Revealing mistake: In the opening scene Jophery is being attacked by the velociraptor. As the camera pans along the outside of the cage, in between the flashes one can see his legs inside the cage and that nothing is actually attacking him. (00:03:05)
Revealing mistake: When the Explorers are entering the park through the large wooden gate, during the overhead angle you can see that the perimeter fence isn't continuous. (00:40:00)
Revealing mistake: In the scenes where there's a video link to the docks shown on computer, there's a bar moving along the bottom of the screen, showing us that it's actually a video that's just playing on the computer. (00:52:05)
Revealing mistake: During the whole scene of the T-Rex attacking the Explorers you see an illumination that moves from place to place. Sometimes the illumination is in the deep woods, and then it is behind the dinosaur when it is next to the vehicle. When the T-Rex first walks up and sniffs Tim and Lex's Explorer you can even see the light to the left of Rex's head. Since the power is out, no lights are on except the vehicle headlights and they aren't making that much light. Also, there is no moonlight since it is pouring with rain. (00:58:00 - 01:07:00)
Revealing mistake: When the T-Rex flips the Explorer over, as it settles on its roof, the stunt control wires are visible at the rear of the vehicle. This mistake was corrected on blu-ray. (01:03:40)
Revealing mistake: When Dr. Malcolm gets thrown through the toilet door by the T-Rex, it is most obviously a stuntman that lands on the ground and gets covered in palm leaves. (01:04:40)
Revealing mistake: When Grant is trying to save the two grandchildren in the over-turned Explorer, the T-Rex returns and surprises them. Grant holds the girl and tells her not to move. The Rex then starts smelling around and blows Grant's hat off. Well if you watch closely, you can see that the air that blows Grant's hat off doesn't come from the T-Rex, it comes from something under the Rex. (01:05:35)
Revealing mistake: When the T-rex is attacking the vehicle and he has turned it over, the camera pans round behind the T-rex and you see through its legs, the ground all around the base of the beast is dry, but it's been pouring with rain for a while. (01:05:45)
Revealing mistake: When Alan and Lex are holding on to the cable, fearful of the Explorer that is about to come tumbling down at them, you'll notice that the car, if it had been filmed at the same time the actors where there, would have cut off Sam Neill's leg. Lex grabbed the wire in time but Sam doesn't move his leg enough. (01:06:45)
Revealing mistake: When Nedry is attacked by the Dilophosaurus, (the spitting dinosaur), the first spit supposedly lands on his shirt, BUT if you look closely, Nedry slaps it there himself with his hand - there's only a little bit on his shirt before he hits himself, then there's loads. (01:10:40)
Revealing mistake: When the Dilophosaurus spits at Nedry, you can see the smoke from the gun used to shoot the spit in his face, top left of screen. (01:10:50)
Revealing mistake: When Alan and Tim climb down the tree to escape from the falling car, you can see cables along the bark of the tree below the car as it falls. (01:14:20)
Revealing mistake: When Grant tells Lex and Tim about the breeding he then gestures to the dinosaurs' footprints. Some of the footprints are very square in shape and have obviously been stamped in the ground. (01:27:35)
Revealing mistake: When Ellie runs from the Raptor the stunt double who runs for her has on a wig that looks nothing like her real hair. It just looks very fake. (01:35:00)
Revealing mistake: During the scene where Dr. Grant and the children are forced to climb a fence to flee from an unseen dino, there's a brief side view of the fence that clearly shows that it isn't continuous - it is probably only about 75 feet wide. (01:36:35)
Revealing mistake: When Tim is shocked off the fence as the power comes back on, the sparking effects are not where his hands are touching, instead the sparks are several inches away. (01:39:00)
Revealing mistake: In the shot immediately following Ellie turning on the circuit breakers when the raptor attacks her, we see a light bulb touching its head. There is smoke appearing where the bulb is in contact with the raptors head, the power has been off for a while the bulb would not be that hot after being on for just a few seconds. (01:39:35)
Revealing mistake: When Lex and Tim are playing hide and seek with the Raptors in the kitchen, when the camera cuts to a wide shot of the Raptors walking in from a distance, the Raptor on the left looks directly at Tim while he crawls by, but then looks back in the direction it was going. (01:45:15)
Revealing mistake: In the famous kitchen scene, one of the Velociraptors leaps onto one of the counters and knocks over a metal pot with its left foot. The metal pot passes right through the CGI foot. (01:50:35)
Revealing mistake: In the sequence when Lex almost falls from the hole in the ceiling, she looks straight back up at the camera. Rather than cut away from the stunt double at this point, they actually bothered to CGI the actress' face over the top so they could use the sequence right through. Unfortunately you can tell what's been done. (01:51:40)
Answer: They are not paleontologists, just people interested in dinosaurs. It is common for museums and other scientific organizations to offer the general public an opportunity to participate in a real paleontology dig. For a fee, they become an exhibition team member for a period of time, learn about dinosaurs, help excavate fossils, and so on. This is likely how Dr. Grant (or his institution) supplements his research funding.
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