10 Wild Facts About The Original Jurassic Park

Hold onto your butts…

It’s been 30 years since the park gates opened, a young Samuel L. Jackson (with hair!) uttered those 4 legendary words, and Steven Spielberg’s original masterpiece, Jurassic Park premiered. From never-seen-before CGI to incredible practical effects, and, well, DINOSAURS, it was an insane movie. Buckle up and prepare to enter the park, we’ve dialed up some of our favorite amazing behind-the-scenes facts about the greatest dinosaur movie ever made.

The iconic Jurassic Park gates were inspired by Steven Spielberg’s desire for a “King Kong-style” entrance.

The massive animatronic T. Rex was created by the legendary creature designer Stan Winston.

The movie is packed with notable actors in smaller roles, like the legend Samuel L. Jackson as Arnold, Wayne Knight (Neuman from Seinfeld) as Nedry, and British and stage and screen LORD Richard Attenborough as Hammond.

The digital double used in the famous T. Rex storm scene was actually the same digital double that was used for the T-1000 Terminator, played by Robert Patrick, and repurposed from special effects studio ILM’s Steve Williams's work on Terminator 2.

Dinosaur designer Stan Winston’s team spent months building a 5-foot-long fully animatronic baby triceratops for a scene that ultimately had to be cut for budgetary reasons, saving $500k in the process!

The memorable scene featuring the full-sized (25 feet long!) hydraulic triceratops was actually shipped out, assembled shot on-location in Hawaii, not on a soundstage like most other dinosaur scenes.

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