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The Rewatchables ·

Jurassic Park

year 1993decade 90sdirector Steven Spielberggenre Science fiction
host Sean Fennesseyhost David Shoemakerhost Bryan Curtis
All 14 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 6:08

The T. rex attack

Sean Fennessey: The water glass and T. rex reveal are nominated as an iconic, still-effective sequence.

Effects limitations are compared with Jaws as constraints that encouraged inventive staging.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 54:31

The God/man/dinosaur exchange

Sean Fennessey: The exchange about God creating dinosaurs and woman inheriting the earth is nominated.

The film

Jurassic Park (1993)

Directed by Steven Spielberg · Science fiction

127 minutes

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Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Sam Neill Alan Grant
Laura Dern Ellie Sattler
Jeff Goldblum Ian Malcolm
Richard Attenborough John Hammond
Bob Peck Robert Muldoon
Martin Ferrero Donald Gennaro
B.D. Wong Henry Wu
Samuel L. Jackson Ray Arnold
Wayne Knight Dennis Nedry
Joseph Mazzello Tim Murphy

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

15:37

Casting What-Ifs

Harrison Ford and William Hurt were possibilities for Alan Grant, while Jim Carrey reportedly auditioned for Ian Malc...

Harrison Ford and William Hurt were possibilities for Alan Grant, while Jim Carrey reportedly auditioned for Ian Malcolm.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:15:37Read transcript
  • Ford reportedly declined Grant and later felt he had made the right choice. — Sean Fennessey
  • Hurt was also reportedly offered Grant; an initial response says either actor could have worked without much change.
  • Carrey reportedly auditioned for Malcolm, which would make a different movie.
  • A later objection finds Hurt too internal and intellectual for Grant’s evolving caretaker and action role. — Sean Fennessey
  • A separate objection says Ford’s stardom would distract from the dinosaurs, while Neill can recede and gradually become a leading man.
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30:32

Half-Assed Internet Research

The rights auction, production history, scientific details, sound and practical effects, finances, cultural influence...

The rights auction, production history, scientific details, sound and practical effects, finances, cultural influence, and unused material

In the discussion (17)
Approx. transcript time · 00:30:32Read transcript
  • Studios reportedly pursued the property with Burton, Donner and Dante attached; Verhoeven is also recalled as a possibility. — Sean Fennessey
  • One response does not want the Burton version; another is particularly interested in seeing it.
  • Making this film first was reportedly a condition for greenlighting Schindler’s List. — Sean Fennessey
  • Spielberg’s simultaneous work and two landmark releases are proposed as perhaps the greatest single filmmaker year. — Sean Fennessey
  • The success reportedly increased interest in studying paleontology, followed by the profitable ER collaboration.
  • The reported Jurassic examples are transcribed as brociosaurus, dilaphasaurus, Matriacanathosaurus and Stegosaurus, with spelling uncertainty retained. — Sean Fennessey
  • The rights payment is clarified as one-and-a-half million plus half a million for the first script, followed by a rewrite.
  • The T. rex roar reportedly layers dog, penguin, tiger, alligator and elephant sounds.
  • A Psycho story about selecting a stabbed melon sound illustrates meticulous effects work, with the story’s literal truth explicitly uncertain.
  • A guitar string under the dashboard reportedly created the glass-of-water ripple. — Sean Fennessey
  • Chip Kidd’s skeleton cover is credited and praised; a childhood memory recalls carrying an advance-release pamphlet because the design was arresting.
  • An abandoned idea had the children riding a Tyrannosaur; the speakers are unsure whether the prop was built and say the attempt did not look credible.
  • Grant is reportedly modeled on technical adviser Horner; a stated two-hundred-fifty-million-dollar Spielberg payment is judged deserved. — Sean Fennessey
  • The Lost World receives both harsh disappointment and a qualified defense as a fine, watchable film despite uneven performances.
  • Dante is imagined making a cheaper, fast, fun version and Donner a lower-rent Spielberg-like version. — Sean Fennessey
  • A Donner version jokingly gives the too-old-for-this line to Danny Glover as Arnold, or even to the dinosaur.
  • The replacement screenwriter is discussed as a recurring Spielberg collaborator with a varied career.
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52:08

Picking Nits

Quiet punchlines and simplified science (both defended); late neon colors

Quiet punchlines and simplified science (both defended); late neon colors

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:52:08Read transcript
  • Under-the-breath punchlines can be so quiet that viewers miss them.
  • The animated DNA explanation is praised as effective exposition despite the questionable science.
  • The scientist heroes are defended for inspiring curiosity and interest in paleontology. — Sean Fennessey
  • The late neon-color observation is explicitly recalled as a missed nitpick, covering the vehicles and logos.
  • The merchandise display is defended despite a remembered controversy over its commercialism.
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58:08

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Whether dinosaur cloning is plausible, whether another director could improve the film, and whether its CGI breakthro...

Whether dinosaur cloning is plausible, whether another director could improve the film, and whether its CGI breakthrough ultimately diminished Spielberg’s distinctiveness

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 00:58:08Read transcript
  • A claimed later DNA discovery is introduced as possibly apocryphal, leading to a question about any plausible dinosaur revival. — Sean Fennessey
  • A hypothetical lab creates dinosaurs and kills them at one day old repeatedly until the process works.
  • Different directors and deliberately varied genres might make interesting alternatives, even if a particular version might be worse.
  • Making the CGI toolkit widely available is proposed as weakening Spielberg’s distinctive spectacle and encouraging similar-looking blockbusters.
  • Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can are defended as later rewatchable counterexamples, qualifying the claim that this was the last such Spielberg film.
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