Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
Fandom of Fandoms is a podcast that dives into the worlds that fans love most — from galaxies far, far away to magical schools, epic quests, and everything in between. Each episode spotlights a different fandom, exploring its history, what makes it special, and why people are so passionate about it. We’ll chat with real fans, share wild stories, and invite you to geek out with us, one fandom at a time.
Fandom of Fandoms Podcast
Dino DNA: FoF Visits Jurassic Park
What makes a 1993 monster movie feel timeless—and how did a techno-thriller novel quietly shape its future? We bring our friend Sam, a lifelong Jurassic superfan, to map the franchise from Michael Crichton’s pages to Spielberg’s cinematic masterpiece, then into Camp Cretaceous, Evolution, and more. We trade favorite scenes and film-craft notes, like the raptor kitchen sequence and its purposeful camera angles, and John Williams’ score that turns awe into a physical feeling.
If you love dinosaurs, practical effects, smart sci‑fi, or just a great theme you can hum on command, this conversation will scratch that itch. Expect nostalgia, deep cuts, and a few definitive answers to long-standing questions. Hit play, then tell us: which Jurassic moment lives rent‑free in your head—and what’s your hottest take on the franchise? Subscribe, share with a fellow dino fan, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.
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All right, gentlemen and lady.
SPEAKER_01:I've really missed that.
SPEAKER_02:No, you guys did a good job. You guys did a good job.
SPEAKER_01:It wasn't the same. We kept the bit going. You did, yeah. You did. Oh man. Yeah, it feels good to be back. I'm so glad you're here, man. And uh we we definitely missed you a lot these last two episodes. So I know you would have loved to have been here for Spider-Man.
SPEAKER_02:So yes, I I was very sad to miss that, but thankfully I did get to see uh Crazy Uncle Joe and Flannel Fleece a little before the episode, so that was really nice. But what have you guys been up to the last couple weeks?
SPEAKER_03:I've been binging a lot of content, which is probably some good, some bad. But yeah, it's been uh yeah, I've I told you you guys watch Superman. I've been re-watching Severance. Uh I've gotten super into K-pop demon hunters, which if you guys haven't seen it. I've not seen it, I've heard of it, haven't seen it yet.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I need to. So now now like I kind of I waited to like text you about it because I was like, this would make for a good point here. So where did it ultimately you know rank for you as far as the the Superman movie goes? I read your thoughts a little bit, but what do you what do you got for us?
SPEAKER_03:Um overall, I think I like it better than the Snyder ones. Wow. Yeah, I I it just more my what I'm looking for in a superhero movie in general. Um yeah, I have more specific thoughts, but we'll get to that when we get to an actual Superman episode sometime. One day. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. We will. Yeah. Nick, anything new with you?
SPEAKER_01:Uh I have DJed the past two weeks. So um this past weekend I I kind of slowed down a little bit. That was nice. So after working for like three straight weeks, it was nice to have a a slow just kind of hang out at the house weekend. Um, yeah, that's that's been nice. I've I've enjoyed doing that. And um I only have three weddings left. So I'm wow.
SPEAKER_03:Until you're retired.
SPEAKER_01:Uh yeah, officially unofficial. I mean, uh, yeah. That's I'm going to do less next year. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. That's the plan. Funny enough, I I am DJing Sam's wedding. Speaking of it. I guess that's a good way of first. I needed a soundboard. I I missed that too. But no, speaking of that, Sam is our guest here today to talk to us about Jurassic Park. So, with that, let's go ahead and jump in to the theme music and introduce this episode. Hello and welcome to Fandom of Fandoms. If you are joining us for the first time, we take a different fandom every single episode and uh get to oh, he took away my music. I I don't I I lost the bit already. No, we talk about a different fandom every single episode, um, diving into worlds that that fans just really go crazy for, and we've done some some great stuff so far. I'm I'm just so excited for all of the the work that we put in so far and and all the episodes that we got left to go. So today let's go ahead and dive into Jurassic Park. And this is our guest. We got Sam Fox in the house as our resident Jurassic Park expert.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So Sam's been a good friend of ours also since college. Um, I mean, I don't know what else to say. Like uh, she and I have been very close since college, I know. Probably closer since college than in college, I would feel like I would agree with that. Yeah, but yeah, super happy. She's the one person who, whenever anything Jurassic comes up, I text immediately, whether it's the game's uh Chaos Theory, which I know that like you're one of the only other people I know who've watched Chaos Theory. Um, and yeah, all the movies we went and saw the new one together, and yeah, so Sam is I do not know what Chaos Theory is, so I'm excited to learn. You take Bluey and you put it together with Jurassic Park. Whoa. Okay. Not not quite, not quite. No, it is it is a made-for-kids show on Netflix that is Jurassic Park themed.
SPEAKER_00:But it's it's it's two parts. It starts out as Camp Cretaceous and the kids are younger.
SPEAKER_01:That's what I've heard about.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and then um later on they release a part two, which is chaos theory.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. Okay, yeah. No, I I I knew of Camp Crista Cretaceous however you say it. Cretaceous. Cretaceous, see? Yeah. Anyways, I watched a couple episodes of it, but yeah, I did I did not know of it as chaos theory.
SPEAKER_00:So that's the yeah, that's the part two. I think it's like Cretaceous colon chaos theory.
SPEAKER_01:So this is the point when we would normally talk about the origins, which we were talking about before the show started to make sure that we got a little bit at least the the background knowledge. So um I'm uh I'm gonna pass it over to Sam because she's the expert, anyways. Could you tell us a little bit about the origins of of Jurassic Park?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so um Jurassic Park actually started out as a novel. Um Michael actually said he had no idea there was a novel. No clue, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm already gaining knowledge here.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but it was written by Michael Crichton. So he's a big um sci-fi author. He has done like the Andromeda Strain is another one that has a another like a movie counterpart. Um Westworld. Yeah, Westworld, um Timeline, a lot of other like big sci-fi type things from the I think like the 80s, yeah, 70s, 80s, 90s, I believe. Um so Jurassic Park was he was actually still working on the novel, I believe. And he was working with uh Steven Spielberg on um a movie that turned into a TV series that many of you might know called ER. Oh, no way, that's crazy. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, wait, so Steve So Steven Spielberg like was creating ER?
SPEAKER_00:Is that so they were um working together? So um Michael Crichton, I believe, has like a doctorate and he knows a lot about is he still alive?
SPEAKER_03:Actually, I have no idea. No, don't know. Good question.
SPEAKER_00:Producer Michael in present tense, but um he had a lot of medical knowledge, so they were using him to help create ER. And is he still alive?
SPEAKER_02:He was he deceased in 2008. He deceased.
SPEAKER_00:I I had a feeling he was gone.
SPEAKER_02:What was 2008? 2008, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but yeah, he uh was a co I think a co-producer or co-creator for ER, which was one of the longest running medical dramas in television history. It's great, by the way, if you haven't watched it. If you want to do an ER episode, let me know. We will yeah, gladly have it back on. Yeah. Um but um Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg were working together on that. So he knew that um he knew about the novel early. And Steven Spielberg kind of wanted to jump on hey, I want the rights to this movie, I want to do the screenplay, I want to do it. But um, he really wanted to do Schindler's List first, and Universal kind of used that to pull their weight and said, nah, you do Jurassic Park first, then we'll do Schindler's List. So they actually were kind of intersecting and he had to pass off some of the um like editing type things and stuff like that. So I think the novel might have been released in 1989. I could be wrong on the year, um, but it is set in the mid-80s. Um so uh that's kind of where it started. Um there were actually a lot of directors and a lot of um production companies that were kind of bidding on the rights for the the screenplay, but Universal was like, nah, we're gonna do it and we're gonna do it with Spielberg. Yeah. So definitely a good choice.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, best choice. Turned out well for them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So um, and then the first movie was released in 1993. So that's kind of where everything began. A lot of people aren't super familiar with the book, but I absolutely love the book. Um, I listen to the audiobook all the time, actually.
SPEAKER_03:Nice. Anyone want to narrate it?
SPEAKER_00:No, it's just some random guy. Nothing wrong with it. I do wish that more actors would do audiobook recordings because they're better about the voice inflection.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I'm kind of surprised it's not more of a thing.
SPEAKER_03:You know, how many actors are you gonna get to pay to sit down for 16 hours and read something?
SPEAKER_00:Well, listen, Morgan Freeman. If he was reading some books, Peter Dinklage is another one that I think would be really good at it, but anyway, that was off topic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, next we usually cover what the rest of us know about it. So, Nick, what do you tell us about your level of knowledge about Jurassic Park?
SPEAKER_01:I don't remember when I first saw like the the original trilogy. Um, I know that I really probably I would guess probably post-high school. Like I didn't watch it as a kid, um, because I was born in 1991. So I would have been like really young when the first movie was was brought into existence. And so it was, you know, it wasn't until later on that I was old enough and actually was able to appreciate. And all I mean, all of us at the table were similar age, so I'm sure that that might be a similar story. But um the biggest story that I guess I could tell as far as like Jurassic Park relates to me and like the personal relationship that I have with it is something you both were involved with. Yeah, that is um for my uh bachelor party, the what was it, the night before the wedding, right? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, night before the wedding, we went and we watched the midnight showing of the new so the first Jurassic World movie. So that was that was fun. Um, and that'll always have like I don't know, just a special moment in my life, and it made me even appreciate the movies even more. Like, I think at that point, I don't even know if I had seen two or three. Two or three. I don't I don't think I had, honestly. I had seen the first one for sure, but I don't know if I had seen two and three at that point, and so that kind of led later on that that I went and I watched two and three, and it is one of my favorite, probably. Um, I don't know. I I don't know where I'd rank it in terms of like top movies, but it is definitely a favorite property uh of mine overall. And I will I I I feel bad saying this. I still did not go see Jurassic World Rebirth. I saw that. You said on the last episode you're going to. I was going to, it still hasn't come out on streaming yet. So I'm like, all right, I'm I'm too cheap. It's supposed to, I think it's I think they said late September, early October, so it should be any time.
SPEAKER_03:We'll allow it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. All right. Sorry.
SPEAKER_03:Good.
SPEAKER_02:Michael, tell us about your level of knowledge about Jurassic Park then. Yeah, my level is extremely low. I've seen, I think I've seen the first movie. I'm I'm pretty sure I have. If I have, it's it was definitely years and years ago. Um, and then I saw when we went to what was your favorite bachelor party? Uh and saw the that that was that a remake or a sequel? I think it was a sequel, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. It's not remade any of them.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It was like the start of a new trilogy. Okay, I got you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The equivalent of episode one, but not a prequel. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't think about that for a second. Me too. It's fine. Move past it. But anyway, that's my that's my knowledge. So the movie we saw, and then I think I've seen the original. Um, so even, yeah, Sam, you mentioned a second ago the book, like I had no idea it was based on a book, so I'm already like learning so much. But anyway, Ben, what about you? What's your background?
SPEAKER_03:I grew up as a dinosaur kid. No big surprise there.
SPEAKER_00:So one of our main bonding moments is in everything Jurassic Park.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I was obsessed with dinosaurs when I was young. I like there's so many drawings I have of dinosaurs. Like other people draw rainbows and unicorns, and I was drawing dinosaurs. So um that's what I had. Very dark. Um yeah. No, and then I remember like I remember being a kid and seeing that they were making a dinosaur movie with like real dinosaurs, not like cartoons like Land Four Time or anything like that, but like real dinosaurs. And I was like, I need to go see that. And again, I was four or five when it came out, and my parents were like, let's go see. We need to go see this first, and probably a good call. I did probably watch it way too young. I was probably like six or seven when I watched it, but it didn't bother me. So were you scared at all? No, okay, no. All right, again, I think that's the thing. It's like, yeah, all people assume that like again, like when you're a small child, if like you're watching it, you're gonna get like so scared of the gore. But I was just so excited about the dinosaurs. You don't see a lot of stuff, like but yeah, like again, and again, like yeah, I I was just so excited about the dinosaurs that nothing else mattered. Like, I didn't care about what else was happening. Like, yeah, that's what I wanted to see. Yeah, so yeah. And then I've just been attached to the franchise ever since I read the book in high school. I haven't read it since I probably should again. It's been a while, but yeah, I need to. Um, but yeah, seen all the other movies, played the first two Jurassic World games for sure, uh probably other random little games here and there, but um the third one's coming out soon, which I'm excited for.
SPEAKER_00:I remember playing like an old Sega Genesis game for it with my dad, and it was insanely difficult. And I don't I don't remember much more other than just being like, what the egg all the time because I couldn't get it.
SPEAKER_03:Was it the top kind of top down? Yeah. I had I think I had it for like Game Boy or something.
SPEAKER_00:But of course I'm like, Dad, we gotta do this. Yep. And it did it didn't go well. I didn't get very far.
SPEAKER_02:Well, honestly, that's a perfect transition talking about that, you know, part of your childhood. One you so we'd like to talk about, you know, where slash when you felt drawn to the fandom, kind of your earliest memories of it. Like talk us through that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00:So honestly, pretty similar to Ben. Um, as a little girl, I didn't really play with Barbies. I played with dinosaurs. Um, so I had I had toy dinosaurs. Um, I did have some Barbies and the Barbies would ride on the dinosaurs. So I do remember doing that. Yeah. Um, you know, lots of coloring books with dinosaurs, all kinds of things. I cannot remember the first time I watched the first Jurassic Park. I know I had to have been like two, honestly. Um I was born in 1992, the movie came out in 1993, so it's something that was around my entire childhood. Um, one of the first VHS tapes that I remember, we had a copy at my house, we had a copy at my grandparents' house, and I would play it all the time. Um, I remember my sister babysitting, and she would like peek down the stairs and be like, What are those weird sounds? I said, It's dinosaurs, leave me alone. So um, definitely something that's been around for a long time. Um, the second movie, I'm pretty sure, so The Lost World came out in 1998. That was the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, that's cool. Nice.
SPEAKER_00:I'm sure that my dad probably got a lot of strange looks taking a five-year-old to a PG 13 movie, but he knew, you know, just like Ben was talking about earlier, honestly, the movies don't have a lot of gore. You see a little bit of blood off screen sometimes. And you do see in the second one, you do actively see someone getting bit in half.
SPEAKER_03:In the first one, you do also see an arm. Yeah. Just kind of like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I love Jurassic Park beyond all reason, but the arm is a very fake arm.
SPEAKER_03:You can excuse that with all the other good, all the other good stuff that practical effects they did.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, definitely.
SPEAKER_01:But um Hey, to a to a young kid, I'm sure the arm looked plenty real at the end. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But as a as a kid, you don't really make that connection. It's just like, oh, there's two D-Rexes on the screen now. Cool. And I was never off put by any of that. Um I the first DVD I ever owned as my own was Jurassic World 3, which I'm pretty sure came out in 2002, um, which I was super excited about because Dr. Alan Grant, who was played by Sam Neil, made comeback, was real mad that he wasn't in the second one because that's the dinosaur man, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Like he's he's and we as children, I don't know about you, but I didn't have the level of appreciation for Jeff Goldblum that I have now.
SPEAKER_00:I love him so much. He's an American treasure and he needs to be preserved at all costs, definitely. But my sister and I actually side note, like, we think Jeff Goldblum is like quite the silver fox. Like he's so much more handsome now as he's aged.
SPEAKER_03:He's someone else that I learned more and more about every day. And I'm like, oh my god. Like, did you guys know he was a jazz pianist?
SPEAKER_02:I I want to say I did know that actually.
SPEAKER_00:Maybe you told people.
SPEAKER_03:I probably told you because I got so excited about it. But like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:We my sister and I were just gushing about him at dinner with our mom one time, and she's like, ew. So I just thought that was so funny. But I adore him. So the moment I found out that he was in Wicked, I was like, I have to see this no matter what.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, I'm just saying the scene of him like laying out there with the shirt open is iconic.
SPEAKER_00:There is that is a big thing in you know, Jurassic Park fans across across the world, I think, is that particular shot and doing it in every weird way possible. Um, there's a big thing where they have uh Dr. Grant laying on him on his naked course. Like the triceratops scene. Um my sister has a funny picture of that one. Cause, you know, um, well, maybe you don't know, but one of Dr. uh Malcolm's who is played by Jeff Goldblum, one of his big lines is life uh finds a way.
SPEAKER_03:The uh has to be in there, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The uh has to be in there, absolutely. Um and my sister has a picture of him laying there, and there's like roses on it, and it says, Love finds a way.
SPEAKER_01:Really funny. Yeah. Kids enough. We're we're about ready to develop a thirst trap section of the show. Yeah, it's a second episode.
SPEAKER_03:Michael thought our discussion on Aragorn last time was a little too. I said that's gonna be marked explicit.
SPEAKER_02:And honestly, this one might be neat as well. Can anyone do a Jeff Goldblum accent just if the comments? Can anyone?
SPEAKER_00:I can't, but my ringtone for when my sister texts me is Jeff Goldblum's laugh in the helicopter. If you can do a sound bit for that right there, that'd be kind of like a lot of it. I'm gonna post time ready and then prep this time. Yeah, should have. I can't even do it. So you two um dig up dig up dinosaurs?
SPEAKER_01:It is ridiculous. Finn and I were together on Friday too. We could have could have put together some sound bites. Jeez.
SPEAKER_00:But um, yeah, Dr. Malcolm has a lot of random, like iconic moments through it.
SPEAKER_03:So um well, Sam, why don't you talk a little bit about what what makes Jurassic Park such a special IP fandom to you over everything else?
SPEAKER_00:A lot of it I think is the nostalgia that comes along with it. It's been present, honestly, through my whole life. You know, it came out when I was teeny tiny and they just released another movie this summer. So it's always been something that I've been able to find comfort in, you know, kind of no matter what's going on. It's a movie I can watch at any point. You know, I can pick it up whenever and be like, ha, I know exactly what's happening here. Um, and I think for you know, setting the book aside, the the cinematic universe is really well put together, and there's a lot of little subtle things that you might um not really be able to pick up on. But um even, you know, Ben and I were talking about this a little earlier. There's actually a children's series that was released by Netflix that um it's a two-parter, it it has uh Camp Cretaceous first and then Chaos Series second, and you actually see something in the like I think it's the second to last season of Camp Cretaceous that then translates directly into Jurassic World Dominion, um where and it goes all the way back to the original movie. So anyone that's seen the original movie will know who Dennis Nedry is. So he is kind of the cause of the whole calamity that is the fall of Jurassic Park. And one of the big things is he has this fake Barbasol can that he um he steals ten million dollars worth of embryos from the labs in Jurassic Park, stashes them in there where they can be cooled and transported for 36 hours to the mainland, but he never gets there and he falls victim to the Dilophosaurus, which is the one that has the big frill and screams. Um personally, they're one of my favorites. Second, second only to the Velociraptor, which is not a real Velociraptor, which is still disappointed. We'll get we'll get to that. But um he drops the can and it gets covered in mud, you know, and you never think it's gonna be seen again. Well, all these years later, um Camp Cretaceous takes place within what was it, like six months over when the Jurassic World movie happened, and there's a group of kids that get left behind and they're stuck there and they have to survive. Um well, Dr. Um, I just forgot his name for a second, Dodgson. Dodson, he is uh he's featured a lot heavy more heavily in the novel than he is in the first movie. But he's who meets with Nedri at the um little restaurant with the little Mexican music playing and stuff, and Nedri's like, Dodson, Dodson, we got Dodson over here. He's like, Don't say my name. But they don't really elaborate on that on the screenplay very much. Um but Dr. Dodgson shows up at the island when the kids are still there, and he ends up finding and picking up the Barbasol can. So it still ends up back with him full circle, and you actually see it so adults who have not watched Camp Cretaceous have no idea you see it in his possession in Jurassic World Dominion. And if you don't see that in the children's show and see how that's all connected, how he got it, where it came from, it's just like, wait a second. How do you get that?
SPEAKER_03:And we say children's show, but like it gets a little serious. There's definitely some serious moments like where yeah. And I mean again, they're being chased by freaking dinosaurs. Who's the main is it the um carn Carnotaurosaurus?
SPEAKER_00:That's like the main The Carnotaurus, I think him they call him Toro. Yeah, yeah. He's a he's a big antagonist for the kids for sure.
SPEAKER_03:And yeah, pretty big dinosaur with giant horns on it that's the common chasing them.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and kind of linking it into um Rebirth, which just came out this summer, which talks about, you know, a whole different facility that has never been referenced before where they're doing a lot of genetic experimentation, which starts getting featured in I mean, that's the whole idea, honestly, but like the the mutations and really taking things sideways um starts at the beginning of the Jurassic World franchise and that actually gets introduced in the um Camp Cretaceous series as well because turns out there's another I can't remember the name of that one. Do you? The the Scorpius Rex. Oh, yeah, that's what it was. Um so eventually the Scorpius Rex, it was hidden away in Jurassic World, and the kids somehow caused something that causes the system to shut down and it escapes. And it's hideous looking, it's so gross, honestly. And I think the T-Rex is so cool. So for anything else to be named Rex and look.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, is it the D-Rex?
SPEAKER_00:No, no, that's a new one. Yeah, it's a whole different one.
SPEAKER_03:So the D-Rex is from the new movie. Yeah, the movie.
SPEAKER_01:I saw a picture of that one. That one is is horrifying.
SPEAKER_03:He is uh yeah, Michael. You'll let's get a live reaction of Michael. All right, I'm looking it up now.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, what? Yeah, it looks like a thing from Alien or whatever.
SPEAKER_02:Like it does actually look like the this has left the realm of dinosaur.
SPEAKER_03:No, I mean, well, okay. So that's something we get in like I mean the Jurassic Park movies are monster movies. Like, that's legitimately what they are. They're equivalent to a King Kong or a Godzilla. Like that's what they are. It's about giant monsters that get loose. Like, and that's what it is. So, like, I mean, I understand them pushing it because like they're showing us the same things over and over again. It gets a little repetitive.
SPEAKER_01:So they gotta figure out a way to make it fresh. But you guys are definitely introducing me to uh a whole entire rich backstory that I actually wasn't even aware of. So go check out the neckbook show.
SPEAKER_03:I need to legitimately pretty good.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and then um, you know, we were talking a lot about the movies because that's what most people are familiar with, but if you have read the novel, then you kind of have an even different, um, and even more yeah, an even more different perception of some things because um I mentioned earlier that Dodson, um his first name's Lewis, Louis Dodginson, Dodson, excuse me. Um he is featured prevalently prevalently in the book. And um he's definitely a main antagonist, you know, because he's the catalyst for everything. And um he's very risky. So he's a you know, like a genetic engineer, basically, and he works for Ingen's biggest rival, which is called Biosyn. Um, so we don't hear about that in the movies at all until we hit Jurassic World Dominion. That's when Biosyn kinds kind of comes back into the forefront of everything. And um, so Dodson in the first movie, he's just a guy that comes and goes. You know, he's he's in one scene. Yeah, yeah. He comes in one time, gives Nedry a bunch of money, kind of explains, like, I'm having you do this, and then that's all we hear from him. But in the novel, he's elaborated on a lot. He actually does a lot of risky things. Um so geneticists deal with a lot of stuff from bioweapons to animals to all kinds of stuff that we can't even imagine. And he actually, I think it was like a a kind of variant of like a rabies virus, he like releases it on a plane without asking anybody. Jeez, yeah. So it just kind of shows right now. But so he goes about doing something like that. So when he finds out that he, I don't know if he knows for sure that they're doing dinosaurs, but he knows they're doing something. Oh, gotcha. Um, and then he gets a hold of Nedri, who is really mad because um Jurassic Park developers, namely like John Hammond, are saying, Hey, you didn't do enough, you need to do XYZ, but he already put a lot of time and money and effort into the project.
SPEAKER_03:Well, yeah. And classic, like I mean, computer engineers, like we only need one of them when they're having him develop an entire security system that is containing everything as long as well as like all the code for everything, too. Like, yeah, like putting a lot of strain on one person.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's definitely a lot. So you can kind of see where he would be really frustrated about everything. And so he goes down there thinking that he's gonna fix things in a weekend, and that's not even close to what's possible. So when someone offers him I think if the total was like ten and a half million dollars, yeah, um, of course, you're gonna take it. But um, so back to Dodgson, he kind of gets the Biosyn board together and he's calling for like an emergency vote. So basically he will have company permission to do something. And they all kind of are like, no, don't give us details. And they have to record it because of like their board rules and everything. And he's like, All I need is nods. That's all I need. You don't have to speak, you don't have to tell me that you're giving me permission for this. And so he's just a really dodgy kind of guy. And so when he comes back in Jurassic Park Dominion, and he is the type of character he is where he's very antagonistic and conceited, and you know, I I know all of these things, and I'm I'm the best, my way is the best way. Um, it just makes a lot more sense because you don't have any context of him.
SPEAKER_03:He's gone for five movies, like yeah. Yeah. If you just watch the movies, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's interesting that the book kind of does like or they use source, they use material from the source the book as a source material for those later movies. Because you think so, Jurassic World of Minion, I mean, that came out in 2022. That's yeah, 19 years after the original. It's pretty cool that they're still like referring back to that original source material. I like that.
SPEAKER_01:That's funny. The the story I feel like is so different in the book, but they do, you're right, every single movie. It seems like they're pulling some element of it that is present in either The Lost World or Jurassic Park that are kind of that's coming in there. So it's this weird hybrid.
SPEAKER_00:There's a piece of the book in basically every movie to a certain extent.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you're even you were saying before we started rolling, even in uh rebirth, there was a scene that you were like excited about because of how it referenced the book.
SPEAKER_00:So there's a big scene, it's the only scene the T-Rex is in.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:In uh um in rebirth, and that is pulled straight out of the book. Um, different characters, obviously, so a little bit of a different thing, but the T-Rex is literally asleep after eating a big meal, and Dr. Grant is trying to open a raft so he can get himself and the kids onto the river and away and heading back to the visitor center to safety. Um, but he has to figure out how to open this inflatable raft and not wake up the T-Rex. So the the young girl, I can't remember her name, but she goes and gets that, and all of a sudden the T-Rex rolls over her, and she has to do that. So I literally could hear the the narrative from the novel being like hiss swap, you know, when it's explaining the the sound that the raft makes when she opens it, and I'm like, this is exactly what it's from. So definitely, you know, little things like that that kind of come from everything. There's um a a big sequence of being on the water and being on the raft, and the the kids in Dr. Grant having to fight off the T-Rex and Dilophosaurus, and in um Jurassic Park 3, you know, you get a lot of that time on the river chase, like being chased by the Spinosaurus and stuff. So there's a lot of different pieces that can come from that. Um one of my favorite differences, which I was really annoyed about it at first, is um in the book, John Hammond is kind of like a dark Walt Disney almost. He is like in in the movie, he's a very very like bubbly, bright, happy old man. Richard Attenborough. I mean I mean he's wonderful. I love him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but fate in the book was also worse, I feel. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Um, but he's a very, you know, positive thing. And you see him, he's like, Oh, yeah, we're not gonna charge thousands of dollars for this. Everyone he literally says everyone in the world d deserves the chance to enjoy these animals. But in the book, he's like, No, the children of the world will enjoy this, but only the rich ones. That's actually like a line straight out of the book. So he is very like, oh, oh, I can't stand this man. I loved him in the movies so much, but he's a jerk. Like, it's absurd. He he didn't bring his grandkids to the island because he loved them and wanted them to experience the wonder of what he created. He brought them to try to get um their lawyer to stop trying to cancel the park, basically is what he wrote.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, it's kid friendly. Look, they're here, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And then um the character of Donald Gennaro, who's the lawyer in the movie, he's the one that gets eaten on the toilet. Yep. For those of you that don't know. Yeah. That's shoot. That's him. Um but his character in yeah, then yeah, you're right. You're right. Um but his character in the movie is a combination of two characters from the book. So Gennaro is actually a lawyer and he is part of a law firm that actually owns like 5% of engine and um is trying to make sure they keep Hammond on a leash because they're concerned about what he's getting into. And um then there's a character called Ed Regis, who is the publicist for the park. And um, he does what Gennaro does, and when the T-Rex gets escapes, he's like, ha ha, bye, and runs away, um, only to get eaten by a second T-Rex that is in the novel. So there's a juvenile that is loose, and it literally describes it as he's playing with playing with him like a puppy, you know, like the clumsy gait. So, but yeah, he gets eaten by a by a four-year-old T-Rex that is half the size of the adult. So um, but that's kind of interesting how they take, you know, the two characters and put them together. Yeah. Um, while still kind of keeping it prevalent. But sorry, that was a little bit of a team. Again, like just proving why you're on as our expert. Like exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Well, so Sam. Oh, sorry. So, like one of the things we like to do is since we're talking about how much there is in the Jurassic lore and everything, where would you start someone? Would you start someone who is coming into the franchise brand new with the books or the original movie? Okay.
SPEAKER_00:The original movie 100%, because you're not only getting rich storytelling, and it it does have a couple plot holes, you know, don't get me wrong, it's not perfect.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. But the cinematography is fantastic. Like, um, I took one film class in college and I don't remember a lot of the details, but I did I was a senior and it was a freshman level class, and I was taking it for fun, and we had to write a 700-word essay on one scene in a movie. I took the I took the kitchen scene with the Velociraptors, and it was like four pages long, and I feel like Dean Abbott probably hated me because he wanted to grade a bunch of freshman essays, and then I did that. So nice. But um, the there's a lot of iconic shots from Steven Spielberg in there. There's a lot of nuance in you know how the dinosaurs are placed, depending on what's going on. And I'm thinking back to that scene in particular because you have a lot of time looking up at the Velociraptor so that they're in a position of dominance. Um, I can't remember what the screenshot is, but Spielberg was apparently kind of known for it at first, where the camera's like on a cart and it's you know moving at like foot level of something, if that makes sense. Um and it he does that with the velociraptor's feet in the kitchen, you know, kind of focusing on like the cat nails. Yeah. Um so uh there's a lot of nuance as far as that goes. It's groundbreaking as far as CGI and animatronics. Yep. Um, and there's just a lot of iconic moments that are in that one. So uh we talked a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:It does still hold up, honestly.
SPEAKER_00:I mean Yeah, even the CGI still is great.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Even you know, you can definitely tell where they switched from the animatronics to CGI, but it's still overall really good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you you did a great job of rolling in our next question too, which was like an elevator pitch for why someone should get into it. And I think again, like if you're a cinematographer or if you're like yeah, like a film buff, it's a classic for so many reasons. Not to mention, we've brought them up many times before, John Williams.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's what I was just thinking of. The Jurassic Park franchise as a whole, but especially the original movie, has something for everybody. It kind of gets your your nerds, it gets your musicians, it gets your like just your horror like monster fans. It has a little bit of something for everything, everybody. The the music is phenomenal, um, which what isn't that John Williams has brought to the table?
SPEAKER_01:I know. I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_03:We need to do an episode on John Williams. Well, we could then we gotta go talk about Howard Shore some more and some Lord of the Rings, but we'll get back to that.
SPEAKER_00:There's a lot of great you know, um, composers that are in cinematography and television and all kinds of stuff. But um, but yeah, 100% the original movie I think is the best place to start.
SPEAKER_03:Great. Well, I think now's a good time for us to take a quick little break. So let's hold on to our butts and we'll be right back. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Classic. Thank you, Michael, for that those lovely chimes. We are back, still continuing our conversation with Sam about Jurassic Park and the entire franchise, really. And we're gonna jump into some fandom culture stuff. So we've we've kind of hit on stuff outside of the movies already. Um, definitely talked about Camp Cretaceous and um, you know, the some of that other there's things that are outside of just the the original movies and stuff like that. But are there any um other pieces of content that you can think of outside of the movies that you enjoy?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I know I think Ben mentioned it earlier. There's a handful of video games and things like that as well. Um, the big ones recently are the Jurassic World Evolution games, which are basically like zoo tycoons.
SPEAKER_03:Zoo tycoon both dinosaurs that can break out of the park.
SPEAKER_00:And then they eat people and it just makes life really difficult because then your park rating goes down and then you don't make enough money, and then you can't fix things when they get out and they're eating the people, it's a whole mess.
SPEAKER_01:Um they're cool games. Like it is really like there's a lot, they are very in-depth now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you can like genetically modify your own dinosaurs, and there's a third one coming out in October or something like that.
SPEAKER_03:Which has introducing juveniles, so you can baby dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_01:Like you could never have babies because you could breed them, right? You bred them, but they came out as adults. Yeah, okay. Like Adam.
SPEAKER_00:I don't know why I want to pet a Velociraptor in a video game, but that's 100% what I want.
SPEAKER_02:All right.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but I know I've enjoyed those a lot, and each like the difference between one and two, there was a a pretty significant difference in customization, especially. Yeah, and you did have a sequence like the for those of you that aren't aware, you know, after Jurassic World 2, Fallen Kingdom, um, dinosaurs are loose in North America, so they're just kind of running around now. And in Jurassic World Evolution 2, you actually get to go catch wild dinosaurs and then bring them back and you know, I thought that was a nice touch.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know that I played much of the first one, but I did play a a few hours of the second one.
SPEAKER_00:I wish there was more camp like campaign content. I felt like I finished it in like a day and a half and was like, oh, well, sandbox mode now, okay.
SPEAKER_03:Like well, in the second one, they had like a whole camp or a chaos theory campaign where you went and replayed parts of the movies. Yeah. You had to try to fix the wrongs of the movies, which is kind of fun. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, speaking of like movies outside the the main continuity, what what is Battle at Big Rock?
SPEAKER_03:That's a fan-made movie, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Really? Okay, gotcha. Yeah. When I was doing some research on just Jurassic Park movies, I see in 2019 they've released Battle at Big Rock. And I had never heard of that, I didn't know what it was.
SPEAKER_03:I've heard of it. I have not watched it. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be like it's like a fan-made like yeah. I we'd have to look into that.
SPEAKER_00:In all honesty, I'm not super familiar with a lot of like fan-made content on that, just more like other dinosaur content. Um dino content. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. My first big like online MMO video game was Arc Survival Evolved. And I put, you know, this might be rookie numbers for some people, but about 1,500 hours into that.
SPEAKER_03:Can't think of how much time I've spent with that much time I've spent on anything.
SPEAKER_00:But well, listen, if you're playing on like the official servers, it takes like two days to just hatch a Giganotosaurus egg, um, which is a pain in the tush. So um yeah, uh the a lot of time just spent waiting and waiting and waiting. And I do have like a group of online friends that I play that game with, and they're like, Are you gonna come back? And I'm like, I I'm sick of staring at eggs, waiting for them to hatch, and sitting there and having to feed babies every 10 minutes so they don't die. Um, so yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Michael, can you relate?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I can relate.
SPEAKER_01:I can relate, definitely. Well, this is my personal favorite segment of the show, the hot takes segment. So, where what are your unpopular opinions about Jurassic Park slash Jurassic World?
SPEAKER_00:Oh man.
SPEAKER_01:It's too open-ended.
SPEAKER_03:I got one I'll I'll start talking about. It's my beef with the latest movie. They used the sleeping dinosaur like gag three times, where like, oh, like everything's fine, everything's safe, and then all of a sudden, like a sleeping dinosaur out of nowhere, the T-Rex being one of them. The gosh, what are the giant ones in this one? The the sauropods.
SPEAKER_00:Titanosaurus.
SPEAKER_03:Titanosaurus, and then the the spinosaurus, like at on the beach too, where like, oh, we're fine, everything's safe, and then just one rolls over out of nowhere, and there's like, okay, like cool.
SPEAKER_01:All that it was disguised on the beach. Yeah. I think I saw a clip of that. I haven't seen the movie yet.
SPEAKER_03:Three three separate times they did that. I was like, okay, like the first time, sure, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Second time, we're like, okay, well, we've seen this all before. And the third time you're like, okay, we're just lazy now. Like, that's my uh my beef with the latest movie.
SPEAKER_01:How many new ways are there though to do this?
SPEAKER_03:I don't know, man. It's better than that.
SPEAKER_01:They got even better than that.
SPEAKER_03:They had invisible dinosaurs in the second trilogy, so that was, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'll give you, I'll give you my hot take, which I don't know if it's a hot take in this crowd or not, but I I've I've been told by other people that they could not stand. I think it was Dominion, right? Dominion was before rebirth. Yes, Dominion was the last of the world. Yeah, 2022. And I loved it. It was good. Oh yeah. And I have talked to several people that are like, no, it was so bad. I'm like, are you in the world?
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no, no. Listen, if we're gonna so I don't know if this is a hot take considered a hot take or not, but it is a hill I will die on. Um the worst movie out of the whole franchise. And I actually skip it. I own it because I have to own all of them. But Fallen Kingdom, it's terrible. I hate it. I there it has some like nostalgic moments, you know, like little things that I really liked. Um and it's entertaining, you know, but it's just there's I don't know what I would have done differently, honestly, but I it just makes me so grumpy sometimes. Like it's yeah, so no, nobody is allowed to criticize Dominion because it brought both trilogy main groups of people together. No, and the fact that Sam Neal and Laura Dern and Um Jeff Goldblum, I almost called him Ian Malcolm because that's my where my brain is, but the fact that they came back was absolute, it was treasure. It was it was amazing.
SPEAKER_01:I loved it so much. I I really it was such a fun movie, and there was so much nostalgia in it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, like for them fighting the Giganosaurus and Jeff Goldblum sitting there with a locust on fire on a spear, like being like, Yep, just right back to greatness. I I'm sitting there like in the theater because I'm like, it's perfect, it's perfect, and he's not gonna get in trouble this time, he's gonna save the day because it's Jeff Goldblum and he's fantastic. And he just throws that straight in that dinosaur's mouth and just saves the day, and it's gold. I love it so much. Plus, plus, you know, the the tension that is happening between Dr. Grant and Ellie the entire time, and they finally have their kiss.
SPEAKER_02:Oh very satisfying. So, Nick, what okay, so the way you've described it, I I'm gonna love this movie. Yeah. Sounds what were your what were the critiques you heard, Nick?
SPEAKER_01:Like that's why I was so shocked. I didn't know if you've heard it before. Is that what bothers people have you heard people say that it's bad?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so I I honestly believe from what I have heard that it probably the the plot is a little sideways. Yeah, you know, so you do have dinosaurs that are out, you know, on the parts of North America.
SPEAKER_01:When you look at it, like I mean, and that's that's the way that these movies go, especially when you get the when you're bringing the whole team together, the it starts to become like about the fan service and giving giving people what they want, even if it doesn't necessarily make 100% sense.
SPEAKER_00:Like but they had to find a a way to be able to get everyone together. And so this is where they bring Biosyn in from the background and they make them the bad guys because Biosyn releases these genetically engineered locusts that are eating all of the crops that aren't biosin seed. And so uh um Ellie Sattler, who is Laura Dern's character, she starts to make these connections and has to figure out a way to get onto Biosyn's facility that they're claiming is like a dino sanctuary. And she goes to Alan Grant, who is CM Neil, for help. And he's kind of like, no, I don't want anything to do with these dinosaurs. Fine, I'll go. And they get in with the help of Ian Malcolm, who is actually employed by Biosyn as basically a a professor kind of Yeah, or wasn't he also just kind of like a not like I won't I don't want to say like a PR higher, but like almost like a spokesperson like mascot, sort of like yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So known, I think, right? It was he was using his fame kind of. And that was I mean, to me that's on brand for Ian McMalco, especially the Ian Malcolm of the book. That's exactly what it's like.
SPEAKER_03:That's the word I was looking for. Yeah, he's kind of like a brand ambassador, sort of like yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But he helps them kind of get into the fray of everything, and it's really funny because you do. Oh yeah, oh yeah, and you see Laura Dern and Sam Neal, they have like these hazmat suits and they're running through these like hospital-like halls, hallways for a second. It's I think it's gold, it's great.
SPEAKER_02:Nice. Well, let's transition into our kind of group discussion uh segment here. And we this is kind of a newer thing, but we've been starting off with this would you rathers, which Nick has graciously put together. So, Nick, why don't you take it from here?
SPEAKER_01:Let's do it. Let's do some would you rather here. Would you rather work for John Hammond creating Jurassic Park or Dr. Wu in the genetics lab?
SPEAKER_00:I am not a science-minded person, so I don't think that I would be very helpful in a genetics lab. But I would say I'd probably I would work for movie John Hammond. I would not want to work for book John Hammond because he's a good one. That's a good distinction. Fair um but Richard Attenborough, yeah. I would I would get down with with working for him. Um my ideal job in Jurassic Park would be um raising baby dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_01:Sure. That would well then probably be in the you'd be in the genetics lab if you're doing that, probably, right?
SPEAKER_00:Because that's what we have to do to be with baby dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_01:Nice. Uh would you rather ride a trained raptor like Owen in Jurassic World or fly on a pterodon? I can't even say that pteranodon.
SPEAKER_00:The Jurassic Park Velociraptors are like my favorite thing in the world, even though that actual velociraptor is not real.
SPEAKER_03:Um It's more of a Utah Raptor. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um what now?
SPEAKER_03:Or a Dynonicus. Dynonicus, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I've heard it said all kinds of different things.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that they like merged like Yeah, like so real life Velociraptors, they're like two feet tall. I get it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um but they're not scary, so and there's there's a Dinonicus, which is yes, which is very s very similar to what is in um the Jurassic Park films, but then they discovered the Utah Raptor, and um that is very similar. There I actually read something earlier today where um the guy that discovered those called somebody and was like, hey, I found those Velociraptors that Steven Spielberg made up for his movie. So that was kind of funny. I can't remember who he called, but it was like the guy that found them and was like, hey, well, this is a great segue to our next Would You Rather?
SPEAKER_01:Well, yeah, I was I was actually gonna skip because I know what she's gonna say, but I'll ask it anyways. Would you rather have a pet? I would rather have a pet velociraptor or spare tops or velociraptor, and I knew that was gonna be the answer for sure. Yeah. Uh how about this one? Would you rather run from a T-Rex in high heels, speaking of iconic moments, like Claire in Jurassic World, or uh, excuse me. Goodness, I forgot where I was. Uh rather spend oh my gosh, I got it all or from the Indominus Rex. So I jumped down to the next question. Let me start over. Would you rather run from the T-Rex in high heels like Claire in Jurassic World or from the Indominus Rex barefoot?
SPEAKER_00:So I'd probably have more luck running barefoot, but if anyone's ever seen me run, I would get eaten no matter what.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, that was probably my least favorite scene from I mean, it was it was iconic because it's the the the T-Rex, but I just remember thinking the first view through as you're watching Claire run from the T-Rex in those high heels on my own. But she's been in the in the heels the whole time, yeah, which is absurd. It was a good bit though.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't Yeah. I I do really actually enjoy Bryce Dallas Hall Howard. Um I enjoyed her acting in the movies, and I think she's gorgeous to to boot. Um, so props to her for actually running in the heels, but yeah, I would get eaten no matter what.
SPEAKER_01:So that's valid point. These are my my two favorite of the foes from Jurassic. Uh, but we got would you rather face off against the Indoraptor from Fallen Kingdom or the Spinosaurus from Jurassic Park 3?
SPEAKER_00:It's hard because you gotta think about like the context. Like, yeah, do I have somewhere to hide from the Spinosaurus? Because if I do, then I would go with that. Um, and for the Indoraptor, does somebody have the laser beam?
SPEAKER_03:Michael, the Indoraptor was a trained military weapon that you could point a laser beam at something and it would attack it. Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it basically was like a big gun and had a button and you could point the laser beam at it and that would make it like hone in on it.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. So that's that's kind of the whole plot of Fallen Kingdom is they've developed dinosaurs as weapons.
SPEAKER_00:They stole a bunch of dinosaurs off of Isla Nublar, which is the original island, and um the volcano's going to erupt, which there's a really sad moment involving.
SPEAKER_03:Oh no, I forgot about that.
SPEAKER_01:So as the ship-the only thing I remember from the movie.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, as the ship is going away with all the dinosaurs that they've quote unquote saved. Um, there's a brachiosaurus that's kind of like walking towards the ship and it's crying and it you know stands up and you just hear it like you just hear it crying. That they confirmed. There's a theory, yeah. I wasn't sure if it was confirmed or not, that it's the original Brachiosaurus that they see that's your first dinosaur that you see in the movie.
SPEAKER_01:I just want to make it hurt more by that. Absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It hurts real bad. So, side note, I know we're in a question segment, but this was something I was talking to Ben about earlier, which I thought would be something fun to fun to bring in. They struggled a lot filming the Brachiosaurus scene because there wasn't actually a dinosaur there. So trying to get their reactions I know, I know, right? But trying to get their reactions to be genuine um was difficult. So they struggled with it. But then when they put the CGI in, um, one of the guys that was working with Spielberg literally goes, You crazy son of a I can't say it. You crazy son of a beat, you did it. And in the movie, Malcolm's literally like, You crazy son of a like so they literally took that from real life and had Ian Malcolm say it because of you know how it fit in with everything. So Brachiosaurus scene. Yeah, but I thought that was kind of it was cute.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's funny. Sorry. All right. Last one. Would you rather live in a world where dinosaurs are confined to islands or where they roam freely across the globe?
SPEAKER_00:So my dinosaur lover would like for them to roam freely, but I know that that is not a good idea for many different reasons.
SPEAKER_03:I mean think about even just the beginning, not even dinosaurs eating people uh aside, like the beginning of rebirth.
SPEAKER_00:There's like a brachiosaurus that's blocking traffic because he's laying down in New York City.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's like the that's like the opening scene, is like there's a huge traffic jam because of the dinosaur that's asleep.
SPEAKER_00:Or it's a it's a bra it's a dinosaur, I guess. Yeah. One of the long-necked ones, and he's just laying down in the middle of the city and traffic is blocked everywhere because they can't get around him. Which so I understand that there are many, many reasons why that would be impractical to have them, not to mention the fact that some of them eat the us. Um, so I think I would have to say that they should live on the islands, which makes sense. And then you can still go visit them. Yeah, but which also probably isn't a good idea. It's not like there's several movies showing us why that's a bad idea, but what are we even talking about here, Sam?
SPEAKER_01:I'll kick off our our official QA here with uh this question right here. W if you could cast the next Jurassic Park movie, who would you put in it? Ooh, that's I like that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, kind of thinking how it seems like they're thinking about things in threes. You know, we have the original trilogy, we have the world trilogy, and now we have kind of a standalone thing that they're doing their own thing. Um I actually really liked Scarlett Johansson in Rebirth. Um, so I think having her come back.
SPEAKER_03:And Jonathan Bailey.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Jonathan Bailey as well. So you wouldn't change those two. I think for the direction that things are going, I think that's definitely um a good way to go. And I'll be real honest, I don't watch a ton of movies. Um I I should, but I don't watch a lot of them. Um so uh, you know, I don't I don't think I have any super strong feelings about it.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I want? I want a Jurassic Park with Danny DeVito. Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Honestly, so would we do it? Will we do it as Danny DeVito as Danny DeVito or would we do it as Frank Reynolds? Because there's also that thing on the internet of just putting Frank Reynolds in everything. Yeah. Which I Danny DeVito is another American treasurer who needs to be preserved.
SPEAKER_03:But um We need to have him and uh Jeff Goldblum do a glasses off. They both like wear the same glasses and like that'd be so good.
SPEAKER_02:They'll they'll hear this podcast. Oh yeah. Well, I'm gonna jump in with a question here. So earlier you mentioned you had some online friends that you kind of talk with about Jurassic World. Or Jurassic Park. What is the local Jurassic Park scene like in Columbus? And have you made any new friends or connections like through this fandom?
SPEAKER_00:So not like directly through Jurassic Park, but my like my online friends are from ARC, which is another, you know, dinosaur thing. Um, so it is something that kind of comes up from time to time while we're on there. Um and just, you know, your general dinosaur and prehistoric creature, you know, love. Um because ARC also has like saper-toothed tigers and um different things like that. Yeah, yeah. There's pr I think it's Procoptodons, which are the giant kangaroos and things like that. So um, you know, kind of a sidestep from Jurassic Park. Um, but probably kind of in my everyday life where I make connections about it, is I do have um a tattoo of the T-Rex on my left calf. Um, and my brother-in-law did it for me. It's the you know, the Jurassic silhouette of the Jurassic Park gates in the back with a sunset and the T-Rex, and she's wrapped in a banner that says when dinosaurs rule the earth. Um and I do get a lot of compliments on that. Yeah. So that's cool. Um that does kind of bring about at least some camaraderie, not necessarily like friends, but um definitely some some conversation and that's a huge conversation starter for sure.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, yeah, tattoo. I didn't know that you had that. How long have you had that for?
SPEAKER_00:Two years. Oh, okay. Oh, that's kind of recent. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. My question, I'm curious to know. Hypothetically, how much would you spend to go see a real-life dinosaur park?
SPEAKER_00:Whatever I had in my bank account at the time. Yeah, like I mean, in a realistic way, no, I obviously can't do that. But whatever I could realistically afford or, you know, save for or beg someone to gift, like, I don't know. Yeah, like whatever would be that dedicated literally possible because if I got to see real dinosaurs, I would I think Ben and I have shared it before. There's a thing that's like my toxic trait is if I if Jurassic Park was still open, I would go. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Oh man, speaking of fan creators, I wish I could we I'd probably send them to you at some point, so maybe I'll dig it up. But there's a couple of videos of like other workers on the park when everything's going wrong. Like, yeah, it's they're pretty funny. I'll have to find this. I can imagine.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Uh oh, we'll we'll go to Circle, I figure, right? I'll cover that out. What's your favorite death in the franchise? Minus for sure Toilet Man.
SPEAKER_00:He's he's probably the most iconic. Um probably my favorite, and I forget her name right now, um, is the assistant in Jurassic World because she gets lifted up by the dinosaur pit or something. Yeah, it's it's the why do I forget the name? Duh du starts with a D. I don't know. It's the the flying dinosaur with the the T-Rex heads. You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01:I know I know what you're talking about. I I don't know the name.
SPEAKER_00:No. I now I forget what it's called. It looks like Michael's looking it up for me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the uh Demorphodon. Demorphodon.
SPEAKER_00:I was close. I was close. So dump dimorphodons is how I will would always say but they break loose because the Indominus Rex goes and you know busts up the aviary aviary and there's a there's a helicopter crash and all kinds of crazy stuff. And so all the flying dinosaurs get loose, and so the dimorphodons start attacking everybody that's huddled in on Main Street, um, because of course everyone gathered in one place, which is always a great idea. Right. And um, so the flying dinosaurs come over, pick up um Claire's assistant, and drop her. Well, they are kind of messing with her in the Mosasaurus pit, and then the Mosasaurus comes up and chomps her, and the I think it's a Tyran Pteranodon that has her at that point. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um so I heard a story that supposedly the actress that played like basically demanded that they make her death extremely gruesome.
SPEAKER_03:Really? Amazing because if you're gonna be an actor and you're gonna get killed on something, you want it to be iconic.
SPEAKER_00:Make it remember memorable. There we go. Rememberable.
SPEAKER_01:I heard I I read that story or saw that story somewhere. I don't know if it's true or not, but I did hear that that was true.
SPEAKER_00:I actually feel like I heard something about that too.
SPEAKER_01:I would believe that 100%.
SPEAKER_02:That's funny. All right, uh, a couple more questions here. If you could have a Jurassic theme, Jurassic Park themed dinner party, what would the menu be?
SPEAKER_00:So Ben and I actually did this one time. Um our friend Danae. Hi, Danae, if you're listening. Um, she had never seen the original Jurassic Park, so we decided that we needed to have her uh over with us and watch it and have dinosaur themed foods. So we had, what was it, dino nuggets? Um, then made a volcano of French fries with ketchup as the lava.
SPEAKER_03:Um there's some broccoli trees.
SPEAKER_00:Um we had um oh dino egg uh I made um like kind of dinosaur deviled eggs. I I dyed the yolks green. I don't know why I thought that was the way to go, but that's what I did. And then um we made mud pudding that had little toy dinosaurs in the top.
SPEAKER_02:Dang, that's you know what you guys, you're one of those for that. That is that's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, we actually did that. The only thing I would add, and I don't know if we had it and I just forgot, is like the dinosaur mac and cheese, if you can find it, but I don't think you can find that all the time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Yeah. Well, why don't we go with one more question? Uh Ben. So I gotta make it a good one.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. Um really enjoy all the movies and stuff like that. Um, if you could change one thing about any of the movies to make it more uh closer to the book, more enjoyable, fix a plot hole, what would that be?
SPEAKER_00:Oh man, okay. Um if I had to pick one thing, and tell me if I'm if I'm wrong about this, but in the in the original movie, the triceratops is sick, right? We never find out why the triceratops is sick. It's in the book. It's in the book, and you know what happened. It's a stegosaurus in the book, but um you find out what happened, and it's such an easy thing. Yeah, I don't know if it was in a deleted scene or what happened, but you never know. That is a good point.
SPEAKER_03:Because then we well, then we just get uh swept up and oh shoot, the island is falling apart, literally.
SPEAKER_00:So like there's a lot of things, but I remember even as a child, I was like, well, what's wrong with the triceratops? What's going on? Why why do I not know what this is? So the first time I read the book and it's talking about a stegosaurus being sick, I was like, I wonder if this is the same thing. And then all of a sudden it was. It's um yeah. But you we know what it is. I don't remember what is what is wrong with it. So the triceratops is just it's like lethargic, and I can't remember what all Dr. Harding says is wrong with it, but it's he has her um Knocked out. Tranquilized. Okay. Sedated. I didn't have no idea where we're going with that. So yeah. So that's why everyone's l able to come up and, you know, interact with it and not have to worry about anything. But they can't figure out what's going on. It's it's like it's getting poisoned, basically. But the plants are healthy. You know, they do have some poisonous plants around, but the plants are healthy, they can't figure out what's going on. And it turns out in the book, um I know like turkeys and chickens and like different kinds of birds and like crocodiles eat what you call gizzard stones. Oh yeah. And um, there's a muscular pouch down in the digestive tract where they eat stones, and the stones help grind like hard to process matter, so plant matter or you know, meat, like whole chunks of meat or even. They're getting real scientific on the top. This is pretty interesting stuff. Um but then after they're worn down and they're smooth, they'll regurgitate them and replace them. Well, when they're eating the gizzard stones, they're eating the berries that are falling off this poisonous plant, which is why the plant is showing that it's healthy. But um yeah, but instead they decided to have Ellie dig through giant piles of dinosaur poop and poop sells now. Yeah. Yeah, but instead of actually telling us what was wrong with triceratops. So that was something that even bothered me as a child. So when I read the book, I was thrilled to find out what was actually wrong. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:From a movie plot standpoint, I guess it was mostly used as a way to get Ellie away from the party. So it helps.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it does, it is what separates them in the book too, so that she's not involved in the T-Rex attack and everything like that. So yeah, definitely important. It has to come in somehow, otherwise, why is she not with everybody anymore?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a plot device.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but it's such a simple thing that they could have given us an answer for. So come on, Mr. Spielberg.
SPEAKER_03:Because that's all that's what we wanted to see, is them explain gizzard stones on the screen by having some good exposition around gizzard stones.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, you're not wrong, but we do go through like a whole sequence of trying to understand what chaos theory is, and even though I'm a huge Jurassic Park fan, I still can't fully follow what chaos theory means. So thank you, Jeff Goldblum. But yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, there was the whole there was the whole DNA sequence about the dinosaurs. Dino DNA. Dino DNA.
SPEAKER_00:Hello, John. Hello, John.
SPEAKER_03:We're just gonna sit here quitting the movie for a while.
SPEAKER_01:So Sam, thank you. I did want to get a freebie in here. What is your favorite line from the from the movies?
SPEAKER_00:Hold on to your butt.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yes. It is a classic. Well, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you, Sam, so much for coming out and hanging out with us. We definitely appreciate that. Um before we get into kind of closing things out, is there any like the next big thing happening in the Jurassic verse that's worth talking about?
SPEAKER_00:I think we've talked about a couple things, but I know they're already working on a sequel for rebirth. Oh, nice. Um, I think Scarlett Johansson is cast already, but that's all that I've seen so far. Nice. Um, but I would assume, you know, in the next two or three years we'll probably see something, and hopefully Jonathan Bailey is there as well, because they kind of seemed like a thing, you know, towards the end of that. You knew that was gonna happen. And plus, like the the distortus rex is still alive and there, and who knows what else is hanging out on there. So definitely a lot to explore and learn, and yeah, lots of fun.
SPEAKER_02:Very cool, awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Well, uh, Michael, since you haven't been here for a while, let's uh you want to tell us what we're up to next in the podcast? What's our next episode gonna be about?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so next episode, we have our college buddy Lindsay coming on. We're super excited for that. We're gonna be talking about Gilmore girls. Yeah. I'm excited. This is the one that like none of us know.
SPEAKER_03:We know nothing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was saying I know some. Oh wow. Okay, so I've seen a lot of episodes. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:No, we're gonna hear that. We have uh uh Lindsay has sent us a list of episodes, like homework episodes that we need to watch beforehand. So I'm excited for that. I was saying before that we hit record on this podcast that I I love early 2000s, like dramedies, like you know, we were talking Smallville, One Tree Hill, then Gilmore Girls, obviously.
SPEAKER_00:I'm just gonna binge the entire series before we might end up doing that.
SPEAKER_02:I have a lot to do in two weeks, but we'll see what happens.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's you know, young Melissa McCarthy. That's uh that's a favorite of mine. You know, she's she was fun. But uh yeah, no, that's what we got going on, and I'm excited for that as well. But yeah, we we appreciate you guys joining us for Jurassic World, and we'll go ahead and call it good. See you guys next time.
SPEAKER_02:That's a wrap on this episode of Phantom of Fandoms. If you loved it, hit that follow button at FOF.pod on Instagram and threads, and leave us a quick review wherever you're listening to this podcast. It's like fuel for our little nerdy spaceship. Got a fandom you want us to tackle? Shoot us a DM. Until next time, stay curious, stay passionate, and keep repping what you love.
