“Do you want to see Jurassic World?” I asked my kids.

“Yes!” they both said.

“You don’t think it will be too scary? It looks super scary.”

“I’ll be okay,” said one. “We will see the dinosaurs from inside a big bubble.”

“You realize,” I replied, “that you will not actually be in a bubble. You will be in a theater seat.”

“Can we get D-Box?” he asked.

“Sure. As long as you think you won’t be too scared.”

“I’ll be fine. Star-Lord will be there.”

“That’s Chris Pratt. He’s an actor. He was Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy, not in Jurassic World.”

“I like to think that he’s always a little bit Star-Lord,” he answered.

Fair enough.

“If it’s too scary I’ll cover my ears,” said his brother.

“What about your eyes?” I asked.

“It’s the sound that makes it scary,” he said.

He has a point. I remember when Jurassic Park first opened. It was the only time that I saw the same movie twice in the same day. The sound of the T. rex actually shook the theater, and that was before we had fancy seats that were supposed to move with the action. And it shook the theater showing the film next to us, too—you could tell where neighboring theaters were in their respective screening of Jurassic Park by the shaking, pounding bass of our common walls. The experience was awe inspiring and somewhat terrifying.

The boys haven’t seen Jurassic Park. I know, it is a classic and I should show it to them, but until recently I didn’t think they were ready. Besides, there is a lot of competition.

Between episodes of Doctor Who, all of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, plus everything Star Wars and Marvel—they have a seen a lot of shows and films that are, assumedly, in this same scare zone. They like that scare zone, but, in my opinion, there is something about dinosaurs that takes the terror up a notch.

“It’s scary because it could happen,” said the oldest.

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I replied.

“Dinosaurs were real. Science is real. Do the math.”

“Science and math?” I asked. “It sounds like summer school.”

“Don’t say school,” he shouted. “School is really scary.”

“And we’ve been on the ride,” said his brother. “We survived that. Twice.”

He’s right. The only thing that happened on the Universal Studios ride is that we got wet.

“Do you guys want to watch some other dinosaur movies to prepare yourself?” I asked. “Disney’s Dinosaur was fun. Or Walking with the Dinosaurs?

Oh, what about the T. Rex in Meet the Robinsons? He wasn’t scary.”

“We aren’t scared, Dad, but we think you are.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I lied.

“What about the original Jurassic Park? That seems like a good place to start,” suggested the youngest. 

“Unless you can get an advance screening of Pixar’s Good Dinosaur.”

“All right, Jurassic Park it is.”

And so we are going to watch Jurassic Park together as a family—the neighbors will know exactly what we’re doing, because I plan to crank the surround sound to 11. It’s all part of the experience.

Assuming we survive that then it is straight on to Jurassic World, out of the bubble, scares and all. The D-Box seats will be a nice touch.

I must admit, it is comforting to know that the boys will be there if I need them. I just hope we don’t get wet.