Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's Biggest Plot Holes

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

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom certainly achieved what it set out to do: alter the status quo of the franchise and chart new territory, away from the vision of the original trilogy. Those films were all about dinosaurs escaping and ruling the park, a premise on which 2015's Jurassic World hinged on as well, but now it's an entirely different landscape, with the creatures no longer captive.

However, to get to that point, director J.A. Bayona and writers Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly first had to make some twists and turns, which included a few retcons of Steven Spielberg's 1993 original. Fallen Kingdom takes some shortcuts along the way, resulting in some glaring plot holes that conveniently enable dinosaurs to again roam the American continent.

The Mosasaurus' Appetite

In Fallen Kingdom's opening sequence, some mercenaries enter Isla Nublar, now overrun and decommissioned, and move through the waterway to extract the Indominus Rex bones for Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong). As you'll recall, that hybrid was eaten by the mosasaurus at the end of Jurassic World, so these black-ops operatives now have to get the bones from in its aquatic tank. However, as the mercs gather the material using submersibles, strangely enough, the mosasaurus doesn't attack.

It's obvious the creature is stalking the humans underwater, yet it never makes a move -- at least until they escape by helicopter, and it rises out the water to eat one of them dangling from a ladder. The mosasaurus has been seen to eat anything and everything in range, from sharks to fellow dinosaurs, so this was a moment of convenience to advance the plot and allow the leviathan to escape into the ocean.

Boiling Water Doesn't Burn ... Apparently

In the first act, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Franklin Webb (Justice Webb) are part of the team tricked into rescuing the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar. Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) stages the mission so he can auction off the creatures, and when he gets what he wants, he leaves the humans to die on the island with the remaining animals as the volcano erupts.

To avoid the flow of molten lava, everyone, and everything, jumps into the ocean. However, while they avoid certain death that awaited them on land, the lava pours into the ocean, which, as science dictates, boils the surrounding water. The people should be experiencing scalding temperatures, even as the lava quickly cools, but they swim through water without so much as a blister.

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A Prison With No Security

Owen, Claire and Franklin then stow away on Eli's ship, which takes them to the Lockwood estate in California, where Mills and Wu are hosting the auction. Franklin is mistaken for part of Wu's science team, but Owen and Claire are locked in a cell. It turns out, this is a dinosaur cell, and the duo is smack dab in the middle of Eli's dino prison. However, there are no guards monitoring them or the creatures.

That allows Owen to goad the Pachycephalosaurus in the next chamber into breaking a hole into their cell, and then demolishing their door, thus freeing both parties. Seriously, why would you have no guards monitoring dinosaurs that could smash through walls on a whim? The villain didn't protect his investment, which is all the more astounding, given folks had already wandered off near the Indominus Rex cage earlier on in the story.

The Freedom Button

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Fallen Kingdom's finale sees the mysterious Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) make the decision that drastically changes the complexion of the franchise. After stopping the auction, Owen, Claire, Franklin and Zia (a paleo-veterinarian) tearfully witness the imprisoned dinos on the verge of dying, as the prison catches fire. The only way to save the creatures is to free them, unleashing them on California, and beyond. However, the team decides not to, with Claire and Owen hugging it out, as they've failed to protect the animals.

But just as that happens, the cell doors open up, allowing the dinosaurs to escape, and we see it's Maisie who pushed the button. Sure, she was on the blind side of Owen and Claire, but Franklin and Zia were right there facing the button. Thus, they would have seen Maisie heading for it. Either they're super-slow or she's as fast as The Flash. It was a telegraphed move in the first place, but the fact it happened with Franklin and Zia right there leaves us with a head-scratching moment.

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