It’s been three years since theme park and luxury resort Jurassic World was destroyed by dinosaurs that went on a rampage. Their island home, Isla Nublar, has been abandoned by all humans.
However, when the island’s dormant volcano springs into life, former raptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this looming natural disaster and potential extinction-level event.
Owen is driven to find Blue, his favourite raptor who’s still missing in the wild while, over the years, Claire has developed a respect for these creatures. Arriving on the unstable island as lava begins raining down, their expedition uncovers a conspiracy that could return our entire planet to a perilous order not seen since prehistoric times.
Jurassic World co-writer and director Colin Trevorrow returns as co-writer and now executive producer of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
He recalls that: “About two weeks after Jurassic World came out, I had to drive back home to Vermont and asked Derek (Connolly, co-writer) if he would ride with me, so we could use that cross-country trip to talk about where the story could go next. I had a very basic set of ideas I wanted to present to him – in a place that we could think freely and just get weird with what the future could be.”
Buoyed with confidence at the film’s rip-roaring success and Jurassic Park franchise creator Spielberg’s confidence in their narrative arc, the pair hit the road to discuss what was next.
Trevorrow knew he wanted this instalment to explore darker themes. “These dinosaurs were of this earth 65 million years ago, and now they’re in a place that is completely foreign to them,” he says. “I thought there was a way we could tell a story that would identify the human angle. How would you feel if you were brought into a world that you didn’t belong to… just for the satisfaction of others?”
How would you feel if you were brought into a world that you didn’t belong to…just for the satisfaction of others
Trevorrow admits he is very fond of Claire and Grady, the constantly squabbling former lovers and protagonists of the story.
“We thought a lot about where Claire would be a few years later, and how she’d have a lot of guilt, regret and responsibility – which she would take and put it into action.
“On the other side, we have Owen, who is responsible for proving that raptors can follow orders,” he continues. “He knows there is a capability for them to serve the same purpose as animals that have been used throughout history for war.”
Trevorrow goes on to explain that these two characters are the mother and father of the new world. “They’re the parents of this slowly-building biological disaster begun by John Hammond (played in the original films by the late Richard Attenborough). It was important for us to find a way to weave Hammond into the story and to connect them together, as well as tell more about the history of how Jurassic Park began.”
The extraordinary dinosaurs are as much players as Claire and Owen. Nowhere is this more evident than with Blue, the Velociraptor to which Owen has had a deep connection since she was a hatchling. After a fierce battle with littermate Echo – one that left Blue with a scarred lip – she established her dominance among her pack. Once Owen pretended to be injured during her training, Blue showed her capacity for empathy.
A virtual enigma among dinosaurs, Blue is equal parts vicious and nurturing. Sadly, in the post Jurassic World era, she is also the last of her kind. Moreover, apart from various dinosaurs, familiar from past films, this instalment introduces a new set of dinosaurs from multiple epochs – from a Baryonyx and a Carnotaurus, to a Stygimoloch.
As for the human ensemble, Jurassic World also stars James Cromwell, Justice Smith, Daniella Pidena, Rafe Spall, Ted Levine, Toby Jones, Geraldine Chaplin and Isabella Sermon. It also features franchise stalwarts B.D. Wong as Dr Henry Wu, and Jeff Goldblum as Dr Ian Malcolm, the eccentric mathematician who first predicted doom for Hammond’s Jurassic Park a quarter of a century ago.
The film is directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio ‘J.A.’ Bayona.