Do Jurassic Park And Face/Off Exist In The Same Universe?

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Easter eggs in movies are an interesting thing. Sometimes, they are there only for the most hardcore of fans to spot. Rather famously, a "Guardians of the Galaxy" Easter egg has still never been spotted, at least not that director James Gunn has admitted to. At times, modern blockbusters can feel more like Easter egg hunts than anything else. Sometimes, though, an Easter egg is so subtle, yet so compelling, that it warrants a great deal of discussion. Such is the case with one from John Woo's 1997 action classic "Face/Off." And buckle up, because things are going to get weird.

Though this particular Easter egg has been pointed out in the past, it began making the rounds online again recently. We'll dig into it more in a moment but, in essence, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot from "Face/Off" suggests that the movie might take place in the same universe as the "Jurassic Park" movies. Yes, really. In the below screenshot, we can see Nicolas Cage as Sean Archer, having just had his face replaced with Caster Troy's, who now has the face of John Travolta, who was originally Sean Archer, running by a metal box with an InGen logo on it.

Paramount Pictures

Without getting into the nitty gritty of the who's who of "Face/Off," that InGen logo is worth raising an eyebrow over. InGen is the genetics company that helped make the dinosaurs possible in "Jurassic Park." InGen has remained an important part of the franchise in the "Jurassic World" movies, which have carried the series forward for the last decade. This image implies that InGen also exists in "Face/Off."

Let's take a look at the logic (if there is any) of having an InGen logo appear in "Face/Off." For those who may need a refresher, the film centers on FBI agent Sean Archer (John Travolta), who is on the hunt for criminal Caster Troy (Nicolas Cage). After he is severely injured in a plane crash, Archer undergoes surgery to remove his face and replace it with Troy's.

Crucially, this InGen box appears in the lab where the infamous "Face/Off" face transplant surgery scene was done. InGen, aka International Genetics Incorporated, is a bioengineering firm in the "Jurassic Park" universe that was bankrolled by John Hammond (Richard Attenborough). While the company's main purpose was developing cloning techniques to bring back extinct dinosaurs, one imagines they would have had other endeavors to help keep the company afloat — especially after the events of "Jurassic Park," which killed Hammond's dinosaur theme park before it ever even opened.

It's also important to note that both "Face/Off" and "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" were released in 1997. While "The Lost World" may not be the best movie in the franchise, it did deal a lot with InGen and how the company was trying to recover after the tragic events that took place on Isla Nublar. In the years before they hatched a plan to bring dinosaurs to the mainland, isn't it possible they might have developed other experimental revenue streams? Such as, I don't know, transplanting someone's face onto another person's body?

Viewed through that lens, it's not as outlandish as it seems at first glance. This face transplant stuff is no crazier than bringing dinosaurs back to life, at least by 1997 standards. It's a little unethical, bonkers, and a work of pure science fiction. That's certainly in InGen's wheelhouse.

From a practical standpoint, quite a few of the same people who worked on "The Lost World" also worked on "Face/Off," including Barbara Harris (casting), Nancy Young (stunts), and Grady Holder (special effects), among others according to IMDb. Both movies also filmed certain sequences in Los Angeles, which might explain how this InGen box was included in both productions.

"The Lost World" was a massive production, and it's possible that one of these crew members secured the box for "Face/Off." The other big question, though, is whether or not this Easter egg was intentional. Did Woo or a member of the crew put that InGen box in the lab intentionally? Or was it an accident? Movies are littered with mistakes, some of them big, some of them small. Is it possible this box was just pulled as a leftover prop from "The Lost World" without someone realizing the implications of that InGen logo? Or did someone go so far as to put that InGen logo on that box in an attempt to provide some connective tissue?

The other big thing to consider is that "Face/Off" was released by Paramount Pictures in the summer of '97. Steven Spielberg's "The Lost World," and the rest of the "Jurassic Park" movies, were released by Universal. If there's one thing that truly prevents this theory from carrying any weight, it's the fact that the movies hail from different corporate entities. That and, you know, nobody ever makes any references to dinosaurs in "Face/Off."

In any event, it's a single shot of a movie that opens up a whole interesting conversation about a shared universe that could, in theory, exist. It won't ever manifest on screen, but it opens the door for infinite imagination.

You can grab "Face/Off" on 4K from Amazon.