Have you ever loved something so much and for so long that it ended up shaping who you became in ways both large and small? I'm not talking about a person that shaped you, but more of a thing. I guess the real question is how many of you can name a defining moment from your childhood that became something you never forgot? I tend to ask questions like this, I know, and it's always to no answer because you are the faceless entities that read these and I am the humble author that puts them out to the ether. Still, rhetorical or not, they seem like good questions to ask.
I want to take you back 22 years and some change. Let's say 22 years and 2 weeks. More than 2 weeks and I'd be way off in the logic of my timeline, and less than two weeks and I wouldn't be granting myself enough time to anticipate the event that would shape me. I'm a big proponent of things that inspire, and this is as far back as my memory goes on something that inspired me.
June 1993, so picture that adorable kid whilst reading.
Yes, I said adorable.
Yes, I said adorable.
I can remember doing something in the kitchen when I was 7 years old, either pouring cereal or warming up 'Lil Smokies to eat with mustard (deal with it), and my mom was folding laundry in the living room. Mom hollered "Sean come in here!" and I ran into the living room to see she was watching an Oprah episode that she had recorded. As I got into the room, Oprah was introducing a clip for a movie some people were promoting and when it started, my heart stopped. It was for the dinosaur movie coming out, the one that I had only heard about because my mom and brother had read the book.
The sights you never forget.
I can't recall much about the clip, or if it was a commercial, but I do remember a huge foot coming down in the mud and seeing two people crouched against an upside-down car as they watched it approach. Then the clip was over, with the announcement of June 11th at the end.
Must have been a commercial then. There, see? I answered my own question.
Oh wait, lookie here. It's the commercial! Thanks Google!
I'd heard at some point that this book called "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton was being brought to life as a movie. Knowing my mom and brother had read it, I asked a lot of questions about the book and my mom was admittedly not great about answering them, insisting I should wait for the movie. My brother was a little better about giving me details of certain scenes but the questions of a seven-year-old child aren't usually super specific.
More often than not it was probably "what happens?" and I'm sure that gets pretty fuckin' old.
Living in Southern California and really not too far from Los Angeles (just an hour East of it), we were privy to a larger amount of movie advertising than I'm sure other areas had. At least that was true at the time in 1993. However, I can recall seeing the billboard for Jurassic Park and imagining over and over and what going to happen in the movie because the billboard was just an image of the movie logo.
I think the important thing to note here is that way back in 1993 there was no internet in our house. And yes we all know the story of "back in my day" that accompanies statements like that, but it's really something to think about. Being seven, I had no access to the trailers, teasers, commercials, clips, interviews and behind the scenes footage that we are inundated with today on youtube and the like. The media couldn't get a hold of stuff, there were no spy-cams out to capture pictures of the actors on set and speculation as to what they were doing and why. It was a secret, and a huge part of me misses that aspect of movies. Just make it, keep it quiet, and then show off what you did.
There were commercials on TV and if you missed 'em, tough shit. We didn't go to the movies that often so we never had the chance to catch the trailers either, and if you rented a VHS and were LUCKY enough to have previews before the movie then good for you. I had access to a couple newspaper ads in black and white, a commercial during Oprah, and what felt like an eternity to wait for June 11th.
Then the night came.
I remember being picked up from school and my mom telling me we were going home for dinner and then the five of us (dad, brother and sister) would be going to see Jurassic Park. It was one of those instances like Halloween, where you start shoveling food in your mouth before you go trick-r-treating because the sooner you eat, the sooner the magic starts. Eventually we packed up the Suburban and drove out to Riverside to the AMC Tyler Galleria 16. Here's my creepy memory hard at work:
I can remember sitting in the backseat, passenger side, and approaching the theater with it on the same side. The sun was starting to set so you had that amber-colored glow on the building and the lines to get in were wrapped around it. I see movies all the time and that shit NEVER happens anymore. I don't know if mom and dad had already purchased tickets or not, they probably had, but the anticipation of seeing the line just about killed me. I knew I was going to like the movie, I knew it was supposed to be "groundbreaking" (though I didn't understand the how or why), but I had no idea how it would come to shape me. Standing in that line was agony and all anyone was talking was wondering what they were going to see on the screen.
Such a fantastic scare.
We sat a few rows from the front, there was no stadium-seating at that point so it was one of those theaters where the ground just kinda slopes upward to the back. I remember covering my eyes during the sick triceratops scene, being unable to move to cover my eyes during the t-rex attack on the cars, and then jumping out of my fucking skin when the velociraptor breaks through the pipes behind Dr. Sattler (shown above).Mom talked for years about the annoying little girl in front of us. During the brachiosaurus scene when Dr. Grant says the animals were singing, the little girl loudly asked "Daddy what are they singing? Daddy! What are they singing?" I can still hear mom's impression and it still makes me chuckle.
I can guaran-fuckin-tee I ran off to play Jurassic Park
by myself after that picture was taken, on month after
the movie came out in theaters.
the movie came out in theaters.
I had a nightmare that night when we got home, imagining a t-rex biting through the roof of our house and into me on the second floor. The next week at school, it was time to play "Jurassic Park" on the playground, and I was the one in charge because I was the only kid that had seen it. Obviously I was the coolest kid around ::tosses hair:: I was usually the velociraptor chasing the other kids, because I had a really high-pitched girl scream and I was pretty quick on my feet.
In the weeks and months to follow I collected many "things" despite only seeing the movie once. Candies, toys, bedsheets, books; the works. I don't believe I had any clothing but I had everything else you could own. What absolutely kills me is that I didn't keep all of it. At some point in time most of it vanished, most likely from when we moved to Wisconsin in 1997 and I just didn't play with the toys anymore. But we had the VHS (which came out a full year and a half after the movie hit theaters and scared the shit out of me all over again) that I watched religiously. I watched it so many times that I literally wore the tape out and we had to buy a new one.
I could (still can) recite every line from the movie without batting an eye. I had the soundtrack on cassette tape too and cranked that bitch on my boombox whenever I could. I still credit it for getting me interested in movie scores (which comprise about 60% of my iTunes library). The first Jurassic Park movie ended up having the biggest opening weekend of all time (up until that point) with $47 million, and went on to be the highest grossing movie of all time (until Titanic) with $900 million worldwide. It still sits at #17 on the all-time highest box office earning movies.
After we moved to Wisconsin, mom deemed me old enough to read the book and that was a whole new experience for me when we borrowed it from the public library.
I read it twice, back to back, and couldn't put it down either time. I didn't understand most of the science talk in the beginning but that was okay because the book gave me an even greater gift. It showed me what the movie could have been. And as I said before, with just a little bit of the imagination I love to utilize, I could what the movie could have been, in my head, any time I wanted. A few years later I loaned the book to @klreynol and it was while she was reading it that we decided to go for a walk one day.
On that walk, we discussed what it would be like to write a story if the idea behind Jurassic Park (a dinosaur theme park) had actually worked. That idea led to us writing our own short stories, and my short story ended up becoming The Onyxus Chronicles: Episode I.
You can also buy my book right here (c:
I started collecting memorabilia a few years later when eBay became a thing, and I've never gotten anything CRAZY but I will say I'm quite proud to own a cardboard standee used in a movie theater lobby during the initial theatrical run. I'm always adding to my collection, ps. So feel free to donate to it. I've got some promotional material, Derek bought me the McDonald's cups the other day which made me ridiculously happy, and there are a few other things that have been added to my collection over the years.
When high school was coming to an end, Seniors were given the opportunity to have a "Senior Quote" at the end of the yearbook. I went back and forth a few times on what I wanted to do and then decided I should just "do me" and put something from Jurassic Park in. In hindsight, I wish I had used a better quote ("Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration I've decided not to endorse your park."), but I don't really care. It was original and not a quote of a Dave Matthews song like everyone else did. Assholes. I win.
When I went to visit my brother in Austin, TX in November of 2011, we were walking down 6th street one night and he pointed out a movie theater called The Alamo Drafthouse (look it up, seriously awesome company) and this particular location was The Ritz. So we stroll by it and I look at the movies showing and my heart stops. Jurassic Park. I imagine I looked at him in mild shock/horror/glee/happiness/panic at the sight of it. The movie had been in a limited re-release at the Alamo earlier in the year (I knew this because the poster pictured above was commissioned for that occasion) but seeing as the theater chain only existed down in Texas, I knew I'd never get the chance in time. They were randomly re-showing it.
The last shows of the day were done, sadly, so we went home and I just sighed in an "oh well, woulda been neat, not like I haven't seen it 200+ times," kind of way. Then my brother texted me from his bedroom that he bought two tickets for us for the next day.
The Alamo experience is one thing, but seeing your favorite movie on the big-screen for the first time in 18 years is pretty special. And not just that, but it was an original print of the movie. Filled with grainy images and some scratchy sounds here and there coupled with brilliant green or magenta lines every now and then, and I adored every second of it. I was like a kid again seeing these things for the first time. Experiencing them in a way I had truly forgotten.
I'd like to thank Macy's for making a shirt that faded so quickly
after washing it that it looked like I bought it 20 years ago.
This puppy gets noticed when I wear it, and I love that to no end.
I assume it's because I'm amazing ::tosses hair again:: but I know it's because seeing something with a hardcore fan is a big deal. I feel it when I watch Star Wars with my brother... you can sense the emotional bond a person has with something and being there makes you feel special. At least that's how it makes me feel.
The ticket is blurry but I wanted to get "her" on the wall
in the frame more than anything else.
So you see why this movie made such an impression on me, at least I hope you do. There are a hundred other reasons why it is so important, from the breakthroughs in CGI to implementing new technologies used in movies forever after. It has its flaws of course, which I love to point out when I re-watch the movie with people, but that is all part of the charm.
When Jurassic World was announced three years ago I was excited but skeptical. The sequels have been less than... less than. I'll leave it at that. They each have their charm, though Jurassic Park III has very very very little of it, and because they are part of the series they get a pass from me. What would a new movie bring to the table? The rumors constantly swirling around a fourth movie typically involved weaponizing the dinosaurs, putting machinery on them, blending the DNA with humans to make weird monsters (I'm not kidding, read about it here), etc. etc.
None of it sounded good.
Not that I was ever in a position to judge something before seeing it... but if I wasn't, who was? I think anyone who labels themselves as a huge f'in nerd fan for a movie should have the right to shake their head at an idea. But then information started leaking.
Information: "This will be a direct sequel to Jurassic Park."
Sean: "Oh puh-lease."
Information: "It takes place 22 years later, on the same island as the original."
Sean: "Wait... what?"
Information: "The park will be open for business."
Sean: "I'll give you my first born child at no charge."
And then the first trailer came out.
It doesn't shame me to say that I watched this in the parking lot of my dentist's office after getting a crown on my tooth and that I started crying when I saw it. Because it looked good... it seemed and felt and sounded good. And I watched it a dozen times. And made Derek watch it a dozen times. And over the months to follow I watched it and everything else that came out for it on an almost endless stream. All I ever wanted was to see the park open and operating. What could it have been? What would it have looked like? To take it out of the 90's and give it a futuristic feel while still being grounded in reality was just icing on the cake.
Finally I was able to buy my tickets in advance for a screening at 7pm on Thursday June 11th. I think if you take the timezones into account, and assuming we saw a 7pm showing of the first movie back in 1993, I was 2 hours shy of watching this exactly 22 years after the first film.
Hey again, ladybird over my shoulder. No, not you Michelle Pfeiffer.
So how was it?
Nothing will ever beat the first movie for me. That's just fact. But Jurassic World beats the other sequels by doing what none of them did before: it pays attention to the source material. Not just the first movie, but the book as well. It takes the ideas and it expands upon them, creating a fully-realized world with a theme park that by all accounts felt as real as any I've ever been to. And it was a relief. It was a bigger relief to see it performed well Thursday night. And then an even bigger relief to see the media had severely underestimated how much money this would make opening weekend, and re-adjusted the figures to be more accurate.
It's great to have been on the bandwagon of something for the majority of my life and get to see the excitement of a new generation as they discover these movies for themselves. Skip 2 and 3 if you want, particularly 3 because it's a terd, but there is no denying the social and technical impact of Jurassic Park. I know more of these are on the way now with this being the start of a new trilogy, and I cannot wait to see where the ride leads next.
I wanted to wait to post this until Sunday, just because I was curious as to what Jurassic World would open at. Universal Pictures initially estimated the movie would bring in $100 million, which is about on par for movies like this now. Apparently they didn't account for the people that would be coming out of the woodwork to get a fix of nostalgia:
* Jurassic World opened with $82.8 million on Friday, making is the third highest opening day of all time.
* It made an average of $48.8 thousand per theatre, giving it the highest per-theater-average of all time.
* It became Universal Pictures highest opening weekend movie, you guessed it, of all time.
* It doubled initial estimates and will be coming in right at about $208.8 million, making it the biggest opening weekend for a movie ever.
* Outside of the US Jurassic World pulled in $314 million, making it the biggest international opening ever.
* Finally (and most importantly) Jurassic World had the biggest worldwide opening of all time with $524 million, also marking the first time a movie made over $500 million in a single weekend.
I could not be more proud to have put my dreams and love behind this series and see it pay off in this manner. Jurassic Park broke box office records when it started on top 22 years ago, I find it only fitting that Jurassic World continue the trend. Until the next sequel, toodles gang (c:
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