Summary
- Jurassic Park's portrayal of Velociraptors as colossal giants is inaccurate but was done to heighten the fear factor and enhance the film's visual impact.
- The use of human-sized Velociraptors in Jurassic Park was practical for filming purposes, as it allowed for the creation of realistic raptor suits and avoided excessive reliance on CGI.
- Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, based his depiction of Velociraptors on the Deinonychus, which was larger than the real Velociraptor. This decision was influenced by paleo-artist Gregory S. Paul's book and added to the visual terror of the Raptors in the film.
Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park are scientifically accurate. For instance, although many moments in the film instill primal terrors in audiences, others ground the movie's narrative in reality by portraying dinosaurs as animals instead of monsters. The movie's portrayal of how different dinosaurs have varying levels of intelligence is also fairly accurate. However, in all of these accuracies, Jurassic Park also takes a lot of artistic freedom.
While some of its deviations from real science are barely noticeable, others are quite evident. When it comes to its portrayal of the Velociraptors, Jurassic Park gets a little too casual with real science by portraying them as collosal giants when they were not that big in the real world. Fortunately, the movie's creators had several solid reasons to make this change.
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Jurassic Park's Velociraptors Are Bigger Than Their Real-Life Counterparts
The movie's Raptors are significantly bigger than the real ones
Based on the available data, Velociraptors are identified as diminutive theropod dinosaurs that existed around 80 million years ago. They were relatively tiny, with an average Velociraptor standing just about half a meter tall (1.6 feet), in contrast to the nearly 6-foot-tall portrayal seen in films.
Perhaps one of the most iconic and terrifying scenes in Spielberg's Jurassic Park is when Sam Neil's Alan Grant gets surrounded by several human Velociraptors. However, as terrifying as the movie scene may seem, it does not accurately portray the size and appearance of the dinosaur species. According to evidence, Velociraptors are classified as small theropod dinosaurs that lived nearly 80 million years ago. They are considered small because an average-sized Velociraptor was barely half a meter high (1.6 feet), unlike the version in the movie that stood at almost 6 feet.
While the Steven Spielberg movie accurately shows the Velociraptors' sickle-shaped claws, slender builds, and long, sleek tails, it misses one distinct detail: their feathers. According to evidence, nearly all of the dromaeosaurid family, including Velociraptors, had feathers on their bodies. Unlike modern-day birds, which have feathers for flight, Velociraptors and other species of dinosaurs had feathers for other crucial functions such as insulation and balance. Owing to these inaccuracies, the Velociraptor in the Jurassic Park movies looks less like a Velociraptor and more like its bigger dromaeosaurid feathered cousin, Deinonychus.
The Raptors In Jurassic Park Are Scarier Than The Real Thing
The bigger they get, the scarier they seem
For obvious reasons, larger dinosaurs would easily have a more significant visual impact on audiences. The bigger they are in size, the more visually striking and impactful they will appear to viewers. The Raptors' massive stature in Jurassic Park also contributed to enhancing the sense of danger and intimidation characters felt around them. If they were as tall as chickens and turkeys in the film, they would not seem as scary and menacing. Since the dinosaurs are the primary antagonists in the Steven Spielberg film, it is understandable why their size was doubled to heighten the fear factor surrounding their appearance.
Even from a storytelling standpoint, Raptors that are barely 2 feet tall would be relatively slower than the ones that are as big as humans. This could ultimately affect the film's overall pacing and diminish the impact of its action scenes. Speaking of action scenes, the characters in Jurassic Park would have had an easier time overpowering small chicken-sized Velocirators, which would have made the film's human vs. dinosaur showdowns a lot less gripping. Considering how having massive versions of the Raptors benefited the movie, it is not surprising that Steven Spielberg wanted them to be as big as 10 feet in length (via CNET).
Several Velociraptor Scenes Used Humans In Suits
Human-sized Raptors were more practical for Jurassic Park's filming
The likely reason why Jurassic Park did not portray 10-foot Raptors is that humans suited up as them in certain parts of the movie. Jurassic Park's CGI still stands the test of time, but there are shots in the film that involve less CGI and more practical filming. The raptor suits for the movie were specifically designed for the actors who were going to wear them. The actors were also trained to assume a skiing pose inside the suit to ensure that the Raptor's anatomy looked real in the final shot (via Stan Winston School).
The use of bodysuits for Jurassic Park not only confirms why it would not have been possible to portray the Raptors as 10-foot giants but also highlights why they are around the same size as humans in the film. Accurately portraying their small size would not have allowed the film's creators to use bodysuits. Depicting them as intimidating 10-foot monsters would also have posed similar challenges. Without practical effects, the movie's Raptors would have primarily been CGI-generated, which would have significantly spiked its overall budget. Not to mention, it would also have bloated the post-production time for Jurassic Park, making it difficult for the film to release in its scheduled release window.
American make-up and special effects artist John Rosengrant made his acting debut as Raptor suit performer in Jurassic Park. He started rehearsing for the role weeks prior to the shoot by imitating Raptor behavior.
Jurassic Park Author Michael Crichton Based His Raptors On The Deinonychus
The movie accurately portrays Michael Crichton's version of the Raptors
The Deinonychus was discovered by Yale paleontologist John Ostrom in the 1960s. His discovery of how dinosaurs used their tails to maintain balance changed the common perception surrounding the movements and activity of the reptiles. His newfound insights later partly inspired paleo-artist Gregory S. Paul's book Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, which grouped the Deinonychus fossils under the Velociraptor name. Although paleontologists disagreed with this change in the book, Jurassic Park's author, Michael Crichton, based the Raptors in his book on the depiction in Paul's book (via Smithsonian Magazine).
Gregory S. Paul has also been acknowledged as one of Crichton's inspirations for portraying dinosaurs in the original Jurassic Park, explaining why the Raptors are as big as the Deinonychus in the book. It is also possible that, like Spielberg, Crichton took some creative liberties and described relatively bigger versions of them to make them seem more terrifying. Regardless of Crichton's intentions, his vision of the Raptors later traversed to the film, making the movie's Velociraptors more visually horrifying but less scientifically accurate.
Jurassic Park Wasn't Totally Wrong About Velociraptors
There is some accuracy in Jurassic Park's depiction of the Velociraptors
Even though Jurassic Park exaggerated the appearance of its Velociraptors, it was not completely wrong with its depiction. Paleontologist Jim Kirkland uncovered the fossils of a Raptor that was 20 feet long and six feet tall in Gaston Quarry, Grand County, Utah. Because of its location of discovery, the raptor was ultimately named Utahraptor. However, before it acquired that name, it was almost named "Utahraptor spielbergi" after Steven Spielberg (via Inverse). While the name of the dinosaur never changed, the scientific discovery confirmed that some genera of Raptors could grow as big as the ones depicted in Jurassic Park.
Sources: CNET, Stan Winston School, Smithsonia Magazine, Inverse
