Summary:
- Sam Neill, who starred as Dr. Alan Grant in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise, recently recalled a terrifying accident while filming the first movie.
- While filming a scene using flares, the phosphorus dropped onto his arm, causing a lasting burn mark.
- The actor also recalled an incident where the whole Jurassic Park crew almost died due to a devastating hurricane on-set.
Jurassic Park not only redefined visual effects in cinema but also marked a pivotal moment for everyone involved in the 1993 blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg. Yet, for lead actor Sam Neill, who played the charismatic Dr. Alan Grant, the experience was not without its hardships, including a painful injury that left a lasting mark.
Film sets are no strangers to accidents, ranging from minor mishaps to more severe injuries. Sam Neill’s ordeal during the filming of Jurassic Park is a stark reminder of the unexpected dangers actors can face. During a particularly intense scene—the iconic T-Rex breakout scene—Neill encountered a hazardous incident with burning phosphorus.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Neill recounted the harrowing moment during the scene where his character, alongside Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, attempts to distract the T-Rex with flares in the pouring storm. It was during this sequence that Neill sustained a significant injury to his hand, caused by one of the flares he was holding.
“I’ve still got a big scar on my left hand that I’m looking at right now from the flare. It dropped some burning phosphorous on me and got under my watch and took a chunk of my arm out,” Neill recalled the painful experience.
Despite the scar, Neill’s efforts, along with the cast and crew’s, culminated in a cinematic masterpiece that went on to gross over $1.058 billion worldwide. The injury, albeit severe, was just one of many sacrifices that they had to make while filming of Jurassic Park. So maybe, Sam Neill wouldn’t be too displeased with the injury after all.
However, physical injuries weren’t the only challenges faced during production. According to People, Neill also detailed another terrifying experience in his memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This? that could have claimed the lives of the entire set. He described how the production team encountered a life-threatening hurricane while filming on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, which proved just as dangerous as any CGI dinosaur.
Apparently, the hurricane was so devastating, that it claimed six people’s lives and caused approximately $3 million damages.
“We almost died in the first few weeks where we were filming on Kauai in the Hawaiian archipelago. One morning we were told to stay back at the hotel and expect a hurricane later in the day. I was down on the beach with Laura Dern, who asked me: ‘Sam, do you think we might die today?’ As these massive black clouds approached over the Pacific I found I had to tell her that in all honesty the answer was yes, I thought we might,” wrote the Peaky Blinder alum.
Even without the Theropod dinosaurs, it seems that Sam Neill and the rest of the crew have had their fair share of troubles while filming already.
