An Infamous Jurassic Park Moment Happened Thanks To Earth, Wind & Fire

Do you remember the eleventh night of June?

Steven Spielberg's dinosaur adventure film "Jurassic Park," based on the novel by Michael Crichton, was released on June 11, 1993 to great acclaim and a boffo box office. While possessed of a simple B-movie premise, Spielberg infused "Jurassic Park" with state-of-the-art visual effects, insanely good photography (by Dean Cundey), and rousing, gigantic music (by John Williams), transforming a dinosaur attack film into something glorious and inspiring. The premise was about a deranged, smiling billionaire (Richard Attenborough) who wants to open an exotic zoo stocked with multiple dinosaur species he was able to clone from ancient blood samples. Dinosaur blood, it seems, could be harvested from amber-preserved pre-historic mosquitos. Naturally, when Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum take a tour of Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs escape from their pens (thanks to a combination of sabotage and bad weather). 

In one of the film's standout scenes, a Tyrannosaurus Rex breaks out of its cage and chases after the tour jeeps the protagonists were driving in. The Tyrannosaurus was realized through a combination of massive puppets and CGI that still looks good to this day. To amplify the animal's reality, Spielberg conceived of a clever visual trick. As the dinosaur's footfalls grew nearer to the central humans, the surface of a glass of water — innocuously resting in a cupholder — would quiver. A distant boom could be heard on the soundtrack. Before the audience even saw it, the dinosaur possessed weight and menace. 

It seems — according to Far Out — that the idea for the water cup came to Spielberg when he was jamming out in his car to one of his favorite bands, Earth, Wind & Fire. Verdine White's funky bass grooves have a similar effect on water as a dinosaur.

If you don't know Earth, Wind & Fire ... well, I hope eating the lichen growing on the walls of your cave has been enough to sustain you. The jazz/funk/disco/Afro-pop musical collective has been burning up charts since its formation in the early 1970s, and several of their singles have become a permanent part of the pop consciousness. Everyone knows hits like "September," "Boogie Wonderland," "Shining Star," "Sing a Song," and "Let's Groove," as they often could be heard emanating from anywhere a dancefloor might have been erected. The power of Earth, Wind & Fire is as strong as their eponymous elements. 

Like almost everyone, Steven Spielberg is a fan of Earth, Wind & Fire. According to Far Out, Spielberg was in his car listening to "September" while drinking a cup of water. The bass on his stereo was cranked so high that it cause the surface of his beverage to vibrate. That image, it seems, was so powerful that the director parlayed it directly into "Jurassic Park," switching out the get-up-and-dance mega-hit with a monster from the Cretaceous period (and, given the dinosaur species on display, shouldn't the film have been called "Cretaceous Park?"). Had "September" played underneath the Tyrannosaurus scene in "Jurassic Park," it still would have been exhilarating, although the mood would have been altered dramatically. 

"September" was written by Allee Willis, with assistance from Maurice White and Al McKay. The lyrics are nostalgic, recalling a time when listening to soul music was joyous and fun. 

According to Mental Floss, the vibrating water effect in "Jurassic Park" was achieved by visual effects supervisor Michael Lantieri placing a guitar string under the cup and plucking it. It seems Spielberg's musical inspiration provided a practical solution as well.