It has been 22 years since the first Jurassic Park (1993) film hit the theatres.
For a lot of children growing up in the 1990s, this was their first Hollywood film. And while the movie was an extraordinary spectacle it also gave new meaning to the idea of menacing in cinema – the world was, for the first time, introduced to a whole new realm: that of the dinosaur.
It’s a true testament to the quality of the film that even today, if you were to watch Jurassic Park all over again, you’d still get goosebumps. The thrills are just as real, the effects just as lasting. And despite years of re-watching having attuned you to the exact moment when the velociraptor attacks, you’ll still shrink in terror.
Considered one of Hollywood’s all-time great directors Steven Spielberg had left no stone unturned to make sure that dinosaurs became the most frightening monsters on screen. The question is – how do you top that?
Jurassic World
Possibly one of the most hotly anticipated reboots of any property, Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World, which is scheduled to hit theatres in India on July 12, has quite a challenge ahead.
Fans from around the world are anxiously waiting to see what the Jurassic franchise has in store for them and how this latest instalment will do Spielberg’s dinos justice.
The Palaeontologist Who Created the Indominus Rex
There must be a fan (read: self-appointed expert) for every monster ever simulated on the big screen. In case of the Jurassic franchise though, there are actual scientific minds that have the last word.
Celebrated curator of palaeontology Dr Jack Horner is the co-author of the provocatively wonderful How to Build a Dinosaur. He is most famous, however, for being the technical consultant on all four Jurassic Park films – including the upcoming Jurassic World.
Horner reveals that the Indominus Rex (I-Rex) – which is the Jurassic World dino – engineered from the recovered genes of four actual dinosaurs: the Gigantosaurus, Rugops, Majungasaurus and Carnotaurus – is actually a major scientific improvement over its predecessors. It is easily 40 feet tall.
I-Rex Can Be Made for Real
The real clincher for a dino fan, though? Dr Horner has said that growing a hybrid species like I-Rex is actually possible in real life!
We don’t have dinosaur DNA, but we can make transgenic animals. The cool thing about making a hybrid is that we can take a whole bunch of genes from other kinds of animals and mix them together to make a new animal, which is actually more plausible than the original [idea of] bringing [dinosaurs] back.
– Dr Jack Horner told BBC
Listen to Dr Horner talk about the I-Rex and how realistic it is even to science.
An Actual Chickenosaurus?
If you thought animal gene-swapping was the stuff of fanboy legends, however, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Horner is reportedly so enthralled with this science of animal gene-swapping that he said in a 2011 TED Talk he’s already started cooking up his own animal creation, using genetic reverse-engineering on a chicken!
The palaeontologist declared that he is hoping to create a smaller species of dinosaur that he would call a “Chickenosaurus.”
Whether Dr Horner will actually be able to gene-swap and produce a hybrid species is another story but a simple glance at the trailer will tell you that Jurassic World’s I-Rex promises to be far more frightening than any other monster you’ve ever seen on screen.
Watch the trailer here:
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