Prehistoric Beast (1985 Film)

Prehistoric Beast Is A 1985 Experimental/Historical Fiction Film Directed By Phil Tippett. The Film Is Famous For It's Effects By The Director, And Being One Of Those Films That Have No Human Speaken Dialogue, And No Narration. It Was Released On March 18, 1985.

Prehistoric Beast
Directed By	Phil Tippett
Produced By	Edward S. Feldman, George Lucas
Written By	George Lucas
Music By	Mark Adler
Production Company	Lucasfilm
Distributed By	Paramount Pictures, Lucasfilm
Runtime	208 Minutes
Rating	PG

Plot

Prologue

Set 65 Million Years Ago In What Is Now The Canadian Province Of Alberta, The Film Opens With A tracking Shot in the Middle Of A Forest At Night: A Tyrannosaurus Is busy finishing A Edmontosaurus Carcass. The Next Morning, A Herd Of Centrosaurus Are Seen Grazing. One Member Wanders Into The Forest To Find More Food. It Finds A Field Of Flowers and begins grazing. It Wanders Further And Starts To Be Hunted By The Same Tyrannosaurus.

The Tyrannosaurus Steps On A Twig, which makes The Centrosaur Worried. The Dinosaur Let's Out A Trumpet To Signal The Herd, Then, Possibly Curious, Keeps Walking deeper into the Forest. It Soon Stumbles Upon The Edmontosaurus Carcass Consumed By the Rex. While The Centrosaur ponders over The Body, The Tyrannosaurus Sneaks Up From Behind. The Dinosaurs Begin To Battle, The Tyrannosaurus Rex Bites Hard On The Centrosaurus'es Back. The Herbivorous Dinosaur Manages To Break Free From The Jaws Of The Enemy And Gores The Tyrannosaur In The Shin With It's Horn, Enraging The Carnivorous Beast. The Tyrannosaurus Corners The Centrosaur Near Some Trees. The Centrosaurus Let's Out One Last Cry Before Being Killed By The Tyrannosaurus. The Herd Starts To Call For Its Missing Member. The Next Night, The Tyrannosaurus Walks Across The Forest To Find A Place To Sleep And Digest It's Food.

The Rest Of The Film

A Baby Centrosaurus Finds The Bones Of The Same Centrosaurus That Was Killed, Being Reveled To Be It's Mother. Now The Baby Is Alone, After Accidentally Leaving Behind The Herd, The Baby Sets Off To Reunite With The Herd. While Stating It's Journey, The Centrosaurus Calf Finds Some Frogs And Chases After Them Playfully. The Coming Night, After Walking Through The Plains, The Baby Centrosaurus Rests, And Has A Nightmare About The Death Of It's Only Parent. The Baby Awakens In The Morning And Continues. 

It Goes Deep Into A Forest, And Stumbles Upon A Ornithomimus Eating Eggs. It Falls Prey To A Pack Of Deinonychus, Which Later Pursues The Baby. However, A Deinonychus Pack Member Is Killed By A Large Stegosaurus, Which Then Walks Into A Valley Inhabited By A Herd Of Dinosaurs. The Baby Finds A Mating Pair Of Hadrosaurs Witch Only Have One Egg That Hatches. Another Juvenile Stumbles Upon The Baby Centrosaur And Play In The Forest. Suddenly, The Same Tyrannosaurus Rex Attacks And Almost Kills The Babies, But The Parent Hadrosaurs Arrive And Rescue The Babies, But The Centrosaur Runs Away Into A Coastal Mountain Range. The Baby Spends Most Of The Afternoon In A Cave Before Beginning To Continue The Journey To Find The Herd. It Is Attacked By A Flock Of Pteranodon But One Is Killed By A Plesiosaurus Witch Then Heads To Sea. Wounded, The Baby Centrosaurus Rests On A Bush So Predators Won't Find Him. The Dinosaur Wakes Up The Next Morning To A Group Of Gallimimus, Which Are Stalked By A Pack Of Carnotaurus. The Baby Dinosaur Retreats Deeper Into The Forest. 

The Baby Centrosaurus Stumbles Upon A Herd Of Large Apatosaurus Grazing In The Trees. It Wanders Deeper And Deeper Into A Foggy Grassland, Where It Is Pursued By The Same T-Rex. But Luckily The Baby Escaped Via The Long Grass. Days Later, The Baby Stumbles Upon A Blue-eyed Female About The Same Age As Him. The Two Form A Bond With Each Other And Eventually Want To Start A Herd Of Their Own. However, When They Are Teenagers, The Dinosaur Couple Reunites With The Herd. Then, As Adults, The Couple Become Leaders Of The Herd. One Day, The Herd Is Attacked By The Same Tyrannosaurus Again, But Luckily The Alpha And Omega Centrosaurs Save The Herd But Wounding The Dinosaur. Two Weeks Later, The Alpha And Omega Have A Clutch Of Eggs That Hatch. The Baby Dinosaurs Play In A Pond. One Chases After Some Frogs, Just Like Their Dad During His Childhood. 

One Day, The Family Continues To Enjoy Life. But Suddenly, A Earthquake That Is The Sign Of A Coming Volcano Eruption Triggers, Spooking The Family And Many Other Dinosaurs. Later In The Day, During A Walk To Find Some Food In Case They Have To Leave, The Babies Encounter Some Carnotaurus Fighting For Mates, A Stegosaurus Herd, And A Triceratops In A Lake. Back At The Nesting Ground, The Family Feeds On The Plants, Flowers, And Nuts To Prepare For Evacuation In Case Of The Volcano. Suddenly, The Volcano Erupts. Herds Of Dinosaurs Stampede In Fear, A Forest Fire Erupts, And Even Some Earthquakes. The Centrosaur Family As Suddenly Pursued By The Tyrannosaurus, Who Mortally Wounds One Of The Babies. The Family And Thousands Of Survivors Flee Into A Wasteland, But However, A Weak Hadrosaurs Cries Due To Her Nest Being Destroyed By One Of The Meteorites, And A Apatosaurus Looks Over The Sky In Shock. 

The Centrosaurus Family Is Now Part Of A Herd Of The Migrating Dinosaurs. The Herd Is Stalked By Droves Of Deinonychus. The Wounded Baby Collapses To Exhaustion, As Well As The Mother, They Both Die As The Father Fends Off The Deinonychus. The Family Interacts With The Fallen Members For One Last Time Before Moving On. The Herds, Including The Protagonists Struggle To Survive The Desert, While Being Stalked By Condors And The T-Rex. The Herds Eventually Make It To A Lush Alpine/Wetland Paradise, but with a price, their are Crocodiles infesting The Rivers. The Herd Enters The River And Many Dinosaurs Are Eaten By The Crocs, But The Dinosaur Protagonists Survive. 

They Eventually Find A New Home In The Paradise, But Then, The Same Tyrannosaurus, This Time, Leading A Pack Of Rexes Is Heading For The Paradise. A Few Hours Later, The Pack Arrives And And Starts To Go On A Killing Spree. It Starts To Snow And A Blizzard Occurs. Smaller Dinosaurs Take Shelter In Caves As The Alpha Male Centrosaurus Goes On His Own To Kill The Murdering Tyrannosaurs, To Avenge The Loses Of His Family, Especially His Mother, All Those Years Ago. A Rex Kills A Another Rex Not Loyal To The One That Killed Our Hero's Family Members. The Alpha Confronts The Tyrannosaurus And Violently Fight, Resulting In The Rex's Death. Meanwhile, The Remaining Survivors Of The Alpha's Family Are Attacked By Two T-Rexes, But A Apatosaurus Comes To The Rescue. The Alpha Stumbles Upon Tracks Of The Alpha Rex, And Follows Then. Meanwhile, The Alpha Rex Kills A Parasaurolophus As A Snowy Owl Watches. At Night, The Two Alphas Confront. The Apatosaurus, The Siblings Of The Alpha, And Many Other Dinosaurs Watch As The Two Dinosaurs Stand Off For A Few Minutes Until They Start To Fight For Dominance. 

Other Tyrannosaurus Rexes And Centrosaurs Then Start To Fight, Thunder Strikes And A Forest Fire Erupts. The Two Packs And Alphas Still Fight As The Others Flee From The Fire. Many Die And Are Wounded, Others Retreat. Now It's Just The Two Alphas. Morning Starts As The Cloudy Sky Brightens. The Two Dinosaurs Stand Off In A Cliff Near A Raging River In The Aftermath Of The Fire. The Two Fight Again For One Last Time, The Centrosaurus Eventually And Finally Kills The Tyrannosaurus. With The Rouge Tyrannosaurus Threat Now Gone, The Ceratosaurus Reunites With His Brood, A Few Years Later, He Has A New Mate And Nest. The Alpha Looks Over The Sky, Thinking About His Mother.

Release

In 1984, A Proof Of Concept Was Shown During Screenings Of The Second Indiana Jones Film, Then In December 1984, A Full Trailer Was Released. In February 1985, Another Trailer Was Released In Germany And The Great Britain. The Film Was Released On March 18, 1985.

Reception

The Film Was Praised For The Stop Motion By Many Critics. Rotten Tomatoes Reports That 97% Of Critics Gave The Film A Positive Review. 

Creatures

• Centrosaurus

• Tyrannosaurus Rex

• Deinonychus

• Ornithomimus

• Apatosaurus

• Pteranodon

• Hadrosaurs

• Plesiosaurus

• Triceratops

• Stegosaurus

• Carnotaurus

• Gallimimus

• Archaeopteryx

• Parasaurolophus

• Ankylosaurus

• Unidentified Prehistoric Crocodile

• Unidentified Prehistoric Bird

• Great Horned Owl (Live Act)

• American Bullfrog (Live Act)

• Opossum (Live Act)

• Nile Crocodile (Live Act)

• Andean Condor (Live Act)

• Snowy Owl (Live Act)

Trivia

• The Trailers And TV Spots Where Narrated By Hal Douglas.

• A 10 Minute Proof Of Concept (Witch Is The Prologue To The Film) Was Released In 1984, This Proof Of Concept Would Be Shown At Various Screenings Of Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. 

• Stock Footage From The Film Was Used In The 1985 Documentary, Dinosaur! As Well As Some Other Shows.

• The Film Doesn't Just Use Stop Motion By Phil Tippet, But Animatronics By Stan Winston And Deinonychus Puppets By The Jim Henson Creature Workshop Where Also Created. 

Gallery

Lucasfilm

Paramount Pictures

Triceratops

Carnotaurus

Pteranodon

Archaeopteryx

Stegosaurus

Ankylosaurus

Parasaurolophus

Prehistoric Birds

Snowy Owl