John Hammond (JN)

Billionaire businessman and CEO of InGen Bioengineering, grandfather to Tim and Lex Murphy, uncle of Peter Ludlow. John Hammond was the man behind the dream that was Jurassic Park. The scientists at his company had discovered a method of extracting dinosaur blood from mosquitoes fossilized in amber, gained by funding many paleontological digs. Using the DNA they extracted, they were able to clone living dinosaurs. Hammond decided to build a theme park, where people could come and view the animals. Prior to establishing Jurassic Park on Isla Nublar in Costa Rica, Hammond had dreamt of an amphitheater in San Diego. He eventually abandoned the idea in favor of the more lavish Isla Nublar location. However, as the facility neared its completion, disaster struck. A worker was killed by a Velociraptor, and his family filed a $20,000,000 lawsuit against InGen. This made InGen’s investors very nervous, and they demanded Hammond bring in several experts to endorse the park. Thus, Hammond brought in Doctors Alan Grant, Ian Malcolm, and Ellie Sattler, and lawyer Donald Gennaro, as well as his grandchildren, to view the park. Disaster struck again, however, when greedy employee Dennis Nedry turned traitor and sabotaged the park systems, allowing the dinosaurs to escape. Hammond kept his cool, though. He coached Ellie through the steps to restore the power so that they could call for help, and looked after a badly-injured Malcolm. Following the incident on Isla Nublar, Hammond’s position as company chief was wrestled from him by Peter Ludlow. Ludlow planned to exploit Site B on Isla Sorna, which was the ‘factory floor,” as Hammond put it. Hammond knew public opinion was the only way to prevent Ludlow from pillaging Site B, and so he sent in Malcolm and some other experts to document the dinosaurs. In the end, his plan succeeded, and Isla Sorna was designated a protected wildlife preserve by the Costa Rican government. While he was seen as deathly ill in “The Lost World,” it is unknown if Hammond is dead.