Alan Grant

At the dig, Grant scares a boy by describing in detail how a raptor would hunt him. Ellie wants kids; he doesn't. Hammond shows up unannounced and offers three years of funding if the two of them spend a weekend evaluating his park.

On Isla Nublar, Grant pulls off his sunglasses, stares, and nearly faints at the sight of a living Brachiosaurus. He watches a baby velociraptor hatch and grows uneasy when he learns the park is raising adult raptors.

On the tour, Hammond's grandkids, Tim and Lex, ride in the lead car. When security fails and the T. rex attacks, Grant saves both kids and ends up alone with them in the middle of the park. They spend the night up a tree, run from a herd of Gallimimus, and find broken eggshells: the dinosaurs are breeding.

To get back, they climb a fence that could come back on at any moment; Tim gets shocked and Grant revives him. At the visitor center the raptors corner the group, and the T. rex arrives just in time. On the helicopter, the kids fall asleep leaning on him.

Years later, Grant can't fund his research and is tired of answering questions about Isla Nublar. Ellie, now married with a child, is still his friend. Paul and Amanda Kirby offer a donation if he'll guide an aerial tour over Isla Sorna. Grant agrees and brings his assistant, Billy Brennan.

In the air, Grant realizes the plan is to land. A Spinosaurus attacks the plane, which crashes in the jungle. The Kirbys come clean: they're divorced, and they're looking for their son Eric, missing on the island for eight weeks after a parasailing trip.

The group finds Eric alive, hiding in an abandoned supply truck. He has read Grant's books and prefers the early ones, from before Isla Nublar. Raptors hound the group nonstop, and Grant figures out why: Billy stole eggs from a nest to sell and fund the dig.

Grant gives the eggs back and uses a printed replica of a raptor larynx to mimic their call. By phone he asks Ellie for help, and she brings in the Navy and the Marines.

With dinosaurs loose around the world, Grant is still digging on a thin budget, now in Utah. Ellie shows up with a giant locust and a suspicion: the swarms only spare crops grown from Biosyn seeds. She's divorced. Grant drops everything and goes with her to Biosyn's valley in Italy, where Ian Malcolm works.

Inside, the two get the proof and find Maisie Lockwood. During a fire in the valley they team up with Owen, Claire and the others and face a Giganotosaurus. In the end, Grant and Ellie are together again and head to Washington to testify against Biosyn.

Crichton based Grant on paleontologist Jack Horner, who later advised on the films. In the novel, Grant is a bearded 40-year-old widower who loves kids, and Ellie is his student, not his girlfriend; Spielberg flipped his personality to create tension with Tim and Lex. Harrison Ford turned the role down, and Sam Neill was cast just weeks before shooting.