Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will soon be roaring into theaters, and while the film expanded on the Jurassic Park mythos created by Michael Crichton and brought to the screen by Steven Spielberg, fans can’t forget the impact the original movie made on viewers. Not only was the world introduced to B.D. Wong, who would later go on to star in Law and Order: SVU, Mulan, Mr. Robot and the new Jurassic World film series, but the film also gave Samuel L. Jackson his most significant mainstream break. In fact, it might be one of my favorite roles of his because he didn’t play it with any cartoonishness. He played it straight, and it’s a performance that still holds up today.
To a lot of the Hollywood-loving public, Jackson’s most prominent role is the assassin Jules in 1994’s Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino. Jackson himself has talked about how the part gave him an opportunity like none other.
“Jules was the moral center of ‘Pulp Fiction’ because he carried himself like a professional,” he said to The New York Times in 2012. “Before Jules, my characters were just ‘The Negro’ who died on Page 30. Every script I read, ‘The Negro’ died on Page 30…After Jules, I became the coolest [expletive] on the planet. Why? I have no clue. I’m not like Jules. It’s called being an actor.”
But while Pulp Fiction has become a cult classic, furthering Jackson’s career and the careers of everyone else who starred in the film, I’d argue that Jurassic Park gave Jackson a character that had more layers with which to play. Maybe, to Jackson, playing John Arnold, the computer technician who had to keep the park going while dealing with an insufficient and sneaky employee like Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) was just another ‘Negro’ character who died on Page 30. Indeed, Arnold does die off-screen, and we’re only left with his arm, resulting in one of the most shocking death scenes the audience never sees. But to me, Arnold was unlike the other characters Jackson has played before Jurassic Park, and he’s still different than the other characters he’s played after. In Jules, there’s a cartoon, a stereotype of the Cool Black Guy. In Arnold, there’s a well-rounded man, despite not saying or doing much. He’s one of the smartest men in the park, and he’s also a relatable guy, who wants to do his job well enough to get the park back online so he can call it a night.
His role in Jurassic Park is a culmination of playing a broad set of black men on screen, who ranged from thugs, such as the Hold-Up Man in Coming to America and Stacks Edwards in Goodfellas, to slaves and sharecroppers like George Harris in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Sulk in The Displaced Person, to West Point cadet Johnson Whitaker in The Trial of the Moke. His characters in Spike Lee’s films like School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Mo’ Better Blues and Jungle Fever, showcased more of his range. In fact, his role in Jungle Fever, Gator Purify, earned him an award for Best Supporting Actor at Cannes in 1991, an award created specifically to honor Jackson’s work. To me, these roles show that Jackson could be a highly versatile actor if Hollywood nurtured that aspect of his talent. His performance as Arnold in Jurassic Park backs up that assertion.
The main reason Jurassic Park works as one of the best films of all time is that everyone in the movie played it seriously, including Jackson. His role might have been small, but it was important. He had to be believable as a guy who could potentially get the park back and save the day, and he was. In fact, I’d say the audience was buying the scientific believably of a park like Jurassic Park existing hinged partly on Jackson’s performance as one of the park’s leading operators. If he didn’t hold up his end of the film, the entire movie would be less than the sum of its parts.
The only issue with Jackson’s career is a lot of his work seems to go unrecognized. Yes, he might have been playing small roles in those films, but in those roles, he showcased he was a serious actor. Yes, many of his movies have been on the action side of things, but that doesn’t mean those roles are the only ones where he excels. That’s why I have an issue with saying that Jackson’s big movie career started with Pulp Fiction. I’d say his career as an action star might have taken off with Pulp Fiction, but his other talents as an actor are still untapped. For me, Jackson’s career has always been in existence with or without Pulp Fiction, but the defining role that utilized his talents as an ensemble actor best in my book is Jurassic Park. He gave the film one of its most memorable lines (“Hold onto your butts.”) and the believability it needed to succeed, and without him, the movie would be just a little less memorable.
