Luke Owen counts down to Pacific Rim by looking at some of his favourite giant monsters....
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Kaiju: The Japanese word for “strange beast”. However, the word Kaiju has been universally translated and defined into English as “monster” or “giant monster”.
Dr. Alan Grant: How fast are they?
John Hammond: Well, we clocked the T-Rex at 32 miles an hour.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: T-Rex?
John Hammond: Mm-hm.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: You said you've got a T-Rex?
John Hammond: Uh-huh.
Dr. Alan Grant: Say again?
John Hammond: (laughs) We have a T-Rex.
And with that, the tease of a legend was born.
During interviews with science fiction monster movie writers and directors during the 1950s and 60s, every single one of them will usually mention the same movie - 1933's King Kong. Special effects genius Eiji Tsuburaya (Gojira) in particular will tell you that his desire to make monster movies came from being taken to see King Kong when he was a child (it was also the reason he stayed on with Toho as they were going into production of King Kong vs Godzilla). It was a movie that created a generation of monster movie fans.
In the summer of 1993, I had a similar experience. My parents took me to the ABC in Bracknell to see a movie directed by Steven Spielberg that would change my life forever - Jurassic Park. Not only was it the movie that made me want write about movies, it was the film that made me fall in love with the giant monster genre. And while the whole movie is a visual and character masterpiece, there was one character that took the world by storm - the T-Rex.
As I've mentioned in my entries for Them! and the Arachni-Lobster, what you don't see his inherently scarier than what you do. The radiated ants in Them! were kept of screen for just the right amount of time while the Arachni-Lobster of The Mist is always kept in the shadows (mist) to shroud him in secrecy. Jurassic Park follow a simiar pattern. He's never shown until he's really needed, but we're are constantly being reminded that he's there and when he shows up, you'd better run. The opening lines about his character detailed above start a slow build to the monster's reveal which only makes his debut all the more effective. We wait with our heroes outside of his paddock, hoping that we'll just get a glimpse of this creature of wonder, but alas he is kept hidden away.
It isn't until later that night, when all the power is shut off, that he makes his grand appearance.
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I'm just going to put this out there - the T-Rex's attack on the cars in Jurassic Park is one of, if not the, greatest scenes in any giant monster movie. It's just about as perfectly paced, suspenseful, horrific and scary as any scene you ever likely to see in cinema history. I love Godzilla's attack on Tokyo, King Kong scaling the Empire State Building, Mr. Stay Puft gleefully stomping around New York city of King Ghidroah destroying an entire city simply by flying over it, but all of them fall behind the brilliance and genius of the T-Rex's first appearance in Jurassic Park. 20 years on, it's still one of the best examples of combining CGI with practical effects to create a real-life existence. It is simply, perfect.
This act of awesome made him (or should that be, her?) a star. For my birthday that year my brother bought me a poster of the T-Rex and to this day, it's the one character and moment from the movie that everyone remembers. While having some good moments in the film, the T-Rex didn't seem to capture the imagination of audience goers in the sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park. His scene stomping through San Diego could have been a groundbreaking moment given a bit more time, but was reportedly thrown in at the last moment of pre-production to upstage the American version of Godzilla which was in production over at TriStar.
Despite being the most bankable thing in the Jurassic Park franchise, Joe Johnston and his team decided to "re-cast" the role with the Spinosaurus in 2001's Jurassic Park III which only highlighted just how brilliant the T-Rex was. Perhaps it was the lack of vision for the character or the lack of talent compared to Steven Spielberg, but Johnston and the Spinosaurus lacked the magic of the T-Rex. At the end of the day, he really is the King of the Dinosaurs.
The design is perfect, the roar is perfect and the mix of CGI, animatronics and puppetry are what make the T-Rex a fantastic piece of giant monster cinema. His inital attack on the cars is utter genius and the rest of his moments in the film are equally as excellent. He is one of the best giant monsters that cinema has to offer.
Just remember, if you see, don't move. He can't see you if you don't move.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth's co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth's Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Dr. Alan Grant: How fast are they?
John Hammond: Well, we clocked the T-Rex at 32 miles an hour.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: T-Rex?
John Hammond: Mm-hm.
Dr. Ellie Sattler: You said you've got a T-Rex?
John Hammond: Uh-huh.
Dr. Alan Grant: Say again?
John Hammond: (laughs) We have a T-Rex.
And with that, the tease of a legend was born.
During interviews with science fiction monster movie writers and directors during the 1950s and 60s, every single one of them will usually mention the same movie - 1933's King Kong. Special effects genius Eiji Tsuburaya (Gojira) in particular will tell you that his desire to make monster movies came from being taken to see King Kong when he was a child (it was also the reason he stayed on with Toho as they were going into production of King Kong vs Godzilla). It was a movie that created a generation of monster movie fans.
In the summer of 1993, I had a similar experience. My parents took me to the ABC in Bracknell to see a movie directed by Steven Spielberg that would change my life forever - Jurassic Park. Not only was it the movie that made me want write about movies, it was the film that made me fall in love with the giant monster genre. And while the whole movie is a visual and character masterpiece, there was one character that took the world by storm - the T-Rex.
As I've mentioned in my entries for Them! and the Arachni-Lobster, what you don't see his inherently scarier than what you do. The radiated ants in Them! were kept of screen for just the right amount of time while the Arachni-Lobster of The Mist is always kept in the shadows (mist) to shroud him in secrecy. Jurassic Park follow a simiar pattern. He's never shown until he's really needed, but we're are constantly being reminded that he's there and when he shows up, you'd better run. The opening lines about his character detailed above start a slow build to the monster's reveal which only makes his debut all the more effective. We wait with our heroes outside of his paddock, hoping that we'll just get a glimpse of this creature of wonder, but alas he is kept hidden away.
It isn't until later that night, when all the power is shut off, that he makes his grand appearance.
This act of awesome made him (or should that be, her?) a star. For my birthday that year my brother bought me a poster of the T-Rex and to this day, it's the one character and moment from the movie that everyone remembers. While having some good moments in the film, the T-Rex didn't seem to capture the imagination of audience goers in the sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park. His scene stomping through San Diego could have been a groundbreaking moment given a bit more time, but was reportedly thrown in at the last moment of pre-production to upstage the American version of Godzilla which was in production over at TriStar.
Despite being the most bankable thing in the Jurassic Park franchise, Joe Johnston and his team decided to "re-cast" the role with the Spinosaurus in 2001's Jurassic Park III which only highlighted just how brilliant the T-Rex was. Perhaps it was the lack of vision for the character or the lack of talent compared to Steven Spielberg, but Johnston and the Spinosaurus lacked the magic of the T-Rex. At the end of the day, he really is the King of the Dinosaurs.
The design is perfect, the roar is perfect and the mix of CGI, animatronics and puppetry are what make the T-Rex a fantastic piece of giant monster cinema. His inital attack on the cars is utter genius and the rest of his moments in the film are equally as excellent. He is one of the best giant monsters that cinema has to offer.
Just remember, if you see, don't move. He can't see you if you don't move.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth's co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth's Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.