Jurassic Park Film Goofs

Jurassic Park Goofs:


 * When the Tyrannosaurus rex grabs and eats a Gallimimus, the sound of the T-rex is like a dog biting a rubber ball. (This isn't strictly a mistake; the source of the sound effect has been acknowledged in the documentary The Making of Jurassic Park, available as an extra on the DVD release.)


 * Watch carefully the scene where the raptors enter the kitchen (that angle where you can see almost the whole kitchen while raptors are coming in from the far away door). As the first raptor enters the kitchen, you can see someone grabbing its tail to hold the puppet-thing steady.


 * After Ellie Sattler injures her foot running from the raptor, her limp switches legs repeatedly for the rest of the film.


 * Take note when the vehicle starts chasing Sam Neill and Tim Murphy down the tree. When it first starts to fall, it smashes a headlight. Then in the next scene the headlight is on, with no damage and continues to switch repeatedly between broken and on as it falls.


 * When the T-Rex knocks the car over on it's side, you can see a safety wire and a stagelight.

The film's version is too far too small with too short a tail, & the extendable neck-frill & poison glands are total inventions, not seen anywhere in the dinosaur world.Some fans state this is because of genetic engineering done to the Dinosaurs DNA.
 * The Dilophosaurus in the film is so much an inaccurate portrayal of a real Dilophosaurus that it is unrecognizable on appearance alone, as a Dilophosaurus.


 * When Dennis Nedry meets Dodgson at the outdoor cafe, Nedry holds the luggage with him, and as Dodgson gives him the Barbasol, it then mysteriously disappears out of his hands.


 * When Dennis Nedry is stealing the dinosaur embryos from the containment tube, the dinosaur Stegosaurus is misspelled as Stegasaurus. The dinosaur Tyrannosaurus is misspelled too, as Tyrranasaurus.
 * How could Ellie grab the spoon to lick it when its all the way on the other side ?(Not true, someone could reach the spoon as it was a little more then an arms reach away, and it was the closet one to her)
 * When you see John holding the towel it goes from white to pink to white. (Proven wrong, pink can be seen at an angle behind him.)
 * When the glass breaks in the car scene it appears to have been put back again.


 * When John is eating the ice cream (They were all melting) in the candle-lit restaurant due to the power outage, the ceiling fans are still working.


 * When the girl falls through the ceiling there is a brief moment when you can see the face of the stunt double who took the actors place for the falling stunt. [according to the DVD features and the making of Jurassic Park.. it says they replaced the stunt doubles face with the actors face.. and unless thats just on the DVD it looks like the girl??]


 * When Ellie Sattler falls off the T-rex skeleton in the visitor's center, as she looks up and then braces herself for the falling bones, you can clearly see the face of her stunt double (Patricia Tallman) rather than the actress (Laura Dern) herself.


 * When the tour vehicles reach the T-Rex paddock during the tour; the windshields of the vehicles have rain on them. Several times during the scene the windshields will be bone dry and then switch to wet again.


 * A section of fence is missing from the Tyrannosaur paddock when the tour first approaches it.


 * The Velociraptors in all three films are inaccurate; True Velociraptors are covered with down, roughly the size of a turkey & have stiff, inflexible tails.


 * If you go scene by scene at the part where Gophery falls off the cage, a hand stops his fall.


 * When Ellie puts a bandana around Dr. Grants neck, they appear at the camper and it's gone.


 * The mosquito that is used throughout the movie(in John Hammonds cane, in the amber that the DNA is extracted from, landing on a tree in that tour video, ect.) was actually a Crane Fly, not a mosquito. They only look similar.


 * Either way, on the trailer, the hinges are always on the right.


 * In the trailer, when John Hammond has the towel, the next time you see him, he has a pink towel, then white.


 * When Hammond says they'll fund for their dig and site, Grant has dust on his forehead, then it dissapears!


 * When it says San Jose, Coasta Rica, its see nice and fun, where you can see the beach, but in San Jose, you can't, it praticly in the center of Coasta Rica.


 * When Nedry had the $750,000 in a breifcase, it suddenly dissapears in the blink of an eye!


 * When Nedry dropped the breifcase, he started wiping his hands with a napkin he never picked up, twice!


 * Cut to the helicopter. Only one, right? Don't forget about the one holding the cameraman. Now, I'm sorry to say most of you will never see this, but for the first few frames, some part of the camera copter is visible in the upper left portion of the image. Unfortunately, your TV will cut off enough of the frame that you can't see it. However, if you have some video capture equipment or perhaps a video projector, you may be able to see the entire image. I caught this one by mere chance as I was picking out screen shots. Which reminds me, you could always save that projector rental and just check out the screen shot. It is a bit more obvious when you see it moving, however.


 * Sattler and Grant are having a great weekend: 3 years of funding for their dig, a chance to meet Jeff Goldblum and - woo-hoo! - a ride in a helicopter! Now, in this scene, when Hammond spots the island out the window, it appears as though he's looking the wrong way. He peers out the right side of the chopper, a little toward the rear, when the island would have been directly behind him. Unfortunately for the list, however, he really would be peering down the coastline to the helicopter's right, and as far as we can tell, it may have curved out far enough for him to see. Close, but I have to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.


 * This one's kind of hard to notice, but watch the helicopter land. From above, it hits the pad well behind center. But, due to the pilot's extraordinary, on-ground flying skills, the chopper is dead center before the park attendant moons the camera and everyone jumps out


 * Don't fast-forward too soon. Back it up a few seconds and get a load of the seating positions while everyone's still in the air. Then, note the order in which everyone gets out. Hammond, getting out first on the right side, has switched from left to right and Grant and Sattler have switched from right to left, as well as front to back.


 * Even more incredible than the helicopter pilot's skills are the driving abilities of the Jeep chauffeurs. Even though the vehicles are seen to be parked and backed up as far as can be, the drivers still manage to throw them in reverse and pull up for wing-to-wheel service.

This line has bugged me for a long time, but it is not incorrect, just unclear. When he refers to "they," it sounds like he means the investors. After all, we usually use a pronoun after introducing the subject. And that doesn't make sense. If the investors aren't convinced, Gennaro isn't convinced? That's backwards, right?
 * This is the second most common unflub which I am reported. And you may not agree with my explanation, but it's pretty obvious to me. As Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) and Hammond ride together in the rear Jeep, Gennaro says the following: "This is not a weekend excursion. This is a serious investigation of the stability of the island. Your investors, whom I represent, are deeply concerned. Forty-eight hours from now, if they're not convinced, I'm not convinced."

Yes, it would be, but when he says "they," he's referring not to his previous sentence, but to the scientists in the Jeep behind him. That's what they're there for. To vouch for the safety of the island and to convince Gennaro of that, who will, in turn, report back to the investors. "If [the scientists aren't] convinced, I'm not convinced." And watch his right hand as he says it. He makes a deliberate motion with his pen toward the scientists behind him, then to himself as he delivers the line.

"How did they recreate extinct plants? I know they got dinosaur blood from the mosquitos, but what, did the the mosquitos also drink plant blood? I don't think so!"
 * This is another one I get quite a lot. Sattler, a paleobotanist (that's a person who studies extinct plants), has grabbed a leaf from a plant while riding in the Jeep and proclaims that it shouldn't be alive today. Now the report I get usually goes something like this:

OK, brainiacs, there are insects that eat plants, too. My guess is they found some of those and extracted plant material from their stomachs. After all, plant DNA is a hell of a lot simpler than dinosaur DNA, and they grew the dinosaurs, didn't they? Also, only female mosquitos drink animal blood. The males drink plant fluids.


 * This one's not a big deal, really. It used to be on the list, but I decided to let it go. However, it now bugs me every time I see it. Startled by the news that Hammond has a T-Rex, Grant becomes woozy. So woozy, in fact, that he jumps instantly from a position directly in Hammond's face to one three feet to the left. Now it will annoy you for eternity.

Yeah, OK, so the safeties probably switched off after the front row was forced open. (Although, that really wouldn't make much sense - one row malfunctions so the rest just let go? Yeah, that's safe.) But, I still thought it was funny.
 * Shortly after a turbulent helicopter flight, and an eventful spin in a Jeep, Hammond cordially grants his guests a ride in an exciting tram. Here we witness an incredible feat of strength. The three doctors, too impatient to wait for their field trip, band together to release themselves from the hydraulic, computer-operated safety rails with all the strength they can muster. But, that's not the incredible feat of strength. Watch Hammond: One hand.

By the way, I know a lot of you hate him, but I think Mr. DNA rules.


 * Hammond, Gennaro, Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) have escaped the mobile bleachers. They enter the lab, where they meet Dr. Wu (B.D. Wong). Now, here they are in what could probably be called a “clean room.” Present are powerful computers, sterile laboratory equipment and hatching dino eggs. This is a relatively sensitive environment. Every employee is wearing white and dons rubber gloves before touching anything. Yet, without a second thought, Wu erases a mistake on his clipboard and casually brushes the shavings onto the floor. And what are they letting a couple of dirty, dusty bone-diggers in there in their day-old clothes for, anyway?


 * Here's a biggie. This is what they overpay the continuity editor to prevent from happening. When that Raptor egg begins to hatch, the robotic arm grabs it to hold it steady. Keep an eye on it. It disappears entirely and never comes back! And if you can't see it, and many of you can't, which is quite apparent from the number of you're-an-idiot-because-it-just-turned-around e-mails I get, then you're looking in the wrong place. The scene cuts from a shot over Grant's left shoulder to a shot over Hammond's right shoulder and that's when it's gone. Also when the crane dissapears the raptor's egg is cracke good, then the egg heals itself a little!


 * They've bred Raptors?? Yep, and for your viewing pleasure, they've housed them in Fort Knox and shrouded them in foliage. But the compound does look pretty cool, even though the viewing platform is a bit bare. That is, it's bare until Muldoon (Bob Peck) shows up. Now, I know he's important to the park and all, but I guess I just didn't realize how important. Just as he makes it up the stairs and begins talking to Grant, we can see that someone has rolled out the red carpet for him.


 * So, we may not get to see the Raptors, but at least we get to hear them eat a cow, painstakingly lowered in via harness and crane. Now, up to this point we've been lead to believe that Raptors are vicious, horrible creatures. That may be so, but their dining etiquette is impeccable; when that harness is lifted from the fortress, they've left not one drop of blood. They may be savage, but at least they clean their plates.


 * You know, this one is minor enough that I hesitate even to include it as a microflub. As everyone sits down to a lovely meal, they engage in a heated debate. Well, let's say a lukewarm debate. (As the philosophical part of the film, it's one of my favorite scenes, although they did sterilize my favorite of Malcolm's monologues from the book.) Anyway, this only began to bother me after the 78th or 79th time through, but keep an eye on everyone's hands. They keep switching positions from cut to cut. It probably bugs me mostly because, as an actor, I know it's your responsibility to repeat your motions exactly from take to take, which I know is extremely difficult, but everybody seems to screw it up but Martin Ferrero.


 * OK, so Malcolm isn't only smart, but he's quick, too. Everyone is deciding which car to ride in for the tour as Malcolm waits quietly outside Sattler's passenger-side door. However, just after Lex (Ariana Richards) says to Grant, "She said I should ride with you 'cause it'd be good for you," Malcolm has swiftly disappeared.


 * Now we're on the tour. Everyone is patiently awaiting the appearance of the T-Rex. They even tempt it with a hardy goat (Mr. Goat.) Now we know a storm is coming, but it hasn't hit quite yet. However, if you keep your eye on the vehicles - just after the goat sits down - they become wet for an instant, then dry again magically.


 * I am often asked the question, "When Ellie gets out of the car to chase after Grant, you hear two car doors close. Who closed them?" Well, the fact is, you not only hear them close, but you see them close at the far edge of the screen. Of course, you will need the widescreen version and a TV which doesn't cut off too much of the edge to see it, but trust me, it's there. (And even if you don't, you can see the reflection of the antenna in the windshield swing back into place, and it was attached to the driver's door.) So, obviously someone closed them. And even if no one actually shut them manually, both doors probably swung closed on their own due to the movement of the Explorer.


 * And this is probably as good enough a place as any to address this matter: Nedry is seen working on a Macintosh platform, yet Lex is heard to remark later that she has found a Unix-based system. Now, some people have complained that there seems to be a conflict in what the park is actually run on. Well, to put it simply, you can run different platforms on the same network and it's likely that they would, as different machines would be better for different tasks. There's nothing wrong here. (And just to nip this in the bud: I don't care which operating system you think would be best for anything. As far as I'm concerned, the OS war is a futile misapplication of energy. To each his own, it's just a tool, blah blah blah...)


 * Back to the control room. Nedry is supposedly having a live conversation on his computer screen to a guy at the dock, the Mate (Dean Cundey) - yeah, I looked it up. Glance down to the bottom of that video window. Plain as day, you can see a little progress bar sliding along there, indicating the playback of a recorded video file.


 * Here's a mistake I'm surprised someone made. When Nedry is in cold storage nabbing embryos, you get a real nice close-up of a couple of the labels. One of them reads Stegasaurus. Anyone who knows dinosaurs knows it's spelled Stegosaurus. And while we're at it, Tyranosaurus is Tyrannosaurus. For heaven's sake, it's a dinosaur movie! What's even more amazing is they got Metriacanthosaurus right.


 * Now, run the cold storage scene back again. Remember when we first met Nedry in San Jose? Dodgson (Cameron Thor) informs Nedry that he will receive a total of "One-point-five million dollars if [he] gets all 15 species off the island." Take a closer look at that test tube receptacle. By my best count, after plenty of pausing and slow-mo, I can see room for only 10, maybe 11 vials. They screwed up the spelling, then the math. (Incidentally, I had the pleasure of seeing this prop in person back when the Jurassic Park exhibit - a touring display of movie items and real dinosaur science - made a stop in Fort Worth. Unfortunately, this was pre-Flubs and I didn't get to count its capacity. If someone knows for sure where this prop is now, please let me know. I have a suspicion it may be displayed at Universal Studios' Jurassic Park: The Ride, which isn't too far from me.)


 * You wouldn't think so many things could go wrong with such a simple scene - or even that someone would bother to list them like this - but run it back one more time. Now, count with me. Nedry grabs 2 tubes, then a close-up on numbers 3 and 4. There should still be room for about 6, if you want to argue that there were no jump cuts. (Short periods of action cut out to increase the feeling of haste.) Regardless, you can see at this point the storage unit has only 1 slot left. Even so, he still manages to fit in 4 more vials

ACCESS SECURITY ACCESS SECURITY GRID ACCESS MAIN SECURITY GRID
 * Meanwhile, Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson) has his own problems. While trying to gain entry into Nedry's system, he mutters to himself, and I quote, "Access main program. Access main security. Access main program grid." Meanwhile, as the screen attests, he's typing:


 * Many visitors to this site believe that it was a blatant mistake to have the Explorers pass back by the Tyrannosaur paddock facing the opposite direction than that which they were headed earlier, considering the fact that the vehicles ran along a track. Sometimes they add, "Was there a loop in the end or something?" Well, yes, there very well may have been. Or a kind of turntable like that which used to be employed in veering locomotives. Or perhaps something more clever. Since it was off-screen, we don't know, and therefore, it cannot be considered a flub.

So to summarize, Tim is looking at LCD screens inside the goggles which are displaying an image no brighter than that of your TV.
 * Several people have also pointed out that, when Tim (Joseph Mazzello) looked back at the other vehicle's headlights with the night-vision goggles, he would have been blinded by them. Not true. Night vision works by using infrared-sensitive light receptors, which can see beyond the spectrum visible to humans, and displaying that image on a screen, most often in a green hue. Usually, there is an infrared light source on the night-vision device to provide ample IR light by which to see. There is a red diode in the center of Tim's goggles which represents this, although in reality, the diode would probably not also emit visible red light. It would be more like the one on the front of your TV remote. Or like the one behind the dark window on the front of any Sony Handycam with NightShot.


 * However, something does go wrong if you watch carefully. Tim, apparently quite adept at figuring out cool toys, begins zooming in on the other vehicle. Behind him, Lex watches with mild interest - it's either watch him or watch the goat. Yet, when we cut outside the back window, Lex has instantly lost interest.


 * The Rex makes its appearance. Gennaro freaks, and bolts for the bathroom. Watch the car door. Gennaro bolts and leaves it open. The T-Rex breaks through the fence: It's still open. A shot through Grant and Malcolm's windshield: It's closed! The T-Rex approaches the car and it's open once again. Timmy closes it to avoid further confusion.


 * By the way, why would there even be a restroom on the trail of an automated car tour? Sure, OK, so park personnel probably need a place to go while out in the park, but why then would it be publicly marked? And even so, you would think it would be camouflaged or at least located somewhere away from the tour. And three stalls might be a bit much for an emergency staff bathroom. All right, I think I've made my point.


 * Throughout the film, Hammond has made it clear that they spared no expense anywhere in the park. And nowhere is it more evident than with the all-electric, custom-painted and self-healing Ford Explorers. Just watch: When the T-Rex breaks through the Plexiglas roof - to get to the chewy center - it snaps in two pieces. However, a few seconds later, it's back together.


 * OK. First of all, I can't believe this made it onto film, and second of all, I can't believe someone saw this. Rex decides that if she can't yank those pesky kids out, she'll shake them out. After a couple of friendly nudges, that hip, yellow Explorer rolls right over. Just as it does, the background reveals not only a big wooden pot that one of the trees is planted in, but right next to it, a stage light. Not only that, but if you watch closely, you can see a cable snap taut which, apparently, prevents the stunt vehicle from rolling over too far. (At first, there appeared to be a second cable which kept it from pivoting, but after running that clip back and forth several times in succession, I realized it was just a passenger-side antenna which sprang into place and bowed again as the vehicle rocked back onto its roof.)


 * A little later, the car already upside down, Grant covers the mouth of a screaming Lex That Rex gets right in his face and - SNUFF! - blows his hat off. Now, I'll admit I thought this was a great shot, but rewind it a couple times. You'll notice that blast of air comes not from the Tyrannosaur's enormous nostrils, but from off-screen, bottom left.


 * And if you'll notice, Grant and Lex, trying to remain still, were kneeling motionless in the mud. But, they must have learned a thing or two from the wing-footed Ian Malcolm, because before the Rex can begin spinning the car around, they're on their feet and ready to move.


 * All right, someone explain this one to me! Please! I haven't spoken with a soul who can justify it yet. The cars are parked next to a concrete wall, a couple feet high, on which was mounted a large electrified fence. You with me? Now on the other side of that wall, we saw earlier a goat, bushes, trees and GROUND. The T-Rex herself walked on that ground before she broke through that fence, on that wall, next to that ground. Later, in an attempt to escape a hungry dino (Remember the one? She was walking on that ground?), Grant and Lex jump over the other side of that wall and rappel DOWN A CLIFF.


 * Many have said that as Grant and Lex are rappelling down the cable and are trying to swing out of the path of the falling Explorer, the Explorer actually falls through Grant's leg. Now, understand when I say this that I have been capturing these segments on my computer and jogging back and forth with frame-accurate controls, so I have been able to scrutinize action that is difficult to see on a VCR. The truth is, you can't tell how close the vehicle comes to his leg. Between the headlights flaring in the screen, the dark shadow cast by the vehicle itself and the pouring rain dampening our visibility, you can't see much of anything once the Explorer reaches Grant's leg. However, once it has pretty much passed him, it looks to me like it had plummeted just over his leg, missing him by centimeters, which is what it was supposed to look like.


 * Meanwhile, Nedry is still trying to find the dock. And as luck would have it, he spots another sign. He doesn't hit this one, of course. He just runs the Jeep halfway down a cliff. It wouldn't have done him any good anyway, because the sign keeps changing its mind. First it's pointing up, then it's pointing to the left.


 * Remember how I said those Explorers were self-healing? Well, you can see it happen again. In the scene where the vehicle is chasing Grant and Tim down the tree, the driver-side headlight keeps fixing itself. The first time the vehicle moves, it stops just short of Grant's head and the headlight smashes against a limb. In the next shot, it's back on again. As the car begins to move again, the light is back out, then back on. Then out again, then on again. And just before it comes to a stop, it's back out again. Then, the other one is smashed. Considering all the damage this vehicle has gone through, it'll take weeks for it recover.


 * OK, let's take a breath and move on to the scene in which Muldoon, Sattler, and Malcolm are trying desperately to escape an angry T-Rex. (You'd figure she would be exhausted after rappelling down after Grant with those little arms.) They're racing along in a gas-powered Jeep. Muldoon glances over at his mirror. You know, the one with the T-Rex “closer than it may appear.” Funny, yes, but I don't see any reason one would have that type of mirror on the driver's side.


 * Once they've evaded the Rex and arrived back at the visitor's center, Sattler decides to have a few words with Hammond in the dining room. During this time, we can clearly see two ceiling fans running. A lot of people have written me and said that they shouldn't be running because all the power is out. However, at no time has anyone up to this point said all the power is out. The fences are out around the park, the phones are out, and evidently some power is out, at least in the kitchen, because Hammond said all the ice cream was melting. If you'll remember, Nedry's sabotage is the reason systems were going out, and the failures seemed to be random. The whole park didn't just shut down. The entire power system doesn't go out until the next scene, when Arnold shuts down the control systems. So, although some of the center's power seems to be out at the moment, it's arguable that the fans were running on a circuit that was not shut off.


 * Back in the control room. Arnold assents to rebooting the entire system, despite his better judgement. He hits four breakers: C-3, C-2, C-1, and Main. He waits. He turns Main back on. When did those first three reset themselves?
 * Down in the emergency bunker, Hammond still defends his creation. "All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked." That's all well and good, but according to the Disneyland Web site, they opened in 1955, not 1956. In the film's defense, however, this could be justified as the character John Hammond making the mistake. I mean, I wouldn't have known precisely what year Disneyland opened. But, I'm a little surprised the screenwriter didn't get it right.


 * While everyone is waiting, Arnold has gone to reset the breakers in the power shed. When he fails to return, Muldoon and Sattler take on the job. They make it to a position only a short distance from the shed's entrance when Muldoon realizes they are being hunted. He tells Sattler to run. Now, there are clearly three fallen trees lying across her path. We even get a couple of nice establishing shots of them. Watch this sequence a couple times. She bumps into the first one and jumps over the second one twice, yet never gets over that last one at all before reaching the shed.

The bird would be shocked if it completed the circuit. As it only touches one line, it doesn't complete the circuit and the power does not flow through it. If it were able to touch the line and the ground at the same time, the circuit would be complete. The power would seek its source by flowing through the ground, and through the bird in the process. This is what's called, unsurprisingly, grounding. The same goes if the bird could touch both lines at the same time. By touching both lines, the bird would complete the circuit and would be fried by the power flowing through it from one line to another. Apply the same principle to Tim on the fence. If he were touching only one line, he would be fine. If he were touching one line and the ground, he would close the circuit. If he were touching two lines — and in this case, he was — he would also close the circuit.
 * Sattler succeeds in reactivating the park systems, unwittingly grilling a young boy in the process. Some say, however, that Tim would not have been shocked because he was not touching the ground. They often cite the example of a bird perched on a power line. It isn't shocked because it isn't in contact with the ground. They are only half right.

Also, it usually holds true that the muscles of a person who comes in contact with an object carrying a high voltage will seize and make it virtually impossible for him to let go. However, the same sort of contact, especially with a sudden charge, has been known to throw victims quite a distance. So, contrary to what a few visitors have contested, Tim would not necessarily have stayed on the fence to cook.


 * And while we're on the subject of little children flying through the air, I caught this another small one while letting the above sequence run in slow motion. Tim (or rather, Tim's stunt double) soars backward in a vertical position, just as he was on the fence. Yet, somehow, Grant catches him sideways. Again, another one of those I would normally let go, but I have to be thorough.


 * Meanwhile, Sattler is having problems of her own. It seems a Raptor has made its way into the shed with her. And since the beast has had one arm short of a full meal, it decides to finish off with a nice paleobotanist. Sattler barely escapes, despite the large flashlight attached to her belt. Now, I've gone back and forth on this one, but I've decided to classify it as an unflub. It seems that once out of the shed, Sattler has lost that flashlight. But, it seems to me that it could have come unplugged from the power pack on her belt as she rounded the corner or started up the stairs.


 * Muldoon, it seems, is having his own Raptor difficulties. Now, we know Muldoon is an excellent hunter, but we just didn't know how good. As he spots the Raptor in the distance, he brings the shotgun up to aim not only once, but twice. And it still didn't do him any good.

Muldoon, it seems, is having his own Raptor difficulties. Now, we know Muldoon is an excellent hunter, but we just didn't know how good. As he spots the Raptor in the distance, he brings the shotgun up to aim not only once, but twice. And it still didn't do him any good.


 * A little later, Grant and the kids reach the visitor's center safely. Grant tells them he'll be back soon and leaves. What Tim spots next is unbelievable. Really. What's all that food doing sitting out like that? Who was it for? A storm was coming; everyone was leaving! Arnold had been making announcements telling everyone to get on the boat since the doctors arrived. You would think the chefs would have put that stuff away.


 * Big Tim, the human piece of toast. I sure wish I had this kid's hair. No matter how many volts you run through him, no matter how many dinosaurs you send after him, his coif will automatically self-correct. Check it out - as soon as he makes it from the dining hall to the kitchen, that frazzled 'do has combed itself.


 * One of the most common errors that occurs in cinema is a reflection of the crew caught on film. And I have scanned this entire movie looking for such a blunder, but to no avail. However, one visitor gets the award for the sharpest flub eye for spotting a mistake that even took me a while to find after she wrote it in. After the kids hide out in the kitchen, the scene closes in on the door. Just before the Raptor peeks into the window, you can see a crewman's hand move as though he were making a camera adjustment. You'll have to watch it on tape to get the full effect, but I have still included a screen shot to point out where you should look.


 * Here's another nit-picky little thing. Just something to notice really. After the Raptor chases the kids into the kitchen, she peeks through the little glass window. The second time she fogs the window with her breath, you clearly see that blast come from below.


 * Not only do we get to see a reflection of a crew member, but this time we get to see an actual crew member. Well, at least his hand. As the Raptor enters the room, you can see someone reach up and grasp the Raptor's tail, pulling down. You would think that the Raptor would just swing around and have at the tasty treat behind her, but I hear FX guys can be a little gristly.


 * For the first time in the film, we get a nice, clear look at that dreaded Raptor claw we've been hearing so much about, as one of the Raptors taps it on the kitchen floor as if she's humming a little ditty to herself. If you'll notice, that claw is on each inner toe of her feet. "So what?" you ask. Well, at the beginning of the film, as Grant is trying to frighten the demon child, he delivers the line, "He slashes at you with this. A six-inch retractable claw. On the middle toe." The middle toe? Come on Grant, you're supposed to be an expert at this stuff.


 * This is a fun one. Scurrying from the Raptors, Timmy backs into a rack of spoons and ladles. Now, each time I watch this, I pray it won't happen just this once. But, it's inevitable - one of the utensils falls to the floor with a deafening clang. But, keep your eye on that crack from whence the ladle falls. Run it back a few dozen times. Is that a finger? Maybe not, but there's something moving in there that makes that ladle fall. (A screen shot doesn't do much good here; you have to watch it a few times on a good-size TV.)


 * A few moments later, Tim spots an open door to a walk-in fridge. After some slow moving, but some quick thinking, he traps the Raptor inside. Now, I can understand how so many people can misinterpret this: It looks like Lex runs past the door, but is then seen locking it. However, Lex does not run past the door, only past the camera. The camera pans over so that you can see the back of her head for a brief instant, as she helps Tim shut the door.


 * Lex is "hacking" away at the security console, Grant is fighting with the Velociraptor, Sattler is helping hold the door shut, and Tim is...hopping up and down like a little girl. Uh, hey, Tim? Yeah. Mind handing us that shotgun over there?


 * Lex, on the other hand, is doing everything she can to help. She spots a terminal and proclaims, "It's a Unix system!" This, many people claim, is a flub. She is looking at a graphical interface, they say, and Unix is operated by command line. This will surprise a lot of you, but you can run programs with graphical interfaces on top of Unix. Hell, there's a Unix version of Adobe Photoshop. Incidentally, Lex is sitting down at a Silicon Graphics workstation running a program called 3D File System Navigator, which runs on top of Irix, an implementation of Unix.


 * But, just when you thought everything was OK, it turns out Raptors can break glass. (Big surprise.) So, Grant has no choice but to fire his shotgun. A few e-mails have contained complaints that a shotgun would not have created defined holes in the window, but several small holes - or would have shattered the glass. Some have included a detailed description of what is in a shotgun shell. (Hey, there's shot in a shotgun shell - another big surprise.) My explanation is simple: He was firing slugs.


 * So what's the best way to escape? Why, through the ceiling, of course. Too bad there are desks everywhere for the Raptor to climb on. Or are there? We can never be sure because after Grant kicks the Raptor in the head, the desk disappears, dropping the Raptor to the floor.


 * You also might notice that, when everyone climbs into the duct to make a run for it, Grant goes in last. But when they reach the end, Grant comes out first. As far as I'm concerned, we didn't need to see the whole climbing-through-the-duct sequence, so it was compressed for time. And in that time, Grant could have easily scurried to the front, seeing as there was enough room to do so.


 * Boy, those Raptors are pesky. Just as the group thinks they're safe, there's another waiting for them in the lobby. The only means of escape: The skeletons. Unfortunately, not even replica dinosaurs can be trusted. The weight of the entire party, including the Raptor, causes the whole display to fracture into several pieces. And then the ceiling anchors give way, dropping everyone to the floor. At one point, if you watch closely, you can catch Lex actually letting go of her piece of the skeleton as it begins to fall. Then, in the next shot, she's still hanging on. Apparently, stunt people can't be trusted, either.


 * And naturally we couldn't end the movie without seeing that T-Rex once more. But, this time she's the good guy and saves everyone from a chewy demise by eating the Raptors. Now, this is a really strange flub and, unfortunately, not everyone will be able to see this one at home. If you have Jurassic Park on laserdisc, or if you own a good enough VCR, you can frame-advance through the moment the T-Rex is gnawing on the first Raptor. Inexplicably, for one frame only, the Raptor disappears!

Oh, and if you run it back a couple times, you might notice that just after the cut from the bird to the helicopter, two of the stand-ins in the helicopter look like they're giving a polite wave to the cameraman.
 * Hammond is the only person wearing white, right? And he's sitting next to the window on the left side of the helicopter, correct? And Malcolm is sitting on the right side, in black. Then, who's that guy, in white, sitting on the right side as the chopper flies into the sunset? Incidentally, you might remember that that's the position from which Hammond got out of the helicopter at the beginning of the film.


 * All right, all right. There are only a few seconds left in the film, and I'm sure you're dying for just one more. Well, here it is. The movie ends with a traditional shot of the heroes flying off into the sunset. Only one problem: At the beginning of the film, a subtitle informs us that Isla Nublar is 120 miles west of Costa Rica. That means that Costa Rica is east. And the sun sets in the west. They're going the wrong way!