Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World impressed audiences and critics in 2015, netting a mammoth $1.6 billion at the global box office, a performance which easily paved the way for a sequel. However, with the trailer for J. A. Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom now out, it appears that the franchise has been flipped on its head. This time around, the film will follow the humans on a mission to save dinosaurs, instead of trapping them in a gigantic, lethal zoo.
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With the humans and dinosaurs now uniting to flee Isla Nublar, which is self-imploding due to volcanic activity, we're given a glimpse of what Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing will have to do to complete the rescue mission at hand and preserve not just the life of the island's majestic creatures, but theirs as well.
Friends Forever
In the trailer, we see a Grady who is reluctant to participate in what could easily be framed as a suicide mission -- until Dearing reminds him that Blue, one of the velociraptors he trained and developed a strong bond with, is still alive and needs rescuing. When we last saw Blue, the dino was fighting off his genetic superior, the Indominus Rex, in Jurassic World, reestablishing itself as a kindred spirit with Grady while saving the humans in the process.
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That movie ended with Blue running off as the dinosaurs began to take over the park, as Grady left his friend to live a free life. The new film's trailer clearly indicates this bond will factor into the story in a big way, teasing a flashback showing Grady meeting Blue as a baby, and their reunion under these new and dire circumstances. We're not sure if Blue still recognizes Grady (he appears to possibly snap at his human friend in the trailer), but it's a dynamic we can't wait to see explored. With so many dinosaurs trying to escape, help will be needed when the humans encounter aggressive carnivores. It also makes you wonder -- if they do rescue the dinosaurs, how will they be storing them, and just where will they be taking them?
Isla Death
The park has been decommissioned since the events of the last film. The fences are down, cages and confinements are broken, and the bodies of dead dinosaurs are visible. Basically, nature has run its course, and the remaining animals are attempting to survive. It's more or less an island of free dinosaurs, living without the controlling hand of man. But the island's inherent volcanic activity just won't let them thrive, and when the ash and molten lava begins to spew, the only way for the dinosaurs to escape is if someone comes for them.
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With no humans corralling them, not only have the weaker dinosaurs been killed by stronger ones, there's a strong possibility that they're facing things like starvation and disease. In short, Grady and Dearing really are entering a prehistoric era with their rescue mission, which Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm is sure to keep touting in his ominous, quotable speeches.
Who Is The Big Bad?
Jurassic Park movies always have a major "villain." The first two films focused on the T-Rex, while Jurassic Park III had the massive Spinosaurus threat. Jurassic World then played up a few more killers with the Pteranodons attacking humans left, right and center, not to mention the Indominus Rex, which took on the T-Rex and Grady's raptors at the same time! Of course, that dino ended up being killed by the water-dwelling Mosasaurus, which now has fans wondering what giant lizard-style threat Fallen Kingdom will offer.
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The trailer already showed the T-Rex fending off a new, mean-looking devil-horned dinosaur (maybe a Carnotaurus), and we saw the humans falling into the ocean in gyrospheres while trying to outrun a volcanic spill. Considering the franchise's history of land-based threats to the humans, we're betting this installment will feature a major water-dwelling danger. Of course, if Bayona does have some sort of leviathan or gigantic spectacle of a beast up his sleeve, he's keeping it very, very well-hidden.
Directed by J.A. Bayona from a script by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdomstars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, B.D. Wong, Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Ted Levine, Geraldine Chaplin, James Cromwell and Jeff Goldblum. The film arrives June 22, 2018.