The only on-screen death Samuel L Jackson refuses to accept
Samuel L Jackson has been killed in many different movies, but he still has hope for this one character.
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Film » Cutting Room Floor
Tue 28 January 2025 3:30, UK
Samuel L Jackson has delivered some of the most memorable movie deaths in cinema history. Joe Pesciâs Tommy DeVito took him out in Goodfellas, while his demise at the hands of Emperor Palpatine marked a pivotal moment in the Star Wars prequel series. He was infamously devoured by a poorly rendered CGI shark in Deep Blue Sea, and sticking with computer-generated creatures, he met his end under the weight of none other than King Kong in 2017âs Kong: Skull Island.
If you ask a movie fan to name their favourite Jackson death, they might just say the one from Steven Spielbergâs blockbuster supreme, Jurassic Park. His character, Ray Arnold, goes on a mission to reset the facilityâs security systems. Later, when Laura Dernâs Dr Ellie Sattler goes after her, she thinks she feels him putting his arm on her shoulder, only for it to be brilliantly revealed that a pack of velociraptors has torn off the limb. Itâs a very memorable end â just not if you ask the man himself.
âI got killed in Jurassic Park. Well, they say I got killed,â he told GQ. âI still got this thing in my head where dudeâs got one arm, and heâs around here riding around on Velociraptors. He made peace with them and figured out how to use them to his advantage or whatever.â An interesting theory from Jackson there, definitely not one that Michael Crichton ever followed up on in the original novel.Â
The star has some grounds to make this outlandish claim, as Arnoldâs âdeathâ isnât actually shown on screen. There were plans to film a longer, more elaborate scene depicting the characterâs demise, but a hurricane destroyed the planned set. He features more prominently in the book than he does in the film, but Jackson was still able to make a splash with the minutes he was given. âHold onto your buttsâ is one of the actorâs most quotable lines, to the point where itâs easy to forget that it actually comes from Jurassic Park.Â
Spielbergâs prehistoric adventure was one of the earliest big movies Jackson starred in. He had established himself somewhat with brief appearances in Spike Leeâs Do the Right Thing and the Harrison Ford vehicle Patriot Games, but he wasnât the household name he is today. Pulp Fiction, the movie that really made him a star, was still a year away. Being involved in Jurassic Park, even very briefly, was massive for the late bloomerâs rise. It became the highest-grossing movie of all time, marking the first (but not the last) time Jackson contributed to a financial juggernaut.Â
Ray Arnold isnât the only character that Jackson thinks survived a run-in with the movieâs baddie. When asked by Entertainment Weekly if he thought Mace Windu was still alive in the âStar Warsâ universe, he replied, âOf course he is! Jedi can fall from amazing distances. And thereâs a long history of one-handed Jedi. So why not?â In a franchise that is obsessed with bringing characters back from the dead, itâs amazing Windu hasnât resurfaced since his presumed demise in 2005.
Whilst Arnold is almost certainly actually dead, the series is still alive and well thanks to the âJurassic Worldâ movies. Maybe there is a chance we could see him crop up again â itâs not likely, but it is possible.
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Jurassic ParkSamuel L. Jackson