There are a few PG/PG-13 movie franchises that push the boundaries towards R. The best example is Indiana Jones, with the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the heart rip in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the instant aging scene of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade all making one question whether a PG-including rating was the right decision for the MPAA (now the MPA) to make. The same applies to Jaws, particularly the original film. Ben Gardner’s one-eyed floating head, the death of the boating instructor, and the bloody devouring of Quint all fall within R-rated territory.
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But Bruce the shark isn’t the only animal whose movies blur the line between PG-13 and R…there’s also Jurassic Park. What follows are the dino scenes throughout those six movies (well, the first four), that stick with the viewer.
“When Ya Gotta Go”
Jurassic Park is a movie that helped define many a ’90s kid’s childhood, but without a doubt many of those same kiddos covered their eyes the first time they saw lawyer Donald Gennaro hightail it for the restroom. Look, most people don’t like “bloodsucking” lawyers, especially ones who abandon a pair of terrified children, but one can’t help but feel bad for Mr. Gennaro. He’s terrified, too.
Let this entry stand for the entire T. rex paddock scene. It’s genius, sublimely-paced, and stands as the franchise’s best stretch of minutes. This even if it doesn’t make sense. For instance, the rex is chasing Dr. Ian Malcolm when he crashes through the bathroom wall. Malcolm just kinds of flops to the floor instead of being eaten (not to mention, when we see the dinosaur’s area, it’s flat terrain, yet the scene ends with Alan Grant and the kids going down a cliffside). But, Gennaro was the character that was always going to be killed off, and apparently that was going to happen while on a toilet. What a way to go.
Newman!
Easily one of the most iconic dinosaurs of the Jurassic franchise, the Dilophosaurus is a neat-looking dinosaur. Its multi-colored frilly hood is hypnotic. But if you’re close enough to see that hood, you’re done.
On one hand, Wayne Knight’s Dennis Nedry is the true villain of Jurassic Park, even over the dinos. He’s responsible for the security systems being deactivated thus he’s responsible for the dinosaurs breaking through the fences. He didn’t care who died as a result of that, because he was going to be on a boat en route to the mainland to retrieve the other half of his pay-off money for stealing embryos. So, really, the viewer doesn’t feel much sympathy for the fellow. But his death is so drawn out, from knocking down the sign telling him where the dock is to losing his glasses to finally getting back into the Jeep only to find the Dilophosaurus in there waiting for him. He’s just increasingly doomed from the moment the vehicle crashes, and it raises the hairs on the viewer’s neck.
The Compys Opening
The Lost World: Jurassic Park may be seen as a step down from the original film, but its first scene is just as solid as that 1993 film’s “Shoot her!” opening. Having a child be the first victim of the dinosaurs was about as great a way to establish that the sequel was going to have a darker tone that Steven Spielberg and crew could have come up with, and it works like a charm. Fortunately, little Cathy Bowman doesn’t get killed by the even littler Compsognathus (Compys), but she’s definitely mangled by them. We don’t even see what happens to her, so we don’t know for sure just how bad they got her.
It would be a shame to not mention Peter Stormare’s Dieter Stark, who was killed by the compys later in the film. But he really earned it, going so far as to torture them with his taser, whereas Camilla Belle’s little Cathy was just trying to be friends with the critters. But, instead of nibbles from her lunch, they wanted nibbles of her.
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Poor Eddie Carr
The death of Richard Schiff’s Eddie Carr in The Lost World: Jurassic Park is without a doubt the saddest of the entire Jurassic film series. The field equipment expert clearly had a good heart, and it’s that good heart that got him killed. And in a truly awful way, too.
The best part of The Lost World is arguably the “high hide,” a treehouse like structure Carr brought along. It lets the viewer feel safe. And the moment Carr leaves that “high hide,” the viewer gets the sneaking suspicion this likable character isn’t going to be coming back. He leaves that elevated nest to save Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, and Nick Van Owen, who are trapped in an RV that’s danger close to falling off a cliff. Like most of the set pieces in the original film, it’s a drawn-out and well-orchestrated scene. No matter how many times it’s watched, the viewer is just hoping against hope that Carr can attach the cable to the RV, pull it back to safety, and all four individuals can go away together. Instead, the noise of the whole procedure attracts two T. rexes, and after tearing apart his car piece by piece they grab him and rip him in half. If any scene should have nabbed The Lost World an R rating, it’s this one.
Snake or T. Rex
Every character in The Lost World: Jurassic Park is on Isla Sorna to either capture dinosaurs for display on the mainland or to rescue someone. Then there’s Dr. Sarah Harding and paleontologist Dr. Robert Burke. They’re there because they genuinely want to be there. They’re excited to be there. And, when it comes to Burke, he’s going to stay there, in a pile of T. rex feces with a snake bite on his shoulder.
What’s so traumatic about Burke’s death scene is that the viewer understands his panic. On one hand he, like those around him, is taking shelter under a waterfall, avoiding the T. rex that has just smashed through the InGen camp. It’s a scary situation, just like when the nonvenomous milk snake slithers down into his jacket. Who would be able to stay still during that? And, to be fair, the milk snake looks an awful lot like the extremely venomous coral snake. “Red and yellow, deadly fellow, red and black, you’re safe, Jack.” Unless there’s a T. rex four feet away from you.
Left Behind
There are a few scenes in Jurassic Park III that could qualify for inclusion here. The opening parasailing scene is ominous stuff and Udesky’s death by raptor is intense, but the scariest bit is the offing of Cooper (pretty much immediately after they land on Isla Sorna).
What makes Cooper’s death something that sticks with the viewer is that you feel his desperation. He’s the last to make his way to the plane by a country mile and we hear him fire a few shots, so we know he’s in danger. Then, when we do see him rushing through the forest, he’s injured (somehow; one imagines the massive Spinosaurus would just eat him as opposed to slash his arm with a claw).
We know he’s doomed, but there’s just something about seeing an ultra-confident alpha male mercenary type weep as his cohorts sit on a plane barreling down the runway. He’s doesn’t have a chance and knows it. Not to mention, the scene that follows immediately after, with the aforementioned airplane crashed in a tree at which point Nash is dragged out and eaten, is also tense. The viewer doesn’t get a chance to grieve for Cooper the same way they didn’t get a chance to know him.
We Get It Already
While Jurassic World retained some of the original trilogy’s semi-graphic nature, it still felt like a somewhat toned town reboot. But the death of Zara Young is arguably the first time the franchise went too far. It was a scene that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way for good reason.
A lot of people get gobbled up in Jurassic World. It’s the entry that focuses on an operational dinosaur theme park, after all. And, for the most part, those who get eaten are men. Zara is the one female major character who gets killed off and the movie seems to take pleasure in it. She’s toyed with by Pteranodon after Pteranodon until, while being carried by one of the flying dinos, she and it are devoured by the aquatic Mosasaurus. And, unless the force of its bite broke her neck, she likely died slowly, while being digested by the beast. It’s a little much, and typically the type of death reserved for a truly despicable character. Zara’s biggest crime was being an inattentive babysitter.
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