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Nightmare Fuel / Jurassic Park (1993)

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Rexy makes her debut in style. As for the humans in the cars? Well...

This page is for Nightmare Fuel in the first Jurassic Park film specifically. For Nightmare Fuel in the franchise as a whole, see here.

WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.


  • The very first musical track for the opening credits is arresting and powerful. Followed by the score, ''The Incident at Isla Nublar'' we are quickly reminded that John Williams knows how to set the tone for the movie we are about to see. Horror awaits us as we enter Jurassic Park.
  • The very first death in the movie, in the first three minutes. Jophery, the Red Shirt worker, gets chomped by a Velociraptor off-screen when the attempt to move her from her crate to her enclosure goes wrong. Made all the more scary because, at this point in the movie, we don't know what this thing in the crate is, and we never get a good look during the attack. It ends with all the other workers desperately tasing the unseen monster and Muldoon hanging onto the poor guy for dear life, screaming at the top of his lungs for someone to just shoot her. While they may have shot the raptor dead, it was already too late to save Jophery.
  • The computer noises as the park's security systems fail.
    BIP-BIP-BIP-bop-bop-bop-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-brnt-brnt-brnt...
  • Accentuated by the soundtrack, there's a more subtle fright as Nedry is stealing the embryos from cold storage. We see him take one of each species, all of them labeled and most of which we don't see in the film. The camera really focuses on two in particular: Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, which we know are some of the most dangerous animals cloned by InGen. Considering how this park turned out with the well-intentioned Hammond at the helm, it makes one shudder to think what could have happened if the much more unscrupulous Dodgson had gotten his hands on those embryos.
  • The scene where Rexy attacks the tour vehicle with Lex and Tim inside. Normally, you'd expect a car to provide at least a modicum of protection from a wild animal. Not so with a T. rex.
  • Grant distracts Rexy with a thrown flare, but it only gets her a few paces away from the overturned car. Ian lights another flare and lures her further away, buying Grant a few more seconds to help Tim and Lex, but this gets Ian hurled into the hut and leads Rexy straight to Gennaro. And even then, Rexy is right back on Grant the moment he pulls Lex out.
  • Gennaro's death, while amusing due to the fact that he's awkwardly sitting on a toilet, still manages to come off as scary with the way Rexy just bites right into and brutally mauls him. Later, Muldoon and Ellie arrive at the Tyrannosaurus paddock, where they find Gennaro's remains... several meters apart. Rexy didn't eat him; she flung him around like a ragdoll until he literally flew apart. While he was alive. Cue the following Black Comedy:
  • Nedry's death. Sure, he had it coming, but the screaming...
    • The Dilophosaurus in general. At first, she comes across as this curious little critter with a rather cute, monkey-like cry and you think she's harmless, but then she won't stop coming near you. Then she shows her predatory instincts.
      Nedry: oh, nice boy. Nice boy! Nice dinosaur. I thought you were one of your big brothers. You're not so bad.
    • When Nedry gets hit with her venom a second time, you can hear a sizzling sound. This implies that the corrosive venom is slowly dissolving his eyes away. Almost makes his death sound like a Mercy Kill.
      • Nedry gets a brief Hope Spot where he manages to get back in his Jeep and close the door, taking a deep breath to reassure himself that he's safe now........ and then he hears a horribly familiar clicking/hissing and turns to see the Dilophosaurus sitting in the passenger seat right next to him! It then cuts to a Gory Discretion Shot of the exterior of his car as the dinosaur pounces on him, the entire Jeep shakes as Nedry screams in pain before the sounds of his death agonies and the dinosaur's nightmare screeching fades away......
    • Even more terrifying is the fact the Dilophosaurus seen here is only a juvenile, as the Dilophosaurus hologram shown in Jurassic World is about the size of a fully-grown Velociraptor and its real-life counterpart can grow up to 20 feet in length. Nedry is only half-right with his statement.
      • The filmmakers were originally planning for it to way scarier than what we got. As illustrated in early storyboards, the dilo, rather than seemingly being playful, stalks Nedry, who immediately flees when he realizes the dinosaur is circling him, up the embankment. Once Nedry gets a face full of venom, the storyboards make a point illustrating the dilo's slow methodical steps as it slowly, deliberately approaches a panicking Nedry, who is clawing at his face and desperately trying to get into his vehicle. He's doomed as the dilo's shadow to fall upon him. As he gets yanked out of the jeep, his nails rip marks across the seat.
      • There's also some concept art of the 'aftermath' of the attack. It's well shadowed, but that just adds to its horror. If they'd tried to put it in the finished film, the scene would have garnered the film an R rating. Hell, it indicates Nedry ended up even more mauled than his book counterpart, and in the book, he got disembowelled before he died.
  • Ian hearing the distinctive "boom" of Rexy's footsteps, and his eyes opening in pure horror.
    Ian: Anybody hear that? It's an... It's an impact tremor, that's what it is... I'm fairly alarmed here.
    • Then, when Ellie and Muldoon rush back to the jeep, Rexy bursts out of the undergrowth just as they speed off, prompting a chase that nearly gets the trio eaten before they finally get away. Ellie's screams of terror as Rexy comes so close to catching them will haunt you. Imagine seeing this chasing you! Bring My Brown Pants, indeed.
    • Watch the scene again. At one point, Rexy rams the side of the jeep with her head, and if she didn't come into direct contact with Ellie right then, it sure looked like it! One can hardly imagine her terror in that instant; no wonder she screams as loud as she does seconds later. Rexy could have eaten her right then and there.
    • The mirror is labeled: "Objects in mirror are Closer than They Appear." Rexy gets close enough that her gaping mouth appears to be the only thing in the mirror. That mouth is somewhere behind, or over, the jeep.
  • The scene with Ellie in the maintenance shed trying to turn on the power and suddenly being attacked by a Velociraptor, then having Ray Arnold's bloody and dismembered arm fall onto her shoulder. The worst part? She think he's still alive and acts relieved for a few seconds beforee realising it.
    • And let's not forget this lovely gem that precedes it:
      Ellie: [ecstatically as the power returns] Mr. Hammond, I think we're back in business! [cue the raptor from right behind]
  • The scene where Alan, Lex, and Tim has to climb over the formerly powered-off perimeter fences to get to the other side. The security alarm suddenly goes off before Tim is able to climb back down in time, indicating that the fence is about to become electrified. Just as Tim is about to work up the courage to jump off and let Alan catch him, the electricity is suddenly turned back on. Alan is able to catch the falling Tim, but the scene ends with a worrying comment:
    Alan: He's not breathing...!
  • When Arnold doesn't return from restarting the power, Ellie and Muldoon decide to head out after him. As they start towards the utility shed, both they and the viewers get the terrifying Wham Shot of the wrecked fence around the Velociraptor cage and the tracks leading into the wood. And while Ellie is scared, Muldoon — who's remained relatively calm throughout the crisis, save for when the T.rex was chasing them, is utterly horrified, since he knows they're all in serious danger.
    Muldoon: Damn it, even Nedry knew better than to mess with the raptor fences!
  • The Big One, a hyper-intelligent Velociraptor. She uses one of her pack members to lure Muldoon out into the open, pops up right next to him ("Clever girl"), and starts tearing him apart a few seconds later. Not to mention the fact that they surprise-attack Alan, Ellie, and the kids in the Visitors' Center, and would have killed them had Rexy not intervened.
    Muldoon: [The Velociraptors] show extreme intelligence. Even problem-solving intelligence. Especially the Big One; we bred eight originally, but when she came in, she took over the pride and killed all but two of the others. That one... when she looks at you, you can see she's working things out.
    • The way Alan describes the way they hunt early in the film is pretty unsettling:
      Alan: You come across this "six-foot turkey" and you keep still because you think he can only hunt things that move, like a T. rex. He won't see you if you hold still. Uh-uh, not this guy, not Velociraptor. You stare at him...and he just stares right back. And that's when the attack comes, but not from the front, but from the side. The other two raptors, you didn't even know they were there. [...] The point is, you're still alive when they eat you.
    • All of Alan's childlike wonder about real dinosaurs goes out the window when he realizes the cute little newborn dinosaur he's looking at is a Velociraptor.
      Alan: You bred raptors...?
    • The kitchen scene with the Big One and another raptor stalking Lex and Tim. Critics didn't name this scene as the 95th scariest movie moment of all time for nothing!
    • Also worth mentioning is the eating scene with the kids, which is initially quite happy until Lex spots the shadow of a raptor through one of the murals. She can only stare and start shaking so hard the jelly falls out of her spoon. PURE. DREAD.
    • The sound the Velociraptors make when they walk! The thud of the foot, then the tick of the "killing claw." If you have pets with claws and hardwood floors, prepare to freak the fuck out if one of them goes wandering the house late at night...
    • When Tim runs for the freezer room, we get to watch as the raptor chases him down as the legs begin to run faster and faster in pursuit. Truly a terrifying predator at work. Not helping the fact is that Tim's gait is reduced to a stagger due to being electrocuted by the perimeter fence.
    • Also, the truly blood-curdling screeches coming from their cage when the raptors tear apart the hapless cow dropped in their pen as lunch.
  • The scene at the climax when Alan, Ellie, and the kids get to the Control Room. Ellie immediately runs to Nedry's console to reactivate the park's security systems while Alan waits at the door with a shotgun. He sees their primary concern immediately, with the camera following his gaze, as he says, "The door locks! Ellie, boot up the door locks!" Then he looks back up and the raptor that was following them is right there, where she wasn't literally seconds ago, looking straight into his eyes. They both look down at the lock, and before Alan can do anything to stop it, the raptor works the handle and manages to throw the door wide open before Alan gets it closed again. It takes both Alan and Ellie to keep the door closed, and they're struggling with all their might the whole time. Repeat: one raptor is physically stronger than two grown adults.
    Alan: [struggling with the raptor] No, boot up the door locks! Ellie, get back! Boot up the door locks!
    Ellie: [joining him by the door] You can't hold it by yourself!
    • There's also the menacing look on the raptor's face when she looks at Alan. Probably the closest a reptilian snout can come to a Slasher Smile. It's bloodcurdling.
    • Preceding this, Grant was aware that there were two raptors on the loose and asked Ellie if she was sure the raptor at the compound was contained. She assured him yes, "Unless they figure out how to open doors." Cut to the door of the kitchen opening, where Lex and Tim are hiding. What's almost scarier than the kids being in danger, is the fact that Grant and Ellie are unaware that the raptor's intelligence goes beyond what they imagine. It just adds to the tension when Grant looks from the raptor's face to the door handle and sees it start to move, because the audience gets an idea of what's coming.
  • A minor one comes from Hammond himself. Throughout the movie, he's been nothing but a kind old man who may lose his temper once or twice, but he's the quiet voice of grandfatherly dignity. And then he hears Alan shooting over the phone and screams "GRANT!" at the top of his lungs. A minor scare, but one of the most unexpected.
    • It's even worse than that. He just got a very unexpected phone call from Alan and knows that his grandchildren are there with him, safe, from Alan's own words. All is well, they're going to be fine and get out of this alive. And then he hears the sound of glass shattering, Ellie yelling a warning, then gunshots, then nothing. All that relief he feels hearing that Tim and Lex are safe is instantly replaced by utter horror. He knows they had been in danger just because the raptors are still skulking around, but now he knows that one of them is right there, almost in the room with them.
    • A more subtle one, but when the raptor breaks through the glass, the reason Grant isn't shooting anymore is that you can see the shotgun has been discarded because it's jammed by an extractor malfunction. A bit of visual storytelling showing both how inexperienced and terrified Grant is at that moment.
    • There's also the genuine horror in Ellie's voice when the relieved mood with her, Alan, and the kids in the Control Room is abruptly shattered by a loud crash from behind them and the realization the raptor isn't going to be denied its prey by a locked door.
  • The end of the theme music playing over the end credits: it takes on a menacing and foreboding tone just before it fades out. It's deeply unsettling.

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