Obviously, this article contains spoilers. This is your only warning.
In many ways, director J.A. Bayona’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom kills off the franchise we know Jurassic Park/World to be, opening it wide up and allowing it to become something else entirely. Mostly, I’m of course referring to the complete and total destruction of Isla Nublar, leveled by a massive volcano that, long story short, sets many of the island’s dinosaurs free.
Sadly, not all the dinosaurs that were in Jurassic Park/World survive the volcanic event, with a Brachiosaurus being the film’s most devastating casualty. As a sad version of John Williams’ iconic Jurassic Park theme song plays over the visuals, we see a Brachiosaurus left behind on the island, where it meets a fiery, thoroughly heartbreaking end.
As it turns out, that scene was approximately 1,000x more devastating than you maybe even realized. As Bayona revealed in a chat with Empire, that was *the* original Brachiosaurus.
“That’s the brachiosaurus that Alan Grant saw for the first time in Jurassic Park,” Bayona told the site, explaining that the same character animation was even utilized. “I think it’s a beautiful moment – it’s sad but it’s beautiful, and it’s so relevant.”
Writer Colin Trevorrow added, “For that to be the last dinosaur we see on the island, I found to be emotionally effective. But then the way that J.A. executed it – the colours, the very spiritual way that he shot it and finished it… It was actually the last shot that we finished on the whole movie, everyone had been up all night. He’s so meticulous, especially with his color and his composition. He worked on that shot until he had seconds left.”
Yes, the first dinosaur we ever laid eyes on in the Jurassic Park franchise is the very same dinosaur as the final one we see before we depart Isla Nublar forever, in Fallen Kingdom.
Who’s got the tissues? We need all the tissues.
