We have to remind ourselves regularly but, sadly, Jurassic Park is not a real thing.
We’re sorry to have to break it to you like this, but it turns out that an adventure park featuring real, live dinosaurs, painstakingly recreated using dino DNA preserved in amber exists only in a 1993 feature film, and subsequent sequels. And even then, it didn’t turn out to be a terribly good idea.
However, if you were lucky enough to travel to Hollywood, you’d have been able to actually visit an actual Jurassic Park via a legendary attraction at the Universal Studios theme park there.
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The Jurassic Park - The Ride was one of the most ambitious water slides ever built when it opened in 1996, off the back of the success of Steven Spielberg’s original film, and featured a journey through those iconic gates.
According to Universal Studios, its 84-foot descent was the largest of its kind at the time - but we bring terrible news: the ride will become extinct on 3 September, having stood for more than two decades.
It’s not all bad news, though – the old ride might be disappearing, but it’s going to be replaced by a something even more exciting: a ride based on the Jurassic World sequel.
David Hasselhoff and Pamela Bach were among the first people to try out the original ride
According to a release from Universal Studios Hollywood, the new ride is due to open in 2019, with time running out for fans to experience the original before it is replaced.
The Jurassic World ride is described as “part expedition, part heart-pounding water ride”, and will pay tribute to the franchise as a whole (albeit with a Jurassic World flavour).
Also, for those of you who want to kick it old school, you can still go on duplicates of the ride at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida; and Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, Japan.
The announcement of the new addition comes just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the original film, which starred Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum and was released in June 1993.
The second film in the sequel trilogy, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, is due for release in June 2018 and will see Goldblum reprise his role as Dr Ian Malcolm.
A further instalment, currently just known as Jurassic World 3, is due out in 2021.
2015’s Jurassic World, starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, grossed more than $1.67bn (£1.24bn), and is currently the fifth highest-grossing film of all time having recently been overtaken by Avengers: Infinity War.
(Images: Universal/Getty/Wikicommons)
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