Michael Crichton is a science fiction author with an extensive and well-recognized body of work. He is sometimes considered the inventor of the techno-thriller genre, and his stories often explore the relationship between humans, technology, and power. “Life is a profound mystery,” he wrote in a commentary on his book The Lost World. “And we are fools if we forget that and think, even for a moment, that we know it all.”

Originally, Crichton wanted to become a medical doctor. He studied medicine at Harvard, but spent a lot of his time writing fiction books, publishing them under the pseudonym Andrew Lange. By his third year in medical school, he realized that he loved writing much more than medical practice, and he began publishing under his own name, starting with the novel The Andromeda Strain in 1969.

That novel launched his career, becoming highly successful and making Crichton’s name known internationally. He obtained his MD from Harvard that same year, but never went on to get his license to practice medicine, forgoing it to focus exclusively on his writing career instead. In the decades since then, Crichton went on to write many novels, short stories, and screenplays, and even direct a couple of movies. He collaborated with Steven Spielberg on the wildly successful TV show ER, which was originally meant to be a movie, and was heavily based on his time working as an intern in emergency rooms. When he partnered again with Spielberg to turn his book Jurassic Park into a movie, his place in pop culture became legendary.

Michael Crichton excelled at taking complex and interesting scientific ideas and communicating them in fun and entertaining ways that captured the imagination of audiences worldwide. As Spielberg would later say according to Vanity Fair, “Michael brought credibility to incredible subject matter. He was a master builder of a scientific logic to keep the science fiction grounded, so it could be believed by people all over the world."

So what are some of the best movies based on Crichton’s novels?

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7 Congo (1995)

     Paramount Pictures

Congo was an unexpected success when it came out in 1995, doubling its expected return on opening weekend and launching into the #1 spot on the box office charts. But, it was plagued with mixed and mostly negative reviews shortly after that, despite its well-rounded cast that included Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, and Bruce Campbell.

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Crichton originally intended to direct the movie himself, and wrote it with the idea that Sean Connery would star as the lead, but he soon left the project and was not involved in the movie that eventually came out. In spite of its flaws, Congo is still a fun watch, striving for Spielberg-level excitement, and enjoyable even though it misses that mark.

6 The Lost World (1997)

     Universal Pictures

Crichton was never a fan of writing sequels, preferring the appeal of stand-alone novels. However, with the wild success of Jurassic Park and his friend Spielberg’s enthusiasm for a sequel, Crichton relented and wrote The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1995. Spielberg signed on to produce the film adaptation before the novel was even released. David Koepp, was tapped to adapt it into a screenplay, and the movie was released in 1997.

While still very successful, breaking box office records upon its release and securing the continuation of the franchise for the next 25 years, The Lost World received mixed reviews. Spielberg himself stated in a biography that he was disappointed with how the movie turned out. The plot strayed from the book in notable ways (the T-Rex never ends up in San Diego, for instance), but the movie ends up being a fun and exciting adventure all the same.

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5 Sphere (1998)

     Warner Bros.

Sphere might be one of Crichton’s most underrated adaptations. Directed by Barry Levinson and with an all-star cast of Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson and Liev Shrieber, it had a lot of potential and was aimed high. But, it was released in 1998 to abysmal reviews, with most critics finding it confusing or even boring. Not all reviews were bad, however, with The New York Times calling it “a solid thriller with showy scientific overtones.”

The movie is not without its flaws, with some dialogue feeling stale in light of the events of the plot, and the ending of the film is plagued by trying to over-explain itself. Yet, it still manages to create an engrossing story centered around a strange discovery at the bottom of the ocean. The plot stays close to its source material, though it leaves out a big twist at the end. While it isn’t on par with many other Crichton movies, it is still a fun and intriguing thriller, with a compelling central mystery.

4 The 13th Warrior (1999)

     Buena Vista Pictures

If Sphere isn’t the most underrated Michael Crichton movie, then it is without a doubt The 13th Warrior. With estimated losses of over $100 million, it is considered to be one of the biggest box office bombs in film history - and it didn’t help that the movie came out the same weekend in 1999 as The Sixth Sense. Filming was burdened with issues, and the screenplay went through multiple edits, with the final version of the film poorly received by test audiences. Crichton himself eventually took over directing from John McTiernan (Die Hard) and re-cut the movie, adding a new ending and hiring a new composer, Jerry Goldsmith.

The reviews were negative, and the film has since faded into obscurity. But, modern audiences have begun to revisit it, especially since the resurgence of Viking lore in TV and film. The 13th Warrior is one of Crichton’s best.

He wrote the initial book, Eaters of the Dead, based on a bet that he could tell an entertaining version of Beowulf. The story’s main character is Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a famous real-life explorer from the 10th century, played by Antonio Banderas. Forced to join a mission to defend a Viking kingdom against terrifying cannibals, ibn Fadlan has to quickly adapt to a new culture and learn how to fight in order to survive. His character evolves through the experience, shedding his old prejudices and growing as a person.

Though not without its flaws (Banderas is certainly not an Arab, for instance), the film is beautifully shot, well acted, and exciting to watch. Crichton would later say in his notes on the book, “I’m quite pleased with the movie, which I think captures the feeling of the novel very well.”

3 The Great Train Robbery (1978)

     United Artists

The Great Train Robbery is the most light-hearted movie on this list. Released in 1978, this comedy heist movie was directed by Crichton himself and stars Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland as two intrepid thieves, planning the first ever heist on a moving train. The story is loosely based on a real heist, called “The Great Gold Robbery”, considered to be the first train robbery in history.

Like any great heist movie, the characters move through a presentation of how impossible the heist is, and then proceed to do the impossible in clever and entertaining ways. Sean Connery is perfect in his role with a flair for stylish, light comedy, and he plays perfectly off of Sutherland. Connery initially turned down the role, but after reading the book and meeting Crichton, he changed his mind.

Crichton altered the story intentionally for the film, making it more farcical and less serious. He also bumped up the action, which is definitely where the movie excels, along with the comedy and the visually beautiful shots.

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2 The Andromeda Strain (1971)

The Andromeda Strain was Michael Crichton’s first book published under his own name, and became hugely successful at a time when science fiction was not very popular. It rocketed him to international fame, birthed the genre known as “techno-thriller,”, and quickly became Crichton’s first published work adapted to film.

Released in 1971, and directed by Robert Wise (West Side Story, The Sound of Music), the film is an understated story about a deadly alien microbe that wipes out an entire town, except for two people - a baby, and an old man. A team of scientists is sent to a deep underground base to study the microorganism and the two survivors, and things quickly evolve out of control. Wise used a unique lens technique during filming called a split focus diopter, which allowed both the foreground and background to be sharp and in focus. Wise used the technique over 200 times in the movie, giving the shots a hyper-real feeling to them, with everything looking clean and detailed. This adds to the technological feeling of the movie, which has a quiet but compelling sense of urgency to it.

The film received mixed but overall positive reviews, and was a success at the box office, cementing Crichton’s future career in science fiction writing, and in film. Celebrated for its scientific accuracy, a 2003 publication by The Infectious Diseases Society of America would later say that The Andromeda Strain was the “most significant, scientifically accurate, and prototypic of all films of this [killer virus] genre … it accurately details the appearance of a deadly agent, its impact, and the efforts at containing it, and, finally, the work-up on its identification and clarification on why certain persons are immune to it.”

1 Jurassic Park (1993)

It will surprise exactly no one that Jurassic Park reigns supreme on this list. With a fantastic cast, incredible music score, groundbreaking special effects, an excellent book to adapt from, and in the capable hands of none other than Steven Spielberg, it is undoubtedly the best Crichton novel adaptation.

By the late ’80s, Spielberg and Crichton had been friends for years, when Spielberg caught wind that Crichton had a new story in mind. But all Crichton would tell him was that “it’s about dinosaurs and DNA.” Crichton began writing the story as a screenplay in the early 1980s, which explains why it ends up so cinematic. He was inspired by new developments in gene technology and cloning, and originally wrote it from the perspective of a child. Crichton would later reflect in his notes on The Lost World that the appeal of dinosaurs was because “dinosaurs confront us - directly and unavoidably - with the reality of extinction.”

Crichton worked with David Koepp to adapt the novel into a screenplay, cutting a significant part of the lengthy novel, and making a few notable changes. Both the movie and book touch on themes of capitalism, scientific advancement for profit, and the tenuous grasp of control in the face of chaos.

The success of Jurassic Park cannot be overstated. The film went on to win three Academy Awards and gross over $1 billion, the highest grossing film ever at the time. It broke numerous records all around the world and inspired many sequels, becoming the foundation for what has been called the 19th greatest film franchise of all time. It became Crichton’s most popular book, one of Spielberg’s most iconic films, and one of the most culturally significant movies of a generation.