Was Jurassic Park III’s Most Controversial Scene REALLY That Bad?

What an odd franchise Jurassic Park is. The saga started with one of the most beloved motion pictures in history, with a Steven Spielberg directorial effort that still endures as one of the best big-budget movies ever produced. Subsequent entries in the Jurassic Park franchise have made money; however, they’ve also never drawn anywhere near the euphoric praise of that inaugural entry, and the Jurassic World sequel trilogy received increasingly hostile reviews with each new installment. There’s really only one universally beloved entry across this expansive saga, and it is the original.

Among many divisive moments appearing in later Jurassic Park movies is an infamous Jurassic Park III dream sequence. This widely lampooned moment transpires as Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) awakens on a plane heading to Isla Sorna. He looks around, believing it’s empty, and then spies a velociraptor right in front of him. He recoils in horror at the beast which then utters the word “ALAN!” in the voice of his assistant Billy (Alessandro Nivola). Grant then awakens in terror at his nightmare. Now the audience knows how deeply his prior dinosaur experiences have traumatized him.

Everyone from the Honest Trailers crew to official LEGO video game adaptations have skewered this Jurassic Park III scene involving a chatty raptor. Now that Jurassic Park III has existed for decades, it’s worth considering…was the scene really all that bad?

Did Jurassic Park III Go Too Far With That Talking Raptor?

In a pre-9/11/Owen Grady/locusts era for Jurassic Park cinema, it’s easy to conceive this as the worst possible sequence imaginable for the franchise. After all, this wasn’t just a conceptually frightening moment that ended up looking silly – it’s also the scene where the velociraptors finally talk! Sure, it’s in the confines of a dream sequence, however, it’s still a deeply ill-advised move undercutting the menace of these iconically scary dinosaurs. It’s hard to pivot back from “ALAN!” to them being frightening killing machines on Isla Sorna. Even for this heightened saga, that’s a tonal shift that’s hard to buy.

The talking raptor dream sequence outburst also epitomizes larger problems with this Jurassic Park installment. Jurassic Park III was once considered the outright low point of the saga, a weird aberration littered with flaws. It wasn’t just the only entry devoid of Steven Spielberg’s directing chops. This was also a blockbuster with an infamously truncated ending, not to mention an earlier sequence killing off everyone’s favorite T-Rex in favor of the Spinosaurus. This was a deeply divisive motion picture in every respect. Having a raptor bellow out “ALAN!” early on in the runtime just provided an easily discernible punchline to encapsulate those problems.

Still, the Jurassic Park franchise’s perception circa 2024 is not the same as it was back in 2001. Things are a lot more complicated now with the franchise’s reputation. For one thing, Jurassic Park III is no longer the only entry Spielberg sat out as director. On the contrary, Jurassic Park and The Lost World are now the exceptions rather than the norm for being helmed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker. More urgently, multiple Jurassic installments have now hit theaters that garnered significantly worse reviews than Jurassic Park III. A lowpoint in 2001 is now looked back on with some fondness against the louder, more recent shortcomings of a boondoggle like Jurassic World Dominion.

Since Jurassic Park III, audiences have seen even more evolving interpretations of dinosaur behavior, including from the raptors. The humanization of having a raptor bellow out “ALAN!” was a precursor for the Jurassic World entries giving raptors like Blue all kinds of anthropomorphized characteristics. Rather than being confined to one goofy moment, entries like Dominion and Fallen Kingdom were all about extensively undercutting the once-frightening power of the raptors. That status quo shift doesn’t suddenly remove all criticisms of the “ALAN!” sequence in JPIII; however, it does indicate that things got even sillier and more fantastical for the franchise than what it delivered in 2001.

It’s a dumb drawn-out sequence that doesn’t make much sense unless audiences understand the poetic irony underpinning this demise. Worse, it’s all just a rehash of a critical Jurassic Park set piece. This Jurassic World Dominion scene doesn’t have the chutzpah to fall on its sword over something distinctively strange like a raptor shouting “ALAN!” Instead, like so many Jurassic Park sequels, it settles for just reheating up familiar scenes from the past. Even further bad Jurassic World scenes that are more conceptually unique lack the creative audacity and brevity of that Jurassic World III scene. Which would you would rather watch? A raptor briefly shouting “ALAN” or any of the excruciating romantic banter between Owen Grady and Claire Dearing? The choice should be obvious!

Jurassic Park III: King of Memes

Even Jurassic Park III’s use of a practical effects raptor to emit that “ALAN” phrasing makes it admirable in hindsight. There’s no doubt this installment struggled mightily to organically shift between practical and CG dinosaurs, but the animatronics that do appear are nicely realized. Using an actual raptor lends emotional immediacy and further admirable commitment to even this ludicrous meme fodder. This wasn’t some digitized digression added hastily in post-production; people toiled away on set to properly realize a raptor opening its lips and speaking.

Best of all, Jurassic Park III’s silliest moment inspired so many fun memes and spoofs in the years that followed. A raptor bellowing “ALAN” has produced everything from a LEGO joke to fan art, memes, and everything in between – it’s still producing a ripple effect through pop culture decades after it first appeared on movie theater screens. Chances are, even the most ardent haters of the “ALAN” scene have giggled at the parodies it inspired. Divisive as it may be, this Jurassic Park III dream sequence did some good in the world.

Could the same be said for the more generic shortcomings of the Jurassic World movies? There sure don’t seem to be many cosplayers mimicking the various cartoonish evildoers from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – but you can still buy T-shirts of a raptor speaking the word “ALAN”, complete with a little speech bubble. Merchandise for the clumsiest Jurassic World lines, meanwhile, is non-existent. The requel trilogy was so determined to give people what they wanted (nostalgia), that it refused to take the kind of risks that inspire conversations. Jurassic Park III, meanwhile, took a massive swing in this dream sequence that’s inspired some deeply amusing – and lasting – pop culture responses.

Even considering all of these elements, there’s no denying that Jurassic Park III’s “ALAN” moment is profoundly ridiculous. Responding to it with relentless ridicule or even outright hatred is completely understandable. It was a harbinger of this franchise diminishing the power of those once-fearsome velociraptors, and a flight of fantasy that exemplified Jurassic Park III’s clumsier screenwriting impulses. Still, time has been kind to that mouthy raptor: Sit through over six hours of Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady being a stern straightforward action hero in Jurassic World movies, and you’ll long for the unapologetic goofiness of Jurassic Park III.

If nothing else, the evolving reputation of that talking raptor scene, much like the perception of the Star Wars prequels, shows how malleable the public’s response to blockbusters is over time. One generation’s all-time disaster is the next generation’s childhood favorite that inspired a lifetime love of movies. Back in 2001, Jurassic Park III inspired people to bury their faces in their hands in cringe. Now, in our modern world, it’s easier to appreciate the film’s charms and quirks in a cinematic landscape marked by rehashing old ideas.

Even Sam Neill Loves Jurassic Park III

In a previous interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Sam Neill expressed how much he personally enjoys what Jurassic Park III brought to the table:

“I [thought], ‘That’s pretty cool!’ [Laughs] I was just talking to someone earlier in the day who said, ‘I really like “Jurassic Park III” and it gets an unfair [treatment],’ Neill said. “…I agree that the last 10 minutes are way too easy and way too hurried, but I think up to that point, it’s pretty damn good.”

In hindsight, perhaps one can even say that Jurassic Park III’s talking raptor was never truly THAT bad…perhaps.

You can stream the Jurassic movies on Peacock.