Question: The second Nedry notices the Dilophosaurus in the jeep with him, why didn't he quickly get out and shut the door, trapping it inside? He had a second or two before the Dilophosaurus started growling and attacking him, plenty of time to get out.
lionhead
5th Dec 2023
Jurassic Park (1993)
Answer: In addition to what RayWest and LionHead wrote, I would like to point out that it's easy to say what a person should have done. You're watching the situation as an outsider. Granted, this is a fantasy situation in a movie about dinosaurs, but the mentality is realistic: people who are actually in a situation don't always think of something that seems obvious.
Answer: The fact that Nedry was in a car could've been giving him a false sense of security. Yes, he could've gotten out of the car, but then he'd be out in the open, making it easier for him to get attacked by any other dinos that were lurking about. In the car, he probably (incorrectly) assumed that the Dilophosaurus would have restricted movement due to how small cars are, making it harder for it to attack.
15th Jun 2022
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: After John asks Muldoon to take one of the Jeeps to bring back his grandchildren, Ellie says she's going with him. They didn't at that point know the T-Rex had escaped, so why does Ellie insist on going with him? Considering the Jeep has four seats and there's five people spread across the two tour cars, how did Ellie expect to squeeze everybody in?
Answer: He was sent to bring back the grandchildren, not everyone. If anyone else wanted to leave they could be picked up later when Muldoon was finished bringing the children to safety. Hammond was just concerned about them and wanted them to be with him. Ellie went with him to be with Grant, to make sure he is safe as well. So she would stay with him anyway.
18th Feb 2022
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: Why was Dr. Grant so dismissive of Tim when they first met? I can understand Grant being annoyed with the bratty kid at the dig site but Tim showed a genuine interest in dinosaurs and even mentioned he'd read Grant's book.
Answer: Dr. Grant doesn't like kids. Any kids.
That was an issue between him and Ellie Sattler, who wanted to have a family, while he did not. She eventually married someone else and had kids.
Answer: Grant just has a low opinion of kids in general. He probably thinks Tim is too young to really understand or appreciate the research that Grant has dedicated most of his life to. Also, Tim can come across as a little "too much" at times; he talks really fast and barely gives Grant a chance to get a word in edgewise.
29th Jun 2020
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: Whilst I appreciate the comedic value of Jeff Goldblum, why has Dr Ian Malcolm been invited to the island? How is his academic knowledge of chaos theory relevant to deciding whether a theme park is safe?
Answer: Malcolm spoke with Hammond about the idea of Jurassic Park prior to the visit. Hammond dismisses Malcolm's math as "codswallop" and "fashionable number crunching," and complains that Malcolm has "never been able to adequately explain [his] concerns..." But why ask him? Malcolm is an expert in complex systems. His particular brand of scientist is known for modeling "the real world" in mathematics. This is why you hear him refer to the complexity of the system in phase space and chaos (as in chaos theory). Gennaro refers to him as 'too trendy." Hammond likely asked Malcom to analyze the idea of the park as a publicity stunt, but got back a scathing paper. Gennaro has picked someone openly hostile to the park to give it a review. The investors want two experts to sign off. Hammond knows that Malcolm is hostile, so Hammond finds a paleontologist and paleobotanist (Grant and Sattler) in the hopes that they will sign off due to sheer awe and excitement.
Answer: Malcolm was there to calculate the probability of what and how the theme park could go wrong. The park's financial backers are aware the dinosaurs pose an extreme danger to visitors that could result in massive lawsuits. They want to know every conceivable scenario of what could go wrong. It's the old adage of, 'If something can go wrong, it will go wrong.'.
Answer: From google: Ian Malcolm was invited to the park by Donald Gennaro as an insurance consultant as Donald apparently felt that Ian, as a fiduciary, would be able to notice any dangerous shortcomings the park had.
Answer: According to the wiki, he is brought along by the lawyer Donald Gennero because he is a parent of several children and thus be able to notice any shortcomings regarding safety to children.
17th Mar 2020
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: How many raptors are in the movie? When Ellie goes to turn the power on there is one raptor inside there. Around the same time two are preying on Muldoon. Later in the kitchen two appear, sneaking for Lexi and Tim. Tim locks one into the freezer. Towards the end one appears at the control room door. Dr. Grant gets on the phone with Hammond and ask "there are only the two raptors?" Then Grant is heard shooting at it through the glass. Finally our heroes are surrounded in the compound center by two raptors. This is where the T-Rex enters to finish them off. Always makes me wonder how many Velociraptors were really in the movie.
Answer: There were always only 3. Muldoon mentions they had 8 originally but one of them killed all the others but 2. 2 attacked Muldoon whilst the 3rd attacked Ellie, one is locked by Tim and the last 2 attack the Rex which kills them.
There are 3 at the end. So either they messed up their count, or the freezer raptor got out.
The Raptor that followed them to the control room is the same one that jumped at the skeleton hanging from the ceiling. The one that Ellie locked in the maintenance shed is the one that enters the visitor center from behind the plastic sheeting. Rex comes and kills one and then the other one jumps on Rex. The third Raptor was nowhere to be seen as she was busy turning into an ice cube.
23rd Apr 2009
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: Wouldn't John Hammond be just a little bit worried at how animal rights activists may react to his park feeding live animals (like goats and cows) to the dinosaurs, and the damage it could do to the park's future?
Chosen answer: There are several factors to consider. First, zoos do feed live food to some exhibit animals that will not otherwise eat, like feeding live mice to some types of reptiles. Also, Jurassic Park is still top secret and is not yet open to the public, and therefore Hammond and the staff are, at this point, unconcerned about that and may change their practices later. Another consideration is that the park is in a foreign country that may have less stringent rules and regulations regarding zoo and aquarium practices; Hammond is likely paying them well to establish his park there and is bringing in tourism dollars. Finally, Hammond simply may be unconcerned about it, convinced that his fantastic park will be such a huge success and public demand to see the dinosaurs so great that it will overrule objections by animal rights groups.
Answer: In Jurassic World they still use animals so this isn't a concern.
What happens in a later movie is irrelevant to the question.
30th Oct 2018
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: At the opening of the film, Muldoon and the JP workers are loading a raptor into a pen. I've always wondered, was this raptor bred on Isla Sorna, and brought over? Or did this one escape from the pen, and had to be brought back? Was this the intelligent female raptor Muldoon warned Grant about?
Answer: Yes this Raptor was bred on Isla Sorna and brought to the pen. They hadn't escaped before or he would have told them. Its most likely this is the female raptor that Muldoon warned about. Although it's also possible this raptor was actually shot like Muldoon ordered.
3rd Sep 2018
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: It seems like a minor plot hole, but I can't be certain in case I don't understand or missed something. After Ellie turns the main power back on and activates the individual park systems, the electrified fences turn back on. When she flees the shed, she runs through the gate of a fence that has a "danger: high voltage" warning sign, and she even touches part of the fence that's not the gate. Shouldn't the fence have become electrified?
Chosen answer: The "danger: high Voltage" sign is for the electrical equipment inside the shed, not the fence itself.
22nd Nov 2017
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: Why did everyone at the park have to leave? It doesn't make much sense that no one would be there to tale care of everything (i.e. dinosaurs, security etc). I can understand having to leave when things became chaotic, but they were leaving before that even happened; John couldn't handle all this on his own.
Answer: It didn't make any sense that everyone would be evacuated off the island and leave the animals and the systems unattended because of a storm. A facility such as that would have to be built to withstand hurricanes, which in that part of the world, would happen every year. Non-essential staff might leave, but not the caretakers.
Not everybody left, the essential personnel like Arnold and Muldoon stayed. Probably more stayed and were evacuated later when the animals escaped. The island was evacuated because of a hurricane and no boats would be present to take people to safety, they would have been stuck on the island.
8th Apr 2016
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: When everyone exited the tour cars, they went downhill to see the Triceratops, but how could they get inside the paddock? Is there no fence surrounding the animals? And is the Trike we see the only Trike in JP? My main question is: Why is the Trike free to roam everywhere it wants, I mean they didn't have to get through a fence to get there because we see the tour cars behind them, and they are not behind a fence.
Answer: A Triceratops is a herbivore. Therefor, it doesn't have the same fences as the T-Rex has and is probably separated by a moat or gap. The largest part of the park is probably like this and access for personnel to the herbivores is probably easy, it's with the carnivores they took extra measures. There are probably other triceratops but this one was sick and was probably separated from the group in case it is contagious.
5th Mar 2015
Jurassic Park (1993)
Question: How long would it take for some of the bigger dinosaurs to reach their size? Was there any indication (movie or book) how long the Jurassic Park project was going on before everyone came to the island? It seems many of the larger ones were adults and that it would take decades to get that size, yet the park wasn't fully ready (Hammond mentions rides coming on 6-12 months) after all that time?
Chosen answer: The breeding and growing of the animals, as explained in the second movie, took place on a different island. It's never mentioned how long it takes for the larger specimens to full grow, but it could indeed take a decade but I'm sure they used all kinds of genetic manipulation to accelerate the growth, or else Hammond would not witness it all in his lifetime. The Island with the park was only later utilised for that purpose, long after most of their animals had already fully grown. Also told in the second movie Hammond experimented with different ideas for a park before, like building an amphitheater in San Diego. So the park was fairly new.
Answer: The park project was initiated about 4-5 years before Grant and the others visited the island. All the dinosaurs were genetically modified with increased growth and development hormones. It took most species 3-4 years to mature. Roughly 0.1% of specimens survived. There were roughly 280 dinosaurs on the island. 238 were accounted for by the system. Source: Novel.
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Answer: There are some additional factors that would interfere with his ability to move quickly: He was obese (so not very agile) and his vision was impaired (he dropped his glasses and was sprayed with gunk in his eyes).
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