People might have enjoyed watching Jurassic Park as a sci-fi action film on screen, but taking part in the film almost took the life of its cast members according to Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill. In the recently released memoir of Neill called Did I Ever Tell You This? he shared that the cast had a close call while filming in September 1992.
While the cast were shooting in Kauai, Neill said there was a hurricane waiting to hit the Hawaiian Island later that day. He wrote to his memoir as reported by Insider,
"We almost died in the first few weeks where we were filming on Kauai in the Hawaiian archipelago," Neill wrote. "One morning we were told to stay back at the hotel and expect a hurricane later in the day. I was down on the beach with Laura Dern, who asked me: 'Sam, do you think we might die today?' As these massive black clouds approached over the Pacific I found I had to tell her that in all honesty the answer was yes, I thought we might. It turned out we came very close."
The actor further added how they managed to stay safe while the hurricane hit the oldest Hawaiian island. He recalled,
"They herded us into a ballroom, all the cast and crew, a few hours before Hurricane Iniki hit us," Neill continued. "Iniki was a Category 4 hurricane and it absolutely wrecked the island, including all our sets. Six people died, and it caused more than $3 billion worth of damage."
According to KITV4, the said hurricane later destroyed over 1,400 homes and to this day, the damage on the island remains evident despite the said hurricane happening over thirty years ago.
Surviving A Catastrophic Natural Disaster
Neill also shared that the reason they survived the whole ordeal was because the hurricane only stayed in their area for a short period of time. Had the hurricane stayed longer, their survival would have been slim to none. He shared,
"I think that within three or four hours it had moved on, leaving us surrounded by the wreckage of our huge resort hotel," Neill also wrote. "I'm pretty sure that is why we were spared a large tidal surge through our ballroom, which was just a couple of meters above sea level, a surge that would have probably drowned us all."
Despite almost dying for the film, Neill was still thankful to be a part of it since he gained lifelong friends. Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum are still friends to this day.