Born on this day – Michael Crichton:

Michael Crichton

Writer

Director

October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008

Credits:

Twisters (2024); Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (2020–2022); Westworld (2016–2022); Jurassic World Dominion (2022); Killer Poop in the Movies (2022); Battle at Big Rock (2019); Lego Jurassic World: Legend of Isla Nublar (2019); Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018); Lego Jurassic World: The Indominus Escape (2016); Lego Jurassic World (2015); Jurassic World (2015); Sala de Urgencias (2015); Aberrant Forms: A Jurassic Short (2014); Jurassic Park: The Game (2011); ER (1994–2009); The Andromeda Strain (2008); Timeline (2003); Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis (2003); Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure (2001); Jurassic Park: Scan Command (2001); Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor (2001); Jurassic Park III (2001); Timeline (2000); Warpath: Jurassic Park (1999); The 13th Warrior (1999); Jurassic Park: Trespasser (1998); Sphere (1998); Jurassic Park: Chaos Island (1997); The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997); Twister (1996); Congo (1995); Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition (1994); Disclosure (1994); Jurassic Park (1993); Rising Sun (1993); Equinox (1993); Physical Evidence (1989); Amazon (1984); Runaway (1984); Looker (1981); Beyond Westworld (1980); The Great Train Robbery (1978); Coma (1978); The Terminal Man (1974); Insight (1971–1974); Westworld (1973); Extreme Close-Up (1973); Pursuit (1972); The Carey Treatment (1972); Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972); The Andromeda Strain (1971).

Books:

The Andromeda Strain (1969); The Andromeda Evolution (2019); Jurassic Park (1990); The Lost World (1995); Odds On (1966); Scratch One (1967); A Case of Need (1968); Easy Go / The Last Tomb (1968); Zero Cool (1969); The Venom Business (1969); Drug of Choice (1970); Dealing: or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty Brick Lost Bag Blues (1970); Grave Descend (1970); Binary (1972); The Terminal Man (1972); The Great Train Robbery (1975); Eaters of the Dead (1976); Congo (1980); Sphere (1987); Rising Sun (1992); Disclosure (1994); Airframe (1996); Timeline (1999); Prey (2002); State of Fear (2004); Next (2006); Pirate Latitudes (2009); Micro (2011); Dragon Teeth (2017); Eruption (2024); Five Patients (1970); Jasper Johns (1977); Electronic Life (1983); Travels (1988); Westworld (1974).

Recommended reading - 2 by Michael Crichton:

The Terminal Man

First Published 1972.

ISBN-10: 0394447689

ISBN-13: 978-0394447681

Description:

In his first novel since The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton once again combines documentary verisimilitude with hair-raising suspense to open up for the reader a new area of modern science: surgical-electronic mind control.

The man ‘in the hands of science” – the Terminal Man – is Harry Benson. He is a violent paranoid who has already twice attempted to kill. Against the profound opposition of his psychiatrist, a team of surgeons proposes to connect his brain to a computer that will regulate his behavior. From the conflict among the doctors, to the actual operation itself – during which forty wires are attached to forty points in Benson’s brain – to the functioning of the computers, to the terrifying results when Benson escapes from the hospital, the tension rises as the reader becomes a close-up witness to an experiment just short of the ultimate computer control of a human being.

Psychosurgery of the kind Crichton describes is already taking place under established medical auspices – a new form of behavior control that has become a key scientific and moral issue in our time. Crichton takes it out of the realm of the abstract, and makes immediate its workings, its dangers, and its implications, in a novel that provides urgent information and, at the same time, superb entertainment.

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The Andromeda Strain

First published 1969.

ISBN-10: 1101974494

ISBN-13: 978-1101974490

Description:

A military space probe, sent to collect extraterrestrial organisms from the upper atmosphere, is knocked out of orbit and falls to Earth. Twelve miles from the crash site, an inexplicable and deadly phenomenon terrorizes the residents of a sleepy desert town in Arizona, leaving only two survivors: an elderly addict and a newborn infant.

The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory located five stories beneath the desert and fitted with an automated atomic self-destruction mechanism for cases of irremediable contamination. Under conditions of total news blackout and the utmost urgency, the scientists race to understand and contain the crisis. But the Andromeda Strain proves different from anything they’ve ever seen—and what they don’t know could not only hurt them, but lead to unprecedented worldwide catastrophe.

On this day in movie history - Westworld (1973):

Westworld,

directed and written by Michael Crichton,

was released in the United States on August 17, 1973.
Music by Fred Karlin.

Cast:
Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Alan Oppenheimer, Victoria Shaw, Dick Van Patten, Linda Gaye Scott, Steve Franken, Michael Mikler, Terry Wilson, Majel Barrett, Anne Randall, Nora Marlowe, Charles Seel, Robert Patten, Julie Marcus, Chris Holter.

On this day in movie history - Jurassic Park (1993):

Jurassic Park,

directed by Steven Spielberg,

written by Michael Crichton and David Koepp,

based on the novel by Michael Crichton,

was released in the United States on June 9, 1993.
Music by John Williams.

“… so preoccupied with whether or not they could,

that they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

– Jeff Goldblum, as Dr. Ian Malcolm.

Cast:
Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, B. D. Wong, Joseph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Gerald R. Molen, Miguel Sandoval, Cameron Thor, Christopher John Fields, Whit Hertford, Dean Cundey, Jophery C. Brown, Tom Mishler, Greg Burson, Adrian Escober, Richard Kiley, James Berlau, Brad M. Bucklin, Laura Burnett, Michael Lantieri, Gary Rodriguez, Lata Ryan, Brian Smrz, Rip Lee Walker, Robert 'Bobby Z' Zajonc.

Recommended reading: Eaters of the Dead, by Michael Crichton (1976):

Eaters of the Dead,

by Michael Crichton (1976).

Full title:

Eaters of the Dead: The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in AD 922,

aka The 13th Warrior.

Description:

The year is A.D. 922.  A refined Arab courtier, representative of the powerful Caliph of Baghdad, encounters a party of Viking warriors who are journeying to the barbaric North. He is appalled by their Viking customs — the wanton sexuality of their pale, angular women, their disregard for cleanliness . . . their cold-blooded human sacrifices. But it is not until they reach the depths of the Northland that the courtier learns the horrifying and inescapable truth: He has been enlisted by these savage, inscrutable warriors to help combat a terror that plagues them — a monstrosity that emerges under cover of night to slaughter the Vikings and devour their flesh . . .

On this day in movie history - Physical Evidence (1989):

Physical Evidence,

directed by Michael Crichton,

written by Bill Phillips,

based on a story by Bill Phillips and Steve Ransohoff,

was released in the United States on January 27, 1989.
Music by Henry Mancini.

Cast:
Burt Reynolds, Theresa Russell, Ned Beatty, Kay Lenz, Ted McGinley, Tom O'Brien, Kenneth Welsh, Ray Baker, Ken James, Michael P. Moran, Angelo Rizacos, Lamar Jackson, Paul Hubbard, Larry Reynolds, Peter MacNeill, Laurie Paton, Don Granbery, Barry Flatman, Malcolm Stewart, Richard Fitzpatrick, J. Winston Carroll, Kathy Michael McGlynn, Djanet Sears, Claire Cellucci, Michael Donaghue, Anthony Sherwood, Angie McNab, Laurie Holden, David Clement, Steve Whistance-Smith, David Efron, Stan Barett, Kenny Bates, Matt Cooke, Michael Rothery, Gene Mack, Chris Thomas, Norm Henderson, Stewart Arnott, Eddie Driscoll, David Ferry, Victor Ertmanis, Michael Copeman, Diane Douglass, Allan Aarons, Steven Hunter, Jennifer Inch, François Klanfer, Terry Tweed, Louis Negin, Ken Roberts.

On this day in movie history - Westworld (1973):

Westworld,

directed and written by Michael Crichton,

was released in the United States on August 17, 1973.
Music by Fred Karlin.

Cast:
Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Alan Oppenheimer, Victoria Shaw, Dick Van Patten, Linda Gaye Scott, Steve Franken, Michael Mikler, Terry Wilson, Majel Barrett, Anne Randall, Nora Marlowe, Charles Seel, Robert Patten, Julie Marcus, Chris Holter.