Velociraptor (movie canon)

Velociraptor antirrhopus is the 3 to 4 meters long raptor species that appears in all Jurassic Park films and film based media. At the time Michael Crichton wrote the first novel Deinonychus was included in the Velociraptor genus. The type-species Deinonychus antirrhopus was sometimes called Velociraptor antirrhopus. This reclassification is mentioned by Alan Grant in the first novel:

"Although Deinonychus is now considered one of the Velociraptors..."

Because Deinonychus was classified as a Velociraptor the raptors from the three films were based more on Deinonychus than Velociraptor, probably because Deinonychus was much larger and thus more dangerous. Because the film makers haven't reclassified these creatures but still call them Velociraptors, many Jurassic Park fans refer to them as Velociraptor antirrhopus (the old classification).

Real-life information about the antirrhopus species: Deinonychus at Wikipedia.

Size
Since these 'Velociraptors' from the films are so much bigger than Velociraptor mongoliensis it is suspected they actually were genetically altered Deinonychus called Velociraptors. Either that or that gene splicing with their larger relative Deinonychus occurred, causing them to grow much larger and look more like Deinonychus; in which case they are more Deinonychuses with some Velociraptor characteristics than the other way.

Hunting
Many raptors may have hunted in packs. The most well known evidence of this are the fossilized remains of a group of Deinonychus eating a Tenontosaurus. Grant's theory is that if you were to stand still in front of a raptor, the raptor would just look back. Then the attack would come, not from the front, but from the side. The other raptors, you wouldn't even know were there. The raptors would typically pounce on their prey and scratch at the stomach. They could run 60-70 mph so they could outrun most dinosaurs. In the real world they could only run at no more than 35 mph.

Raptors did not always get along, we see this in Jurassic Park and The Lost World when the raptors snap each other when they first enter the kitchen and again in The Lost World while Sarah makes her escape.

Raptors play on human emotion and set traps, using a human as bait. Another reference of an advanced attack method was employed from a lone male V. sornaensis included: trailing the humans without them knowing and entering another way into the lab and remaining perfectly still, playing on an illusion, while waiting for one of the humans to get to close and using her curiosity of the tanks to get the best of her. It's also possibly that raptors employed eye contact to eliminate a hunter.

Intelligence
Raptors are more akin to very intelligent wolves in their intelligence, example: opening doors, digging, etc. It is said that raptors were more intelligent than primates.

Communication
The animals communicate with one another, although communication with one another of the raptors of the first two movies is far less as opposed to the Jurassic Park III-raptors, which communicate more with each other. In JP a raptor is calling for her hunting partner, but there is no verbal communication while they were stalking Muldoon. There is a lot of verbal communication in JPIII while raptors are seen "talking" to each other in what could be attributed as a language.

Jurassic Park Series
Velociraptor antirrhopus is one of the most popular dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park Series. They appear in each movie and almost all board- and videogames.

Jurassic Park film
Alan Grant discovers a pack of Velociraptors at his dig site in Montana. In reality Velociraptor lived in Asia, not America. But from the size of the skeletons (3 meters long, 2 meters high) and the size of their claws (6 inches) it is clear that these skeletons are remains of Deinonychuses.

The 'Velociraptors' were genetically recreated by InGen using DNA trapped in fossilized mosquitos. They were bred on the island of Isla Sorna before being transported to Jurassic Park.

Initially, all the raptors were engineered as female to prevent unauthorized breeding. Apparently, only one known shipment to the island came, with the raptors being carried inside a large, maximum-security steel cage, and the loading process was a disaster. A large group of engineers, headed by Robert Muldoon, watched as the raptors were being loaded into the pen, only for the creatures start an uprising in an attempt to escape. The animals were eventually quelled and loaded into their pen, but a worker died in the process when a prominent female attempted to drag him into the cage. In the park, the raptors were kept in a large pen with an electric fence, their food consisting of live cows via crane. Nonetheless, Muldoon, remained cautious around the creatures, with InGen considering them a security hazard, considering their high intelligence and nasty disposition. Within days, the aforementioned female took over the pack and had the other raptors attack the fence to test it for weaknesses. When this failed, she killed all the other raptors save two, solidifying her role as leader of the pack.

During Nedry's insurrection, the Raptor pen was, initially, left unharmed, but the power to the fence inevitably gave out, when the mainframe was reset by Arnold. The raptors then managed to bite their way out and patrolled the area to the electric bunker. Arnold eventually came through to turn the power back on, only to be killed and eaten inside the bunker by one of the raptors, leaving only his arm. Ellie Sattler and Muldoon eventually came through the same way in an attempt to finish Arnold's work, walking into a trap set by two of the raptors. Fortunately, Muldoon saw through the raptor's ruse and held a gun on one of them while Ellie ran ahead into the bunker. Muldoon then attempted to hunt the raptor in the bush, but he underestimated the creature's intelligence, and was ambushed by the alpha female, who had been using the other raptor as bait. Muldoon was killed. Meanwhile, Ellie managed to turn the power back on to the park, only to be attacked from behind by the third raptor. Fortunately, she managed to escape with only a hurt foot.

Some time after, the three raptors migrated to the visitor's center, where the alpha female and one other followed the scent of the kids, Lex and Tim, into the kitchen. After a brief hunt around kitchen, the alpha managed to find Lex, only to attack a metal cabinet that showed her reflection. The second raptor then chased Tim into the freezer, but slipped on the ice, as Tim escaped and locked the door behind him. The alpha, however, managed to regain consciousness and followed the children, along with Alan and Ellie to the computer room. After a brief struggle, Lex managed to fix the locks and shut the door on the raptor. However, it broke through the glass and, when they climb into the vents. The third raptor broke free from the electric bunker and chased them to the front of the visitor's center, where it jumped on the sauropod skeleton, causing it to collapse as they climbed onto it. The humans attempted to escape, but are cornered by the alpha raptor. The alpha then took its opportunity and lunged for the humans, but is then seized out of the air by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. While the others escaped, the final raptor jumped on the rex's neck, only to slide into it's jaws and tossed violently into a decorative Tyrannosaurs Rex model skeleton.

The Lost World:Jurassic Park
The second film takes place on Isla Sorna, where the raptors (called Velociraptors by Ludlow and Burke), with the other dinosaurs, were initially bred. However, some incident has allowed the creatures to roam free, and a glitch in their genetic code has allowed some of them to be born males, allowing the animals to breed. The raptors appeared with orange skin and tiger-like stripes and orange eyes. On the island, the freed raptors are seen as having focused their numbers closer to the center of the island, with at least one pack of the creatures claiming the area around the InGen Village, and even the facility itself, as its territory. This makes it especially dangerous for anyone attempting to contact the outside world, as the facility is, supposedly, the only site on the island with the necessary equipment.

Four years after the incident at the first park, two groups of people; a small research team hired by John Hammond, and an enormous strike force hired by Peter Ludlow become stranded on the island when attacks by the local animals destroy most of their equipment. Despite Ludlow's warnings, the team embarks towards the central facility. However, after an attack by a pair of local Tyrannosaurs, the team becomes unorganized and seperated, and, upon nearing the facility, come across a field of tall grass that happens to be home to a pack of velociraptors, who promptly ambush the team, killing a fairly large number of men, including Ajay Sidhu. Whether it is because they had eaten their fill or simply did not catch them in time, the raptors do not attack Hammond's team when they come through the grass, and Nick Van Owen manages to make it into the facility and call for help. But when Malcolm, Sarah, and Kelly Curtis Malcolm enter the facility to find him, they are set upon by three raptors. While Ian distracts one the other two chase Sarah and Kelly inside the facility. Eventually, Ian evades the raptor and runs into the facility and is corered by one of the animals, but Kelly uses her gymnastic abilities to knock the raptor out of the window, where it is impaled and dies. As the Malcolms escape, Sarah tries to get out through the window, but is followed by the second raptor and cornered by the third. However, she manages to knock the raptor off the roof, causing it to fall on the third, provoking a violent fight between the two. She then joins up with the Malcolms and Nick and together they escape the island on a chopper.

Jurassic Park III
The raptors of the third film were much more bird like, with males having feather quills on the back of their heads. They were also brightly colored and the males had small, red eyes, whereas the females have yellow eyes. The JPIII Velociraptors work together as a highly-communicable pack as there is no brutality in their social structure. At the start of the film, before Grant attends to the island, Billy creates a model "Velociraptor Resonation Chamber", a bony structure that allows the Velociraptors a complex language.

The reasons for these changes in the look and behaviour of the raptors is explained by Jack Horner in the bonus feature The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park III:

"Science continues to progress and every year we discover new things. And now we have pretty good skulls of Velociraptor and we know that it looks different. So the skull has actually been changed to fit what we know about the animal. And we also recently have found evidence that Velociraptors had feathers. So we incorporated that in the new look of the Velociraptor.

"I really have been working through the whole process to get as many accurate things into the movie as possible. I've done a lot of CAT scan work on dinosaur skulls so we know that some dinosaurs actually could vocalize. So we've gotten some of that research into this movie." The social structure is - from what we saw - mostly obeyed by all raptors. It should be noted though that when Grant introduced the call box though a Raptor did break rank, possibly confused by the noise coming from the human, but the female reminded it to get back into rank and the Raptor did. It's likely that if it had been a JP-or TLW- Velociraptor, it would've not only attacked, but the other raptor's attention would be focused on killing Grant, Amanda, Eric, and Paul for food instead of egg retrieval. Ultimately though from the JPIII Velociraptor there was no "attacking" between each other whatsoever (as in JP and TLW) as it was only complex communication.

These understandings were in the fact that a lone male was sent to hunt the group of humans in JP3 and used it's environment perhaps purposely hiding behind the tank and staying perfectly still to scare Amanda Kirby.

In the genetics admissions lab, a male is seen hiding its head behind one of the incubator machines. As Amanda Kirby takes a closer look, it's eye moves and it pops out from behind the glass. It tries to bite Amanda, but is too big to fit through the machines. In itself this implies that JPIII-raptors are very understanding of human emotions of "curiosity". The raptor finds another way and chases the survivors eventually trapping them in a maze of dinosaur cages. Billy Brennan and Amanda trap the raptor in one of the cages and it lets out a screeching, birdlike call. Dr. Alan Grant is amazed by it calling for help. Eventually, the raptor gets out and calls to other raptors. In the jungle, other raptors hear the one from the building and answer back. During the stampede of Parasaurolophus and Corythosaurus, two males are seen running at speeds up to 50-60 mph. In the jungle a female stabs its retractable claw in Udesky's back and the pack uses him as bait to lure Billy, Amanda, and Paul Kirby. The raptors again make another play on human emotions when it comes to compassion, humans not wanting to leave another behind with Udesky. When the trap fails the raptors kill Udesky.

Meanwhile, after being split from the others, Dr. Grant sees the alpha female and male talking to each other. He wonders what they are saying or what they are looking for. Then he is cornered by three males and the alpha female. Just as the pack was closing in on him, Eric Kirby throws gas grenades, which drive the raptors away. They reappear near the end of the film, wanting their eggs back that Billy took earlier, which is the explanation for their earlier attack. They surround the survivors as they get down on their knees. The alpha female walks slowly up to Amanda and sniffs around her, thinking she stole the eggs. Dr. Grant opens Billy's bag and hands both eggs to Amanda who places them in the sand gently. Grant then takes out the resonating chamber Billy gave him and blows through it to confuse the raptors. He then imitates their cry for help. One of the males try to attack him, but is stopped by the alpha female. She then hears helicopters coming and caws each male a command. While they take off into the jungle, the alpha male stays with her. The female picks up the first egg and the male picks up the second. They then catch up with the pack. It is thought that the Velociraptors in Jurassic Park were good parents. Jurassic Park III proves that the raptors in this movie follow the group to get their eggs back. It is unknown if the raptors in the other movies did the same.



Interpretations about the Raptor Differences
The JPIII Velociraptors are so much different from those seen in the first two movies because the old raptor designs have been updated to fit with what we know about the animals (see Horner quote above). However, many Jurassic Park fans have been unwilling to except that the raptors from the first movies didn't exist as they were shown. They have searched for an explanation that allows both kinds of raptors to exist in the movie canon.

A popular explanation is that the raptors seen in JP3 are a different subspecies than those seen in the previous films. The JPIII-raptors were the first Deinonychuses that were created by InGen. That species is called Velociraptor sornaensis (because it was first seen of Isla Sorna). InGen most likely realized that it's intelligence and social structure would be making it too dangerous for park viewing. To emphasize the point more so, V. sornaensis (as seen in the movie) had a good understanding of the humans. Either that or they are genetic mutants that were deemed too dangerous for the park, explaining their absence from Nublar.

InGen then did some more genetic manipulation to produce the V. nublarensis (called after Isla Nublar), realizing the animal was still dangerous, albeit a lot less than V. sornaensis. InGen, possibly already behind schedule from doing this, decided to introduce the animal with massive security precautions in place into the park on Isla Nublar.

The difference between the two animals not only are in the coloration/physical features, but possibly the intelligence and their social structure. V. nublarensis's social structure was relatively brutal in comparison to their V. sornaensis counterparts because we can see them snapping and attacking each other in both JP and TLW. They still communicated with each other, possibly by eye communication and like chimpanzees do, but it wasn't as complex or as effective as the V. sornaensis. The JPIII-raptors communicated more with each other with coordinating their attacks better than we saw from the raptors in the first two films and this is referenced by the acts of behavior between one another in the two sub-species.

This, in addition to the brutality makes their pack far less organized than the V. sornaensis, and slightly scaled down in intelligence as the V. nublarensis does not take full advantage of their surroundings like the V. sornaensis male did in the Embryonics Administration with playing on Amanda Kirby's "fascination" of what was in the embryonic tank. Apparently, Nublarensis is larger and more brutal than Sornaensis, yet not quite as deadly.

However the V. nublarensis have not been seen actually attacking each other except in the Lost World when Sarah slides roof tiling so the raptor on the roof will fall onto another one. It is only then that they start attacking each other.

A far less complicated explanation would be that the 'V. nublarensis' are female raptors. The skin and eyes of the female raptor from Jurassic Park III has the same colours as the raptors from the first two movies. Only the shape of her snout is a bit altered. This would also explain the absence of 'V. sornaensis' from Isla Nublar.

Jurassic Park inspired games
The Velociraptors have appeared in almost every Jurassic Park video game made.


 * The raptors in Chaos Island: The Lost World are fast and deadly. They can kill many enemies in one hit, but they are easily killed.
 * In the NES game Jurassic Park raptors are the only dinosaur that don't walk through doorways. They slow down when they start to corner you.
 * The raptor is a playable character in the SEGA game Jurassic Park.
 * The raptor can be encountered in the Jurassic Park arcade game.
 * In Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues the raptor is an enemy.
 * In Jurassic Park Dinosaur Battles they are small, fast and agile fighters. Reliable against herbivores and small predators.
 * Raptors are enemies in a building in Jurassic Park Interactive.
 * In Jurassic Park: Trespasser the raptors are a constant threat.
 * 'Velociraptor'is an enemy in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (Game Boy game).
 * A male And female raptor can be encountered in tha arcade game The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Dino Defender 'Velociraptor' is a carnivore.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Island Attack the player is confronted by a raptor.
 * In Jurassic Park III: Park Builder 'Velociraptor', both the male and female version from JPIII, can be created. Ironically also Deinonychus can be created (as if there was a difference between both).
 * 'Velociraptor' can be encountered in the arcade game Jurassic Park III.
 * Raptors are an enemy in Jurassic Park III: Danger Zone! (video game).
 * 'Velociraptor'is the fourth dinosaur the player encounters in Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor.
 * 'Velociraptor' is featured in Jurassic Park: Explorer.
 * In Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis they are grey with black spots, like the female JPIII raptor. They lunge onto the prey and bite them numerous times. If they attack larger prey, like a Torosaurus they lunge onto it it and claw it to death. They can also climb over fences with ease if the fence is lower than Medium or is damaged. If the JPOG game is modified in the PC, the raptors can have fights with Tyrannosaurus Rex. It would take six raptors to kill the carnivore.
 * The raptors were planned to appear in Jurassic Park: Survival.