We need to talk about Jurassic World: Rebirth
Surprisingly, not an article about franchise fatigue, cannibalized IP, or why it took me two hours and 14 minutes to realize Viscount Bridgerton was in this movie
The new Jurassic movie is pretty damn good. My mom left the theatre exclaiming about the intensity and the thrills. I covered my eyes at the scary parts. My dad made his archetypal remarks about the numerous physics laws that were defied.
So it delivered just about everything you’d want from this franchise.
But story-wise, they made some BOLD structural and character choices.
And that’s what we’re going to unpack today.
For those who haven’t seen it…
In Jurassic World: Rebirth, a pharmaceutical company hires a team of mercenaries (plus a scientist) to extract DNA samples from three of the largest dinosaurs on the planet.
Setting-wise, dinosaurs are in decline, unable to adapt and thrive in 21st century climate. They still survive in a band around the equator, an area that all the governments of the world unanimously agreed (wouldn’t that be nice?) to bar from humans.
Our team charters a boat to this island that used to serve as a research facility where they designed hybrid dinosaurs. The research centre was shut down after the “D-rex” escaped in a containment breach.
At the same time, the Delgado family are mid-sail across the Atlantic when their boat is attacked by acquatic dinos. They put out a Mayday call and our team of mercenaries is in range. So the Delgado family also end up on the mutant dino hunting train.
Because, you know, it’s not a Jurassic movie unless there’s at least one shot of a teeny child in the apex of a dinosaur’s jaw.
Spoilers ahead — but frankly, has the bad guy ever survived one of these movies?
The Analysis
A list of the unconventional, bold, and plain interesting story choices.
The prologue (do they call them prologues in movies?) featured an emotional story between two scientists, a massive dinosaur, and a Snickers bar. And only the Snickers bar made a reappearance in the remainder of the movie.
I hypothesized we were going to get a reveal, like Jonathan Bailey’s father had been killed on the island in the breach. I was sure the D-rex would show up in the climax for the final showdown.
Neither of these things happened.
That’s fine, but it does make me wonder about the purpose of the prologue: to demonstrate the mutant nature of the dinosaurs? To set-up the D-rex as the Big Bad for future movies? To get Snickers to pay a few million dollars for product placement?
Only time (and sequels) will tell.
Ala Star Wars, there’s two lines of exposition that appear onscreen between the prologue and the start of the movie.
Which proves, sometimes, you can just come right out and say it. These two sentences are the literary equivalent of a timestamp.
It’s not lazy writing, it’s smart. Niagara Falls. 1900 — does a hell of a lot of heavy lifting, and primes our brains in a way figuring the setting out through context clues doesn’t.
(In some cases, figuring it out through context clues might be preferable, but clearly, sometimes, cheating works).
The first character we meet is the bad guy.
Traditional storytelling wisdom says we imprint on the first character we meet. So it better be the hero.
In my five POV YA romance, I’ve had editor feedback that I should start with the main main character, though I currently start it with the least likable, most interesting one, who is not the main main character by any means.
Following this wisdom, most movies would open with Jonathan Bailey being a sad museum curator, then show Mr. Pharmaceutical and Scarlett Johansen approaching him with the “adventure.”
And we get that. In scene three.
But in scene one, we see Mr. Pharmaceutical in a traffic jam. Then Scarlett Johansen jumps in his car. And Mr. Pharmaceutical offers her the adventure.
(It’s odd, right? Normally the herald, Mr. Pharmaceutical, would be the one jumping into the car).
This unconventional ordering had me trying to figure out who was who. It set up Scarlett Johansen’s mercenary character as the one with the upperhand (bouncing into the car) and helped establish the stakes.
Similarly, the Delgado family, who are arguably the most three-dimensional and most sympathetic characters, aren’t introduced until 10-15 minutes in.
Unconventional.
Especially because the Delgado family (the dad and daughters, at least) are critical, storywise: they’re who we’re rooting for, uncomplicatedly.
Well, them and Jonathan Bailey.
But all the other characters are in it for the money, work on the fringes of the law and are not instantly sympathetic.
Waiting to introduce the Delgados accomplishes a few things:
By the time we meet them, we know they’re in danger. And so there’s a sense of dread underneath the well-written but low-tension character introductions. That drives up our sympathy for them.
The decision the pharma team faces about whether they should rescue the Delgados provides strong characterization moments. Particularly for Boat Hero and Mr. Pharmaceutical. And this continues as a source of conflict throughout the movie.
This movie’s set-up is a heist. We’re illegally breaking onto an out-of-bounds island for a very specific score.
This differs somewhat from other movies in the franchise. We’re typically more of a mission-gone-wrong plot. Here, the characters know in advance this will be dangerous, and have a concrete goal from the start.
I do wish they’d leaned into the heist-ish part more. Like had some human-created security around, and developed more of a cool, ingenious plan.
As it was, they hit some of the heist beats: gathering the team (this first 10 minutes of the movie I was getting very excited because it did feel Ocean’s 11-esque), the mastermind, the Last Big Score, the impossible task.
But once we actually picked up the Delgados and got on the island, the heist feel disintegrated for me. It would have been cool if they’d actually had a plan to double-cross Mr. Pharmaceutical (fooling both the audience and him, ala Ocean’s 11) or used their existing plans to adapt to an unexpected twist (ala Italian Job).
Instead, a random boat sitting on the docks saved their butts, and Mr. Pharmaceutical was eaten by a dinosaur.
From a thriller perspective, these beats are okay: they discovered the boat in a smart way, fought to make it there, and encountered numerous obstacles in getting away. It wan’t deus ex machina.
But if they’d really wanted to twist, they could’ve delivered the heist part of the premise by truly committing to the staples of that genre.
(DISCLAIMER: I think in the opening scenes, a character actually uses the word ‘heist’. However, I was dealing with a hot god1 discrepancy at the time and may have heard wrong. So it’s possible I confused the entire premise of this movie).
We have an intelligent MacGuffin, from a writing standpoint. We need to steal blood sample from three different dinosaurs: an aquatic, an aerial, and a terrestrial one.
There’s also a deadline to getting off said island.
By making it a three-pronged approach, the writers can convey progress. (It also really reminded me of classic escape room set-ups and wow I would love to do a Jurassic-themed escape room).
^Escape room aficionado right here, ordering a cocktail mid-escape ;)
Remember Brandon Sanderson’s plot/progress/payoff lectures? Audiences crave progress. They want to feel like the story is moving forwards.
So, although the characters are kind of going wild on this island, each blood sample that makes it into the briefcase indicates we’re making progress on our goal.
Four characters arc — but the strongest arc is a side character. And Jonathan Bailey doesn’t have one.
I was quite impressed by the amount of character development they managed in this movie alongside the edge-of-your-seat tension, thrills, and jump scares. It’s not necessarily profound, but it’s great that it’s there.
First we have Dad Delgado. His arc is fairly shallow and is actually complete around the midpoint. He starts out hating his teenage daughter’s boyfriend and ends up gaining some respect for him and accepting him, or at least seeing some of what his daughter sees.
Second we have Scarlett Johansen, the mercenary with a briefly mentioned sad backstory who goes from doing it for the money, to sacrificing the money to open source the dino blood for medicne. She didn’t seem that greedy to begin with but we love the triumph of open source science.
Third is Boat Hero. I think his arc was meant to be a sense of redemption. We learn his son died somewhat recently and he separated from his wife. He’s the one throughout the whole movie who’s like “we cannot leave that [Delgado] family to die on this island.” His attempts to sacrifice himself to save the kids indicate a sort of rebirth. Maybe, a triumph over tragedy? A life is still worth living vibe? Honestly, this wasn’t well-developed. His big character moment at the end might’ve suffered from this, but it was still cheer-inducing.
Fourth — and strongest — is Bella Delgado, the youngest daughter. She starts the movie terrified of dinosaurs: “It’s not one of those…things, is it? I wish they’d never come back.”
The initial attacks, first on their sailboat and then on Team Pharmaceutical’s ship, terrify her. She is passive, frightened. She even stops talking.
But then she befriends a super cute baby dinosaur (there for the merch opportunity, I’m sure). And she finds her voice again when she announces its name is Delores. As she loves and protects this dinosaur, she gets more and more proactive and courageous. She has a few great moments: telling everyone to shut up and listen, and opening the gate to get her family out of the sewer as dinosaurs approach from all sides.
In the end, she brings baby Delores home with her in her backpack.
Too cute. And powerful.
Hope you’re having a wonderful summer-y weekend!
Xo,
Nicole
I meant to write hot dog. But one simply cannot delete the phrase ‘hot god discrepancy.’