SerpApi.Org
When Steven Spielberg set out to make Jurassic Park, he vowed to cap the budget at $63 million—no matter what. In doing so, he hoped to avoid a repeat of the runaway spending on Hook, which had gone $20 million over budget.
Despite having blockbuster status, the adaptation of Michael Crichton's bestselling novel took an efficient, lean and mean approach to the filmmaking process. Every scene was carefully considered and storyboarded, with any financial fat unceremoniously trimmed away if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Indeed, the film was ultimately completed under budget and ahead of schedule.
One of the cuts concerned the Jurassic Park Visitor Center, which remains under renovation in the finished film.
Narratively speaking, the presence of scaffolding and tarps inside the main lobby wordlessly emphasize just how eager John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) is to open a park that hasn't even been fully built yet. His impatience and penchant for cutting corners leads to his downfall. It also serves as a kind of final gauntlet for the climax when Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Tim and Lex Murphy (Joseph Mazzello and Ariana Richards) escape the Velociraptors.
In truth, however, the set was left incomplete as a money-saving measure for the movie itself—suggested by production designer Rick Carter.
Why The Jurassic Park Visitor Center Remains Unfinished in Spielberg Movie
"The original idea was to make it fully finished in the interior, but when the budget came in, Rick proposed to Steven, ‘Well, maybe it's not all the way done,'" art director John Bell recalled to SYFY Wire. "'There are parts that are done, like the science labs and the vehicles to take people around the park, but maybe the core of the visitor center is not done yet and there’d be scaffolding and things like that around.'"
"Steven hears 'scaffolding,' and he's thinking, 'Scaffolding? Dinosaurs? Jungle gym? Yeah, that could be really fun!'" Bell continued. "So, a decision is made that benefits him financially and makes the scene more memorable."
The juxtaposition of living, breathing dinosaurs next to their own skeletons and the skeleton-like, manmade scaffolding became a thematic explanation point on the whole affair.
As Bell explained, "It just presented this holistic view of that space."
"Rick's great about seeing things that way," the art director concluded. "He's always able to shift gears really fast and come up with solutions that directors don't normally think of. He thinks way out of the box and comes in at such an acute angle to things that stimulate ideas directors didn't even know they had."
