Answer: Jurassic Park

The 1993 hit Jurassic Park, based on the Michael Crichton novel, was by all accounts and critical accolades a fantastic film. It won three Oscars, four Saturn awards, a BAFTA for special effects, a Hugo award, and numerous other nominations and awards.

Perhaps the greatest contribution Jurassic Park made, however, was not in delighting audience members across the board, but in specifically inspiring some of them to go on to work on great projects. Numerous directors have cited the special effects in Jurassic Park as inspiration for them taking projects off the shelf and breathing new life into them or starting new projects altogether. Stanley Kubrick blew the dust off of A.I. Artificial Intelligence. George Lucas decided it was time to revitalize the Star Wars franchise. Peter Jackson dove into the world of fantasy films and eventually became the blockbuster director of the Lord of the Rings franchise.

Across the film making world, Jurassic Park sent the message that the special effects many film makers had thought were too expensive or outright impossible were within their reach and an entire era of film making unfolded after the release of the action packed thriller.