Monsters pt 3: Are There Exceptions?

Are There Exceptions?

There really aren’t exceptions to the rule of Monster vs Creature, just more confusing and less confusing examples. If a scenario is unclear, it’s usually due to lack of information. In almost all cases a clear “leaning towards” will always emerge with some scrutiny.  

For example:   

Jurassic Park (1993)

Those dinosaurs were engineered by an understanding of genetics. Yet, they did exist like that in nature even with the added frog DNA. The key issue is the frog DNA may have actually been a correct replacement as the T-Rex never came out unnatural as far as anyone knew.

The genetic issue in Jurassic Park was that the dinosaur populations, composed of only females, began breeding. From here, one could argue the T-Rex has been altered into a form that nature would not produce so: Monster?

The counter is that nature did produce that quality in the frogs. Furthermore, we don’t know that T-Rex, in its unaltered form, couldn’t change genders at need for the sake of procreation.  

It rides the fence but still leans towards Creature simply because the intention was to re-create what nature had already produced. And, as far as anyone knows, the T-Rex came out as expected. That the T-Rex escaped was the problem, never what it was or that it was breeding.  

On the other hand…

Jurassic World (2015)

Indominus Rex is definitely Monster since it’s outright stated this predator was assembled from many other species. It had never existed before man’s deliberate intervention. And that's the key, the T-Rex above - at worst - is a variant of what nature made, but Indominus was never made by Nature.

Nor were there any clues Nature had been thinking about making Indominus Rex either. Often, even within a film, it ends up being a case-by-case call. 

What about extending the definitions of Monsters & Creatures. What if extraterrestrials engineered an organism. Would that organism be a monster or creature?

Prometheus (2012)

To save on suspense, it would still be Monster. The issue in distinguishing these terms is that between What-Nature-Makes versus What-the-Things-Nature-Makes-Makes.

The species that uses its understanding & harnesses elements or energy to produce something nature wouldn’t does not matter. Monster is as Monster’s made - no matter who or what does the making.

Interestingly, if the premise of Prometheus is correct, then possibly all humanity is Monster; if humanity is a thing Nature would not have made. We simply don’t know if we ever existed before. Earth could be the Engineers’ Jurassic Park. More information is needed.  

Thanks Ridley,

Now why spend all these posts belaboring such a distinction?

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