Summary
Samuel L. Jackson as Arnold is one of the small elements ofJurassic Parkthat makes it one of my favorite movies ever, but I’m still salty about his death.Jurassic Parkis the first thing I ever remember seeing Jackson in. It’s probably the first thing most people remember seeing Jackson in, unless they were paying attention inGoodfellasand noticed him before Tommy (Joe Pesci) blew him away. Now, it’s almost impossible for me to pick myfavorite Sam Jackson performance, butJurassic Parkfelt like the beginning of his true rise to stardom.
He did star in Spike Lee’sJungle Feverin 1991, which was huge, butJurassic Parkwas a phenomenon, blending Michael Crichton’s incredible story with Steven Spielberg’s awe-inspiring visual sensibilities.Every part ofJurassic Parkworksand though I didn’t know who Jackson was at the time, and wouldn’t until I saw him wielding a purple lightsaber inStar Wars, I immediately liked him. TheJurassic Parkfranchise has never had a problem killingeven its nicest characters butthere’s still something that bothers me about Arnold’s death.
7 Dinosaurs Cut From The Jurassic Park Movies (That Still Haven’t Shown Up)
Jurassic Park had plans to include more dinosaurs, and while some have since been explored on screen in new movies, some remain sadly unadapted.
Samuel L. Jackson Couldn’t Film His Jurassic Park Death Because Of Hurricane Iniki
I Would Have Liked To See Such A Memorable Character Get An On-Screen Death
Ray Arnold appears early inJurassic Parkas the chief engineer of the island’s computer system. Of the two computer nerds, Arnold seems like the much more pleasant coworker between him and Nedry (Wayne Knight), even though the secondhand cigarette smoke has got to be a health concern. When Nedry cuts the power to the island. Arnold realizes the only way to reboot it is by going to the mainframe and starting it up manually. He leaves the main building andI fully expected to see him again.
However, the power never comes back on and Dr. Sattler has to go herself. Once inside, Sattler leans into a closet where an arm falls on her shoulder. Relieved, Sattler turns around, only to realizeshe’s hanging onto Arnold’s severed arm with the rest of Arnold probably in some dinosaur’s belly. Cool visual but he’s the guy who said, “Hold on to your butts,” and my personal favorite of his lines, “Please! God damn it! I hate this hacker crap!” which I’ve been known to yell at my computer when it’s running slow. The man at least deserved an onscreen death.
It turns out Spielberg agrees with me because Arnold was supposed to bite the dust onscreen, as he told theAV Club,
“I was actually supposed to go to Hawaii, to shoot my death scene. But there was a hurricane that destroyed all the sets. So I didn’t get to go to Hawaii. All you see is the residue of my body, my arm. But yeah, I was supposed to be on set.”
The hurricane he’s referring to is the 1992 Hurricane Iniki which killed seven people, injured about 100 more, and led to damages in the range of $1.8 billion (viaUnited States of America Department of Commerce). So while I sure would have liked a death in the way of Robert “Clever Girl” Muldoon, that’s a pretty good reason not to film it. Plus it may be hokey now butit still scared me when I was seven.
Sattler and Muldoon discovered the raptors had escaped when they went to restart the power. Arnold did not know what he was walking into.
We Never See Arnold’s Body So He Could Return
Samuel L. Jackson has thought about Arnold’s death too, and he likes to thinkhisJurassic Parkcharacter is still aliveout there,
“It’s the same way I think about the dude from Jurassic Park. He’s somewhere riding around on velociraptors with one arm. He’s just on that island riding raptors.”
Honesty, it’s not totally out of the question. While my feelings on theJurassic Worldmovies mirror Ian Malcolm’s on mountains of Triceratops droppings, they did still return the classic characters to the franchise. Who’s to say Arnold can’t come back — he could even be cloned with the levels of science fiction going on in the new films.
Palpatine somehow came back from the dead, and Han returned to theFast & Furiouscrew, so why can’t Arnold have got a tourniquet and survived a few weeks? Erik Kirby (Trevor Morgan) did it with no problem inJurassic Park III.
Jurassic Park
Cast
Jurassic Park is a science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on Michael Crichton’s novel. Released in 1993, it follows a wealthy entrepreneur who creates a theme park with living dinosaurs. When security systems fail, experts and visitors experience the perilous reality of the park.
