'Jurassic World' Used a "Terrifying" Rollercoaster for the Gyrosphere Drop

When it comes to the Jurassic Park saga, thrills are everywhere. That extends to even the behind the scenes of the most recent film, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.

To create genuine terror in the actors hoping to escape Isla Nubar, director J. A. Bayona emphasized practical effects where possible. And no scene summarizes the filmmaker’s ambitions more than in the Gyrosphere set-piece, which was filmed using a real rollercoaster track built for the movie.

“As a director you try to create the biggest impact possible possible, every time,” Bayona tells Inverse in a video interview. “That [Gyrosphere] scene was all about claustrophobia, this kind of anguish.”

Bryce Dallas Howard, who reprises her Claire Dearing from 2015’s Jurassic World for the sequel (and also hates rollercoasters) laughs as she tells Inverse how she had to psych herself up.

“I don’t like rollercoasters,” she says. “When I got to the set of this Gyrosphere sequence of the bit where the ball drops over the side of the cliff, in order to make that realistic, J. A. Bayona recommended building a rollercoaster. Like an actual rollercoaster. And I just remembered, ‘Be brave.’”

Safe as the actors in the Gyrosphere were, Bayona admits it looked and felt dangerous on set. “Being there you were able to see the actors in the Gyrosphere, and the actors running out of air, it felt very dangerous from the outside,” he says.

“It would drop and we would hit zero Gs and we we would float for a second, and it’s just that feeling in your body like, ‘What is going on?!’” Howard adds. “It was for sure terrifying and absurdly fun as well.”

Never say that there’s a boring day at Jurassic Park.

“It was a very immersive experience to shoot this movie,” Howard recalls. “It felt like were were on some theme park ride that was Jurassic Park.”

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.