0:00:04 > 0:00:06I suppose it's like a strip tease.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09You have to hint that the monster is coming.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17You get a noise first.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22Like the thumping of the feet of the Tyrannosaurus before you see it.
0:00:22 > 0:00:24And ground quaking.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Ground quaking is a good thing as well, because dinosaurs are big.
0:00:30 > 0:00:32It's a screaming noise.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35This, "Argh!", noise and you think, that's probably a dinosaur.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38There he is!
0:00:38 > 0:00:44You can show a paw or a claw, and you get a hint of what's to come.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47I can only see part of him, but he's enormous!
0:00:47 > 0:00:51You might see a shadow.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53There might be an eye.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58Ultra close-ups of reptilian eyes
0:00:58 > 0:01:00with the membranes blinking sideways.
0:01:02 > 0:01:07Then suddenly, just when the tension is as strung out as it possibly can,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10wham, you're in there and you get your dinosaur full in your face.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18IT ROARS
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Keep absolutely still.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38If dinosaurs hadn't been discovered,
0:01:38 > 0:01:43then Hollywood would almost certainly have invented them.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47These mysterious creatures fired our imagination.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52They were very real but have never been seen.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55They are the killers who are long dead.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00It's as if they were tailor-made to be movies stars.
0:02:06 > 0:02:09The dinosaur movie is spectacle.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14It's there to put a monster on the screen that you've seen in a museum.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16You've fantasised about what it would be like
0:02:16 > 0:02:17if these bones had flesh on.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20If these bones could move around.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23The dinosaur film allows a dream
0:02:23 > 0:02:26that's been in people's heads to be realised on the screen.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30Dinosaurs have been tremendously important
0:02:30 > 0:02:34in doing one thing that cinema really can done best,
0:02:34 > 0:02:36which is immersive spectacle.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42It takes you into a new world and a world that feels dangerous
0:02:42 > 0:02:43and kind of unfamiliar.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Dinosaur films are packed with mythical beasts and lost kingdoms.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56But throughout Hollywood history,
0:02:56 > 0:03:01filmmakers have turned their dinosaurs into modern-day metaphors.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08A really good dinosaur film has to be about more than just dinosaurs.
0:03:08 > 0:03:09It has to be about something else.
0:03:11 > 0:03:16Dig beneath the cinematic surface and there are dinosaurs of desire...
0:03:16 > 0:03:20of atomic anxiety...
0:03:20 > 0:03:22and of genetic nightmares.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27It represents our fears, our fantasies.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30Our worries about the modern world,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33as well as our fantasies about the prehistoric world.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38And whilst filmmakers are always keen to smuggle in significance,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41the audience just want to amazed.
0:03:48 > 0:03:54And in 1993, one film above all others captured the wonder,
0:03:54 > 0:03:58the fascination and the fear of dinosaurs.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03When the characters are in the jeeps going on the Jurassic Park ride
0:04:03 > 0:04:08and they encounter the Brachiosaurs for the first time,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10Spielberg shows us the characters' reactions
0:04:10 > 0:04:13before we see what they are reacting to.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23IT ROARS
0:04:29 > 0:04:32I was an undergraduate studying evolutionary biology
0:04:32 > 0:04:35when Jurassic Park came out.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40And the moment when those guys see the Brachiosaurs for the first time,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44pulling down the leaves on those very tall trees,
0:04:44 > 0:04:47I genuinely thought, "You know what?
0:04:47 > 0:04:50"I've been waiting all my life to see this."
0:04:55 > 0:04:58And it was a genuine shiver up the spine moment
0:04:58 > 0:05:01to see dinosaurs really made real,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05as real as the technology of the day could, was special.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07And that's what movies do.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21We're going to make a fortune with this place.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26920 million at the box office proved that Jurassic Park's CGI creations
0:05:26 > 0:05:28were indeed big business.
0:05:28 > 0:05:34Its awesome dinosaurs seemed to have leapt straight from our imagination
0:05:34 > 0:05:36right onto the big screen.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38How'd you do this?
0:05:40 > 0:05:42I'll show you.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47The evolution of dinosaurs on screen
0:05:47 > 0:05:50stretches right back to the very beginnings of time.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Dinosaurs mysteriously disappeared 65 million years ago.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Box office-wise, nothing happened for a long time.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Then, in the middle of the 19th century,
0:06:04 > 0:06:08geologists began to find strange and monstrous bones.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13It was clear these finds were scientifically significant.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16And what's more, the public were prepared to pay money
0:06:16 > 0:06:19to stare at these bizarre creatures.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22It was decided that they would create life-size models
0:06:22 > 0:06:24of the dinosaurs that were known.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27And this was really where you made the transition
0:06:27 > 0:06:31from scientific papers that no-one quite believed to showbiz.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33And the crowds flocked.
0:06:33 > 0:06:3640,000 came to see the exhibition.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40They just loved the idea of these great, giant beasts.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43There's a definite showbiz element to dinosaurs.
0:06:43 > 0:06:45Partly because of their size and weirdness,
0:06:45 > 0:06:50so these things almost predisposed them to being showbiz objects.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53As a result, they've actually been movie stars for a very long time.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Dinosaurs were the perfect monster for the early filmmakers.
0:06:59 > 0:07:06Because here you've got a huge, ugly brute. Evil itself.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Rapaciously carnivorous.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10They were seen as Satan's creatures.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13This was the perfect monster
0:07:13 > 0:07:17for any self-respecting hero or adventurer to take on.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31From the very beginnings of cinema,
0:07:31 > 0:07:36putting dinosaurs on screen required mind-blowing special effects.
0:07:36 > 0:07:43And in 1914, the film that stunned the crowds was Gertie The Dinosaur.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46One of the first animated films ever produced,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49Gertie The Dinosaur was the work of Winsor McCay,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54a Chicago cartoonist who introduced his prehistoric pet
0:07:54 > 0:07:58to appreciative audiences on the vaudeville circuit.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02Gertie The Dinosaur is a loveable, tame dinosaur.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06A wonderful creation. This is decades before Disney.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11Gertie The Dinosaur, for Winsor McCay, was his entry
0:08:11 > 0:08:15into the world of being a showman on stage.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19He would be on stage, in the theatre,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21and Gertie would be projected behind him,
0:08:21 > 0:08:23and he would interact with Gertie.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26It's a multimedia performance, this.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Quite ahead of its time in many ways.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34He would toss something to Gertie
0:08:34 > 0:08:37and Gertie in the film would catch it.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42He created a personality for this character, Gertie The Dinosaur.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44And it displayed emotions.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46He told it off and it cried.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48It messed around and it was hungry and it was sad.
0:08:48 > 0:08:49All these different things.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53It sort of captured that universal appeal
0:08:53 > 0:08:55of seeing animals that existed in prehistory
0:08:55 > 0:08:56that were real life monsters
0:08:56 > 0:09:01and seeing them alive and move and interact with humans.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05That's still fascinating to audiences to this day.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Winsor McCay disappears behind the screen and then,
0:09:08 > 0:09:10there he is riding Gertie.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14And this is the first tame dinosaur that we really see.
0:09:14 > 0:09:16And Gertie disappears off into the distance.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Early film tried again and again
0:09:23 > 0:09:28to satisfy the audience's desire to see realistic dinosaurs.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30But in 1925,
0:09:30 > 0:09:34it was announced that the need for dinosaur special effects was over.
0:09:34 > 0:09:39Sir Arthur Conan Doyle gathered some friends around and told them
0:09:39 > 0:09:42that the film of his book, The Lost World,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45had captured living dinosaurs on film.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47# Jeepers creepers
0:09:47 > 0:09:49# Where'd you get those peepers? #
0:09:51 > 0:09:56He created the impression that there was a real hunting party
0:09:56 > 0:09:59that had actually strayed into the Amazon Basin
0:09:59 > 0:10:02and had found this lost race of dinosaurs.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05He was really trying to lead the audience on.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11They do look a bit old-fashioned now, and jerky.
0:10:11 > 0:10:12But back in the day,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16you have recorded accounts of people in cinemas going,
0:10:16 > 0:10:18"Where did you film these monsters?"
0:10:19 > 0:10:22The Lost World was the Jurassic Park of the 1920s.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26Audiences packed into the Ritz and the Roxy to get a glimpse
0:10:26 > 0:10:29of these living dinosaurs.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33But they must have realised it was down to cinematic trickery
0:10:33 > 0:10:37when the Brontosaurus appeared to destroy London.
0:10:38 > 0:10:43The Lost World was using the latest special effects sensation.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Stop-frame animation -
0:10:45 > 0:10:50a technique that would define dinosaur films for the next 60 years.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54These are models, but they are alive, too.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58And rubber is moving around as though it's sentient.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05The dinosaurs weren't from the Amazon.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09They were created in a Hollywood backroom by special effects pioneer
0:11:09 > 0:11:11Willis O'Brien.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15O'Brien began his career as a marble sculptor.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18But he realised by making clay models and stop-frame animations,
0:11:18 > 0:11:22his artistic talent would be seen across the world.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27At the height of the Depression,
0:11:27 > 0:11:30O'Brien created a prehistoric protagonist
0:11:30 > 0:11:32the world would never forget.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36Look at the size of that thing. He must be as big as a house!
0:11:47 > 0:11:49It's funny that if you ask anyone,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51what's the greatest dinosaur movie of all time,
0:11:51 > 0:11:53it's King Kong, isn't it?
0:11:53 > 0:11:56And the dinosaurs are only supporting characters in that.
0:12:01 > 0:12:02For a long time,
0:12:02 > 0:12:09people didn't know how O'Brien made the dinosaurs come to life.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11There were all kinds of stories.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14It was a giant robot, it was a man in a gorilla suit,
0:12:14 > 0:12:15it was a trained monkey.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17All these kind of things.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26There are bits in it which wouldn't have been in script,
0:12:26 > 0:12:28which he's just improvised.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31The dinosaur scratches its head.
0:12:31 > 0:12:36O'Brien was always adding little ticks and twitches
0:12:36 > 0:12:40and these eccentricities gave these prehistoric beasts
0:12:40 > 0:12:42character and credibility,
0:12:42 > 0:12:46which made it all the more shocking when the most famous dinosaur fight
0:12:46 > 0:12:49in cinema history erupted onto the screen.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Willis O'Brien, he was a big boxing fan.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58So his monsters always square off like fighters in the ring.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00Marquess of Queensberry rules.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08Although the dinosaur isn't a man in a suit, he stands as if he was,
0:13:08 > 0:13:11because O'Brien wants that upright stance, the fisticuffs.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17I just remember the teeth of the T-Rex
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and being quite frightened for King Kong,
0:13:19 > 0:13:21for whom I had an affinity at that point,
0:13:21 > 0:13:23knowing that he didn't have that armoury
0:13:23 > 0:13:27and the T-Rex was trying to bite him all the time.
0:13:30 > 0:13:32This was the first time
0:13:32 > 0:13:35that you've got something which is very threatening to humans,
0:13:35 > 0:13:38but King Kong, of course, is the intermediary.
0:13:38 > 0:13:40He's on the side of the humans, interestingly.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45And so it's playing with this notion of Kong as humanoid.
0:13:45 > 0:13:46He's our ancestor.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54And that means that the dinosaurs we see tend to be more alien,
0:13:54 > 0:13:55more cold blooded.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57They are actually monsters in that.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06We all know where our heart lies when we watch the King Kong story.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Except when he snaps the jaw of the Tyrannosaurus,
0:14:09 > 0:14:12which I still, I think, one of the most shocking and repulsive
0:14:12 > 0:14:14moments in cinema.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22The way he waggles the jaw to make sure that the beast is dead.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30Like all the great monster movies,
0:14:30 > 0:14:34King Kong was part spectacle and part mythic storytelling.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37It'd better be good after all this ballyhoo.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41It showed us dinosaur destruction
0:14:41 > 0:14:44but also played on the audience's subconscious anxieties.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52It wasn't a just prehistoric monster causing mayhem in Manhattan,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56it was a big, hairy metaphor.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59SHE SCREAMS
0:15:00 > 0:15:03Kong is a monster of desire.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07The Kong who peels off Fay Wray's dress and sniffs it.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12There's a seaminess there, an unbridled lust.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21It's about race, it's about fears of big black men in New York -
0:15:21 > 0:15:24although black men with no penises, strangely enough.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27The story was so rich that every member of the audience could
0:15:27 > 0:15:31project their own hopes and fears onto the angry ape.
0:15:33 > 0:15:38King Kong was really popular with black audiences in America,
0:15:38 > 0:15:39because they identified,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41not with the fact that King Kong is black,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43but because he's like an African.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Black people seeing an African stand up to the American army.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56There was something there that black audiences really responded to.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02Like the best fairytales, King Kong was epic in scale
0:16:02 > 0:16:06and packed with rich symbolism.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10There is something extraordinary and very imaginative
0:16:10 > 0:16:14in this image of something primeval suddenly appearing right next to,
0:16:14 > 0:16:18and in fact wrapped around, this icon of modernity -
0:16:18 > 0:16:20the Empire State Building.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23It brings together the ancient, the primeval, and the modern
0:16:23 > 0:16:25in one image.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33You really do have such sympathy.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38I want the ape to win - I want King Kong to win.
0:16:38 > 0:16:40I know he's not going to,
0:16:40 > 0:16:42but I want him to win. I want him to smash the planes down
0:16:42 > 0:16:45and go back to his house again.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52With its perfect mix of monsters, metaphors and mayhem,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56King Kong set a template for almost every dinosaur film since.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00It was beauty killed the beast.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04After Kong, there was a sense that it's really hard
0:17:04 > 0:17:08to find anything else to do with the genre.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13It does both. It does the, "You go there and meet the monsters,"
0:17:13 > 0:17:16and it does the, "Monsters come to you and smash things up."
0:17:16 > 0:17:21So that's the two major subgenres knocked out and perfected in 1933.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28King Kong has been much imitated, but never bettered.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35I need you in the shot or people will say they're fake.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Nobody's going to think these are fake!
0:17:38 > 0:17:42Even the recent remake failed to eclipse the original...
0:17:45 > 0:17:50..despite its huge budget, star director and CGI dinosaurs.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57It was just kind of CGI porn
0:17:57 > 0:18:00when it came to Peter Jackson's King Kong.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03Sometimes just because you can do something, you don't have to do it.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19CG gives directors too much freedom, too much,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23"I can see it in my head, I want it there on screen."
0:18:23 > 0:18:26Sometimes, limitations are what makes true art.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34In the 1930s, King Kong established the dinosaur genre
0:18:34 > 0:18:36as cinematic gold.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38But by the 1940s,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42the audience lost its appetite for dinosaur destruction.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46There was more than enough to be frightened of around the world.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49In times of war, fantasy changes.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53You don't get, I suppose, apocalyptic fantasy
0:18:53 > 0:18:55because you've got an apocalypse.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59But later, when you've got the memory
0:18:59 > 0:19:03and you want to translate that into fiction,
0:19:03 > 0:19:05that's when the monsters come.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13I mean, the most obvious of this is Japan's experience.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15It's like...
0:19:15 > 0:19:17a few years between Hiroshima and Godzilla.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25Godzilla, or Gojira, is a dinosaur-like creature
0:19:25 > 0:19:30that is awoken by atomic bomb tests in the South Pacific.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33With its fiery radioactive breath,
0:19:33 > 0:19:35the creature mercilessly destroys
0:19:35 > 0:19:39Japanese cities and their civilian populations.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44In a traumatised country devastated by nuclear attack,
0:19:44 > 0:19:46Godzilla wasn't just a kitsch monster movie.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50It was of huge symbolic significance.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04Godzilla director Ishiro Honda had fought in the war and had witnessed
0:20:04 > 0:20:06the devastated city of Hiroshima.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11But in the immediate aftermath of the war
0:20:11 > 0:20:15Japanese cinema was restricted in the stories it could tell.
0:20:15 > 0:20:17Following World War Two,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Japan was occupied by the US until 1952.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24During that period there was film censorship in Japan
0:20:24 > 0:20:29and one of the things they were forbidden to show was wartime damage to Japan.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34In 1954, Godzilla's one of the first films
0:20:34 > 0:20:40that's able to show some of that destruction and reconstruct the devastation that Japan suffered.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51Godzilla is very different.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54It's very sombre, melancholic.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56It's a symbolically-laden film.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01And Godzilla himself seems to stand in for all sorts of social and cultural forces at play
0:21:01 > 0:21:04and audiences were very aware of these contexts.
0:21:04 > 0:21:09The original version forbids you from reading it as silly.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12It's so sombre in its approach.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18It's the first film really to show radiation sickness.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31You get long shots of people dying in hospitals,
0:21:31 > 0:21:36masses of people injured and hurt by the devastation and destruction.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Godzilla moved the Japanese people,
0:21:39 > 0:21:43as it acknowledged their wartime suffering.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48Then, two years after its original release, the film was brashly recut
0:21:48 > 0:21:50for an American audience.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54- He's frightened.- He saw a monster. He's had too much sake.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57No, these island people are very superstitious.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01They took the film, edited over 20 minutes out of it,
0:22:01 > 0:22:06taking out anything that made explicit America's role
0:22:06 > 0:22:09in the atomic bombing of Japan and introduced an American observer
0:22:09 > 0:22:11played by Raymond Burr.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15He's interspersed into the action and has a Japanese sidekick.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19My Japanese is a little rusty.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23And it frames the film very differently,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27taking out any critical edge, and of course it was a massive success,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30taking about 2 million at the US box office.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35Neither man nor his machines are able to stop this creature.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Steve Martin signing off from Tokyo, Japan.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52There were 28 increasingly daft sequels
0:22:52 > 0:22:54in the Japanese Godzilla series
0:22:54 > 0:22:57but none matched the original's power and impact.
0:23:06 > 0:23:07And the 1998 remake
0:23:07 > 0:23:11conveniently absolved America of any atomic wrong-doing.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15- What do we do? - Running would be a good idea.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18It seems the creature's untimely arrival
0:23:18 > 0:23:21was the result of... French nuclear tests.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24This testing done by my country left a terrible mess.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26We're here to clean it up.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30MONSTER ROARS
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Three, two, one...
0:23:43 > 0:23:47The 1950s were the era of atomic anxiety.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53Who knows what waits for us in nature's No-Man's Land.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Films from around the world used radiation as an excuse
0:23:57 > 0:23:59to revive dormant dinosaurs.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02- Captain!- Are you deaf, man?
0:24:04 > 0:24:06ROARING
0:24:11 > 0:24:14In a film like The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms you certainly see that
0:24:14 > 0:24:20it's encoding anxieties about the Cold War and the nuclear arms race.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26The beast itself is awoken from the ice by a nuclear explosion.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28Monster.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31- Prehistoric monster!- Quiet! Don't struggle.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35And it's finally vanquished by a nuclear weapon.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Do you know what a radioactive isotope is?
0:24:38 > 0:24:41- No, but if it can be loaded, I can fire it.- I loaded it.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Remember one thing - it has to be shot into the wound.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52And so the logic is a mirror of the logic of the Cold War and the arms race.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56The problem is the existence of nuclear weapons and technology.
0:24:56 > 0:25:01The only solution was more nuclear weapons.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04CREATURE ROARS
0:25:04 > 0:25:08The death of the Rhedosaurus, its name in the film,
0:25:08 > 0:25:12in the end it's like a dying opera star, basically.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15CREATURE ROARS
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Even the murky waters around 1950s Britain seemed to be filled
0:25:24 > 0:25:26with prehistoric predators.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39Of course Japan isn't the only place where people fear
0:25:39 > 0:25:43the effects of radiation. This is the case in Britain too.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47We have the bomb from the late '40s onwards.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54So if you look at a film like The Giant Behemoth
0:25:54 > 0:25:57you get the anglicised version of the story.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03It's quite unusual to see a dinosaur like this going on the rampage
0:26:03 > 0:26:05in a city like London.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10Here we're in Woolwich and around Tower Bridge and areas like that.
0:26:10 > 0:26:16There's that strange unheimlich effect of the monster coming to your own backyard.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24And here's this atomic dinosaur, a Palaeosaurus,
0:26:24 > 0:26:30that has absorbed fallout from radioactive material
0:26:30 > 0:26:35and has risen from the depths of the sea.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41It's intensely radioactive.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Radioactive?
0:26:44 > 0:26:50Then I...I suppose the creature will have to be...killed.
0:26:53 > 0:26:55When the monsters go trashing London
0:26:55 > 0:27:00it seems to be a replay of the imagery of the Blitz.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08There's a scene where people are cowering against a wall and the wall collapses over them.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11That could be an image from the landing of the V2.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20In the background there's a question that's asked in many British sci-fi films,
0:27:20 > 0:27:25which is, if someone invaded again, would we be as we were in the war?
0:27:26 > 0:27:30Would you still have that Dunkirk Blitz spirit going?
0:27:30 > 0:27:33Or have people weakened after the war and would panic,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36and their Britishness would be destroyed?
0:27:36 > 0:27:38CREATURE ROARS
0:27:50 > 0:27:54British dinosaur films evolved in distinctly different ways
0:27:54 > 0:27:57from their sharp-toothed Hollywood cousins.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03CREATURE ROARS
0:28:04 > 0:28:09There are distinct differences between the British and the America ones.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13In Britain, the monsters are much more sympathetic, particularly in Gorgo.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16This is Piccadilly, the heart of London.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Words can't describe it. There's been nothing like it,
0:28:19 > 0:28:24not even the worst of the Blitz! This section is a complete shambles.
0:28:27 > 0:28:33Gorgo's mother protecting her child that's been taken by a showman,
0:28:33 > 0:28:37but also it's the first film I can remember where the dinosaur wins.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Mother comes to the rescue, the monster is not killed,
0:28:47 > 0:28:49the military doesn't win,
0:28:49 > 0:28:52and it's a happy ending and no monsters are killed at all.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57Maybe our prayers have been answered. She turns back,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01turns with her young, leaving the prostrate city,
0:29:01 > 0:29:05and leaving man himself to ponder the proud boast
0:29:05 > 0:29:08that he alone is lord of all creation.
0:29:09 > 0:29:14And the last shot is her and her baby striding away from the ruined city
0:29:14 > 0:29:17and the assumption that we've all learned our lesson.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19Going back now...
0:29:21 > 0:29:22Back to the sea.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38Gorgo and Godzilla are not dinosaurs that any palaeontologist would recognise.
0:29:38 > 0:29:40But movie makers know they're close enough
0:29:40 > 0:29:42to the King of the Dinosaurs...
0:29:45 > 0:29:50..because all of the best dino dramas have had one essential element...
0:29:50 > 0:29:52..the rex factor.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00You've got the spectacle of watching maybe the vegetarian dinosaurs.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02They look nice, but don't really do anything.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04At the absolute top you've got the T rex.
0:30:04 > 0:30:07That's the only reason you want to go and see a dinosaur film,
0:30:07 > 0:30:10just to see this enormous great angry lizard.
0:30:17 > 0:30:18If there's a flawed character,
0:30:18 > 0:30:21you know he's going to get eaten by the T rex
0:30:21 > 0:30:24in the most grisly way possible.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26MUSIC: "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads
0:30:29 > 0:30:32You want to see its big, massive teeth,
0:30:32 > 0:30:36and the best way to see them is to get it to roar straight at you,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38straight at the camera, straight at the audience.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42The roar is incredibly intimidating.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45Tiny little arms. A bit silly.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47But the roar, that's what makes you know,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49with those big fangs in that jaw,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52that is the shiver-down-the-spine moment.
0:30:59 > 0:31:02Vicious, violent and voracious,
0:31:02 > 0:31:04that's the joy of rex,
0:31:04 > 0:31:08although serious palaeontologists are sick of the big, toothy tyrant.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13Personally, I think T rex is the most overrated animal of all time.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16I get totally sick of hearing about how great T rex is
0:31:16 > 0:31:18and how interesting T Rex is.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Which is something that, as someone who works
0:31:22 > 0:31:24mainly on plant-eating dinosaurs, sticks in my throat.
0:31:24 > 0:31:26So this animal spent most of its time
0:31:26 > 0:31:29eating the animals that I think are interesting.
0:31:38 > 0:31:44By the 1960s, a distinct new genre of dinosaur movies emerged -
0:31:44 > 0:31:46the prehistoric epic.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49No longer were film makers pushing the ridiculous notion
0:31:49 > 0:31:52that T rex and co were to be found trashing New York.
0:31:52 > 0:31:53Akita!
0:31:53 > 0:31:57Now we had a plausible setting, the prehistoric world,
0:31:57 > 0:32:02with early man struggling to survive in a land full of dinosaurs,
0:32:02 > 0:32:06which turned out to be just as ridiculous.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13Modern humans emerged about 200,000 years ago,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17so you've got a 64-million-year gap
0:32:17 > 0:32:20between dinosaurs and any form of modern humans.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26So some people do think that cavemen lived alongside dinosaurs.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29That's a big problem, because they really didn't.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33No dinosaur has ever set eyes on a human, and vice versa.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37These Stone Age epics were made
0:32:37 > 0:32:40by legendary British horror studio Hammer,
0:32:40 > 0:32:44who knew all about our primitive instincts.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50The Hammer recipe was...
0:32:50 > 0:32:53er, pin-up girls and monsters.
0:32:53 > 0:32:57Akita! Akita!
0:32:57 > 0:33:04For its 100th film, Hammer created One Million Years BC,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07an ambitious prehistoric romp
0:33:07 > 0:33:10that combined believable creatures
0:33:10 > 0:33:13and unbelievable cavewomen.
0:33:24 > 0:33:25The poster says it all,
0:33:25 > 0:33:30that big picture of Raquel Welch in the cutaway fur bikini.
0:33:30 > 0:33:33I remember seeing the posters around and thinking,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36"This is probably the best film ever made."
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Here's the genre established.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47It's British actors in Lanzarote
0:33:47 > 0:33:50being menaced by stop-motion dinosaurs.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55In a way, they were a combination of
0:33:55 > 0:33:58the monster film and the nudist-camp film.
0:34:03 > 0:34:08There's something kind of Health and Exercise about them.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11These are healthy people in the Palaeolithic outdoors,
0:34:11 > 0:34:14skipping around.
0:34:16 > 0:34:21And these are almost wordless dramas set in these desolate landscapes.
0:34:21 > 0:34:22Ahot.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25There's no dialogue apart from these made-up words.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28Ahot. Loana.
0:34:30 > 0:34:31Tumak.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33Tumak!
0:34:34 > 0:34:38There's 20 minutes of people grunting and going, "Akita, akita."
0:34:38 > 0:34:40Akita!
0:34:40 > 0:34:43Akita! Akita!
0:34:45 > 0:34:48Hammer's biggest international hit,
0:34:48 > 0:34:50largely because it didn't require dubbing.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54One Million Years BC reinforced the idea that human nature
0:34:54 > 0:34:59is instinctual, primitive and uncomplicated.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04Hunky prehistoric men sharpened spears and fought dinosaurs
0:35:04 > 0:35:07whilst prehistoric cave babes sewed
0:35:07 > 0:35:10and indulged in occasional dirty dancing.
0:35:22 > 0:35:29One Million Years BC does represent a sort of...reset,
0:35:29 > 0:35:35a rather plaintive desire for a sort of simplified primal story.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37You could probably see it as
0:35:37 > 0:35:40a wish for a less complex gender politics.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44Against mid-'60s feminism,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47I think that's probably quite a strong reading of that film.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50On the other hand, you can watch it
0:35:50 > 0:35:53for Raquel Welch in a leather bikini.
0:35:53 > 0:35:58- Loana!- And when I watch it, that's all I can...
0:35:58 > 0:36:01I sit there thinking, "How do you get a body like that?"
0:36:01 > 0:36:05The whole film, I'm just going, "What is that?!"
0:36:07 > 0:36:10She is an icon of beauty.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14She's wearing that Mary Quant flesh-coloured lipstick,
0:36:14 > 0:36:15as all the members of her tribe are,
0:36:15 > 0:36:19so there's a very definite '60s look about these people.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28It's sort of the most anti-Germaine Greer movie you can imagine,
0:36:28 > 0:36:32because it's all about just fetishising a hot lady.
0:36:32 > 0:36:34There's no other depth to it, particularly.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40One Million BC is the perfect film for boys.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43It's got cavewomen, right?
0:36:44 > 0:36:47And a hero who's quite hunky
0:36:47 > 0:36:49who tries to fight dinosaurs, as well.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51And you've got the dinosaurs themselves.
0:36:55 > 0:37:00The only thing that One Million BC doesn't have
0:37:00 > 0:37:02which would make it a perfect boys' film
0:37:02 > 0:37:04is a car.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08"Where the devils of darkness guard the ancient secrets
0:37:08 > 0:37:09"of an unknown world of women -
0:37:09 > 0:37:11"prehistoric women,
0:37:11 > 0:37:15"entombed in a green paradise of evil and witchcraft."
0:37:15 > 0:37:18Thrilled with the worldwide success of One Million Years BC,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Hammer started a prehistoric production line...
0:37:21 > 0:37:23I am queen here. I will not be denied!
0:37:25 > 0:37:29..almost always focusing on feral cavegirls.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31Nita! Nita!
0:37:31 > 0:37:33But your men - where are they?
0:37:34 > 0:37:36They are no longer men.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38WICKED LAUGHTER
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Take her.
0:37:45 > 0:37:46It's appealing to watch movies
0:37:46 > 0:37:49where we can see ourselves, older versions of ourselves,
0:37:49 > 0:37:52just being crazy,
0:37:52 > 0:37:54just being savage and being feral.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00I think that's a really appealing couple of hours' break
0:38:00 > 0:38:03from our daily lives.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09I think Hammer got this idea into their heads
0:38:09 > 0:38:13that people were coming to see the women in the film rather than the dinosaurs.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16Neetro! Udala neetro!
0:38:16 > 0:38:18And it's interesting that, actually,
0:38:18 > 0:38:22the ones that dispensed with dinosaurs are the least successful.
0:38:22 > 0:38:24AKITA!
0:38:24 > 0:38:26So it was a bit of a misjudgment.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33What Hammer had failed to realise was the stars of prehistoric movies
0:38:33 > 0:38:37are and always will be the dinosaurs themselves.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41"Man had not yet been created, but if he had been..."
0:38:49 > 0:38:55And for nearly 50 years, believable dinosaurs meant Ray Harryhausen.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00- It's an allosaurus?- It's an allosaurus, a very young allosaurus.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03I was shocked to find that he only did six dinosaur movies.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07It's amazing cos, I think Ray Harryhausen, I think dinosaurs.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13They were infused with more than just moving a frame a second.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16They were infused with his passion for making dinosaurs
0:39:16 > 0:39:19as fascinating for everybody else as they were for him.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Ray Harryhausen was an American special-effects animator
0:39:25 > 0:39:29who was inspired by the genius of Willis O'Brien.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34I went quite by accident to see a film called King Kong.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36I haven't been the same since, of course.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41Harryhausen then developed his own stop-frame technique
0:39:41 > 0:39:43he called Dynomation.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46We're not trying to create absolute realism.
0:39:46 > 0:39:50We're trying to create a surrealist effect, a dreamlike quality.
0:39:50 > 0:39:56Ray Harryhausen's Dynomation breathed so much life into his dinosaurs,
0:39:56 > 0:39:59it was difficult to know whether to love or loathe
0:39:59 > 0:40:00the marauding beasts.
0:40:02 > 0:40:04Every creature - he never calls them monsters,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07they're never, ever, ever, ever monsters.
0:40:07 > 0:40:11They're always creatures, because they're really not evil.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14That's the thing about Ray's creatures, even dinosaurs -
0:40:14 > 0:40:19they're quite innocent. It's only man that's really evil.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24Ray Harryhausen's magic is that he makes you feel sorry for the beast!
0:40:24 > 0:40:26You're more sorry for the beast
0:40:26 > 0:40:28than the woman who might get crushed.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30"Oh, stop picking on it with your spears!"
0:40:36 > 0:40:38He always gives everything character.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41How do you put character into a dinosaur?
0:40:41 > 0:40:43It's very difficult.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49There'd always be a tail swishing,
0:40:49 > 0:40:51or the dinosaur would scratch itself,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54or somehow, even though they had no real expressions,
0:40:54 > 0:40:56he'd make them look confused or puzzled.
0:40:57 > 0:41:03I once said to him, "Your tails are wonderful. They're always whipping."
0:41:03 > 0:41:07And he said, "Well, I do that. Obviously, it gives it character.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10"But there is an ulterior motive.
0:41:10 > 0:41:14"It allows people not to look at the other mistakes I'm making."
0:41:14 > 0:41:18One of Ray Harryhausen's most revered films
0:41:18 > 0:41:21is the cult classic The Valley of Gwangi...
0:41:23 > 0:41:26..which takes T-rex to the Wild West.
0:41:32 > 0:41:34What's it doing here?
0:41:34 > 0:41:39Precisely. What IS it doing here?
0:41:39 > 0:41:42The Valley of Gwangi is a film that combines
0:41:42 > 0:41:44the pleasures of the dinosaur film with the Western.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48It is a pretty efficient combination of these two genres.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53And the key image around which the whole thing circulates
0:41:53 > 0:41:56is the idea of a lassoed dinosaur.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00It took over a year for Ray Harryhausen
0:42:00 > 0:42:04to complete the special effects on The Valley of Gwangi alone,
0:42:04 > 0:42:07layering live-action footage and animation.
0:42:11 > 0:42:16They've got him, Professor! They've got him!
0:42:16 > 0:42:17And what's nice about this is
0:42:17 > 0:42:20that it doesn't bring the monsters
0:42:20 > 0:42:23into the places where you would expect them to come.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29It goes to church, this dinosaur.
0:42:34 > 0:42:39So there's this weird combination of the sacred and the profane,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42I think, in the climax of The Valley of Gwangi.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47Some, like Harryhausen,
0:42:47 > 0:42:50brought sophistication and skill to dinosaurs
0:42:50 > 0:42:54in a way that few others could match.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02But cinema history is littered with cheap craposauruses,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04terrible pterodactyls
0:43:04 > 0:43:07and the actors that time forgot.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10We'll never get out of here, Alan! Never, never!
0:43:10 > 0:43:15And quite frankly, these rubbery Rexes deserved extinction.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23The fight between the ape and the dinosaur in Unknown Island
0:43:23 > 0:43:25has to be seen to be believed.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29If I was to go to a fancy-dress shop and say, "Dress me like a monkey,"
0:43:29 > 0:43:33and they gave me a suit that had been worn for the past 25 years
0:43:33 > 0:43:37and went, "That's fine, no-one'll notice," that's the fight.
0:43:40 > 0:43:41It's horrific. It's horrific.
0:43:41 > 0:43:46And I think the thing is it takes away any form of fear,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49which is what the whole point of monster films are,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52is that these are terrifying.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56It's like going into town on Halloween
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and watching two guys fighting over a taxi.
0:44:11 > 0:44:16By the 1970s, the movie dinosaurs were almost wiped out
0:44:16 > 0:44:20by an unstoppable force from a Galaxy Far Far Away.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25The dinosaur movie suffered partly because science fiction,
0:44:25 > 0:44:27futuristic science fiction,
0:44:27 > 0:44:31became so popular in the mid-to-late '70s thanks to Star Wars
0:44:31 > 0:44:36so the idea of a historical monster story really went into abeyance.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43The late '70s and '80s were a cinematic Ice Age for dinosaurs.
0:44:43 > 0:44:45Dinosaur films were almost a joke,
0:44:45 > 0:44:49a camp curiosity not to be taken seriously.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03There was a period when stop motion was old hat
0:45:03 > 0:45:05and puppets just weren't doing it.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12There was definitely a lull. I grew up liking dinosaurs,
0:45:12 > 0:45:16but it was via books, it was via Top Trumps bizarrely.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19I was obsessed with dinosaurs Top Trumps,
0:45:19 > 0:45:21but there was no movies to really reflect that.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25I just don't think the special effects were available
0:45:25 > 0:45:30to film makers to really make dinosaurs look convincing.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36We're just on the cusp of this great computer breakthrough
0:45:36 > 0:45:39in terms of CGI and special effects,
0:45:39 > 0:45:43and I think directors were waiting for that to happen.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Since the beginning of cinema,
0:45:46 > 0:45:49filmmakers' dreams of realistic dinosaurs
0:45:49 > 0:45:53have been limited by special effects technology.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58Winsor McCay introduced us to Gentle Gertie.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05Willis O'Brien's King Kong rampaged through the modern metropolis.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11The atomic era dinosaurs tapped into our apocalyptic fears.
0:46:13 > 0:46:18And Ray Harryhausen gave us Dynomation dinosaurs.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22But two decades without new special effects
0:46:22 > 0:46:25meant the dinosaurs stopped evolving.
0:46:25 > 0:46:26Then in the early '90s,
0:46:26 > 0:46:30one film changed our perceptions of dinosaurs forever.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32There it is.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43Computer generated effects had taken a huge leap forward.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45Hollywood maestro Steven Spielberg
0:46:45 > 0:46:48revealed he was making a dinosaur film.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51It was time for the return of Rex.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54And Jurassic Park was the film
0:46:54 > 0:46:58the world had been waiting 65 million years to see.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01I think anybody who was in the cinema on the first week
0:47:01 > 0:47:06of release of Jurassic Park will never forget that moment,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10it was one of those breakthrough moments of a new sense of spectacle.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12We knew we'd been present at something
0:47:12 > 0:47:18which was going to set cinema on a new course of spectacle.
0:47:18 > 0:47:19It's a dinosaur.
0:47:25 > 0:47:26The new digital technology
0:47:26 > 0:47:30meant we could at last see dinosaurs in all their glory.
0:47:30 > 0:47:34They weren't planning to use CGI.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39Originally, they were going to use actors in suits, puppets.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42Then halfway through the shooting,
0:47:42 > 0:47:46they realised that the technical capability was there
0:47:46 > 0:47:50of rendering these things using computer graphics.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54They ended up with only six and a half minutes of CGI in the finished film,
0:47:54 > 0:47:57but it was enough to make the difference I think.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03The special effects were absolutely cutting edge
0:48:03 > 0:48:07and the plot, too, tapped into the latest scientific anxieties.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11'Just one drop of blood contains billions of strands of your DNA...'
0:48:11 > 0:48:16The 1990s saw rapid breakthroughs in DNA research.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18'..Using sophisticated techniques,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22'they extract the preserved blood from the mosquito
0:48:22 > 0:48:26'and bingo - Dino DNA!'
0:48:26 > 0:48:30Suddenly, the idea that we could resurrect dinosaurs from mosquito DNA
0:48:30 > 0:48:32didn't seem that outrageous.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36Because all the animals in Jurassic Park are female.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38We've engineered them that way.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40'Jurassic Park was believable,'
0:48:40 > 0:48:41we can never forget that,
0:48:41 > 0:48:46even though it's this ridiculous premise, you utterly believed it.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50'It's a nice idea that we could get dinosaur DNA from a mosquito.'
0:48:50 > 0:48:53It's a very clever idea as the basis for the movie,
0:48:53 > 0:48:55but unfortunately, it has no basis in fact.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59DNA just doesn't survive that long in geological records.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02It exists for maybe a few tens of thousands of years,
0:49:02 > 0:49:03but not the millions of years
0:49:03 > 0:49:07that would be necessary for us to extract dinosaur blood.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11It's not possible. If the history of evolution has taught us anything,
0:49:11 > 0:49:16it's that life will not be contained.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20I'm simply saying that life finds away.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23There are many errors in Jurassic Park, starting with the title.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26Almost all of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park
0:49:26 > 0:49:28come from the Cretaceous period,
0:49:28 > 0:49:31but of course Cretaceous Park has a really lousy ring to it.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36Despite the filmmakers' proud boasts
0:49:36 > 0:49:39that Jurassic Park was paleontologically correct,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43its loyalties were to entertainment, not education.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Especially when it came to the big screen debut
0:49:46 > 0:49:49of the villainous velociraptor.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54Velociraptor was a much smaller dinosaur
0:49:54 > 0:49:59than is portrayed in the film, and was probably covered in downy fur.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01They're actually like aggressive turkeys
0:50:01 > 0:50:04rather than the six foot beasts that could take you out.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11Nevertheless, the primary purpose of Jurassic Park was to entertain.
0:50:11 > 0:50:15If one person did a palaeontology course as a result of that film,
0:50:15 > 0:50:18then that's a bonus, that's just bonus points.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24Spielberg used dodgy science and dazzling CGI
0:50:24 > 0:50:27to make us believe in his dinosaurs.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29Did you feel that?
0:50:29 > 0:50:33Because he knew that if he could make us believe in them,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36he could make us very, very scared of them.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44The music stops, and you've just got the rain drumming.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52As if somehow this moment is so realistic, it doesn't need music.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01I think Jurassic Park did make dinosaurs scary again.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07I remember the first time that T-rex appears.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16..Been right all the time.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18It's scary in a typically Spielberg way -
0:51:18 > 0:51:24it's the kind of scares that a kid can withstand as well,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27but most of the grown-ups were scared on the same level.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30Must go faster.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36It frightened me, it educated me.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44That chase sequence is just brilliant in terms of the fear it has.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46What would YOU do, how would YOU get out of it?
0:51:51 > 0:51:53There's nowhere to run, it's a dinosaur!
0:51:53 > 0:51:57You can't get away. You're in a jeep in a forest - you can't go anywhere!
0:52:09 > 0:52:13With the help of immersive surround sound and amazing CGI,
0:52:13 > 0:52:17the T-rex terrorised the audience.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20But by the end, the big pea-brained predator
0:52:20 > 0:52:25was eclipsed by a scarier, smaller, faster foe.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30The T-rex is a baddy cos he stomps on everybody
0:52:30 > 0:52:33and bites everyone in half, but the real baddies
0:52:33 > 0:52:35are the velociraptors who seem to be sitting there,
0:52:35 > 0:52:39scheming about how they'll get you and, not only will they get you,
0:52:39 > 0:52:41but they'll get you in a particularly unpleasant way.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48The velociraptors in the kitchen is just stunning,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51it's another one of those typical Spielberg set pieces.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55He references Kubrik in The Shining.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02The velociraptor at the window is Jack Nicholson, "Here's Johnny!"
0:53:08 > 0:53:11You're sure the third one's contained?
0:53:11 > 0:53:14Yes. Unless they've figured out how to open doors.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Once you realise they've worked out how to open a door,
0:53:26 > 0:53:30you think, they're not stupid, what are they going to do next?
0:53:30 > 0:53:34Dinosaurs like velociraptors would have been quite smart.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36They would have been intelligent enough
0:53:36 > 0:53:39to hang around in social groups and communicate with each other.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41Though I doubt they'd have been smart enough
0:53:41 > 0:53:43to work out how to open doors.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48Everything about that scene is great.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52The fact that they are on metallic floors means, you know,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55he made the most of their claws tap-tapping away.
0:53:59 > 0:54:04That was horrific because they seemed to know what they were doing.
0:54:04 > 0:54:07They were quiet, it was like being stalked.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15A lot of it is done just by clever editing.
0:54:18 > 0:54:22The one moment I remember more than anything else
0:54:22 > 0:54:26is when they're escaping up through the ceiling.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30The camera's looking straight down and it leaps up.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35Everybody in the cinema, I mean everybody, just went woo!
0:54:35 > 0:54:38You could see it. I'd love to have seen
0:54:38 > 0:54:43a camera on that audience cos it would've been like a Mexican wave.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52Jurassic Park was a monster hit.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58It was followed up by two sequels.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00And even though there was twice as many dinosaurs
0:55:00 > 0:55:03and the CGI was even more impressive...
0:55:05 > 0:55:09..Jurassic Park 2 and 3 felt a little predictable.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11This is magnificent.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15Oh, yeah, ooh and ah - that's how it starts,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19then later, there's running and screaming.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25The Jurassic Park franchise to date
0:55:25 > 0:55:29has made nearly 2 billion worldwide.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38In its wake, other film makers have tried to cash in on dinomania.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41But the results have been...mixed.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44- 'The future's toughest cop is Katie Coltrane.- I'm back.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47'And now she's getting a new partner.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53- 'His name is Teddy.- Hit me!
0:55:53 > 0:55:55- 'It's a dinosaur. - New partner, Coltrane?'
0:55:55 > 0:55:59I think what we've seen in the past 30 or so years
0:55:59 > 0:56:02is dinosaurs becoming part of kiddy culture.
0:56:02 > 0:56:03We want them to be scary,
0:56:03 > 0:56:07but we also want them to be cuddly, something we can embrace.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11How you doin', Rex?
0:56:11 > 0:56:13Were you scared? Tell me honestly.
0:56:13 > 0:56:15I was close to being scared that time.
0:56:15 > 0:56:18I'm going for fearsome here but I just don't feel it!
0:56:18 > 0:56:21I think I'm just coming off as annoying.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25But no matter how cuddly kiddy dinosaurs get,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28cinema will never be able to resist
0:56:28 > 0:56:31the dinosaur's appetite for destruction.
0:56:34 > 0:56:39The fantasy dinosaurs, the dinosaurs we all love, the rampaging ones,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42the Lost World dinosaurs, the King Kong dinosaurs,
0:56:42 > 0:56:47the Jurassic Park dinosaurs,
0:56:47 > 0:56:50they are always going to be part of our popular culture.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52There's nothing you can do to tame them,
0:56:52 > 0:56:55they don't take away from the potency of the dinosaur
0:56:55 > 0:57:01as a big scary thing that we are also somehow fascinated by.
0:57:09 > 0:57:14It was 65 million years since dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17But a century of cinema has brought them back to life.
0:57:17 > 0:57:23Far from being fossilised, dinosaurs are evolving all the time.
0:57:23 > 0:57:26They mock the fragility of modern life.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32They help us tell our traumatic history.
0:57:32 > 0:57:37They're a warning about the dangers of meddling with nature.
0:57:38 > 0:57:43And at their very best, they're just the biggest, scariest,
0:57:43 > 0:57:47most vicious monster that's ever lived.
0:57:47 > 0:57:52It's fictitious in a way, but it's alive and all around us
0:57:52 > 0:57:54and we're waiting eagerly to see
0:57:54 > 0:57:56what the next manifestation of the dinosaur -
0:57:56 > 0:57:58even more real, even more scary - will be.
0:58:03 > 0:58:04I think we lost him.
0:58:04 > 0:58:08With a Godzilla remake in production and talk of Jurassic Park 4,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12reports of their extinction have clearly been greatly exaggerated.
0:58:12 > 0:58:14It's OK, it's dead.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19Nobody move a muscle.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:37 > 0:58:40E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk