Line #13 Film/PlanetOfTheDinosaurs


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/planet_of_dinosaurs_movie_poster_1978_1020523376.jpg]]
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3	''Planet of the Dinosaurs'' is a 1977 science fiction film.
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5	Set in an unspecified future, the film follows the journey of Captain Lee and his crew after they crash land on an earthlike planet, but millions of years behind in time. Encountering a wide variety of dangerous dinosaurs, the crew decides that its best chance for survival lies on finding higher ground and setting up a defensive perimeter on a higher plateau until their rescuers arrive. They soon encounter a deadly ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' and must figure out a way to defeat the creature and survive on the planet.
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7	The film was a low budget endeavor with no major stars; actors James Whitworth and Max Thayer have the most film experience amongst the actors. Director James K. Shea instructed most of the budget to be spent on the special effects for the film, which included an array of award-winning stop motion dinosaurs, leaving little money for props or even to pay the main actors, [[LatexSpaceSuit all of whom seem to have been chosen based on how sexy they look in tights]].
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10	!!This film provides examples of:
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12	* AlternateDVDCommentary: The film was done by Rifftrax in 2009.
13	* AssholeVictim: Harvey Baylor gets a burial after he dies, but the rest of the cast don't spend any time mourning him (and neither does the audience).
14	* BabiesEverAfter: [[spoiler:Chuck and Charlotte have a son together after being among the survivors of the crash for so many years.]]
15	* BareMidriffsAreFeminine: Derna isn't one of the crew, but rather Harvey's secretary, so she sports a midriff-bearing top and bell bottoms.
16	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Harvey and Nyla happen upon a seemingly unattended nest of large dinosaur eggs. After fantasizing about the omelets he could make and speculating that the chicken that laid them must be absolutely huge, Harvey starts calling out for it. Cue the appearance of the enraged centrosaurine whose eggs Harvey was intending to fry up.
17	* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Lee favors moving to safer ground and looking for an area out of the way of large predators and other dangerous wildlife to make camp. While this works for awhile, Jim points out that they'll have to start proactively defending themselves sooner or later, especially once a ''Tyrannosaurus'' starts seeing them as easy prey.
18	* ChekhovsGun: The main characters find some poisonous berries early in the movie. [[spoiler:Said berries get used to kill the ''Tyrannosaurus'' at the end.]]
19	* DeadGuyJunior: [[spoiler:Chuck and Charlotte's son is named Mikey, after their dead friend Michael.]]
20	* {{Fanservice}}:
21	** Cindy... [[SubvertedTrope who is immediately killed off]].
22	** And then there's [[WalkingShirtlessScene Chuck]].
23	** The entire film centers on eye candy [[FemaleGaze for women]] and [[MaleGaze for men]] and [[HoYay for everyone]]. There are numerous scenes with men [[WalkingShirtlessScene shirtless]] (in tights pants that almost look nude) or [[IntimateOpenShirt nearly shirtless]], and the reigning motif is watching [[LatexSpaceSuit latex-clad]] [[ShakingTheRump bootie]] in endless walking scenes always filmed from behind and on the level of the derriere. In the final scene, the men are [[LoinCloth barely clothed at all]].
24	* FreezeFrameBonus: The brief glimpse of the ''Tylosaurus'' that eats Cindy. Also if you pause and look closely at the half-eaten carcass that the crew discovers their second day on the planet, you can vaguely make out that it's a ''Triceratops''.
25	* GiantSpider: The movie's most horrifying scene.
26	* HateSink: Every second that he is on-screen up until his undignified death, Harvey Baylor is a complete whiny asshole that does even less to help the group than the others (who at least can be blamed for their dumb decisions because... well... the plot says so), tries to sexually harass his secretary and threatens to fire the other members of the crew (because he's their boss) which is something nobody cares about in light of the circumstances.
27	* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted with the Stegosaurus and the Centrosaurus as well as the Polacanthus but played straight with the Brontosaurus.
28	* HumanAliens: Or rather, Dinosaur Aliens. Lee theorizes that as the planet they've landed on has the exact same environment as Earth, the native life forms have undergone a convergent evolution with the planet currently in its version of the Mesozoic Era.
29	* ImmuneToBullets: While much importance is placed on the lasers, and how they can kill almost anything, the dinosaurs of this planet simply NoSell the blasts and/or just get really annoyed when shot with one.
30	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice:
31	** Harvey, courtesy of an angry ''Centrosaurus'' who was peeved that lasers were being shot at her when she was simply defending her nest.
32	** The ''Tyrannosaurus'' falls victim to this in the end, impaling itself onto a planted set of stakes while trying to get at the fleeing humans.
33	* InformedSpecies: None of the dinosaurs are referred to by name in the film but for the most part, they're identifiable (''Tyrannosaurus'', ''Allosaurus'', ''Stegosaurus'', etc.). Not so the angry mother ceratopsid that gores Harvey to death after he messes with her nest. Debates continue as to whether it's a ''Centrosaurus'', a ''Styracosaurus'' [[note]] with most of the frill spikes missing because it's a [[TertiarySexualCharacteristics female]] [[/note]] a ''Pachyrinosaurus'', or something else entirely. The best it can be narrowed down to is that it's definitely a centrosaurine.
34	* {{Jerkass}}: Harvey. Fortunately, he's not in the movie for too long, considering that he dies at the hands of a Centrosaurus after trying to steal its eggs.
35	* LaserGuidedKarma: See the Jerkass entry just above.
36	* LatexSpaceSuit: Providing constant FanService even in the walking scenes.
37	* MamaBear: A female ceratopsian attacks and kills Harvey when he tries to steal her eggs.
38	* MrFanservice: Beefcake Chuck's sole reason for existing. The filmmakers find an excuse to have him strip within the first few minutes and then remains shirtless for the rest of the film.
39	* MsFanservice: Averted and played straight. The first person to die is Cindy and she's only on screen for about 30 seconds before stripping down to dive into the water to go get supplies, but sadly she dies immediately. Derna is the straight example, as she is by far the prettiest girl there and she's in a midriff-bearing top and tight bell bottoms [[spoiler: until her untimely demise.]]
40	* OnlySaneMan: Lee & Jim at different points in the film. Lee, initially, as seeking high ground and shelter would be a smart alternative to fighting alien life forms you know next to nothing about. Once one of those life forms takes a liking to human flesh and begins relentlessly stalking you, however, all bets are off, which is Jim's [[JerkassHasAPoint prerogative]] in the latter half of the film.
41	* SacrificialLamb: Cindy is the first one to be killed by a barely-seen creature to indicate that the planet the group are marooned on is inhabited by hostile wildlife. As if the film's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin title]] weren't clue enough.
42	* ShooOutTheClowns: The movie has some light slapstick and, uh, "funny" lines here and there in the first act, but pretty much all of it was related to Harvey. As soon as he [[spoiler: dies, the movie's tone then becomes serious for the rest of its duration.]]
43	* ShoutOut: One of the dinosaurs that Captain Lee encounters near the end of the film when he is trying to get the T-Rex's attention is based on the Rhedosaurus, the fictional dinosaur from ''Film/TheBeastFromTwentyThousandFathoms''. Creator/RayHarryhausen visited the studio during production and gave his consent for the creature's cameo appearance.
44	* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Cindy gets chomped by a barely-seen lake monster within ten seconds of diving into the water.
45	* TakeThisJobAndShoveIt: Baylor's secretary Derna finally has had enough of his utter uselessness and imbecilic attitude and hands him a rock on which she'd scribbled "I QUIT" about halfway through the film. Baylor cements how much of an idiot he is even further by actually asking "What's this?" after she gives him several seconds to read the message before putting it in his hands and walking away.
46	* TheresNoKillLikeOverkill: Jim's plan to finally take out the tyrannosaur involves tricking it into impaling itself on stakes. And just in case ''that'' won't get the job done, said stakes have been coated with poison berry juice. Either way, it works.
47	* TooDumbToLive: Baylor disturbs a Centrosaurus' nest (he thinks it was that of ''a giant chicken'') to poach her eggs and gets impaled by the mother.
48	* UndignifiedDeath: Compared to everyone else, Harvey's death is the most humiliating. While running for his life after stealing an egg, meaning his death was entirely his own fault, the Centrosaurus mother chases after and then stabs him through the chest with her horn and comically flails her head to swing his body off. Invertedly, he's the only character to not suffer the ForgottenFallenFriend trope, being given a decent burial and [[DueToTheDead final respects]] from the rest of the crew.
49	* WalkingShirtlessScene: '''Chuck'''. He spends more than 90% of his appearance without a shirt.
50	* WeirdWorldWeirdFood: "I was just wondering how many other things we're going to have to get used to. Things like eating dinosaurs."

Context Film / PlanetOfTheDinosaurs