Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park: A Viewer’s Guide

Muldoon minutiae and dilophosaurus data

Jurassic Park

by Nick de Semlyen |
Published on

Think you know Spielberg's dino-masterpiece like the back of Ellie Sattler's hand? Think again. We asked the world's finest paleontologists, paleobotanists and bloodsucking lawyers to come up with a comprehensive viewing guide for Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, they turned out to be stuck on a faraway tropical island, so we did it ourselves.

Steven Spielberg: Director's Collection Blu-ray box set available to order now.

Jurassic Park

00:25 The opening credits roll. Besides Spielberg, Tim Burton, Joe Dante and Richard Donner were considered as director. Both Harrison Ford and William Hurt turned down the role of Alan Grant; Sean Connery apparently declined John Hammond.

Jurassic Park

10:04 Newspaper clippings on Alan Grant's fridge have the headlines, "Space Aliens Stole My Face" and "Dinosaurs On Mars".

Jurassic Park

13:21
 Despite the subtitle, this can't be San Jose, Costa Rica, as that city's nowhere near a beach. Cinemas in San Jose reportedly scratched the words off prints of the film.

Jurassic Park

23:52 
Mr. DNA is voiced by Greg Burson, who also played Bugs Bunny, Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound.

Jurassic Park

40:03 "What have they got in there - King Kong?" quips Malcolm. Fay Wray, star of the 1933 Kong, visited the set one day to hear Ariana Richards do some screaming of her own.

Jurassic Park

41:30
 Wayne Knight is most famous for playing Seinfeld's postal-worker nemesis, Newman, but it was his sweaty cop in Basic Instinct's interrogation scene that got Spielberg's attention. "I waited for the credits to roll and wrote his name down," says the director.

Jurassic Park

49:00 Veterinarian Gerry Harding is played by producer Gerard R. Molen. His moustache is one of the park's finest attractions.

Jurassic Park

52:12 
That corrupt dockworker is cinematographer Dean Cundey!

Jurassic Park

54:54
 Two dinosaurs whose names appear on the embryo coolers never appear in the franchise: the proceratosaurus and the metriacanthosaurus.

Jurassic Park

55:26 
When an actual storm - Hurricane Lniki - disrupted the Hawaii shoot, cast and crew were flown off the island by Fred Sorenso, a pilot who (as Jock) also rescued Indiana Jones 
at the start of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. He hummed the Raiders March as the plane took off.

Jurassic Park

1:09:22
 Our first sighting of the elusive frill-necked dilophosaurus, which Spielberg called "the little spitter" on set. It proved the most difficult model to operate.

Jurassic Park

1:17:45 The shot of the T-Rex approaching in the jeep's side mirror has been homaged in Toy Story 2, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Transformers and Troll Hunter, among others.

Jurassic Park

1:39:57 Ray Arnold's severed arm, ariff on Jaws' severed-head gag, was actually a last-minute improvisation. "I was meant to go to Hawaii and get chased by the raptors," says Samuel L. Jackson. "But the hurricane destroyed the sets so I never got to do it."

Jurassic Park

1:41:17 The raptor pouncing on Muldoon is actually a bloke in a suit.

Jurassic Park

1:44:42 In this shot in the kitchen, you can clearly see a crew member's hand reaching in to steady the raptor puppet.

Jurassic Park

1:50:29 The letters GATC, reflected onto the raptor's skin, are used to denote the components of DNA.

Jurassic Park

1:53:15 The T-Rex 's roar is a combination of dog, tiger, alligator and elephant sounds. The beast nearly didn't save the day -Spielberg considered an ending where Hammond bursts in and shoots the raptors.

Just so you know, we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website - read why you should trust us