The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. You'll want to come back after you've seen it.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had a massive opening weekend at the box office and it has promised even bigger things to come in the forthcoming end to the trilogy. However, before we get there, we have some unfinished business with the movie that we just saw. The movie was a massive spectacle that was just as big and impressive as we hoped, but after the thrill wore off, the questions remained.
Some of these are questions of curiosity, questions that make us wonder where the story will go from here. Others are questions that cropped up because we're not entirely sure what we saw made any sense. Either way, here are all the questions we were asking after seeing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Why Do The DNA Thieves At The Beginning Think the Dinosaurs Are Dead?
In the opening sequence of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom we meet a group of thieves who have broken into the old park in order to steal a bone, and thus the DNA, of the dead Indominous Rex. While this would seem to be a quite dangerous job, nobody is taking any particular precaution against dinosaurs, and it turns out the reason is, as one of the mercenaries states, they believe the dinosaurs are all dead. Except, Congress is also holding a hearing about what to do with the animals, so clearly Congress believes at least some of the dinos are alive. Were they told the dinos were dead so that the villains could convince them to go? Was it just the predators they thought were dead? If so, why did they believe that?
Would the Volcano Really Have Destroyed The Entire Island?
Volcanic eruptions are absolutely dangerous events that can cause massive damage. However, from all indications on the map, Isla Nublar should be a pretty massive place, and since we see one face of the volcano give way, that means that the pressure that has been built up is being released there. That almost certainly means that the opposite side of the mountain should be safer. Whatever dinosaurs were lucky enough to find themselves on that side of the island would have been safe from the worst damage and some dinos would almost certainly have survived, making this entire mission less important. I'm no scientist, but it's still a question worth asking.
Just How Long Is This Dinosaur's Neck?
After being locked inside part of the old park complex, Claire and Franklin get attacked by a large dinosaur intent on eating them. They escape through a trap door in the ceiling by climbing a long enclosed ladder, with the dinosaur on their tail the entire time. When they finally emerge through the hatch in the island, the dinosaurs head is right there snapping at their heels. Seconds before, it was grabbing at Franklin's shoe, and now it's all the way up the ladder. The dino either learned to climb ladders or has a deceptively long neck.
Why Didn't Anybody Notice The Truck When It Jumped On The Boat?
As the volcano erupts and destroys the island, and nobody so much as puts on a face mask to protect from the volcanic smog, our heroes escape on a truck left behind and drive it off the dock at high speed in order to catch the boat before it leaves. The truck had the keys in it and started up fine, so why was it left behind? It wasn't because they were in a hurry and it needed a jump. Then, when it comes crashing into the back of the boat, where there is plenty of space for it, not a single person comes to investigate the noise. Was literally every person on the ship busy elsewhere?
How Did The Guard Know Owen And Claire Shouldn't Be There?
Claire and Owen are successfully able to draw blood from a T. Rex without being made, but as soon as their truck drives by the guard shack at the Lockwood Estate, they get busted. It's never made clear what this guard saw that made him suspicious. Even if he recognized Claire from her previous visit -- at 40 miles per hour wearing a John Deer cap-- is the guy watching the door really so in on the plan to know she's not part of it, too? That would seem to give that guy a lot more importance in this plot than is really needed.
How Did Nobody At The Estate Notice All The Work Going On?
It seems to be a shock to everybody, from Mr. Lockwood to his staff to his "granddaughter" that there is anything strange going on at the estate. When Lockwood's righthand man shows up with a bunch of trucks full of dinosaurs, nobody seems to think anything is strange. Even before that, however, they were breeding dinosaurs in the basement, which one would think would involve a significant amount of commotion that would have been noticed. You'd think the nanny would have asked what all the people were doing in the lab at some point.
Why Did Owen Leave the Indoraptor Sitting in the Cage?
Upon discovering that a new breed of killer raptor has been genetically engineered from the Indominous Rex, Chris Pratt's Owen decides he must make sure the creature never leaves the building. He runs down, fights off a bunch of guys with guns and cattle prods, and proceeds to... break the conveyer belt and apparently run off. He doesn't pick up one of the dropped guns and shoot the thing until it bleeds out. He apparently decides if the belt is busted, the world is safe. The next time we see him he's trying to escape with Claire and Maisie and the raptor is left alone in a room, sitting in a cage, where nothing could possibly go wrong.
Where Did The Nanny Go?
After James Cromwell's Benjamin Lockwood is found dead, Maisie's Nanny Iris is unceremoniously dismissed from her position. She pleads with Eli Mills to let her stay, but then walks off and she's never seen again. Considering her job, she almost certainly lived on the grounds and thus would probably need to spend a considerable amount of time packing before actually leaving. However, by then, there's quite a bit going on. Did she spend the rest of the movie hiding under her bed? She clearly doesn't trust Eli and loves Maisie, so why didn't she try to rescue the girl? Maybe she did and was eaten by dinosaurs...
How Did Franklin Become a Lab Tech?
While trying to escape the ship, Franklin gets mistaken for a deckhand, gets thrown a coil of rope and is separated from the rest of the group. The next time we see him, he's wearing a shower cap in a clean room and is working as some kind of lab assistant in the dino DNA room. How exactly did that transformation happen? Was it just another random bit of mistaken identity on the part of somebody else? Did Zia help him out? I would have loved to have seen the sequence of events that led to this.
Why Did The Indoraptor Play Possum?
One of the more satisfying moments in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is when the Indoraptor bites the arm off of the mercenary who originally turns on our heroes. It's a great moment, but it's also confusing. Was the Indoraptor supposed to know that if it faked being unconscious the guy would open the cage? Having never dealt with him before it would have no reason to know that would happen. Even assuming the creature, which can't be all that old, was intelligent enough to figure that out in the first place. If it had ever done this with another person before, surely they would have taken additional precautions when wheeling out the cage.
Why Does Cloning Humans Even Feature In This Movie?
The strangest twist of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingom is the discovery that little Maisie, the "granddaughter" of Lockwood, is, in fact, a clone of his daughter. It feels like an odd and out-of-place reveal, as no discussion of human cloning has ever been a significant part of this particular franchise. It's not clear why it's even here. Maisie could honestly be removed from the film entirely and little would change. It's possible the answer to this question is "because it will be important in Jurassic World III. However, at the moment, it feels like the answer is "because the movie needed a character who would think releasing a bunch of dinosaurs into Humboldt County was a good idea." Or "because the movie needed a kid."
Why Isn't Anybody Suspicious Of Anybody In These Movies?
Of all the repeated tropes in this franchise, it seems the one that gets the heaviest workout is that everybody is always out for themselves in these films. Time and time again, somebody gets lured to the island under false pretenses or somebody else has their own agenda being kept secret from the rest of the characters. Yet again, in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, it seems like the bad guys set a land speed record with how quickly they turn on the good guys. We barely get to meet them before we discover they're actually bad guys. Maybe in the next movie, somebody will be at least mildly suspicious of anybody claiming to want to go good? It's cynical, sure, but how often do you have to be fooled?
