10 Best Movies Starring The Actors From Jurassic Park

From Jeff Goldblum’s The Fly to Samuel L. Jackson’s Pulp Fiction to Chris Pratt’s The Lego Movie, there are a ton of great films out there starring actors from the Jurassic Park franchise. When Steven Spielberg was putting together the timeless original Jurassic Park movie, he was one of the biggest directors in Hollywood who had already broken the record for highest-grossing movie ever made twice (and was about to break it a third time), so he could have his pick of actors. He recruited screen legends like Laura Dern and Richard Attenborough to bring the story to life.

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There are so many great actors in the Jurassic Park cast — and the Jurassic World cast, for that matter — that there are plenty of classic films to check out featuring their best performances. Wayne Knight and BD Wong had voice roles in two of the greatest Disney animated movies ever made. Vincent D’Onofrio got his big break in one of the darkest Vietnam War movies ever made. Sam Neill played a reluctant father figure in one of Taika Waititi’s most touching films. There are a lot of wonderful movies starring Jurassic Park actors.

10 Toy Story 2

Starring Wayne Knight

Wayne Knight as Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2

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Wayne Knight is best known for his role as Jerry’s diabolical arch-nemesis Newman in Seinfeld, but he’s had an impressive movie career, too. He can be seen in such classic films as JFK, Space Jam, and Basic Instinct. And in the original Jurassic Park, of course, he played Dennis Nedry, the I.T. technician who dooms the park by shutting off the power. But besides Jurassic Park, the greatest movie that Knight has been involved with is Toy Story 2.

Toy Story 2 was Pixar’s first sequel, and it’s the rare sequel to an untouchable masterpiece that manages to live up to its predecessor. It flips the dynamic of the first film; this time, Woody goes missing and Buzz has to find him. Toy Story 2 has all the hallmarks of a Pixar classic: airtight storytelling, pitch-perfect pacing, and devastating emotions.

9 50/50

Starring Bryce Dallas Howard

Bryce Dallas Howard comforts Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 50 50

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Today, Bryce Dallas Howard is known as a great director in her own right — she’s one of the best filmmakers working on the Star Wars franchise — but as an actor, she worked with some of the most famous directors in Hollywood. She worked with Sam Raimi on Spider-Man 3 and she worked with M. Night Shyamalan on The Village and Lady in the Water. And that was long before she played Claire Dearing in the Jurassic World trilogy.

Howard’s most critically acclaimed movies include The Help and Rocketman, but arguably the best movie she’s been in is 50/50. Will Reiser’s semi-autobiographical script chronicles his experiences with cancer (when he was told he had a 50/50 chance of survival) in a brutally honest, emotionally raw way. It’s a beautiful movie that finds the humor in its tragic subject matter.

8 Full Metal Jacket

Starring Vincent D’Onofrio

Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) looking deranged in Full Metal Jacket

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Vincent D’Onofrio only has a minor role in Jurassic World as Vic Hoskins, head of InGen’s security operations, but he’s such an iconic actor that he deserved a much more substantial character. D’Onofrio is best known for playing Carl Stargher in The Cell, Edgar the Bug in Men in Black, and Robert E. Howard in The Whole Wide World, but his best movie came before all that. His breakout role as Private Leonard “Gomer Pyle” Lawrence in Full Metal Jacket is still his greatest.

The first half of Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War epic — the part of the film that D’Onofrio appears in — is undoubtedly the most iconic. Pyle’s toxic relationship with R. Lee Ermey’s drill instructor is both difficult to watch and impossible to ignore. Kubrick satirizes the Vietnam War with a delightfully dark sense of humor.

7 Mulan

Starring BD Wong

Captain Li Shang from Mulan

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BD Wong made his debut as Dr. Henry Wu in the original Jurassic Park, but the character got a much more substantial role across the Jurassic World trilogy. Wong’s most iconic roles are in TV shows, such as Father Ray Mukada in Oz, Wally in Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, and Dr. George Huang in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But he’s had plenty of memorable film roles, too, like Howard Weinstein in Father of the Bride and Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme in Seven Years in Tibet.

But his greatest cinematic achievement is an animated Disney movie, Mulan, in which he voices Mulan’s love interest, Captain Li Shang. Mulan is a feminist masterpiece about a young woman who impersonates a man to take her father’s place on the battlefield. Mulan has gorgeous animation, catchy songs, and a wonderfully empowering story.

6 Pulp Fiction

Starring Samuel L. Jackson

Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) pointing his gun in Pulp Fiction
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After his breakout role as Ray Arnold in the original Jurassic Park, Samuel L. Jackson quickly went on to become one of the most prolific actors in Hollywood. He played Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He appeared in some of Spike Lee’s greatest movies and he co-starred with Bruce Willis in the best Die Hard sequel. Jackson has made some incredible movies with Quentin Tarantino, from Jackie Brown to Django Unchained, but arguably their finest hour is Pulp Fiction.

Jackson earned his first Oscar nomination for his mesmerizing portrayal of born-again mob hitman Jules Winnfield. Tarantino revolutionized the crime film with Pulp Fiction, combining the heightened tropes of gangster movies with the mundanity of everyday life. Pulp Fiction is both a wildly entertaining pitch-black comedy and a postmodernist trailblazer.

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5 The Great Escape

Starring Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough as Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett in The Great Escape

Later in his career, Richard Attenborough became most renowned for his work as a director. He helmed such movies as Gandhi, for which he won Best Picture and Best Director, and A Bridge Too Far. But he was also a celebrated actor, having played such roles as Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock and Kris Kringle in the remake of Miracle on 34th Street. In Jurassic Park, Attenborough plays the deranged mastermind of the park, John Hammond, who slowly comes to realize that his hubris has become his undoing.

The best movie that Attenborough acted in is John Sturges’ The Great Escape, fictionalizing a mass escape by prisoners-of-war at the German P.O.W. camp Stalag Luft III. Attenborough appears in a star-studded ensemble alongside Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Charles Bronson. The Great Escape is a dazzling cinematic epic whose spectacle could still rival modern blockbusters.

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4 The Lego Movie

Starring Chris Pratt

Emmet smiling in The Lego Movie

After making his name as a sitcom star playing lovable goofball Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation, Chris Pratt reinvented himself as an action star with the double whammy of Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World. Pratt has played supporting roles in some modern classics, like Moneyball and Zero Dark Thirty. But arguably his finest film is the last movie anyone expected to be a masterpiece: The Lego Movie.

The Lego Movie is essentially a feature-length toy commercial — it has no business being as great as it is. It’s an airtight adventure comedy with stunning set-pieces and witty writing, but it’s also a profoundly thought-provoking meditation on human existence. What seemed to be a corporate cash-grab that no one wanted turned out to be unironically one of the greatest films of the 21st century.

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3 The Fly

Starring Jeff Goldblum

Jeff Goldblum's Seth Brundle in the midst of his transformation in The Fly

Jeff Goldblum has appeared in both big blockbusters, like Independence Day and Thor: Ragnarok, and smaller, auteur-helmed dramas, like Nashville and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. His role in Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm, showcases his unique performance style. His freeform delivery style is very lyrical and jazz-like, and he has an idiosyncratic charm that no other actor could hope to emulate. Goldblum has made many great movies, but his finest hour is David Cronenberg’s The Fly.

The Fly is a masterpiece of body horror, with some of the most impressive prosthetic effects ever committed to film. But it’s also a deeply affecting tragedy chronicling a sympathetic character’s devastating transformation and its impact on the people who love him. It has some of the most iconic horror imagery in the genre, but it works just as well as a straightforward drama.

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2 Hunt For The Wilderpeople

Starring Sam Neill

Ricky and Uncle Hector in the woods in Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Sam Neill’s turn as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park is an outlier in his impressive acting career. He usually appears in smaller, more serious movies like The Piano and Dead Calm, not big, dinosaur-infested action blockbusters. He’s been in great movies like Event Horizon and The Hunt for Red October, but his best film is a much more recent effort. In 2016, Neill gave arguably his greatest performance as Uncle Hec in Taika Waititi’s heartwarming gem Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople revolves around a foster child named Ricky, played by Julian Dennison, who is taken in by Hec’s wife, while Hec remains emotionally distant. When Hec’s wife dies and social services want to take Ricky away, Ricky goes on the run and Hec has to reluctantly become a father figure. Neill’s on-screen dynamic with Dennison is endlessly endearing; Ricky’s outgoing energy is contrasted hilariously with Hec’s more understated demeanor.

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1 Blue Velvet

Starring Laura Dern

Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan standing on the street in Blue Velvet

Before she played Dr. Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park, Laura Dern was a regular collaborator of David Lynch’s. Over the years, they’ve made some really great films, like the gonzo road movie Wild at Heart and the unsettling psychological thriller Inland Empire. But arguably their finest collaboration is Blue Velvet. Dern has starred in a ton of fantastic movies, from Little Women to Marriage Story, but none of them are quite as unforgettable as Blue Velvet.

Lynch expertly contrasts the everyman protagonist with the sadistic villain to show that, deep down, they’re not so different. He juxtaposes colorful images of Americana with disturbing scenes of violence to highlight the seedy underbelly hiding beneath the glossy sheen of suburbia. Blue Velvet epitomizes Lynch’s bizarre vision of cinema, and might be the best movie starring an actor from Jurassic Park.

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The Jurassic Park franchise is an action-adventure sci-fi series that began with Michael Crichton’s original novel. The series explores the dramatic repercussions of resurrecting dinosaurs through advanced genetic science. Set primarily in a disastrous theme park, Jurassic Park explores the profound ethical dilemmas about tinkering with the DNA of long ago extinct creatures and the manipulation of the natural world through science.

Movie(s) Jurassic Park (1993) , The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) , Jurassic Park 3 (2001) , Jurassic World (2015) , Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) , Jurassic World Dominion (2022) Created by Michael Crichton , Steven Spielberg First Film Jurassic Park (1993) Latest Film Jurassic World: Dominion Upcoming Films Jurassic World Rebirth Cast Sam Neill , Laura Dern , Jeff Goldblum , Richard Attenborough , Julianne Moore , Pete Postlethwaite , William H. Macy , Tea Leoni , Chris Pratt , Bryce Dallas Howard , Vincent D’Onofrio , Irrfan Khan , Rafe Spall Expand