Picture this: It’s summer 2022, and Jurassic World: Dominion hits the big screen. I’m all pumped up, rushing to grab tickets to see those dinos back in action with Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and the one and only Jeff Goldblum. But man, talk about a letdown. Sure, they brought the trio from the OG Jurassic Park and the extinct behemoths together in Jurassic World: Dominion, but that’s about it. The story? Meh. The plot? Double meh. So, what did I do? I went back to where it all began. And there it was, that golden nugget of wisdom from Dr. Ian Malcolm: “Life, uh… finds a way.” It still gives me chills to date, I tell ya.
Now, let's rewind time back to when I was a wee tiny bit of a human being watching Jurassic Park on TV for the first time. Did I get the whole “Life, uh… finds a way” thing then? Nah, I was too busy gawking at those awesome dinos. Steven Spielberg’s prehistoric spectacle hit me like a meteor. I mean, I actually thought that Jurassic Park was a real dinosaur kingdom and that those gentle giants (brachiosauruses and triceratopses) and toothy terrors (tyrannosauruses and velociraptors) were real! It took me a while to figure out they’d been extinct for a cool 65 million years. Talk about a reality check!
As I got older and kept rewatching Jurassic Park (because, let’s face it, who doesn’t?), I started picking up on new stuff. Let’s break down that classic Dr. Malcolm moment, shall we? The scientists in Jurassic Park proudly explain to their audience, who are seeing live dinos for the first time in their lives, that they’ve successfully manipulated the creatures’ chromosomes to ensure that only female dinos are created to avoid uncontrolled breeding. Enter Dr. Malcolm, the chaos theory rockstar who drops the bomb, “If there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. [...] I’m simply saying that life, uh… finds a way.” Boom! He’s not just talking about dinos here. He's referring to the unpredictability of life and nature and their mighty adaptability. He’s also calling out our human ego, which deludes us into thinking we can play puppet masters with life and nature. And guess what? The whole movie (heck, the whole franchise) proves him right. Those dinos aren’t just going to sit around idling. Instead, they’re gonna show us exactly how unstoppable (and destructive) life can be through concrete actions.
It wasn’t until middle school that I really got what Dr. Malcolm was saying. And you know what made it click? A flood. Every summer vacation, I’d head to my mom’s hometown to this big ol’ lake bordered by a massive dam. During dry spells, you could practically walk across the lake. So, I thought, “What’s the point of this impregnable dam anyway?”
Then came that one rainy summer. Man, did it pour! The water level in the lake just kept rising and rising until — whoosh! — rainwater spilled right over that dam and flooded part of the village. Seeing all that water, stretching as far as the eye could see, really hit me. Nature’s power is no joke, and we humans? We’re pretty tiny in comparison. Before that, I was rejoicing at the miraculous achievements humans have accomplished. But after? I started thinking that maybe we’ve never conquered nature. We’ve just learned to roll with it, like every other living thing out there.
Since then, I’ve been rethinking this whole idea of humans being the center of the natural and human worlds. Time and again, reality has proven to me that no matter how hard we try to control, tweak, or manipulate nature, life’s got its own plans. It’s messy, unpredictable, and always finding ways to break free from man-made rules.
Take this variety show Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video for instance. Jeremy Clarkson, the farm owner, finds an ewe that won’t feed her newborn lamb. No matter what he does, she’s not having it. So, he ends up taking the lamb home to care for it himself. He and his girlfriend run themselves ragged trying to save it, but in the end, the little guy doesn’t make it. It’s not that they didn’t know how to take care of it — the lamb was probably just too weak from the start. That’s why the ewe wouldn’t feed it — she knew it wouldn’t survive. Even on a farm, that motherly instinct kicks in, telling her not to waste energy on a lost cause. Sounds harsh, right? But that’s how inheritance of life and natural law work— there isn’t room for human will or morals.
You know, the whole "Life, uh... finds a way" thing isn’t popular just because it’s insightful. It’s been assimilated into popular culture, frequently cited, and made into memes, all because Goldblum nailed that line with his acting. He plays this quirky but cool scientist with a peculiar kind of charisma; he is more like a rock star than a scientist in some sense. When he drops that line, he’s not all serious and preachy. Rather than presenting it as an indisputable argument to shush his opponents, he’s kinda offering a fresh perspective.
That’s why it works in so many situations. We use it when we marvel at the power of life, when life surprises us, when we’re joking about stuff or ourselves, or when we need a little pick-me-up during tough times.
Speaking of tough times, 2022 was a mess for me due to COVID-19, workplace drama, and the whole nine yards. But hearing that line again hit differently. It didn’t just evoke my reverence for life and nature; it felt like a shot in the arm. Like, yeah, life’s a train ride and a rollercoaster ride with no specific destination but we’ve got this. We can always draw energy from the power of life to work out our direction and a way out in life. This enlightenment pulled me out of a drawn-out stupor that I was wallowing in and gave me the push I needed to quit my soul-sucking job and move to a new city. Since then, I’d tell myself every morning, “Life will find a way.”
And you know what? It did, just like those sneaky dinos in Jurassic Park, which breached all preventive measures. No, I didn’t have raptors chasing me (at least not for now), but I learned to quit trying to reign over everything and roll with the punches instead. I mean, if dinosaurs could adapt to the tens of millions of years of evolution, I’d also be able to deal with the nine-to-five grind, right? So next time life throws you a curveball — whether it’s work-related issues, the trivial matters in life like a bad hair day, or a troublemaker cat that won’t stop knocking things off your desk — just remember: Life, uh... always finds a way.
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