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The only on-screen death Samuel L Jackson refuses to accept
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Samuel L Jackson has delivered some of the most memorable movie deaths in cinema history. Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito took him out in Goodfellas, while his demise at the hands of Emperor Palpatine marked a pivotal moment in the Star Wars prequel series. He was infamously devoured by a poorly rendered CGI shark in Deep Blue Sea, and sticking with computer-generated creatures, he met his end under the weight of none other than King Kong in 2017’s Kong: Skull Island.
If you ask a movie fan to name their favourite Jackson death, they might just say the one from Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster supreme, Jurassic Park. His character, Ray Arnold, goes on a mission to reset the facility’s security systems. Later, when Laura Dern’s Dr Ellie Sattler goes after her, she thinks she feels him putting his arm on her shoulder, only for it to be brilliantly revealed that a pack of velociraptors has torn off the limb. It’s a very memorable end – just not if you ask the man himself.
“I got killed in Jurassic Park. Well, they say I got killed,” he told GQ. “I still got this thing in my head where dude’s got one arm, and he’s around here riding around on Velociraptors. He made peace with them and figured out how to use them to his advantage or whatever.” An interesting theory from Jackson there, definitely not one that Michael Crichton ever followed up on in the original novel.
The star has some grounds to make this outlandish claim, as Arnold’s ‘death’ isn’t actually shown on screen. There were plans to film a longer, more elaborate scene depicting the character’s demise, but a hurricane destroyed the planned set. He features more prominently in the book than he does in the film, but Jackson was still able to make a splash with the minutes he was given. “Hold onto your butts” is one of the actor’s most quotable lines, to the point where it’s easy to forget that it actually comes from Jurassic Park.
Spielberg’s prehistoric adventure was one of the earliest big movies Jackson starred in. He had established himself somewhat with brief appearances in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and the Harrison Ford vehicle Patriot Games, but he wasn’t the household name he is today. Pulp Fiction, the movie that really made him a star, was still a year away. Being involved in Jurassic Park, even very briefly, was massive for the late bloomer’s rise. It became the highest-grossing movie of all time, marking the first (but not the last) time Jackson contributed to a financial juggernaut.
Ray Arnold isn’t the only character that Jackson thinks survived a run-in with the movie’s baddie. When asked by Entertainment Weekly if he thought Mace Windu was still alive in the ‘Star Wars’ universe, he replied, “Of course he is! Jedi can fall from amazing distances. And there’s a long history of one-handed Jedi. So why not?” In a franchise that is obsessed with bringing characters back from the dead, it’s amazing Windu hasn’t resurfaced since his presumed demise in 2005.
Whilst Arnold is almost certainly actually dead, the series is still alive and well thanks to the ‘Jurassic World’ movies. Maybe there is a chance we could see him crop up again – it’s not likely, but it is possible.
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The only on-screen death Samuel L Jackson refuses to accept: Mace Windu’s demise in Star Wars.
Samuel L Jackson is known for his iconic roles and memorable performances, but there is one on-screen death that he simply cannot accept – the death of Mace Windu in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
In the film, Mace Windu, a Jedi Master played by Jackson, meets his end at the hands of Darth Sidious after a fierce battle. However, Jackson has expressed his disbelief and disappointment over the character’s fate, even going so far as to suggest that Mace Windu could have survived the fall and returned in future films.
Fans have also rallied behind Jackson’s sentiment, with many speculating about the possibility of Mace Windu making a comeback in the Star Wars universe. Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure – Samuel L Jackson will always refuse to accept the death of Mace Windu on-screen.
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