Rebirth: How the earlier Jurassic Films inform the upcoming sequel

If you haven’t seen the Jurassic World Rebirth trailer that dropped prior to the Super Bowl, you have been warned.

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Now, I’ve heard of rumblings of a mutant, but didn’t want to explore it, just so I could see for myself and then the Vanity Fair article came along and I thought: let’s just see how it looks in the trailer.

And to be honest, I was okay with it. This fits in the philosophy of Michael Crichton’s writing style and no better to capture that feeling than with the one who worked closely with him on the screenplays of Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. David Koepp’s writing style harkens back to the familar with a bit of the sci-fi themes that we come to know of Crichton’s novels.

From how Gareth Edwards describes the mutant, it’s part T. rex, part Alien from the Alien Franchise, and part Rancor from Star Wars. Having those pop-culture references help make the creature design more tangible and all, but it does make you wonder within the realm of that world, what were they using? And that comes to the first quote coming to mind.

The Petticoat lane sequence has grown to be one of my favorite scenes in the Jurassic franchise that doesn’t include dinosaurs. It’s all about the ethics surrounding it all. Hammond had a dream, and that dream became a reality, even after his passing.

But, the origins of this dream still has a bit of mystery and intrigue to it, like what else did Hammond and Lockwood do in their early days of enlightment that they can bring these prehistoric wonder back to the present?

This quote, I think shows one of Hammond’s flaws in that he would do anything (especially “spare no expense”) to make the dream become a realiy. The idea of “next time, it will be flawless”, means imperfection has been a part of the process. And what this “new” island to the franchise lore brings, I think is an early exploration of Hammond and Lockwood’s will to do whatever it takes to bring back dinosaurs. Even if it included making some dangerous attempts that could still be lurking after 30 years.

In a way, this makes it seem like Hammond is more antagonistic than we viewed him to be, which makes him resemble more of his book counterpart (who was, in my opinion quite the jerk who deserved his just desserts). But, I don’t think that’s entirely the case. Hammond was working with others on these projects and I hardly believe that the cinematic version of this character would intentionally want to create monsters, rather he wanted to create “…an aim not devoid of merit.”

It’s the ambition of similar minds that leads to some pitfalls that we have seen over the course of the franchise. Which leads to the next quote.

Such an underrated quote from Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park III that’s quite relatable to things happening even in real life. With the context of this franchise, it’s that the ambition of some brilliant few minds to creating something that they could not control.

In the Jurassic World Rebirth trailer, we see that with mutations including the big one, the two-headed velociraptor, and “the worst of the worst left behind” that some really wild creations were made with “best intentions” in mind.

This even includes several other aspects of the previous films that lead to some disasterous consequences, whether that be an island in ruins, dinosaurs on the mainland, or tampering with the ecosystem.

Now, with some recent information that was uncovered, Parker-Genix is the name of the biopharmaceutical company that Rupert Friend’s character Martin Krebs will be representing. And, if you look very closely in the scene with “the big one”, a similar logo is seen in association with InGen.

This makes me feel that Krebs (or his predecessors), in his desperate attempt to save humanity, has been involved in darker side projects that were left unchecked under Hammond and Lockwood’s management. I’m also feeling that Krebs could be channeling a bit of Baselton from The Lost World novel and we’re in for a twist with him during the second act.

Ultimately, I think these two quotes are good ones to keep in mind as we see more from the Jurassic World Rebirth marketing and the movie itself. So, time will tell.

Now, to close this out, feel free to share what quotes from the Jurassic franchise speak to you? Which quotes do you think are relevant to th premise of Rebirth, whether from the films or the novels?