If there's one thing action movies have taught us, it's that the last person you want with you in a crisis is a child. They're slow, clumsy and not very useful when lives are in the balance. While perhaps better than most, this was still true for Tim and Lex, the kids in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park. Tim proved especially unhelpful when a raptor was trying to open the door, and instead of getting the shotgun for Dr. Grant and Ellie, he just sort of stood there. That's a moment actor Joe Mazzello admits wasn't his character's finest, with the actor saying:
Mistakes were made, OK? Mistakes were made. It was a high-pressure situation. Maybe Dr. Grant didn't want an 8-year-old boy handling a gun. That's one theory, but all I have to say is... I wasn't a complete bozo in the movie. Tim at least understood, 'Hey, don't shine the light in the T-Rex's face.? So I'll give myself credit for that one.
Owning up to one's mistakes is the first step toward growth, and Joe Mazzello admits that Tim could have definitely been more useful (i.e. at all) than he was in that critical moment. He does offer up some possible explanations though for why Tim, who knows dinosaurs, not UNIX, was busy supervising Lex at the computer while Grant and Ellie were trying to hold the door (Hodor) and reach for the gun to save everyone's lives.
It is possible that Dr. Grant wouldn't have been a fan of an 8-year-old like Tim handling a gun, but given the circumstances, I'd like to think that he would have made an exception. Tim has also probably been taught not to touch guns, so that could be another explanation. In Tim's defense, he was just a kid in a high-pressure situation and maybe he was just scared and didn't think clearly enough to realize the way he could have been an actual help.
Check out the video below to see the scene that will not end up in Tim's Jurassic Park highlight reel.
As Joe Mazzello told HuffPost, Tim wasn't a complete bozo in Jurassic Park; he did realize that you shouldn't shine a light in a Tyrannosaur's face, a supposition that somehow eluded his computer whiz sister. But the two of them combined couldn't figure out how to turn off a flashlight or just put it face down on the floor of the car, so let's call that one a wash.
And to be fair to Tim with the gun situation, he wasn't the only one who dropped the ball a bit there. When Ellie raced over to help Grant hold the door (that phrase is never going to not be sad now, is it?), she could have scooped up the gun first. It would have taken an extra second and Grant could have held out that long. But, as Joe Mazzello said, it was a high-pressure situation and mistakes were made.
Truth be told 'Mistakes were made' could probably be the slogan for the characters throughout the Jurassic franchise. The next time we'll be seeing characters make prehistorically huge blunders is Jurassic World 3, which hits theaters in 2021.
Before then though you can catch Joe Mazzello on the big screen as Queen's bass guitarist John Deacon in the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, now playing. For all the biggest movies still to come this year, check out our release schedule.
