We went to the Jurassic Park guide and realized there was a scene the place the children have been making an attempt to flee the dinosaurs by getting on a log and floating down the river. We thought, “Wow, maybe this is our opportunity to do a Pirates of the Caribbean-type ride,” and so we pitched it to the folks at Universal and so they stated, “That’s pretty cool.”

A river trip is at all times an enormous attract a theme park—or an E ticket, in business parlance. Christopher and his staff additionally knew they might do one thing new with the attraction, deciding on an eight-story waterfall drop close to the trip’s conclusion, the most important aquatic freefall to that time.

Once they’d the idea in place, although, they needed to wait.

Christopher: When you develop these points of interest, it is a three-year course of. They have been nonetheless engaged on the film and doing filming and postproduction, and Universal needed to be sure that the film was a success earlier than they spent $100 million {dollars} doing the trip. Everybody thought it was going to be a success, due to Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton and this nice new guide, however they simply needed to make sure.

When it got here out, I used to be in New York City, and I informed the folks I used to be with, “Guys, I’ve gotta go see Jurassic Park.” I keep in mind being awestruck by the CGI, which appeared magical. Of course, the film blew all people away.

Designing Dinosaurs

After the deal was signed, Landmark began actually digging into what they needed the trip to seem like. They satisfied Universal to allow them to rent Jurassic Park actor Richard Attenborough to look within the trip’s introductory video, which was filmed on the film’s precise set. Christopher and firm knew they needed to discover methods to play into the film’s storyline whereas making a uniquely thrilling trip expertise, however fortunately they knew how to do this.

Christopher: We had to verify each time you noticed a dinosaur on the trip, it wasn’t the identical factor. We have been making an attempt to maintain the curiosity of the company all over. We did drawings after which we did motion diagrams, like, “This dinosaur is going to have a head move, and his mouth is going to open.” We additionally created the soundtrack, as a result of the soundtrack is 50 % of the entire thing.

At some level throughout the trip’s creation, Universal despatched in a budgeting staff that priced out the whole lot Landmark had deliberate. That led to one in all Christopher’s favourite concepts getting nixed.

Christopher: We needed to reduce one scene that I actually favored that we known as the Pterodactyl Aviary. There was going to be a dome, and we needed to have these pterodactyls come to life after which fly round you and dive over your head. That did not make the reduce.

Eventually, everybody agreed on a design. After the riders’ boats left the dock, they’d go up a quick hill earlier than taking a fast plunge towards the Jurassic Park gate. As it opened, riders would enter Ultrasaurus Lagoon, the place they’d see a big, partially submerged Ultrasaurus and her younger. They’d additionally glimpse two Psittacosaurus. Next, the raft would float into Stegosaur Spring, the place riders may glimpse the titular stegos on both aspect of the boat. Hadrosaur Cove adopted, the place a duck-billed Parasaurolophus would rise from underneath the water and bump the raft, setting it “adrift” towards the raptor containment space.