# Jurassic Park (spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 30, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325 "2010-05-30T22:46:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/21 "2010-06-03T10:33:56Z")
The bigger goof on the velociraptors is their being 10 feet tall. The damn thing’s the size of a turkey. And don’t tell me Deinonychus is a velociraptor, 'cause it’s not V. mongoliensis, which is the name mentioned in the book. Fucking Michael Chrichton, hiring a fucking illustrator as his dinosaur expert. And BigT, what? What guy’s research? A character in the movie, or what? ETA: Dammit! ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/22 "2010-06-03T11:09:01Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I’d like to know how they cloned the extinct plants - I wasn’t aware that there were vegetarian mosquitos. This was the thing that stuck out to me. Where in the hell did they get the DNA for the plants? That and the fact that Ellie is so mesmerized by a leaf that she fails to notice the jeep she’s in stops, and there is a 100+ foot brontosaurus about 100 feet from her. Maybe they got the plant DNA from, uh, vegisaurus poo. Nope. that doesn’t do it. vegetarian mosquitos. That has to be it. ---
**Author:** ![Woeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Woeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Woeg)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/23 "2010-06-03T12:48:15Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > This was the thing that stuck out to me. Where in the hell did they get the DNA for the plants? > > That and the fact that Ellie is so mesmerized by a leaf that she fails to notice the jeep she’s in stops, and there is a 100+ foot brontosaurus about 100 feet from her. > > Maybe they got the plant DNA from, uh, vegisaurus poo. > > Nope. that doesn’t do it. > > vegetarian mosquitos. That has to be it. Male mosquitoes drink nectar and sap, if I remember rightly - only female mozzies drink blood, and only when they are carrying eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/24 "2010-06-03T16:56:23Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > But I guess it was worth it for Jeff Goldblum’s great line"that is one big pile of shit". I can’t think of any better lines in the history of cinema. Don’t forget it also delivers, “You \*are \*going to remember to wash your hands before you eat?!” In addition to separating the groups, I think the scene is nicely atmospheric. The storm is starting to blow up, and I think it does evoke that foreboding pre-storm feeling well. Besides, no gaffe outdoes, “It’s a Unix system!” _cue weird, unbelievably user-unfriendly, 3D GUI_ ---
**Author:** ![Mogle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mogle/32/12021_2.png) [@Mogle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mogle)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/25 "2010-06-03T17:14:32Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > Besides, no gaffe outdoes, “It’s a Unix system!” _cue weird, unbelievably user-unfriendly, 3D GUI_ But it _was_ Unix, that was a real program made by SGI called [fsn](http://web.archive.org/web/20070409024417/http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html). Of course they made it mainly to show off, but it was not a Hollywood invention. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/26 "2010-06-03T17:24:17Z")
The single biggest problem I had with the movie is the ending. It remarkably altered the meaning of the book. I’m not going to spoiler things here so avert thing eyes if necessary. 1. In the book, which I quite like, the velociraptors are largely dealt with by Grant through his use of **his brain**. It’s the advantage humans have over the velociraptors: a better use of knowledge and manipulation of data. Grant is trapped. He has eggs. He knows velociraptors eat eggs. He injects poison in the eggs gets the raptors to eat them. BANG, brains and knowledge win out. 1. In the movie humans are screwed. Reduced to nothing more than running away into an ever-decreasing refuge. Cue the T. Rex to eat the velociraptors and the humans run like hell like the pathetic, maladapted evolutionary holdovers they are. The book summed up that we have advantages over our opponents. The movie made us into scream-queens suitable for kidnapping and being rescued. Feh. Pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/27 "2010-06-03T19:07:19Z")
> [@Mogle](#): > > Was the lack of feathers a goof, though? The movie is from 1990, had anyone found dinosaur fossils with preserved feathers at that point? From what I can tell on Wikipedia, while the relationship between birds and dinosaurs has been suggested based on skeletal structure since the 19th century, we didn’t find any feathers until the early 1990’s. The first dromaeosaur (the group to which _Velociraptor_ belongs) fossil that was found with feathers - _Sinornithosaurus_ - was reported in 1999. The first dinosaur fossil to be found with feathers was, of course, _Archaeopteryx_. _Avimimus_ was the first non-avian dinosaur fossil reported to have possesed feathers, back in 1987. Pretty much the rest of the finds came from the mid-'90s on. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/28 "2010-06-03T19:12:41Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > or how in JP they go on about “movement-based vision” despite the T.rex’s relatively good setup for binocular vision In the book, Crichton at least gave a cursory explanation for why this might be the case (of course, the in-book explanation was still stupid… The only good part of the sequel book was that they retracted that bit). In the movie, they didn’t even try to explain it away! ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/29 "2010-06-03T19:14:15Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I know that, even back in 2004, it wasn’t completely accepted that all raptors had feathers. I know my paleontologist friend didn’t seem to think so. What he was mad about in the movie was how the guy’s research they used was often very flimsy, and was based on some rather unethical work–i.e. stealing stuff from legitimate digs, working on private property without permission. And, despite this, most of his theories were crap. A raptor being a bigger threat than a T-rex? Puh-lease. Robert Bakker’s _Dinosaur Heresies_ came out in 1988, and Gregory S Paul’s _Predatory Dinosaurs of the World_ came out shortly after, and both as far as I remember proposed the idea of feathered raptors, and the ideas were floating around for a while…JP was released in 1993; granted, it was in production for a longer period of time, but it’s really no excuse for the raptors being unfeathered in the sequels; they even added some protofeathers on them in JP3 as a kind of compromise. Actually, more maddening than that is the idea of using frog DNA to complete the gene sequences for the dinos; why?? A crocodile or bird would have been much more appropriate. Using a frog makes very little sense. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/30 "2010-06-03T19:46:41Z")
> [@Mogle](#): > > But it _was_ Unix, that was a real program made by SGI called [fsn](http://web.archive.org/web/20070409024417/http://www.sgi.com/fun/freeware/3d_navigator.html). Of course they made it mainly to show off, but it was not a Hollywood invention. Well, I’ll be damned. Ignorance fought. (It still looks like a stupid interface though!) ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/31 "2010-06-03T20:20:18Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Actually, more maddening than that is the idea of using frog DNA to complete the gene sequences for the dinos; why?? A crocodile or bird would have been much more appropriate. Using a frog makes very little sense. Frogs were used because frogs can change their sex. > [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > The single biggest problem I had with the movie is the ending. It remarkably altered the meaning of the book. > > I’m not going to spoiler things here so avert thing eyes if necessary. > > 1. In the book, which I quite like, the velociraptors are largely dealt with by Grant through his use of **his brain**. It’s the advantage humans have over the velociraptors: a better use of knowledge and manipulation of data. > > Grant is trapped. He has eggs. He knows velociraptors eat eggs. He injects poison in the eggs gets the raptors to eat them. BANG, brains and knowledge win out. > > 1. In the movie humans are screwed. Reduced to nothing more than running away into an ever-decreasing refuge. Cue the T. Rex to eat the velociraptors and the humans run like hell like the pathetic, maladapted evolutionary holdovers they are. > > The book summed up that we have advantages over our opponents. The movie made us into scream-queens suitable for kidnapping and being rescued. > > Feh. Pointless. I had heard that originally the movie ended like the book, but test audiences were unsatisfied, and wanted to see more of the T Rex. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/32 "2010-06-03T20:22:17Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > Well, I’ll be damned. Ignorance fought. > > (It still looks like a stupid interface though!) I could easily imagine Nedry using an interface like that, just to fuck with all the other programmers. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/33 "2010-06-03T20:25:32Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > Frogs were used because frogs can change their sex. Not a very good reason, seeing as how InGen _wanted_ them all to be female (to prevent that whole “breeding” thing…), and _not_ to change sex. The sex-changing was another unintended side-effect of using frog DNA (which is still stupid). ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/34 "2010-06-03T21:31:42Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > I could easily imagine Nedry using an interface like that, just to fuck with all the other programmers. And not locking his workstation, nor adding any password protection at all. Ahem. (That scene would’ve been ten times better had she started to use it, then suddenly got “Ah ah ah! You didn’t use the magic word!”) ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/35 "2010-06-03T21:46:47Z")
> [@Darwins\_Finch](#): > > Not a very good reason, seeing as how InGen _wanted_ them all to be female (to prevent that whole “breeding” thing…), and _not_ to change sex. The sex-changing was another unintended side-effect of using frog DNA (which is still stupid). I think **Maus Magill** meant \*Crichton’s \*reason for choosing frog DNA, not Hammond’s. IOW, the plot Crichton created demanded that InGen make a stupid and illogical decision, and he was not a sufficiently talented writer to come up with either a solid explanation nor a good alternative. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/36 "2010-06-03T22:36:55Z")
> [@Tanbarkie](#): > > I think **Maus Magill** meant \*Crichton’s \*reason for choosing frog DNA, not Hammond’s. IOW, the plot Crichton created demanded that InGen make a stupid and illogical decision, and he was not a sufficiently talented writer to come up with either a solid explanation nor a good alternative. Regardless whether the decision was the author’s or one or more of the characters’, it was stupid 😛 Especially since crocodiles still make a [more reasonable option](http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/3/973). He gets his sex changing dinos, and the readers don’t get lame movement-based vision for _T. rex_. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/37 "2010-06-03T22:52:24Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Yeah, instead be nagged by other things, like how Nedry is supposed to be talking live to the guy at the docks, pleading for more time to get the embryos to him, and you can see the Quicktime progress bar on the video window indicating a pre-recorded video. > > Or the fact that the raptors are featherless. Or that the orientation of all the theropod forearms is incorrect, or how in JP they go on about “movement-based vision” despite the T.rex’s relatively good setup for binocular vision, or how the T.rex apparently can’t smell Grant and Lex right there in front of her, only to have another character in the sequel talk about how T.rex has one of the most effective olfactory senses in the history of land animals…the list goes on and on, but hell, I still love to watch it! In the 2nd book, Malcolm says the T-Rex doesn’t attack then because it wasn’t hungry. It had just eaten the goat. The difference between the ending of the movie and the book. I like them both. I like the movie ending because with the T-Rex saving them, it shows how the power of the animals is so much greater than man’s, and they can’t control it, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/38 "2010-06-03T23:26:26Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Also, it wasn’t eating the berries deliberately. The berries were falling onto the rocks that it was swallowing to store in its crop in order to grind its food. Also in the book, it wasn’t a trike. It was a stegosaurus. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2010, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/39 "2010-06-03T23:31:54Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Also in the book, it wasn’t a trike. It was a stegosaurus. Or, as the movie calls them, [“STEGASAURUS”](http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090430165232/jurassicpark/images/thumb/1/14/JP-DinoDNA2.jpg/250px-JP-DinoDNA2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![nbooj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@nbooj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nbooj)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325/40 "2010-06-04T01:20:42Z")
My favorite scene is when Lex is on the computer, Dr. Grant and Ellie are trying to keep the velociraptor out, the gun just inches too far, and Tim is doing NOTHING. A little help maybe??:smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jurassic-park-spoilers/541325.md?page=3)