Jurassic Park Page #2

GRANT:

The taphonomy sure looks that way.

ELLIE:

If they died together, they lived together.

Suggests some kind of social order.

DR ALAN GRANT, mid-thirties, a ragged-looking guy with intense

concentration you wouldn't want to get in the way of, carefully

examines a claw.

DR ELLIE SATTLER, working with him, leans in close and studies

it too. She paints the exposed bone with rubber cement. Ellie in her

late twenties, athletic-looking. There's an impatience about Ellie, as

if nothing in life happens quite fast enough for her.

Her face is almost pressed up against his, she's sitting so

close.

GRANT (cont'd)

They hunted as a team. The dismembered tenontosaurus

bone over there - that's lunch. But what killed our

raptors in a lakebed, in a bunch like this? We better

come up with something that makes sense.

ELLIE:

A drought. The lake was shrinking - -

GRANT:

(excited)

That's good. That's right! They died around a dried-up

puddle! Without fighting each other. This is looking

good.

From the bottom of the hill a voice SHOUTS to them:

VOLUNTERR (o.s.)

Dr Grant! Dr Sattler! We're ready to try again!

Grant SIGNS and sits up, stretching out his back.

GRANT:

I hate computers.

He shoves the claw absent-mindedly into his pocket and he and

Ellie walk toward the source of the voice. As they walk, we get our

first look at the badlands. Exposed outcroppings of crumbling

limestone stretch for miles in every direction, not a tree or a bush in

sight.

In the dig itself, the ground is checkered with excavations

everywhere. There's a base camp with five or six teepees, a flapping

mess tent, a few cards, a flatbed truck with wrapped fossils loaded on

it, and a mobile home. There are a dozen VOLUNTEERS of all ages at

work in various places around the dig. The Volunteers are from all

walks of life, dinosaur buffs. Three or four of them have CHILDREN

with them, and the kids run around, like in a giant sandbox.

Grant , Ellie and a Volunteer walk down the hill. Grant spots a

KID kicking dirt onto one of the digs. He notices and frowns.

GRANT:

What's that kid doing?

(to the kid)

What are you doing there!? Excuse me! Can you just back

off? This is very fragile! Are you out of your mind?

Get off that and go find your parents!

(to Ellie)

Did you see what he just did?

The kid stomps away, pissed off.

KID:

A**hole.

GRANT:

(to Ellie)

Why do they have to bring their kids?!

ELLIE:

You could hire your help. But there's four summers of

work here, with the money for one. And you say it's a

learning experience, sort of a vacation, and you get

volunteers with kids.

He and Ellie arrive to where several VOLUNTEERS are clustered

around a computer terminal that's set up on a table in a small tent,

its flaps lashed open.

GRANT:

(to the Volunteer)

Ready to give it a shot, Jerry?

A LITTLE GIRL moves a little too close to the machine.

ELLIE:

Want to watch the computer?

Ellie quietly moves her out of Grant's way, to a place she can

see.

VOLUNTEER:

Thumper ready?

MAN:

Ready.

VOLUNTEER:

Fire.

The VOLUNTEER throws a switch on a machine that looks a bit like

a floor buffer. The whole thing hops up into the air as it drives a

soft lead pellet into the earth with a tremendous force. There is a

dull THUD, the earth seems to vibrate, and all eyes turn to the

computer screen - -

ELLIE:

How long does this usually take?

VOLUNTEER:

It should be immediate return. You shoot the radar into

the ground, the bone bounces back....

The screen suddenly comes alive, yellow contour lines tracing

across it in three waves, detailing a dinosaur skeleton.

VOLUNTEER:

This new program's incredible! A few more years of

development and you don't have to dig any more!

Grant looks at him, and his expression is positively wounded.

GRANT:

Well, where's the fun in that?

VOLUNTEER:

It looks a little distorted, but I don't think that's

the computer.

ELLIE:

(shakes her head)

Postmortem contraction of the posterior neck ligaments.

(to Grant)

Velociraptor?

GRANT:

Yes. Good shape, too. Five, six feet high. I'm

guessing nine feet long. Look at the - -

He points to part of the skeleton, but when his finger touches

the screen the computer BEEPS at him and the image changes. He pulls

his hand back, as if it shocked him.

VOLUNTEER:

What's you do?

ELLIE:

He touched it. Dr. Grant is not machine compatible.

GRANT:

They've got it in for me.

The Volunteer LAUGHS and touches a different part of the screen,

which brings the original image back. Grant continues, but doesn't get

as close.

GRANT:

Look at the half-moon shaped bone in the wrist. No

wonder these guys learned to fly.

The group laughs. Grant is surprised.

GRANT (cont'd)

Now, seriously. Show of the hands. How many of you

have read my book?

Everyone stops laughing and looks away. Ellie raises her hand

supportively. So does the Volunteer, Grant sighs.

GRANT (cont'd)

Great. Well maybe dinosaurs have more in common with

present-day birds than reptiles. Look at the public

bone - - it's turned backwards, just like a bird. The

vertebrae - - full of hollows and air sacs, just like a

bird. Even the word raptor means "bird of prey".

The kid steps forward and looks at the computer skeleton

critically.

KID:

That doesn't look very scary. More like a six-foot

turkey.

Everyone sort of draws in their breath and steps aside,

revealing the KID, standing alone. Grant turns to the Kid, lowers his

sunglasses, and stares at him like he just came from another planet.

Grant strolls over to the KID , puts his arms around his

shoulders in a friendly way.

GRANT:

Try to imagine yourself in the Jurassic Period.

(or)

Try to imagine yourself in the Cretaceous Period.

Ellie rolls her eyes.

ELLIE:

(under her breath)

Here we go.

GRANT (cont'd)

You'd get your first look at the six-foot turkey as you

move into a clearing. But raptor, he knew you were

there a long time ago. He moves like a bird; lightly,

bobbing his head, And you keep still, because you think

maybe his visual acuity's based on movement, like a T-

rex, and he'll lose you if you don't move. But no. Not

VELOCIRAPTOR. You stare at him, and he just stares

back. That's when the attack comes - - not from the

front, no, from the side, from the other two raptors you

didn't even know were there.

Grant walks around the Kid.

GRANT (cont'd)

Velociraptor's a pack hunter, you see, he uses

coordinated attack patterns, and he's out in force

today. And he slashes at you with this - -

He takes the claw from his pocket and holds it at the front of

the raptor's three-toed foot.

GRANT (cont'd)

- - a six-inch retractable claw, like a razor, on the

middle toe. They don't bother to bite the jugular, like

a lion, they just slash here, here - -

He points to the Kid's chest and thigh.

GRANT (cont'd)

- - or maybe across the belly, spilling your intestines.

Point is, you're alive when they start to eat you.

Whole thing took about four seconds.

The Kid is on the verge if tears.

GRANT (cont'd)

So, you know, try to show a little respect.

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