Most Shocking 'Jurassic' Deaths
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Note: Contains Spoilers
Michael Crichton became a household name when his debut novel, Jurassic Park, discussed the folly of human nature and hubris in playing God to bring back dangerous prehistoric animals for the sake of profit and supposed scientific breakthroughs. When Steven Spielberg turned it into a film, it was as if the world stood still. Unfortunately, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. Ian Malcolm said it best in the first film, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Had the scientists stopped and thought deeply about the consequences of putting dangerous prehistoric animals in a modern world, many deaths and injuries would have been prevented. Thousands of dollars meant to ensure the safety of its visitors and provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity were nothing more than an expensive Achilles heel.
The best zookeepers and engineers in the world did not know the extent of what they were going to deal with. Their knowledge of dealing with common animals like those found in a typical zoo was not prepared for the actual dangers and upkeep that dinosaurs required. Forced in such small enclosures resulted in already bloodthirsty predators becoming more vicious, antsy, and eager to escape. After all, they were created and put into a world that had no use for them. Not to mention, the park’s safety feature was a flaw in itself. If one button handled everything, it means less staff and upkeep. Good on paper, bad in practice. Described as the best and the first of its kind, Hammond’s pride didn’t plan on what to do if and when the system failed. Limited staff with no working knowledge of how to facilitate changes and maintain a new type of system allowed the dinosaurs to run amok and breed. Sooner or later, people were going to die.
Picking strictly from the Jurassic films to avoid a repetitive and predictable list (i.e., the bassinet scene being the most shocking), the deaths chosen were the ones not only I remembered from time to time, but the ones best representing the ferocity and intelligence of these prehistoric monsters and how the characters unintentionally foreshadowed their fate.
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10. Lewis Dodgson
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Quite possibly the longest surviving member coming from the original film (outside of the golden trio), Dodgson and Nedry’s actions directly and indirectly created the perfect storm in Jurassic Park. Once seen in the movie yet referenced through Nedry’s actions, Dodgson and Biosyn were a dark cloud looming over the Park, ready to swoop in and destroy InGen from the inside. Briefly successful in reducing the InGen empire to rubble through a series of lawsuits and the Costa Rican government understanding what went on at the Park, Dodgson had the chance to retire quietly and be left alone. A notable absence from the franchise, considering the actor was in legal trouble, his resurgence and recasting allowed fans to see this snake in the grass get his comeuppance.
Returning to his roots, Dodgson attempts to flee with dinosaur embryos, copying Hammond’s original dream, though Dodgson is more money-driven. Making his way through a darkened hyperloop railroad, what should come across his path but a Dilophosaurus. Chirps of curiosity quickly turn into snarls and hisses. In fear, Dodgson flees from the Dilophosaurus, dropping the embryos and his glasses before hiding in a hyperloop car. Suddenly, one Dilophosaurus bursts inside with two more accompanying it from the other side, as Dodgson forgot to close the hatch of the car. Like Nedry, he is spit with venom and devoured. A karmic ending—killed empty-handed by his creation, the same one who killed Nedry thirty years previously.
9. Dieter Stark
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While some of the deaths in the original novel could not be adapted as written, Spielberg did not disregard them as ones he could use through someone else. Luckily, the quiet ferocity of the compys was utilized in second-in-command Dieter Stark. Hired by InGen and serving as Tembo’s second-in-command mercenary to capture the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna, Dieter and his team end up stranded on the island after a series of unfortunate circumstances. Hours of hunting leave Dieter tired and needing to relieve himself, something he communicates to team member Carter. Wearing headphones, Carter didn’t hear him later calling for him. Left alone, Dieter did not pay attention to where he came from, wandering through the jungle to try to find his team. Second, he neglected to be mindful of the jungle's terrain, leading to him falling down a slope, losing his rifle, and a shock prod. Had he had them, Dieter might have survived.
The score, how the compys hunted him, and how helpless Dieter was in the situation made his final moments unnerving and uncomfortable the more you sit with it. Being on such a primitive island, the Compsognathus has to be as fierce and cunning as its larger counterparts to survive. The first one Dieter encountered was just curious about this new thing in its home. Not fearing him as the island did not get visitors, Dieter is mystified that this “creepy-looking” compy doesn’t fear him or Robert Burke. A split-second decision made Dieter give the small scavenger “a reason to” by shocking it with a cattle prod. The compy he sees again when separated may be the one he shocked and came back (with members of its pack) for retribution. A small, unassuming dinosaur with the capacity to hold grudges and retain information makes it stand toe to toe with its larger counterparts.
8. Ben Lockwood
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The writer in me remembered this death not because I knew it was happening, despite it not being shown, but what Ben Lockwood’s death symbolized. A representation of the more classic era of Jurassic Park and Hammond’s dreams, Lockwood was the last link to Hammond’s vision. He still believed in Jurassic Park and that it could bring good into the world. What ended up driving the two friends apart in the film lore was Lockwood using the cloning technology previously used on animals to clone his daughter, whom he raised as his granddaughter. Somehow, cloning humans was a line Hammond refused to cross. Nonetheless, his death was the first not to be as a result of the dinosaurs, but from someone he trusted: Eli Mills.
Like Hammond, Lockwood made the mistake of entrusting his vision to those who did not have the means or goodwill to use multimillion-dollar creations for non-nefarious purposes. Discovering that the dinosaurs were being auctioned off to be used as weapons for the military and terrorist organizations, Lockwood is heartbroken knowing Eli approved this under the guise of “guiding [Lockwood’s] fortune into the future”. A businessman to his core, Eli could not have his operations exposed to the police. Money and controlling the Lockwood estate meant more to Eli than the life of the man who entrusted him to said fortune. When Hammond’s cane shattered, the heart and soul of Jurassic Park shattered. A small mercy might be that his death meant he didn’t get to witness the bastardization of his and Hammond’s dream.
7. Ken Wheatley
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Creating an outlandishly evil person in a game hunter with a proclivity for collecting teeth, it was only a matter of time before Ken Wheatley would die. What I looked forward to was a brutal kill, and a brutal kill was delivered. Arriving on the dilapidated remains of Jurassic World/Park, Wheatley falsely assumed his status as the top hunter/predator would remain unchallenged. Human hubris gave Wheatley the delusion that he was stronger, smarter, and nearly invincible. Disregarding how he took the teeth of the captured animals after others restrained them, Wheatley’s cowardice is brought to the forefront when confronted with the true apex predator.
Finding the Indoraptor by chance, Wheatley thinks he’s hit the jackpot. Following his trophy hunting ritual, he shoots the genetic marvel with a tranquilizer, and down it goes to sleep. Or so he and the audience assume. Willingly entering the cage of a predator he knew nothing about, Wheatley’s arrogance and avarice keep him from realizing that he is the one being played for a fool. The Indoraptor is smart enough to know what Wheatley’s MO is and feigns unconsciousness. A few seconds pass before the audience realizes Wheatley is in danger, much sooner than Wheatley does. Adding further insult to imminent death, the Indoraptor clamps down on Wheatley’s arm (the one closest to its mouth as Wheatley attempted to take one of its teeth), swallowing it in front of him as a middle finger before devouring the game hunter. Reducing a hunter into prey felt like poetic justice to those Wheatley tortured and tried to leave for dead.
6. Robert Muldoon
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Robert Muldoon was one of the most intelligent casualties of Hammond’s dream and lack of foresight and hindsight regarding the park. On paper, Muldoon inspected the park top to bottom and reported back on weaknesses of the park and how the animals—specifically the raptors—were unlike any he had ever seen. In both the film and the novel, Muldoon is quick to say the raptors should be “destroyed” not only because of their “extreme” and “problem-solving” intellect, but because he relates how he has no experience hunting animals with the ability to hunt back in such a way rivaling himself. Similarly, Hammond is quick to disregard his warnings. Had Hammond heeded Muldoon and Ian’s warnings, Muldoon might have survived.
Trapped with Ellie in the midst of Nedry’s shutdown of the park, both embark on a mission to check on Arnold, as the park had yet to restart, and Arnold hadn’t returned. The two are more trapped when Muldoon deduces that he and Ellie are being hunted and urges Ellie to run to the control room while he covers her. Ellie makes it safely, but Muldoon does not. Drawing himself away from her, it might be theorized that he was buying Ellie time or attempting to pick off the alpha. No matter what Muldoon’s plan was, he was spotted by Alpha. The one he found was one of the smaller ones. His final words confirm the raptor’s intelligence and reference Alan’s previous monologue about how the raptor’s hunt their prey. If only Hammond’s understood just how correct Muldoon was about how “clever” the raptors were.
5. LeClerc
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Perhaps the one death in Jurassic World: Rebirth taking up space in my mind rent-free (aside from the scientist’s Snickers wrapper), LeClerc was one of the characters I hoped would not be killed. A truly good character who didn’t deserve to die the way he did. Accompanying Zora, Duncan, and Dr. Henry to retrieve specific DNA genomes to create CVD medication, their run-in with the Quetzalcoatlus was a near-perfect setup for suspense. His cries for help and his throwing his hammer at the winged dinosaur to buy his friends some time should have allowed him the chance to escape. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. His final act was nothing but a final sacrifice. A final sacrifice where, if you look closer, LeClerc is still alive.
Those who LeClerc saw as his friends witnessed him being eaten alive by the Quetzalcoatlus. The screams and looks of horror from Zora, Duncan, and Dr. Henry were matched by LeClerc’s muffled screams as he kicked and screamed down the Quetzalcoatlus’s throat. Consumed whole and about to be digested alive, LeClerc’s death combined the worst elements of Eddie’s, Udesky’s, and Nash’s deaths into a disturbing final symphony worthy of an R-rating. Stakes became higher, and any vulnerability was dangerous.
4. Zara Young
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Quite possibly the most outrageous death, Zara’s death was anything but quick. A quickly introduced character thrown in to watch over Claire’s nephews while their parents are in the middle of a divorce, little is known about Zara. Her personality was written as being uptight, given her stance of refusing her fiancé to have a bachelor party, but Zara is stressed planning a wedding and looking after two kids, she doesn’t know who frequently runs off. Not to mention, she immediately calls Claire when she can’t find the boys during the dinosaurs’ escape brought on by the Indominus Rex.
Finally finding them and trying to run with them to safety after flocks of pterodactyls and other winged dinosaurs wreak havoc on the park, attacking park goers and attempting to fly off with them. Unfortunately, Zara is picked off by one of the pteranodons. A groundbreaking move for the Jurassic franchise to have a woman set to be killed, but to make this decision a memorable one, Zara’s death fulfilled the task perfectly (a request made by Katie McGrath, the actress who played Zara and who performed the stunts required for the scene).
Launched into the air and thrown about to lower her defenses, her pleas only made the pteranodons fly her over the mosasaurus tank, dropping her in it, and thrashing her in and out of the tank to drown her. The commotion only makes things worse when the distress calls summon the mosasaurus to snatch Zara and the pteranodons. Looking closer, you can see Zara’s arms in the mosasaurus attempting to climb out. Both are dragged down and consumed. Such a violent and pronounced death had yet to be filmed. Most deaths had either been mostly hidden under a chorus of screams or reserved for those who “truly deserved it”, but Jurassic World tested viewers' perception of how and what it meant to be a victim of prehistoric predators. A harsh fact Zara realized was that these animals were ferocious not just because they're carnivorous, but to get their meals, mercy was never practiced. Kill or be killed.
3. Udesky
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A taste of the dinosaurs killing for sport was tested using the unfortunate Udesky. Accompanying Paul Kirby and his wife Amanda, to help find their son Eric on Isla Sorna, Udesky doesn’t have as much experience compared to Alan. The two mercenaries he recommended, Cooper and Nash, appear better equipped to handle the mission. The only reason he was on the trip was that another booking agent got sick. His misplaced confidence in the mission being a “walk in the park” was the start of the downfall of the rescue mission.
The third Jurassic film’s introduction of the Spinosaurus made many still shiver in fear with or without the ringtone. When this new dinosaur made quick work of killing Cooper and Nash, I assumed Udesky was going to be another victim of the Spinosaurus. Worse, the previous deaths made it a point to portray their brutal final moments, injured and pleading to be saved. Udesky was going to be in the same boat, but his final resting place (if you can call it that) was not going to be inside the Spinosaurus.
Trapped by the raptors after he gets separated from the group, Udesky is paralyzed by the raptor’s claw and surrounded by more of them. Unable to move, Mr. Kirby, his ex-wife Amanda, and Billy watch from the trees as they assume he’s dead. Amanda is quick to risk her life upon realizing he’s still alive, but is thwarted when Billy recognizes Udesky being used as bait to lure the others down from the safety of the trees. Hidden in the grass below, Alan can see them communicating with another unseen raptor about trying to find their missing eggs (which Billy has, unbeknownst to the others). With the eggs a more pressing matter, the raptors have no more use for Udesky. Rather than consume him, one raptor snaps his neck in front of the crew. A warning, but a show of extreme intellect. There was no benefit in the Raptors’ mind in keeping Udesky alive, nor was there an advantage in killing him. It was just getting rid of dead weight.
2. Eddie Carr
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Eddie was the unsung hero of Lost World. Until then, deaths from Jurassic Park were either justified or the result of tragic circumstances. Never before had a character’s death been teased and treated with such cruelty until Eddie. Diving deep into Jurassic Park web forums, many agree that Eddie’s was the most brutal within the original trilogy. Putting himself in danger because (essentially) a group of strangers with an injured baby t-rex want to save it, most events occurred behind Eddie’s back. Viewers are led into a false sense of security as the parents of the baby t-rex were only looking for their baby. Thus, they weren’t hunting and would leave them alone once they got their baby back.
But, no.
Because Ian, Sarah, and Nick were dangling off a cliff, Eddie faced the fatal consequence of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In a cruel twist, the parent t-rexes came back for no other reason than to take revenge on someone they incorrectly assumed injured their child. They surround Eddie’s vehicle while he is still trying to save Ian and the others. In anger, the Rexes tear apart the car. Getting more exposed, Eddie panics and tries to arm himself with a tranq-gun capable of knocking these Rexes out. Viewers think he will have a chance. Sadly, he doesn’t. After a seemingly long struggle, Eddy is grabbed by the leg by one of the t-rexes, pulled out of his vehicle, tossed in the air, caught by both t-rexes, and torn in half.
Making matters worse, Eddie’s sacrifice is mentioned by Ian once and never brought up again. Jurassic Park killing off a principal character once again forces viewers to confront the reality that no one is safe.
1. Jophery Brown (aka The gatekeeper from the first film)
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The death that started it all—subtly revealing the flaws of a supposed state-of-the-art security system, the unpreparedness of the handlers, and the raptor’s deadly intelligence. Borrowing horror elements from the novel, Jophery was just a young man trying to make a living. Thrust into a dangerous situation, the gatekeeper’s death showed viewers and eventually the other workers of Jurassic Park how deadly their animals were. Surface level, his death is unseen. Dragged into an enclosure after the alpha raptor caused the cage and the pen to separate during a transfer and unable to be saved by Muldoon, his cries for help and screams were the last we saw of him. To understand why Jophery’s death is the most shocking, we must dive into the deeper lore of Jurassic Park.
The next scene of the film shows Alan and Nellie on an archeological dig, where Alan drops some knowledge on a mouthy boy about how raptors kill their prey. You spot one. Lulling you into a false sense of security, only to be ambushed by two others from both sides previously hidden. Alan continues,
“And he slashes at you with this... a six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the middle toe. He doesn't bother to bite your jugular like a lion, say... no, no. He slashes at you….maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines. The point is, you are alive when they start to eat you.”
Knowing this makes the little we see of Jophery beneficial, but subject to imagination as to what we can fill the blanks in. The $20 million lawsuit and an investigation of the park make sense. Had his death been novel accurate, viewers would see a man who looked as though he was fed through a wood chipper—arteries showing, flesh exposed, ripped apart, and covered in the raptor’s septic saliva. All this before having multiple seizures and dying. If I were his parents, I would’ve added at least one more zero to that lawsuit.
Conclusion
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The idea of building Jurassic Park without the foresight to factor in worker safety and introducing prehistoric elements to a modern world led to Hammond’s downfall and the deaths of countless people. Jophery’s death leads Hammond to put Ellie, Alan, Ian, and Donald in the uncomfortable position of endorsing a park where more workers have the potential to be reduced to multi-million dollar liabilities and cause the park to hemorrhage money. Michael Crichton’s novel and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation not only confront the brutality of death, but also how death doesn’t always mean going out as a hero’s final stand or karmic justice.
T-rexes and raptors are guaranteed threats, but it’s only scratching the surface of the dangers of Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar. Land, air, water. Nowhere is safe. Weapons buy protection, but never guarantee immunity. For all of Hammond’s money and resources, he left a trail of red on every island the dinosaurs touched. Meanwhile, it was humans and human nature that made the trail grow longer.
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