Well, that’s one way to be immortalized. Thankfully though, Samuel L. Jackson has a lot of other credits to his name than Ray Arnold from Jurassic Park. In fact, this is perhaps one of the most laughable representations that any actor has ever received, but in a good way. The ill-fated Arnold was a character that people enjoyed in the movie after all. “Hold onto your butts” is still a favorite phrase of many people that Arnold was fond of saying, but his end was, well, anything but pleasant. It’s a little awkward to think that Mattel is pushing this, but it’s also kind of humorous as well. For as useful as Arnold was his end was never seen on screen since the only thing that people did get to see was his severed right forearm as it landed on Laura Dern’s shoulder in the movie, giving her a moment of relief before she saw the bloody stump and was menaced by the velociraptor that might have wanted its snack back. But this is definitely something worth laughing at despite the morbid nature of it since with nostalgia being such a big thing these days, this definitely hits all the right buttons.
Jurassic Park is one of the many movies that was so groundbreaking in its own time that it became a movie that was bound to root itself in the minds of those that watched it, especially if one was fortunate enough to watch it in the theater. A lot of us can probably remember being in another theater next to or adjacent to a showing of this movie and hearing the T.Rex roar from the other room thanks to the impressive sound system. The movie was great enough that going to see it in one of the bigger auditoriums was the goal of many fans since the auditory experience was worth it. But as far as Jackson’s character, he was integral to the operation of the park, but like the others, he had no idea what Dennis Nedry was up to, especially since no one wanted anything to do with Nedry apart from his technical skills. Arnold was great at what he did, and considering that the park was running with a skeleton crew during John Hammond’s effort to show off his modern marvel to his guests, he was kind of like a technical superman in a lot of ways.
But his death was something that a lot of fans simply let go of since the point is that he went outside where the monsters were, and it was fairly easy to think that he wouldn’t be coming back. Of course, the thought of the characters was that he might actually have a chance to get to the shed, flip on the power, and then make his way back. This toy brings back a lot of memories for the fans of the movie since it stands as yet another example of why dinosaurs aren’t a good idea to consider bringing back, even if it happened to be possible. Creatures that existed millions of years ago being slammed into place with human beings doesn’t sound like a great idea from the start, even if they’re thousands of miles apart.
But since it’s a big-money idea, one can imagine that the success of Jurassic Park had those in charge seeing dollar signs for a long time. In fact, even now, with the next Jurassic World movie coming up and this toy being pushed to the market, it’s fair to say that the execs can still hear cash register noises sounding in their heads as they likely believe that plenty of fans will be lining up to buy their own collectible so they can re-enact Arnold’s demise. It’s either that, or they’ll simply leave it in the box and hope that it will begin to accrue value. Hey, collectors are a bit funny when it comes to the things that we collect, and some people manage to take it well beyond what might be considered normal for those that collect things. Some people don’t ever take anything out of the box, and keep things that way for years and even decades.
This toy feels as though it might be too tempting for some folks to leave in the box though, especially since the fact remains that we never did get to see the meeting between the velociraptor and Arnold. It’s gruesome and it’s a little bit disturbing, but again, it’s also kind of amusing that Mattel would do this since it’s one of the many moments in the movie that was hidden away and never brought out into the open. But it feels safe to say that it might not spawn other similar moments in the movies since Arnold’s demise is tragic and definitely awkward when captured like this, but one can bet that a few fans will want what they see as a part of movie history.
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