Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film Jurassic Park is remembered for its heart-stopping suspense and game-changing animatronics, but there are Jurassic Park deleted scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut of the classic science fiction action film. Adapted from Michael Critchton’s novel of the same name, Jurassic Park helped redefine the summer blockbuster and that’s primarily thanks to nearly every frame in the sci-fi movie being memorable. Even though a string of sequels have succeeded Jurassic Park, the original movie remains near and dear to most audiences.
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Although it is difficult to imagine a scene not being good enough for the final cut of the film, considering its standing among audiences, there are a few obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why cuts were made. In some instances, a cut scene can improve a movie’s quality, while in others, it doesn’t make much of an impact. Whether because of time constraints, inappropriate tone, or just not as good as expected, there are a hefty number of Jurassic Park deleted scenes that were left on the cutting room floor in Spielberg’s masterpiece.
24 Extended Dig Site Scene
Failed Attempt To Flesh Out Alan And Ellie’s Romance
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Even though there have been debates about Alan and Ellie’s age gap in Jurassic Park, it hasn’t made the couple any less iconic as far as onscreen pairings go. Seemingly, to introduce audiences to their previous romance, the original screenplay had a longer version of the dig site scene from earlier in the movie. This saw them working together and showing some chemistry while delivering scientific dialogue about the Velociraptor skeletons. They also mention the Tenontosauraus here, which ended up being left out of the movie.
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While there’s no official word as to why it was cut, the decision was likely made because it would have slowed things down considerably instead of keeping the action in motion. However, it is easy to see in Jurassic Park where this deleted scene would have fit in as in the actual film, Grant and Ellie were suddenly on top of a hill when John Hammond’s helicopter landed. It was the deleted scene that showed them moving to this spot on the hill.
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23 Ellie Grabbing The Leaf
Two Second Scene Cut For Time
The trailer for Jurassic Park featured a scene in which Ellie sticks her hand out of a moving jeep and grabs hold of a strange leaf. However, in the finished movie, this scene was cut, thus leaving audiences confused as to how she got the leaf later in the film. She was examining the leaf when Dr. Grant was looking at the Brachiosaurus. With that said, how she got it really didn’t need to be shown, even if it would have explained a perceived plot hole.
The deleted scene is really only a small shot and did not affect the film at all outside of speeding things up somewhat.
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It doesn’t help that, early in the movie, Ellie has an expansive knowledge of the plant, thus further complicating things. The deleted scene is really only a small shot and did not affect the film at all outside of speeding things up somewhat. Despite only being two seconds long, the scene was also likely cut due to pacing, but it should have been used as it gives Ellie just a little more credibility as a scientist, although once again, there was really no reason to include it in the finished version of the film.
22 Why Are The Kids Here?
Original Scene Makes Ian Malcolm Less Friendly
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Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Maclolm is one of the best characters in Jurassic Park, mostly because of his wry sense of humor and analytical mind. Moreover, he proves to be braver than even he realizes when he goes out of his way to protect his fellow scientists and the kids. However, this might be different if Spielberg left in a scene in which Malcolm rudely questions Dr. John Hammond about the kids being on the island.
Hammond explains in the deleted scene that their parents are divorcing, and they are having a rough time. Despite Dr. Hammond asking for kindness, it seems that Malcolm has as little time for the kids as he does about messing with nature and creating new dinosaurs, which is something he lambasted on in the scene that immediately followed this one. Even though the scene is in the novel, thus painting Malcolm in a different light, he fares much better in the film adaptation without the cruel characterization.
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21 Why The Triceratops Was Sick
The Scene Might Not Have Passed The Censors
One of Jurassic Park‘s memorable scenes includes Ellie consoling a sick and injured triceratops while Tim eagerly looks on. However, the proper context as to why the dinosaur is sick in the first place is never provided, and the situation is never again brought up at any point in the film. In Jurassic Park, this was just a chance to get the characters close to the ill dinosaur, but when it chose not to bother with its actual illness, it seemed like nothing more than a plot device.
Tim had found rounded stones beside the West Indian Lilac that were toxic to the animals.
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However, the deleted scene would have included Ellie explaining to Tim that the triceratops ate gizzard stones that sometimes contained poisonous substances. Tim had found rounded stones beside the West Indian Lilac that were toxic to the animals. While that doesn’t seem too bad, the original scene would have seen Ellie digging through the dinosaur’s excrement to confirm the gizzard stones were consumed and showed further proof that the park didn’t take necessary precautions to protect the dinosaurs.
20 Baby Triceratops
The Scene Might Have Been A Distraction
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After the scene where Ellie cares for the sick triceratops, there is a deleted scene where she deals with the dinosaur’s baby. The scene immediately follows her explaining what was wrong with the triceratops and the poisonous stones. The film showed Ellie discovering the baby of the sick triceratops alone, and she went over to comfort the baby, hitting that this was about to be an orphaned baby dinosaur. There was even an animatronic made for the baby dinosaur (named Ralph).
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Although Jurassic Park has its fair share of somber and emotional scenes, there isn’t an abundance of them, as Jurassic Park is still an action movie about dinosaurs at the end of the day. This is likely why an emotional scene involving the sick triceratops’ offspring was cut out of the theatrical version of the movie. While the scene might have worked and added another layer to the movie, it also would have made the tone inconsistent.
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19 Extended Island Trek
Too Much Time Spent Walking Around
While no video footage exists of the scene, set photos show that Alan, Lex, and Tim’s trek through Isla Nublar before scaling the Perimeter fence was meant to be much longer than what’s included in the final cut. The original idea was probably meant to infer to audiences how arduous of a task advancing through the park is, but it also isn’t necessary given the inherent struggle of surviving a dinosaur attack.
While many of the cut scenes in the film could still have been included and possibly have improved the already great movie, this one doesn’t contribute anything to the story, explaining its exclusion from the finished product. There were plenty of scenes that showed the struggles, from the scene in the tree to the footage of the expansive park. Having them walking around might have delivered some fun dialogue, but it would have slowed down the action beats of the film.
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18 Extended Journey To The Shed
Another Extended Scene Cut For Time
In a similar vein to the extended island trek, a proposed extended trek to the shed was also omitted from the final cut as it added more time to the already lengthy film. The scene shows everyone running to the shed, and the shots in the DVD special features show Muldoon and Ellie racing to get there quickly. Once again, it was likely shot to show how hard and long it was to get to the safety of the shed. However, that just adds to the run time.
The stark difference between this scene and the previous unused scene is the fact that there exists video footage of the cut scene via the DVD special features for Jurassic Park III. While the scene isn’t as long as the extended trek scene, it too was cut because of its pacing issues. By eliminating the scene, the film could just move to the shed and keep the action beats moving in a more satisfying manner.
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17 Extended Raptor In The Shed Scene
The Scene Makes Ellie Seem Hyper Emotional
One of the reasons why Ellie is so beloved is because of her intelligence. Although she’s just as brave as her fellow scientists, Ellie also displays an aptitude for being a more practical thinker than anyone else. Near the film’s ending, Ellie has to hide from a raptor inside a bunker, and the movie briefly turns into a full-on horror picture. While she finds Alan, the original scene sees Ellie exposing her location to the raptor to get Alan’s attention.
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Presumably, it was cut because this emotional characterization of Ellie wouldn’t be consistent with how she was portrayed up to that point. By yelling out to Grant, while knowing there was a raptor there, she clearly was letting her panic and fear overwhelm her intelligence, which hurts her characterization at that point. Ellie was not someone who would have made silly horror movie decisions when danger was so near, so this scene never would have worked.
16 Malcolm Carried Away
The Scene Was Cut For Pacing
Near Jurassic Park‘s climax, Malcolm is severely injured in a dinosaur attack and is nearly rendered completely incapacitated. While Malcolm is eventually rescued by Alan and the other survivors, the scene is fairly brief. However, the original idea was to show Ellie and Muldoon carrying Malcolm on a stretcher to safety. Instead, Malcolm is loaded onto a jeep and is seen escaping the T. Rex with the rest of the crew.
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Having the story stop to show Muldoon and Ellie carrying Malcolm down the narrow path to the compound wasn’t necessary to the film
Once again, this is likely because of pacing issues in Jurassic Park. It is clear that the heroes are getting Malcolm carried out of the danger zone after his injuries. Having the story stop to show Muldoon and Ellie carrying Malcolm down the narrow path to the compound wasn’t necessary to the film and only served to slow down the action in a spot where the tensions needed to remain high.
15 Leaving The Car
The Additional Information Slows Things Down
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The scene in which Alan and the kids depart the compromised car and head into the jungle originally had three different endings. While there’s only a set photo of one of the endings, all three would have essentially boiled down to Alan spending additional time using a map to figure out the jungle’s layout all while being pursued by a T. Rex.
The scene from the script shows Grant escaping from the car and convincing Lex that they are safer if she goes with him and Tim into the jungle than she is if she stays in the culvert. However, he then spends a lot of time looking at a map of the island. This explains how he was able to find his way back to the Visitor’s Center and not get lost. As intense as the idea seems, it isn’t practical for Alan to slow down while being hunted just to look at a map when the jungle offers plenty of natural shelter.
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14 Ian Malcolm’s Last Minute Heroism
Jeff Goldblum’s Suggestion Made Malcolm Even Better
Perhaps the best-known example of a Jurassic Park scene being deleted, the now famous scene in Jurassic Park in which Ian Malcolm distracts the T. Rex was almost completely different. According to an interview with Jeff Goldblum, he was able to convince Steven Spielberg that Malcolm should have a heroic moment instead of running away and leaving everyone to fend for themselves, as seen in the book.
Goldblum’s intuition would prove to be correct as the scene is arguably one of the best in the movie, and it cemented Malcolm’s spot as one of the best characters in the franchise. Not only did the novel have the scene of Malcolm running away, but the shooting script also showed him running out on everyone. This makes it sound like this was a last-minute change that made the movie better and made Malcolm an icon, something that never would have happened with the original scenes.
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13 Extended Lab Scene
Cut Despite Adding More Characterization
In addition to the spectacle, another reason why Jurassic Park is so beloved is because of its well-written characters. However, when furthering character development and hitting the sweet spot time-wise for a Hollywood blockbuster are on the line, character development goes out the window. The lab scene in which Gennaro tries to stop Hammond from letting the scientists into the lab offers audiences some more intimate character-building moments between Ellie and Malcolm.
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This deleted scene also eliminates some dialogue where Ellie and Malcolm are talking, and he explains to her his theory on why the park was destined to fail in the end. Both scenes sound interesting but are not needed. While it would have been interesting to see how the interaction would have played out, it was cut because it slowed things down too much.
12 Extended Kids Scene
Hammond Convinces The Team To Accept The Kids
While Malcolm initially had a strong negative impression of Lex and Tim being on the island, there’s also another perspective not seen due to being cut out. Even though Alan agrees with Malcolm’s reaction to seeing them, everyone has a change of heart after Hammond informs them that the kids are caught in the middle of their parents’ divorce. Although the quality isn’t the best, footage of the cut scene is available online, and it helps recontextualize things regarding the siblings.
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This scene actually remains in the comic book adaptation of the film, with Dr. Hammond looking at Grant and Malcolm and saying, “Have a heart, gentlemen. Their parents are getting a divorce and they need a diversion. Maybe they’ll get you into the spirit of this place.” It was a nice moment, and it was actually filmed, and it might have been a nice way to get more viewers on the kids’ sides when they ended up in danger.
11 Journey To The Island Extended
The Scene That Would Have Given Malcolm More Character
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Although the scene wasn’t included in the movie, the comic adaptation of Jurassic Park features an extended dialogue between the scientists as they journey to Jurassic Park via helicopter. The dialogue consists of Ellie asking Malcolm what he thinks of the expedition, and after receiving a curt answer, she resigns herself to a quiet flight. Similar to Malcolm’s cut dialogue expressing his grievances with the kids, this wasn’t included as a less friendly Malcolm wouldn’t have worked.
During the discussion, Malcolm defends his theory to Grant and Ellie that the island will fail.
During the discussion, Malcolm defends his theory to Grant and Ellie that the island will fail. “Hammond’s project is an apparently simple system, but chaos theory explains that simple systems will inevitably produce complex behavior,” Malcolm said in the Jurassic Park deleted scene. There is nothing about these lines that appear in the film or the shooting script, but it is part of the written comic book adaptation.
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10 River Raft Scenes
The Scenes Might Have Been Overkill
Spielberg had plans to incorporate the river raft scenes from the books, but money and time constraints ultimately made this impossible. Moreover, screenwriter David Koepp felt the scene would have been redundant and was grateful that the raft scene was cut from Jurassic Park. He said that once the park broke down, there should have been total chaos. He felt the raft moment was a great one to cut despite it being one of the most spectacular scenes in the film.
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Even though a part of the scene was shot, the movie could have suffered as it might have made audiences feel overwhelmed by a large-scale spectacle occurring every other scene. This was also a bigger cut than that, as there were several different shots undertaken in the rover raft sequence, including two major Tyrannosaur moments. According to reports, the Tyrannosaur tongue was too unrealistic looking to make it even if the raft scenes hadn’t been cut.
9 Alternate Ending
Jurassic Park’s Original Ending Was Almost T. Rex-Less
Jurassic Park‘s ending is one of the more memorable endings in the last thirty years and that’s thanks to its spectacular T. Rex chase through the park. However, Jurassic Park‘s alternate ending would have stunted the film’s legacy considerably as it featured Hammond simply shooting the raptors and the crew promptly leaving, and another ending would have seen the infamous T. Rex meet its end via a pile of bones falling on it.
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It also would have been a mistake to have Hammond kill the dinosaurs since he wasn’t the main protagonist of the film.
Film history would be completely different had either of those two less appealing endings been used instead of the now iconic chase sequence. The T-Rex roar remains one of the most iconic scenes from Jurassic Park and is the thing of movie posters and t-shirts. By having Dr. Hammond shoot the raptors or even have them crushed would have ruined the entire climax of the film. It also would have been a mistake to have Hammond kill the dinosaurs since he wasn’t the main protagonist of the film.
8 T. Rex Smashes Through A Wall
The Scene Simply Never Happened
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One of the more persistent claims of a deleted scene from Jurassic Park is that of a T. Rex smashing through the wall of a waiting room near the film’s ending. This rumor comes from people who say they remember seeing this scene in the theatrical cut of the film when it came out, but these same fans say that it was cut out of the movie when it hit DVD and home video.
However, it seems that this scene is not a deleted scene but one that people just seem to misremember. While this sounds appropriate for a movie of Jurassic Park‘s scope, it isn’t in the film.
Steve Spaz Williams, one of the lead special effects artists on Jurassic Park, firmly shut the persistent rumor down by claiming the scene was never shot despite how fitting it would have been for the movie. “We never did a shot where we saw the rex enter the rotunda area. It was Speilberg who actually added that sequence cause he was so happy with how all the other shots were proceeding. Steve Price animated that final shot.” (via Vimeo).
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7 A Different Dinosaur
Velociraptors Made More Sense
During one of Jurassic Park‘s lab scenes, a velociraptor hatches from an egg in a somewhat heartwarming moment. However, the original dinosaur was going to be a triceratops, as it would have looped back around to the sick triceratops scene. Considering that scene was deleted/reduced, and Alan wanted to confirm what baby velociraptors looked like, it was a natural decision to swap the triceratops for a velociraptor.
This would have been very different if it had happened. Having the Velociraptor hatch opened up the later scenes, where the raptors became so deadly to the kids as they hunted them down. That works better for the story than the triceratops. The latter was there to offer a follow-up to a deleted scene, so it no longer matters or makes sense. This was a change that benefitted the story being told and was necessary.
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6 The Grab
Ellie Nearly Meets Her End
In the scene involving Ellie taking shelter from the loose velociraptors in the shed, Spielberg originally wanted to include a beat that would see a velociraptor break through one of the doors and grab her arm before she breaks free and runs. This scene was cut as the entire scene was shortened, and it would have left Ellie with a life-altering injury that the movie simply wouldn’t have had enough time to focus on.
There are a lot of things in Jurassic Park that seem entirely unbelievable, and the escapes from many of the dinosaurs should never have happened, especially with the kids. The scene of a raptor reaching through a door to grab Ellie is a scene straight out of a horror movie that just doesn’t work. Plus, there is no way that Ellie gets out of this alive and isn’t maimed even if she survives the claws.
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5 Extended Gennaro Death Scene
The Scene Was Shortened To Avoid a Harsher Rating
While chasing down the scientists at the film’s conclusion, Gennaro is devoured by the hungry T. Rex as Malcolm narrowly escapes with his life. While the scene itself isn’t too bad, the original idea would have shown his severed arm falling in front of a fleeing Malcolm, thus making the already graphic scene even worse. Since it wasn’t absolutely necessary to the film’s plotting, Spielberg opted for a less gory approach to the maligned character’s ending.
This deleted scene would have pushed it to an R-rating at that time in film history.
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This is a good deletion. Seeing the T-rex eating and consuming Gennaro, with all the blood, guts, and gore that could entail, would have fit a full-scale horror movie. While Jurassic Park was a sci-fi horror movie, it was more about the adventure story, and that makes it more of a family-friendly film, albeit with some intense moments that might be too much for younger kids. This deleted scene would have pushed it to an R-rating at that time in film history (although it could be PG-13 now).