Trailer Trashin’: Sizing Up the New Jurassic World Trailer

I’m back, dear readers. I had a great time on my vacation – I was across the pond in London, in case anyone was wondering – and I’ve returned to bring you more analysis of the latest and greatest movie trailers. As I mentioned, I’d written four Trailer Trashin’ columns to be released over the time I was gone, covering four of the biggest trailers that dropped in the later part of April. But I had some computer troubles with this last one, so I’m presenting it to you now. With that said, let’s take a look at the official global trailer for Jurassic World.

Premise: Twenty-two years after the events of Jurassic Park (1993), Isla Nublar, an island located off Central America’s Pacific Coast near Costa Rica, now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, as originally envisioned by John Hammond – this new park is owned by the Masrani Global Corporation. Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), a member of the park’s on-site staff, conducts behavioral research on a group of Velociraptors, known as Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo. At the corporation’s request, the park’s geneticists create a genetically modified hybrid mutant dinosaur known as Indominus rex (created from the DNA of Giganotosaurus, Rugops, Majungasaurus, and Carnotaurus) to boost visitor attendance. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the park’s operations manager. Her nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins), are visiting the island when the hybrid escapes and are subsequently caught up in the creature’s deadly rampage as it even attacks other dinosaurs. Now, it is up to Owen and Jurassic World’s security team to contain the hybrid dinosaur before she can cause more damage.

My take: The trailer opens with a shot of the Velociraptor holding pen. Inside, animal trainer Owen Grady (Pratt) is working with a trio of raptors. “It’s not about control,” we hear Owen say in voiceover. He stops the raptors advancing with a raised hand and the command “Stand down.” His voiceover continues, “It’s a relationship, based on respect.” As Owen slowly backs away with both hands held out, the raptors hiss and screech but don’t move closer.

We cut to Owen talking to park operations manager Claire Dearing (Howard), and see that his voiceover was him explaining his methods to her. “These animals are thinking, I gotta eat.” We see the trio of raptors racing through a dimly-lit jungle. Owen’s line continues, “I gotta hunt.” Cut back to Owen and Claire, as he continues “I gotta…” and thrusts his fist back and forth repeatedly in a way meant to suggest something sexual. Claire does not seem amused. Owen says, “You gotta be able to relate to at least one of those things.” Yeah, that joke’s a bit of a groaner, but Pratt does a good job selling it.

After the studio logos, we see multiple shots of the Jurassic World park in operation, including some fun callbacks to moments from the original Jurassic Park. The main hub area crowded with people. A safari truck loaded with people drives across a field, surrounded by a flock of running Gallimimus. A goat waits to get eaten, while tourists watch from inside an elevated windowed tunnel designed to look like a giant fallen tree. Inside the tunnel, we can just see over the heads of the people as, outside, a Tyrannosaurus rex raises its head up and then chomps down. As these shots go by, we hear Claire saying, “Every time we’ve unveiled a new attraction, attendance has spiked.” Finally, we see the underwater viewing area of the Mosasaurus tank, where the crowd cheers as the massive marine reptile snaps up the severed tail of a shark. As the tourists clap, we focus on Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins), Claire’s two nephews. “That was awesome!” Zach says to his little brother.

We next see a helicopter approaching Isla Nublar, very similar to a scene from Jurassic Park. Claire says “Corporate thought genetic modification would up the wow factor,” as we see quick shots of the genetics lab where the dinosaurs are created, including eggs in an incubator and what looks like a dinosaur spinal cord inside a tank of fluid. “They’re dinosaurs. Wow enough,” retorts Owen, as we see Zach and Gray inside the park’s gyrosphere ride, followed by Owen walking up a staircase as he talks to Claire. Next we see Owen and Claire standing behind observation windows above an enclosure filled with foliage. Inside the greenery, a hidden dinosaur peers through the trees, letting out a low growl – this is the Indominus rex, the genetic hybrid dinosaur that serves as our main heavy.

“She was designed to be bigger than the T. rex,” says Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), the chief geneticist from the original Jurassic Park, and the only human character from the previous films known to be returning for this installment. We then see Owen and two other park crewmen examining claw-marks going up the concrete wall of the Indominus rex enclosure. “What happened to the sibling?” Owen asks. “She ate it,” Claire responds. Owen and the crewmen are suddenly faced with the I. rex. They run for the gate of the enclosure, but one of the crewmen is too slow and gets snatched up by the hybrid’s clawed arms.

“We have an asset out of containment!” Claire says into her phone while driving, presumably back to the park’s control center. Owen runs for his life as the I. rex forces its head throughout the gates of its enclosure. In the park’s control center, operator Lowery (Jake Johnson) rises to his feet. Panicked tourists stampede through the main hub of the park. Owen slides along the ground to hide under a truck, as behind him, the I. rex breaks through its enclosure gates.

Somewhere in the jungle, members of the park’s ACU (Asset Containment Unit), led by Katashi Hamada (Brian Tee), make their way through the foliage, weapons at the ready. “What is that?” asks a voice. “Her tracking implant. She clawed it out,” says Owen, referring to the I. rex. Owen is in the park’s control room, along with Claire, Lowery, and Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), the owner of Jurassic World. In the jungle, Hamada holds the implant – still embedded in a torn-out bit of dinosaur muscle – and eyes the jungle around him with suspicion. “How would it know to do that?” asks Claire. “She remembered where they put it in,” says Owen. Hamada notices a drop of blood fall on his arm from up above. Hamada looks up as an animal growl comes from nearby, just before the I. rex grabs him, letting out a roar as it does. In the control room, Owen turns around as, on the big screen in front of him, the vital signs have gone dead for at least two of the ACU members. As the dinosaur’s roar fades away, we see the POV of one of the ACU guys, as he is dragged along the ground deeper into the jungle.

Owen and Claire are in a grassy field. “Oh, God,” Claire says as she puts her hands over her mouth. The field in front of them is dotted with the bodies of dead Apatosaurus. “She’s killing for sport,” Owen says, referring to the I. rex. Gray and Zach, inside the gyrosphere somewhere in the forest, look behind themselves as we see the head of the I. rex reflected in the glass of the sphere. The I. rex slams its forearms against the top of the sphere, its massive middle claw punching a hole in the glass. The two boys scream.

The tail club of an Ankylosaurus smashes into the front of the boys’ gyrosphere, cracking the glass. Gray screams as the sphere is knocked around like a pinball. The sphere is being knocked around by two Ankylosaurus, with the I. rex stalking through the trees behind them. “You got twenty thousand people,” says Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio), the park’s head of security, as we see panicked tourists running through the main hub area. “You got no more boats,” Hoskins continues as we then see more of the ACU’s failed attempt to contain the I. rex – two guys are swatted aside by its tail, while another is picked up by the dinosaur’s forearm and thrown like a ragdoll. “You don’t have enough guns,” he says, as we see ACU members firing their sub machine guns and shotguns and one poor bastard gets chomped by the I. rex’s massive jaws. We next see Owen confronting Hoskins. “If we do this, we do this my way,” he says. Cut to a night scene outside, with Owen on his motorcycle, his animal tamer Barry (Omar Sy) on an ATV, and a big off-road truck behind them – all with headlights on. A set of four doors open, and Owen’s four trained raptors run out of their stalls like racehorses. Owen, Barry, and the truck race through the misty nighttime jungle. As Owen drives through the jungle, the raptors catch up to him before charging ahead.

In the daytime, a Huey helicopter flies above the jungle canopy. “We got eyes on target,” says a voice. Inside the chopper, a door gunner readies his mini-gun. A quick shot of Owen and Barry in the jungle at night, both armed. “Light it up!” Hoskins barks into his phone. The gunner opens up, but down on the forest floor, the I. rex manages to stay just ahead of the hail of bullets. In the nighttime jungle, a guy in combat gear fires a shoulder-mounted missile launcher. The missile explodes, and Owen is thrown backwards by the blast. Back in the daytime, a helicopter crashes against the dome of the Pterosaur aviary, breaking through the glass and falling into the enclosure. The wrecked chopper falls to the ground inside the aviary dome, landing near the I. rex; the hybrid dinosaur roars and charges toward camera, as the helicopter explodes behind it. Dozens – maybe hundreds – of Pterosaurs fly out of the hole in the aviary dome and into the open air.

A quick shot of a woman’s feet – possibly Claire’s – running along wet pavement, with the massive feet of a predatory dinosaur not too far behind. In the nighttime jungle, Owen, Barry, and the truck come to a stop. “Something’s wrong, they’re communicating,” Barry says to Owen as they observe something in the jungle ahead of them. However, it is not clear who or what the “they” Barry refers to is. Inside the aviary, the I. rex lets out a loud roar, while Pterosaurs perched on rocks cower. “We’re talking about an animal here,” Claire angrily says to Owen, as we cut to a shot of Owen, Zach, and Gray inside a partly-wrecked souvenir shop, just managing to keep away from the claws of the I. rex, which has reached its arm through a hole in the wall to try to get at them. Two raptors chase after what looks like an ambulance. A quick shot of one raptor pouncing on a park security guy.

“A highly intelligent animal,” Owen says to Claire. Inside the aviary, the I. rex roars at the Pterosaurs, who screech back at it and take to the air. In the main hub area of the park, Pterosaurs – both large Pteranodon and smaller Dimorphodon – swoop down at the panicking tourists. In the crowd of people, Gray and Zach look up in horror. Zach grabs his little brother as Zara (Katie McGrath), Claire’s personal assistant, is picked up and carried off by a Pteranodon. Elsewhere in the crowd, Owen lowers a rifle, a look of disbelief on his face. A Pteranodon is on the water’s surface of the Mosasaurus tank, when the massive marine reptile suddenly rises up from underneath it, jaws agape. The Pterosaur tries to fly upward, but it’s too late, and it lets out a dying screech as the Mosasaur’s jaws clamp down on it.

At this point, I’m really excited for this film. Now that we’ve had both Avengers: Age of Ultron and Mad Max: Fury Road – both of which I liked a lot – this is probably the next big movie of the summer for me. When mid-June rolls around, I’ll definitely be checking out Jurassic World at my local theater.

ANTICIPATION: Like life, we must find a way…to the movie theater.