I went to go see Jurassic World again, this time with my family. And as I was driving my little brother back to his house, he expressed disappointment that the original cast (bar the scientist and the t-rex) didn’t make appearances. Then he said something that set me off in a Jurassic Wonderland of wasted possibility.
“What I want to know is why the two kids weren’t running the place. Why was some strange lady in charge of the park, instead of Lex? Why was some navy guy in charge of the raptors instead of Tim?”
And I just… can you imagine what the movie would have been if that had been the case instead?
Lex in charge of the park- the computer system isn’t just something she uses- she fucking designed it. She designed it and worked on programming it. She was the one who designed the tracking system they use with all the dinosaurs because she needs to be able to assure herself of where every single one of them is at any time, and she carries a tablet with her that does just that- taps into the network and shows dino locations. She fights the board on every new carnivore they want to create; It’s a bad idea, she tells them. Carnivores eat meat which in case you have not noticed, humans happen to coincidentally be made of meat. She also doesn’t just track the dinosaurs- there’s no way anyone will ever suffer through what she and Tim and Grant did. Every visitor to the island has a wristband that talks to the mainframe and gives their location at all times.
And Tim, head of the animal care and behavior department. He doesn’t know anything about the dinosaurs; he knows EVERYTHING about these dinosaurs. He has Hammond’s hearteyes wonder mentality partnered with Grant’s thirst for knowledge and fueled by his own curiosity and experiences. He’s there for every birth, and has his hands in the raising and care of all the dinosaurs. Like Grant, he has a soft spot for the raptors, and they have a soft spot for him as well.
Imagine the look on their faces when InGen admits that a dinosaur was created behind their backs, a hybrid of several species, because someone wanted to create more ‘wow’ for the park. Only what they created wasn’t what they meant to create. This new dino is smarter than anything they’ve ever made before. Bigger than the T-Rex. Stronger. It surprises everyone with it’s ability to mask its heat and change its skin color. It’s a mistake but ohhh what a mistake- the InGen folks have hearts in their eyes thinking about how they could apply these changes to raptors.
Imagine Lex’s utter outrage at being lied to, but now that the life has been created she can’t just take it. The animal didn’t ask to be born, but now that it has been, she ensures that it has what amounts to a bomb-proof enclosure in a remote section of the island. She forbids opening it as an attraction, this is for containment only. And the would-be social creature, deprived of social interaction with humans or its own kind or with anyone really, becomes the Indominus Rex we see in the actual movie; she does not understand boundaries or dominance or good behavior.
But the movie dynamics are now shifted. Instead of the park destroying itself from within, it is under attack from without. It isn’t because Lex was careless about security. There is no tension between Lex and Tim outside of normal brother/sister banter. Imagine that InGen wants those raptors badly enough to force a field test of them- imagine they purposefully release Indominus, thinking Tim’s raptor squad can beat it.
Imagine Tim and Lexa gearing up to go into the wilds of their park because there are people stranded at the far end. Imagine a movie where the wholesale destruction and terror are not because everyone is ill-equipped to handle the situation (because Lex and Tim? They’ve made fucking preparations for this shit, they have thought of everything for this kind of situation) but instead a story about how all of those preparations mean shit against this superdino. She outsmarts them like the Clever Girl she is, avoiding traps, clawing out her tracker, taking out their electricity, setting free the other dinosaurs.
Imagine half the movie following two young girls, strangers, who got put together on the rolly ball ride. One is a mechanic’s daughter who can disassemble and reassemble whole cars if she wanted, who fiddles with the ride to let them free-roll anywhere they want. Imagine she does it because the other girl has spent her whole life admiring Dr. Ellie Satler and wanting to be a paleobotanist but the ride doesn’t get close enough to the plants for her to see them well. Imagine that they escape Indominus by ducking under a plant that is basically a giant ancient fucking nettle plant and Indominus takes one faceplant into it before deciding WOW NOT WORTH IT BYE. And the two girls stick together until they meet up with Lex and Tim who are out trying to find the rolly ball inhabitants that went off road because they are the last two left, and Lex has been following their wristband signals.
Indominus finds the InGen beach camp and attacks with her new raptor compatriots. Lex and Tim, after seeing all the civilians safely to boats, come to the rescue. Tim wins back his raptor clan while Lex comes charging down the beach in the original Jeep the mechanic’s daughter fixed, road flares tied to the roll bars and madam Queen-of-All T-Rex chasing after her to start the final showdown.
No giant seamonster needed- T-Rex + Raptor Squad + InGen army + Lex and Tim are enough to bring down Indominus. Barely, but they win. And T-Rex is there, but she’s had quite enough fighting against raptors after the first movie, and so she leaves, heading into the jungle to let the humans recover.
Lex fires everyone at InGen. They go get ice cream from the cafeteria and Tim eats an entire chocolate pie by himself. They call Grant the next day and say “You are possibly the only person who will believe the day we just had.”
holy shit
Yep, that’s the movie I wish we got.
I WOULD BE LIVING IN THE THEATER.
Yes
I wanted this, not that.
While this is certainly a v interesting idea i wouldn’t have minded, i don’t think Lex and Tim would have wanted to go back and work there. Not even Grant or Malcom wanted to go back the other two movies but they did for outside reasons.
Malcom went in because his girlfriend did and that terrified him and he wanted to get her out. He did not enjoy the thought of going back there and he was extremely anxious and overly cautious to get his gf and daughter the hell out of there. And when he saw Lex and Tim at their grandfather’s place they did not seem excited, like they knew in part what was going on and were not pleased. Hell, i would not be happy either knowing that there was another island and a horrible uncle was now in charge of InGen and likewise the free-range dinos.
Grant didn’t want to return or to visit the second island but only gave in because he thought it was ONLY for a tour from above and for money for research…once he found out the real motives he was not pleased and was ready to get the hell outta dodge.
Would Lex and Tim really want to return to that? No doubt they are highly intelligent and would know a hell of a lot more than the InGen crowd who they knew to be in it for money but would they want to open a “theme park” and work with these people and bring in other people after what they went through when they were little? All that terrifying stuff they faced? Lex was face to face with the TRex before with Grant and she was terrified. She and Tim saw the Rex kill the lawyer. Tim was knocked over a ledge in the jeep because of the Rex. They both ran from the raptors and were hunted by them. Would Tim want to “train” them?
I admit the idea is cool, but everyone else from the first movie (save Hammond really) seemed to not want to ever experience that shit again. Malcom himself seemed to have constantly and actively written and spoken out against it from what we know. Grant never seemed to speak at all about it, remaining a complete archaeologist. Ellie had a family and while still seemingly involved in it did not seem to any great extent towards dinosaurs. So i’m not sure Lex and Tim who are out there facing it with Grant, would feel inclined to help create a theme park knowing the deadly risks as they did? I’m not sure on that.
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