Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

After the smashing success of Jurassic World, producer Steven Spielberg congratulated director Colin Trevorrow with a gift of a menorah with a T-Rex base, dubbed the Menorahsaurus Rex. Celebrations didn’t last long. The sequel was announced while Jurassic World had barely opened in theaters. Trevorrow and his longtime writing partner Derek Connelly worried. What could they do to live up to Jurassic World? Worse, Spielberg wanted a trilogy, which meant simultaneously conceiving a story for the third film.

During a cross-country trip back to Trevorrow’s Vermont home, Trevorrow and Connolly brainstormed to flesh out a basic story idea. They agreed that the series should stop being about the dangers of fiddling with science. It’s already been fiddled with. Future sequels should thematically become about the ethical dilemma of living in the new world created through that change. How would the dinosaurs feel about living in a world in which they were no longer meant to exist?

Trevorrow would also have to sit this entry out as the director. He’d write and produce, but he’d agreed to direct Star Wars: Episode IX at the time (eventually replaced again by J.J. Abrams). He rationalized that, like the Star Wars franchise or the Mission: Impossible films, the Jurassic franchise could make each entry unique by changing directors, though he fully intended to return for the third entry.

Spielberg requested that the action moves from the island and onto the mainland. Other global companies could emulate InGen and desire to develop their own clone dinosaurs. Trevorrow agreed to break from the island but wanted the story to follow the Nublar dinosaurs. Although much of the first half of the film takes place on Isla Nublar, the eruption of the volcano ensures that there can never be a return. The volcano angle provides ticking timebomb suspense and the molten lava delivers eye candy and tension for several set pieces. Although the volcanic nature of Isla Nublar was not referred to in the original trilogy, it is mentioned in Michael Crichton’s original “Jurassic Park” novel and a dormant volcano was placed on a map of Isla Nublar without commentary in the 2015 film. Trevorrow looked to the espionage thrillers like 1975’s Three Days of the Condor and Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies for their way of changing the nature of everything midway, altering the movie’s tone unexpectedly, but without losing momentum.

Trevorrow was concerned about how audiences would react to the destruction of the island but felt it was critical to the franchise’s growth to burn the bridge once the dinosaurs crossed into a new world. Spielberg was skeptical that it would take too long to set up for the dinosaurs to move to England as Trevorrow intended, so they scouted areas closer to Costa Rica, like Peru, Ecuador, and Cabo San Lucas to set the film up and perhaps save England for the third film. However, Trevorrow found a way to make the move work using giant cargo ships.

Jurassic World was bright, colorful, and fun, so Trevorrow wanted to differentiate Fallen Kingdom by exploring the darker side of humanity’s exploitation and the cruelty we employ toward other living creatures. He mused that the dinosaurs were like the discovery of nuclear power, first used for military purposes before expanding worldwide. And similar to humanity’s regard to environmental issues and climate, many avoid worrying about tomorrow to make money today.

Trevorrow wanted constriction and claustrophobia for the second film before busting out wide for the third. The iconic scene inspired him in Jurassic Park featuring velociraptors chasing the kids through the kitchen, with its narrowing environs and horrific implications.

As moral questions abounded, Trevorrow felt this entry should return Jeff Goldblum to his role as Ian Malcolm, the warner of impending doom for messing with nature.  Trevorrow didn’t want Malcolm to return to Isla Nublar because it felt like a cheap gimmick. Instead, he envisioned Malcolm as sort of an Al Gore-type, warning the politicians in Washington DC about the dangers of continuing dinosaur exploitation and that they let nature take its course by wiping out the dinosaurs again. Goldblum’s initial day of shooting expanded because he wanted dialogue changes.

Trevorrow originally scripted Jake Johnson’s character, Lowery Cruthers, to return. Johnson wanted Lowery to be changed dramatically from his prior harrowing experience, now sporting a ponytail and tattoo sleeves. However, Trevorrow reconsidered because the sequel was already dark and the character added to the cynicism rather than offering the needed comic relief. He replaced Lowery with younger, more idealistic characters to be environmental activists who wholeheartedly believe in Claire Dearing’s cause. Owen Grady, by contrast, isn’t an activist, but wants to save the life of his beloved trained velociraptor, Blue. He desires to live life on his terms but finds himself compelled to act when he realizes there are things that affect all of us on the planet. We can’t sit idly by when there’s nowhere to run anymore.

After receiving blowback for killing characters that weren’t deserving in Jurassic World, Trevorrow made sure characters who died horribly in Fallen Kingdom deserved it. Trevorrow initially envisioned also bigger, prolonged action set pieces but the producers wanted the tempo slowed down and the universe expanded. The characters should be built back up to explore what they’d been doing for the past three years and how the dinosaur experience changed them.

Trevorrow and Connolly set the story following the closure of Jurassic World, where its dormant volcano, Mt. Sibo, has become active, threatening all life on Isla Nublar. Humankind debates whether the clone dinosaurs should be saved or return to extinction. Claire has become a conservationist advocate for the Dinosaur Protection Group, feeling an overwhelming responsibility to save the dinos she once considered merely a commodity.  After John Hammond’s billionaire associate Benjamin Lockwood is on his deathbed, his assistant, Eli Mills, pitches a plan to Claire to fund the relocation of the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar to a sanctuary island. Claire gathers a team including velociraptor whisperer Owen Grady, super-hacker Franklin Webb, and paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez. The team is stunned to discover find mercenaries on the island gathering dinosaurs to bring to the mainland for greedy, nefarious purposes.

Turning toward the director, JA Bayona had been a serious consideration for Jurassic World due to his reputation for Spielbergian themes in his films, and his disaster film, The Impossible, showed he could handle large-scale, effects-heavy features. Bayona excelled at blending genres, deeper characterizations, tension, and childhood nightmares to layer upon the specific adventure elements. However, Bayona insisted on completing his next slated film, A Monster Calls, first, as well as considerable prep time following this, which the producers weren’t willing to wait for. Bayona was available for the second film and loved the pitch, especially its distinct narrative direction that looked at dinosaur survival rather than human. Trevorrow was also a huge fan of Bayona’s work and agreed he was a perfect choice, or fellow Spanish horror helmer Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Trevorrow decided to write with Bayona in mind to put the second film in his wheelhouse, shifting from a disaster movie to gothic horror of dinosaurs within a large mansion.

Bayona grew up an admirer of Steven Spielberg’s films. During his stint as a film professor, he even taught a film class on Jurassic Park. Bayona injects elements to pay homage to Spielberg’s filmmaking style, rewatching Spielberg’s older films and reading Crichton’s books for insight into their storytelling technique. He noted that Spielberg borrowed from his own Indiana Jones films for Jurassic Park in capturing the pacing and humor of early Hollywood serials. This inspired Bayona to study the silent comedies of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton for inspiration. He drew from these for a scripted scene where Owen escapes oncoming lava while his body is immobilized by a tranquilizer dart. Further homage comes in casting Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter, Geraldine, a Bayona regular, as the nanny to Maisie, Lockwood’s granddaughter.

Bayona identified with the thematic question of whether clones are legitimate life or expendable due to artificial existence. Bayona has a twin brother and struggled to form an identity independent of that relationship despite being a completely different person. He emphasizes the folly of Lockwood cloning his deceased daughter. She might look the same, but Maisie is her own person.

The working title was ‘Ancient Futures’, referring to dinosaur existence in both prehistory and the future. This was never officially the title; Trevorrow and Bayona wouldn’t reveal the actual title during the production in an effort to keep internet speculation at bay. Trevorrow initially wanted each entry in the trilogy to have a different title starting with Jurassic. However, while Spielberg approved of changing Jurassic Park to Jurassic World to separate the two trilogies, he felt additional changes would confuse audiences.

Trevorrow minimized Easter Eggs and callbacks to prior films, preferring a forward-looking turn. Bayona, however, wanted fans to feel comfortably familiar, so he upped the Spielberg homage. In addition to Indiana Jones references, a toy version of ET was inserted in Maisie’s bedroom in post-production for Spielberg’s fans. Maisie is also shown wearing a red hoodie like E.T.‘s Elliott.

After collaborating with Connolly for eight months, Trevorrow served as the sole on-set writer. Bayona contributed to several story changes. He wanted a prolonged James Bond-type opening because the script had a talky first act and didn’t want action off-screen for too long.  They crafted an opening where mercenaries obtain a DNA-rich bone from the decayed Indominus Rex amid dangerous dinosaurs within the human-abandoned dangerous remnants of Jurassic Park. Bayona wanted another action scene added during a long sequence aboard the ship, the Arcadia. Due to the ship’s holds, space for action was limited, so they brainstormed a sequence where Owen and Claire extract blood from the T-Rex to save Blue.  During the editing phase, they had another idea to intercut the scene of Blue’s surgery with Owen’s video diaries of training velociraptor hatchlings.

The story highlights human greed. For dynamic effect, Bayona replaced a scripted scene of animal traffickers meeting in an underground garage to trade dinosaurs’ lives for money with a Sotheby’s-style auction where dinosaurs are bid upon in the black market. This incorporated Spielberg’s longtime desire to introduce weaponized dinosaurs.

Fallen Kingdom was shot in CinemaScope format, for ultra-widescreen presentation to capture more action and dinosaurs on the screen than any prior film in the series. Because Bayona felt that modern films were oversaturated with CG, there were more practical effects than in any film in the franchise since the original. Bayona sometimes used animatronics knowing they’d be replaced by CG to give actors something real to perform against. Bayona formed a pact with the actors before the shoot that he wanted to genuinely scare them occasionally to get truthful reactions. The animatronic dinosaurs would suddenly move or emit a roar, which drew some genuine flinches and screams. Trevorrow’s experience with animatronics helped to add every instance possible. Spielberg advised them not to frame the animatronic dinosaurs completely, as they appear larger when occupying more space than the frame allows.

Bayona utilized John Williams’ music and dinosaur roar sound effects from prior Jurassic films while on the set to capture the mood for each scene. Sudden sounds scare the actors to elicit genuine reactions of fright. The soaring theme music of Jurassic Park stirred the actors into tears during emotional moments.

For a scene where Claire and Franklin are catapulted in a gyrosphere off a cliff into the ocean, Bayona wanted real emotion visible on the actors’ faces. He explored existing theme park rides to simulate the fall, but matching lighting and backdrop in a real park was tricky. More efficient and economical was building an on-set 40-foot slope that could freefall for three seconds. For the ocean landing, the gyrosphere was submerged in a huge tank in Pinewood Studios. The actors and camera operator trained in scuba for safety while trapped 30 feet below the surface. Bayona called it the scariest part for him to film. The sequence took five intense days to complete.

For a scene where a Baryonyx attacks the characters amid lava pouring down from the ceiling, Bayona wanted realistic lighting despite nearly all of the elements of the scene being relegated to CG. To achieve the right flickers of light to shine around the room and on the actors, they set cat litter doused with flammable liquid on fire and poured it through cracks in the ceiling. The result was liquid fire that the actors could interact with and provided the right light and smoke for the scene without the need for CG.

The new dino baddie was the Indoraptor, a genetic hybrid of the Indominus Rex and a velociraptor. Bayona paid homage to classic Hollywood through the Indoraptor, which Spielberg called the first true monster of the franchise. There’s a nod to1933’s King Kong, regarded as Bayona’s favorite movie featuring dinosaurs, by having big gates opening to reveal it. The Indoraptor’s shadowlike entrance is patterned after the vampire in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. He also added a couple of elements of John Badham’s oft-forgotten 1979 flick Dracula, which Bayona saw when he was five years old and left an indelible impression. He also found sympathy for the Indoraptor, framing it as a sad event upon its death, similar to Frankenstein. Bayona sent a picture of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster to the design team on what he wanted the Indoraptor to resemble. They also added some tics and trembling to its movement to denote a prototype hybrid forced into existence before it was ready.

For the Indoraptor design, Bayona polled kids about what they found scary about dinosaurs. He opted to go with a black dinosaur with very white teeth, which would make it especially scary when it is in dark, shadowy places. There were plans to have two Indoraptors, one black and one white, to give a sense of mythology. The black one would kill the white one in something akin to a Biblical “Cain and Abel” story, but Bayona determined there wasn’t room for additional high-concept ideas. Bayona wanted the Indoraptor to have long, human-like arms to increase its eeriness.

Themes include technology to control nature; the more we rely on tech, the less control over our situation humans seem to have. Innovation can be used to destroy ourselves, much like atomic power. Weapons of death are more in demand than ones to preserve life. Billionaires are surrounded by spineless lackeys who foster the notion that they can play God with the world.

Trump allusions abound, as the film explores megalomania and greed. Wealthy egotists blatantly disregard the consequences to society. The President in Jurassic World disbelieving the existence of dinosaurs parallels Trump’s disbelief in climate change, calling it a Chinese hoax or fake news. Toby Jones sports a Trumpian hairpiece, while Ted Levin’s character makes a “nasty woman” reference, recalling Trump calling Hillary Clinton that during their debates. Bayona insists these weren’t scripted, but he gave the actors free range to improvise and they couldn’t resist drawing inferences from recent politics.

Learning from our past is crucial to humanity’s survival, but when our politics are untethered to truth, history, or science, our future grows perilous. Lockwood has a rose-colored view of the past, seeing John Hammond as a philanthropist hero rather than a greedy showman who didn’t learn until it was too late. He wants to restore the greatness of Jurassic Park again but hubris abounds when ethics are expendable in service of personal ambition.

Though many think of the past as the good old days, every era was flawed and full of peril. Humans could never have survived in prehistoric days. We dare to think we can tame dinosaurs but find the reasons they dominated Earth at one time. A return to the past accelerates doom for our future. Cloning Lockwood’s daughter attempts to resurrect the past, but she becomes the savior key of the past that endangers the future of humankind. The film embraces the theme that clones are as real and valid as those created through conventional means.

We share the planet with all of the other animals and we must deal with the consequences of our actions toward them. We will perish if we continue to abuse and exploit them. We must learn to live in harmony with them.

A scene depicting pteranodons in Las Vegas was a deleted scene that they decided to put at the end of the credits rather than on the Blu-ray. Trevorrow’s original story treatment wanted to expand the dinosaurs into the mainland further but the production team felt they should hold it all back for the third film except for this teaser. A reference to Zia being a lesbian was cut from the finished film, reportedly for time. The dialogue reveals that Zia doesn’t date men, but if she did, she’d date someone like Owen Grady due to his handsome features.

Reviews were mixed, garnering praise for its visuals, but the muddled plot and lackluster script were detractions, Many critics felt that this entry didn’t provide many good or interesting ideas for the franchise. Nevertheless, off the strength of the rejuvenated series, Fallen Kingdom raked in a hefty $1.3 billion worldwide, making it the 12th-highest-grossing film of all time following its run. It finished third place among money-earners in 2018.

For Fallen Kingdom, in addition to the $170 million budget, they pumped over $185 million into its promotional campaigns internationally, twice that of Jurassic World. Trevorrow directed Goldblum in a commercial for the Jeep Wrangler which debuted during Super Bowl LII. The commercial depicts Ian Malcolm outrunning a T-Rex in a vehicle similar to the iconic sequence in Jurassic Park (this time Malcolm is in the driver’s seat) and then turning the tables by chasing the T-Rex, before returning it back to the car dealership with the punchline that this was all a test drive. Before the release of Fallen Kingdom, it was announced that Trevorrow would return to direct the third entry in the new trilogy. He was to co-write with Pacific Rim Uprising scribe Emily Carmichael.

Qwipster’s rating: 

MPAA Rated: R for strong violence, strong sexuality, nudity, and language (an unrated version exists with more nudity)
Running Time: 105 min.

Cast: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Dennis Franz, David Margulies, Ken Baker
Director: Brian De Palma
Screenplay: Brian De Palma