Jurassic Park: 10 Best Deaths In The Franchise Feature

There’s a new entry in the Jurassic Park / Jurassic World franchise out now in cinemas in the shape of Jurassic World Rebirth, so now seems like the best time to compile a list of the best deaths in the franchise. For obvious spoiler reasons, this list will not include any deaths from the most recent film.

The main rule this list follows is that it can’t be a dinosaur being killed or another animal, so no Spinosaurus murdering the T-Rex from Jurassic Park III. Solely human characters, and believe me, there have been some good ones.

Before we get started, here are some honourable mentions that didn’t quite make the cut:

– The gatekeeper in Jurassic Park who gets dragged into the cage by the Velociraptor

– the baby T-Rex pouncing on Peter Ludlow as its mum watches on in The Lost World

– everyone who goes into the long grass in The Lost World and comes up against the Raptors

– The innocent man on a scooter in Malta during the bike chase in Jurassic World: Dominion

Without further ado, then, here’s our top 10 best deaths in the franchise – so far…

10) David Koepp in The Lost World

If you’re going to write some Jurassic Park films, you might as well give yourself a cameo featuring all the crunchy sound effects that come with being eaten by a T-Rex. During the infamous final act in San Diego, Koepp is seen making a late dash for safety inside a store, but just can’t get the door open in time.

9) Vic Hoskins in Jurassic World

Vincent D’Onofrio only has one thing on his mind throughout Jurassic World – using the trained Raptors in a combat situation. He’s snide and scheming, which makes his demise at the jaws of Delta so satisfying. It’s one of the times the hand gesture towards the Raptors utterly fails, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer man.

8) Ken Wheatley in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Similar to the last one, as it features a villainous type facing their comeuppance, only slightly better as a death due to how awful a man he is, thanks to Ted Levine’s slimy performance. As a seasoned mercenary, though, you’d think he’d know better than to jump inside a cage with an Indoraptor, even if thought to be unconscious.

7) Udesky in Jurassic Park III

The Velociraptors in Jurassic Park III might be the most fascinating in the franchise just because it really focuses on their intelligence. The way they actually set a trap by leaving poor Udesky out in the open is insane, only for him to have his neck snapped and ensure he’s dead when they’re called for help elsewhere. What an unlucky bastard!

CHECK OUT OUR “10 YEARS SINCE THE PARK REOPENED” FEATURE HERE

6) Dieter Stark in The Lost World

Steven Spielberg proved how nasty he was being with this sequel a few times, and this death is about as horrible as you could imagine. Dieter isn’t the most likeable character – zapping a smaller dinosaur earlier on in the film – but they get their revenge on him later as a pack of them isolate him and slowly peck and nibble away at him until he gives in and accepts his fate. It’s one that sends chills down the spine, and Peter Stormare does a fine job in delivering such a physical performance throughout the sequence.

5) Robert Muldoon in Jurassic Park

Now, there’s a lot of foreshadowing in these films, and in the original, we see Alan Grant terrify a young boy at the start by describing just how Velociraptors work in packs to hunt their prey. We also hear Muldoon tell the party visiting the park about the leader of the pack, “When she watches you, it’s like she’s working things out”. When he tells Ellie to run as fast as she can, you’d think he’d know right then and there he was being hunted by them all. Shotgun loaded and pointing into the jungle in front of him, the camera panning to his side and the reveal of a Raptor waiting in the wings through the bushes is enough to strike fear into any audience. Bob Peck’s delivery of “Clever girl” as he accepts his fate and the Raptor proceeds to pounce and slash at him is the icing on the cake.

4) Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park

The real villain of the first film, Dennis Nedry, gets quite the death at the hands of the menacing Dilophosaurus, as he makes a break for it to the docks before his boat leaves ahead of the storm. Shutting the power to the whole park down and stealing embryos for competitors to InGen, you’d better be sure you don’t end up stranded in the middle of a dense jungle with a car to fix. It’s comical to watch Nedry try and bumble his way up the hill to his car, all while keeping the dinosaur at bay; however, it soon switches to terror as he shuts himself in his car with one waiting for the kill.

3) Zara in Jurassic World

For some reason, this death has become one of the most controversial deaths in the franchise. Many deem it totally unnecessary, but in the midst of all the ensuing chaos, there’s sure to be some poor souls getting tossed about by dinosaurs. Zara, personal assistant to Claire, is just trying to do her job of looking after Claire’s nephews when she’s unceremoniously plucked from the ground by a pterosaur before being dropped into the Mosasaurus enclosure. After another pterosaur tries to take her back out of the water, the Mosasaurus comes up from below and snaps both the dinosaur and Zara up in its jaws. If you’re going to be in a Jurassic film, why not go out with such a memorable death? It’s made even cooler by the factthat actress Katie McGrath asked for it to be so over the top.

2) Eddie Carr in The Lost World

The sequence in The Lost World where a pair of T-Rex trash the team’s trailer and send it over a cliff is one of the very best moments in the franchise, and it comes with one of the saddest deaths out of them all. Not only does Eddie manage to save everyone in the trailer, he does so in the face of adversity as the T-Rex surround his vehicle and lay siege to it. Still trying to reverse the trailer back onto the clifftop, Eddie is picked from the car in the jaw of one of the Rex before being torn in half as they fight for food. It’s an incredibly harsh moment – back when these films weren’t so predictable in who was going to die – but it’s the most heroic death in the franchise at the same time.

1) Donald Gennaro in Jurassic Park

Was it ever going to be anything else? Amidst the standout scene from the first film when the T-Rex breaks free of its paddock and attacks the guests in their cars, Gennaro cowers and runs to hide in the nearby toilets until it all blows over, leaving two children to fend for themselves. The only problem is that Ian Malcolm is bringing the behemoth right towards him, and it’s not long until he’s exposed to the Rex in the open, while sitting on a toilet. The look of “Really!?” from the Rex and the following chomp down on Gennaro before swinging him about ruthlessly in its jaws is both comical and horrifying. Amidst all the terror of the scene, Spielberg throws in this death that proves he can be playful while delivering such an iconic film.