Those of you familiar with my beats at CinemaBlend know that I’m a huge fan of Jurassic Park and the Jurassic Universe that resulted from the first movie’s box office conquest. Six movies later, and with a new Jurassic era set to start in 2025, life is finding a way to expand author Michael Crichton’s genetic engineering thriller. After 30 years of waiting, a new entry in Jurassic Park lore might answer a question that’s been nagging me, and other fans, for just as long.
How Did Dennis Nedry's Barbasol Can Get Off Of Isla Nublar?
Diehard fans of Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic are probably already shouting at the screen right now, so I apologize to anyone out there who’s being subjected to shouts of “How did the Barbasol can get off Isla Nublar?” right about now. But that’s exactly the question I’ve been screaming in my own mind, especially in the Jurassic World era of canon.
Admittedly, this was previously addressed to a point in Telltale Games’ Jurassic Park: The Game, and apparently was also referenced in the Netflix series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous. And yet with both of those instances, the connection between the canon of the Jurassic World films and those events are a bit of a mixed bag.
So unless the new Netflix series Jurassic World: Chaos Theory starts to tie up these loose ends, I consider the question to still be in play. And even if it isn't, a brand-new video game named Jurassic Park Survival stands to potentially add some interesting wrinkles to said canon.
How Jurassic Park Survival Might Answer That Question
Taking place literally the day after John Hammond’s disastrous soft opening, Jurassic Park Survival puts you in the role of Dr. Maya Joshi, an InGen scientist who didn’t catch that last shuttle to the ferry the day before. This means that players will now be able to fend off the dinosaurs that tussled with the Jurassic Park cast, and in some cases, that’s not a good thing.
Check out the trailer for Jurassic Park Survival and see for yourself:
So how could Jurassic Park Survival answer the question of the infamous Barbesol Can? Well, Dr. Joshi might run across it in her travels, especially because the wreckage of Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) and his Jeep are still in the open. The only hope of Maya leaving the island would probably be through a group of people, whether they’re InGen or BioSyn employees, trying to retrieve the stolen embryos.
The ability to explore “a fully realized Isla Nublar” on next gen consoles sounds pretty exciting, especially in a period of time closer to Jurassic Park’s events. But if this question is to be addressed, it’d make for even better connective tissue linking Camp Cretaceous’ chain of events into the overall Jurassic Canon.
Why Jurassic World Dominion Makes This Question’s Answer Even More Important
Returning Jurassic Park villain Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott) was tied to the Barbesol can even further in the more recent era of storytelling. We specifically see the can in his office towards the end of Jurassic World Dominion, and as previously mentioned, Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous places the can in his possession. However, how closely the canon of that Netflix/DreamWorks Animation series is followed in the films has yet to be seen.
Jurassic Park Survival could be the key to determining just how much of the existing Jurassic World canon ties together. Or, it could be another outlier like Jurassic Park: The Game or Trespasser, where the answers given are accepted on a more selective basis. In either case, I’ll gladly play through this new story to get those answers and maybe try to figure out how that Velociraptor got out of the freezer.
Sadly, I can’t tell you when Jurassic Park Survival will hit shelves, as it’s currently in development. However, if you’re nostalgic for this franchise 65 million years in the making, the Jurassic Park trilogy is currently streaming for those with access to a Netflix subscription. That's what I'm going to do right now, as I just realized I need to take a deeper look into Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous lore.
