65 bits of Jurassic Park trivia.

I'm a big fan of Jurassic Park. It's a generation thing I guess (because I'm definitely not the only one). Now, through the years people have been uploading all kinds of bits of trivia and whatnot to the Internet about this movie. And, I think, it's about time to make a little list out of it. Maybe, you know most of them, and maybe there are some you haven't seen before. At least, here they are:

Mistakes.

65. The end of the fence.

You don’t have to build an entire fence if you wish to make the audience believe that there is a fence. However, you shouldn’t show the end of the fence on screen if you can help it.

64. ‘Helping’ the raptor.

The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park came to be through a mixture or ‘real’ animatronic puppets and CGI. The raptors entering the kitchen are puppets. How can I tell? Because a crewmember is holding its tail to steady it.

63. The sudden gorge.

One a lot of people noticed the first time ‘round. The T-rex breaks free from his paddock and attacks the children. Then, when Alan Grant and the children seek refuge in the paddock there’s a sudden gorge there. Can a T-rex climb a tree? Really, with those little arms?

62. Knowing when the phone call ends.

The one I noticed the first time ‘round. When Dennis Nedry is talking to his helper on the dock he is clearly talking to a playing video. An amazing bit of sci-fi technology here: a videophone that knows when your call is going to end.

61. Nedry’s bag.

A cheap shot, these happen all the time in movies, but a fun one to notice. Nedry has and hasn’t got his bag in two following shots when talking to Dodgson.

60. Disappearing raptor.

Why this happened? No idea. Maybe one of the computer graphics guys was on sick-leave. But when the raptor attacks the T-rex in the big finale he suddenly disappears for a singular frame.

59. Where did the T-rex come from?

During the climactic finale the T-rex saves the day by killing the raptors. But how could he have entered the building? This is often considered a mistake. But the only mistake here is that the audience never gets to see the big hole in the wall behind him. If you look closely at the background in various scenes you’ll notice that the visitor centre isn’t completed yet. So the T-rex could easily have fitted in. Now why nobody heard this big girl arrive? That is indeed a good question.

58. Spell-check.

In the embryo freezing chamber, Tyrannosaurus rex is spelled with only one "N" instead of two. Also, Stegosaurus is spelled "Stegasaurus". (I’m such a notorious bad speller that I copy pasted this one directly from IMDB.com)

57. Changing towel.

During the introduction of John Hammond his tea towel changes in color.

56. A potted plant?

When the T-rex spins the car around you can spot a potted plant and a stage light.

Foreshadowing and explanations

55. The belt buckles.

’All dinosaurs are females’ Dr. Henry Wu explains. So they wouldn’t be able to mate to create offspring. During the movie Grant comes across evidence that ‘life has found a way’. But this was foreshadowed scenes before when he tied two ‘female’ belt buckles together.

54. The fake flea circus and the dinosaurs.

Richard Hammond tells Ellie Sattler about his early day as a manager of a flea circus. All the little acts in this circus where mechanical. There weren’t any real trained flees – but people pretended there were.

Now consider the fact that the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park aren’t real dinosaurs. They are a concoction of real dinosaur DNA and frog DNA to fill in the gabs in the genetic code. So just as fake as the flea circus. 

53. The fridge.

It always seemed a bit convenient that the fridge door was open in the famous kitchen scene. But it wasn’t.  Several scenes before –during the power outage- Hammond is seen eating ice-cream because, as he said it, “they were all melting”. Which is understandable if there is no electricity to power the fridge? So he took the ice-cream and left the fridge door open. Then when the power returned the water on the floor started to freeze again. So now Timmy could run towards the open fridge, slip and slide his way out and trap the raptor.

52. Chekhov’s gun: the ride.

During the ride the narrator in the car tells the guests all about the various dangerous skills the dinosaurs posses. For instance, the Dilophosaurus’s skill to spits a venomous substance at its prey.

Naturally, all these things explained happen later on to poor Nedry.

51. ‘Spared no expense.’

Be wary of people who say things like ‘spared no expense’ or ‘I don’t care about how much it costs’. They are usually cheapskates. Hammond only hired Dennis Nedry to write the massive bulk of code that keeps Jurassic Park functioning and then refused to pay him more. 

50. He doesn’t want kids.

Alan Grant doesn’t want children at the beginning of the movie. In the end, with Tim and Lex sleeping on his shoulders he looks at his girlfriend with a look that tells her: “yeah, alright, some like these would be fine.” This was reused and gender switched in Jurassic World. 

49. The logo.

When the guests first arrive in Jurassic Park a jeep stops at the heliport and the camera focuses on the sparkly clean logo on the car door. When the survivors leave the logo is muddied.

Also, with some creative reading it reads: “UR ASS PARK,” as in “you’re lucky to get out with your ass in one piece.”

48. The vegetarian curse.

Lex is a vegetarian. Of course the minute a person says something like this nature has to throw a severed goat leg towards her.

47. Dinosaurs evolved into birds.

The most obvious one but it should be mentioned. The bird flying past the helicopter in the end.

46. Black and white.

There is a reason Malcolm wears all black and Hammond all white: It symbolizes how diametrically opposed the two characters are. Also Malcolm hurts his leg whilst Hammond leaves the island unscratched.

45. Man versus nature.

Jurassic Park’s message that ‘man cannot control nature’ is underlined by using a tropical storm as one of the elements of the park’s failure.

44. InGen.

The company name InGen means ‘Nobody’ in Norwegian.

43. Exit-speech.

The directions Ian Malcolm gives Ellie Sattler after he snatches the radio from Hammond are his last lines of dialog in the entire movie.

42. Look after your kids.

Each time Lex and Tim are left by an adult they are attacked by a dinosaur.

41. ACGT.

At one point, during the finale, a raptor is illuminated by a computer screen repeating the letters ‘ACGT’ over and over again. These letters are the acronym for Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine and Thymine, the DNA's base pair.

40. Alice in Wonderland.

There are several references to Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. ‘The white rabbit’-codeword than Nedry uses to cover his track is the most obvious one. But then there’s also the character Lewis Dodgson whose name seems to be a combination of Lewis Carroll and (Lewis Carroll’s birth name) Charles Dodgson.

39. Dinosaur versus humans.

Not a single dinosaur is directly killed by a human being (though being locked up in a freezer is possibly deadly for a raptor).

38. Nature’s beings.

Each and every moment in which the hunting dinosaurs are out of their element (=not in nature) they lose the fight with the humans/the humans escaping.

37. Mr. Smokealot.

In every scene Ray Arnold appears there is a cigarette present. 

Fun of the internet. 

36. Dammit Phil.

35. For the love of the Goldblum.

34. Long live memes.

33. Funny when it’s gif-ed (1).

32. Funny when it’s gif-ed (2).

Production trivia.

31. Hurricane.

During production Hawaii (where the movie was shot) was struck by one of the most powerful storms ever: Hurricane Iniki.

30. Familiar pilot.

The helicopter pilot who rescued the cast and crew during this hurricane was a man called: Fred Sorenson. The same man who plays the pilot in the beginning of Spielberg’s Raiders of the lost ark.

29. Attenborough unbothered.

When the hurricane hit Richard Attenborough stayed in his hotel room and slept through the event. When he was later asked how he did it he replied: “My dear boy, I survived the blitz!"

28. Back in the game.

The role of John Hammond was Richard Attenborough’s first acting role for fourteen years.

27. A smart fix.

When Lex falls through the ceiling the stunt woman who did the stunt accidentally looked up into the camera. In post production her face was replaced with that of the actress.

26. The start of the CGI revolution.

Originally all the dinosaurs were supposed to be puppets. But when Spielberg saw the potential of CGI he opted for a combination of the two techniques.

25. Don’t you mean…

Ian Malcom’s line: “Don’t you mean extinct?”. Comes from Phil Tippett when he saw how CGI bettered the clunky animatronics.

24. Product placement.

There is a lot of product placement in this movie (especially visible during the ‘flea circus’-scene). All of which could be bought at the time (and are now collectors’ items).

23. News clippings.

Alan and Ellie have several articles about UFO’s in their trailer. (like "Space Aliens Stole My Face" and "Dinosaurs On Mars!") A big nod to Close encounters of the third kind and E.T.

22. Humor sign.

Alan and Ellie have a sign that says “No animal released without paperwork completely filled out” hanging in their trailer.

21. Real fear.

When the T-rex breaks the roof of the car the screams of the children are genuine. The robot wasn’t supposed to break the Plexiglas roof.

20. Spooky T-rex.

Due to the wet surroundings the animatronic T-rex would often short-circuit during its introduction scene. However, every once in a while it would come alive on its own accord and scare the yips out of people.

19. Set accident.

Sam Neill burned himself on the flare. According to him: “It dropped some burning phosphorous on me and got under my watch and took a chunk of my arm out.”

18. Audition luck.

Joseph Mazzello (or Joe as he calls himself nowadays), who played Tim Murphy, originally auditioned for Spielberg’s Hook. Even though he was turned down Spielberg promised him to cast him in his next movie.

17. Flipped characters.

Because Joseph Mazzello was so young the Jurassic Park script flipped the ages of the children. In the original book the boy is the oldest.

16. Jaws.

The first time Dennis Nedry is seen at his work station on of the monitors is playing Spielberg’s Jaws.

15. Very few dinosaurs for a dinosaur movie.

There are only 15 minutes of actual dinosaur footage in the film: 9 minutes are Stan Winston's animatronics, 6 minutes of it is ILM's CGI.

14. Super Size Start.

As a fast-food tie in dino-sized meals could be ordered. So basically Jurassic Park started the super-sized frenzy.

13. Pirates.

When Jurassic Park was released people flocked to cinemas. Well, except the people in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg who watched a pirated version of the movie aired on television.

Cut scenes

12. River run.

An early draft of the screenplay had the T-rex attacking Grant and the children while they ride down a river and through a waterfall. These ideas were later used for The lost world and Jurassic Park 3.

11. Ellie’s leaf.

The leaf Ellie examines was originally taken en route. The moment she does is still in the trailer – but left out of the final film.

10. Riding a triceratops.

Originally Lex and Tim would encounter a baby Triceratops to ride (there was even an animatronic made).

09. Alternative ending.

The original ending had Grant shoot one raptor and kill the second one with the T-rex skeleton’s ribcage. Spielberg later decided that the T-rex should make a return to ‘save the day’, as it were.

08. The book versus the movie 
There are quite a few differences between the original book and the movie:

• In the book Timmy is the older sibling and both a computer and dinosaur enthusiast.
• In the book Lex is more a sports enthusiast.
• In the book Hammond isn’t the nice grandfatherly type. He’s quite a d*ck to be exact.
• Hammond, in the book, dies by being eaten by Compsognathus (or Compos). This death was later used for Peter Stormare’s character in Jurassic Park: the lost world.
• In the book Dr. Henry Wu dies when a raptor jumps him.
• In the novel writer Michael Crichton explains why the triceratops is sick. Namely, toxic berries.
• Donald Gennaro and Robert Muldoon both survive the book. Moreover, Gennaro is far less of a coward than he is in the movie.
• It is strongly suggested that Ian Malcolm dies in the book (but then the author resurrected him for the sequel). Moreover, in the book Malcolm runs away from the T-rex without trying to help Grant and the children.
• In the book Tim and Lex’ parents are going through a messy divorce. A plot element that was later used for Jurassic World. 

07. Richard Kiley.

In the book the audio tour the characters take is narrated by Richard Kiley. Spielberg, therefore, decided to hire Richard Kiley to provide the voice in the movie. 

The legacy

06. Artist future.

Ariana Richards has become quite the artist. I actually like her paintings.

05. The cancelled cartoon.

There were plans for a cartoon series.

04. Long lost colleagues.

According to Jeff Goldblum in an interview in 2016 he and Sam Neill haven't crossed paths again for years (make it happen!).

03. Strange questions and requests.

Jeff Goldblum posed for a T-rex-themed wedding photo.

“Are you the lady that stuck her hand in dinosaur poop?” is the question Laura Dern hears the most. 

Could be worse when I think about Jason Biggs.

02. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Jurassic Park convinced George Lucas to use CGI for his Star Wars Prequels.

01. A good thing.

Study of dinosaurs (paleontology) skyrocketed after this movie.

00. One unofficial bit of trivia.

A popular fan theory states that the boy who gets frightened by Grant at the beginning of the film is a young Owen Grady from Jurassic World.