How many of you remember “Jurassic Park,” the movie? Particularly that moment in this Steven Spielberg film where software engineer Dennis Nerdy (played with sleazy gusto by Wayne Knight) is recruited to do some corporate espionage.
What Biosyn (i.e. the archrival of InGen, the bioengineering company that actually developed the process which made cloning dinosaurs possible) needed Nedry to do is steal some frozen embryos. And it even provided him with a way to transport this delicate material: A small insulated cannister that was disguised to look like a shaving creme can.
Anyway … Those of you who saw “Jurassic Park,” the movie will remember that Roy does manage to break into that high security, super-cold storage facility where InGen keeps all of its frozen embryos. And while he does actually steal some dinosaur DNA …
Copyright 1993 Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved
… Nedry is never able to hand this material off to his accomplice. Due to a far-too-close encounter with a group of Dilophosaurus (AKA a spitter), who first blind Roy with their poisonous saliva and then eat him.
Copyright 1993 Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved
And when we last see that shaving creme can (which is now loaded with tens of millions of dollars worth of precious dinosaur DNA), it’s clattering down this rain-swollen stream, seemingly lost forever in some muddy ooze.
Copyright 1993 Universal Pictures. All Rights Reserved
But what really happened to that can? This narrative loose end really bothered the guys at Universal Creative, the guys who designed “Jurassic Park the Ride.”
Copyright 1996 Universal Studios Hollywood. All Rights Reserved
Which is why they decided to address this question as part of the Universal Studios Hollywood version of this watery thrill ride. So the next time that you visit this Southern California theme park and experience “Jurassic Park the Ride,” make a point of looking to the left as your raft floats back into the off-load area.
Photo by Shelly Smith
For there among the rocks & foliage is that Barbasol cap that Nedry dropped on that rainy night …
Photo by Shelly Smith
… right before those spitters chewed his face off.
What about you folks? Do you have a favorite prop in a theme park attraction that actually expands on and/or continues the storyline of a favorite film of yours? And — if so — what might that item be?