Zack & Nick's Culture Cast
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Leftover Questions: Jurassic World Edition (Spoiler Warning)
I saw Jurassic World this weekend. It was fun movie for what it was and, for modern blockbusters, incredibly restrained in its action – kind of refreshing to see. However, there were just some nagging questions that remained after I left the theater.
There are spoilers, so you have been properly warned!
1. Owen used to be in the Navy which apparently led him to his work with the raptors. What about his naval experience makes him an expert at training wild animals, let alone dinosaurs?
2. What exactly is InGen? In the first two movies, they seemed to be the company that created the dinosaurs. Here, they act as some militarized force of security. What is their relationship to Jurassic World?
3. Why is Owen sexually harassing a supervisor? Sure, he might think it is flirting, but she is clearly not into it, but he keeps going.
4. Speaking of which, how long ago was their first (and only) date? Why is Owen coming off this strong/creepy after only one date (that neither one of them actually seemed to enjoy).
5. Does Owen really live in a van down by the river?
6. Why didn’t anybody check right away for the I-Rex’s tracking device when they failed to notice the heat signature in paddock?
7. How come Owen is the only one in the entire park that ever notices something strange or realizes a bad idea?
8. Why does the control room give her the silent blame treatment after the first I-Rex attack? That was completely outside her control and, to be fair, not really her responsibility in the first place.
9. Why doesn’t Jurassic World have any sort of override in place to prevent exactly what the two kids did with the gyrosphere?
10. How come Jurassic World has absolutely no contingency plans in case any of the dinosaurs get loose? Granted, the I-Rex is a new dinosaur, so they are learning the ropes with her, but what about the pterosaurs?
11. Speaking of that, why breed pterosaurs (or that many) in the first place since they cannot be easily contained?
12. How come the I-Rex is able to display new abilities right when the movie needs her to? Did she read the script? She probably read the script.
13. How come what the I-Rex was genetically culled from was classified to the park trainers and, of all people, Masrani? Shouldn’t that be something the CEO is automatically be allowed to know?
14. For that matter, before beginning, how come Masrani didn’t give a final approval?
15. How come Jurassic World’s designers not cannibalize the remains of the old park? Why were there cars, tools, and other useful items just abandoned?
16. How did the I-Rex get inside the old park visitor center when was in-closed and the doors were shut?
17. How did the kids get the old jeeps working? True, they were able to quickly swap out an engine (somehow), but where did they get the gas from to operate it? And if they did have gas, how is that gas even still good after 20 years?
18. Why does Owen (who has a gun) do absolutely nothing to help Hoskins from getting eaten? Sure, he didn’t care for the guy, but Owen pretty much allows him to die.
19. Where did all the visitors go after the pterosaur attack? Were they completely ferried off the island before the final showdown?
20. How can Claire outrun a T-Rex in high heels? How can she outrun a T-Rex, period?
21. Why does the 4th raptor coming running out to attack the I-Rex? Shouldn’t that raptor still think the I-Rex is her alpha since she wasn’t there when Owen reestablished his connection with the other three?
22. Why do the T-Rex and the raptor have a bro moment? Doesn’t that go against everything else established about these creatures in this film series so far?
23. How does Lowery make his way out of the control center? He was the last one there and the ferries are a good mile (or more) away with a T-Rex and Raptor on the loose.
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1. The navy regularly trains marine animals to locate underwater mines. Owen could have been a part of that team during his time in the navy. It is never really explained though, you’re right.
2. InGen is the parent company of Jurassic Park/World. It was founded by John Hammond in the early 1980s during one of the initial silicon valley booms. This is explained in great depth in the first book.
3. Because they have to establish a cliche rapport between these two characters because Bryce Dallas Howard is terribly under-motivated as a character.
4. Some time in the past. Counter-argument: who cares? I don’t mean that sarcastically; it’s just not a big deal.
5. Yes. And why not? Seems like a nice way to get away from the crowds of Jurassic World. I would like it.
6. Umm… there’s no defense for this. Bad writing.
7. He’s definitely not. Irrfan Khan’s character wants to test the paddock in the first place. I also got the impression that the two computer techs (Jake Johnson and the female one whose name I never bothered to learn) seem to disagree with what’s going on quite regularly as well.
8. She’s still responsible for the park. Blame often falls on leaders whether or not they deserve it. I agree that she did not deserve it. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a CEO or some other higher business-type person to fall on their sword for a big mistake in a company. This doesn’t bother me.
9. Bad writing.
10. The pterosaur attraction is actually in the old part of the park, but you’d never know it from watching the movie. The pterosaur attraction never opened, and played a significant role in the first book when Grant and the kids get trapped in there for a few chapters.
11. See: my answer to 10. Also, dinosaurs were bred regardless of their species because the geneticists didn’t know what they were creating at first. They were flying blind until they figured out which species was which. I agree it seems like they created a billion of them for no reason however.
12. Bad writing.
13. It’s explained that Masrani has so many companies he can’t possibly keep each on a tight leash. this has led Dr. Wu and Vincent D’onofrio to basically do whatever they want. Quite frankly, I enjoyed Dr. Wu’s arrogance a lot. He was really made to be more like he is in the first book (where he dies lol).
14. Because he’s too busy learning how badly fly a helicopter.
15. Because dinosaurs ran amok until they were able to be contained by the joint forces of the Costa Rican and American militaries. This is actually explained in the book.
16. Bad writing.
17. I actually learned from playing The Last of Us that 20 year old gas will still work, it’ll just burn smoke like a mother fucker. It’s also really bad writing and in a movie with genetically engineered dinosaurs, the least likely thing to happen.
18. The script calls for D’onofrio to have a comeuppance. Maybe Owen is also too attached to Blue. And why wouldn’t he be? Blue rocked.
19. They were ferried off. The park security actually seemed to get the pterosaurs in order fairly quickly.
20. The script demands it.
21. See: my answer to 20.
22. It was the best part of the whole movie. The only way it would have been cooler would have been if the T-rex was wearing a trucker hat and the raptor suddenly had on an Affliction t-shirt.
23. Who cares? It’s not uncommon for a character to randomly appear somewhere, see: Batman at the end of The Dark Knight Rises for the most egregious example of that in cinema history.
As I am sure you know, like many of your answers, my questions were mostly tongue in cheek. But lets dance!
2. Book doesn’t count. I’ve read it (and even taught it for a class) – in it, like many other things, InGen in there is very different than established in the films. JW was incredibly fuzzy on what the current relationship between them and the park was. That said, given the complete disasters it has been responsible for, I am surprised that it is even in business still.
3. Which is so odd considering that she is arguably the best developed character in the movie!
4. Oh, I know. It just was handled so clumsily.
8. True, but it just felt so forced that everyone she works with and does all the same kind of work just suddenly casts judgment on her.
10. I loved that part of the book. But that does bring up another question: if they are part of the old park, then how did they survive for the past 20 years completely locked up? This is not me being snarking or finding fault in the movie. I am genuinely curious!
13. I guess that it is more along the lines of when he was asking Wu what he did and Wu was all “it’s classified”. That said, I liked the arrogance factor too. I wish there was more done with it besides saddling it with a stupid military subplot.
15. Again, the book and the movie series are separate things.
18. I honestly couldn’t tell you which one was which.
19. Yeah…I remember seeing a shot of the visitors during the nighttime somewhere, but I couldn’t tell if that was still on the island, or on a boat.
20/21. *le sigh*
22. Well, if they did that, the movie at least would embrace the total schlock instead of pretending it isn’t there.
23. It is funny you bring up TDKR as JW is easily 2015’s entry for most “watchable but frustrating” summer movie.
Oh I know they’re tongue in cheek! I love our recurring Leftover Questions. Days of Future Past had a million of them as well and I enjoyed the heck out of that movie. JW has a ton of problems but I really enjoyed it nonetheless.
Full disclosure, I have only seen 2 movies in theaters this summer. It has been a shitty summer for movies. But the two movies I saw, Jurassic World and Mad Max, were both really good entertainment products. Both are also heavily flawed (Max is a secondary character in his own movie — I don’t mind this however/JW leans too heavily on nostalgia — again, it doesn’t bother me) but they both get summer spectacle exactly right, that is to say they get it exactly how I personally like it.
I was thinking the same thing how lackluster and utterly forgettable this summer has been with movies. Winter looks promising. At least to me.
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