Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park is a dinosaur thriller based on the best-selling book by Michael Crichton. It is packed with spectacular special effects that boggle your mind and eyes. World renowned paleontologists, Dr. Allen Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler, are invited by the eccentric, but congenial, tycoon, John Hammond, to visit his new theme park. Hammond has spent years and many millions of dollars turning a remote tropical island into a unique experimental preserve, but his investors are unhappy, and he needs the endorsement of the doctors to prove his experiment is viable. When Allen and Ellie arrive, Hammond proudly gives them a tour of his paradise. He explains that through genetic engineering, his scientists were able to stock the island with a variety of live prehistoric animals cloned from DNA samples. Through disbelieving eyes, the doctors gaze with awe upon living creatures, thought to be extinct millions of years before man walked the earth. It's a paleontologist's wildest dream come true, until a corrupt employee, bent on personal profit, steals some dinosaur embryos. His escape unleashes a chain of events that cause the entire experiment to go awry as dinosaurs run amok and turn Jurassic Park into a living nightmare.
- Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough
- Director(s): Steven Spielberg
- Producer(s): Amblin Entertainment
- Screenwriter(s): Michael Crichton
- Distributor: Universal City Studios, Inc.
- Animal Coordinator: Unknown
- Release Date: Thursday, May 13, 1993
Featured Animal Action
The incredibly realistic dinosaurs that run amok and terrorize and devour various living things on the island, were, of course, all technically created. In a scene where an entire steer is fed to a dinosaur, a steer was harnessed in a special cattle sling, hoisted up by a crane, then lowered into foliage. The steer is not shown being devoured, but the effect is created with sound effects. The steer filmed for this scene is a very mellow animal. He had been prepped and rehearsed with it over a period of time prior to filming. The harness was the type normally used to move steer and was safe and secure. A goat that eventually becomes a dinosaur's meal, is shown at times standing, and also lying down. Later, a bloody goat leg drops on the windshield of a car, startling the occupants. The goat was filmed standing and responded to verbal cues to lay down. The leg that dropped on the windshield was a fake prop embelished with movie blood. Also seen at various times in the film are a snake slithering across a branch, a dog at an outdoor cafe, and a handful of birds in flight.