about years later. However, there are plenty of interesting humans in these dino-centric yarns. In fact, there have been enough memorable human characters that seven of them even register as underrated. These seven Jurassic Park figures deserve a lot more love for what they brought to this saga spanning over three decades. It’s all about the dinosaurs, true, but these humans also brought remarkable elements to the table.

Dennis Nedry

“Dodgson! Dodgson! We’ve got Dodgson here!” “Uh uh uh! You didn’t say the magic word!” “See? Nobody cares!” So many of Dennis Nedry’s (Wayne Knight) lines from Jurassic Park have become a part of the pop culture lexicon. However, let’s not just boil this guy down to a handful of witticisms. Nedry is a deeply fun character for his entire screentime, particularly because Knight plays him with such vulnerability. This back-stabber to InGen is never smooth, he’s always a deeply flawed messy person stumbling his way through espionage. It’s compellingly entertaining watching such a discernible realistic human being, especially when a performer like Wayne Knight inhabits them.

Ray Arnold

Another tech expert in the original Jurassic Park movie, Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) has a “cool as a cucumber” demeanor (complete with a cigarette always dangling from his lips) that’s utterly fascinating when juxtaposed with the historic science surrounding him. If Arnold was working at a dock yard, he’d likely have the same attitude he wields working in close proximity to dinosaurs! Being so subdued just makes Arnold extra gripping to watch, especially as he gradually becomes ever so slightly more worried as this theme park spins out of control.

Jurassic Park is now streaming on Starz.

Roland Tembo

Every Jurassic Park sequel seems to have a malicious hunter of some kind. For The Lost World: Jurassic Park, this figure manifested as Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite). What makes Tembo so interesting, though, is his display of morality at the very end of his character arc. Upon being offered a cushy job by his employer (and The Lost World’s primary antagonist), Tembo refuses after witnessing the deadly consequences of unchecked greed. These little flashes of nuance make him one of the more compelling, gun-toting Jurassic Park foes.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park is now streaming on Starz.

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Paul Kirby

A covert plan to retrieve his son stranded on Isla Sorna results in Paul Kirby (William H. Macy), Dr. Alan Grant, and other characters getting stranded on Sorna. Macy, the king of playing ordinary slimeballs in films like Fargo or Magnolia, is great at reinforcing Kirby’s mundane nature as he navigates prehistoric beasties. The surreal sight of Macy even getting to be something tantamount to an action hero in Jurassic Park III’s climax alone makes Paul Kirby a memorable character in Jurassic Park’s history.

Jurassic Park III is now streaming on Starz.

Vivian

Among Jurassic World’s technicians, Lowery Cruthers (Jake Johnson) gets most of the love from moviegoers; however, let’s not forget his cohort Vivian (Lauren Lapkus). She’s also plenty amusing in her screentime, including in her masterful delivery of the line “I have a boyfriend” after Cruthers tries to smooch her. Her suggested friendship with Jurassic World owner Simon Masrani, meanwhile, intriguingly conveys that Vivian has a larger world beyond just what audiences see in Jurassic World. Oh, and it’s amusing that Jurassic World Dominion confirms she ended up in, of all places, the CIA.

Jurassic World is now streaming on Prime Video.

Ken Wheatley

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has an excessive number of baddies, all of whom are led by Rafe Spall’s deeply generic primary adversary Eli Mills. A welcome exception to this rule is Ken Wheatley, a slimy mercenary who revels in being skeevy from the moment he walks on-screen. Played by veteran character actor Ted Levine (famous for his work as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs), Wheatley is brought to the screen with an unabashed level of pronounced wickedness. He’s a welcome departure from the subdued forgettable evildoers otherwise populating Fallen Kingdom. Plus, Wheatley has a fun demise that only occurs because of the character’s relentless greed.

Barry Sembène

In the Jurassic Park movies, human characters are typically one-off creations. Even someone as important as Ian Malcolm’s daughter vanished after The Lost World: Jurassic Park while Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Slater were eschewed for the first Jurassic Park sequel. That reality makes Barry Sembène (Omar Sy) a compelling figure beyond just Sy’s innately transfixing screen presence. Owen Grady’s pal in Jurassic World returns in Jurassic World Dominion having carved out a new globe-trotting life for himself. Sembène actually gets to concretely evolve across multiple lengthy Jurassic Park movie appearances, a rarity among supporting players in this franchise. For that feat alone, he’s an underrated Jurassic Park human character worthy of applause.

Jurassic World Dominion is now streaming on Starz.