Zach and Gray Mitchell (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) visit Jurassic World, the successful dinosaur theme park on Isla Nublar, invited by their Aunt Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the park’s operations manager, but has little time for them so she turns them over to her assistant Zara (Katie McGrath). They quickly ditch her and go off on their own.
Claire’s ex-boyfriend, ethologist and ex-Navy dolphin-trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) has been training four velociraptors named Blue, Delta, Echo, and Charlie to obey his orders, more or less. Their following his commands helps him research their intelligence, but head of InGen Security Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio) hopes to use them in combat someday.
Park Owner Simon Masrani (Irfan Khan), accompanied by Claire, inspects the park’s newest attraction, the Indominus Rex, which is a kind of Frankenstein T-Rex made of DNA from various bad-ass dinosaurs made by geneticist Doctor Henry Wu )BD Wong). Thinking it has escaped its enclosure, Owen and two park workers enter, but it has merely camouflaged itself and masked its heat signature. Owen survives, but the creature escapes into the park. Those sent to put it under control don’t come back. Claire orders the evacuation of part of the island.
Zack and Gray enter a restricted area in a tour vehicle. The Indominus destroys the vehicle and the boys barely manage to escape. They finds the ruins of the original Jurassic Park visitor center, repair an old jeep, and drive back to the resort. Meanwhile, Claire and Owen are searching for them and barely escape the Indominus themselves. Helicopters hunt for it but it breaks into the Aviary, causing the Pterosaurs to crash Masrani’s helicopter, killing all on board. It then breaks into the resort and causes general running and screaming. Zara is devoured by the Mosasaur in the lake. Gray and Zach reunite with Owen and Claire.
Hoskins takes command and orders the Raptors to track the Indominus, headed by Owen on a motorcycle. But it turns out the Indominus contains Velociraptor DNA and the Raptors begin to obey it instead of Owen. The Raptors kill the troops hunting them. Hoskins evacuates Wu and the dinosaur embryos. Owen re-establishes his bond with the surviving Raptors and they attack the hybrid, but they are defeated. Claire opens the door and releases the old T-Rex, which follows her to the Indominus, which is dragged underwater by the Mosasaurus. As Qui-Gon Jinn once said, there’s always a bigger fish.
The film was directed by Colin Trevorrow, written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, and produced by Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley. The idea of a completed dinosaur park came from Steven Spielberg. It was filmed in Louisiana and Hawaii, and the creatures were by Industrial Light and Magic and Legacy Effects. It was well-reviewed and a box-office success. The idea of a dinosaur that can hide like a chameleon was from Michael Crichton. Zara’s death was the first death of a female in the series and came as a spectacular surprise. The music was by Michael Giacchino, using themes by John Williams.
Bryce Dallas Howard did ankle exercises and trained to run in high heels, which she wore throughout the movie. This was a joke, incidentally, and not contempt for women. She ran like the wind, closely pursued by a Tyrannosaur, and I thought she was magnificent. Then, when the two great monsters clashed, she fell at their feet in a pose inspired by a Frank Frazetta cover illustration. The best part of Chris Pratt’s role were the details of his domination of the Velociraptor pack. He feeds Charlie first because she is the youngest and Blue last because she is the Beta leader and he must establish that he is Alpha. But he gives Blue the largest rat, rewarding her for her patience. He was present at the birth of each one and, on his motorcycle, can outrun them all. Chris Pratt was given it as a gift.
In New Orleans is an abandoned Six Flags theme park used in this and many other films. Spielberg loved the idea of the Mosasaur biting off an entire Great White Shark. Bryce Dallas Howard and Judy Greer are sisters in this movie, as they were in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. The Gyrosphere shell is made of aluminum oxynitride, otherwise known as transparent aluminum. It appeared in Star Trek Four: The Voyage Home but has since been invented for real. It will stop a .50 caliber armor-piercing bullet. There is a store in the resort named Winston’s in honor of Stan Winston, dinosaur-maker extraordinaire. The Indominous is on screen for seven minutes, the T-Rex for 2 and ½ minutes, and Chris Pratt for 35 minutes. When Hoskins thinks he is signing the Velociraptors, “I am your Alfa,” he is actually signing, “Prepare to feed.” Not good.