Why Newman Is Perfect As Nedry

Wayne Knight may never escape being associated with his role as the conniving mailman Newman on the show Seinfeld, but as the movie Jurassic Park shows, this association is all but harmful. In fact, casting Newman as Dennis Nedry in the film's adaptation of the novel does great justice to Crichton's original character. The reader is first introduced to Nedry as Alan Grant and the others are in route to Jurassic Park:

They had picked up another passenger in San Jose, a man named Dennis Nedry, who had flown in to meet them. He was fat and sloppy, eating a candy bar, and there was sticky chocolate on his fingers, and flecks of aluminum foil on his shirt. Nedry had mumbled something about doing computers on the island, and hadn't offered to shake hands (76).

At an earlier point in the novel, Nedry remains unnamed but is shown to be in cahoots with a bio-tech company looking to steal embryos from Jurassic Park. Arguably the novel's only true villain, Nedry is written as a despicable character whose scheming and greedy nature represents the much larger and even more greedier nature of those looking to profit from the exploitation of science. In Crichton's seething introduction, he points out how the bio-tech revolution goes unchecked and is powered by greed:

But most disturbing is the fact that no watchdogs are found among the scientists themselves. It is remarkable that nearly every scientist in genetics research is also engaged in the commerce of biotechnology. There are no detached observers. Everybody has a stake (x).

To any Seinfeld fan, it should be clear by now why Newman was chosen for the role of Nedry (If not, refer to the episode titled "The Old Man" in which Newman and Kramer devise a get-rich scheme that involves stealing priceless records from a senile old man). He is perfect for the role of a foolish thief whose quirkiness and stupidity lead to his ultimate demise and failure. And in playing Nedry, Knight accurately characterizes all that Crichton believes is wrong with the bio-tech revolution and its glory-seeking scientists.