Raptor (2001 film)

Directed by	Jay Andrews
Produced by	Roger Corman
Written by	Frances Doel Michael Druxman Jay Andrews
Starring	Eric Roberts Corbin Bernsen Melissa Brasselle Tim Abell William Monroe Harrison Paige Richard Gabai Tippy Lemond Eric James Grant Cramer
Cinematography	Andrea Rossotto
Distributed by	New Concorde
Release date(s)	November 6, 2001
Running time	81 mins
Country	United States
Language	English
Preceded by	Carnosaur 3: Primal Species (1996)
Followed by	The Eden Formula (2006) Raptor Ranch (2009)

Raptor is a 2001 direct-to-video horror film directed by Jim Wynorski (under the name Jay Andrews) and produced by Roger Corman. The film recycles footage from a variety of Corman's earlier dinosaur horror films, including Carnosaur, Carnosaur 2 and Carnosaur 3: Primal Species. Combined with footage which was filmed in the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park in Agua Dulce, California, the film focuses on a small town sheriff (Eric Roberts) and an animal control officer (Melissa Brasselle), who investigate a series of deaths by genetically engineered dinosaurs that escape from a nearby laboratory. As they struggle to bring the deaths under control, they must face off against the scientist who created them (Corbin Bernsen). Raptor was awarded a 2001 Galaxy Award.

Plot

The film opens with three kids driving in their jeep, one of them gets out of the car and is attacked by and unseen animal. It gets into the car and it is revealed as a small lizard-like creature. Sheriff Jim Tanner is arguing with Henderson about his bill and that he has three homicides on his hands. At the murder site, Deputy Ben Glover tells him what he thinks happened when Animal Control Officer Barbara Phillips shows up. She tries to find out what killed the kids, the sheriff suggests that it could have been a cougar. But Barbara finds a foot print, and the a loud roar is heard in the distance. Dr. Hyde is telling Karen, Lyle Schell and Josh McCoy that one of their raptors has hatched pre-mature and escaped. At the security gate, Lyle is telling the security guard, Tony, no one is allowed in or out, but he lets a truck driver, Merl leave anyway. He hears a loud roar in the back of his truck and gets out to see what it was. He opens the back of his truck and a new born raptor comes out and kills him. Deputy Mike Baltain finds the truck and calls it in to the Sheriff. When he is about to get in his car, an large Deinonychus kills him. Lola Tanner and Tommy Leoneti are laying in the back of a truck and they hear the raptor‘a roar and decided to leave. Tommy gets out of the truck to get his wallet, only to be killed by the raptor. Lola tries to drive away from it, but the raptor gets stuck in the window, so she jumps out of the truck, and the truck falls off the bridge and explodes at the bottom, killing the raptor. Back at Eunice, Lyle tells Dr. Hyde that he wants to quit after what happened to the kids. He tells Lyle to see how the T-Rex will react to anyone else besides Karen, Dr. Hyde shuts the lasers off and the T-Rex kills Lyle. Jim and Barbara are driving up to Eunice, to talk the Dr. Hyde, Josh McCoy comes out and tells them that he's at a meeting. Then they hear the T-Rex roar, McCoy says that it's just their fuel-pressure control release. Then the go back to the hospital, where Barbara plays the roar of one of the raptors, Lola wakes up from her shock, and tells them that a lizard attack her and killed Tommy. Deputy Ben Glover gets a call from someone at a liquor store about someone smashing windows across the street. He heads over there, only to find the place torn about and a mutilated dog. The raptor comes charging him and he shoots him with his Shotgun, the raptor lifts his claw up and sends it right through Ben, killing him. The next day Jim tells Barbara that something tore the guts out of Ben, at the morgue she finds a tooth in Ben, a the coroner tells Jim that the found Deputy Mike Baltain's body on a ranch just outside the county line. Jim and Barbara call the FBI asking him about Eunice and Dr. Hyde. He tells Henderson to turn the power off at Eunice in one hour, if he doesn't call again. Colonel Vandamar sends in a team of Delta lead by Captain Connelly and a team of Marines lead by Captain York. Dr. Hyde locks Jim and Barbara in a room, an hour goes by and Henderson tells DJ to turn to power off, the escape and the raptors and the T-Rex escape from their cages. A raptor finds Benny and pulls him up through a hole in the wall, Connelly, Lewis, Sladek and Nash find themselves cornered by raptors, then kill one of them, and the other escapes. Karen gets into an argument, that they should warn the soldiers, and he tells her to stay in the lab. Captain Connelly tells Captain York, that the raptors are on the loose and Benny is dead. Karen leaves Dr. Hyde after finding out about Lyle's death, she gets to the elevator, only to be pulled through and in a particularly graphic scene, a raptor tears her arm out of the socket and splits her stomach open. Captain Connelly tells Devinger to get around to the back of Eunice, so none of the scientists can escape. A raptor somehow got into her helicopter and it kills her, the helicopter falls to the ground and lands of top of McCoy, exploding, killing the raptor and him. Brady tells Captain York, that the helicopter crashed, he calls the colonel to send in another helicopter in twenty minutes. He tells Johnson and Sanders, to go down to the basement level and set charges. When they get there, a raptor kills Sanders and Johnson's gun jams when he's shooting another, he gets up onto the bridge where a raptor kills him. Captain York, Brady and Reece shoot at a raptor only to retreat, Rossi looks up only to be killed by the T-Rex, when it comes down through the ceiling and pulls him through. Jim and Barbara meet up with the remaining soldiers, Lewis and Brady find the nest and start shooting the eggs, the T-Rex chases them out of the room. They get back to the team, where the T-Rex tries to bust through the wall, then get outside where the T-Rex busts out and kills Dr. Hyde. The soldiers and rescue team leave in the helicopter. Barbara opens the door to the factory, Jim gets in a Bob Cat to fight the T-Rex, thenthe next scene it is a forklift, and he knocks the T-Rex down to the basement. Jim and Barbara run to cover when the bombs go off destroying the building and killing all the raptors.

Cast

• Eric Roberts as Sheriff Jim Tanner
• Corbin Bernsen as Dr. Hyde
• Melissa Brasselle as Barbara Phillips
• Tim Abell as Capt. Connellly
• William Monroe as Capt. York
• Harrison Paige as Deputy Ben Glover
• Lorissa McComas as Lola Tanner
• Frank Novack as Lyle Schell
• Grant Cramer as Josh McCoy
• Teresa DePriest as Karen
• Eric James as Brady
• James Cromwell as Benny
• Alexandra Raines as Devinger
• GiGi Erneta as Henderson
• Adam Gordon as Deputy Mike Baltain
• Michael Cavanaugh as Colonel Von Vandamar
• Ted Monte as Tommy Leoneti
• Robert Clotworthy as Doctor
• Richard Gabai as Lewis
• Tippy Lemond as Stadek
• Lenny Juliana as Morgue Clerk
• Bruce Nozick as FBI Agent Wiley
• Rod McCary as General Mayhem
• Brian Graham as Coroner
• Ivan Kraljevic as Swat Liutentant Nash
• Adam Limberman as Deputy Balton
• Haley Sanchez as Girl in Photo (uncredited)
• Jim Wyorski as Man in the Police Station (uncredited)

Connections to the Carnosaur series

Carnosaur (1993)

• The beginning of the film was featured in Carnosaur
• When Lyle is on the phone talking to Tony and when Merl is driving the truck, and his death was featured in Carnosaur.
• Lyle references Swanson from Carnosaur, he was clawed on the face by a baby raptor.
• When Mike Baltain is killed, the scene where he is laying against the car was featured in Carnosaur when T-Dog was killed.
• When Ben Drives up to the store to when he gets killed was featured in Carnosaur.
• The name Eunice was used in Carnosaur.
• The Bobcat scene near the end was taken from Carnosaur.

Carnosaur 2 (1995)

• When Benny is killed the scene was taken from when Ed Moses is killed in Carnosaur 2.
• When Devinger and Karen are killed, those scenes where taken from Carnosaur 2.
• Dr. Hyde references that Eunice used to be a Nuclear Testing Facility, it was a reference to Carnosaur 2.
• When the raptors pull the pipes down and they explode, that was taken from Carnosaur 2.
• When Jim is in the Forklift, it was reused from Carnosaur 2.

Carnosaur 3: Primal Species

• Johnson and Sanders death scenes were featured in Carnosaur 3: Primal Species.
• Reese's death was featured in Carnosaur 3: Primal Species.
• The scene where the raptor is running behind a fence away from Connelly's team was featured in Carnoasur 3: Primal Species.
• The scene where the T-Rex hits it's head against the wall after it chases off Brady and Lewis was featured in Carnosaur 3: Primal Species.
• The scene where the T-Rex busts out is used in Carnosaur, Carnosaur 2, Carnosaur 3: Primal Species and The Eden Formula.
• The death scene of Dr. Hyde was taken from Carnosaur 2 and reused again in The Eden Formula.

Sequel

A film called Raptor Ranch was released April 1, 2009 in theaters. It stars Jana Mashonee, Donny Boaz and Cody Vaughan. It is about a small Texas town gets overrun by blood thirsty raptors and small group of people including a native American girl, a sheriff and his deputy try to hunt down and kill them. It is uncertain when it will be released on SyFy or DVD.

Characters from other Carnosaur films

Carnosaur (1993)

• Merl
• Tony
• Jesse Paloma (as Lyle Schell)
• Sheriff Fowler (as Deputy Ben Glover)
• Janie Paloma (as Janie Schell)

Carnosaur 2 (1995)

• Ed Moses (as Benny)
• Anne Galloway (as Devinger)
• Sarah Rawlins (as Karen)

Carnosaur 3: Primal Species (1996)

• Dr. Andrian Hodges (as Sladek)
• Sanders
• Johnson
• Colonel Rance Higgins (replaced by Captain Connellly)