Welcome To Jurassic Park...

At Kualoa Ranch, the gates to Jurassic Park are always open

Since landing in Honolulu, Hawai'i a few days ago, we haven't just been lucky enough to visit the city zoo where scenes from Jurassic World were filmed (see the elephant pictures below, whose enclosure doubled as the film's Gentle Giants petting zoo), but just yesterday morning we were even luckier to visit the real thing. Yes, we spent the day in Oahu's Kualoa Ranch, where the box-office monsters Jurassic Park and Jurassic World were filmed, in 1992 and 2014, respectively. 

I'm not just a huge Jurassic Park fan - the original film helped shape who I am creatively, and Michael Crichton, author of both worldwide bestsellers Jurassic Park and The Lost World, is also a huge inspiration behind my passion for writing. Simply put, the dino-blockbuster is the reason I love films and writing. But it also gave me a deep love for the great outdoors too. As a child, those lush green mountainous backdrops from the film evoked deep desires to go on adventures of my own one day. Sure, I was never going to see real dinosaurs, but Kualoa Ranch is the closest thing to a real Jurassic Park and yesterday was one of my biggest adventures yet.

A no-brainer for films

I'll start briefly with Honolulu Zoo though, which we visited the day before. In a way, that too might just be the real Jurassic Park. And that's not just because some brief scenes were filmed there for the fourth movie, but also because a lot of the animals were no-shows. That said, it was an awesome day out and it was incredible to step foot in a location where part of the latest film was shot. But before I move on, I'd like to confirm that no animals in Honolulu Zoo were harmed during the making of Jurassic World. At least to the best of my knowledge. Whilst in the real petting zoo, I did wonder, where’s the goat?

Honolulu Zoo's gentle giants

Jurassic World's not-so-gentle not-so giants

Tropical, rugged, lush green mountains with almost vertical slopes - undoubtedly impossible for any climber or hiker to traverse - and with sharp peaks shrouded in thick steely-grey clouds, dominate the landscape in this part of Oahu. It wasn't the sunniest of days, but come to think of it, I don't recall scenes from the first movie where the sun shines down on our characters as they make their way across the park. In fact, now that I think of it, for the most part it's pretty overcast much like it was yesterday. Perhaps that's why the filmmakers picked it: Kualoa is tropical and it's gorgeous, but there's a certain greyness, a darkness here that may have been just as alluring to them as the landscape itself.

A rugged beauty

Our first stop on the tour bus saw us jump out at a viewing point which was used as the helipad in Jurassic World, where you’ll remember Masrani landing his helicopter at the beginning, and also at the end when it serves as the platform in the foreground for the victorious T-Rex as she roars, once again reclaiming Nublar as her kingdom. The landscape in the distance is of course the park, but in reality it’s the coast of Kualoa Ranch; the ‘fish pond’ used as the Mosasaurus tank, and the domed island inspired the domed-roof building in the same location. Check out the pictures below for comparison.  

Our tour guide sure did resemble Masrani

See the same back drop in the picture below

She got in the way of our picture-taking

Pilwali: used in the scene below

Filmmaking magic

The 'fish pond' of Pilwali served as the Mosasaurus Tank

By this point, and bear in mind this was the first hop-off, I was already acting like a child at Christmas. Sian can testify that my legs were swinging off the seat in the back of the bus and as soon as our tour guide asked which our favourites in the franchise were, my hand shot up. But then she was behaving no differently, just a little less conspicuous. And our next stop was even more epic: we were taken inside the insanely-vicious Indominus Rex’s paddock, the very one used in Jurassic World. Luckily, he wasn’t there, but walking in through the main gates was quite an experience. The structure certainly looks a lot bigger than you might expect, and you’ll be happy to know it’s still being maintained by Kualoa Ranch. Once inside, we saw the now-infamous scratched wall, which the I-Rex used as a rouse to trick our rather gullible characters in the film.

Chris Pratt investigates the I-Rex in the film

The I-Rex paddock with the gate wide open. Nothing has changed then

Kualoa Ranch are making the same mistakes as Jurassic World

No Dans or Sians were harmed during the making of this picture

We then climbed the staircase up into the viewing room, where Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire spends a fair bit of time in the film. Inside we looked out into the forest before us to see if the I-Rex was actually still around and simply camouflaging, and we also recreated the classic poster that sees Bryce staring the I-Rex head-on. But it wasn’t just the bigger picture that impressed – it was the devil in the detail. Some props and paraphernalia from the films are still very much there and intact, such as warning signs, posters and maps of the fictitious Isla Nublar. These haven’t just been added to appease fans of the franchise – they were used in the latest film itself. From there, we visited the site where Owen’s bungalow was featured in the film. As you can see from the picture below it’s no longer there, but it was very cool nonetheless. Following this, we passed the river where the I-Rex chomped on the ACU.

The setting for Owen's bungalow

Bryce and Chris play our stunt-doubles on-set

The staff at Kualoa Ranch take no chances

Don't forget - it can camouflage!

After leaving the forest, we entered Kualoa Ranch valley, which sits between Kualoa's three mountains. These giant rocks strangely resemble frozen tidal waves except of course lush green rather than blue. On first glance there’s simply no doubting that this landscape has served many films over the years, and perhaps the most impressive thing is how they actually seem to dwarf all those iconic scenes in your head, rather than underwhelm. One scene that flocks your way when you’re standing here is the one from Jurassic Park when Alan, Lex and Tim are caught in a flock of Gallimimus. That’s because those pictures of the rise below – now marked with white lines – is exactly where that iconic and complex scene was shot…

Alan, Lex and Tim outrun a flock of gallimimus

And they were flocking that way

On entering the valley, just before this particular area, I must also add that we passed through the field where a similar scene was shot in Jurassic World using the same dinosaurs. Just look at the pictures below and you can see that they’re almost identical, bar the dinosaurs of course. But it was the valley from the original film that really left an impression on me. That, and the same log Alan and the kids hid behind while the T-Rex hunts and kills one of the unfortunate dinosaurs. Luckily we were there under much better circumstances.

Jurassic World re-imagines the iconic 1993 scene

And the dinosaurs go missing again. Not surprising

Posing for Alan, Lex and Tim

Alan, Lex and Tim looking pretty impressed at our set-visit

And now it’s time for the drum roll. Or water vibrations. We have exclusive news on next year’s yet to be titled Jurassic World 2. After cheekily asking our tour guide about the new movie and whether they had started filming in the area yet, he told us that the crews are already in Kualoa Ranch building the new sets ready for the stars who are still currently in London completing scenes in Pinewood Studios. But even better than that, once our movie tour had ended he decided to deviate from our tour and take us as close to the set as possible (we didn’t visit any sick triceratops though). I am thrilled to say that we have beaten the press, the internet and even the actors to the set of the new Jurassic World movie, which is currently going under the false name of Ancient Futures. Check out the pictures below.

Could this small bunker be the home for another new dinosaur?

No stars here yet but plenty of workers building the new sets

I don't think this is where Bryce and Chris will be sleeping

Just another day in the park

Two more structures up in the hills. This is also where the Gyrosphere Loading Dock was used in Jurassic World

As you can see, it looks like they’ve already built some sort of small bunker, and on closer inspection there are plenty more building materials dotted about all over the place. Further uphill, there are two other buildings but it's hard to make out from such a distance. But nearby a new road is also being built to connect the new set to Kualoa Ranch's WW2 bunker (see my next Kualoa Ranch post for more). One thing’s for sure, the ranch will no doubt serve as Isla Nublar for a third time. 

The filmmakers have confirmed that the plot for Jurassic World 2 will be very different to the previous film and that it won’t just be another cat-and-mouse chase on an island, but we also know it’s a continuation of the story, so it’s more than likely that Nublar will still feature in some shape or form, especially considering Kualoa Ranch has returned as a filming location. So far they’ve shot scenes in Slough, UK and are now scouting areas in Wales too, though that’s yet to be confirmed. But what we do know, exclusively, is that they will start filming in Kualoa Ranch on June 5^th and will aim to wrap up on July 15^th. I can also tell you that Jeff Goldblum was seen near the area quite recently, so it’s possible he’s already shot his scenes - but that’s just speculation. It’s believed that the film has an earth-shattering budget of $600-700 million dollars, so between that and the premature set below, we can expect something even more epic than the last instalment.

Jurassic World 2's first poster is full of intrigue and mystery

That marks the end of our Jurassic tour but the ‘Premier VIP Movie Tour’ did of course include some amazing sets and props from other films. Kualoa Ranch hasn't just served the Jurassic Park films, - it's been the cinematic playground for countless films since the 1950s, including the likes of You, Me & Dupree, Pearl Harbour, Mighty Joe Young, Godzilla ’98, Godzilla 2014, 50 First Dates, Snatched and Kong: Skull Island, as well as TV shows such as Lost and Hawaii 5-0. But as I don’t want to bloat this post any more than I already have, I’ll save those for the next one, which will include a quick scoop on the new Jumanji movie and Marvel’s Inhumans. As for our Jurassic tour, you could say it was an excursion sixty-five million years in the making. Or perhaps just twenty-four years. 

Jurassic World 2 hits UK theatres on June 7 2018 and US theatres on June 22.