WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, in theaters now.


With its surprising ending, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom proved that it truly had something different to bring to the franchise outside of a few new dinosaurs, bigger theme parks and hybrid monsters -- it actually added to the fundamental themes and world of the Jurassic Park franchise.

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With each installment, the discussion about caution and scientific progress has become slightly less hypothetical in the context of the films. Where it was mostly just a collection of discussions in Jurassic Park, the new trilogy seems to be attempting to bring events closer to Ian Malcolm's (Jeff Goldblum) worst case scenario. It's an allegory that develops the discussion Steven Spielberg and author/creator Michael Crichton began with the first Jurassic Park about underestimating the dangers of progress and the illusion of control. That perspective was interesting, but ultimately simplistic, which is partly why the films that followed were slightly disappointing. In short, they simply failed to develop that discussion. That's why this new trilogy is so exciting, as it attempts to explore the complexities of the franchise's original themes in ways the early films never could.

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Jurassic World introduced the Indominus Rex as a means of exploring the lengths to which people motivated by greed and reckless ambition would go to in their search for power. Vic Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) and Henry Wu (B.D Wong) both helped to illustrate humankind's ability to accomplish great scientific feats while Masrani (Irrfan Khan) served as an example of humanity's tendency to overestimate its level of control. With Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, that discussion continues as the dinosaurs are brought off the island and sold to buyers from all around the world regardless of intent. Mills did all this purely for wealth, which is something that briefly brings him into conflict with Dr. Wu, which could be interpreted as a way of highlighting the conflict between greed and science.

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) and Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) began work on resurrecting dinosaurs together. By establishing InGen, it was their dream to unlock new possibilities through genetics and cloning. Although their intentions were relatively tame, even arguably innocent, the scientific advances they supported eventually tore them apart. Hammond refused to use InGen's cloning capabilities on humans, which was something Lockwood wanted and eventually managed to do. Lockwood cloned his dead daughter to create Maisie (Isabella Sermon).

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Maisie had evidently always been fascinated by dinosaurs but, despite the harrowing experience she'd been given thanks to Mills (Rafe Spalls), Henry Wu (B.D Wong) and their Indoraptor, Maisie's revelation about her origin seems to have evoked a vague sense of kinship with the dinosaurs since, like her, they were created using InGen's technology. It's why she freed the dinosaurs in spite of the fact that everyone in that room had the opportunity to erase InGen's mistakes completely in that facility beneath Lockwood Manor. As she explained it, "they're alive, like me."

That final act is how Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom set the stage for something potentially revolutionary in the currently titled Jurassic World 3.

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Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the trilogy with Derek Connolly, has stated in interviews that he has always known where he wanted to take the franchise. His intentions have become evident with the ending of the most recent film as the series takes us deeper into sci-fi territory. This isn't news, as he has made statements preparing us for this in the past. For example, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he described Jurassic World 3 as being a science-thriller. Luckily,  according to Trevorrow, that doesn't include another hybrid dinosaur. It's evident he knows what fans tend to expect after two films that may share far to many similarities, but what exactly do they want?

Aside from bigger and better chase sequences and dinosaur fights, fans will want something more from the final film in the trilogy. Perhaps the return of Ellie Sattler, whose role as the practical paleobotanist from Jurassic Park would undoubtedly fit into the narrative at this point and would redeem the franchise for its tragic misuse of her character in Jurassic Park III. But again, there has to be more than just dinosaur fights and familiar characters.

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The plot of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, as we've explained, developed the themes of the original trilogy and included far more in the way of complexities and relevance than the original ever could. The Jurassic World trilogy explores the effect of human greed on scientific progress, scientific progress and human recklessness, nature versus humankind and the illusion of control. As wild and crazy as the events of Jurassic World 3 could imaginably become, it's vital that the concluding film continues to be built around those themes. Even more so that it at least attempts to develop those themes even further without repetition or worse, ignoring details that have already been established like say, Pteranadons that escaped from Isla Sorna and were never seen or heard of again. The film must deal with all the hypothetical consequences of every major action in Fallen Kingdom and the films that preceded it. Unless the filmmakers wish to undermine lucid reminders like, "you can't put it back in the box."

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That brings us to one the minds that unleashed this awesome power in the first place. Dr. Henry Wu. He was last seen in Fallen Kingdom being dragged away by a goon as he lay unconscious after being attacked and sedated by Franklin (Justice Smith). This is the second time in the trilogy that he has gotten away, which means he'll probably be back for Jurassic World 3 to exacerbate the issues that might arise. That's just one option. Although his actions have always proven to come with dire consequences, he is at his core, a man of science. It's possible that Jurassic World 3 will instead see the character redeemed in some way as he helps to set a new equilibrium between man and nature. Either way, fans will want to see the conclusion of this character's story.

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Another character audiences that will undoubtedly hold interest is Maisie, who was revealed to be a clone of Lockwood's daughter in the third act of Fallen Kingdom. One of the effects this had as a plot point was the bridging of that massive divide between dinosaurs and humans so that we as an audience could perhaps better relate to the near-fantastical creatures we saw on screen.

Emotion was clearly a focus of the film and throughout, it became increasingly clear that the intent was to garner more of a reaction than evanescent awe toward the dinosaurs. Hence, the existence of Maisie, who could relate in part to the creatures as the product of pure science and relate to audiences at the same time. But there has to be more to her than that. The fact that she's a clone is a fairly big deal for the franchise and it's important that that aspect is explored in Jurassic World 3, hopefully not as a meaningless twist, but as something that adds to the discussion about natural life, humanity and science.

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All this has to build to something new. If the Jurassic World trilogy's themes are to stick, then it has to create a new equilibrium. Things cannot simply revert back to the way they were prior to Jurassic Park. Trevorrow understands this and it's something he seeks to explore in the final entry of the trilogy, according to an interview with io9, where he stated, "we wanted to tell a story about where we are now, which is that we have messed with science. We have fundamentally altered our world. And now we’re dealing with the consequences." As of right now, there's nothing indicative of what that will actually look like, but it is something audiences will be eager to see.

Will there be dinosaurs living alongside humankind? Will humankind end up destroying itself in an effort to fight the dinosaurs? The answers to those questions will have to wait as we won't be seeing Jurassic World 3 until the summer of 2021.


Directed by J.A. Bayona and written by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and B.D. Wong, along with Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Ted Levine, Geraldine Chaplin, James Cromwell and Jeff Goldblum. In theaters now.