Fantastic Fake Movies That Only Exist in The Lost World: Jurassic Park

A week or so ago, I noticed that several of the older Jurassic Park movies are now available on Netflix. With Jurassic World now on HBO, I decided I wanted to go back and re-watch all of the earlier movies (though I honestly don’t remember much more than the first movie).

While I was watching the second movie (The Lost World: Jurassic Park), I noticed something really peculiar. Towards the end of the movie, when a bus is being attacked by the T-Rex… there’s a brief shot of the interior of a video rental store.

Oh, man. I feel like I should explain this a bit, as the number of people who remember what a video rental store is is probably slowly declining. Back before we had things like Netflix and fast Internet connections, people would watch movies by renting VHS tapes. Yes, this was actually a thing.

During the dinosaur bus attack, the camera flips over to the interior of what looks to be a Blockbuster store.

It stays on the screen for just a brief moment, but I caught glimpses of two movie posters by the entrance. And after a split-second, I realized they were both fake movie posters.

On the left is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. On the right is a movie called “Jack and the Beanstalks,” which appears to be a family comedy featuring Robin Williams (a nod to the film Jack, which came out a year prior).

Right after the bus crashes through the window, the scene pans out a bit… and in the bottom right there’s a movie poster that says “Tom Hanks, Tsunami Sunrise.”

There are a few other posters in the background that I can’t really make out. But on seeing these, I thought that the folks designing this set probably had a fun time doing so.

I’m curious now – is there a web site devoted to fictional movies that are depicted within movies? Maybe that’s a side project worth starting up.

Related:
Walking with Dinosaurs
Thirteen Overused Movie Trends
It’s In the Bible: Video About Product Placement in Movies
A Brief History of Conspicuous Product Placment in Movies