Trivia: Hammond doesn't appear in the second book (though he does in the second movie). This is because, in the book series, Hammond was killed in the first book. He slipped, broke his ankle and was fatally attacked by compies.
Trivia: The T-Rex gets off the ship in San Diego. But the street seen is San Fernando Road in Burbank, about 130 miles north of San Diego. Nothing obvious unless you know the area, but worth a look for locals.
Trivia: In the book, the character Nick does not exist. Instead, there is a genius professor that is constantly going into battles of intelligence with Ian Malcolm. Also in the book, Kelly has absolutely no relation with Ian at all, Sarah is the last to get to the island (unknowingly with the bad guys), the professor is the reason they go to the island, and, as far as I can remember, Hammond doesn't make any appearance in the book.
Trivia: In the final scene when the little girl is watching the news, when it first shows the TV you can see the reflection of four people on the couch and one of them is Steven Spielberg. (01:54:55)
Trivia: Does anyone recognize the guy who was eaten by the T-Rex in San Diego? It was the screenwriter of Jurassic Park and The Lost World, David Koepp.
Trivia: About the book really, but it sort of relates - in the book of Lost World, Malcolm is a main character (like in the film), despite the fact that he dies at the end of Jurassic Park, the book. It's semi-explained away at the beginning when he's giving a speech and says something like "rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated", but even so - at a guess Jeff Goldblum had already signed up for a sequel...
Trivia: The scene where the trailer falls over the cliff was filmed using a multi-storey carpark.
Trivia: The T-rex that attacks Jeff Goldblum in the trailer was actually attached to the ground, so the sets were moved around it.
Trivia: The scene where the girl gets attacked by Compy's was actually in the first book. Spielberg didn't put it in the first movie because he thought it was too horrific, but he had no such qualms in the 2nd movie.
Trivia: The names of Roland Tembo and Nick Van Owen are references to the main characters in Warren Zevon's song "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner".
Trivia: At the end of the film, when we see the TV news report on the transportation of the T-Rex, if you look very closely at the TV screen you can see a reflection of Steven Spielberg sat on the couch seemingly next to Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Moore watching the CNN report. It's an intentional cameo, albeit a highly obscure one. (01:59:52)
Trivia: At one point, Steven Spielberg wasn't sure if he would direct the film. Joe Johnston, a former effects artist who got his start working on Spielberg and George Lucas films becoming a director in his own right, desperately wanted the job. Eventually, Spielberg decided to return to direct this film, but promised Johnston he would get to direct the next film. And true to his word, he let Johnston direct the following film, "Jurassic Park III."
Trivia: In Michael Crichton's original novel, John Hammond was a rather unlikeable character and was eaten alive by a swarm of Compsognathus dinos near the end. However, Steven Spielberg wanted to make John Hammond a more personable, sympathetic character in the first movie, allowing him to survive into sequel films. Therefore, John Hammond was spared. Nonetheless, the imagery of a person being swarmed and eaten by Compies was irresistible to Spielberg, and so the heavy character Dieter Stark was chosen as deserving victim of the lethal Compy attack in the second movie.
Trivia: When the bus crashes through the video rental store, one of the signs that are knocked over is for a movie called 'Tsunami Surprise'. There is no such movie. Almost other signage in the building is for movies that exist. Another exception is on the other side of the movie store's entrance - a movie poster for King Lear starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was commissioned from Drew Struzan, the legendary artist behind movie posters like Star Wars, by Spielberg as a bit of ribbing on Arnold and a reference to the fake movie Hamlet, part of Arnold's movie library in The Last Action Hero.
