# Watching Jurassic World on cable and have questions. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044 "2016-04-24T23:01:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/21 "2016-04-27T15:06:34Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > They modeled them after _Deinonychus_ for looks (and what we theorize of behavior) and called them velociraptors 'cause it sounded cooler. The could have changed the name to _Demonicus_! ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/22 "2016-04-27T19:46:58Z")
The gratuitous death scene that was undeserved is just more evidence of a mishmash of scripts. It was probably pulled from a different script where a real villain died that way and shoehorned into the final one to kill the assistant because the director thought it was a cool Dino Death Scene. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/23 "2016-04-27T20:03:15Z")
I think it’s just part of the trend to kill off “good” people. It’s become a staple of TV. Frankly, that was one of my favorite parts of the movie-- the way the pterodactyl(s) kept dropping her and then finally the sea “dinosaur” steps up and nabs them both. Did anyone care when the chubby guard got munched on by _Indominus_? He wasn’t really a bad guy. ---
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/24 "2016-04-27T21:20:52Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > 1. Why didn’t T-Rex eat Chris Pratt, the nephews and Ron Howard’s daughter at the end? I say it’s Mighty Joe Young Syndrome. That particular T-Rex had eaten one, and only one, human before - the lawyer on the toilet. Maybe it had a bad flavor association. ---
**Author:** ![DarkFire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@DarkFire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkFire)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/25 "2016-04-28T08:07:52Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Originally Posted by thelurkinghorror View Post > 8. Why are the velociraptors giant, instead of the large chickens they really were? > That really goes back to the first movie, and they needed to make them bad-ass, which is hard to do with chicken sized dinos. IIRC they actually explained this, although very quickly, when the owner of the park says they give the people the type of dinosaurs they want to see, not what they are actually like. It’s also the reason they created the Indominus. Because people want bad-ass dinosaurs, not realistic ones. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/26 "2016-04-28T14:14:02Z")
> [@DarkFire](#): > > IIRC they actually explained this, although very quickly, when the owner of the park says they give the people the type of dinosaurs they want to see, not what they are actually like. It’s also the reason they created the Indominus. Because people want bad-ass dinosaurs, not realistic ones. Yeah, but the raptors have been part of the park since Day One when Dr Hammond had more noble intentions for his park/preserve. After all, Hammond had invited Dr. Grant to get his paleontologist seal of approval on the park. There’s no indication that they were trying to fancy up the dinosaurs from the start; that came when people were getting bored with “real” dinosaurs. Ironically, the truth is that _Crichton_ (then Spielberg) thought the name was more bad-ass and so started messing with the actual dinosaur for the sake of cool in a series of movies about the wrongs of messing with nature for the sake of cool 😉 Per Wiki: > [@](#): > > Deinonychus were featured prominently in the 1990 novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and its 1993 film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg. However, Crichton and Spielberg chose to use the name Velociraptor for these dinosaurs, rather than Deinonychus. Crichton had met with [Deinonychus expert] John Ostrom several times during the writing process to discuss details of the possible range of behaviors and life appearance of Deinonychus. Crichton at one point apologetically told Ostrom that he had decided to use the name Velociraptor in place of Deinonychus for his book, because he felt the former name was “more dramatic”. Despite this, according to Ostrom, Crichton stated that the Velociraptor of the novel was based on Deinonychus in almost every detail, and that only the name had been changed. The Jurassic Park filmmakers followed suit, designing the film’s models based almost entirely on Deinonychus instead of actual Velociraptor, and they reportedly requested all of Ostrom’s published papers on Deinonychus during production. As a result, they portrayed the film’s dinosaurs with the size, proportions, and snout shape of Deinonychus. Of course, even from a tongue-in-cheek “They messed with nature!” standpoint, it was far from their worst liberty, i.e. the frilled and venom spitting _Dilophosaurus_. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/27 "2016-04-28T15:10:18Z")
Doesn’t answer any of the OP’s questions, but it’s damn funny: [Honest Trailer, Jurassic World](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8tmJbaFuYM). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/28 "2016-04-28T15:38:04Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > They modeled them after _Deinonychus_ for looks (and what we theorize of behavior) and called them velociraptors 'cause it sounded cooler. Regarding the size, _Velociraptor_, which was at most wolf-size, is known only from Mongolia. The fossils Grant found in the western US would have been [_Utahraptor_,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utahraptor)which was even bigger than the raptors shown in the movies. The species wasn’t named until 1993, the year _Jurassic Park_ came out, but large specimens had been found in 1991, and could have been known to the moviemakers. On the other hand, they could have just made the raptors big because they were cooler that way. (The raptors as portrayed were somewhat larger than _Deinonychus_.) > [@](#): > > They don’t have feathers, despite current research, because they weren’t assumed to be feathered in the mid 90s when the original was made and you can’t really go back and feather them now. Actually, _Velociraptor_ was being illustrated with feathers by Gregory S. Paul by at least 1986. The original movie was well behind the science of the time. They also missed an opportunity to make the raptors more colorful by giving them tiger stripes or leopard spots. I was especially disappointed when \*Jurassic Park II \* didn’t show the baby T. rex as being feathered, as it likely was even if the adult was not. (I like the idea of showing T. rex with fuzzy yellow down like a giant baby chick.:)) ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/29 "2016-04-28T17:31:05Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Actually, _Velociraptor_ was being illustrated with feathers by Gregory S. Paul by at least 1986. I’ll take your word on that but the Wiki I cited states that they were entirely modeled off of _Deinonychus_. So my point was that since _Deinonychus_ wasn’t figured to be feathered, they didn’t feather the pseudo-_Velociraptors_. What the actual _Velociraptor_ looked like was irrelevant since they were just stealing its name. I, too, thought that _Utahraptor_ would have been more accurate although (like you said) those were actually larger than in the film and also suffer from a dumb name for cinematic purposes 😛 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/30 "2016-04-28T19:28:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Actually, _Velociraptor_ was being illustrated with feathers by Gregory S. Paul by at least 1986. The original movie was well behind the science of the time. They also missed an opportunity to make the raptors more colorful by giving them tiger stripes or leopard spots. I was especially disappointed when \*Jurassic Park II \* didn’t show the baby T. rex as being feathered, as it likely was even if the adult was not. (I like the idea of showing T. rex with fuzzy yellow down like a giant baby chick.:)) Yeah, I was hoping to see lots of feathers this time around. Big miss on their part. And let’s not get started on the “aviary”… ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/31 "2016-04-28T19:42:26Z")
I can see why they wouldn’t have wanted to change the existing dinosaurs from the previous films but they could have added some new dinos with feathers. Or even hand-waved something about the raptors not being feathered because of the frog DNA thing but the newer dinos are bred through advanced processes that make them even more genetically correct. Back in the 90’s, Jurassic Park was notable in part because it changed the way a lot of people thought about dinosaurs (upright Tyrannosaurs, tail dragging, sauropods sitting in deep swamps with their heads poking out, etc) and modernized it. Bit of a shame that they’ve stayed locked into the “revolutionary” 90’s model when we know so much more now. Although every model I’ve seen of a feathered Tyrannosaur looks dorky as hell so maybe it’s no great cinematic loss. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/32 "2016-04-28T21:17:59Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’ll take your word on that but the Wiki I cited states that they were entirely modeled off of _Deinonychus_. So my point was that since _Deinonychus_ wasn’t figured to be feathered, they didn’t feather the pseudo-_Velociraptors_. What the actual _Velociraptor_ looked like was irrelevant since they were just stealing its name. I guess I should have been clearer. By the mid-1980s leading dinosaur restorationists like Paul were depicting _all_ small therapods as having feathers. Since Deinonychus and Velociraptor were very closely related, if one had feathers it would be expected that the other had feathers as well. This would have been cutting edge in the 1980s but has now been extensively supported, as well as the fact that even large therapods like tyrannosaurs had feathers. Jurassic Park’s depiction of raptors was out of date in 1993 regardless of whether they were Deinonychus or Velociraptor or any related genus. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/33 "2016-04-28T22:01:09Z")
The movie is all kinds of bad- but even the original was so filled with ridiculous plot holes that I can’t say it doesn’t continue a tradition. Still, I feel like trying to fanwank your questions. Sounds like fun. _1. What was the nephew’s parents plan? Send them to an amusement park, get a quick divorce and act as if everything was normal when the kids got back?_ Why shouldn’t it be? One of them is probably moving out of the house, and they are bound to argue a lot- why make the kids suffer through all the arguments and fights? This way, the kids would have had a swell time and wouldn’t have been there for the most traumatic part of the divorce. That’s kinda good parenting, there. _2. What happened to the pterodactyls? They were flying around attacking people and then they weren’t._ They realize they’re free, so their first instinct is to cruise the skies looking for some easy prey- and when the novelty wears off, they band together, leave the area and try to find a higher ground to claim as territory. Perfectly standard behavior for all genetically-engineered animals loosely based on flying dinosaur-like creatures. \*3. Why didn’t T-Rex eat Chris Pratt, the nephews and Ron Howard’s daughter at the end? I say it’s Mighty Joe Young Syndrome. \* Because the T-Rex is a chill dude! Since he’s mostly a scavenger, he’s not that interested in chasing those pesky mammals moving around. His behavior is consistent with the first movie- he only attacks anything that resembles a large enough creature invading his turf, whether it’s a jeep with its unfamiliar lights, a raptor trying to eat some mammals, or Imperious Rex. He wasn’t even that interested on the mammal carrying a light, who he could have chased and eaten in milliseconds. That’s why it looks like Bryce Dallas outruns him. Sure, Sam Neill should have known all that, but Sam Neill was a terrible paleontologist. _4. Did Ron Howard’s daughter’s assistant deserve her terrible death? I’m wondering why the movie punished her so._ Yes, from the perspective of the film makers. Keep in mind that this is a movie created by Hollywood types. Their worst nightmare is a surly assistant who won’t devote her full attention to bringing them their vegan hybrid dry cleaning on time. From their point of view, an uppity assistant is worse than Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/34 "2016-04-29T03:08:26Z")
Honestly, I find the entire premise of all the Jurassic films stupid. They are just big dumb animals. Not Godzilla monsters. You mean to tell me that the “finest structural engineers in the world” can’t design a dino-paddock that is strong enough to contain a dinosaur? Or that they can’t design the park to be “fail-safe” instead of “fail-fucked” so that a power loss or rebooting the computers doesn’t open every damn door on the island? Or that the animal control teams would have .50 cal Barrett or AS50 anti-material rifles as the SMALLEST firearms for chasing down a 30 foot dinosaur? > [@Jophiel](#): > > I can see why they wouldn’t have wanted to change the existing dinosaurs from the previous films but they could have added some new dinos with feathers. Or even hand-waved something about the raptors not being feathered because of the frog DNA thing but the newer dinos are bred through advanced processes that make them even more genetically correct. They specifically mention this in the film. They genetically design the dinos to look how people expect dinos to look rather than how they actually looked. - like big lizards, not big chickens. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2016, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/35 "2016-04-29T03:15:17Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > I’ll take your word on that but the Wiki I cited states that they were entirely modeled off of _Deinonychus_. So my point was that since _Deinonychus_ wasn’t figured to be feathered, they didn’t feather the pseudo-_Velociraptors_. What the actual _Velociraptor_ looked like was irrelevant since they were just stealing its name. Checking Paul’s _Predatory Dinosaurs of the World_, I see that he merges the genera _Deinonychus_ and _Velociraptor_ under the latter name, so the illustrations I was referring to were actually _Deinonychus_ (which Paul calls _Velociraptor antirrhopus_). ---
**Author:** ![Marine\_One](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marine_one/32/3461_2.png) [@Marine\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marine_One)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2016, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/36 "2016-04-29T20:25:08Z")
1. The Jeep Wrangler still had a good battery? Or a good replacement lying around after 20 years? And the gas was OK? 2. What caused the open gate in the restricted area that Zach and Gray entered to the original Jurassic Park visitor center? What kind of “restricted area” dino could destroy the gate? It looked kind of small. Don’t think the Indominus rex did it. 3. When they shut down the gyrospheres, why didn’t they have an automatic return for the spheres instead of telling everyone to return to the start of the gyrosphere ride? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/37 "2016-04-29T20:40:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > I guess I should have been clearer. By the mid-1980s leading dinosaur restorationists like Paul were depicting _all_ small therapods as having feathers. Since Deinonychus and Velociraptor were very closely related, if one had feathers it would be expected that the other had feathers as well. This would have been cutting edge in the 1980s but has now been extensively supported, as well as the fact that even large therapods like tyrannosaurs had feathers. Jurassic Park’s depiction of raptors was out of date in 1993 regardless of whether they were Deinonychus or Velociraptor or any related genus. All I know is, I want a Jurassic Park movie where the velociraptors look like [this.](http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/i-didnt-even-have-a-joke-for-this-week) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2016, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/38 "2016-04-29T21:30:14Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > _4. Did Ron Howard’s daughter’s assistant deserve her terrible death? I’m wondering why the movie punished her so._ > > Yes, from the perspective of the film makers. Keep in mind that this is a movie created by Hollywood types. Their worst nightmare is a surly assistant who won’t devote her full attention to bringing them their vegan hybrid dry cleaning on time. From their point of view, an uppity assistant is worse than Hitler. I think you’re on to something, there. But even more importantly, the assistant had to be sacrificed for the Bryce Dallas Howard character’s sins. The assistant was shown to be, like Ms. Howard’s character, _insufficiently nurturing_–she was on the phone to her boyfriend instead of watching the kids. But Ms. Howard’s character was shown to be insufficiently nurturing in _scene after scene after scene_. It was her defining trait: she’s a hard businesswoman who doesn’t even know the ages of her nephews! She doesn’t put aside her business matters to be with them! She doesn’t know what time kids go to sleep! She FAILS to be a nurturing person!!!1!!! And yet…_she is not punished for this_. All that happens to her is that she gets a little muddy. But the audience _needs_ to see this failure to be nurturing properly punished; and given our capacity to transfer emotional needs from one character to another, seeing the assistant die horribly was, more or less, enough. Balance was restored; transgression had met its just rebuke. (_Damn_, there’s a lot of product placement in that movie. I’m surprised they didn’t have a logo painted on the side of the mosasaurus. It could have brought in a pretty penny, given the emotional impact of that moment.) ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/39 "2016-05-01T00:53:54Z")
FWIW, according to the DVD extras, the actor who played the assistant did all her own high wire and dunk-the-intern stunts, so maybe the answer is ‘because they could.’ ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044/40 "2016-05-01T01:42:43Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I think you’re on to something, there. But even more importantly, the assistant had to be sacrificed for the Bryce Dallas Howard character’s sins. I don’t agree… exactly. This scene, as with a great deal of **JW** , was metatextual. It was commenting on the tropes of movies in general, and the genre and series in particular, not trying to say something in itself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/watching-jurassic-world-on-cable-and-have-questions/753044.md?page=3)