Headscratchers / Jurassic Park III

Recognized satellite phone ringtone

• I just watched JP 3 and the first scene with the three 'mercenaries' has Udesky answer a sat phone with the ringtone the Kirbys recognize. Later, after the cash, Nash asks for the sat phone and Paul gives it to him. Right before the aviary, they hear the ringtone and ask who had the phone last, realizing it was Nash before he was eaten. So whose phone is it? Or are there two phones? If there's two phones, why does Udesky's phone have the same ringtone that's Kirbys' ringtone? Do all sat phones have the same ringtone? (I mean, they're fully a tool, not a tool and toy like a smart phone.) But if it's standard sat phone ringtone, why does Eric recognize it? What did Paul, the 'safer' of the two Kirby parents, even do to need a sat phone that it has the ringtone for the store and Eric recognizes it as such?

So the raptor makes it to the top of the cage door... then what?

• When the raptor has the protagonists trapped behind a door in the abandoned laboratory, it momentarily looks up to the top of the door and begins climbing, then the group takes advantage of this and shoves the door the other way, but, what exactly was it planning on doing had the humans not caught on in time? I mean, the space the characters were trapped in looked barely big enough to fit them all, and the raptor itself was WAY huge, so it wouldn't have been able to fit through even if the humans hadn't reacted in time.
  • Raptors are smart and form plans dynamically. It may have intended to reach the top of the cage door, hang on by its forelimbs and then use its large, powerful hind legs to force the door backwards off the hands of the protagonists (and hence, wide open), or at least just wide enough until the point where it could simply drop onto them, maul them first with its large leg claws and then the rest of its body. Clearly, its pushing strength (using the other cage fencing they were trapped behind as leverage) would be significantly stronger than the pulling force (they are only able to use their fingers to hold the fencing back) all of the protagonists would be able to exert to try and stop it.

Escaping Pterodactyls

• At the end of the movie, why wasn't anyone concerned that the Pterodactyls, who previously tried to eat them, were escaping from the island?
  • I don't think it was so much they didn't care, but there was nothing they could really do about it.
  • They could shoot them down.
  • They thought the door was closed. They didn't see it open because they had already left, in a running fashion.
  • Considering the fact that there was an entire Marine carrier force already there and the original ending had US Marines fighting it out with the Spinosaurus it wouldn't be that hard to do it.
  • I wasn't aware of that original ending. Could you provide a link or something? It has piqued my interest.
  • https://jurassicpark.fandom.com/wiki/Jurassic_Park_III_Deleted_Scenes#Alternate_endings
  • Animal Protection Act. The marines must follows their country rules everywhere, and the Pterodactyls didn't attack them...
  • You can kill an animal no matter what it is if it is threatening or attacking people, which Pterodactyls obviously do in the film. This means you can have naval fighter jets dogfighting with pterodactyls over the ocean before they reach the mainland.
  • Yeah, but they weren't an immediate threat. Just because you can shoot a dog while it's mauling someone doesn't mean you can go and shoot any dog on the street.
  • I would spill the blood of a DOZEN MEN to see that movie!!!
  • Wait, hold on. What I want to know is why make a big deal of the heroes leaving the aviary cage door open, and the dactyls escaping... when the second movie already showed dactyls flying freely in their habitat. The very last shot of The Lost World is a grandiose frame of one such critter perching on a tree and spreading its wings at the crescendo of music!
  • The birdcage was probably damaged somewhere that allowed the pteranodons to escape. Just because there are pteranodons inside the birdcage doesn't mean that all pteranodons are trapped inside the birdcage. The one we saw at the end of The Lost World could simply have been one of the free pteranodons. As to the question of why they didn't shoot down the pteranodons at the end of Jurassic Park III, what would be the point? Best case scenario, you may stop this handful of pteranodons from leaving the island, but what about all the other pteranodons on the island? The ones we saw flying away weren't all the pteranodons in Isla Sorna, and unless they're willing to commit resources to creating an active blockade around the island and shoot down anything that looks like it's leaving for an indefinite period of time, the unfortunate fact is that if flying dinosaurs can reach the mainland, flying dinosaurs are going to reach the mainland, this handful be damned. And if flying dinosaurs can't reach the mainland, then there's no point in bothering shooting them. Either way, attacking this flock would unnecessarily agitate them for no tangible gain whatsoever.
  • It seems reasonable to me that the pterosaurs were able to get in and out of the 'birdcage', hence the 'free' population, but many would choose to spend considerable time in there since it is a sheltered, protected environment and one purpose-built for them alone, which would be ideal for nesting and roosting in.
  • Domestic birds do often prefer to stay in bird cages as it's safe in them, so yes.
  • I'd like to point out that the Pteranodons only seemed to want to attack the group for instinctual reasons; the one that attacked Eric was a mother (or possibly a father) and simply wanted to feed her babies. The babies themselves, obviously, were just hungry and wanted to eat what their mom brought home for dinner. The rest of the flock seemed to be territorial, and simply trying to protect their turf.
  • I figured that leaving the cage open accidentally was the reason Billy managed to escape the Pteranodons and survive.
  • The reigning theory among the Jurassic Park community is that these Pteranodon are exactly what Grant described InGen's dinosaurs as: genetically-engineered monsters. For the Jurassic Park Encyclopedia project, they are considered a distinct species called Pteranodon hippocratesi, "wing-without-tooth hypocrite" to account for their morphological differences (even considering that they have inaccurate grasping talons). It's thought that these were a first attempt at cloning Pteranodon and failed for some reason (possibly contamination with other species, hence the teeth) and were locked up in the bird cage for being too aggressive while InGen went on to create a more peaceful type of pterosaur like those seen at the end of The Lost World. However, it's also speculated that the final scene of Isla Sorna in The Lost World may have been in Kelly's imagination, and therefore that the Pteranodon shown there doesn't actually exist. Years after both movies, the Telltale game was made (which is considered canon to the films) and a Pteranodon appeared on Isla Nublar which, indeed, was identical to the pterosaurs seen in Jurassic Park III.

Spinosaurus vs. airplane

• How does exactly Spinosaurus get hit by a large airplane and does not show much damage later? How come it didn't even get knocked down?
  • There's a fan theory (elsewhere on this page) that there were actually two Spinosaurs, one was killed by the airplane and the other spent the film chasing the protagonists in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge for killing its mate.
  • Alternatively again, DID the plane actually hit the Spinosaurus? I always thought the blood on the wind-shield was Cooper's, and it really looked like the plane pulled up in time and just barely flew OVER the dinosaur. There's also no bang in the sound effects to indicate an impact. see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7cRx_7umjE If the plane did any damage, it seems like it would have just nicked the top of the dinosaur's sail.
  • Watching the crash at quarter speed, it seems clear that the blood spray was from the Spinosaurus' sail.
  • Seconding the idea that the plane just nicked the spino's sail. Not enough to kill it, but enough to really piss it off.

Spinosaurus vs T. Rex

• The Spinosaurus' fight with the T-Rex is settled (absurdly quickly, for one thing) when the Spinosaurus bites the T-Rex's neck...and then breaks it with nothing more than a downward flick of its head and a twist of one wrist. Did they spend all their budget on the awful CGI and didn't have enough for a prolonged fight? Because cranking the neck is an awful way to try and kill something of comparable size, and that's with humans. For something as jaw-and-neck reliant as a T-Rex, one would think the spine and neck muscles would be... y'know, tough. As it stands, it looked like the T-Rex could've killed itself without the Spinosaurus' help by eating a bit too enthusiastically.
  • Since the only reason the Spinosaurus was introduced in this movie was because the producers wanted a larger dinosaur than the T-Rex, a different dinosaur that would really shine, they had to make it clear to the audience that this is one badass creature no one would want to mess with. The best way to show that? Make the Spino kill the Rex in the most awesome way. And said way was to apparently snap the Rex´s neck. Realistic? No. But the Spinosaurus portrayal in this movie is FAR from realistic since in real life the Rex would most likely have been the one to kill the Spino with ease since, like you said, they had tough jaws and the Spino was mainly a fish eater.
  • A Spinosaurus' wouldn't be able to move their arms the way they were shown in the movie. And not to mention that the large frill on their back that they get their name from is connected to their spines and is pretty fragile. The Spinosaurus fell at least once during his fight with the T. Rex and I'm pretty sure the spine hit the ground. It would have been paralysed or outright dead from that. From what I hear the consultant for the dinosaurs believed the T. Rex was a scavenger and wanted to get his beliefs across via a fictional movie.
  • By pure jaw strength the T-Rex would have a lot easier time killing the Spino, then a Spino could ever have killing a T-Rex. However given the Spino is bigger, the T-Rex might have had problems getting a decent bite on it. The T-Rex as a predator or scavenger is usually believed limited to going after things smaller than it because of it's structure. Truthfully speaking odds are better the two would get so annoyed that it be too difficult to end the fight and back off then either winning decisively. Unless one is very sick or had a strange mutation.
  • Much of this information can be cleared up with three things.
    • One, the fight was supposed to be a little longer, and more even, but in an amusing twist of fate, the newer spinosaur animatronic accidentally decapitated the tyrannosaur one, which had been re-purposed from The Lost World, thus resulting in the mostly CG fight seen in the final film.
    • Two; this tyrannosaur is a subadult, and as such is slightly smaller and less experienced than previously seen ones.
    • And three, it is implied through the supplementary material from the World films that the spinosaur was a prototype hybrid, which likely explains its unusual strength, durability (the Indominus rex also withstood bites from Rexy and the mosasaur), intelligence, sadism/grudge-holding, and overall, differences from the real animal.

Why does the Spinosaurus live after a bite from the T-Rex?

• That the Spinosaurus didn't die when the T-Rex bit down on its neck. Given the strength of a Tyrannosaurus's jaws, the fact that the Spino survived is absurd.
  • Spinosaurus was replacing Tyrannosaurus as the film's large predator antagonist. Becoming the Big Bad grants you immunity to the attacks of the one whose job you're taking.
  • Either that, or this Spinosaurus has a tougher skin due to some discrepancies in his DNA made while cloning. These aren't the same dinosaurs from the Mesozoic era, they're clones of dinosaurs made by humans.
  • As stated in the above folder, the Spino was a prototype hybrid (a precursor to the I. rex), making it tough enough to withstand a T. rex attack.
  • When predators fight, they usually don't strike to kill. Also, the Rex's bite didn't appear to be full force, and was probably intended to merely restrain, and get the Spino to back down. The Spino probably did go for the kill, because it was wounded, and therefore very angry.

Spinosaurus vs. Door

• The Spinosaurus smashes its way through a fence made of rather thick steel. Shortly afterwards, it is stopped in its tracks by... wait for it... a wooden door. That's just... sense, I make... none at what. GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH
  • Maybe it had an adrenaline rush when smashing through the fence, then didn't calm down and start actually feeling the pain it had just inflicted on itself until after they had shut the doors. Probably not what the filmmakers intended, but it kinda sorta makes sense, and makes for an amusing mental image.
  • It's not wooden, and the fence wasn't very thick. Maybe the spikes, but the Spino avoided those.
  • The fence looks like it shatters into chunks fairly 'easily' (allowing for the size and power of the dino slamming into it, that is) to permit the spinosaur's passage, whereas the doors to the bunker appear a lot more solid and resistant, at first glance at least. Also, perhaps the fact it's an opaque barrier confuses the dinosaur: after all, it can see its targets through the fence, whereas to its limited brain they must have seemed to disappear into solid rock once the door closes.
  • If you take it on the level of a T-rex, since it couldn't see or hear its prey, it decided it had escaped. Alternatively it decided "Well, screw this, they're just little snackettes; they're not worth this effort."
  • Theropod dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Spinosaurus were actually quite intelligent. So it was likely what the poster above said. Too much effort for too little food.
  • There's also the fact that, because the door is shorter than the spino, it can't get at it in the same way as the fence. Notice that it smashes through the fence with its whole body. I mean, what's it gonna do with a door half it's height? What'll it break the door down with? The tip of its snout? It's not happening.
  • Maybe it's simply learned from experience? The first time it smashed through a barrier, it was a metal fence that took a lot of effort and was fairly painful to collide with. Next time it's confronted by a barrier, it's wary of trying to smash through full-force, not being smart enough to tell just by looking that a wooden door would be weaker.
  • That part of the world is notoriously humid, and metal doesn't last very long in that kind of environment before rusting out, without regular maintenance, which, given the place has been abandoned for eight years, probably hasn't been happening. As for the door, for the same reason trees in those parts are extremely resilient, to avoid rotting. One would assume the door was made from local wood.

Spinosaurus' Preference of Prey

• Why does Mr. Spino keep preferring to hunt the tiny humans over other dinosaurs? He just killed off a T-rex that weighs several tons and that's a lot of fresh meat, the dead T-rex would make much more of a meal! And also, the island is full of herbivorous dinosaurs like Parasauralophus and Corythosaurus, two species that also have more meat content than humans.
  • Two reasons. One, they did shred its hide with a plane; it's probably rather pissed. And two, the World marketing has implied that it may be a hybrid; the Indominus was shown to be clearly sadistic and kill for sport, so it's not unlikely that the spinosaur would do the same.
  • Also, it probably did gorge itself on the Rex, but it wanted some dessert and enjoyed the sport of hunting the humans (who again, gave it cause for revenge as additional motivation).
  • It also seems like the humans just have the bad luck of just stumbling onto the spinosaurus again and again. It's not so much hunting them as they just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when tasty snacks are right there in front of you, you're probably going to go after them, even if it's by instinct to chase something that runs rather than actual hunger.

Billy's Survival

• How did they find and save Billy? I can accept him SOMEHOW escaping the Pteranodons. But then he turns up on the plane; it took them the best part of the day to boat down that river, with dinosaurs all over the place! How'd he get found? This is one of the things that hits me worse than anything.
  • Billy escaped the Pteranodons but he was severely injured, and the helicopter flew over the island before the marines got there and saw his bloody body because blood spreads in water, so they rescued him first?
  • It's a hell of a guess and I wish they'd spent at least thirty seconds explaining how a man wounded by Pteranodons as badly as Billy seemed to be, managed to evade the same animals that wanted to eat him and can fly, then survive for a day and a half all on his own with zero resources. Yes, Eric survived but that was by holing up- Billy didn't hole up or he wouldn't have been found.
  • Or maybe he just, y'know, lit a signal fire and then waited for rescue in a nearby hiding place. He was probably hoping the others from his group would spot the signal, but they were too busy playing tag with theropods, so the marines found him first.

Site B's Condition

• Why is everything in such poor condition? Nedry's hacking wouldn't affect Site B, it being on a different island, and yet with a few exceptions (the Pteranodons), all the dinos are completely running loose. Sure, things have been shut down and nobody's maintaining the fences or anything, but InGen would know that a) the dinos are breeding, b) they're worth god knows how many millions of dollars, and c) they will eat each other if left alone. Unless you want to see how they interact, there's no reason to keep the dinosaurs together, especially since InGen clearly isn't concerned about spending money on the fences. Why are all the dinos seemingly in one giant area with only a single fence that we see, when Site B was apparently more of a production facility than a behavioural observatory?
  • When the investors pulled the plug because of the disaster on Site A everything collapsed financially and the staff were laid off; rather than euthanise the animals in Site B they just undid the paddock locks, and turned off the juice on the fences before pulling out. We do see paddock fences in this movie, the Spinosaurus crashes through one.
  • If you go by The Lost World (1995), then InGen abandoned the site shortly after the disaster at Jurassic Park, since it was bankrupted and selling off it's assets, but the dinosaur program was so top-secret most of the company didn't know anything about it. The dinosaurs had been let out to run as juveniles because of a mysterious disease affecting the animals, and the staff hoping that leaving them on their own for awhile would help deter the illness, so the dinos were still just on the loose when the humans packed up and left. If you go by The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Hammond states that shortly after the first film, "a hurricane wiped out our facility at Site B, call it an act of God." Presumably the hurricane severely damaged or destroyed whatever containment pens were holding the animals, along with the production labs.

Exposed Raptor Nest

• Why would the raptors leave their nest completely exposed and unguarded? What's to stop anything from eating or stealing the eggs (like Billy did)?
  • The pack were probably only gone for a hunt, and the raptors had probably marked their territory, so any animal would smell GODDAMN RAPTORS and avoid the nest like it was a... well, Raptor nest. We only see one thing go near them, and that's humans, who don't have the whole danger smell thing, we have a handy thing called common sense to replace it (everyone except Billy).
    • No, no matter how much they may be feared, there will always be animals desperate enough for food that they will try to eat them. This is why all animals that lay eggs either lay them in large quantities to compensate for the ones that get eaten, or protect them by either placing them in difficult to reach places, burying them, or keeping constant watch over them.

The Kirbys' wealth

• The Kirbys lie to Grant about being rich when Paul actually runs a paint and tile store. So how could they afford to hire a plane and three mercenaries to accompany them to the island?
  • Lied to them, too?
  • Depends on what the mercenaries were charging. Paul and Amanda could have also sold stuff they owned and gotten loans to get enough money to pay for everything minus Dr. Grant and Billy. Paul and Amanda are probably returning home to a mountain of debt, though possibly not as much if the mercenaries were being paid in cash and not receiving the whole payment up front (going to the island in the first place was illegal, not something you want to have recorded).
    • The film calls them "mercenaries", but that's not really a thing. They were either private security contractors (glorified body guards) or big game hunters/wilderness guides who happened to have access to some high-grade (probably illegal) weaponry. Hiring them would have been expensive, but not impossibly so.
  • The mercs are dead. It's perfectly possible they were offered payment afterwards (to hide that they couldn't pay) and so the Kirbys don't owe them anything.
  • It seems that they're fairly well off and the guys they hired weren't exactly the best of the best either. The contractor they hire admits to being basically a glorified booking agent when Kirby admits he outfits kitchens for a living.
  • I'm sure they couldn't hire a plane without putting down a sizeable deposit. Come to that I daresay they couldn't hire three mercenaries without putting down a sizeable deposit. These are not the kind of people who deal in IO Us. What were they going to do if the mercenaries survived and found there was no money for them?
    • It doesn't cost millions of dollars to rent a private plane, especially if you lie rampantly about what it's to be used for. We know the Kirbys are divorced, which means separate residences. If they mortgaged both houses and maxed out all their credit cards, they'd easily have enough to pay for everything we see. This is in line with Kirby's character, a man willing to sacrifice everything to rescue his son.
  • Not all mercenaries are Deadpool-style price-bracket assassins. I always figured that the Kirbys found Udesky, and told him their budget and roughly what they needed. He went out and found cheap mercs- there are a wide sliding scale of mercenaries, depending on what you want done and how much you can pay.
    • Let's also not discount the notion that the guys took the job for the thrill of it. Think about it: you're a danger-seeking, gun-toting, self-styled "mercenary", and someone offers you a job going to monster island? There's no way you're turning that down.
    • Seeing as Tembo—a much more professional, better-equipped "mercenary"—from the second film had exactly that motivation, that explains it pretty well.
  • Udesky actually mentions at one point that they were paid up front. It seems likely that Paul paid them everything he had, and had to resort to the "Kirby Enterprises" trick for Grant afterward.

What ate the boat guys?

• The beginning continues to drive me crazy. What snatched those two guys off the moving speedboat while taking the time to tug on the parasurfer's cord a few times? Please, tell me!
  • Raptors. Trained by Solid Snake.
  • I think that's one of the most-debated things about the movie. There are lots of theories, I have never seen a solid, proven answer. Either the Spinosaurus swam out and attacked the boat, or the raptors did (I read that raptors could swim, not sure if it's true), or the pterosaurs are responsible. Didn't narrow it down much, I know. I think it was meant to be left to the imagination.
  • Maybe there was supposed to be a plesiosaur-type critter in the film, but they changed it later? I know I kept expecting one of those to attack when they were travelling down the river.
  • I always assumed it was meant to the spinosaur – it's known to be able to swim, and was probably at least partly piscivorous, so could well have been 'sea-fishing'. This scene seemed like the film foreshadowing its coming role as the Big Bad. It's only from reading TV Tropes one realises what a classic moment of Fridge Logic results from pondering this explanation, as you realise it's not actually at all clear or even necessarily probable. Otherwise, perhaps it was the same marine ninja-predator as mysteriously attacked the cargo ship en route to San Diego in the previous film...
  • A bigger question might be, how the hell did they end up near the island anyway, I mean they were parasailing weren't they? That's not something you do way out over the ocean is it?
  • There's a reason the service was called "Dino-Soar".
  • The script has an alternate ending. We find out that the pterosaurs attacked the boat. As the military comes to the rescue the pterosaurs attack.
  • Truthfully, there is no culprit for who killed the boat operators. The script writers did not consider specifically what ate them. The reigning theories are the Spinosaurus (which makes little sense since a creature that size would probably have capsized the boat) or the Pteranodons (which also makes little sense because they would have been seen).
  • One YouTube channel claims an early draft of the script identified the Pteradons as the attackers. Alternatively, either a plesiosaur (/other aquatic dino) or the spinosaur could work and not necessarily have to capsize the boat. The fog bank was quite thick in terms of breadth and width, so if it was swimming roughly perpendicularly to the bearing of the boat, either type of creature could have plucked both tour operators in a single bite, caused the damage seen to the boat itself, and rocked it back and forth (as seen by the parasailing turbulence). The creature could have then dove underwater and swallowed its meal, or swallowed it then dove, without Eric and Ben witnessing it. One thing which doesn't seem to work as a potential culprit are the raptors. We haven't seen them swim in other films (so it stretches credibility even if they were capable of it in real life) and they seem like the type to have stayed aboard the boat to finish the meal, rather than pushing their prey into the water (and then what? "Lifeguard" it back to the nest? Lose it to the sea?).

What are the pterosaurs living off?

• Here's one: the pterosaurs are in a giant birdcage from which they can't escape (until the protagonists leave the door open), right? HOW ARE THEY STILL ALIVE AFTER X Years?!? Did they all just catch really big catfish or something?
  • Their cage had a rather big river down there. And Pteros are known as fish eaters.
  • Even so, there'd have to be gigantic fish in that river to sustain a population of huge flying animals. Also considering not all pterosaurs were fish eaters it could in theory not apply to JP Pteranodons; perhaps they survived on a diet of dinosaur carcasses washed down the river?
  • In the book, it's made explicit that the pterodactyls are in fact fish-eating cearadactyls.
  • Billy finds a human skull in the Pteranodon nest he's taken to. If that skull belongs to one of the Costa Ricans we saw going missing in the prologue, aside from explaining the opening scene, it would determine that the Pteranodons are not and never were trapped in that dome (because it's open or broken somewhere) but were just using it as a nest since it was there where they had been born. What we see at the end are just a bunch of youngsters coincidentally getting out of momma and poppa's home in search for a new place for them.
  • Maybe, but it could just as easily have been the skull of an InGen employee, or some other individual who decided to visit the island (illegally and to their demise).

Off-screen Ellie too amazing in Jurassic Park 3?

• All right, I can believe that Ellie Sattler from the first movie still has connections with Hammond, and that Hammond can get the "Costa Rican Navy" (or even the US Navy) to pull an emergency rescue operation. It's unbelievably far-fetched, but so is the entirety of the third movie. What I want to know is how she got from the United States to Isla Sorna, with an entire military landing battalion in tow, in the few minutes/no more than a few hours since Grant sent out a very mangled and unintelligible call and the moment they arrived at the beach. Does she have super-speed on top of her improbable commanding skills, too?
  • Actually, I believe it was Ellie's new husband who got the military to go save them. He worked at the State Department.
  • They might've been stationed near Isla Sorna already, possibly on a training exercise, or even to monitor the island and make sure no more suicidal idiots tried to go there. The U.S. Navy has vessels all over the world.
  • Yep. The Navy is capable of reaching anywhere on Earth in six hours, and Isla Sorna is not even overly far (relatively speaking) from say the San Diego port.
  • Plus, the freighter that carries Daddy T.rex & Junior back to Isla Sorna in The Lost World is escorted by warships and aerial support, making it even likelier that there's a permanent military blockade both preventing civilian access to the island, and keeping dinosaurs from getting out. While it doesn't explain Ellie getting there in the blink of an eye, it would make sense that she (or Hammond) could send an emergency call, and have it answered within minutes.
  • Well that makes them utterly inept doesn't it? Where were they at the start of the movie, on their coffee break?
  • Ellie wasn't there at all.
  • What about the government... not quite blockade, but those that tell the Kirbys' plane not to enter the island's airspace? That may have clued someone in that they should send someone in.
  • If any such naval detachment was stationed off Isla Sorna, it'd be to keep out black market animal poachers and corporate raids for genetic secrets, not tour groups whose guides would be obligated to keep a safe distance. The "Ptero-Soar" boat crew broke the rules, probably endangering their license from the Costa Rican government, and the Kirbys would've had their pilot file a bogus flight plan.

Check That Check, Grant!

• I realize that the reason for this is "because there wouldn't have been a movie otherwise," but it has always sent me right up the wall that Grant didn't deposit or at least try to validate the check he was given.
  • I guess he deposited the check but then left immediately. The check would have bounced in a few days, but he didn't know that yet. The people "paying" him were in a pretty big hurry.

That skeleton in the tree

• What happened there with the skeleton? Did Eric decide to leave him there and he slowly died and decomposed, or did a dinosaur come along eat a small piece of flesh (enough to kill him) then decide not to eat the rest? None of those seem like very valid answers. Was it the small dinosaurs (compies or something)?
  • I've always imagined that Eric had to flee from the site because of something, and simply couldn't come back to rescue the guy, so he starved.//

... Wait a minute, how long was he stranded there again? And is that enough time for a human to decompose that much?//... In any case, the movie makers clearly wanted a cheap jump-scare, and this was a perfect opportunity for that.

• Eric was on the island for eight weeks (but believed it had been much longer).
• The first time I saw this movie, I assumed he died in the landing (hit his head on something, broke his neck, etc.) and just the kid survived. The kid probably had to run from some dino trying to eat him and didn't bother to give the body a proper burial. As for the state of decomposition, I assumed compys or some other small dino picked away at the body.
• Supposedly, the footage on the camera originally showed Ben (the guy) being attacked either by raptors or compys or something.
• Decomposition is a lot faster in a tropical climate with high temperature and humidity, and with a lot of scavenging insects around (never mind all the dinosaurs).
• Listen to this theory on it. Warning-it is NOT pretty. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKnyOLfbP8Y)

• Well, the corpse doesn't have legs when it falls from the tree. Did something go "om nom nom" and eat him? Probably.
  • There's apparently a deleted scene which shows he was set upon by velociraptors before he was able to release himself from his parachute. Which means likely he was trapped all strung up while they tore his legs off and ate him. Not like it can be said he was too intact. Even with 8 weeks of decomposition in a jungle, he had a lot of flesh missing. Safe to assume the big velociraptors killed him after landing, and then smaller dinos that could make the climb up picked off the remaining scraps since nothing else wanted to dedicate time to tearing him free of the parachute strings until the human group came along.

Billy's need for redemption

• So it's revealed after the group comes back together that the reason the Raptors are chasing the group is that Billy stole a couple of eggs from their nest, hoping to sell them on the mainland to keep funding his and Alan's dig, but when Alan finds out after Billy fully admits he messed up and it was an impulse thing, Alan calls him "no better than the people who built this place" erm... no, no he is not, unlike InGen or Hammond he is fully willing to fess up and admit his mistakes, as he said it was an impulse, if he could jaunt back to the nest and replace them he would, admittedly this causes him to base jump to the rescue when Eric gets captured by Pteros, but the amount of condemnation Alan seems to put on him for making one stupid choice (a very stupid one but still only stupid, not evil), is rather harsh what was with that?
  • Kind of a subjective thing, but I'll do my best to answer. Alan's reason for his vitriol, as best I can guess, is because he is back at the center of a life-threatening situation, that he is clearly still traumatized from the first film's events, and Billy's decision, regardless of the intentions or merit, has endangered their lives and gotten one of them killed. Alan himself admits later he Was Too Hard on Him, and even before that tries to stop him from base-jumping, so Alan simply let his feelings run away with him, like many do.
  • It also plays into the motivation of Ripley in the Alien films. She's disgusted by the corporate greed of The Company whih would risk bringing extremely dangerous killing machines back to civilisation (and hence risk wiping it out) for profit. Now two baby raptors (or if you like, however many a bioengineering firm could get to breed and/or clone from those two) aren't going to wipe out civilisation like a bunch of Xenomorphs, but they are still very dangerous and Grant finds the profit motive Billy is showing (even for the relatively altrusitic reason of wanting to keep the dig going) by risking that grotesque.

Dino-Soar doesn't live up to its name

• Parasailing is exciting. Parasailing through forbidden areas even more so. And parasailing close to a forbidden island full of dinosaurs must be an absolute thrill. Nevertheless, what did they expect to see? Isla Sorna just like Isla Nublar is surrounded by steep hills and cliffs full of lush vegetation. The line Ben and Eric are attached to might measure no more than 20, 30 metres. Unless Enrique planned to sail upstream, there's no chance they could have seen any dinosaur. Add the fact that it's illegal and Enrique risks a hefty fine, you can only imagine how much money Ben must have paid for a tiresome hour-long boat ride to Isla Sorna, only to see that there's jungle everywhere. It's pretty much a scam.
  • Perhaps in previous tours they had seen pteranodons flying at a sufficiently far distance to give them a false sense of security for their touring operation. Also, the end of the movie shows that at least part of Sorna has flat beach as a boundary, and certain species may have cause to go there (e.g. T-Rex spots a herbivore and chases it onto the beach). The tour would presumably circumnavigate the entire island, and see the beach too.

The Kirbys' bad parenting

• Why would the Kirbys ever agree to let their son go on what is obviously an illegal tour to an island infested with dozens of giant prehistoric carnivores? Especially since only a few years ago they must have seen on the news that one of the creatures from that same island had rampaged through San Diego and killed several people? And how weren’t they arrested after telling the Costa Rican/United States governments that they sent Eric to Isla Sorna?
  • Amanda seems to be far more of a risk-taker than Paul, and since it's her boyfriend actually taking Eric, she may simply have decided it would be something fun. Enrique himself says he's not getting too close to the island for obvious reasons, so it seems likely they decided it wouldn't really be that much more dangerous than a standard parasailing trip anyway. Plus, technically they didn't take Eric to Isla Sorna — Ben did, and it wouldn't be hard to foist responsibility for where Eric went on someone who was probably in big trouble either way.

Satellite Phone still working

• How was the satellite phone still able to work and function properly after it got eaten and digested by the Spinosaurus would the dinos stomach enzymes destroy it or melt it but when it's found in the dung it's completely intact.