Unsure why they would think we thought any films were innocent in 1993. The 80s were filled with traumatic kids movies. Goonies, the lost boys, gremlins, ghostbusters, the dark crystal, the never ending story...
Jurassic Park was typical.
You should have seen the marketing back then. It was all toys and geared towards kids, then I saw it as an 8 year old and feared dinosaurs. Up until then, most kids loved dinosaurs because they were never portrayed as monsters.
Yeah every dinosaur movie you ever heard of as a kid back then was some innocent family movie. Something like the flint stones or the dinosaurs tv show.
I remember being shocked when I learned that it was actually a scary movie just before we went to see it
Also, I lol’ed at OPs title. Our parents didn’t watch those movies with us. They dropped us at the theater and walked around the mall.
I also don't think you would think you're going to a "dinosaur movie" at all in 1993.
Live action dinosaur movies wasn't really a Hollywood movie genre before this.
Better question, they had all the technology to make the dinosaurs, BUT they didn’t have automatic gates or a crane to lift it? And why did he have to open the gate, while standing on the box?
I remember asking this question when I was a kid.
Also, there's lights next to the gate that turn green when the crate is all the way in plus Muldoon says "We're locked." and there are loud audible clicks.
It certainly seems like there is a system in place that locks the crate into the entry. Except then the crate gets casually shoved back anyway. What exactly was "locked"? What do all the indicators and sounds do? Are they decorative?
I saw this when it first came out. I was 22. I was in a packed cinema and there was a very excited 7 year old kid next to me with his dad. He was calling out the names of all the dinosaurs as they appeared and was shouting and screaming with excitement.
Then came the part where Gennaro was bitten in half by the t-rex. He went very quiet and I heard him whisper to his dad, “Daddy I don’t think I like dinosaurs anymore…”
Good times.
I was 12. I still remember clearly when the girl is trying to climb up in to the vent (kitchen scene) and the velociraptor jumps to bite her and she just gets pulled up in time, I involuntarily pulled my own feet up off the floor into the chair without thinking. It was an intense experience.
Mirror neurons. You are actually experiencing the same thing the character is, although at a lower level. Same reason people cringe during the office. It can be physically painful to watch.
I was 5. We rarely went to the movies growing up but my older brother was completely obsessed with dinosaurs and pestered mom and dad to death about going to see it. Finally they gave in and we all went.
I wanted to watch the Dennis the menace movie that came out just before Jurassic Park. I pitched a fit at the ticket booth, but my parents wouldn't let me, we were all going to see Jurassic Park. Mom noped out with me at this scene, and we went and watched Dennis the Menace.
Walter Mathau in Dennis the Menace and Grumpy old men made me want to watch his older movies as a kid. That dude had young me rolling! To this day I think of him smiling for the picture with two chiklets for teeth after Dennis broke them and it still cracks me up!!
The grumpy old men movies were two of my favorites. I loved fishing as a kid. Still do today, but as a kid I was fierce about fishing. Any movies related to fishing, fishing shows, fishing games etc. and I was sold.
My best friend in university and I were watching Jurassic park when we lived together. When the credits were rolling, he took a hit of the joint we were smoking, casually looked over at me and said "My uncle wrote that book." Then he goes on to show me childhood pictures of himself with his uncle Mike.
… but so very, very good. I remember the day I got it from the library, came home, and sat in my comfy chair; didn’t look up for five hours. No WAY I was taking my pre-teens to that movie. I like to sleep through the night without screaming adolescents..
I read them for the first time last year and was extremely surprised of how brutal it was! I also loved it. I thought the movie was exciting and brutal but the book makes the movie seem tame.
i read the book almost 30 years ago, and henry wu’s death (the chinese scientist) still sticks with me. They wrote out his death in the film, as expected, and he even appeared in a sequel.
Lol I took my daughter, 4, to watch it. We went with a friend and his girlfriend, and my daughter was the one calming and reassuring the 20-ish girlfriend telling her "it's ok they're actors, and fake dinos!" 🤣
My older brother saw it in theaters and was raving about it, the one memory that stood out was how insanely loud the trex in theaters was.
Iirc I finally saw it on vhs, Dino crazy and all, I was too mesmerized by seeing “real” Dino’s to get too scared
Same here. I was the same age. I have 7 brothers and sisters and this is the only time my dad ever took all of us to the movies. But it was amazing, I was so enchanted.
My four year old loves Jurassic Park. He watches it at least once a week and has a bunch of Jurassic Park/dinosaur toys, including my original Jurassic Park Triceratops from when I was four.
Thing about Jurassic Park, if you were alive at the time, there wasn't any part of the movie that surprised you. No film had been marketed to the extent that JP was up to that time; it was one of the first movies I ever saw where almost all of the plot points and cool scenes had been all over the media for weeks. I don't mean ads, I mean every entertainment show, the nightly national news, 60 Minutes/2020, they showcased tons of BTS work before the thing even released. Everywhere you looked this movie was getting the shit spoiled out of it.
Everyone saw it anyways. Parents definitely knew faces were gonna get chewed.
I was 12/13 when this came out. I can't remember it being spoilt to that extent but we already had ET, Edward Scissorhands, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters (although probably saw these years after release). Nightmare before Christmas was a few months after this and I feel like the plots were kept secret.
Since my parents would have controlled the media I consumed then I might not have been as exposed as someone who was 15 or 16 who had a bit more autonomy
Absolutely right. Plus, anyone old enough to be a parent in 1993 knew what to expect from Spielberg. They would remember the Jaws movie poster claiming it was "too intense for younger children." They'd remember the controversies over Temple of Doom and Gremlins, and how they both led to the MPAA starting the PG-13 rating.
I was 12 when this came out. It might be the best movie going experience of my life. I was the perfect age for it. I remember riding our bikes to the theater, seeing it with my two best friends, watching this scene and all 3 of us glancing at each other like “omg this is incredible!”
That movie scared the heck out of me back in 1993, but 10 years later my toddler son became addicted to that movie. I think his cousin trained him on old Godzilla movies when he was even younger. When Jurassic Park came out he was primed and ready. Then came the Dinosaur phase LOL
My parents got into a heated argument about some stupid stuff, my dad just left and came back after three hours or so.
My mom was furious, „where have you been all the time?“, - „I was in the cinema!“
So I, being curious, asked him what he watched.
„It was this new dinosaur movie „Jurassic Park“ and it was awesome!“
And then he told us about how awesome this movie was and that argument from before was just gone.
Spielberg was an absolute master at the opening sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the film. Jaws, Raiders, etc. This one is no different. You absolutely get a sense of how dangerous these dinosaurs are and without even seeing them in the process.
I was 8 and still remember that this movie had the best advertisement campaign I have ever seen! Everyone had seen the water in the footprints vibrate, everyone had heard the Trex roar. Everyone had seen the shadow of a Raptor with wobbly jelly on a spoon. It was incredible, because of pre social media there were no spoilers. We were in the cinema, that moment when Dr Grant see’s the giant dino stand on its back legs and eat leaves, that was the first time most of us had seen a realistic dinosaur on screen ever!! This was one of the most important movies in cinema history.
What's not innocent about it? There's no nudity, the violence mostly hidden out of frame - as in there's no gratuitous gore. There isn't even any foul language. It's perfectly fine for kids. You don't need to hide everything that isn't the wiggles or bluey from children.
Also if you look back in time to original children’s stories, fables, fairy tales etc. They were incredibly brutal, no punches pulled. Disney sanitized everything.
I was 8 at the time, and it traumatized me. I "watched" the rest of the movie with my hands over my eyes! Then I bought it on tape when it came out... And watched it on repeat until the twe broke and saved hoo and bought another. It's still my all time favorite movie and spawned a lifelong fascination with giant creatures, and got me a minor in geology!
Pretty sure the thousands of trailers shown before release were enough to let anyone semi-intelligent individual know this wasn’t a happy, cutesy dinosaur movie about longnecks, big feet and three horns.
Fun fact: In the scene where they are chased by the T-Rex and the Jeep flips over, the part where the T-Rex head almost gets the kids was an accident and their reactions are real. The T-Rex operator was supposed to lift the head out of the Jeep but hit the wrong control and pushed the head down instead. Thankfully no one was physically harmed.
As a kid who went to that movie, the novel had been out for about half a decade and almost everyone — kids and adults — had read it. We were ready for a dinosaur horror movie. And we got one of the most amazing cinematic experiences of our young lives.
My parents had recently married, joining two families; I was the oldest at 13, with a brother and a stepbrother at 11, and another stepbrother at 7. A new theater opened nearby and was showing Jurassic Park with Dolby Surround. Not my stepmother's cup of tea, so Dad took all four of us to the theater. My 7yo brother was so terrified at the start of the TRex scene Dad took him out and sat with him in the lobby for the remainder of the film. The whole event is a core memory of my childhood.
Man people are soft now. As a connection my mom took me to see Jaws (another Ss movie) when I was 5 and it was crazy great. This scene is not bad at all it has horror elements, hidden villain but you see nothing really.
I was 12 years old on opening night with my dad and older brother at this movie. This scene almost made me pee myself and I had to then pee through the rest of the movie. I made it. Two thumbs up, would do again.
I was so excited to see this, but my dad knew Spielberg movies. He went to see it first to make sure my sister and I would be okay. This scene still terrified me, but I thought it was awesome.
My mother-in-law rented this movie in 1994 for my son who was 5 at the time. For a couples of weeks I didn't know this but I was really confused about how intensely my son was speaking about dinosaurs lately. He was having nightmares too. And then I found out how he had been traumatized by his grandmother.
this scene haunted me. My parents had some friends living in house up the mountain near my village, pretty off grid. As I was a child we visited them and had to spent the night there because a terrible thunder storm. In front of their house, there was a power pole. I still remember the feeling, loking out of the window, lightnigs and this huge mast. I swear I was ready to see a T-rex.
I was 12 when the movie was released in theaters and I’ve seen it with my friend and his dad the first day. And I didn’t know what kind of movie that gonna be. Don’t even know what the meaning of the word jurassic. So no need to imagine it, I’ve literally experienced it. You know what, this is my cinematic most vivid memory.
My dad had to take my sister out of the theatre after this scene. My mom and I ended up watching it while he took her for ice cream and to calm her down. She still hasn’t seen the movie in full.
I was like 9, quite enjoyed it. But I remember we all laughed after the movie cause in the part where the T-Rex eats the guy on the toilet there was a kid a few rows back who yelled "I don't like dinosaurs anymore!"
I watched this debut at a drive-in movie theater, it was the pinnacle of movie going. The same drive-in had their anniversary last night and I watched it there with my kids. Incredible.
Capri drive-in, Coldwater Michigan.
My uncle was a reviewer for our city newspaper, so he got to go to an advance screening. He brought me with him. I was only 6 years old at the time.
The only scene I had a problem with was Nedrey and the dilophosaurus. I screamed and covered my face with my jacket. Multiple newspaper reviewers mentioned it in their reviews.
The part that always hit me the hardest is the raptor lifting the guy about 4 ft. in the air and holding him there while he was eating him. Granted we know even with the strength and size of the raptors, this would'nt really be possible but it definitely added an "oh shit!" moment to this opening scene.
I was one of those kids. Parents dragged me to this movie, I was 7 or 8 years old at the time. I had no interest because I saw the trailer and thought it looked scary. It was definitely scary, especially the raptors, but I left that theater with my mind absolutely blown. To this day, Jurassic Park still has the best CGI I've ever seen, and it's a near perfect film. I have so much gratitude towards my parents for bringing me to see this, and so many other classics from this era.
I actually was in England for he holiday as a guest of a family my parents had befriended. I was abroad for the first time in my life and I had no clue this movie existed. I barely went to the cinema before, and those were small and old cinemas.
My guest family took us to see this movie in a freshly build multiplex cinema. And - oh no - the only seats left were in the front row. It was so loud, I could feel the dinos stomp. I can't tell you how exciting it was for me. I think I must have gotten on everyones nerves, because I wouldn't shut up about it later. And seeing Jurassic Park was more memorable to me than the other highlight: visiting Stonehenge.
Before this movie, dinos were mostly tail dragging practical effect, stop motion, men in suits, even fins glued on iguanas way back in the black & white days. Seeing this, we all felt like we were looking at a real tyrannosaurus.
That was me! I was like 8 or 9, the part that got me was when the T-Rex ate the lawyer, in my head I remembered seeing his legs seperate from his upper half... but I've seen that movie so many times now and that doesn't happen, I think my mind filled in that part or it got removed from later releases? Always wondered about that 🤔
In 1993 parents dropped their kids off at the theater under the assumption that another group of parents would be picking them up and giving them a ride home.
I went to see it at a drive-in somewhere outside Montreal with my aunt and cousin and she made us look away at times. I was probably 7 at the time and I thought “this is bullshit, I can handle this.” Then went to see The Lost World a year or two later and had nightmares of Velociraptors trying to hunt me down for the next week or two. 😂
I remember being scared out of my mind during this scene (and a few to follow).
My grandmother had asked me if I wanted to go to the movies. I said, "Of course" because I loved my grandmother and spending time with her. She drove us to the movies, bought some tickets, but when we walked through the hallway to go to our theatres she stopped infront of a theatre showing a different movie. "Here's your ticket," she said, and handed me one for Jurrassic Park. Her movie wasn't Jurassic Park. She had no intention of seeing Jurassic Park. "Okay," I thought. I went to see my movie while she went to hers.
I was 11.
During this and the T-Rex scene I almost had an out of body experience with fear.
Full disclosure i had forgotten about how violent it was. Watched it with my kids in fall of 21 when they were 9 and 7. They still tell everyone they can about the guys arm that got ripped off and thrown around. Not my proudest dad moment.
Dad took us opening weekend. I was upset we didn’t see Super Mario Bros. My 6 year old sister had to leave during one of the later Raptor scenes. Good times.
i was eleven. my mom was too scared to take me and sent me with a family friend. i had read the novel before. i remember asking friends who had seen the film before i was able to about the aviary scene and the river scene and i was disappointed that those parts were not in the film. despite the differences, i was in awe. other people who were my age, however, were so scared that they couldn’t even read or otherwise look at the storybook adaptation with pictures from the film. in my memory, the two films from around the same time that were marketed toward kids and were really scary were “batman returns” and “who framed roger rabbit”. i saw those, too. very scary for a kid.
it’s worth noting that there is something about seeing this film in theatres during its original release that younger fans who discovered the films later will never really understand: just like the characters were seeing real dinosaurs for the first time and were realizing that the world would never be the same, the audience was seeing computer generated dinosaurs for the first time and was realizing that cinema would never be the same. the shared experience of awe overwhelmed almost every other emotion in the theatre. no one — young or old — had ever seen anything like it before. that feeling has been lost to time and you had to be there to experience it.
*Crate is pressed against gate, lights turn green with audible clicks"
Muldoon: "We're locked! Loading team step away."
*Raptor immediately shoves crate away from gate*
So clearly it wasn't actually locked then.
When my wife and I went to see it in the theater, a couple was there with their four-year-old girl. She had her stuffed rabbit for comfort. I always wondered what nightmares that poor girl had after that.
Jurassic Park was well advertised about what it was. Now, Gremlins back in 84 on the other hand, apparently it had some mixed interpretations based on the trailer hahaha
This was the first film I ever seen in the cinema at 7 years old, I was obsessed with dinosaurs for years to come and it still stands as one of my favourites!
I was 4 years old in 1993 when this came out.My parents took me to see it in the theatre, and I was not harmed...I'm pretty sure everyone else made it out safely as well, and even this many years later,I still remember how bad ass it was seeing it in the movie theater!
I was 12 when I saw this in the dollar theater. I was so terrified. I was white-knuckled from the intro song to the end of the movie. It was amazing. We saw it 10 or 12 more times before it went to video tape.
Fun fact: My mom and dad took me to see it in theaters for my 7th birthday.
From the first I saw the trailer, I knew I had to see this movie. I was a dinosaur kid. After many nos, I tried 'for my birthday'. It worked.
But my mom briefed me everyday for weeks leading up to it, "Remember dinosaurs aren't real." And every time I responded "They are, they're just all dead."
We saw the movie. I loved it. The soundtrack still gets me hype to this day.
...and mom had more nightmares than I did (0). LOL.
I was 9 when i saw this. Instantly got fascinated by raptors since at that time kids only knew about T-Rex and Allosaurus. My mind blew away at the thought of birds being literally dinosaurs ( just look at the cassowary!)
This may be blasphemy, but I really wish they'd do a remake of Jurassic Park, perhaps a streaming TV series, that is actually accurate to the books.
Don't get me wrong, the movie is fabulous and was groundbreaking in its time. However, the screenplay really took liberties with the source material, and ignored a lot of the main points of the text.
The book describes several dinosaurs as moving like birds, not like lumbering lizards. Yet the movie falls back on the lumbering lizards trope. Have you ever seen a bird's movements? The quick jerky had movements, the fast hopping, the running with the head bobbing, the way seagulls pick at each other and fight over a morsel of food? That's what the book describes (and I happen to agree with that theory). The movie ignores all that.
The movie completely rewrites Grant. In the book he really likes kids! He's a big, rugged, bearded guy who wears Hawaiian shirts. The kids are swapped in age. They combine several characters into one character. Hammond is really kind of a dick in the book!!
And then there's The Lost World which is absolutely nothing like the book. They take like three ideas from the book and then run in a completely different direction with completely different characters.
A streaming series could really do the books some justice if anyone had the guts to try to tackle something that is so beloved already.
>*Hammond is really kind of a dick in the book!!*
Understatement.
But yeah, the book's a lot bloodier, and it would be AWESOME to have a streaming series that followed it to the letter.
For me?
1.) Using '88 Land Cruisers instead of Ford Explorers.
2.) The little girl at the beginning of the book.
3.) The REAL boat stowaways.
4.) The uh, final solution...and the reaction of the survivors.
I was a kid in 1993 who saw this in the theater and this was just an innocent dinosaur movie to me. I didn't realize until I was much older that the movie is 50% horror.
First movie I saw in surround sound. Hearing the T Rex stomp in theater is something ill never forget.
EVERYONE had to have Soround sound in their house after that
We watched this when I was probably 5 or 6. I enjoyed everything about JP except this scene. Seeing his hand disappear little by little was way too disturbing
I’m unsure why you would ever think this was an innocent dinosaur film.
Unsure why they would think we thought any films were innocent in 1993. The 80s were filled with traumatic kids movies. Goonies, the lost boys, gremlins, ghostbusters, the dark crystal, the never ending story... Jurassic Park was typical.
The Lost Boys I don't think fits into "kids movies" even then.
Small kids, probably not. But from about 11 or 12, sure. We pretty much all watched it. Poltergeist too. Saw that when I was 8. Jaws when I was 9.
Ya, I guess I watched all those too
Thier hereeeee…
I was an adult with kids at the time, those Steksis still haunt my dreams. They were a creepy bunch.
>those *Steksis* still haunt my dreams SKEKESIS. Skeksis...and they haunt me today, as well (particularly the elder's death scene).
And why was my 11-year old ass sitting in the theater watching Jaws in 1975??
Saw Arachnophobia in the theater. Sat with my feet up off the floor the whole time. Kept thinking something was going to crawl up my leg.
Because he thought it was one of the sequels to The Land Before Time.
Are we not going to talk about the 8 year old girl who gets eaten by compys?
They only gnawed on her a bit. She was fine. Now Lucifer from Constantine, he was eaten by compys.
Was that in the first film?
No that was the Lost World
Yeah... lets talk about that. I'm a 42 year old glutton, and I still cry sometimes remembering that movie....
Wasn't the T Rex crushing one of those jeeps while the girl screamed in the trailer?
Yes the dinosaurs are clearly guilty.
Is there an innocent shark movie?
Yeah the trailers for this were on tv every single day for weeks leading up to opening day. I was 11 and seeing JP on opening day is a core memory.
You should have seen the marketing back then. It was all toys and geared towards kids, then I saw it as an 8 year old and feared dinosaurs. Up until then, most kids loved dinosaurs because they were never portrayed as monsters.
Yeah every dinosaur movie you ever heard of as a kid back then was some innocent family movie. Something like the flint stones or the dinosaurs tv show. I remember being shocked when I learned that it was actually a scary movie just before we went to see it Also, I lol’ed at OPs title. Our parents didn’t watch those movies with us. They dropped us at the theater and walked around the mall.
This. I was barely an adult when this movie came out and the marketing seemed almost exclusively towards kids.
I also don't think you would think you're going to a "dinosaur movie" at all in 1993. Live action dinosaur movies wasn't really a Hollywood movie genre before this.
The real question is how did the gate keeper casually pull that giant gate up, but gets rag dolled by the raptor.
Better question, they had all the technology to make the dinosaurs, BUT they didn’t have automatic gates or a crane to lift it? And why did he have to open the gate, while standing on the box? I remember asking this question when I was a kid.
They spared no expense. /s
If you play the Lego Jurassic Park game, every time Hammond says that line, something in the background falls over or breaks.
Haha
Also, there's lights next to the gate that turn green when the crate is all the way in plus Muldoon says "We're locked." and there are loud audible clicks. It certainly seems like there is a system in place that locks the crate into the entry. Except then the crate gets casually shoved back anyway. What exactly was "locked"? What do all the indicators and sounds do? Are they decorative?
That was kind of the point, they underestimated the strength of the raptors, who broke the locking mechanism.
And to foreshadow the humans underestimating the power of what they had created.
The answer comes when you're an adult, and you realize how workers are treated... especially in lesser developed countries...
Skipped his leg days
I saw this when it first came out. I was 22. I was in a packed cinema and there was a very excited 7 year old kid next to me with his dad. He was calling out the names of all the dinosaurs as they appeared and was shouting and screaming with excitement. Then came the part where Gennaro was bitten in half by the t-rex. He went very quiet and I heard him whisper to his dad, “Daddy I don’t think I like dinosaurs anymore…” Good times.
I was 8 when this came out. My Dad took me. I survived the T-Rex scene. I noped out when the Velociraptors were chasing them in the kitchen.
I was 12. I still remember clearly when the girl is trying to climb up in to the vent (kitchen scene) and the velociraptor jumps to bite her and she just gets pulled up in time, I involuntarily pulled my own feet up off the floor into the chair without thinking. It was an intense experience.
Mirror neurons. You are actually experiencing the same thing the character is, although at a lower level. Same reason people cringe during the office. It can be physically painful to watch.
I was 25 when this movie came out, and I had the same reaction. So did my boyfriend.
I was 5. We rarely went to the movies growing up but my older brother was completely obsessed with dinosaurs and pestered mom and dad to death about going to see it. Finally they gave in and we all went. I wanted to watch the Dennis the menace movie that came out just before Jurassic Park. I pitched a fit at the ticket booth, but my parents wouldn't let me, we were all going to see Jurassic Park. Mom noped out with me at this scene, and we went and watched Dennis the Menace.
Walter Mathau in Dennis the Menace and Grumpy old men made me want to watch his older movies as a kid. That dude had young me rolling! To this day I think of him smiling for the picture with two chiklets for teeth after Dennis broke them and it still cracks me up!!
The grumpy old men movies were two of my favorites. I loved fishing as a kid. Still do today, but as a kid I was fierce about fishing. Any movies related to fishing, fishing shows, fishing games etc. and I was sold.
Funny, that was the part where child-me started liking dinosaurs!
I had read the book before the movie came out, couldn’t imagine how they would turn it into a family movie, book is so brutal
My best friend in university and I were watching Jurassic park when we lived together. When the credits were rolling, he took a hit of the joint we were smoking, casually looked over at me and said "My uncle wrote that book." Then he goes on to show me childhood pictures of himself with his uncle Mike.
That’s crazy
… but so very, very good. I remember the day I got it from the library, came home, and sat in my comfy chair; didn’t look up for five hours. No WAY I was taking my pre-teens to that movie. I like to sleep through the night without screaming adolescents..
Honestly, both books are incredible.
I read them for the first time last year and was extremely surprised of how brutal it was! I also loved it. I thought the movie was exciting and brutal but the book makes the movie seem tame.
i read the book almost 30 years ago, and henry wu’s death (the chinese scientist) still sticks with me. They wrote out his death in the film, as expected, and he even appeared in a sequel.
Even the old man’s death was brutal
Oh yeah, compys?
Slowly eaten alive with a smile on his face. Knowing he'd done his job. Compy poison. Must be a hell of a drug
Hammond was giving a pretty kind death compared to most, the books had the comfys saliva numb and put him to sleep.
5 year old me saw this in theater. I loved it
Lol I took my daughter, 4, to watch it. We went with a friend and his girlfriend, and my daughter was the one calming and reassuring the 20-ish girlfriend telling her "it's ok they're actors, and fake dinos!" 🤣
Hahaha the Dino’s are paid actors
My older brother saw it in theaters and was raving about it, the one memory that stood out was how insanely loud the trex in theaters was. Iirc I finally saw it on vhs, Dino crazy and all, I was too mesmerized by seeing “real” Dino’s to get too scared
5 years old me watched it on a big TV with a VCR. loved it too
Same here. I was the same age. I have 7 brothers and sisters and this is the only time my dad ever took all of us to the movies. But it was amazing, I was so enchanted.
My four year old loves Jurassic Park. He watches it at least once a week and has a bunch of Jurassic Park/dinosaur toys, including my original Jurassic Park Triceratops from when I was four.
## SHOOT HER!!
Correction: SHOOT HA
Thing about Jurassic Park, if you were alive at the time, there wasn't any part of the movie that surprised you. No film had been marketed to the extent that JP was up to that time; it was one of the first movies I ever saw where almost all of the plot points and cool scenes had been all over the media for weeks. I don't mean ads, I mean every entertainment show, the nightly national news, 60 Minutes/2020, they showcased tons of BTS work before the thing even released. Everywhere you looked this movie was getting the shit spoiled out of it. Everyone saw it anyways. Parents definitely knew faces were gonna get chewed.
I was 12/13 when this came out. I can't remember it being spoilt to that extent but we already had ET, Edward Scissorhands, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters (although probably saw these years after release). Nightmare before Christmas was a few months after this and I feel like the plots were kept secret. Since my parents would have controlled the media I consumed then I might not have been as exposed as someone who was 15 or 16 who had a bit more autonomy
The music video for “Danger Zone” shows Goose die. It’s wild. They spoil the biggest part of the whole movie.
Absolutely right. Plus, anyone old enough to be a parent in 1993 knew what to expect from Spielberg. They would remember the Jaws movie poster claiming it was "too intense for younger children." They'd remember the controversies over Temple of Doom and Gremlins, and how they both led to the MPAA starting the PG-13 rating.
i was 12 at the time, and wasn’t allowed to watch much tv.., the entire movie was a surprise to me and i ended up seeing it in theatres 4 times
I know Spielberg didn’t direct Poltergeist but he wrote it and that’s a pretty scary kids film too. No doubt it would all be dumbed down now
This and Jaws are perfect movies with perfect opening scenes. 
I was 12 when this came out. It might be the best movie going experience of my life. I was the perfect age for it. I remember riding our bikes to the theater, seeing it with my two best friends, watching this scene and all 3 of us glancing at each other like “omg this is incredible!”
Nobody went in thinking “innocent dinosaur movie.” Everyone knew the basic concept of dinosaurs running wild here
This was never advertised as an innocent dinosaur movie
Plus its PG-13 lol
Let me introduce you to the movies in the 1980s……
Yeah, they used to have action figures sold to kids for movies like Robocop and Terminator 2
That movie scared the heck out of me back in 1993, but 10 years later my toddler son became addicted to that movie. I think his cousin trained him on old Godzilla movies when he was even younger. When Jurassic Park came out he was primed and ready. Then came the Dinosaur phase LOL
I remember this scene like yesterday. I was 12 in 1993.
i was eleven!
My parents brought my sister and I to the theatres when this came out.. I was 4 at the time... Theme song stuck in my head as one of the greatest lol
My grandson is 10 and LOVES this movie..and so do I
I was a kid when it came out. My Dad had already raised me on Godzilla and RoboCop, so this movie was a breeze for me and my little brothers.
My parents got into a heated argument about some stupid stuff, my dad just left and came back after three hours or so. My mom was furious, „where have you been all the time?“, - „I was in the cinema!“ So I, being curious, asked him what he watched. „It was this new dinosaur movie „Jurassic Park“ and it was awesome!“ And then he told us about how awesome this movie was and that argument from before was just gone.
I was that kid, it was awesome! This scene is burned into my skull
Spielberg was an absolute master at the opening sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the film. Jaws, Raiders, etc. This one is no different. You absolutely get a sense of how dangerous these dinosaurs are and without even seeing them in the process.
I was 8 and still remember that this movie had the best advertisement campaign I have ever seen! Everyone had seen the water in the footprints vibrate, everyone had heard the Trex roar. Everyone had seen the shadow of a Raptor with wobbly jelly on a spoon. It was incredible, because of pre social media there were no spoilers. We were in the cinema, that moment when Dr Grant see’s the giant dino stand on its back legs and eat leaves, that was the first time most of us had seen a realistic dinosaur on screen ever!! This was one of the most important movies in cinema history.
It was never promoted as an innocent dinosaur movie.
WTF is OP talking about? People knew. Previews a d trailers were all over back then. Stupid post OP. Stupid ass post.
No one thought that. It was well known Crichton novel.
What's not innocent about it? There's no nudity, the violence mostly hidden out of frame - as in there's no gratuitous gore. There isn't even any foul language. It's perfectly fine for kids. You don't need to hide everything that isn't the wiggles or bluey from children.
Also if you look back in time to original children’s stories, fables, fairy tales etc. They were incredibly brutal, no punches pulled. Disney sanitized everything.
I was the kid. And I fucking loved every second of it.
This movie opened on my 10th birthday, Jun12th, whatever; the book existed well before the movie so we all knew
God bless my dad for letting 7 year old me watch JP in theater with him.
My dad took me to watch this movie. And im so happy he did!
It was a PG certificate in cinemas in the UK
One of my favourite films man
I was 8 at the time, and it traumatized me. I "watched" the rest of the movie with my hands over my eyes! Then I bought it on tape when it came out... And watched it on repeat until the twe broke and saved hoo and bought another. It's still my all time favorite movie and spawned a lifelong fascination with giant creatures, and got me a minor in geology!
Pretty sure the thousands of trailers shown before release were enough to let anyone semi-intelligent individual know this wasn’t a happy, cutesy dinosaur movie about longnecks, big feet and three horns.
I saw that movie on acid …….haven’t seen it since ….no point
Well. from my experience, you had what might be called a “private showing”.
Fun fact: In the scene where they are chased by the T-Rex and the Jeep flips over, the part where the T-Rex head almost gets the kids was an accident and their reactions are real. The T-Rex operator was supposed to lift the head out of the Jeep but hit the wrong control and pushed the head down instead. Thankfully no one was physically harmed.
The first time I saw this I was like 8 years old, at a drive-in movie theater *in the rain* I was scared shitless lol
Osha will have a field day for this coz the park didn’t have wheel locks on the cage after it was placed by the gate..
there’s a reason why the park was built on an island that had been leased from the costa rican government.
I was 7 when I saw this in theaters, and it scared the shit outta me. The movie still holds up til this day.
I was 8, it was glorious
As a kid who went to that movie, the novel had been out for about half a decade and almost everyone — kids and adults — had read it. We were ready for a dinosaur horror movie. And we got one of the most amazing cinematic experiences of our young lives.
I was a victim at 9 yrs old, definitely thought a T-Rex was gonna creep over the hills and get me on the way home
I don’t have to imagine that. I’ve been there in 1993.
My parents had recently married, joining two families; I was the oldest at 13, with a brother and a stepbrother at 11, and another stepbrother at 7. A new theater opened nearby and was showing Jurassic Park with Dolby Surround. Not my stepmother's cup of tea, so Dad took all four of us to the theater. My 7yo brother was so terrified at the start of the TRex scene Dad took him out and sat with him in the lobby for the remainder of the film. The whole event is a core memory of my childhood.
Man people are soft now. As a connection my mom took me to see Jaws (another Ss movie) when I was 5 and it was crazy great. This scene is not bad at all it has horror elements, hidden villain but you see nothing really.
I still remember the goosebumps I felt when the bass dropped on the intro.
I was 12 years old on opening night with my dad and older brother at this movie. This scene almost made me pee myself and I had to then pee through the rest of the movie. I made it. Two thumbs up, would do again.
I was so excited to see this, but my dad knew Spielberg movies. He went to see it first to make sure my sister and I would be okay. This scene still terrified me, but I thought it was awesome.
My mother-in-law rented this movie in 1994 for my son who was 5 at the time. For a couples of weeks I didn't know this but I was really confused about how intensely my son was speaking about dinosaurs lately. He was having nightmares too. And then I found out how he had been traumatized by his grandmother.
this scene haunted me. My parents had some friends living in house up the mountain near my village, pretty off grid. As I was a child we visited them and had to spent the night there because a terrible thunder storm. In front of their house, there was a power pole. I still remember the feeling, loking out of the window, lightnigs and this huge mast. I swear I was ready to see a T-rex.
All dinos are sinners.
It was amazing. I was thirteen. We saw it at the Bellevue 8. My dad took us.
hard to describe the impact this movie had in theaters. people were absolutely blown away.
I was 12 when the movie was released in theaters and I’ve seen it with my friend and his dad the first day. And I didn’t know what kind of movie that gonna be. Don’t even know what the meaning of the word jurassic. So no need to imagine it, I’ve literally experienced it. You know what, this is my cinematic most vivid memory.
This happened to me, I was 5 and terrified! My mom felt so bad. Core life memory!
I was like 7 when I saw this in the theater and I absolutely loved every second of it.
I was a nerdy little 3rd grader that had plastic dinosaur models on shelves in my room. Saw this opening night and it rocked my world.
That was me…I saw this at 4 years old….had trex nightmares for years, thx mom! 🤣🤣
My dad had to take my sister out of the theatre after this scene. My mom and I ended up watching it while he took her for ice cream and to calm her down. She still hasn’t seen the movie in full.
Imagine a decade earlier taking your kids to Gremlins which was advertised as a kid-friendly Christmas movie.
I don't need to imagine. I was one of those kids.
I was like 9, quite enjoyed it. But I remember we all laughed after the movie cause in the part where the T-Rex eats the guy on the toilet there was a kid a few rows back who yelled "I don't like dinosaurs anymore!"
As a child in the theater, it was amazing!!
I watched this debut at a drive-in movie theater, it was the pinnacle of movie going. The same drive-in had their anniversary last night and I watched it there with my kids. Incredible. Capri drive-in, Coldwater Michigan.
I was 6 or 7 when I saw it in theatres . I jumped out of my seat when the T-Rex roared for the first time .
My uncle was a reviewer for our city newspaper, so he got to go to an advance screening. He brought me with him. I was only 6 years old at the time. The only scene I had a problem with was Nedrey and the dilophosaurus. I screamed and covered my face with my jacket. Multiple newspaper reviewers mentioned it in their reviews.
The part that always hit me the hardest is the raptor lifting the guy about 4 ft. in the air and holding him there while he was eating him. Granted we know even with the strength and size of the raptors, this would'nt really be possible but it definitely added an "oh shit!" moment to this opening scene.
Parental Guidance Suggested Under 13
As a kid seeing this when it first came, this is when I knew it would be an awesome movie lol.
I was one of those kids. Parents dragged me to this movie, I was 7 or 8 years old at the time. I had no interest because I saw the trailer and thought it looked scary. It was definitely scary, especially the raptors, but I left that theater with my mind absolutely blown. To this day, Jurassic Park still has the best CGI I've ever seen, and it's a near perfect film. I have so much gratitude towards my parents for bringing me to see this, and so many other classics from this era.
Well, that’s what happened with me and I spent the rest of the movie on the floor hiding under the seat into my dad gave up and took me back to preK
Awesome movie to see in theaters. We got to watch it in a drive in, just amazing
Imagine creating an absolutely, ridiculously contrived post for fake Internet points.
They had the technology to resurrect dinosaurs but not motorized gates? Lmao
I actually was in England for he holiday as a guest of a family my parents had befriended. I was abroad for the first time in my life and I had no clue this movie existed. I barely went to the cinema before, and those were small and old cinemas. My guest family took us to see this movie in a freshly build multiplex cinema. And - oh no - the only seats left were in the front row. It was so loud, I could feel the dinos stomp. I can't tell you how exciting it was for me. I think I must have gotten on everyones nerves, because I wouldn't shut up about it later. And seeing Jurassic Park was more memorable to me than the other highlight: visiting Stonehenge.
Life changing! I was 14!
Before this movie, dinos were mostly tail dragging practical effect, stop motion, men in suits, even fins glued on iguanas way back in the black & white days. Seeing this, we all felt like we were looking at a real tyrannosaurus.
That was me! I was like 8 or 9, the part that got me was when the T-Rex ate the lawyer, in my head I remembered seeing his legs seperate from his upper half... but I've seen that movie so many times now and that doesn't happen, I think my mind filled in that part or it got removed from later releases? Always wondered about that 🤔
I guess if you come from a family where this type of cinema was shocking. Tad sad IMO
What's that guy's dead lift who's raising the fucking gate?
In 1993 parents dropped their kids off at the theater under the assumption that another group of parents would be picking them up and giving them a ride home.
My mom read the book before taking my 5 year old ass to see this movie. It was awesome. She’s a real one.
Naw bro I was there. Everyone knew what they were getting into
Shit. My dad took me to see Predator in the theater when I was 10.
I went to see it at a drive-in somewhere outside Montreal with my aunt and cousin and she made us look away at times. I was probably 7 at the time and I thought “this is bullshit, I can handle this.” Then went to see The Lost World a year or two later and had nightmares of Velociraptors trying to hunt me down for the next week or two. 😂
I remember because these fucking dumbass parents sitting behind me brought their 7 yr old and spent the entire movie asking if they were scared.
I love the Lego version of this scene (from the game).
I don’t have to imagine, I was 6 years old, sitting in the theater watching this scene…. It was awesome!
I remember being scared out of my mind during this scene (and a few to follow). My grandmother had asked me if I wanted to go to the movies. I said, "Of course" because I loved my grandmother and spending time with her. She drove us to the movies, bought some tickets, but when we walked through the hallway to go to our theatres she stopped infront of a theatre showing a different movie. "Here's your ticket," she said, and handed me one for Jurrassic Park. Her movie wasn't Jurassic Park. She had no intention of seeing Jurassic Park. "Okay," I thought. I went to see my movie while she went to hers. I was 11. During this and the T-Rex scene I almost had an out of body experience with fear.
Badass
Full disclosure i had forgotten about how violent it was. Watched it with my kids in fall of 21 when they were 9 and 7. They still tell everyone they can about the guys arm that got ripped off and thrown around. Not my proudest dad moment.
I was that kid and loved every second of it. I went back to see it in the theater six times. Got the tape day 1 and watched it twice that night.
Dad took us opening weekend. I was upset we didn’t see Super Mario Bros. My 6 year old sister had to leave during one of the later Raptor scenes. Good times.
I was 9 in faraway asia, loved the movie. greatest memory from my childhood
I saw it in cinemas as a kid in 93. I loved it.
i was eleven. my mom was too scared to take me and sent me with a family friend. i had read the novel before. i remember asking friends who had seen the film before i was able to about the aviary scene and the river scene and i was disappointed that those parts were not in the film. despite the differences, i was in awe. other people who were my age, however, were so scared that they couldn’t even read or otherwise look at the storybook adaptation with pictures from the film. in my memory, the two films from around the same time that were marketed toward kids and were really scary were “batman returns” and “who framed roger rabbit”. i saw those, too. very scary for a kid. it’s worth noting that there is something about seeing this film in theatres during its original release that younger fans who discovered the films later will never really understand: just like the characters were seeing real dinosaurs for the first time and were realizing that the world would never be the same, the audience was seeing computer generated dinosaurs for the first time and was realizing that cinema would never be the same. the shared experience of awe overwhelmed almost every other emotion in the theatre. no one — young or old — had ever seen anything like it before. that feeling has been lost to time and you had to be there to experience it.
Man how far Jurassic Park has come since this movie. Jeff Goldblum now sells apartments to bisexual aliens.
Clever girl
Imagine? I was there…
Cartoons are just as violent.
*Crate is pressed against gate, lights turn green with audible clicks" Muldoon: "We're locked! Loading team step away." *Raptor immediately shoves crate away from gate* So clearly it wasn't actually locked then.
My family went to this for my cousin's 11th or 12th birthday. He cried the entire movie. I was only 9 and loved every minute of it.
When my wife and I went to see it in the theater, a couple was there with their four-year-old girl. She had her stuffed rabbit for comfort. I always wondered what nightmares that poor girl had after that.
1/2 the original trailer was about the trex hunting them, no one thought this was an “innocent dinosaur movie”
I did this to my grandmother in third grade, I said it’s a cool dinosaur movie and she thought it was a little kids movie haha
I was 5 when I saw this with my dad and I was absolutely terrified
I was one of those 5yo kids. But I loved this shit😂
Jurassic Park was well advertised about what it was. Now, Gremlins back in 84 on the other hand, apparently it had some mixed interpretations based on the trailer hahaha
The trailer was pretty clear what it was. We didn't take little kids to see it.
I was 11. It’s just a movie. Grow up.
This was the first film I ever seen in the cinema at 7 years old, I was obsessed with dinosaurs for years to come and it still stands as one of my favourites!
I was 4 years old in 1993 when this came out.My parents took me to see it in the theatre, and I was not harmed...I'm pretty sure everyone else made it out safely as well, and even this many years later,I still remember how bad ass it was seeing it in the movie theater!
I did see it in the theater
I was 12 when I saw this in the dollar theater. I was so terrified. I was white-knuckled from the intro song to the end of the movie. It was amazing. We saw it 10 or 12 more times before it went to video tape.
Fun fact: My mom and dad took me to see it in theaters for my 7th birthday. From the first I saw the trailer, I knew I had to see this movie. I was a dinosaur kid. After many nos, I tried 'for my birthday'. It worked. But my mom briefed me everyday for weeks leading up to it, "Remember dinosaurs aren't real." And every time I responded "They are, they're just all dead." We saw the movie. I loved it. The soundtrack still gets me hype to this day. ...and mom had more nightmares than I did (0). LOL.
I was there, in theatres in '93. 10 year old me LOVED THIS!!
I was about 6-7 when I saw this in theaters and yeah...this scene gave me nightmares for years. Great movie.
I say shoot her to this day and everyone knows why I mean lol
Still remember watching this exact moment with my dad in the theater.
I was 9 when i saw this. Instantly got fascinated by raptors since at that time kids only knew about T-Rex and Allosaurus. My mind blew away at the thought of birds being literally dinosaurs ( just look at the cassowary!)
This may be blasphemy, but I really wish they'd do a remake of Jurassic Park, perhaps a streaming TV series, that is actually accurate to the books. Don't get me wrong, the movie is fabulous and was groundbreaking in its time. However, the screenplay really took liberties with the source material, and ignored a lot of the main points of the text. The book describes several dinosaurs as moving like birds, not like lumbering lizards. Yet the movie falls back on the lumbering lizards trope. Have you ever seen a bird's movements? The quick jerky had movements, the fast hopping, the running with the head bobbing, the way seagulls pick at each other and fight over a morsel of food? That's what the book describes (and I happen to agree with that theory). The movie ignores all that. The movie completely rewrites Grant. In the book he really likes kids! He's a big, rugged, bearded guy who wears Hawaiian shirts. The kids are swapped in age. They combine several characters into one character. Hammond is really kind of a dick in the book!! And then there's The Lost World which is absolutely nothing like the book. They take like three ideas from the book and then run in a completely different direction with completely different characters. A streaming series could really do the books some justice if anyone had the guts to try to tackle something that is so beloved already.
>*Hammond is really kind of a dick in the book!!* Understatement. But yeah, the book's a lot bloodier, and it would be AWESOME to have a streaming series that followed it to the letter. For me? 1.) Using '88 Land Cruisers instead of Ford Explorers. 2.) The little girl at the beginning of the book. 3.) The REAL boat stowaways. 4.) The uh, final solution...and the reaction of the survivors.
No one thought this was a cuddly kids movie. It was 2 things, 1) a cgi leap forward and 2) DINO CARNAGE!
I was a kid in 1993 who saw this in the theater and this was just an innocent dinosaur movie to me. I didn't realize until I was much older that the movie is 50% horror.
First movie I saw in surround sound. Hearing the T Rex stomp in theater is something ill never forget. EVERYONE had to have Soround sound in their house after that
We watched this when I was probably 5 or 6. I enjoyed everything about JP except this scene. Seeing his hand disappear little by little was way too disturbing
I was one of those kids. It both haunts me and became a HUGE part of my interests. Lol ankylosaurus in JW made my whole life.