Behold Jurassic Park, the film that used the pinnacle of animatronics and CGI to make dinosaurs look real.
- One that's more for the special effects crew than the characters: Grant gazes out of the jeep idly, until disbelief creeps over his face. Astounded, he whips off his sunglasses, stands up to get a better look, then grabs Dr. Sattler to get her to look and she does the same. Right there, in broad daylight, is a completely convincing Brachiosaurus.Dr. Grant: Um... it's... it's a dinosaur.
Hammond: Dr. Grant, my dear Dr. Sattler... Welcome... to Jurassic Park.- Then, of course, you have the crescendo of music throughout the scene.
- For the full awesome effect, try this link.
- For many people, Dr. Malcolm's reaction perfectly summed up people's opinion of Spielberg at that moment:Dr. Malcolm: You did it... You crazy son of a bitch, you did it.
- Even Gennaro is blown away.Gennaro: [breathless] We're going to make a fortune with this place...
- How does the film actually begin? The same way the rest of the film continues: with someone getting eaten.
- Oddly enough, the real Crowning Moment of Awesome in Jurassic Park is the Deus Rex Machina, when she kills the two Velociraptors that had Grant and the others cornered, then gives a final triumphant roar as a banner saying "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth" floats down in front of her. Awesome. May also qualify as a Big Damn Heroes moment.
- The "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth" banner fluttering in front of Rexy could be seen as either a crown being bestowed upon her or a mic drop.
- A minor note, Rexy's response to one of the raptors jumping upon her back and attempting to slash and bite at her neck? Grab the raptor and crush it in her jaws before throwing it as hard as she can into the mounted tyrannosaur skeleton.
- Even better? Perhaps she was cloned from that Skeleton. If so, then she is using her own dead body as a weapon.
- "Clever girl."
- Muldoon is walking awesome. "Shoot her! SHOOT HER!"
- Not to mention that smug look he gave after managing to outrun, or outdrive, a T. rex.
- Note that Muldoon was far more awesome in the book. He takes down multiple raptors by wielding a rocket launcher and drops Rexy with a direct hit to the head with a rocket-launched tranquilizer.
- After their initial Deer in the Headlights reaction, Grant and Malcolm try to save the kids as Rexy goes on the attacknote . In Grant's case, he lights a flare and uses it to distract Rexy from crushing the kids, tossing it away before she can give chase and standing still. Malcolm gets the same idea, only to use himself as bait and keeps running, while shouting at Grant to get the kids. It's no wonder that Malcolm is Spared by the Adaptation; while his actions ended up being a Senseless Sacrifice, it shows he is brave and would put his life on the line for two kids he just met. Extra points for surviving Rexy's attack by literally nose-diving off her snout at the last second.
- BTS-example: As originally scripted, Malcolm simply ran away ala Gennaro. It was Jeff Goldblum who suggested to Steven Spielberg that Malcolm should try to save the kids.
- Say what you will about Ian and chaos theory but he managed to survive two T. rexes in two films.
- Three, technically. One in the first, two in the second. And the infant, which admittedly was never a big threat to him on its own.
- The first time was him deliberately drawing it away from the others.Ian: (to Alan as he's running away) Get the kids!
- Jurassic Park shattered box office records when it came out in 1993, but still fell just short of becoming the first film to gross a billion dollars (that honor fell to Titanic four years later). However, thanks to the 20th anniversary 3D re-release in 2013, Jurassic Park finally made enough to enter the prestigious billion-dollar club. In addition, only two movies before Titanic — namely, The Lion King (1994) and Independence Day — came even close to the box office record of Jurassic Park.
- Not only that, but Jurassic Park even stomped on the competition that same summer; film critics predicted Last Action Hero would be another hit for the then-unstoppable Arnold Schwarzenegger. Thanks to being Christmas Rushed, it had the dishonor of getting released the weekend after Jurassic Park came out. Last Action Hero would flop and be the beginning of Arnold's box-office downfall. Meanwhile Jurassic Park arguably ushered in a whole new era of filmmaking.
- Before or after, few have managed to even come close to the sheer, unadulterated win that is the Tyrannosaurus rex making her first appearance accompanied with her since-customary roar: Almost like she's saying, "Yeah, I'm a mf'ing T. rex, bitch." Followed by a tour-de-force sequence as she rips a Ford Explorer apart before throwing it off a cliff into a tree. The usually-bombastic soundtrack goes dead-silent throughout the entire scene, as if John Williams realized that no score he could compose was going to truly do the sequence justice (and might've even detracted from it).
- A bit of a minor scene, but when Grant and the others are escaping through the ceiling one of the raptors pokes her head in trying to get them. Grant's response? To KICK HER IN THE FACE.
- Dr. Grant schooling the kid that calls a raptor a "six-foot turkey".Grant: A turkey? Imagine yourself in the Cretaceous period. You'd get your first look at this. He moves like a bird, lightly bobbing his head. And you keep still, because maybe his visual acuity is based on movement, like the T. rex, and he'll lose you if you don't move. But no, not Velociraptor. You stare at him, and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes. Not from the front, but from the side, from the other two raptors you didn't even know were there. Because Velociraptor's a pack hunter. He uses coordinated attack patterns, and he is out in force today. And he slashes at you with this... [pulls out a claw] a 6-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular like a lion. No. He slashes at you... here, or here... or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you. So, you know, try to show a little respect. [kid nervously nods]
- It's Nedry's fault that everyone in the park ends up in danger. Also, he ends up crashing and losing his glasses in the storm while going to the docks. Doubling as Nightmare Fuel, it's a Karmic Death when a juvenile Dilophosaurus sizes him up, gives him a funny look when he tries to play fetch with it and unleashes her poisonous spit. The minute her frill went up, Nedry was dead.
- The Reveal that the dinosaurs found a way to breed despite being engineered all-femalenote . "Life found a way" indeed.
- Lex and Tim's escape from the raptors in the kitchen. Outwitting and trapping Velociraptors would be an impressive feat for anybody, but for two unarmed kids scared out of their minds? Awesome.
- Another for Lex, while Alan and Dr. Sattler struggle to hold the door shut on the raptor, Lex managed to get the door lock systems back online, on a computer she had never seen or use. "I'm a hacker" indeed.
- When the fence starts coming on, Grant tells Tim to jump and says that he'll catch him. Seconds later, Tim gets blown off the fence with enough force to stop his heart... and Grant catches him.
- The animatronics and costumes for the dinosaurs. The T. rex in the rain scene is not CGI. It's a life sized T. rex animatronic based on real science at the time and moved as real as possible. The Velociraptors are people in life-like costumes. The bulk of the budget was put to making the dinosaurs as lifelike as possible and they hired real Paleo-biologists and given them everything they need (none of it was cheap either) to make them as true to life as they can. It shows. Spared no expense!
- Ellie's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Hammond.Ellie: John, it's still the flea circus. It's just an illusion.
Hammond: When we have control again—
Ellie: You never had control, that's the illusion! I was overwhelmed by the power of this place, but I made a mistake, too, I didn't have enough respect for that power and it's out now. The only thing that matters now are the people we love. Alan and Lex and Tim. John, they're out there where people are dying.
