As the marketing for Jurassic World Dominion may have hinted at, dinosaurs are officially a modern menace. Throughout the continental United States, it’s not at all a surprise that you may encounter a Velociraptor, or even a Tyrannosaurus Rex, out in the wilds of this franchise’s reality. What is new and interesting is that thanks to “The Prologue,” a five minute teaser that sets up the world of the third Jurassic World film, co-writer/director Colin Trevorrow may have revealed how our government is hunting dinosaurs.
Before we go any further, you may want to watch this adventure for yourself. If you’re so inclined, here’s “The Prologue,” a prequel experience designed to set up Jurassic World Dominion:
Now you’re ready to follow us, as we take a look at how this brave new Jurassic World is dealing with its free-roaming friends.
What Jurassic World Dominion's Prologue Shows Us
Most of the five-minute sequence that sets up Jurassic World Dominion shows the actual prehistoric dinosaurs that were the genetic templates used by Dr. John Hammond and his team at InGen. Creating the beasts we’d see in Jurassic Park, as well as the Jurassic World films, that DNA gave the world attractions like Roberta the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Unfortunately for her, she has no idea how the world of humanity works at all.
The back half of “The Prologue” is what really begins to clue us into the sort of modern problems InGen’s former property are going to cause. What begins as an idyllic night at the drive-in turns into pure chaos, as Roberta stomps in out of curiosity. Just as Dr. Ian Malcolm could have predicted, everyone starts running and screaming; and this is on top of the dinosaur in question being chased by a helicopter from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
How Is The US Government Hunting Dinosaurs?
Limited to what we’ve been shown in Jurassic World Dominion’s five-minute set-up reel, it looks like the US Department of the Interior is going to have its hands full with dinosaur detail. Just in this instance alone, it looks like US Fish and Wildlife are tracking Roberta for some distance before all hell breaks loose at the drive-in. Helicopter patrols are probably just the beginning, as professional hunters/conservationists will likely be drafted in as well. That’s probably where Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing come back into the picture, as that pair respectively maps up with those two interests.
Now experienced dinosaur handlers after two previous adventures, Grady and Dearing are going to be an ever important resource to those who want to peacefully trap the dinosaurs that are out there. Whether they’re officially deputized into US Fish and Wildlife or they’re part of some other organization assisting these efforts, we already know how the government is looking to capture and presumably find new homes for the former inhabitants of Isla Nublar.
What Can We Guess About Jurassic World: Dominion's Dinosaur Landscape?
There’s another source of information out there that actually gives us a better picture of what’s potentially going on in Jurassic World Dominion. Believe it or not, there’s a mini-stationary set you may have seen on sale at your local Target; you’d know it by the notebook that says “Raptor Country” on the front. The devil’s in the details though, as the stickers included with this set hint towards the landscape this latest dinosaur drama now sees as the new normal. Take a look at those stickers below:
At the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, we did see some of the new migrations lead the former citizens of the titular theme park to new and dangerous places. Details in these new decals note developments, like how the potentially herbivorous Gallimimus now roams in the “Midwest Passage.” There are even species specific “observation committees” designated to track beasts like Triceratops, or even Raptors, in the wild. Plus, as we’ve seen in this new prologue, Roberta the Tyrannosaurus, the functional main character of this new footage, is a creature of the mountains and the woods surrounding them. Dinosaurs are roaming the earth yet again, and now you know where you can find some of them in the name of photography, and some spontaneously intense cardio.
How Could This Prologue Tie Into Battle At Big Rock?
Back in September 2019, Battle at Big Rock was the first tease towards that world that Jurassic World Dominion would be operating in. Showing a family camping out in the California wilderness, only to be interrupted by a Nasutoceratops family and an Allosaurus crashing the party, it felt like the perfect setup for the next summer’s potential blockbuster. Then the pandemic crashed the party, delaying the production and release of Dominion to its current 2022 slot; which kind of sets up the question of whether or not Battle at Big Rock and The Prologue could work as one singular product.
That prospect actually does work for two different reasons, the first being that there’s no traditional narrative being told in these reels. However, lining up the end of the new short with the beginning of its predecessor, we go from the rampage at the drive-in to news reports of other dinosaur sightings. Ending with its own look at what this new era of prehistoric action looks like, Jurassic World Dominion’s two shorts spiritually combine together to make a 15-minute short movie that’s the perfect appetizer. It all fall squarely into the US Department of the Interior's current jurisdiction of dino detail, so it's probably best to keep it all together anyway.
The Prologue originally ended in its IMAX presentation, attached to the summer blockbuster F9, with random glimpses of modern day mayhem that took place outside of the drive-in encounter with Roberta, which for some reason have been omitted. While not the same scenes as the one’s included in The Prologue, that’s exactly the sort of footage that ends Battle at Big Rock’s short journey into terror. Colin Trevorrow’s point still gets across rather well in the slightly modified version of The Prologue, and we even get new Michael Giacchino music out of the deal as well.
Watching these two extended teases together really does set the mood for the next Jurassic chapter, and it isn’t even using footage from Colin Trevorrow’s next film to do so. There’s still no clue when an official trailer could be released for Jurassic World Dominion, which means this latest round of information is going to prove vital to those who are eagerly awaiting the first proper look at the film. Who knows how much better the government will get at capturing dinosaurs between the time this footage takes place and where the next film begins? At the very least, we know that it can’t get any worse, and there’s nowhere to go but up!
Not to mention that if anyone is getting a bit antsy for more potential connections in the Jurassic World trilogy to be revealed, Season 4 of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous will have its own treasures to share. That fun starts again, only on Netflix, December 3rd; with Jurassic World: Dominion set to debut, only in theaters, on June 10th, 2022. Perhaps these new episodes should be required viewing for US Fish and Wildlife agents in the aid of helping them better understand their cinematic prey.
