The ending of the horror-infused Jurassic World 2 ushers in a new Jurassic reality.
Yippee ki-yay movie lovers, it's Jan here and today I'm breaking down what Fallen Kingdom's
ending and post-credits scene really mean and how they set up Jurassic World 3, and
I'll also be explaining some clever foreshadowing of key plot points and easter eggs in the
movie.
Spoilers ahead for Jurassic World 2, so take care if you haven't seen it yet.
"Welcome to Jurassic World."
Yes, it's Dr Malcolm who bookends the movie, delivering the last spoken line and confirming
that we're no longer going to be watching dinosaurs rampaging on an island.
Isla Nublar was destroyed earlier in the film, and against Dr Malcolm's recommendation, a
selection of the prehistoric creatures were rescued and have now ended up loose on the
mainland.
As Malcolm says, both humans and dinos will have to figure out how to co-exist.
It's an Empire Strikes Back-style cliffhanger ending that – coupled with the reveal that
Benjamin Lockwood has successfully used human cloning to create Maisie from the DNA of his
dead daughter – has far-reaching implications for what we can expect in Jurassic World 3
and beyond.
Blue and T-Rex are the two dinos given the money shots in the final scene, which I'm
sure means we'll see them return for key roles in the sequel.
Blue refused to go back into captivity with Owen and we see him looking out over a town
at the end.
Henry Wu, who survived the sequel carnage for a second time, didn't get the blood sample
from the raptor that he was looking for but I think there could be groups trying to track
the valuable raptor down in the next film.
T-Rex had that final shot breaking into a lion enclosure at a zoo and that roar might
suggest she's come to take over as the new queen of the jungle.
Oh and I'm sure the Mosasaurus, who we see among surfers in the ocean, will also return
for more of the chomp shots and Jaws easter eggs we've seen so far in the Jurassic World
movies.
There was also a post-credits scene which revealed where the Pteranodons end up.
Owen and Claire had seen them fly along the coastline after they escaped, but the end-credits
scene reveals that the flying reptiles have made it to Las Vegas.
The shot of them nesting in the fake Eiffel Tower in Vegas is a bit of commentary about
clones taking over from their original counterparts, and you could even see it as some meta-commentary
about the new films versus the originals.
Plus it also shows that the dinos are making their way inland with the potential danger
that they could overrun the North American mainland in the next sequel if they manage
to reproduce.
As Dr Malcolm would say, "Life finds a way".
Talking of Ian Malcolm, during his final monologue, he also mentions that genetic power has been
unleashed which, as well as the more obvious reference to the resurrected dinosaurs that
are now roaming the land, is also a reference to the revelation in Fallen Kingdom that Benjamin
Lockwood took the genetic cloning technology he developed with John Hammond and used it
on his dead daughter to create a new clone of her: Maisie, who he calls his granddaughter.
Maisie's cloned nature was foreshadowed numerous times in the movie.
There was the scene at the beginning in the Lockwood Estate where Maisie frightens the
housekeeper Iris by darting around the dinosaur exhibit room making her think there's a wild
animal loose.
Iris also lectured Maisie on how she should pronounce the word "bath", telling the young
girl that she's not a wild animal.
And Lockwood himself told Maisie that her mother would have saved all the dinosaurs
on Isla Nublar, which is exactly what Maisie later did at the end of the movie when she
opened the doors to free them.
Of course, the photo Lockwood kept hidden was a big clue as it showed a younger Iris
together with Lockwood's daughter who looked identical to Maisie.
But even before that picture was revealed, we'd already heard Lockwood tell Maisie that
she looked so much like her mother that "[she] could be her mirror image".
Jeff Goldblum's return to the franchise in Fallen Kingdom had a lot of fans excited and
although he basically only had a kind of glorified cameo, Dr Malcolm's opinions and commentary
on the subject of "animals being exploited for entertainment or money-making" are, of
course, pertinent to both the Jurassic World movies so far.
As a nice easter egg, screenwriter Colin Trevorrow has also said that much of Goldblum's dialogue
in Fallen Kingdom is actually taken "from Michael Crichton's novel."
And given the way the film ends, I think there's a good opportunity for Goldblum to return
in Jurassic World 3 in a much more significant way.
Another character who we'll likely see return for Jurassic World 3 is Henry Wu.
Wu survived the fall-out from yet another Jurassic World movie and we also saw a briefcase
at the end full of samples from many dinosaur breeds.
There are also the various shady individuals, mercenaries and arms dealers who made away
with several dinosaurs from the auction before the Indoraptor was set loose, so we could
see those groups start to implement their nefarious plans for the animals in Jurassic
World 3.
Ok, so, what are some of the other possibilities we can look forward to in the next movie?
Well, speaking about the trilogy, Colin Trevorrow has said that "Jurassic World was an action
adventure, Fallen Kingdom is kind of a horror suspense film, and Jurassic World 3 will be
a science thriller in the same way that Jurassic Park was."
And I wonder whether there could be a different type of DNA hybridisation explored.
What I mean is that it's interesting how at the very end of Fallen Kingdom, the camera
moved in for a lingering close-up of Maisie's face, making me think she's probably also
got a significant part to play in the next movie.
We know she was cloned, but have no idea about any of the details.
For example, is it possible that an element of non-human DNA such as dinosaur DNA was
used?
Although I thought the Indoraptor was probably just trying to hunt her, at one point I wondered
whether there was a hint that it was semi-curious about her, like they were tangentially connected
in some way.
Human-dino hybrids have been considered for Jurassic movies in the past but the idea never
got off the ground.
Something that we won't be seeing in Jurassic World 3 though is any more hybrid dinosaurs
such as the Indominus Rex or the Indoraptor.
In fact, T-Rex crushed the Indominus Rex sample from Isla Nublar under her foot as she walked
off into the woods.
Trevorrow has said that for Jurassic World 3 he's planning to get "back into the wild
animal, true dinosaur nature of all of it."
I also want to mention a couple of very interesting easter eggs.
When Eli Mills dies at the end of the movie, T-Rex and the Carnotaurus fight over him and
rip him apart, which is a call-back to how Eddie Carr was killed by two T-Rexs in The
Lost World.
And the heart-breaking Brachiosaurus scene as the boat left Isla Nublar cleverly referenced
the first Jurassic Park movie in a special way.
In the original movie, the Brachiosaurus was the very first dinosaur we saw and the way
it reared up on its hind legs in its dying moments in Fallen Kingdom was just like it
did in that scene in Jurassic Park.
Another subtle and moving detail was as the smoke engulfed the poor creature, the burning
lava behind it glowed orange forming a silhouette of the dinosaur giving it a look almost like
it was being preserved in amber.
The mosquito set in amber is where John Hammond got the dino DNA that he used to bring them
back to life in Jurassic Park, so seeing the shadow of the Brachiosaurus set against the
orange-yellow colour of the lava felt like everything was coming full circle.
So, did you enjoy Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and how do you feel about the direction the
franchise has taken?
And what would you like to see in Jurassic World 3?
Be sure to keep the conversation going in the comments below.
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