Join Marc, Darren and Paul as they give you everything you need and more to help you decide to watch or re-watch.

Jurassic Park (1993)

PART 1 – The Nutshell – If you haven’t seen it

A spoiler-free breakdown designed to help you decide if this iconic blockbuster is your kind of film and worth your time.

We explore the film’s central idea around scientific ambition, control and the consequences of pushing boundaries too far.

We’ll give other movie comparisons plus tone, style and feel so you can quickly judge the type of viewing experience it offers from Spielberg tension to monster-movie thrills and moments of awe.

By the end of Part 1, you will have made a decision!

PART 2 – The Unboxing – If you’ve seen it

What Did You Miss?

The things you missed, the details you didn't notice and the layers beneath the surface. This will make you want to watch it again.

The lads explore how the film builds tension through what you don’t see, how early dialogue and character traits subtly set up later payoffs, and why the balance of practical and early CGI effects still holds up today.

They also dig into the deeper themes around control, chaos and human ambition, plus how the film’s structure carefully builds anticipation before delivering its most iconic moments.

Paul’s Facts of the Day

Behind-the-scenes insights including:

• Groundbreaking visual effects and how they changed cinema

• Creative decisions that shaped the look and feel of the dinosaurs

• Production challenges during filming that added unexpected realism

• Casting choices and performances that defined the film’s characters

• Subtle details and facts you might not have picked up on

Hate It or Rate It?

Marc, Darren & Paul submit their scores and Jurassic Park (1993) takes its place in the Legend League.

PART 3 – Listener Lounge – All about you!

The Lobby

Your emails, questions, comments and stories.

Question of the Week

A recap from last week’s question plus the lads ask this week’s burning question:

What movie would you insert Samuel L. Jackson into… and how would it change the movie?

Next week’s movie

The big reveal of next week’s movie!

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Every movie we’ve featured and rated on the podcast

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Do you like it more than velocipasta?

I had a shit this morning.

I enjoyed more than watching velocipasta.

Okay, George, your parents are dead.

Go.

Obviously we all know how Batman and Robin turned out.

Hello and welcome to Movies in a Nutshell.

With me, Marc Farquhar, myself, Darren Horn.

And I, Paul Day.

Here's why you should tune in every week.

We help you make better movie choices on films you haven't seen with quick spoiler free breakdowns to help you decide if they're your kind of movie.

And we help you get more from the movies you have seen with things you missed and details you probably didn't notice.

Plus there's movie facts, trivia and behind the scenes stories.

There's also your chance to choose the movie.

So grab some popcorn and let's crack open this week's movie.

Okay, here we are.

Paul, this was your choice.

Why have you gone for this one?

Because it's a classic.

You like your classics.

I like a blockbuster classic.

It's Spielberg and it's a palette cleanser from the Horror of Velocipasta.

And that's even though that was movies ago, we're still cleansing our palate from.

That which is officially the bottom of our leader.

Is it?

Yeah.

That'll take some beating.

So yeah, let's do a proper dinosaur film that isn't Velocirapasta.

It'd be fun if this was the top of the leaderboard.

Well, I'm hoping so.

It might be.

You never know.

Who knows.

93.

I tried to pick one that was back in the day blockbuster.

And I remember got to see this at the cinema.

I went to this vividly.

I would be 16.

I was 12 and I was 10.

Okay, part one, the nutshell.

So in the nutshell, we break the movie down spoiler free to help you decide if Jurassic park is your kind of movie and if it's worth your time.

Might be one of those films on some of his lists that they should have seen it, but they haven't.

Are they obviously well aware of it, but they've just not seen it?

So let's break it down for them.

At its core, what's.

What is this movie about?

I mean, I'm sure people who even don't haven't seen it roughly know what.

It's about because there's so many other follow up movies and games and probably comics.

There's TV shows as well, like cartoons as well.

I think on Netflix.

So it's about a theme park for dinosaurs.

There you go.

Real dinosaurs.

That's the nutshell.

It's about a theme park where the scientists figure out how to bring back dinosaurs so that people can tour around.

This thing could go wrong.

What could possibly go wrong?

Because they spared no expense.

And was that Scottish?

It was.

My rich Dan brought no expense.

We spent no expense.

I hope there's a fact about that in the movie in your section.

I can't tell you.

I can't give you spoilers, but that's it in a nutshell.

So it brings together a team of scientists who go to the park to test it for its safety.

Because there's been an incident and that kicks off the movie.

It needs approval.

Correct.

And I'm just wondering what you're saying there.

I wonder if there's kids who've seen later sequels of this.

Because there's obviously the Jurassic World films with Chris Pratt that have been over the things.

There's been another relaunch with Scarlett Johanneson, with Jurassic World Rebirth last year.

So this is the original.

This is where it all came from.

And it came from a book by Michael Crichton.

You're gonna make a movie based on Michael Crichton's book about dinosaurs?

Who should we get to direct it?

I don't know.

Why don't we get the person who adapted Jaws into a movie and was very successful, Mr. Steven Spielberg.

Well established by then, where ET or.

After all, Raiders Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, Close Encounters.

Yeah.

He was very much your blockbuster man.

He was made for this.

And then this cemented it in the 90s that he was still the man for your blockbuster film.

Is this sci fi?

Oh, that's a good question.

You know how I feel about this.

I would.

It's science fiction in terms of the technology.

That's kind of what I was.

But it doesn't really make you think about the meaning of life, the universe and everything which may be very specific to me.

I get that.

It did to me.

In terms of like, what are we.

What are these people doing messing with.

Oh, there was a line.

Is it where it's like, okay, dinosaurs.

God created man.

Man created dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs kill man.

Yeah.

Woman inherits the earth.

Yes.

Yes.

Let's build one simple idea.

What if we could bring dinosaurs back to life?

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

That's right.

And they're gonna put them in a theme park and we're gonna see secure,.

Safe, guarded all the way around.

Nothing could go wrong.

But knowing full well that Steven Spielberg directed this and you've seen Jaws potentially, there might be moments of potential things going wrong.

And it's got a collection of characters that include the actors of Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Richard Attenborough is in the mix.

So if you like your blockbuster movies.

Because I was trying to think, what does this compare to?

We were on about this at the end of last week's episode, weren't we?

And it's things maybe like King Kong, maybe like Godzilla, like monster movies, but what else could we compare it to?

It's not like Pacific Rim, but it's close.

Ish.

It could be compared to Jaws.

Definitely.

Definitely got Jaws vibes with the thriller and the tension.

Jaws meets Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory.

I like that.

I'm picturing Gene Wilder doing the welcome to Jurassic park while he does his flip to the chocolate Factory.

Yeah, that's a good call.

I can't beat that for a Meets.

That's good.

Jaws meets Willy Wonka.

Nice.

The Meg.

The Meg, yeah.

So any.

Any kind of monster film, really, but you're in Spielberg's hands.

So at first it feels like a controlled, almost magical environment where science has achieved the impossible.

But has it?

Yes.

Yes, it has.

It has brought them back.

That would be amazing if it went the first act and then they're like, we've been trying to like replicate dinosaurs, but we failed.

End of film, directed by Steven Spielberg.

That's it.

Of course, you've got the music of John Williams as well in there, which again, I feel like even if you've not seen the film, you've probably not avoided somehow that score because it's probably one of the iconic ones up there with, let's face it, whenever they do one of these candlelight concerts that they seem to do these days, Jurassic Park's probably always going to feature in the.

So it's a very iconic score.

John Williams did so many iconic scores, didn't he?

Superman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic park.

You could call Home Alone.

So many shout out to John Williams, legend.

Anything else on a nutshell?

Well, I don't want to give too much away.

I think we've give the overall basis.

It's.

Oh, they were.

Because obviously computer effects now is something we're used to.

It's something we see in sometimes it's how.

Sometimes it's hard to tell.

But this was one of them films that was really using computer graphics for the first time, but very much alongside practical effects as well.

It was kind of that turning point, I suppose, Darren.

I mean, this was the film that may.

Who got to say, damn it, but this was the film that made George Lucas go, I'm going to make those Star wars prequels.

You're like, but the technology is there now.

I can do it.

The technology is there.

And I'll get into some of that in the facts of the Day later on about how they were thinking of doing it.

And then, oh, actually we can do it through this.

But Stan Winston, studio Stan Winston we've talked about in our Terminator episode.

He does makeup and effects and various things.

Had his own studio.

He did the practical dinosaur effects.

So it's a real mix of practical effects, computer effects.

And that's probably what you're missing when you watch it now to 93.

So in 93 this was proper groundbreaking stuff.

But the question we'll probably ask at the end of the episode is does it still hold up all these years later on?

Yeah, man.

Messing with nature.

Yeah.

Biology and DNA and stuff.

Like, should they be.

Just because you can doesn't mean you.

Should hold on to your butts.

Just to also say Spielberg during his happy family era, before he went into Schindler's List, Munich kind of territory.

Before he got bored of that.

Yeah, before he grew up, I guess, and became a bit more depressive.

So it's.

It's also a very family orientated film.

And.

Yeah, that's all there is to say.

What rating is this?

Because there's some dark parts to this movie.

I think it was PG.

I wouldn't watch it with my 4 year old.

Well, might have been a PG 13 then.

Yeah, I would have thought it was 12A, but I might be wrong.

That sounds more.

Let me see if it's available here on my part.

Although maybe 12A didn't exist in 93.

PG didn't exist?

No, I think it did 12A.

It's still parental guidance.

And as a parent, I would not let my daughter watch this yet.

12, 8.

12A came out with Spider Man.

The original Spider Man.

Yeah.

Unless I'm wrong because everyone was annoyed that their kids couldn't go see it.

So so there was Indiana Jones of the Temple of Doom that brought out some sort of new teen pg, wasn't that?

Yes, I remember that.

Yeah.

Okay, so.

But yeah, this was still under pg.

Yeah.

PG is ridiculous.

This is a family watch.

This is a date watch.

You could watch it.

What do you think, Darren?

Yeah, I think it would be.

Particularly if you're like Gen X or.

No, particularly if you're millennials.

Gen X is a bit before, but if you're a millennial and you're on a.

And you're currently dating, you could watch this for the nostalgia vibes for sure.

And watch it with your kids.

Just to be like.

Because like we said, where are you going to see dinosaurs on screen?

Jurassic park franchises.

Yeah.

Or if you go back to like Sinbad and Seven Voyages.

Sinbad or something like that, it's like, when do you see him?

Yeah, it's true.

And without giving anything away, if you're going to watch a dinosaur film from the Jurassic park movies, why not watch the original one?

Start at the beginning.

Yeah.

And I've got a slight fact of the day that I'm going to throw in early.

Just.

I know, I know it's breaking format,.

But it's just me drinking pool.

Well, I've got my new brand new.

I've got my new movies in a nutshell mug as Darren.

We've got our matching mugs here.

Check our socials.

It'll be on there by the time this goes out.

There you go.

But with you saying about he went into, like darker films after this, Spielberg, Schindler's List and things.

So the scary part is he was filming Schindler's List and doing post production on Jurassic park at the same time.

I did know that.

Yeah.

So he's watching dailies of Jurassic Park.

Very.

Got those mixed up.

Right.

So to get them two films out, like almost making them at the same time.

So he's watching effects from Jurassic park coming in whilst he's filming Schindler's List.

Amazing.

Okay, thank you, gentlemen.

That takes us into part two, the unboxing.

In part two, the unboxing.

Spoiler territory ahead.

If you haven't seen Jurassic park and we've helped you decide you do want to go and watch it, we recommend you go and do so now and then come back because from this point forward, there will be spoilers.

So in the unboxing, we start with what did you miss?

Where we reveal things you may have missed, details you didn't notice.

Even if you've seen the movie many times, Paul has his formidable facts of the day.

And then we round off with Hate it or Rate it, where we each give a brief opinion, score out of 10 and we see where it lands on the Legend League.

So what did you miss?

What have you got for us, Darren?

Something I didn't realize from watching it last time, from my memory, but watching it again this time is it opens differently than I thought.

The Raptor scene.

No, it kind of.

It opens almost like it's Terminator.

It's raining and it's dark.

And then there's.

I think in Terminator, just after the futuristic scene, it's a dump truck and it's like this is a forklift.

And I was like, oh, that's very similar.

And I think Ailey ends opens up again a kind of similar way.

So I was just kind of curious about that and.

But then it got me thinking because what is it?

That's how fascination when we're, particularly when we're young with dinosaurs and like construction vehicles than dump trucks.

Well, boy, that's what boys play with dinosaurs and dumper trucks.

Right?

Diggers and monster trucks.

Throw them both in that first scene.

Yeah, I'm sure girls can play with them soon too as well.

But.

Yeah, particularly when I was young I had loads of dump trucks and.

And diggers.

And I've spoke to girls who were into dinosaurs when they were kids, apparently, and plastic dinosaurs.

My daughter loves dinosaurs.

So the only thing.

Well, I like machines.

The modern day dinosaurs.

Like, is that what they are?

Because they're accusing, weird like Rory noises and you know you want it.

There are modern day dinosaurs, big machinery.

Yeah.

It's curious that we.

I'm curious, do we invent it because we feel the lack in the universe or something?

I know, it just kind of resonated with me and then it moves on and it makes it feel like an alien movie because it feels like they've got an alien in that.

Oh, the first bit where they're trying to get it into that and the.

Zapping them with the electrode things because.

It's like, you know, it's a.

It just.

It was a curiosity because I was like, wait, are you.

I don't think you're setting up the genre correctly.

Like, I don't think this.

I'm about to watch the movie that I think I'm about to watch.

Does that make sense?

Maybe that's why he's done it though.

That opening feels much more sci fi.

It doesn't seem very Family oriented or.

Family orientated or even really a Spielberg movie.

But if you think about it, it's a while till it gets to the point where we're in danger again.

So maybe that was him bringing us into.

Yeah, it's foreshadowing, foreshadowing what's going to happen.

And also it sets up the lawyer going, oh, there's been an incident at the park.

Yeah.

Don't forget about the bit at the beginning.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm gonna take you a nice bit of journey now.

But don't forget what happened there.

Let's remember again, like the Jaws thing, isn't it?

It builds and it builds until you.

Yeah, it's like an enigma code.

So you're like, oh, what's in the box?

You're like, well, it's a dinosaur.

It's called Jurassic Park.

It's gonna.

So then that was just curiosity to me once it started.

Then I was also interested in the hero's journey on this because as we know that, you know, in narratives, you start in the ordinary world and you get a call to adventure, which is the thing that's going to send you on your quest.

And you're supposed to refuse it.

Otherwise you're a glory seeker.

And it can be subtle, it can be really overt.

This, I think, is one of the only times I've seen the hero's refusal of the call being a pile of cash.

I will fund your dick for a further few years.

Yeah.

You've been waiting for today.

Yeah.

And he's like, okay, let's get on the plane.

Yeah.

But they're not really like.

It's not like a.

That's not a selfish thing.

They want to discover dinosaurs.

They want to be able to do it more and on a bigger scale.

So money would allow them to do that.

Yeah.

It's not like they're doing it for their ego.

No, not at all.

It was so they could keep digging.

Yeah.

But I just hadn't seen that before.

And I was just like, never get.

Grant out of Montana.

I will.

Yeah, yeah, totally.

And then the other thing I thought was funny, it's a common thing with your hero that they need to have a flaw or to not like something.

So Brody hates chief, Brody hates the water.

And so then he's got, you know, he's a police officer or whatever, sheriff near the ocean and he has to go kill a shark.

And we get that because that's the hero journey.

You've got to face your greatest fear.

The thing you.

The cave you fear to enter is where the greatest treasure is.

You overcoming whatever you're scared of doing is the thing you should be doing in life.

On the whole.

Outside of stupid stuff.

Like.

And we know where this fear is going with Mr. Alan Grant.

Dr. Alan Grant.

Yes.

Like, it's okay.

You could be like, oh, yeah, I'm scared of water.

Indiana Jones.

Snakes.

Why do you have to be snakes?

He's like, I don't like computers.

Okay.

Has this any relevance to the rest of the film?

Well, he doesn't like kids particularly either.

Yeah.

I think kids is his biggest hero.

Hero's journey, don't you think?

Yeah, that's the journey.

Thrust into these situations with kids where he has to bond with them or save them or do various things.

In the end, he's got a little bit of rapport with him.

He's kind of, like, mellowed out a bit on that.

One of my favorite Laura Dern moments in this film where I just want to marry her.

Yeah.

One of my favorite Laura Dern moments in the film is where the Lexi goes, she said, I should ride with you because it'd be good for you.

And she does this look and looks away, like this flirty look.

It's like, oh, Laura Dern, look at you.

In his defense, like, he does say they're noisy, expensive, and smelly.

Kids don't smell babies.

Babies smell, sure, but.

And I always.

I never want to bring the stuff up anymore because I always feel like you guys are going to give me.

But there's a crazy age difference in this film.

Like, Sam Neill is 44 years old.

Laura Dern is 23.

Now, I knew you'd bring this up, so I'm prepared this time.

But she's also.

She's also.

Which is.

Which is, you know, she's an adult.

That's kind of okay.

But she's.

They're also talking about having kids.

So how long do you have to be in a relationship for until you start having kids?

I'm going to guess three or four years.

I didn't even get.

There's not even a big hint that they're together in this film.

No, they just.

She.

He was like, oh, you want one of them things?

It wasn't about him giving her the kid.

So when Jeff Goldblum says, oh, is she single?

He says, no, no.

But he sees I interrupt.

I didn't think they were together.

I never got the hint that they were together at all.

I think they're on the verge of being together.

But if you watch it closely, As I did, because I knew Darren was going to throw this one at us.

Watch Laura Dern with Sam Neill.

We're making it sound like, oh, Sam Neill's this big predator.

Laura Dern's character is all over Sam Neill.

He's the one who's just kind of carrying on with his dinosaurs, and she's the one touching his arm and going, oh, oh, Dr. Grant.

I'm just saying.

I don't know what information you want.

I'm just saying it always makes it sound like because of the big age gap, it makes it sound like the male's obviously the predator, but actually there's this clear mutual thing between them.

It almost feels like professor and student level.

Like maybe he's got a side gate teaching at a university.

And when she was 19, she went there.

I agree.

But also, I never thought they were together.

I never got a hint that they.

Were sure at all.

Jeff Goldman keeps flirting with her, and.

It makes with everything.

But then I think he just says that because he thinks, don't go anywhere nearer.

You're a nut job.

I'm sure he says to her.

He says to him, like, you know, she's seen anyone.

And then he's, oh, you guys are together.

I thought they were together.

Okay, so this is the edge of being together.

Let us know.

Yeah, right in.

I didn't pick up on that age, that gap, because I didn't think they were together.

They also.

I don't think visually it's that stark.

I think Samuel's completely damn good for his age.

I think Laura Dern, she's very mature character.

He's very mature.

I never thought of it when I was a kid.

It was only recently it was brought to my attention there was an age gap.

I think you could easily do 28 things.

34, 28, 36, Something like that.

But they've both addressed it later in life and said, oh, that it was.

That age difference is a bit inappropriate.

I'm not saying it is.

I mean, there's this dumb rule, isn't there, that it's half your age plus seven years.

So that would give him.

So he'd be 22, 29.

I don't know.

23 Is an adult.

Yeah.

Her brain's not fully.

I still say she kept flirting with him.

Just.

Yeah, okay.

Anything else?

I was watching it very closely.

It's like, stop flirting with Dr. Grant.

Other than that, these guys are the worst guests you could ever bring to an island.

Why they're so disrespectful.

And then at one point they're taking a ride on like a fairground thing and they're like, can we get out?

And he's like, no, no, no, we're right.

We're having a tour.

They're like on three.

Smash.

Brokenness.

We're going to go over here.

Yeah, that's true.

You're too old to stop us.

And we've got Jeff Globin here just winding us up.

Yeah, that's crazy.

And then it's.

What's the other thing I thought was funny now?

It's basically talking about AI, like you said quite a few times.

It's you.

You're so focused on if you could.

You didn't think about whether you should.

Now we have AI infiltrating everything.

I have no clue if the horror stories we see online about it, you know, making back doors and breaking out and refusing the turnoff, is in any way true at all.

It scares me that the civilian AI that we have access to is quite intriguing.

So what's the stuff they're not releasing?

You know, what can that do?

Or how fast it's coming on?

So what's going to be next?

Like what we only in a year or so with this?

Two years into this.

Yeah, it feels that way.

And it's already.

You see some of the stuff and you think, how are they making it?

And like you say, we're probably only seeing the edge of it here, but what's going on in the back gate in the Jurassic park laboratories?

Also, just shout out to Sam Jackson.

You may not have noticed he was in it, but he was in it.

Samuel Jackson.

I also.

Yes, I totally forgot he was in it.

I was.

Oh, I love him in this film.

I also find it funny because Spielberg is such a, at this point is such a saccharine, kind of sugary, candy flossy kind of director of stuff.

And he loves kids.

Like he said, Close Encounters and ET and our kids.

Amazing.

No, but then he says, Samuel says to Jeff Goldman.

Oh, do you have kids?

Is it.

Yeah, I've got like three at home.

I love kids.

And then he drinks from a hip flask.

I like your actions betray your words.

He doesn't sound like a father.

He's always on the lookout for a future ex.

Mrs. Malcolm.

Yeah.

You've had three.

Do you have.

Are they the same Other not there's anything wrong with that.

But this is a Spielberg movie.

It's.

It's crazy.

And then he's just flirting with the 23 year old, so I don't Know, I thought that was funny.

And then it's also fun when the T. Rex attacks and the kids are screaming for their life.

And for, I think, an uncomfortable amount of time, him and Sam Neill are in the car being like, oh, those kids are in danger.

Yeah.

They don't seem that bothered.

And Jeff Goldblum, well, they can't move.

Because they're gonna get, you know.

Well, Jeff Goldblum, who's a little bit drunk, we know because he's got this hit flask and he's got three kids, so should have a strong instinct to go out there and help.

Doesn't.

And it's Sam Neill who goes first.

Still living.

Hero's journey beginning right there.

Exactly right.

Don't they both go out with the flares?

Jeff Goldblut.

Jeff Goldblutter.

Yeah.

When he gets shamed into doing it.

Yeah, he does.

Okay.

This way.

Okay.

Also, I found it annoying that the lawyer guy is sat on the toilet not moving and still gets killed.

They say over and over again, don't move.

The T. Rex can't see you unless you move.

And he's just sat there looking up at it.

Gets eaten.

Yeah.

But I've got the T. Rex.

Saw him go in there, though.

So it followed him.

And at school, that was the moment that the whole school would be talking about.

Yeah.

For years to come.

So more following the example of Sam Neill in this movie, please.

And he hates kids, but he's still got that kind of responsibility and honor and.

And self sacrifice.

And I agree with you, that's kind of his character act, because at the end is obviously that shot of him on the helicopter where the kids are very comfortable with him and he's saved them and they're going on and.

Yeah, they also do a good job of differentiating him from Indiana Jones because what's he.

What's he's.

What's his job?

Archaeologist.

Who?

Indian Jones.

Oh, you mean email.

He's a paleontologist.

Exactly.

Archaeologist.

Paleontologist.

You could do a Venn diagram.

You talk about Sam Neill.

Yeah.

All right.

Yeah, you could do a Venn diagram with those.

But he.

He really does craft his own character.

Other than that.

What did I say?

Oh, the other fun thing is that Newman from Seinfeld is in it.

Dodgson.

Dodgson.

See, nobody cares.

But it's also funny to me how much fat shaming there is.

There is quite a bit like it.

Is you're the bad guy and you're fat Samuel.

Is that fat shaming?

Well, there's bits where it's like, find Nedry.

Check the vending machines.

Sam Jackson calls him a slob thingy in his workstation.

That's because that's where he said he was going.

That was his cover.

That was his cover story before he was trying to get in the vehicle and go and drop the sample off at the door.

Was.

I'm going.

The vending machine.

I thought he was saying it.

He goes, this is so fat.

The system's rebooting.

I'm going to go to the vending machine.

I'll come back.

Also, he doesn't know what a velociraptor is.

And they've all been talking about velociraptors.

They're the most dangerous ones.

We've got to be careful.

The T. Rex.

Yeah, but I know they're more scared of the velociraptors.

It's because they're sort of our height and they could.

They can easily get to us.

And they're smaller.

They can get through some of hunting packs.

They hunt in packs.

They do.

I just.

I. I've totally forgot.

I mean, I don't know how long it's been since I've seen this movie, but I totally forgot, Sammy, how Jackson was in it.

I was like, oh, my God.

Yeah, Samuel Motherfucker Jackson.

This is when he was breaking through, man.

I think Wayne Knight was like, well, the late.

He just remembered.

Like, he was just.

He's lazy, he's chaotic, he's a mess.

Like, he's desk.

He's like, how does anybody work like this?

I know.

He's a slob.

And he's like knocking on character, though.

It's a good character.

I know, but it's also Samuel Jackson.

It's like, why isn't Samuel Jackson solved this problem yet?

Just send him out there and tell the T. Rex to behave.

And there's.

Yeah, exactly.

Say what again?

Yeah, say, I'm sick and tired of these motherfucking dinosaurs on this motherfucking dock.

Yes.

Yeah, that's the intro, right?

And the other bit, of course, is I keep seeing the meme of weird.

Spared no expense, hires one computer.

I keep seeing that meme.

I'm like, yeah, that's pretty funny.

But it was the 90s, so we'll let him off.

For a family film, this is almost very horror at times.

Oh, it's gruesome in places.

For a pg.

I'd forgotten all that.

I'd forgotten how gruesome it was at times.

And also broken family.

Like, it's a Throwaway line.

But it's.

All my grandchildren are coming because their parents are going through a divorce.

You know, it's like, oh, that's.

That's.

You're right.

Yeah, yeah.

This, like, similar to Godzilla and they're messing with the genetics and stuff.

That did get vibes of that.

And also I got predator vibes when they realized that the Velociraptors escaped and it was Laura Dern and that guy who had a gun.

Yeah, yeah.

Character Robert Muldoon.

Because.

Because it was very jungle, like, at the time.

And the music changed when they realized it was.

I can't remember what the music was.

I think the Raptors have got out.

Yeah, it just.

There was just a shift.

He had a gun.

It just seemed like the jungle and the music just changed.

I was like, oh, this is giving me predator vibes.

Yeah, yeah.

Clever girl.

Yeah.

As he gets hunted from the side.

And there's a lot of pre.

Like we said about that opening scene, there's a lot of that in the talking as well, where Sam Neill's scaring the kid about the velociraptor and how it hunts and, you know, T Rex's vase.

It's almost giving you all the plot points that are going to become very useful later on.

And it's classic Spielberg to sort of lay out that narrative.

You're learning about his character, you're learning about him with the kids, but you're also learning about how the T. Rex is going to react later, how the Raptors are going to react.

Remember that?

Remember that?

And even though at this point it's just dialog and there's no effects or whatever, it's just Sam Neill built.

It's built.

It's a build.

He's got his, you know, razor claw.

He's going.

It's going to slit you here and here.

So when you see him, like, you're like, that's that thing that some Neil.

Was talking on the floor.

Yeah.

We didn't know what Raptors were back then.

No, no.

This was all new, you know.

What was your favorite dinosaur?

Stegosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus.

Yeah, exactly.

That was all Vegas.

Or the one that's got, like, a club tail that's got a good.

Yeah, yeah.

I never see that one very often.

That was cool.

But, yeah, and then it's this whole thing of like, oh, no, all the dinosaurs are female over and over and over again.

Oh, they'll find a way.

Are you saying that there's the dinosaurs that wolf Emerald will find a way to mate.

But they use frog DNA and frogs, some randomly change sex.

That's right.

But we're saying this is.

If we've seen the film a lot of times, which we probably have at the time, that was like.

So this has George vibes and that it does hold back a lot.

It builds anticipation before showing any dinosaurs.

Oh, yeah.

Even later it uses sound a lot.

Like it's more what you don't see and what you hear.

Great surround sound.

Yeah.

It builds to a point there where.

And then all you.

Then you see all the dinosaurs in their various locations and their various scenarios.

But this is why.

I wonder if the new generations.

I think this is maybe the problem with the later, more modern films where it's more about all the dinosaurs and you see in the dinosaurs.

Whereas this is very much about the characters, the effects, obviously a massive part of the story as well.

But it's about that character journey.

And yeah, you don't see the dinosaurs, but they're hinted at.

So when you do see them, it's like, there it is.

It's all good build.

You've had some.

They've explained it to you, you've told things, they've given examples, stories, anecdotal.

You haven't seen them yet.

And then like Jaws, he just feeds little bits until you finally get that big reveal on the T Rex, especially because that's obviously the big signature scene in the middle, isn't it?

Kind of iconic coming through the fence and everything.

But before it comes through the fence, you see his claw on the electric.

Fence and the T Rex is in a pit.

Yeah.

Which I didn't pick up until this time.

Same, same.

I. I've watched this film a million times and it was like they have.

To climb, thinking because, like, if it's just running around, it's not going to get a metal fence, it's just going to go, yeah, see you later.

So, yeah, that's why they have to.

Climb down, isn't it?

How did they get there in the first place?

Yeah, yeah.

And how to get out.

Just.

No, yeah.

Did you suddenly learn how to climb?

Yeah.

Because it's Hollywood.

No, it just goes up the tree.

Those little arms are only good for playing piano.

You guys, in your war realism film about dinosaurs in the park, this is.

Another film that uses scale.

Well, like with the shots, everything's up, nothing's down.

But I also kept writing down, especially on the T Rex scene, so many of them shots have become iconic.

Water in the glass.

Then there's the foot of the T Rex in the mud.

So many of them shots, you're like, yeah, that's become kind of part of our culture.

And again, we've talked about this before, where films sort of bypass just being a film and become part of culture.

And this feels like one of those tempo movies that did that.

Okay, thank you, gentlemen.

That takes us nicely into Paul's fantastic facts of the day.

The T Rex occasionally malfunctioned due to the rain.

And producer Kathleen Kennedy recalls that the T Rex went into the heebie jeebies, so sometimes and scared the crap out of them.

Like the beating lunch.

And all of a sudden the T Rex would come alive because of, like, it malfunctioning because of the rain.

But if you think of that scene and how much rain it put on it, and they've got footage of them having to dry it down to stop it from.

It's a bit like the Jaws thing all over again.

And Stan Winston's team's there because it is a full sized T Rex.

Yeah, it is.

Which is probably why it looks so realistic.

Problematic in the film.

So a hurricane actually hit when they were filming.

So Hurricane Iniki.

Hurricane Iniki hit.

The cast and crew were all required to move into the ballroom of the hotel in which they were staying.

So Richard Attenborough, however, stayed in his hotel room and slept through the entire thing.

And when they asked him how he could have possibly done this, he said, my dear boy, I survived the blitz.

Richard Attenborough, Badass.

Badass.

Not scared by a hurricane.

Slept through it.

How much do you think Universal Pictures paid Michael Crichton for the rights to his novel before it was even published?

£1.

Good.

But it's not right.

£100.

Nope.

And we're going way too low.

You're a little bit low.

Because I was thinking like, Spielberg has asked for the rights.

No, no, this is before the novel was even published.

Jesus.

Two million.

Boom.

You're good at this game.

Wow.

Two million.

Yeah.

Why?

Just why?

He must have had some hits, obviously, and they thought well before the book.

Had even come out.

Yeah.

Jesus.

Yeah, but it's one of those movies.

It's like Snakes on a Plane, isn't it?

It's.

It's dinosaur theme park.

Yeah.

We've got the story, we've got the director.

That's just give him 2 million.

So we're on about the Velociraptors.

Spielberg wanted them to feel about 10ft tall, which was taller than they were actually known to be in real life.

Well, they weren't because they fit through doors easy without.

So they weren't 10 foot tall.

They weren't even 6 foot 6.

So according to an artist involved in pre production, Spielberg requested this change because he was unhappy with the size of what he considered the largest dinosaur at the time and he wanted to be bigger.

Another reason was to make the raptor more menacing.

So during filming, paleontologists uncovered a 10 foot tall species of raptors called Utahraptors.

And Spielberg also wanted the dinosaurs to be bird like, like snap into attention like a chicken, like the move in the film.

So he wanted the raptors to turn their heads so they could look behind them and have that scary appearance.

So he likened the raptor tapping its claw to Morse code to any other Raptors listener.

They were basically changing with what a raptor actually was.

But they were quite small because there's a bit when Wayne Knight's character, he's like, oh, you're one of the little ones.

I thought you wanted the big ones.

What are you doing?

I haven't got any food.

But that's not a raptor that goes after him.

What is it?

That's a different one because it's got the shooty out venom stuff.

Oh, it is shoot out venom ones.

I can't pronounce the name.

Probably die.

Somethinglosaurus.

Is it?

Yeah, diasaurus.

Because you will die.

Yeah.

That freaked me out.

When he ends up in the cab with the.

Yeah, yeah.

There were a lot of scary scenes.

Maybe this is what kids need now.

Then we come out traumatized.

Maybe.

Maybe that's where the millennials are all traumatized.

Who knows?

So when Michael Crichton was asked why the novel has Jurassic in the title and the dinosaur on the front, which is obviously the logo that we all know, that's very familiar.

That's actually a dinosaur from the crustaceous period on the COVID And he replied, it just never occurred to him.

He just admitted it was the best looking design.

Yeah, like go away with these sizes, no one cares.

Yeah, because also Jurassic park as a theme park isn't going to be like, fuck all the other dinosaurs.

It's going to have them all in there.

Yeah.

So Michael's right.

To hell with them, the dinosaurs, doesn't matter what period.

Yeah.

Panicking about which period.

Get out of here.

So Mr. DNA, the cartoon.

Oh, Mr. DNA.

That was Spielberg's way of condensing much novel exposition into A few minutes.

Imagine that.

Just write that in a month.

Just figure it out.

He felt he needed to write pieces that would convey a sense of awe and fascination given with the overwhelming happiness and excitement that would emerge from seeing live dinosaurs.

Michael Crichton intended John Hammond to be like a dark Walt Disney, which is kind of what you were saying with almost Willy Wonka's pose.

However, while possibly unintentional, the character is also similar to P.T.

Barnum.

So he's the guy who the Greatest Showman's based off and things he did like the circus stuff.

And so, yeah, there's definitely a touch of that now.

After making the movie, Ariana Richards, that's who plays Lexi, she developed a great interest in dinosaurs and assisted Jack Horner, paleontologist advisor for the movie and the inspiration for the character of Dr. Grant on an actual dinosaur dig in Montana the following summer.

Good on him.

So there you go.

Oh, oh, I didn't know this one.

I didn't spot this before.

While discussing chaos theory, Malcolm shamelessly flirts with Ellie.

Laura Dern.

Yeah, he's with Sam Neill.

Exactly.

That whole thing we discussed before.

I love triangle.

After meeting on this movie, the two became, began a romantic relationship and were engaged for two years before breaking up.

How old is.

How old was Jeff Goldblum?

I don't know, but it'll have been.

Similar to also Jeff Goldbroom.

I understand that he's famous for striking relationships.

There's that scene where he's like laid out.

It's just for no reason.

Just laid out his chest shown there.

He has no reason to be late.

Just like he's on a photo shoot or something.

It's just so random, just drunk.

Classic Jeff.

Jeff.

It's become like a meme in itself.

So many fun memes of that one.

Very briefly, this one.

But Phil Tippett, he did lots of things with Star wars and things like that.

He used to do hand puppets and he did very cyborg stuff in robocop.

Da da da.

Anyway, he was originally going to do the effects for the film and they were going to do it old school, like stop motion.

This is what I was saying it to at the start.

So they'd done test footage and things of stop motion dinosaurs like they would have done for Jason, the Argonaut or Clash of Titans and any of those Old school.

They were going to do them.

Harry House and Movies.

Yeah, King Kong.

Yeah, sounds time consuming.

It is.

And they did some tests on it.

But obviously when they then saw the footage from the computers, what they were pumping out from Industrial Light Magic ilm, they were like, oh, no, we've got this.

But Phil still stayed on as I think he has like a credit animal wrangler or dinosaur wrangler or something like that, because he was still.

Because he'd been so studying the movements of dinosaurs and all that sort of stuff.

They help.

He helped supervise all the animations with the movements of it all.

So he still stayed on even though he wasn't doing maybe what he was originally gonna do.

And there was some footage of the stop motion.

And although it looked pretty cool, it's nowhere near as good as what you see.

Yeah.

End of the day, you should want what's best for the movie.

Yeah.

Again, I kind of went into this before, but I'm going to say again because I still can't get my head around it.

He, Spielberg oversaw the post production via a video link whilst in Poland filming the Holocaust themed Schindler list.

He later called it one of the hardest times in his life as a filmmaker, as it took him on such an emotional toll on him that his enthusiasm for the movie almost waned because he was doing Chindlers.

And he said that he needed an hour per day to muster up the energy to comment on digital dinosaurs and answer trivial questions from the special effects crew, which you can imagine if you film.

Are you constantly answering questions and solving problems.

Right.

What do you think?

It grows domestically in opening weekend.

This was record breaking.

I know that it was.

It was.

It's opening week.

Open weekend.

Opening weekend break.

Oh, opening weekend.

100 Million.

No, no, no, no.

People love dinosaurs.

They love dinosaurs.

It brought the opening week of records in several other countries as well.

So, yeah, it was.

It was a massive hit, wasn't it?

It's probably still up instantaneous.

During the scenes with the T Rex, Spielberg would roar like one of the dinosaurs into a megaphone.

The cast crapped, cracked up whenever he did that.

And Sam Neill stated that was kind of more funny than anything.

And the acting part was not laughing.

He said, it's not easy.

So there you go.

I always think of when I think of megaphones.

Joel Schumacher, apparently on the set of Batman and Robin when he was directing George Clooney would just have a megaphone.

Be like, okay, George, your Parents are dead.

Go.

Obviously we all know how Batman and Robin turned out, but yeah, I always imagine that one.

This one's just for you blockbuster movie fans, which you'll obviously know probably, but Ian Malcolm says the line must go faster when the dinosaurs behind him.

There's a throwback to that in Independence Day a few years later where Roland Emmerich liked that so much he had goblins say it when they were escaping the must go faster.

Classic Goldblum law.

Yeah.

Last one, last one.

And there are a billion facts of this.

And like I say, it's very well documented behind the scenes as well.

Some.

Oh, Sir Sam Neill.

Did Sam get a sir?

We keep doing this, don't we?

He's Australian, isn't he?

I think he did.

He's part of the Commonwealth.

Yeah, true.

There you go.

So Sam Neill didn't know that.

I didn't know that.

But he injured his hand, lightened the flare he uses to direct.

To direct the Tyrannosaurus.

Direct, Save the children.

Correct.

According to Neil, it dropped some burning phosphorus on him and it got under his watch and it took a chunk of his arm out.

So, suffering for his art, Sam Neill, we salute you.

Fully approve of that.

There you go.

Scars are sexy.

That's how you got lower down.

Here you go.

Boom.

Thank you very much, Paul.

Okay, that takes us into hate it or rate it.

So it's your choice, Paul.

So you're going to go first.

I'm terrified what you both going to say, but I'm going to give it a 10 because it's 10.

Boom.

Okay.

It's freaking great.

It's Jurassic park, man.

And it's not Velociraptor and it's not Velocirapasta.

Yeah, that's.

Yeah, I think it still holds up, this one.

I've seen this a lot of times.

So what I was going to say was I saw this when I was 10.

So I also saw Super Mario Brothers with Bob Hoskins that year and admittedly at 10, I enjoyed both of them just as much.

And I still get a cheap thrill from watching the Super Mario Brothers film the world seems to hate.

I enjoyed that.

That had dinosaurs in as well.

This had dinosaurs in it.

I was just having a great 10 year old time.

Yeah, I think the Flintstones came out the year after.

Again, these are all films that everyone hated.

But I'm 10, I'm 11.

I'm loving it all.

So, yeah, really got me into dinosaurs.

I've appreciated this film as I've grown Up with it as well.

When I was a kid, obviously, there's certain things you're.

Oh, my God, that's amazing.

And then as I've grown up, I've grew to like the characters a bit more.

Love.

Love of the Jeff, love of the Sam, love of Newman being in there, Wayne Knight doing his bit, the fancying of Laura Dern.

Carried on.

Carried on.

Yeah.

I was going to say that was probably still there.

So, yeah, it's Spielberg at his best doing what he probably.

I mean, he's such a chameleon when it comes to movies.

He's made all kinds of different films.

The fact he made this in Schindler's List in the same span is ridiculously talented.

I think the effect, still, this is the bit for me as well.

It's 93.

It's a long time ago.

When you watch this movie, the jumps between digital effects, practical effects, the sets, the way Spielberg shoots stuff, you know, the Tyrannosaurus eye through the window, the smashing of the glass, the way he builds up the tension.

He does it like no one else.

And no matter how many times I see this film, because maybe I'll write it down because I've seen it that many times, but I can't.

And when I watch the newer ones, I'm looking at you.

Rebirth.

Jurassic World.

Rebirth.

They're like, oh, come and see the dinosaurs.

But the characters had nothing I remember about them from this.

I still remember all the characters.

Ian Malcolm.

Even when I was a kid, you'd come up going, oh, that's Ian.

IAN Malcolm.

That's Dr. Alan Grant.

Whereas I only saw the Scarlet One last year and I can't remember what her character was called.

I can't remember who else was in it.

I just remember them.

No lasting impression.

No.

Whereas this was characters.

So, yeah, between Spielberg's telling of the story, the building of the thing that we love in Jaws and the effects and everything else, I still love it.

And if you're going to do a film on your surround sound to test out your surround sound and your big screens and you might.

Did you watch on your projector, Darren, as well?

I think it was in the video.

Okay, so, yeah, come on to your house and watch.

It's still great to watch sort of on a big screen and have that.

And I like the fact it's in sort of regular widescreen and anamorphic and it gives it kind of more height.

I know I always waffle on like a nerd about this sort of stuff, but I think he shot it that way on purpose with that sort of film.

So it kind gave everything height with the dinosaurs.

So there you go.

There's me.

I'm giving it 10.

I know I'm.

I'm easy like that, but yeah, I love it.

I enjoyed this movie.

Not quite as much as you.

Okay.

It was.

Yeah, it's great.

It's good.

One of those just classic storytelling.

It's.

It's.

Well, it's well done.

It's dinosaurs.

It's.

It's got that.

You curious about them, especially at the time, it definitely felt like it was ahead of its time, especially with the effects, the characters.

The story for them is.

Although they actually have got that much screen time, but you actually get a good picture of where they are in their journey quite quickly and they're all thrown together in this.

In this situation.

I think it's told quite well.

Some parts of it.

Like velociraptors opening doors.

Nah.

Sorry.

No.

It's a no from me.

I'd forgotten.

You don't know.

You don't know.

Nah, just.

Just.

No.

Just the way they just like place the handle.

I'm just going, oh, I think I'll open it.

They know what they're doing right now?

No, it's just.

No.

That's a certain other parts of it.

But generally I did really enjoy this movie.

Not as much as I thought I would like it.

When's the last time you watched it, then?

So it's a long time.

Long, long, long time.

So it's not like one of you Go to Flight, Back to the Future anything.

No.

Movies.

My Go to Movie, Paul.

No, I forget this.

How is that even a thing?

I started this.

I have to have my go to movies.

So I'm gonna give it a 7.3.

I think it's a good movie.

I really enjoyed it.

It's.

That's where it sits for me, Darren.

Yeah, I didn't enjoy it as much as you, Mark.

Okay.

Oh, come on, guys.

I'm never gonna get three tens out of you.

That would suck if we all agreed, I guess.

So what did you think, Darren?

I think I could see you twitching slightly when I was saying stuff, so I just.

Because I really don't know how your feelings.

But I love that you loved it.

That's great.

I think that the technology is phenomenal.

They really pushed it forward, which is amazing.

But Transformers pushed forward the technology and Avatar push forward the technology.

It doesn't mean it's necessarily a good film.

Are you slugging Transformers right now?

Yeah, we're gonna have a fight fighting talk here.

I love Bumblebee.

I've said it before.

It's a freaking phenomenal movie.

And so.

And I didn't really like anyone.

And I had some sympathy with the main guy because it was like the cost of a dream and being a maverick.

And a part of me is like, that's ludicrous that you thought you could do this and make a theme park, but you would have to fund it somehow.

And he.

If he was like, somebody who's, like, a billionaire and was like, oh, we can do this, wouldn't it be great?

Because I love dinosaurs.

If I could create a theme park and all these kids could come over and they could afford to see him, like, I'd make so many happy people.

It felt like.

Like he's his mission statement.

Like, honorable, Mean.

Yeah.

It was an honorable star.

Like, his reason reasoning.

Like, his investors want to make money.

And the lawyers and everything.

Yeah.

But he wants to just bring joy to everyone who loves dinosaurs.

Him and his flea circus.

Yeah.

So there's a feel, there's a cost of.

And all new ideas, a lot of new ideas get pushed back on because it's new.

And particularly if it's such a leap forward.

I said, oh, no, that's.

That's too strange.

That's too different.

We can't be doing that.

But I didn't really like any character whatsoever.

The kids were annoying.

Jeff Goldblum is a little bit more interesting.

But also, why is he there?

Like, he called him sort of scientists of a different.

Like a chaos physicist or something.

But yeah.

And then he's like, oh, if, like, a butterfly flaps its wings, something chaotic can happen here.

Okay, cool.

Why are you on the island?

Again?

Like, he's a scientific expert.

He was a different.

He was one of another person who they needed approval from.

Yeah.

But I don't get why they would go get him.

And the other two I get.

All they did was kind of go, how are you going to control these dinosaurs?

The dinosaurs?

What?

How?

This doesn't make no sense.

Might have been good if they got a theme park expert as well.

Yeah.

Or security expert.

Maybe they do that on the next trip.

Oh, too bad they've all been eaten.

Oh, this is a huge international IT firm, not Wayne Knight on his own.

Yeah, right.

That was quite funny.

So, yeah, there's moments of tension.

You must give it to some of those scenes, though.

The velociraptor scenes were pretty.

Pretty cool.

I did like the attention that I just.

I do.

You like it more than velocirapasta.

I had a.

This morning, I enjoyed more than watching velocipasta.

There's another quote.

Yeah, I know.

Just keep throwing them on the starts.

So it's.

I'm just gonna go five.

Like it didn't offend me.

And.

And also I like the fact it was.

It's a candy floss movie.

And I really hope that it helped Steven Spielberg work through making Shin's List.

And then I.

It's leading into factor data, too, but I think Robin Williams called Spielberg every single day when he was making this.

And we're just trying to make him laugh to try and keep them going.

Amazing.

If this encourages kids to go learn about science and biology and dinosaurs, that's all wonderful.

Or they learn about, I'm assuming, chaos physics.

Is that what it's called?

Yeah.

That's fascinating anyway, because it really does suggest that the whole world isn't what we think it is.

So if it starts, you know, there's great books by Carlo Ravelli on that kind of stuff.

So go check those out.

So, yeah, I. I think I feel a bit weird with a five because it's just a bit mid and I.

Did you get the nostalgia from it at all?

I didn't have a massive nostalgia because I don't remember it watching it that much when it first came out.

You were a bit older, were you.

What were you?

Sixteen?

Okay.

And.

And there was other stuff around.

I would just.

Would have watched Jaws of Indiana Jones on repeat.

Okay.

Love those.

I don't think this holds up to that level.

This is not yours.

This is not Indiana Jones.

You know, I think Spielberg's done better.

I don't know.

I. I still think this is up there with you.

Do you give it a 10?

I know.

Oh, I still think it's up there with some of them shots, I'm just like, yeah, that's iconic.

No worries.

And there's some fun lines.

I like how much the main character, the theme park owner, hates Jeff Goldblum.

He says, I really hate that man.

Yes.

And then he.

Jeff Goldblum also says, boy, I really hate being white all the time.

Which I just related to a lot.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's just.

It's a five.

Okay, I give up.

Don't give up.

No.

I'm never going to find out.

Just opinions.