# Why did John Hammond say this to Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 26, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365 "2024-06-26T15:26:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/1 "2024-06-26T15:26:24Z")
“I don’t blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they pay for them.” I like the quote, because I’m kind of a determinist, but what the hell was he referring to? They were talking about Nedry’s pay. Did he make an unspoken mistake I’m not aware of? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/2 "2024-06-26T15:42:55Z")
It helps create a backstory of ill will between the two. The details aren’t known, can’t be known, but it gives the feel of a repeated friction between them in the past. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/3 "2024-06-26T15:46:18Z")
Agree, as it supports the suggestion that Nedry was in some financial difficulty, hence needing to score some cash, by whatever means. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/4 "2024-06-26T15:49:27Z")
Taking a job with insufficient pay, or making bad financial decisions, was Nedry’s mistake. It was a way of saying “fuck it, that’s your problem”, but in a British way. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/5 "2024-06-26T15:50:17Z")
Filling in some gaps using info from the novel: Nedry was behind schedule on setting up the park’s computer system (is what Hammond would say; Nedry would point out that the project’s scope kept growing while his budget did not). ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/6 "2024-06-26T15:50:46Z")
I don’t remember the specifics, but the book explains the basics. Hammond accepted Nedry’s bid knowing that he’d underestimated the cost. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/7 "2024-06-26T15:54:21Z")
> [@MyFootsZZZ](#): > > I like the quote, because I’m kind of a determinist, but what the hell was he referring to? They were talking about Nedry’s pay. Did he make an unspoken mistake I’m not aware of? I read the novel when it came out and don’t remember the specifics but I found [this](https://screenrant.com/jurassic-park-john-hammond-book-difference-death/): > In _Jurassic Park_ ’s movie adaptation, Nedry is hoping to rip off Hammond by selling his secrets to InGen because he feels under-appreciated. However, _Jurassic Park_ the novel gives a little more background to why he feels so hard done by. Nedry is hired by Hammond and constantly left in the dark about an ambitious project that grows in scope and becomes more challenging over time. When Nedry informs Hammond that he can’t work under these conditions, Hammond threatens to sue him and send his other clients letters claiming that Nedry can’t be trusted. With no other option, [_Jurassic Park_’s Dennis Nedry](https://screenrant.com/jurassic-world-dominion-nedry-return-mistake/) is forced by Hammond to finish the project for no further pay. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/8 "2024-06-26T15:54:59Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Taking a job with insufficient pay, or making bad financial decisions, was Nedry’s mistake. (Again, info from the novel) - until Nedry was already on board, Hammond kept the details of the project _extremely_ vague. Nedry didn’t know he was signing on to write the software for a dinosaur zoo/theme park/genetics facility. And Hammond didn’t qctually know what such a software system would need, and kept adding necessary features as they cropped up. That said, the sense I got was that Nedry was greedy - he had to be, to be the sort of person who would take such a sketchy job on so little info in return for copious amounts of money. So it is likely that he would have turned sour against Hammond even if Hammond had been somewhat more generous or less demanding. We don’t get an objective view of the agreement and its terms in the novel or the movie, we just see how Hammond and Nedry feel about it; and both seem to think the other is trying to cheat them. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/9 "2024-06-26T15:59:54Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Hammond accepted Nedry’s bid knowing that he’d underestimated the cost. I’m not sure that’s true. I think Hammond also greatly underestimated the difficulty of the task. He wanted to automate the tours, the animals’ care and tracking, their feeding, the management of the facilities, etc to the greatest extent possible; and while he estimated what each system would take to implement on its own, he underestimated the complications that arise from the systems interacting. Chaos theory and all that. So I think the project ballooned on Hammond as well. But hiding the project’s true nature (because he was worried that someone would beat him to the punch of cloning dinosaurs) definitely contributed to the problem, and that was Hammond’s fault. The same thing happened with Wu. Hammond brought him on to clone “reptiles”, but (at least in the novel’s universe) it turned out that dinosaurs were more like cloning birds, which (again, in the story) was distinctly harder. Not to mention the fact that the DNA was so fragmentary. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/10 "2024-06-26T16:21:25Z")
Thanks. Now I have to decide whether to re-read the book. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/11 "2024-06-26T16:28:43Z")
I just did recently, and enjoyed it as much as I did as a pre-teen. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/12 "2024-06-26T21:42:11Z")
Of course, the idea that one coder was responsible for developing the entire park system is pretty farcical. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/13 "2024-06-26T21:57:20Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Of course, the idea that one coder was responsible for developing the entire park system is pretty farcical Nedry had a whole team, they just didn’t come to the island (at least, during the book’s events; they may have previously been there, but Nedry was there for some final troubleshooting. Which is part of why he was upset - I got the sense that much of what needed to be fixed was due to scope creep). In the novel, the reason the phones are down is that Nedry is using all the lines to send data to his team. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2024, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/14 "2024-06-27T19:45:54Z")
In the novel, Hammond is the ultimate source of all the trouble. He completely overestimated his capabilities and underestimated the difficulties. The park was a massive problem even without the dinosaurs. And he was trying to open the whole thing up at once and prematurely to boot. The movie softened him a little by portraying him as naive. But in the novel, he had a touch of the “I want it now!” personality as well. And he willfully ignored advice he didn’t like. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2024, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/15 "2024-06-27T20:05:33Z")
How is making someone pay for their mistakes not blaming? ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/16 "2024-06-28T01:31:43Z")
I don’t think people can necessarily help the decisions they make, but I think corrective action is necessary. That’s how I see it. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2024, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/17 "2024-06-28T23:24:11Z")
The implication is he low balled the bid for the job, wanted more money and Hammond said, “too bad, that’s your problem” And this conversation reiterated that. I read the original novel and have a vague memory it went into more detail about this but it was so long ago I may be making that up. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/18 "2024-06-29T00:25:33Z")
Kind of ironic for the guy whose personal catchphrase is “Spared no expense”. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/19 "2024-06-29T00:31:53Z")
That’s what I’m thinking. Did Hammond even know anybody who could network 8 connection machines and debug 2 million lines of code? and for so cheap? ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2024, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-hammond-say-this-to-dennis-nedry-in-jurassic-park/1003365/20 "2024-06-29T01:47:51Z")
He knew one guy - Nedry - well, atleast Nedry _thought_ he could.