Michael Crichton Trivia

1. Where was the damaged flight flying from and to?

From Quiz Airframe

Answer: Hong Kong to Denver

Trans-Pacific 545, an N-22 fuse number 271, after having experienced severe in-flight turbulence, asked LAX airport control tower to have an emergency landing authorized.

From Quiz Jurassic World

Answer: Quagga

The Quagga was a zebra-like African mammal which had become extinct in the 1880s. In 1985, a scientist had recovered DNA of the quagga from a piece of quagga hide. This inspired the venture capitalist John Hammond to clone dinosaurs by recovering their DNA. An interesting trivia is that Crichton first wrote a draft story about the cloning of a pterodactyl in 1983, but this was criticized by all those who read it. In fact, he wrote as many as three drafts, all of which were hated by the people who read them. The reason was that he had written it from the view point of a kid. Finally, he decided to write it from the view point of an adult. Another interesting fact is that Universal Studios paid Crichton $2 million for the rights, even before the novel was published!

From Quiz Crichton Plots and Titles

Answer: Congo

'Congo' first published in 1980, features an ape Amy that could understand English and communicate through sign language. The character of Amy is based on a real chimpanzee named Koko, that could communicate through sign language. Crichton states that he was inspired by 'King's Solomon's Mines' to write this novel. The novel features a hunt for diamonds in the lost city of Zinj. The city is guarded by killer gorillas which try kill the explorers. Finally, the explorers manage to escape, but a volcanic explosion destroys the lost city. The novel is written in such a way, that the reader is made to believe that this is a true story (through the use of a prologue, epilogue and foot notes). A film version of 'Congo' was also made.

From Quiz PREY

Answer: Nanotechnology

'Prey' is about nanotechnology, one of the most popular and hot topics of discussion. The novel explores the potential benefits of nanotechnology and also explores the dangers which could arise from this new field of science.

From Quiz Eaters of the Dead

Answer: Beowulf

'Eaters of the Dead' is based on the legend of Beowulf or Buliwyf as it is referred to in Crichton's novel. This novel is based on some incidents in the Beowulf legend. Crichton had a challenge with his friend, who had termed the Beowulf legend as boring! To prove him wrong, he wrote this book.

From Quiz Michael Crichton's 'Next'

Answer: Gene patents

The central theme of this novel is gene patents. The main plot in the novel is about Frank Burnet, a cancer patient from whom the UCLA harvests cancer fighting cytokine cells. UCLA sells the cells to BioGen. When Burnet takes the case to court, the ruling goes in favour of Biogen, the court even goes on to state that Burnet's cells belong to Biogen. This later leads to a ridiculous situation when Biogen claims that the cells in Burnet's daughter and grandson also belong to Biogen and they attempt to forcibly extract it. After 'Jurassic Park' and 'Lost World', Crichton once again turns to genetics in this novel. In this novel Crichton presents scientific facts in the form of fiction. In fact, the first page of the novel states that "the novel is fiction except for the parts that aren't". There are number of snippets in the book about various researches on genetics.

From Quiz Crichton's 'Airframe'

Answer: N-22

The aircraft involved in the mid-air disaster was an N-22 manufactured by Norton Aircraft, Burbank.

From Quiz The Great Train Robbery

Answer: 1850's

The novel is set in Victorian England in the 1850's when England was the reigning power in the world and was the epicentre of urbanization. This was the period when railway transport had become popular, leading to the central plot of this novel.

From Quiz "Timeline" by Michael Crichton

Answer: transcription errors

Joseph Traub was an employee for ITC. He had time-traveled too much and, over a period of time, developed certain transcription errors. These errors caused his circulatory system to go haywire and come back together out of place. This was noticed when he was taken to a hospital and was checked in an MRI machine. The nurse on duty in the emergency room assumed that it was a malfunction with the MRI machine. In Traub's fingers, veins and arteries would go into his fingers and then skip over to the left or right, not correctly lining up with one another.

From Quiz Michael Crichton's 'Congo'

Answer: A Gorilla

Amy was an extraordinary female gorilla who was part of an experiment in San Francisco. The experiment focussed on language learning abilities of primates. Amy had a 620 sign vocabulary and could communicate with her trainer Peter Elliot. The character of Amy was based on a real gorilla named 'Koko' who reportedly had a vocabulary of more than 1000 signs and words. 'Congo' is a work of fiction. But through the use of footnotes Crichton makes it appear as though the novel is based on facts. An interesting fact which Crichton reveals (on his website) is that he had never seen a gorilla in the wild at the time of writing the book. He had also not visited Congo to write the novel. He visited Rwanda and saw wild gorillas two years after writing 'Congo'. This is chronicled in his non-fiction work 'Travels'.

From Quiz The Andromeda Strain

Answer: Arizona

This is a small unknown town where there are only 48 residents. It is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone and there is no nearby town for 20 miles.

From Quiz State of Fear

Answer: Sarah

Sarah Jones is a beautiful, tall woman with blue eyes and blonde hair. She's quite optimistic and assertive during the story, and she's quite strong. Sarah used to be a professional tennis player, and she is active in many different sports.

From Quiz The Power of the "Sphere"

Answer: Arthur Levine

Marine biologist Arthur Levine was, ironically, seasick. He was supposed to go on the expedition, but he got claustrophobic in the submarine that was to take him down. The scientist team consisted of astrophysicist Ted Fielding, zoologist Beth Halpern, mathematician Harry Adams, and psychologist Norman Johnson.

From Quiz Written by Michael Crichton

Answer: Beowulf

This novel deals with the historical travels of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a Muslim emissary from Baghdad, City of Peace, to the King of the Bulgars. Along the way he is forced to join Viking adventurers. These Vikings initially seem like barbarians to Ibn Fadlan; their ways are ungodly but their mission is noble - to rescue a Scandinavian kingdom from the "monsters of the mist". However, towards the end of the book, he manages to fit in with these men and to befriend some of them. The book is a fictionalized take on the actual account of the travels of Ahmad ibn Fadlan and based on his travel diaries that he kept. Crichton made his story more authentic by using actual historical fact interwoven with dramatic dialogue. In 1999, Crichton's book was the basis for the movie "The 13th Warrior" starring Antonio Banderas.

From Quiz Michael Crichton's " The Andromeda Strain"

Answer: Arizona

In the small town of Piedmont AZ. POP. 48

From Quiz The Lost Quiz

Answer: Richard Levine

Levine was the heir to the Americana Doll fortune. Sarah and Doc were both along on the journey. Dodgson was the greedy researcher from Biosyn. This book wasn't quite as good as "Jurassic Park", but it was still exciting.

From Quiz 'Disclosure' -- Michael Crichton

Answer: sexual harassment

A man charges sexual harrassment against a woman.

From Quiz 'Sphere'

Answer: ULF

ULF stood for 'Unknown Life Form'. Norman's paper was titled 'Recommendations for the Human Contact Team to Interact With Unknown Life Forms'.

From Quiz Moderate "Jurassic Park" Trivia

Answer: Christina Bowman

The girl's name is Christina, but she is sometimes referred to as Tina. Ellen is her mother.

From Quiz Airframe

Answer: Casey Singleton

Casey Singleton, thirty-six years old. Vice-president at Norton Aircraft in Burbank. Divorced. One child, Allison, seven years old.

From Quiz Crichton Closing Lines

Answer: Timeline

"Timeline" is a story of time travel. The main plot of the novel is about a group of scientists who go into the past, to ancient France to rescue their professor. The novel ends with one of them deciding to stay back in the past. The rest of the group return to the future and go to the site of their visit, where they learn of the death of their colleague in the past!

From Quiz Jurassic World

Answer: John Hammond

John Hammond, the founder of InGen is killed by compys in 'Jurassic Park'. Lewis Dodgson, who hires Nedry in 'Jurrasic Park' to steal dinosaur embryos, appears again in 'Lost World', when he tries to steal dinosaur eggs. Ian Malcolm, the mathematician, appears in both the novels and is the central character in 'Lost World'. Marty Guitierrezz is a biologist in Costa Rica who appears in both the novels. After the success of 'Jurassic Park', Crichton was not inclined to write a sequel, but he was pressurized by Steven Spielberg after which he decided to write 'Lost World'. Interestingly, the sequel starts with some quotations, one of which is by Ian Malcolm which says "Sequelae are inherently unpredictable"!

From Quiz Crichton Plots and Titles

Answer: Prey

'Prey' first published in 2002, has nano technology has its main theme. A company creates a group of nano robots, that could be used as a camera (for use by the Defense department). They use E.coli bacteria to create the swarm of nano robots. They also use an artificial intelligence program called "PredPrey". The program is secretly modified by two of the ambitious company staff and the nano robots go out of control and start killing people. The hero has to finally kill his wife and destroy the entire facility of the company to stop the nano robots. The novel extensively covers topics like nano-technology, artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.

From Quiz PREY

Answer: It is a software program

The central character of the novel 'Prey' is Jack Forman who is a software programmer specialized in artificial intelligence. He had developed a program called 'PREDPREY'. Jack's team had studied the relationships between predators and preys by studying the behaviour of hyenas, lionesses and army ants. Based on this relationship, he had developed a goal seeking program, which tried to control any system of agents and their behaviour. This program and its use by Xymos is the main theme of the novel.

From Quiz Eaters of the Dead

Answer: Ibn Fadlan

In this novel, Crichton has combined the historical travels of the Arab Ibn Fadlan with the legendary Beowulf story. The narrations of Ibn Fadlan are true and a part of history, as Fadlan travelled with the Vikings. But Fadlan never met Beowulf or had anything to do with the Beowulf legend. With the use of footnotes and bibliography, Crichton makes it appear as though the novel is a historical fact.

From Quiz "Timeline" by Michael Crichton; Pt. II

Answer: Kate

After Kate started to climb out a window into the corridor, Chris and Marek acted as though they were getting angry with one another. When Chris went to pick up a stool to hit Marek, the guard inside stopped him, but not before Marek brought a metal candlestick on the guard's head; knocking him out. Now, the task at hand was to get the door off or opened so they could escape. Kate, who had already escaped, went to find a hammer or something to pry the hinges off with.

From Quiz Michael Crichton's 'Next'

Answer: Rick Diehl

Richard 'Rick' Diehl was the CEO of BioGen. He had started the company using his wife Karen's funds. Short of funds for trials, he approaches the venture capitalist Jack Watson. But Rick lands in a soup as Watson wants to throw Diehl out and take over his company. Dr. Bellarmino is the head of genetics at the NIH, who is good at stealing research ideas from others. Vasco Borden is a bounty hunter who is used by Biogen to grab Burnet's daughter and grandson.

From Quiz Crichton's 'Airframe'

Answer: John Marder

John Marder was the COO of Norton Aircraft who headed the Incident Response team (IRT) that was formed to investigate the cause of the N-22 aircraft disaster. Harold Edgarton was the President of the company, Casey Singleton the VP in charge of QA and Bob Richman was a new assistant appointed to work under Singleton.

From Quiz "Timeline" by Michael Crichton

Answer: Dordogne

A team of archaeologists from Yale and another big name school came to the Dordogne River in France to excavate some ruins from the medieval times. Marek explained that the river was a boundary line during the 100 Years War. One building was the Monastery De St. Mere. This monastery was already mapped out by Traub, but no one knew how he would know about the project. Other fortresses included Castelgard and La Roque. Castelgard and later La Roque, in their time, were taken over by Sir Oliver and his men.

From Quiz Michael Crichton's 'Congo'

Answer: A species of gorilla

The initial expedition members are killed by a species of gorilla. Primatologist Peter Elliot observes that these gray coloured gorillas were entirely a new species of animal. He planned to name this species as 'Gorilla elliotensis'.

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Last Updated Oct 25 2025 5:47 AM

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