Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Annals of shirtlessness, movie history section. This:

(#1) But is it art? Gigantic Jeff Goldblum in the London Era of Megafauna

From CNN on 7/18/18, “Giant Jeff Goldblum statue appears in London” by Lilit Marcus:

Twenty-five years ago, “Jurassic Park” brought velociraptors to a new generation — and broke a few box office records in the meantime.

It also had the unlikely benefit of turning Jeff Goldblum, who played Dr. Ian Malcolm in the film, into a sex symbol.

Now, to commemorate both of those events, a 25-foot, 330-pound statue of Goldblum in character as Dr. Malcolm — more specifically, as a reclining, open-shirted Dr. Malcolm — has appeared in London next to the famous Tower Bridge.

The statue will be on display through July 26, giving Jeff-loving Instagrammers plenty of time to visit.

A still of the scene in the 1993 movie:

(#2)

The scene actually makes sense in the arc of the story (I watched the whole movie again last night): Ian Malcolm has just been battered and drenched in a tropical storm and wounded in an encounter with a dinosaur, so he’s getting some medical care. (On the other hand, Malcolm is given to chest exposure, as below.)

(#3)

Malcolm gets to deliver most of the deep Science and Humankind quotes in the movie, about acting against Nature, unintended consequences, etc., plus a lecture on chaos theory while coming on to Laura Dern’s (female lead) character.

As I wrote in my 12/6/14 posting “Jeff Goldblum” (an appreciation of the actor):

The man is happy to mock himself, and incidentally to show off his beach body — which is quite nice, though not Versace-model, abs-of-death nice.

But why the statue in #1? Yes, the 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park — but, much more important, the appearance in movie theatres this year of another film (the fifth) in the Jurassic series, with Goldblum in a cameo in it.

On the new movie, from Wikipedia:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a 2018 American science fiction adventure film and the sequel to Jurassic World (2015). Directed by J. A. Bayona, it is the fifth installment of the Jurassic Park film series, as well as the second installment of a planned Jurassic World trilogy. Derek Connolly and Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow both returned as writers, with Trevorrow and original Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg acting as executive producers.

… Set on the fictional Central American island of Isla Nublar, off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, it follows Owen Grady and Claire Dearing as they rescue the remaining dinosaurs on the island before a volcanic eruption destroys it. Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, B. D. Wong, and Jeff Goldblum reprise their roles from previous films in the series, with Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones, Ted Levine, Isabella Sermon, and Geraldine Chaplin joining the cast.

Some critical response on the Bustle site, in “The Jeff Goldblum ‘Jurassic World 2’ Cameo Reminds Fans That Life, Uh, Finds A Way” by Johnny Brayson in June:

(#4) Dr. Ian Malcolm testifying before a U.S. Senate committee

Without question, the greatest thing about the Jurassic Park franchise, after the dinosaurs, is Jeff Goldblum. The actor’s performance as Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park is one of the greatest in blockbuster movie history, but the character hasn’t graced a screen since 1997’s The Lost World. Until now, that is. Jeff Goldblum has a Jurassic World 2 cameo that’s totally worth the wait for fans who’ve been aching to see what Ian Malcolm has been up to.

“Life, uh, finds a way” (or “Life, er, finds a way”, depending on how you spell the hesitation noise) is a quote from the original Jurassic Park movie. From the Know Your Meme site:

“Life, Uh, Finds a Way” is a memorable quote uttered by the character Dr. Ian Malcolm in the 1993 science fiction adventure drama film Jurassic Park. Online, the quote has been both genuinely celebrated for its profound nature and parodied in the form of the phrasal template “(X) Finds a Way” by the fans of the film franchise.

The quote stems from … a scene wherein the character Dr. Ian Malcolm (portrayed by Jeff Goldblum) inquires John Hammond (portrayed by Richard Attenborough), the CEO and creator of the park, whether it is possible for the dinosaurs to breed in the wild, despite the staff’s population control efforts by allowing only females to be born through the means of genetic engineering.

— Dr. Ian Malcolm: But again, how do you know they’re all female? Does somebody go out into the park and pull up the dinosaurs’ skirts?

— [geneticist] Henry Wu [played by B.D. Wong]: We control their chromosomes. It’s really not that difficult. All vertebrate embryos are inherently female anyway, they just require an extra hormone given at the right developmental stage to make them male. We simply deny them that.

— [paleobotanist] Dr. Ellie Sattler [played by Laura Dern]: Deny them that?

— Dr. Ian Malcolm: John, the kind of control you’re attempting simply is… it’s not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is.

— John Hammond: [sardonically] There it is.

— Henry Wu: You’re implying that a group composed entirely of female animals will… breed?

— Dr. Ian Malcolm: No. I’m, I’m simply saying that life, uh… finds a way.

As it did in the movie. The (fragmentary) DNA from dinosaur remains was supplemented by DNA from modern frogs, to fill out DNA structures. And then there’s the common reed frog (from Wikipedia):

These west African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from female to male. This likely occurs when the population does not have enough males to allow procreation and is accomplished when a chemical trigger activates the sex gene to disintegrate the female organs and develop the male ones.

So some of the Jurassic Park dinosaurs switched from female to male and bred with females. Uh-oh.

Meanwhile, if a velociraptor knocks at your door, don’t answer.

This entry was posted on July 20, 2018 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Art, Language and animals, Movies and tv, Shirtlessness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.