It’s time yet again to Social Distance the heck out of this epidemic and watch a movie together while still staying in three different states: North Carolina, Florida, and California. Next up for the Tri-State Watch Party, just after its 27th anniversary, we’re watching Jurassic Park.
The Netflix Watch Party app ended up being a little complicated, so we just set a time to hit “play” and then chatted through instant messenger. Click the jump to read some highlights from the conversation.
The Players: Elizabeth, Hannah, Kathryn, Nathan, and the parents (Parents represented here by Marian, because Dad would chisel a message in a stone tablet before typing anything on a phone.)
Kathryn
Is this on Netflix or Amazon?
Nathan
$3.99 on Prime
Hannah
I’ve got the DVD ????
Kathryn
Renting the movie now!
Elizabeth
All set here
Nathan
A little appetizer.
Elizabeth
Music to make your head explode
Nathan
????
Hannah
Heh
All set here
Nathan
Ready when you are!
Elizabeth
Pressing play!
Hannah
Fun Fact No. 1/god knows: a dinosaur discovered in the 90s is nicknamed for the cast: Jurassasaurus Nedegoapeferium
Nathan
Sweet!
Elizabeth
Aww
Kathryn
Been a while since I’ve seen this.
Elizabeth
Same!
Kathryn
First saw it in Boone NC.
Nathan
The soundtrack has caught our cat’s attention,
Elizabeth
Saw it in Winston-Salem with Pat and friends, some whole-day trip we took out there for some reason
Hannah
Saw it in Bradenton with Candace Kenny and her dad
Also I owe Mom $100 from a while back because I forgot this is the first death in this movie
Kathryn
Kind of shades of the first death in Jaws here.
Nathan
Wouldn’t tranquilizing it have been a lot easier?
Elizabeth
Looks like they were trying?
Kathryn
I don’t remember this?
Hannah
That’s a fact about zoos: they have gun teams because tranquilizers don’t work fast enough in an emergency
(*Some zoos)
Que lindo, eres
THERE HE IS
Kathryn
I remember when that loon in Ohio released all his wild animals. Tranqs weren’t an option because the animal could still run away and hide before passing out, with no way of knowing whose yard it would wake in.
Hannah
Holy flannels
Nathan
It was the early ‘90s!
Kathryn
Hannah did you see any of the new Twin Peaks series?
Laura Dern was excellent in that.
Elizabeth
Annoying kid alert
Hannah
No because fucking Netflix didn’t have the pilot
Kathryn
Actually it was the series from a couple of years ago
Hannah
Oooh, but still no
Kathryn
Which…might have been Showtime?
Bad touch
Hannah
Heh I saw a tweet from a while back where someone was like, “I just realized Sam Neill was trying to do an American accent in Jurassic Park” and he was like, “…bit harsh”
Elizabeth
Question, are Grant and Ellie a couple? I realize now it’s ambiguous?
Hannah
Yes
And the world was denied an epic kiss
(Apparently JP3 addresses their breakup)
Elizabeth
I seem to remember that, but I have veeery little memory of that flick
Nathan
Spared no expense.
Hannah
I forgot how Scottish Richard Attenborough was
Nathan
Me too.
Hannah
Apparently he was born in Cambridge? Is this a put on?
DOTSON. DOTSON. WE’VE GOT DOTSON HERE
Nathan
It’s a damn good accent.
NEWMAN!
Elizabeth
Mm, now I want Mexican food
Kathryn
Nice hat.
Nathan
Elizabeth
They used to sell Barbasol weed-containers at The Black in OB, I thought of this scene every time I saw them
Kathryn
God, the music in this movie.
Hannah
God, this soundtrack
Jinx
Elizabeth
“Deplorable excess of personality” is actually a great description of Jeff Goldblum.
Hannah
Heh
Less deplorable later in life
Kathryn
He was just delightful in Thor Ragnarok
Elizabeth
Yay favorite music sting!
Hannah
I challenge you to hear this shit and not smile
Some podcast the other day was talking about Men in Black and how it emerged from nowhere and injected itself into the DNA of human culture
Imagine a world before Jurassic Park
Elizabeth
Agreed, absolutely
Both this movie and Men in Black blew my mind with how much I loved every particle of them
Kathryn
People who grew up with CGI have no idea how much this scene meant.
Nathan
I love the way he turns her head. ????
Kathryn
God, teary eyed then and now.
Hannah
RIGHT
Also that CGI holds up so well
Elizabeth
Seriously, just about crying here
Hannah
Someone was saying that this movie’s SFX hold up because of the use of puppets and the CGI is mostly at night in rain, so the shinyness doesn’t stand out
Nathan
Makes sense.
Hannah
But that shit works for an introductory shot
Elizabeth
That’s the key, knowing how to hide any limitations. The Rogue One people forgot about that.
Kathryn
It was literally world-changing, this movie.
Hannah
HE’S SO HANDSOME
(“Just like in his reward posters”)
Kathryn
Is anyone actually TRYING to extract dinosaur DNA from amber?
Nathan
Dyna-sour.
Kathryn
This is the perfect tone for this kind of exposition
Hannah
“TOURS COMING THROUGH, HIDE THE TEQUILA”
Massive continuity issue alert
Kathryn
Really?
Hannah
(The robot hand tending to the eggs disappears in the next shot)
Nathan
So it does!
Elizabeth
I’m pretty sure the Asian technician shows up in the Jurassic World movie as a semi-major character
Hannah
Are these Henson?
Nathan
Maybe?
Hannah
My first ever college assignment was putting together a poster of lessons learned from this movie
Elizabeth
Must have been a hell of a poster
Hannah
Like Alien, that
Chilean sea bass!
So much brilliant not showing stuff
Kathryn
WHY would you have an animal like this in a theme park?
Hannah
Haha
Donald the lawyer is an Italian Niles Crane
Elizabeth
Haha, yep
Nathan
He had a recurring role on Miami Vice.
Hannah
This a good philosophical discussion for an action movie
Kathryn
Very.
It’s this kind of discussion that would be appropriate in so MANY sci-fi movies.
Elizabeth
Hammond was a despicable character in the book, I like that they made him a bunch more likable here (but just as misguided)
Hannah
Yes, I agree that that helps
This girl was also in the video for Ben Fold’s “Drowning’
TBH Spielberg must be amazing at working with kids
Elizabeth
He does bring out the best in them
SAMUEL
Hannah
SAMUEL JACKSON
Haha
Nathan
This movie came out before Pulp Fiction, so this was before he became a big star.
Elizabeth
They just nailed the whole slightly-cheesy vibe of a theme park
Kathryn
The idea that it was OPTIONAL to keep the windows up here is telling.
Bit o technobabble here.
Heh. Only male characters are killed in this movie, so Dern is kinda on point here.
Hannah
I mean, not really the best park design here
Kathryn
Love the Goldblum snark here.
Hannah
Heh yes
His demonstration here is such bullshit
Elizabeth
Heh, yes. The description of chaos theory and fractals in the book went over my head.
Kathryn
There was a cool bit in the book about the system that tracked the dinosaurs in the park that didn’t make it to the film. Otherwise the film is better.
Heh. Floppy disks.
Nathan
This was 1993. Was modern technology at the time.
Hannah
The reason I love Sam Neill is I was reading the book summer after high school and I started to wonder about who played Grant. Then I turned on the TV and Dead Calm was on
Elizabeth
Kismet ????
The animatronics are amazing.
Hannah
Fuck yes they are
Kathryn
I think the book explained why the dinosaur was sick?
Hannah
Yes
Kathryn
Something about swallowing rocks for their crop.
Hannah
It’s a lot like Silence of the Lambs: the movie introduces a lot of specific mysteries and then doesn’t bother to explain them
Kathryn
The little checking his foot thing was the perfect touch.
Hannah
I was thinking I need a Stetson. One in the style of Dr. Grant might be good
Nathan
Elizabeth
*makes a note*
Kathryn
Newman practically has a sign that says “UP TO NO GOOD.”
Elizabeth
The fact that nobody twigs to how suspicious he was there
Hannah
MAC
Elizabeth
Classic Mac
“You married?” “Occasionally.”
Hannah
SPELLING ERROR ALERT
Elizabeth
Missed it
Hannah
Stegosaurus is spelled wrong
Elizabeth
Heh, dudes it’s a dinosaur movie YOU HAD ONE JOB
Hannah
Haha
Fucking props
Kathryn
Kind of plays to the whole A DINOSAUR THEME PARK IS A BAD IDEA kind of mistake.
Elizabeth
Gotcha, confirmation of relationship there
Hannah
I can’t believe we’re an hour into this movie and we still haven’t seen the T rex. Amazing tension building
Elizabeth
So smart. They tried that with the first of the new Godzilla movies but the payoff wasn’t worth it.
Hannah
Who was the BW pic on his desk?
Elizabeth
Not sure, never noticed it before
Kathryn
Not sure. Beginning of the Baby Boom?
Hannah
Heeeeere we go
Kathryn
They use part of this scene for the Charge Up The Crowd clip at Hurricanes games.
Elizabeth
“Are they heavy” “Yeah” “Then they’re expensive put them back”
That is my approach to all pieces of portable machinery to this day.
Kathryn
Eeeeeeee
Elizabeth
Water in the glass shaking SO ICONIC
Hannah
Such good horror movie shit
Elizabeth
Chills all up and down my arms!
Nathan
That isn’t good!
Hannah
LOOK AT THAT
Elizabeth
The roar!
Kathryn
How they got it to look MASSIVE as well as just big.
SAM TO THE RESCUE
Elizabeth
LOVE the bit with him waving the flare!!!!
There goes the lawyer!!
Hannah
First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers
Elizabeth
hahaha
Nathan
????
Kathryn
That scream she gives there, perfect panic.
Nathan
He can’t see you, but he can smell you.
Elizabeth
AAAAAA the timing with the falling car!
Hannah
God this movie holds up
Elizabeth
“How many lines of code are there?” “Bout two million.”
Perfect delivery of that line
Hannah
You can make a few little errors and still tell a tremendous story
Kathryn
I have actual nightmares of driving in the rain with a deadline and I’m lost.
Nathan
Newman didn’t think his plot thought very well, did he?
Elizabeth
Knocking down the signpost was his downfall
Hannah
Gonna write a children’s book called Dennis Never Knew How to Use a Winch
Nathan
????
Kathryn
The sound effects from this dinosaur are particularly cute
Elizabeth
Right up until they become horrifying
Hannah
Soundstage Waterfall is a good album title
Nathan
Goodbye, Newman.
Hannah
And thus are we freed of the plot-starter
Elizabeth
I forget, did the Barbasol can become a plot point in a future film?
I mean it’s a great setup
Kathryn
Nah.
Sadly.
Elizabeth
When Sam Neil uses Sincere Voice, you listen.
Kathryn
“Hate climbing. Hate trees. Way too high.”
Hannah
Go Tim
Nevah nevah look down
Elizabeth
“Oh no…”
Kathryn
I love how they made the car look ALIVE
Elizabeth
I was just thinking that, the car is another monster!
Hannah
At least you’re outta the tree
Nathan
Spielberg is a master of scenes like that.
Kathryn
Favorite line
Elizabeth
“Well, we’re back…in the car..”
Hannah
ANOTHER ICONIC SEQUENCE
Elizabeth
“Can we chance moving him?” “Please, chance it.”
Hannah
That’s an impact tremor is what that is
Elizabeth
I’m fairly alarmed here
Kathryn
“Must go faster.”
Elizabeth
“Objects in mirror are closer than they appear”
Kathryn
Cheap joke but God it works.
Hannah
SO GOOD
Also with the overbite and the yowling.. pretty sure Mischa is a T-rex
Elizabeth
hahaha
Nathan
????
Elizabeth
God I remember seeing that whole scene in the theater and everybody losing their minds
I hate trees” “They don’t bother me” “Oh yeah well you weren’t in the last one.”
Kathryn
That lovely image of the tree line
I don’t think I’ve heard any stories of child actors saying they hated working on a Spielberg film.
Hannah
“What do you call a lesbian dinosaur…” oh no, wait
Kathryn
????
Elizabeth
heh
Kathryn
Very telling that they had the park merchandise ready before the rest of the park.
Hannah
DON’T YOU SEE THE FLEAS MUMMY
Elizabeth
heh, yes
Could we take a short pee break at this quiet scene?
Kathryn
Yep.
Elizabeth
Pause at “spared no expense”
Hannah
Sure
After the ice cream?
Elizabeth
Paused!
Nathan
Paused.
1:29:10
Elizabeth
I’m not always good at identifying the acts in a three-act structure, but that “Spared no expense” has got to be the end of the second act?
Kathryn
Seems like it.
Hannah
Yeah I’m not good at that either, but at the very least that has the feel of a solid commercial break
Elizabeth
Ready when everyone else is
Nathan
Same here.
Hannah
Still resembling here
Kathryn
Resembling what ????
Elizabeth
I resemble that remark
Hannah
Heh fuck off you two ????
Elizabeth
hahaha
Kathryn
Hee
Hannah
Ready here
Elizabeth
Hitting play!
Kathryn
Playing
That thing really could have just tossed Sam.
Hannah
Alternate plot where Grant is flung across the valley
Haha yes
LATE EXPOSITION
DON’T SNIFF THE EGG, SAM
Elizabeth
hee
Elizabeth
The gratuitous shirtless shot of Goldblum always puzzled me
Hannah
Goldblum sexpot pose
Heh
Kathryn
The lysine thing seems unnecessary
Hannah
Fyi the lysine contingency is also why you shouldn’t feed cats meat-only diets
Elizabeth
I have to give Cricket Lysine supplements SHE’S A DINOSAUR
Is that lysine or Taurine?
No wait I’m thinking of why you can’t feed dog food to cats and vise versa
Hannah
Not sure what it is, but a thing that cats need from plants that they can’t manufacture themselves
In the wild they get it from eating herbivores’ stomachs first
Elizabeth
“They’re uh, they’re flocking this way..”
Kathryn
I’m sure George Lucas was inspired by this scene.
Elizabeth
But John if Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down the pirates don’t eat the tourists…
Hannah
When Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down the pirates don’t eat the tourists
Stop it
Haha
Elizabeth
Hee
Kathryn
I was typing it too.
Hannah
Look, Grant has been referring to the aggressive dinosaurs as “he” so…
Elizabeth
Heh
SO weird, I didn’t realize we don’t really get a look at the raptors till the last half hour…
Hannah
CLEVER GIRL
Kathryn
“It’s all right.” “Like hell it is.”
Hannah
That’s the same “shed” in Empire Strikes Back
(That’s a joke but it looks like it)
Kathryn
No kidding!
Elizabeth
Heh, Grant tries Dad jokes
Hannah
“That was great”
Nathan
Those kids could totally slip between that fence.
Hannah
Having just written a 50-word pitch, I wonder how you pitch this movie, considering how brilliant the specifics are
Kathryn
“Dinosaur Theme Park.”
Elizabeth
I can’t imagine
Kathryn
Wouldn’t the charge have galvanized him to the wire?
Elizabeth
I was just thinking that
Hannah
RUN LAURA
Elizabeth
Severed arm AAAAA
Hannah
Running like when you’re in a dream and your legs don’t work
Elizabeth
Oo yes
I always wondered why he kinda went off hunting it
Kathryn
Thought he could shorten the movie.
Elizabeth
Mistaaaaake
Hannah
Such a dream to be loose in a resort kitchen
… until
Kathryn
I would so chow down on desserts at this point.
Elizabeth
Oh yeah
Mmm bread
Hannah
I like how they fix plates. I would be face-deep in alfredo
Elizabeth
hahahaha
And here we have that scene in The Shining..
Kathryn
Do a search for Tom Hiddleston Raptor Impersonation
It’s pretty hilarious.
Elizabeth
I always liked Hannah’s impersonation myself
Hannah
Ooooh I do enjoy a raptor walk
THAT LADLE IS A TRAITOR
It’s been 25 years. How are people still making shitty CGI
IT’S A UNIX SYSTEM. I KNOW THIS
Nathan
And this is why you don’t have to computerize EVERYTHING!
Hannah
(It’s not. All my nerd friends emphasize how much it’s not)
Nathan
It’s totally not.
Kathryn
Little kid saving the day is so wonderfully Spielberg
Mr Hammond, the phones are working.
Nail biting time!
Hannah
Oh, so there’s a shot when she falls through the ceiling coming up, when the stunt woman accidentally looked up at the camera, and they CGIed the girl’s face onto hers
Kathryn
Pretty seamless
Elizabeth
Favorite part!!
Hannah
BEST BIT
Nathan
Deus ex machina!
Kathryn
Yaaaaaay!
Elizabeth
YAAAAAAY!
Whole theater applauding at this point!
THE FALLING BANNER I’M CRYING
Kathryn
That banner bit, WHY do I get choked up at that?
Hannah
Tyrannosaurus ex machina, surely
Elizabeth
hahah
Nathan
Elizabeth
All hail John Williams
Hannah
ALL HAIL JOHN WILLIAMS indeed
Heh same ending as Last Crusade
Kathryn
Ahh, that holds up so WELL.
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