Last night, I was watching the 1997 classic, Jurassic Park: The Lost World and I was still blown away by the storyline, graphics, and the characters. It does not compare to the 1993 original but it is still an amazing sequel to it. I have almost no complaints about this movie. The one complaint I do have revolves around one scene later in the movie that has sparked curiosity and debates between fans since the movie first released.
The scene in question is later in the movie when a ship, tasked with the job of transporting a live T-Rex to San Francisco from the island it inhabited. The ship makes its destination but it crashes into the dock uncontrollably. After the dust clears those on looking the ship’s arrival go on board to see what has happened. They examined the ship’s deck to find a couple of crewmen dismembered. They travelled into the wheel house to find a dismembered hand still clutched to the helm. Those on board continue to search and eventually open the cargo hold on the ship to reveal the released T-Rex. The dinosaur begins his rampage on the city shortly after his release.
Everything that occured in this scene is explained a few minutes after the T-Rex becomes loose. The dinosaur was trapped in a small containment cage and was heavily drugged with Tranquilizers. There was, however, too much drugs in the dinosaur’s system which caused it to go into a coma. In order to keep the ‘prize’ alive, the crew that helped load the dinosaur, but was not on the ship, injected a steroid into the Rex to keep it alive. This gave the dinosaur the essence of a ‘locomotive’, as character Sarah Harding suggested, in which it could not be stopped. This gave the Rex enough strength to escape from its cage and begin devouring the crew of the ship.
The details of this endeavor, however, still seemed unclear. I had to search online for it and I came across a site, Jurassic Park legacy, which helped explain the occurences based on the storyline and screenplay. Based on this, the T-Rex managed to get out of the cage and started massacreing the crew while it was on deck. It began to devour some of the crew and wounded others. One of the mortally wounded workers managed to open the door to the cargo hold which, in panic, some crew members took as an option for safety and ran down there. The T-Rex followed and then became trapped down there as the doors closed behind him.
Everything checks out except for one crucial element to it that has fans raging. How did the man in the wheel house get killed. In the film, the investigators that go into the wheel house are shown going into a perfectly made compartment. No windows missing or broken, no dents in walls or doors, and no holes big enough for a T-Rex to have made its way inside. There was even a shot of the compartment from the outside which still showed no signs of distress. The building was not what gave away this flaw though. The hand in question was attached to the helm of the ship which was located in the rear of the cabin. The hand had the skin texture to it implying that the grip was so tight that the body it was attached to moved while leaving it behind. So the body is completely eaten, the hand is left as evedince, but the wheel house is left undamaged. How does this happen?
There has been a lot of speculation with fans but there are two that dominate the arguments. One is that there was a scene involving the ship where some Velociraptors managed to climb aboard and massacre the crew along with the T-Rex. The other argument is that it was just a ‘flub’ on Steven Spielberg’s part. These two both make perfect sense of the situation but the Velociraptors seem like the most logical. My reasoning is that Steven Spielberg, even in 1997, is a top caliber director. I find it very hard to believe that someone with his amount of skill in his profession is able to overlook such a big detail. I may be wrong but it seems to me that he would not mess something like that up. Now the Velociraptors are a different explanation. According to IMDB.com, there was a scene that was cut from the final print which showed a group of Velociraptors boarding the ship and attacking crew members. If this was the case, it would fully explain how the crew inside the ship was killed while the T-Rex devoured the rest in the cargo hold. Yet this is still unclear if that was truly the cause or if it was a rumored scene that never made it to the table at all. If it was a true scene, then that should have been mentioned in the explanation after the attack occured. If that had happened, there would be no debate right now. Unfortunately, there are more questions than answers.
My own opinion is that there was something else on board that ship. Yet the reason for it not being revealled was meant to give Spielberg a base for another sequel if he ever needed it. Now this theory could be disproven by the fact that Jurassic Park 3 came out in 2001 had nothing to do with any hidden dinosaurs from the ship attack. While this brings back my theory, it still could hold true as Spielberg could still be holding onto that for a basis for a fourth movie which has been revealed is in the works right now. No matter if the next movie or any other movie about Jurassic Park is made without reference to those mysterious deaths, he can hold onto that for as long as he wants if he ever feels a need to use it later.
In the end, the only person who knows for sure what ‘happened’ to the crew of the SS Venture is Steven Spielberg. Wether it was just a fluke on his part or if it was a hidden gem to be used for a later movie, the population will never know. All we can do is speculate. I love this movie, don’t take this whole piece as bashing a great film. My intention is only to bring to light one great mystery that is hidden in a great storyline. I myself have seen this movie a lot of times and it took me this long to realize the issue with this scene. My eyes never spotted it until now and I find it interesting that there is such an illogical view of a situation in a blockbuster hit. It is something not everybody sees and that is why I wish to share it with you. To show something peculiar that can be found in the amazing.
Tim's Mind 