After Almost 10 Years, the Internet Is Still Losing Its Mind Over This Impossible-to-Unsee Jurassic Park and Goonies Theory
Many filmmakers have been known to self-reference previous work with a smattering of Easter eggs in their movies. Steven Spielberg is a director who has frequently done this, and there could be a recurring Easter egg in Jurassic Park that has gone largely unnoticed for decades.
There are always movie fans who notice things that other people miss. In a recent post revived on X, many fans of Jurassic Park and The Goonies had their minds collectively blown at the revelation that the villain of Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece could be paying homage to the 1985 classic with a select choice of clothing in several scenes.
The claim is simple but hard to ignore once it is pointed out. In three separate scenes featuring Nedry, played by Wayne Knight, his clothes are almost identical in colour and style to those worn by three of the young heroes of The Goonies. The side-by-sides are what sell it. When we first meet Nedry at a beachside bar, cutting his shady embryo-smuggling deal, he’s wearing a loud Hawaiian floral shirt that looks uncannily like the one worn by Chunk (Jeff Cohen). Later, plotting his sabotage back in the control room, he switches to a grey jacket strikingly similar to the Members Only-style jacket sported by Mouth (Corey Feldman). And finally, when he heads out into the storm towards the docks, he throws on a bright yellow raincoat that’s a dead ringer for the one Mikey (Sean Astin) wears throughout The Goonies.
What gives the theory real legs is the Spielberg connection. While Richard Donner was behind the camera on The Goonies, Spielberg was an executive producer and came up with the story that was then turned into a script by Chris Columbus. That shared history makes a deliberate tribute far more plausible, especially given his obvious affection for the action-adventure classic. There is always a chance it’s purely coincidental, and for now the theory remains unconfirmed either way.
In the past, fans who have spotted the similarities in Nedry’s clothing have tried to get Knight to say whether it was intentional. So far, a definitive answer has remained elusive, and even a quick look at fact-checking site Snopes has the claim listed, currently under “unproven.”
Is Jurassic Park’s Homage to the Goonies a Real Thing?
For anyone who doubts this was a classic Spielberg Easter egg, there are perfectly innocent explanations for each of the ensembles that could render the theory redundant. A loud Hawaiian shirt is pretty much the most inconspicuous thing Nedry could have chosen for his shady dealings at a beach bar, while a yellow rain slicker was one of the most iconic pieces of wet-weather costuming going, from the mid-1980s well into the 1990s.
The bigger mystery is how so many people are unaware the theory has been around for almost a decade. After first being noted around 2017, it has resurfaced every few years since. Originating in Twitter and Reddit threads, it has since moved on to become the subject of TikTok and YouTube videos. The internet is a big place, though, and there are always people who have managed to miss it before, ready to give their opinions on it as it comes around again.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
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