‘Jurassic Park’ risky filming: From a tyrannosaur eating a worker to a great natural phenomenon

When a client nearly dies inside a dinosaur, the production is threatened by a powerful hurricane and you’re shooting another movie at the same time, you know you’re in for a very dangerous shoot.

But for what director could something like this happen and in what feature film? Someone just like Steven SpielbergOne of the most important makers of Seventh Art films, which he directed to the world in 1993 Jurassic ParkIt is one of the most influential films in popular culture.

31 years have passed since then and today, cinema is full of computer graphics and more and more prequels, sequels and remakes. But just as repetition continues, which only guarantees commercial success, there are also films that were produced with a great deal of passion and love for cinema, ultimately risking the lives of their participants.

This was the case Jurassic Parka film that was distinguished not only by Spielberg’s practical effects that brought dinosaurs into our era, but also by the risks that the director and team decided to take to make this project a timeless classic.

Throughout the movie, Dr. Ian (Jeff Goldblum), Ellie (Laura Dern) And Alan Grant (Sam Neill) They spend their time escaping from various dinosaurs, including a T. rex, which left one of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history. But what did not meet the same fate was the worker who was about to die inside the mouth of the most terrifying dinosaur in the movie.

The film pioneered the use of 3D computer-generated special effects, but also made extensive use of animated characters to bring the dinosaurs to life. This means that CGI was only used when absolutely necessary. The rest of the time, animated characters were used, manipulated by a team of operators.

In the final weeks of filming Tyrannosaurus rex animatronic doll, known as “Roberta”, caused terror in the group. The production focused on filming close-ups of the famous dinosaur, choreographed by special effects expert Stan Winston and his team.

Due to its enormous size, the doll had to be disassembled and transferred to the Warner Bros. set. Where it was reassembled. The reassembly task involved reattaching the scaly foam skin, a delicate process that required a team member to work inside the tyrannosaur’s jaws.

Alan Scott, one of the mechanical designers, volunteered for this dangerous mission. Using a bucket of glue and a brush in hand, Scott had to glue the last few meters of skin from the inside of the dinosaur’s mouth. Before starting, warn the operator about the electronic controls.

“Don’t turn it off, make sure no one trips on that wire. ‘I’ll be inside, and if this thing moves, with all those hydraulics inside, I’ll die.’Scott warned his partner. However, while he was working, the studio experienced an unexpected power outage, causing the puppet’s hydraulics to shut down and the puppet’s jaws to slowly begin closing around him.

Faced with imminent danger, Scott curled up into a ball to protect his limbs from getting caught between the metal pieces. Fortunately, the T-Rex’s head slowly lowered to the ground, allowing the other team members to quickly help him. Finally, several people were able to open his jaws and pull him out without sustaining serious injuries.

If being crushed to death inside a mechatronic wasn’t scary enough, a natural disaster has also threatened the production of Jurassic Park. Production faced a major challenge when… Hurricane Iniki hits the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where they were recording. The natural phenomenon had a great influence on photography; It not only endangered the safety of the cast and crew, but also caused serious damage to local infrastructure.

Category 4 Hurricane Iniki The island was devastated by winds of approximately 195 kilometers per hourThousands of homes and all buildings on the filming site were destroyed. Sam Neill, who played Dr. Alan Grant, recalled in his memoir Have I Ever Told You This? The difficult circumstances they lived in.

“One morning they asked us to stay at the hotel and wait out a hurricane later that day. I was at the beach with Laura Dern, who asked me: “Sam, do you think we can die today?” “As these huge black clouds approached, I had to tell him, ‘Yes, I thought we might die.'”. Neil narrated.

The production team, led by producer Kathleen Kennedy, had to improvise on the fly. The cast and crew were moved to the hotel ballroom to protect themselves from the hurricane. Kennedy had to fly to Honolulu on a Salvation Army plane to coordinate the team’s return to Los Angeles and organize $20,000 in humanitarian aid for Kwai.

Despite the chaos, Spielberg and cinematographer Dean Cundy took the opportunity to film the tornado. Some of this footage was included in the film, specifically scenes showing large waves crashing into Isla Nublar.

Richard Attenborough, who played John Hammond, decided not to join the rest of the team in the hall and remained in his room. When asked by Spielberg how he stays calm, Attenborough replied: “Dear boy, I survived the blitz!”

Despite the devastation, filming finished 12 days ahead of schedule and remained within budget in US dollars 60 million dollars. Steven Spielberg, determined to keep the project from spiraling out of control, meticulously planned the two-year pre-production phase, creating detailed storyboards for each sequence. This preparation was critical to mitigate the effects of the hurricane on production and ensure the successful completion of Jurassic Park.

A curious fact about Steven Spielberg’s career is that in 1993, the director worked on two of his most important projects almost simultaneously: Jurassic Park And Schindler’s List. Universal Studios was clear that Spielberg was the right man to direct the latter, and in the meantime, the director was still wrapping up everything related to his dinosaur movie and was already planning his next work.

Sid Sheinberg, Universal’s president, offered him a deal: “You do Jurassic Park and we’ll do Schindler’s List.” Spielberg agreed, resulting in a year of intense work without interruption between the two productions. During the day I photographed Schindler’s List In Poland, at night I worked as an editor Jurassic Park With Michael Khan.

To coordinate both projects, Spielberg used the then-modern technology of renting Two satellite channels Via Polish TV against the US dollar $1.5 million In the week. This allowed him to maintain constant communication with his team in Los Angeles while filming in Europe.

Naturally, this was also a risk, because working on two such large projects simultaneously could have negatively affected both. But after hard work, the results were noticeable: Jurassic Park It became the highest-grossing film of its time, and Schindler’s List He won awards Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director.

In Spielberg’s words: “If I do not agree to the implementation Jurassic Park It was impossible for me to shoot Schindler’s List“. The opportunity to film the story of the Holocaust, inspired by Thomas Keneally’s book, was a personal mission for Spielberg, who wanted to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and combat the forgetting of the Holocaust.