How 'Jurassic World: Dominion' Builds On The Themes Of The Previous Films, According To Director Colin Trevorrow
Jurassic World: Dominion will bring the new Jurassic trilogy to a close, which means we're in store for some sort of actual ending here, not just a set-up for future movies. And what better way to wrap up the series than with a film that's timely? We all love timely stuff, don't we kids?
According to director Colin Trevorrow, Jurassic World: Dominion leans into being a reflection of our current world and the human experience in general, without being too preachy, and while building on the themes of the previous films.
Things Go Wrong, Naturally
During an interview with /Film, Colin Trevorrow dropped some info about how Jurassic World: Dominion will be bringing the Jurassic World trilogy to an end. And that ending involves making the film reflect the world at large – and a world that also reflects the themes of the previous Jurassic films.
"We really wanted to create a world where we could address this conflict in a way that feels closer to the conflicts that we have now, which is that they're not simple, and things go wrong," the filmmaker said. "We don't have respect for genetic power and for nature and for our relationship with the planet, and that's going to hurt us, and it's been hurting us in a lot of different ways."
This isn't such a bad idea, but Trevorrow also adds that he doesn't want these movies to be too "preachy," while also revealing that the themes of Dominion return to ideas that original Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton included in his book.
"It's important to me that I don't preach with these movies, I think that's it's important not to do that," said Trevorrow. "But the story that Michael Crichton told us becomes more and more prescient with every passing year. And I think that the trilogy that we've made, really is sometimes amazingly so, has found its way closer to our human experience in a way that I don't think I could have imagined when we did Jurassic World."
Bringing Back the Scientists
The first Jurassic Park film had a cast of characters comprised mostly of people of science. Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm were all doctors, and having them on hand lent a certain something to the film's story of humans tampering with things they couldn't possibly understand.
"I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here, it didn't require any discipline to attain it," Ian Malcolm said in that first film. "You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you patented it, and packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it."
But the Jurassic World series hasn't had much to do with science, since its two main characters are a guy who trains raptors (played by Chris Pratt) and a corporate executive who became a dinosaur rights activist (played by Bryce Dallas Howard). But the three scientists from the original are back this time, and according to Trevorrow, having them back in the fray has helped with the conclusion to the story.
"Bringing Laura Dern, Sam Neill, and Jeff Goldblum into the franchise because they are scientists has allowed it to be a bit more grounded and be a bit more about genetic power as a larger force and something that needs to be respected, because it can both protect us and help us and save us, and it can also destroy the world," Trevorrow said.
Jurassic World: Dominion hits theaters on June 10, 2022.