Random Things You Didn't Know About the Jurassic Park Franchise (20 items)

(#11) Films in the Franchise Reference Another Spielberg Film

Jurassic Park: Shortly after Nedry makes his first appearance in the control room, during his argument with Hammond, one can clearly see Jaws playing in a small video window on one of Nedry's computer screens. That movie was, of course, also directed by Steven Spielberg.

Jurassic Park III: When the paleontologists enter the bar for dinner with the Kirbys, you can see a Jurassic Park (1993) pinball machine in the background.

Jurassic World: The great white shark being eaten in Jurassic World is a clear homage to Jaws.
(#12) Spielberg Gave Out Raptors as Wrap Gifts

All of the cast members were given a raptor model signed by Steven Spielberg as a gift once the film had wrapped. It looked very frightening, and Ariana Richards has it in her house to shock anyone coming in. "It's pretty big, maybe five feet long, maybe two feet high in a glass case," she said.
(#10) Spielberg Got a Lucky Raptor Break While Filming Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg wanted the Velociraptors to be about 10 feet tall, which was taller than they were known to be. However, during filming, paleontologists uncovered 10-foot-tall specimens of raptors called Utahraptors.
(#18) The Helicopter Scene Foreshadows the Dinosaurs' Ability to Mate

Grant fashioning a functioning seat-belt with only two latches and no latch plate foreshadows a later scene where the dinosaurs are suddenly able to breed, despite that they were all originally female.
(#14) At the Time of Its Release, Jurassic Park Was Breaking All of the Records

The film opened on Friday, June 11, 1993, and broke box office records its first weekend, bringing in $47 million. It eventually went on to make more than $900 million worldwide.

Screenwriter David Koepp remembers the day it opened: "I was in New York and I walked to the Ziegfeld [Theatre] to see how it was doing. The guy comes out and announces to the big line, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the 7 o'clock show of Jurassic Park is sold out.' And people go, 'Oooh.' And he goes, 'Also the 10 o'clock show is sold out.' And they went, 'Ooooooh.' 'And also Saturday night's 7 and 10 o'clock shows are also sold out.' And I was like, 'I'm not an expert, but I think this is very good.'"
(#2) The T. Rex Animatronic Was Incredibly Powerful in Real Life as Well as on Screen

The crew had to have safety meetings about the T. rex; it weighed 12,000 pounds and was extremely powerful. To alert the crew when the T. rex would come on, they used flashing lights because if someone stood next to it and the head went by at speed, it felt like a bus going by.