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Old 07-27-15, 10:40 PM
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Jurassic Park question

I've long since misplaced my book, so I was hoping you could help me out. Jurassic Park has been airing almost daily for a month and I've rewatched it a bunch and some moments really make me wonder about two moments of pure dumbassery:

1: Nedry leaving in the middle of a hurricane. I mean, any and all common sense says call it off until the storm passes. Was there a reason for the urgency on his part?

2) Lex with the light. Good God that was dumb.

Obviously a lot of license was taken from the book but these were just facepalm moments. So I'm wondering how the book handled them.
Old 07-27-15, 10:59 PM
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Re: Jurassic Park question

Nedry had to get to the dock to hand off the shaving cream cannister to the rival company. And both book and movie call out that that cannister could the specimens for only a certain amount of time. I wish they showed in the movie how Nedry died in the book - he got his stomach sliced open by that dinosaur.

I don't recall in the book about that but with Lex and the light.
Old 07-28-15, 02:04 AM
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Re: Jurassic Park question

I'm re-reading Jurassic Park, and just happen to be right at the T-Rex attack right now. The part with Lex and the light doesn't happen. The attack is a little different than in the movie. Regis (Gennaro in the film) leaves the kids, and Lex keeps repeating "he left us," but then she gets knocked out for a while. I think its her screaming that attracts the Rex more than anything.
Old 07-28-15, 10:45 AM
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Re: Jurassic Park question

I haven't read the book since 1992, so I don't know shit. But wasn't the hurricane part of the plan? Like wasn't he depending on the chaos of the hurricane to help him make his escape?
Old 07-28-15, 11:56 AM
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Re: Jurassic Park question

They weren't going to show Nedry getting his stomach sliced open. Spielberg wanted a PG-13.

I forget where I saw it, might have been a JP special, but the T Rex animatronic was not supposed to go through the plexiglass roof window of the car like it did in the movie. So the kids were genuinely scared shitless. Also, Ariana got the gig because she had that insane scream you hear when she spots the Rex and Grant slaps a hand over her mouth. Fun trivia.
Old 07-28-15, 10:15 PM
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Re: Jurassic Park question

Originally Posted by Traxan
They weren't going to show Nedry getting his stomach sliced open. Spielberg wanted a PG-13.

I forget where I saw it, might have been a JP special, but the T Rex animatronic was not supposed to go through the plexiglass roof window of the car like it did in the movie. So the kids were genuinely scared shitless. Also, Ariana got the gig because she had that insane scream you hear when she spots the Rex and Grant slaps a hand over her mouth. Fun trivia.
I remember reading when it was announced Spielberg was directing it, we'd never see the best most violent bits in the movie since he doesn't do R for family type movies.

I also remember being upset they left out the part where they were on the river trying to outrun the T-Rex. It was such an exciting part of the book, reading how the T-Rex got smaller and smaller as they went down the river, then it was like an alligator was chasing them. Then they later put that scene in Jurassic Park III, although I didn't think it was all that intense like it was in the book.
Old 12-16-18, 10:24 AM
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Re: Jurassic Park question

Originally Posted by Traxan
I've long since misplaced my book, so I was hoping you could help me out. Jurassic Park has been airing almost daily for a month and I've rewatched it a bunch and some moments really make me wonder about two moments of pure dumbassery:

1) Nedry leaving in the middle of a hurricane. I mean, any and all common sense says call it off until the storm passes. Was there a reason for the urgency on his part?

2) Lex with the light. Good God that was dumb.

Obviously a lot of license was taken from the book but these were just facepalm moments. So I'm wondering how the book handled them.
3 year old bump

I'm re-reading the Jurassic Park novels for the first time in over 20 years so basically...
Spoiler:

...the difference in the book for the first item is Lewis Dodgson of BioSyn (the genetic engineering competitor of InGen) recruited Dennis Nedry as a corporate espionage spy within InGen. Nedry as IT did not have security access to the area where the dinosaur embryos were kept, but because of the corporate tour of the facilities by experts that John Hammond was being required to perform in order to reassure investors, security restrictions were lowered and a lot of the staff was missing for the weekend aside from essential personnel (like Nedry), which allowed Nedry virtually unrestricted access to the embryo storage lab during that particular weekend so it was a rare opportunity for him to steal some embryos. As for the bad weather, the tropical storm sprung up rather quickly and hit the island somewhat unexpectedly, otherwise the tour would've been postponed. As for the second item, basically it was something that worked better on the page than it looked in the movie adaptation.


On a related note, someone illustrated two scenes from the novel and set them to clips from the audiobook referencing these two scenes:

Jurassic Park novel chapter: Nedry (aka the death of Dennis Nedry):




Jurassic Park novel chapter: The Main Road (aka the T-Rex paddock scene):

Old 12-31-18, 05:07 PM
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Re: Jurassic Park question

What exactly is the question about Lexi and the light? Her using it in the car and attracting the attention of the T rex? I think it's clear that her brother is the dinosaur geek, she's there to see her grandfather. She's the computer geek, that gets into the system later to restart it.

Going back to the car scene, she's a kid and it's dark and she panics. She finds a flashlight so she uses it.

Also, I recall reading a comment from James Cameron, who had also apparently bid on the rights. After viewing Spielberg's version, he said he's glad he didn't get it himself because he would have made Aliens with dinosaurs, and he's glad kids got to see Spielberg's version.

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