MovieChat Forums > Jurassic Park (1993) Discussion > Nedry is skyping a full 10-12 years befo...

Nedry is skyping a full 10-12 years before it was possible


Isn't crazy to now see him use Quicktime as a video chat?
Was it possible to actually do that in 1993?
Also, why is there a time bar on the bottom of the screen, as if there is a definite end to their video conversation???

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It was a pre-recorded video playing. Back in 1993, not too many people might have been aware. Now it's one of the few elements that date the film.

I'm not sure if the technology existed in the early nineties. It might have.

EDIT: to clarify; the pre-recorded video is playing as if Nedry is watching it live.
(My original wording might not have made that clear.)

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It's possible Nedry wasn't video chatting, My theory is he was simply just on the phone. The quicktime video could have been just the security camera Nedry bought up on his screen so he could see what the conditions were like at the dock. With Nedry being the one that designed the entire system, you can be sure he would give himself access to all the security cameras too. The whole quicktime thing is a bit odd though, It's plausible that security cameras could be viewed through quicktime back in the early 90's I guess

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It's possible Nedry wasn't video chatting, My theory is he was simply just on the phone. The quicktime video could have been just the security camera Nedry bought up on his screen so he could see what the conditions were like at the dock.


I'm watching the movie now and Nedry is clearly supposed to be watching live video of someone at the dock. His body motions match the dialog on the phone and the call ends with a "click" when he is shown hanging up a phone in a call box.

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I'm watching the movie now and Nedry is clearly supposed to be watching live video of someone at the dock. His body motions match the dialog on the phone and the call ends with a "click" when he is shown hanging up a phone in a call box.


That's correct, he's watching the live security footage of the dock and the man he's speaking with; of course his contact can't see him, but in the film it's all happening in real-time.

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Yeah that's what I thought, he's watching live security footage from the dock so he can see what the weather conditions are like.

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Was it possible to actually do that in 1993?
About as possible as cloning dinosaurs! Sheesh!!

We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.

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That was great foreshadowing. :)

Brony who is also a Metallica and Iron Maiden fan.

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Speaking of which, aside from the fact that this movie still looks modern in terms of things like clothes styles on the characters and its general look and feel, I happen to think this movie was truly ahead of its time in the technical department especially its special effects (in addition to things like cinematography and editing). For the dinosaurs I know it used animatronics (and VERY advanced ones at that) but it also blended the animatronic effects seamlessly with COMPUTERIZED visual effects that looked (and still look) so solid, three-dimensional, and alive.

And yeah, 1993 is incredibly early for the Quicktime live video call, since it is a live video call and not the security camera since Nedry isn't speaking into a phone receiver, it's just the computer headset mic just like we use today, meaning the phone is in the computer as a program, whereas that definitely didn't exist in 1993. The "tech boom" as it was called didn't start until 1994-1995. The newest widely-available technologies in 1994 were word processing on desktop computers and home printing, and in 1995 when the Internet first became widely available it was "Instant Messaging," which was just like today's Facebook private messages (plus the chat rooms [typing] no longer seen, and threads/forums just like this one we're still using of course), but Skype didn't exist until 2006. I distinctly remember watching an imaginative sci-fi TV show in 1995 set in the very distant future, spaceships and talking aliens and all, and a guy was in his mansion where a screen came down showing a big TV screen through which he called someone, and my dad and I thought it was so amazing at the time, him commenting to me due to the absurdity -- 'imagine if in the future they actually have that technology' -- to which I said 'that would be so amazing!' LOL, I'VE NEVER FELT SO OLD AS I DO RIGHT NOW! I'm 31 years old but these memories are making feel so ancient!!

Back to JURASSIC PARK, we also have this piece of dialogue blatantly ahead of 1993:
Tim: She just stays in her room all day playing computer games. She's a nerd.
Alex: I am not a nerd! I prefer to be called a hacker!

The more I think about it, the more this is actually getting spooky!




"Happy? No, no, no, no, no. You think I'm happy I got a call saying I had to come bail you out of prison for stealing hot dog buns?"







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