Memory Lane
The Moment: Hammond attempts to explain himself to Sattler by recalling the first public spectacle he got off the ground. “It was a Flea Circus, Petticoat Lane. Really quite wonderful. We had a wee trapeze, and a carousel and a seesaw. They all moved, motorized of course, but people would swear they could see the fleas. ‘I see the fleas, mummy! Can't you see the fleas?’ Clown fleas, high wire fleas, fleas on parade... But with this place, I wanted to show them something that wasn't an illusion, something that was real, something they could see and touch. An aim not devoid of merit.”
Dino Magic: In this scene, we see the flip-side of Hammond’s over-reaching ambition: an old man who just wanted to shock and amaze.
Tall Grass
The Moment: The In-Gen crew make their way through a paddock of tall grass, which just so happens to be filled with Raptors. Naturally, it isn’t long before their numbers are thinned somewhat.
Dino Magic: The semi-concealed Raptors are an extremely frightening proposition, their tails protruding from the grass like shark fins…
R.E.S.P.E.C.T
The Moment: Dr. Grant gives a smart-mouthed kid a little lesson in dino dining: “Velociraptor’s a pack hunter, you see, he uses coordinated attack patterns and he is out in force today. And he slashes at you with this… a six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the the middle toe. He doesn’t bother to bite your jugular like a lion, say… no no. He slashes at you here… or here… or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is… you are alive when they start to eat you. So you know… try to show a little respect.”
Dino Magic: We’re sold, the Raptors are totally badass!
Big Game Hunting
The Moment: Ingen’s hunting team begin their invasion of Isla Sorna, with Pete Postlethwaite’s Roland Tembo leading the charge.
Dino Magic: Postlethwaite is a worthy replacement for Bob Peck’s Muldoon, and the scene also gives us a look at some previously unseen dinos. First stop? The Pachycephalosaurus. No wonder Tembo struggles with the pronunciation!
Ah Ah Aaaaah
The Moment: Sam Jackson’s Mr. Arnold attempts to hack into Nedry’s computer, only to be confronted with an animated Nedry reprimanding him for failing to say the magic word.
Dino Magic: It’s the closest we get to Sam Jackson going postal. “I have had it with these motherfucking hackers, in this motherfucking park,” he doesn’t say.
Setting A Trap
The Moment: The Raptors are revealed to have evolved somewhat by the time Jurassic Park 3 rolls around, communicating with each other to set a trap around Dr. Grant.
Dino Magic: Despite the proliferation of beasties on show in this third episode, its good to see the Raptors maintaining their status as the most devious dinosaurs on the block.
One Liner
The Moment: As Sattler and Grant fawn over the stricken Triceratops, Malcolm reflects on the unusual magnitude of the creature’s droppings. “That’s one big pile of shit.”
Dino Magic: It's just a very funny line isn’t it, particularly amid the dino-based reverie. Way to spoil the mood, Malcolm!
Life Finds A Way
The Moment: Dr. Hammond shows Grant and Sattler a hatching dinosaur egg, before reassuring them that the all-female dinosaur colony could never breed. “Life finds a way,” warns Malcolm, ominously.
Dino Magic: Hammond’s foolishness in attempting to play God is one of the film’s major themes, and Malcolm is the voice of dissent throughout many of the early scenes. How right he was.
Aerial Assault
The Moment: The group realise they have wandered into the Pterodactyl aviary, just as one of the winged beasties emerges out of the fog to get its claws into young Eric
Dino Magic: The Pterodactyls present a novel threat in this third movie, and the hungrily squawking chicks are truly hideous. The best part of the third film by a distance…
Caged Beast
The Moment: The film’s opening scene, in which a Raptor in transit chows down on a luckless labourer. The container did say “handle with care”…
Dino Magic: We’ve yet to actually see any dinosaurs at this point, but as a way of building tension ahead of the big reveal, this scene is a belter.
