The Stegosaurus attack. In older movies, Stegosaurus was depicted as a dumb, slow-moving animal that cannot defend itself properly from attack. Not this time.
The Triceratops charging down the tent that Ludlow and his men were in warrants a mention. Especially since the previous movie portrayed its Triceratops as ill. To see one in action in the Jurassic Park films for the first time shows us the awesomeness of the elephant-sized ceratopsian, something that wouldn't be seen again until well into the Jurassic World trilogy. The rest of the herbivores from Pachycephalosaurus to Parasaurolophus also all joining in on rampaging through the hunter camp.
Despite her lack of badassery in the movie, Sarah at least gets a few of her awesome moments, like surviving the Stegosaurus attack, helping Nick free the caged dinosaurs, having a raptor fall onto another raptor to provoke a fight between them while she escapes, and most notably tranquilizing the T-Rex in a nick of time, thus saving its life along with more human lives in San Diego!
Ian, upon hearing the advance of the T.rex couple on the mobile lab, is visibly flashing back to Isla Nublar and is clearly terrified. And yet he managed to muster his courage to not only voluntarily leave the safety of the high-hide, but get on the ground where the same species that nearly killed him is and be directly in their path so he can try and save Sarah and Nick.
Doubly so when you realize he got from the high-hide to the trailers on foot.
Despite it being bad for the Dinosaurs, you have to admit that Ingen's roundup, led by Roland, in a middle of a stampede, was nothing short of fantastic.
Also, the part where the Ingen motorcyclist zooms through the legs of a large Sauropod.
And when Nick accuses them of having no right to capture these dinos for their zoo, what is Ludlow's response?
Tembo shoots a Tyrannosaurus with a tranquillizer dart. The hulking monstrosity recoils in pain, roars at him and begins charging at him. Tembo, entirely undeterred, begins loading another dart into the rifle. Calmly staring down a very pissed-off adult T. rex takes a very special kind of man - a man who does not fear death.
"I believe I've spent enough time in the company of death."
When he makes himself clear to Ludlow:
Roland: Peter, if you want me to run your little camping trip, there are two conditions: Firstly, I'm in charge, and when I'm not around, Dieter is. All you have to do is sign the checks, tell us we're doing a good job, and open your case of scotch when we have a good day. Second condition: My fee. You can keep it. All I want in return for my services is the right to hunt one of the tyrannosaurs. A male, a buck only. How and when is my business. Now if you don't like either of those conditions, you're on your own. So go ahead, set up base camp right here, or in a swamp, or in the middle of a rex nest for all I care. But I've been on too many safaris with rich dentists to listen to any more suicidal ideas, OK?
Also, unlike Lex and Tim, who both became a mess by the end of the first movie, Kelly is the Tagalong Kid who's clever enough to avoid any dinosaur attacks and leave the island without even getting a scratch!
To date, Kelly is the only person who manage to kill an attacking dinosaur without weapons. While practically anyone with a weapon ends up as dino chow.
Even though he was a total asshole, Dieter is still shown to be capable of defending himself pretty well when he is first attacked by the Compsognathus pack. In fact, after being bitten all over his body, he appears to be more pissed off than in pain.
The T. rex's rampage in San Diego. Depending on your point of view, it can also qualify as Nightmare Fuel; call it scary-awesome if you like.
Particularly the part where the T. rex caves in the side of a bus by simply headbutting it. To top it off, the bull does this with enough force to send the bus riders through windows on the other side!
After being an utter dick to Malcolm at the start, watching Ludlow's shellshocked face as the rex rampages and Malcolm tells him "I fucking told you so" is nothing short of spectacular.
Malcolm:Now you're John Hammond.
It's also pretty satisfying to see the Baby T. rex attack Ludlow near the end of the movie.
It's especially karmic considering a deleted scene revealed that it was Ludlow himself who (albeit drunkenly) broke the poor infant's leg in the first place.
The final moments of The Climax. Before he was killed by the baby rex, Ludlow gave an order to InGen to send a helicopter with mercenaries armed to gun down the adult rex from above, thus necessitating Ian and Sarah to pull off their plan to safely trap the rex inside the cargo hold more quickly. The pair returns to the deck of the boat as the authorities are arriving and the helicopter (seen earlier in the background) is on the approach. Ian hurries to control panel operating the cargo hold doors and slams his hand down on the closing button. Sarah, carrying a tranquilizer rifle, loads a dart in and takes careful aim at the rex just as the helicopter flies in above her. Slowly, as the scene's orchestral score rises to its height, the helicopter hovers into position, allowing the mercenary sitting by the portside door to have a clear shot through the closing doors at the rex. In the next second, practically the length of a single human heartbeat, Sarah pulls the trigger first and lands the dart before the mercenary can fire, saving the rex. Never has the firing of a tranquillizer dart looked so awesome.
The final roar of the rex is also awesome as well.
