A bad storm, a system failure, and a T. rex set loose from her paddock change the mood inJurassic Park(1993).The film is one of the best examples of movie magic achieved through a blend of digital and practical effects. While some of the day-set scenes may have aged, the escape of the T. rex has not lost its bite to show the dark side of a dinosaur amusement park. But there was another intense sequence in the pages of the original novel that was scrapped for being too challenging to make in the ’90s. A multi-chapter river raft chase has the T. rex hunting puny humans who nearly became part of the carnivore’s diet. Over thirty years later,Jurassic World Rebirthis giving fans the long-awaited river raft chasebecause, like an iconic line in the OG film would say: “Life, uh, finds a way.”
The River Raft Escape Is a Thrill Ride for Readers of the ‘Jurassic Park’ Novel
Not everything can be carried overwhen movies adapt books.For everything thatdirectorSteven Spielbergand his cast and crew do right in their 1993 film, a faithful telling of the book it’s based on would have been more nerve-racking. In the 1990 novelJurassic ParkbyMichael Crichton, the first run-in with the T. rex when she escapes from the paddock leads to a pursuit that covers four chapters. Dr. Alan Grant must care for siblings Tim and Lex as they try to find safety.In the chapter, “The Park,” Alan tries to quietly take out a raft to inflate as the T. rex sleepsnearby with a repulsive swarm of flies attracted to the gore around its mouth from a recent kill. The great predator soon wakes up, causing Alan and the kids to hop into the raft and head into the jungle river, to get as far as they can as fast as possible.
We Just Found Out Which ‘Jurassic Park’ Deleted Scene Is Being Used in ‘Rebirth’
The movie opens in July.
The intensity of the scene grows whenCrichton describes the dinosaur swimming after the raft as “the biggest crocodile in the world.”Getting away gives the trio a moment of peace in “Search,” where they stop the raft to head to land for “Aviary” and find out how territorial the local Cearadactyls are. Ambushed by the pecking flying reptiles, they return to the raft, and Alan and the kids continue down the river where they manage to pass by a pair of poisonous Dilophosaurs undetected. This culminates in the chapter “Tyrannosaur."
Alan and the kids are taken over a waterfall and narrowly miss getting snatched by the T. rex, who is waiting in the surging pool below. The river raft chase is an extended sequencethat finds danger at every point of the journey.Crichton even writes about how the raft getting pulled by a fast current was “starting to feel like an amusement park ride.” Except, at this park, the attractions will most certainly eat the tourists. Although it got scrapped fromJurassic Park, it’s now been adapted intothe seventh installmentin the series. But does it meet expectations?
A Dinosaur Attack in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Was Three Decades in the Making
ScreenwriterDavid Koepp, who wrote the screenplays for the first two entries in theJurassicfranchise, returns withRebirth,and he sharedin an interview withEntertainment Weeklywhat happened to the river chase the first time around. Some footage was shot, but it was mostly concept art, with Koepp saying, “It was already expensive enough and with unproven technology, so it didn’t work. Water was still, in ‘92, a big challenge.” But that was the 1990s. In the 2020s, the screenwriter looked to the best source for inspiration upon coming back to the franchise: Crichton’s novel.
“When I reached the point in the draft where I was writing the raft sequence,” he said, “I had the book here and I was typing here.” There are differences in what is put on the screen.The multi-chapter chase is condensed to almost ten minutes, with the film’s new humans, the Delgado family, replacing theJurassic Parktrio. Unlike how Grant takes on the protective father-figure role and takes charge of getting the raft, the injured Reuben (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) relies on his eldest daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise) for the task. While the scene is not as long, and there are no detours with flying reptiles, it does keep the tone of the book, plus several key moments.
T. Rex Fans Will Love This Action-Packed Scene in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’
A single Dilophosaur is ready to lunge at Teresa when she approaches the dock, but it hurries away when it spotsthe bigger dinosaurnearby. The tension increases once Teresa sees the sleeping T. rex and how little distance there is between them. Like in the book, the T. rex wakes up and charges after the Delgados, who frantically get onto the raft. “It was 1992 and nobody knew if the CGI was going to work, much less be able to make a dinosaur swim,” Koepp said in his EW interview.Modern digital effectshave caught up with the imagination of Michael Crichton.The T. rex swims after the Delgados, as relentlessly as it was described on the page, and underwater shots can have viewers jolting from the massive jaws snapping too close to legs and arms when the family gets tossed overboard.
Although it would have been more satisfying to haveSam Neillpaddle frantically to move his raft away from the T. rex, he did get his moment inJurassic Park III(2001) during a Spinosaurus attack in a river. As for a closer depiction of the river raft chase, it might have taken over thirty years, but fans get to finally see it realized in theJurassicfranchise withRebirth.
Jurassic World Rebirth
