- "We have a T. rex."
- —John Hammond(src)
Rexy is the Tyrannosaurus rex from the first Jurassic Park film and novel, as well as Jurassic Park: The Game. She is one of the most famous dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park franchise, and is also the largest carnivore seen in any of the three movies aside from the Spinosaurus seen in Jurassic Park III .
This creature is never called by a given name (like Bakhita or Lady Margaret). However, Robert Muldoon nicknames her "Rexy" on multiple occasions in the first novel.[1] This is similar to how the Big One, a Velociraptor, is also based on a nickname and not a given name in the franchise. She might have also gotten this nickname from Billy Yoder, but under a different spelling ("Okay, we can't go back outside because of our old friend Rexie").
Origins
Rexy was intended to be the main attraction at Jurassic Park. In the film, she is believed to be the only T. rex on the island, although in Crichton's novel, she shared her habitat with a smaller juvenile, whom she rarely interacted with. Like the other dinosaurs, she was cloned on Isla Sorna, nurtured there for the first few months of her life and then shipped over to Isla Nublar.
Some Jurassic Park comics portray her as the first dinosaur to be created by InGen, but it is unknown whether this is correct or not. Like many of the other dinosaurs, she eventually broke out and caused a great deal of damage to the park in both the movie and novel canons.
Novel
Rexy on novel cover.
- "I've wanted to put a needle in this big bastard for a while"
- —Robert Muldoon(src)
Rexy was one of the two Tyrannosaurids created by InGen for the park on Isla Nublar, the other being a much smaller juvenile. She was created on Isla Sorna and shipped to Jurassic Park nine months (or more) before the events of the novel.[2] She and the juvenile generally avoided each other, staying in different regions of their habitat. The Tyrannosaur habitat is believed to have been close to the Apatosaur habitat, and according to Ed Regis, Rexy would often stand on the banks of the lagoon and stare in frustration at the Apatosaurus herd on the other side, longing to hunt them. Although all the animals in the park were female, Henry Wu states that some of them they refer to as male, such as Rexy, calling her a "him".
She ultimately breaks out of her paddock, and chases the protagonists throughout the rest of the book. She hunts and kills a Hadrosaurus and an Apatosaurus, and also chases Alan Grant, Lex and Tim Murphy down a river on a raft, after Lex uncontrollably starts coughing, waking the sleeping Tyrannosaur. Lex does not panic at first, mistakenly believing that Tyrannosaurs cannot swim, only to be corrected by Tim. Shockingly, the carnivore comes close to devouring the children at the manmade waterfall bull the dart fired from Muldoon earlier on in the story begins to tire her down. She is ultimately destroyed by the Napalm Bombing, along with all the other dinosaurs although there is a chance that she may well have drowned after attempting to eat Lex and Timmy since the last time we see her is when Timmy notices her unconscious down in the water. Wu later states his concerns that the animal could drown in that position, but Muldoon dismisses it; he believes they'll get to her and pull her out quite soon, only other problems arise, and Rexy is not saved.
Rex killing a Raptor in the "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" sculpture
Jurassic Park Films
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When the inspection team constituting of vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, chaotician Dr. Ian Malcolm, lawyer Donald Gennaro, and John Hammond’s grandchildren Lex and Tim Murphy took a tour of the Park, the Tyrannosaurus was initially a no-show. Although computer technician Ray Arnold attempted to lure her to her paddock fence by tantalizing her with a goat, however Rexy still refused to answer the call. However, later that night, a tropical storm forced the tour to be turned around sometime after the group visited the Triceratops Paddock . Unfortunately, due to Dennis Nedry’s programming, the tour vehicles that the tour group were in shut down in front of the T. rex Paddock with its electrified fencing also shut down. At this point, Rexy revealed herself to the visitors by eating the goat left by the fence as bait. Gennaro, in a fit of panic, left his tour car and ran to the nearby restroom hut for refuge. By that point, the Tyrannosaurus rex moved to the disabled fencing and ripped the fencing apart with her teeth; she proceeded to step through her mangled handy work and roar. After a minute or two of exploring and investigating the Explorers, her attention was aroused by the light that was emitted from a flashlight Lex
had activated in the front Explorer. Unaware that the source of the light was inside the car, she walked right up the front door and peered out into the jungle in front of the SUV. It was not until Tim slammed the open door next to the rex that she had discovered the
source of the light. Now confident that the light was coming from inside the Explorer and that there were interesting objects inside, she set to attacking the mysterious vehicle in front of her, searching for a way to get at Lex and Tim. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm, the T. rex was briefly distracted. Rexy followed fleeing Dr. Malcolm toward the restroom hut, injured him as he was flung into the building and ripped apart the cowering Gennaro while Dr. Grant rescued the kids inside the car. Before long, however, Rexy returned and pushed the vehicle over the cliff while Tim was still inside.
After Dr. Grant rescued Tim from the tree, the two with Lex, began their trek back to the Visitors Center, Park game warden Robert Muldoon and Dr. Sattler arrived at the Tyrannosaurus Paddock to retrieve those who had been stranded there only to find Raxy's mess. Acting quickly, the two began searching for the group and calling out their names. At the site of the collapsed restroom hut, Muldoon and Dr. Sattler found the remains of Genarro and recovered Dr. Malcolm who was injured, but alive due to his quick thinking to reduce bloodloss by using his belt as a tourniquet. After loading Dr. Malcolm into their Jeep, the two took one last sweep of the area, Dr. Sattler spotted the ruined hulk of the second tour car that Rexy had pushed over the cliff adjacent to her Paddock. Although Muldoon and Dr. Sattler did not find Tim, Lex, or Dr. Grant, they did find their shoe prints in the mud, which told they were alive. When the two returned to the guest jeep, Rexy crashed through a line of trees and began chasing the three along a service road. After a very close chase, the Tyrannosaurus was unable to pin down her prey and so gave up her pursuit. The next day, as Grant’s, Tim’s, and Lex’s trek continued, they found themselves in the Gallimimus Paddock, and witnessed Rexy hunting the herd of Gallimimus. After watching in amazement for a while from behind a fallen log, Lex begged Dr. Grant for them to go, to which Grant
obliged. However Tim continued to stare in fascination and so had to be forcibly taken away by Dr. Grant.
Rexy was seen later that day when she had come through the hole in the wall, and grabbed a Raptor from mid-air just as it was to pounce on the humans, and crushed it in her jaws. Using the distraction Rexy provided, the humans fled. Meanwhile, the Raptor that had pursued the group through the Visitors Center foolishly attacked the larger theropod. Rexy snapped at her, but could not reach her. Rolling her head, the Raptor fell into the T. rex mouth where she was killed and than thrown against the Tyrannosaurus skeleton and Rexy let out a mighty bellow.
Jurassic World
Rexy is rumored to return in Jurassic World, and reside in The T-rex Kingdom.
Jurassic Park: The Game
Rexy, along with the Troodon, the Scarred Raptor Leader and Billy Yoder is the main antagonist in Telltale's Jurassic Park: The Game.
Sometime during the night of the tropical storm, after escaping her paddock, Rexy began wandering farther from her paddock area. As Dr. Gerry Harding and his daughter, Jess Harding, were heading for the boat to the mainland after Gerry returned to the site of the sick Triceratops to pick up Jess in his gas powered jeep, they came across Nima Cruz, a corporate spy. Nima had been one of the contacts that Nedry was supposed to deliver the stolen embryos to. When Nedry did not show up at the East Docks, she went looking for him, but encountered the juvenile Dilophosaurus instead. As the three made their the way, they come across an infant Triceratops that was out of her paddock. The trio managed to get the dinosaur back into her enclosure, but Lady Margaret, the alpha female, appeared and attacked, which also attracted Rexy. The group barely managed to escape, hiding in a maintenance shed as the dinosaurs fought, and decided to spend the night inside. Rexy, meanwhile, returned to near her paddock.
The next day, Dr. Gerry Harding, Jess, and Nima Cruz reached the Visitors Center unaware that the surviving cast of the movie had just recently fled the island. Once inside, Dr. Harding heard a radio trying to contact them. Locating it, he spoke with Dr. Laura Sorkin, who helped cure Nima of her ailment caused by a Troodon bite. Rexy attacked once again, forcing the trio to avoid her as best they could, eventually managing to lure Rexy away with the help of the tour vehicle. After a second mercenary team landed on the island to rescue those who had been left behind and retrieved the survivors, the group headed back to the helicopter, but found that the mercenary Danny Cafaro had disappeared. Rexy reappeared and made her way towards them, forcing Oscar Morales to fix the chopper himself. They managed to get into the air just in time.
After a failed attempt at rescuing rogue genetic scientist Dr. Laura Sorkin from her research lab on the north end of Isla Nublar, the group made their way to the North Dock, the trio eventually met up with mercenary Billy Yoder at the shipping dock entrance. A confrontation ensued with Nima getting into a scuffle with the mercenary. During the scrap Rexy stalked into the shipping yard forcing all four of the humans to freeze in their positions. Rexy started to sniff at Jess when her father gently nudged the cryocan with his foot causing it to roll toward the dock’s edge. In a momentary lapse of judgment, Yoder scrambled to save the can before it fell into the water. Although he had saved the can, he had caught the attention of the large theropod. Rexy only hesitated a moment before it engulfed the man with its jaws and lifted him in the air to consume him. Yoder dropped the can. With the T. rex back turned to them, Nima raced to retrieve the can, the Hardings followed closely behind. Rexy was alerted to the movement behind her and stomped after them. Nima and Jess squeezed
into shelter while Dr. Harding was left outside. Dr. Harding then attempted to distract Rexy in order to keep its attention away from the two ladies. The T. rex damaged the bridge platform the pair was standing on flinging Jess over the edge. She managed to keep herself from falling off the bridge together, but was dangling mere feet from Rexy. She pleaded for Nima’s help and was saved from the jaws of the predator at the expense of the cryocan that was crushed by the approaching Tyrannosaurus. Dr. Harding, while Rexy had turned to face Nima and Jess, grabbed a steel pipe. He swung the pipe into the leg of the Tyrannosaurus, successfully gaining her undivided attention, thus allowing his companions to escape to the last remaining boat at the end of the docks. Dr. Harding scrambled through the container yard, the large theropod hot on his heels. Dr. Harding eventually found cover inside an animal cage. Rexy could not reach the man with her jaws due to the small opening at the end that was suited for caging smaller, man-sized dinosaurs. Frustrated, the animal thrashed about and finally flung the cage toward the pier that the small boat was
located.
Dr. Harding noticed that he was less than a one hundred meters from salvation, he scrambled to his feet and sprinted for the boat that his daughter was pull-starting. Rexy stalked through the gate that separated the pier from the container yard. The animal was nipping at Dr. Harding for the final stretch As he neared the end of the dock, he jumped onto the moving boat as the carnivore made one last effort to grab him. The boat successfully swept its three passengers away from the angered animal that bellowed loudly after its prey. Rexy would ultimately be destroyed with everything else on the surface of the island when the US Navy napalm bombed the island.
Kills
Novel
- 1 Apatosaurus
- 1 Hadrosaurus
- 1 goat
- Ian Malcom (This was only in the first novel. In the second novel, The Lost World, it is revealed that Malcom was only presumed dead by the Costa Ricans and several news reports, but made a full recovery from his injuries over a six-month period.)
Film/The Game
- Donald Gennaro
- 1 Gallimimus
- 1 goat
- 3 Velociraptors (including the Big One)
- Lady Margaret (possibly, but unlikely - severed horn found by Gerry Harding and Jessica Harding)
- 1 Parasaurolophus
- Billy Yoder
- Nima Cruz (only if you save the canister)
Sources
- ↑ Jurassic Park (novel), page 288.
- ↑ Jurassic Park (novel), Breeding sites, page 177.
3. Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus rex Collector's Card
4. The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studios