I have been talking about dinosaurs here for a while. And since some rumors about the new Jurassic World franchise have been floating, I thought I'd revisit what I wrote about Jurassic World and point out where I would go in completely different directions.
For starters, I would skip the horrible concept of "weaponizing dinosaurs", despite it being a large theme in the film. After all, Crichton originally imagined Jurassic Park because he felt only entertainment would front the money needed to refine the tech and allow the cloning to happen. It's a sad commentary on our world, I think, that twenty years later, we figure the only people who want dinosaurs are those who are looking to exploit them for war.
Now, chucking off one of the themes is in and itself problematic. After all, it was clearly an important part to the filmmakers' vision of Jurassic World. But if you think about it, there' s already precedence for dropping inconvenient plot points. The lost Barbasol canister and the unlocked aviary in Jurassic Park III are only two that come readily to mind. There are others. Besides, the franchise has also gone in the opposite direction, with the introduction to Site B. Ian Malcolm's response in the second film is pretty spot on: "There's a second island? With dinosaurs? And no fences on it? And you want to put people on it?" No one mentions this in the first film, there's no indication of any sort of "factory floor". In fact, Hammond even says, upon the birth of the Velociraptor, that he's been present for the birth of every creature on the island. While I would have preferred to have greater continuity between the characters and the dinosaurs (in their looks, if not their behaviors), it's clear that this franchise isn't concerned with that level of rigor.
So, let's get rid of the ill-defined InGen black ops that shows up in the latter half of the film. Hoskins is dead (due to arm removal, I guess), and though Wu has survived, is it at all possible that he may have, I don't know, learned his lesson from all of the catastrophes? But we'll get back to Wu in a minute. No, the disaster at Jurassic World should leave InGen bereft of, well, everything. The company's gone. Its CEO is dead due to dinosaur attack. The company is DOA.
So what do we have? The (Jurassic) world saw the implosion of the park concept, proving again that dinosaurs and humans can't be contained. That theme of control, so central to the franchise, is finally understood by basically everyone in the room. This includes Claire and Owen, since they were instrumental in stopping Indominus and Alan Grant. Ellie Sattler is staying with her family and refuses to be involved. Timmy is there, as is Ian Malcolm, who arrives to say "I told you so" but also to explain, oh so patiently, the issues of complexity theory that are at work with what happened in Jurassic World. Then we get to the conflict: The ruin of Jurassic World is destroying the Costa Rican economy. They need help, and they feel like InGen, under the control of New CEO Guy, should be the one that does it. Henry Wu, a changed man, says that they must kill all of the creatures. Some of those who are more conservation minded, disagree. He admits he was wrong and says he's tired of thinking of all those who've died because of what he created. American Government Guy is also insistent that those with exposure to the dinosaurs in uncontrolled environments should be involved in the clean up. If they fail to put this all together, they'll bomb the island. The Costa Ricans want to set up a scientific preserve that would allow the new, improved dinosaurs to be observed, so they want to support as much as possible. If they can get the island back under control, they might be able to rebuild the public trust they lost because of this latest disaster.
In short, the mission is to tidy the mess made by InGen, and they have very little time in which to do it.
Problems abound. Central America has been having problems with the pterrasaurs that escaped the aviary, the Mosasaurus has escaped into the ocean, and there are reports of other dangerous animals loose on the mainland. Even the harvesting of genetic panacea comes up, much like what's discussed in the beginning of The Lost World novel. It's now clear: The biggest worries from Jurassic Park have finally arrived.
Due to the different personalities and different ways of looking at things and age of the returning cast, there can be some personality conflicts. Tim could feel a familial responsibility, Alan disdain, and Ian a narcissistic desire to see how it all falls apart again. Owen will want to get back on the island to find Blue. He feels that there's a way to save the creatures from being blown to pieces, but he needs to get in there to make things right. Claire comes along to share her knowledge about how the operations worked at the park could be utilized. Wu volunteers to finish what he started. They deploy onto the island with a handful of spear carriers, thus allowing some people to get eaten. The Dilophosaurus gets a chance to shine. Dinosaur/human hijinx ensue, as hijinx always do.
But the tension of the dinosaurs-on-the-island clean up crew is intercut with the helping-out-Costa-Rica subplot. Ian and Tim--Alan goes back to his dig site because he's not going to get tangled up into this again--are checking out a reported dinosaur sighting, only to be cut off in a village that's suddenly surrounded by raptors. At one point Tim freezes up because his PTSD kicks in at the sound of the Velociraptors' call. They save the village, but they discover something unexpected: These dinosaurs aren't from Jurassic World.
Back on the island, the clean up is now under control. They only have the T. rex left...until it becomes clear that there has been "unauthorized breeding" in Jurassic World. They confront Henry about it, but he explains that they must be older dinosaurs, the first generation. They wonder how they could have missed this, but Claire explains that there were anomalies that they'd chosen to ignore. This causes a rift in the trust between Owen and Claire, which they work through as they end up in greater peril.
Meanwhile, Ian and Timmy are trying to figure out what's going on. They have the help in the form of Costa Rican scientists, particularly Attractive Female Scientist With Glasses. They get as far as they can, but Henry is the only one who can explain the mess. They contact him while he's on the island. He looks at the specific markers of the code, realizes that it's stolen genetic material, and Biosyn, a rival genetics company, has done this work. Turns out American Government Guy is actually Biosyn Guy and has been pulling the strings to stamp out the competition. Confronting Biosyn Guy, Owen punches him in the face because that's always satisfying.
The revelation of the conspiracy is interrupted when the containment protocols fail and the most dangerous dinosaurs are let loose. T. rex is angry, the old raptors begin tearing things up, and it becomes clear that there's no saving the island. More dinosaur roaring, chasing, and biting happen.
At the end, out of necessity and much against Owen's wishes, they decide they need to firebomb the island, wiping out all of the creatures. Owen sees Blue as the helicopter departs, dying in a fireball. This time, he has a reaction seeing his friend/pet/savior go up in smoke. He's defeated and broken, but fortunately they have some answers and Owen has a new purpose: To bring down Biosyn.
****
Okay, it's not perfect. I feel like I'd have to massage this a little more than an hour's writing would give it. But the point is to focus more on the consequences of the last film. I feel like the repercussions of the ending of the movies is always ignored, and I'd like to see that change. One large problem with my idea here is that it ignores children. That's always been part of the formula for a Jurassic Park film: Include kids. Tim and Lex, Kelly, Eric, Gray and Zack--they're a way of incorporating a younger audience into the story and giving another portion of the target demographic an access point. But they're also shoe-horned in for the second and third entries, which always kind of bothered me.
Not only that, but the ending of this proposal feels a little sloppy. I'd like to tighten it up, but then again, why should I? You've already read this far, and it's not like they're going to ask me to work with the script. So...yeah.
That's all I got.
For starters, I would skip the horrible concept of "weaponizing dinosaurs", despite it being a large theme in the film. After all, Crichton originally imagined Jurassic Park because he felt only entertainment would front the money needed to refine the tech and allow the cloning to happen. It's a sad commentary on our world, I think, that twenty years later, we figure the only people who want dinosaurs are those who are looking to exploit them for war.
Now, chucking off one of the themes is in and itself problematic. After all, it was clearly an important part to the filmmakers' vision of Jurassic World. But if you think about it, there' s already precedence for dropping inconvenient plot points. The lost Barbasol canister and the unlocked aviary in Jurassic Park III are only two that come readily to mind. There are others. Besides, the franchise has also gone in the opposite direction, with the introduction to Site B. Ian Malcolm's response in the second film is pretty spot on: "There's a second island? With dinosaurs? And no fences on it? And you want to put people on it?" No one mentions this in the first film, there's no indication of any sort of "factory floor". In fact, Hammond even says, upon the birth of the Velociraptor, that he's been present for the birth of every creature on the island. While I would have preferred to have greater continuity between the characters and the dinosaurs (in their looks, if not their behaviors), it's clear that this franchise isn't concerned with that level of rigor.
So, let's get rid of the ill-defined InGen black ops that shows up in the latter half of the film. Hoskins is dead (due to arm removal, I guess), and though Wu has survived, is it at all possible that he may have, I don't know, learned his lesson from all of the catastrophes? But we'll get back to Wu in a minute. No, the disaster at Jurassic World should leave InGen bereft of, well, everything. The company's gone. Its CEO is dead due to dinosaur attack. The company is DOA.
 |
| Hoskins, still armed and dangerous. Oh, yeah. (Source) |
So what do we have? The (Jurassic) world saw the implosion of the park concept, proving again that dinosaurs and humans can't be contained. That theme of control, so central to the franchise, is finally understood by basically everyone in the room. This includes Claire and Owen, since they were instrumental in stopping Indominus and Alan Grant. Ellie Sattler is staying with her family and refuses to be involved. Timmy is there, as is Ian Malcolm, who arrives to say "I told you so" but also to explain, oh so patiently, the issues of complexity theory that are at work with what happened in Jurassic World. Then we get to the conflict: The ruin of Jurassic World is destroying the Costa Rican economy. They need help, and they feel like InGen, under the control of New CEO Guy, should be the one that does it. Henry Wu, a changed man, says that they must kill all of the creatures. Some of those who are more conservation minded, disagree. He admits he was wrong and says he's tired of thinking of all those who've died because of what he created. American Government Guy is also insistent that those with exposure to the dinosaurs in uncontrolled environments should be involved in the clean up. If they fail to put this all together, they'll bomb the island. The Costa Ricans want to set up a scientific preserve that would allow the new, improved dinosaurs to be observed, so they want to support as much as possible. If they can get the island back under control, they might be able to rebuild the public trust they lost because of this latest disaster.
In short, the mission is to tidy the mess made by InGen, and they have very little time in which to do it.
Problems abound. Central America has been having problems with the pterrasaurs that escaped the aviary, the Mosasaurus has escaped into the ocean, and there are reports of other dangerous animals loose on the mainland. Even the harvesting of genetic panacea comes up, much like what's discussed in the beginning of The Lost World novel. It's now clear: The biggest worries from Jurassic Park have finally arrived.
Due to the different personalities and different ways of looking at things and age of the returning cast, there can be some personality conflicts. Tim could feel a familial responsibility, Alan disdain, and Ian a narcissistic desire to see how it all falls apart again. Owen will want to get back on the island to find Blue. He feels that there's a way to save the creatures from being blown to pieces, but he needs to get in there to make things right. Claire comes along to share her knowledge about how the operations worked at the park could be utilized. Wu volunteers to finish what he started. They deploy onto the island with a handful of spear carriers, thus allowing some people to get eaten. The Dilophosaurus gets a chance to shine. Dinosaur/human hijinx ensue, as hijinx always do.
But the tension of the dinosaurs-on-the-island clean up crew is intercut with the helping-out-Costa-Rica subplot. Ian and Tim--Alan goes back to his dig site because he's not going to get tangled up into this again--are checking out a reported dinosaur sighting, only to be cut off in a village that's suddenly surrounded by raptors. At one point Tim freezes up because his PTSD kicks in at the sound of the Velociraptors' call. They save the village, but they discover something unexpected: These dinosaurs aren't from Jurassic World.
Back on the island, the clean up is now under control. They only have the T. rex left...until it becomes clear that there has been "unauthorized breeding" in Jurassic World. They confront Henry about it, but he explains that they must be older dinosaurs, the first generation. They wonder how they could have missed this, but Claire explains that there were anomalies that they'd chosen to ignore. This causes a rift in the trust between Owen and Claire, which they work through as they end up in greater peril.
Meanwhile, Ian and Timmy are trying to figure out what's going on. They have the help in the form of Costa Rican scientists, particularly Attractive Female Scientist With Glasses. They get as far as they can, but Henry is the only one who can explain the mess. They contact him while he's on the island. He looks at the specific markers of the code, realizes that it's stolen genetic material, and Biosyn, a rival genetics company, has done this work. Turns out American Government Guy is actually Biosyn Guy and has been pulling the strings to stamp out the competition. Confronting Biosyn Guy, Owen punches him in the face because that's always satisfying.
The revelation of the conspiracy is interrupted when the containment protocols fail and the most dangerous dinosaurs are let loose. T. rex is angry, the old raptors begin tearing things up, and it becomes clear that there's no saving the island. More dinosaur roaring, chasing, and biting happen.
At the end, out of necessity and much against Owen's wishes, they decide they need to firebomb the island, wiping out all of the creatures. Owen sees Blue as the helicopter departs, dying in a fireball. This time, he has a reaction seeing his friend/pet/savior go up in smoke. He's defeated and broken, but fortunately they have some answers and Owen has a new purpose: To bring down Biosyn.
****
Okay, it's not perfect. I feel like I'd have to massage this a little more than an hour's writing would give it. But the point is to focus more on the consequences of the last film. I feel like the repercussions of the ending of the movies is always ignored, and I'd like to see that change. One large problem with my idea here is that it ignores children. That's always been part of the formula for a Jurassic Park film: Include kids. Tim and Lex, Kelly, Eric, Gray and Zack--they're a way of incorporating a younger audience into the story and giving another portion of the target demographic an access point. But they're also shoe-horned in for the second and third entries, which always kind of bothered me.
Not only that, but the ending of this proposal feels a little sloppy. I'd like to tighten it up, but then again, why should I? You've already read this far, and it's not like they're going to ask me to work with the script. So...yeah.
That's all I got.