#it would be a Very Masrani Trick

[swan2swan]

I always used to think "How did GAMERS not hack this thing and figure it out and find the source code and crack it?"

But now I understand that they probably just didn't take it seriously. Anyone with a strong online presence and a loud voice probably dismissed it. Thought it beneath them. Because...yeesh.

[gainaxvel3o]

Jurassic World and it’s sequel are not great, not even good, but over the past few months I’ve thought about them more and came to realize something I like about them.

They don’t take the originals for granted and are actually sort of cynical about themselves?

When you think about it, the first JW had a solid hook for a continuation. What if Jurassic Park was actually successful? For several months, the Park owners managed to maintain a stable, running Dinosaur theme park that brought in crowds of thousands that are entertained . However, things are not all well even before the Indominus Rex gets loose. The military are trying to weaponize the raptors, there is tension in keeping the dinosaurs in check, and probably the most damning indictment is that the scientists wind up creating one of the most dangerous monsters in the franchise because the focus groups determined the T-Rex “became boring.” In a repurposed line from the book Henry Wu, the main geneticist involved in the project, points out to his boss Masrani that none of the dinosaurs are natural, made from a combination of other animals’ DNA. The line’s use in the film is pretty interesting, establishing a more cynical undercurrent to the series than what was in any of the originals.

Fallen Kingdom goes further with this, almost feeling like a take that at The Lost World’s plot. When a volcano is said to erupt over Isla Nublar, Dr. Ian Malcom advocated for the dinosaurs to be left to die on the island. Our protagonists, of course, go to said island to save the dinosaurs, but their noble efforts turn out to be a smokescreen for the villains, who took advantage of their naivety to capture the dinosaurs and sell them off. The end of the movie has the dinosaurs escape into the wild, no doubt wrecking havoc across the country. Interestingly in both movies, whatever intentions the humans had, good and bad, were ultimately undone by nature. The Indominus Rex escaped by tricking the humans, but even if that didn’t happen Fallen Kingdom showed that the volcano would have destroyed the park in a few years anyway. If the characters listened to Malcom, the villains wouldn’t get very far and humanity wouldn’t be facing the problems caused by the end of FK. It was, in fact, the heroes’ attempts to save the dinosaurs that doom lives.

Does this make this series good? Honestly no. In addition to the characters being bland and some mean spirited gross stuff, a consistent issue I have with these movies is that they try to have their cake and eat it too; they attempt to balance their cynical notions with the earnest wonder of the original Jurassic Park movies, and never succeeding at it. Moments like the T-Rex and the Blue Raptor fighting the Indominus Rex or the little girl releasing the dinos at the end of FK are treated as triumphant, bright moments in the narratives that touch on the heartstrings. If they had learned harder on the cynicism, they probably would come together more coherently. Jurassic World in particular had a lot of potential for satire on the nature of merchandising and corporate meddling which it doesn’t do too much with. I’m quite curious as to how Dominion is going to handle the dinosaur apocalypse teased at the end of it’s predecessor. Will it live up to it’s ambitions? I don’t know.

I guess from this rambling is that these movies taught me that sometimes respect for the original source material isn’t enough. With recent reboots being so suffocating with how they put the originals on a pedestal, Jurassic World taught me that perhaps it might be better to observe it with a more cynical eye every once in a while, deconstruct the original so the story can take on more interesting paths it might not be able to if it was played totally straight.

[gwendolyngreene]

For those of you who don't play the Jurassic World mobile game

So I recently completed a series of quests in the game that included a few cut scenes of Claire and Owen discussing his time in the Navy, so I thought I would share it.

FIRST, a couple disclaimers: 1. I didn’t screenshot every single dialogue window, only the ones that were factually important. 2. Keep in mind the game operates in an AU that’s similar to the film, but has quite a few noticeable plot differences. But I thought this bit of Owen’s backstory was interesting and worth sharing.

[Backstory: Hoskins has been digging into Owen’s past, including his time in the Navy. He discovers something and immediately goes to Claire with the information. (I think he’s trying to get Owen off the Raptor project IBRIS but his motives haven’t been stated yet so I can’t be sure.)]

HOSKINS: Owen’s presence poses a risk to our operations. Did you know, that prior to joining Jurassic World, he spent time in military prison?

HOSKINS: I checked. He didn’t remain in the Navy for very long. At the end of his tour, he was issued a discharge by a general court-martial...

HOSKINS: ...for bad conduct.

[Claire confronts Owen and he promises to tell her everything, but they need to talk in private. She agrees to hear him out.]

OWEN: First, you need to know that my military discharge is false: It never actually happened.

(I’m just going to transcribe the rest of the conversation to keep this post as short as possible.)

OWEN: In the Navy, I was a part of MK 9, a human-animal cell in the Marine Mammal program for naval operations. Real black budget stuff.

CLAIRE: You’re talking about handling dolphins for the army? Yeah, I knew about that.

OWEN: Not just dolphins. We trained whales, sharks, sea lions, anything with a tail and flippers that might give us an edge underwater.

OWEN: During the Iraq War in 2003, we deployed dolphin teams into the Persian Gulf to remove enemy mines that prevented our fleet from entering. 

OWEN: It was supposed to be a textbook mine hunt... 

[...Claire and Owen talk while walking around the paddocks...]

OWEN: MK 9 began marking tethered or buried sea mines on the ocean floor. One of them in the group pinged back a small object. Heading straight for us.

OWEN: We read reports that the enemy was sighted in those waters and had destroyed ally supply ships. There wasn’t a whole lot of time to react.

OWEN: After cooler heads prevailed, it turns out it wasn’t a hostile at all. My captain nearly gave the order to fire by mistake.

[...]

OWEN: Even worse, tax dollars were being spent on MK 9 but all handlers on staff knew the one hard truth that none of us wanted to admit...

OWEN: That mammals, especially those recruited and trained by the U.S. military, don’t always make the best type of soldiers.

[...It’s getting late and they’re both hungry, so Owen asks if she wants to go get something to eat. In a stark contrast to how she treated their blind-date-gone-wrong earlier in the story, she accepts. They go to one of the fancier restaurants on the island, and the conversation continues...]

OWEN: I keep replaying what happened that night in my head, wondering if I swam alongside my dolphin team, would things have turned out differently?

[...Claire makes a comment to offer comfort to Owen...]

OWEN: Ha, lot of good that did me. Our team began hearing rumors about an inquiry into MK 9′s lack of efficiency on and off the field.

OWEN: It was grilling, not even remotely fair. After the investigation, word of the incident trickled back up to the top brass. And by then something had to give.

OWEN: The next day, I received orders directly from the desk of the Chief of Naval Operations to shut down and disband MK 9.

OWEN: National Security Council put pressure after news outlets began running stories about ‘defective dolphins’ jeopardizing the mission.

CLAIRE: That was when you were discharged by a court-martial?

OWEN: Not quite. I...uh, volunteered, in a way.

CLAIRE: I don’t understand. You weren’t in any trouble but you allowed yourself to be discharged anyway?

OWEN: MK 9 was my baby. I wasn’t about to let some desk jockey admiral completely tear down years of hard work. Those dolphins depended on me.

OWEN: But shutting down the team meant they no longer had the rights and protection of the Navy. They’d effectively be ejected from the program.

CLAIRE: So what happened? They released the dolphins back into the ocean?

OWEN: Nope. I raised those guys. There was no way they could survive in the wild, not on their own at least. So I made a deal.

[...Claire and Owen finish dinner and leave the restaurant, sharing a walk outside...]

OWEN: I met with the captain and offered to tell the media that we were actually “ramping down” on mammals in favor of something else.

OWEN: With the new presidential administration being installed, we knew we had one trick left up our sleeve: drones. See, the army likes robots.

[...]

OWEN: Lock stock and barrel. It was perfect. Mr. Masrani paid all the expenses to relocate my dolphins in exchange for my services.

OWEN: I was flown out to Isla Nublar almost the next day. Imagine my surprise when I found out I wouldn’t be workin’ with dolphins no more.

CLAIRE: So you got your wish. In the end, you saved your dolphins.

[...Claire and Owen part ways as it is beginning to storm. She goes on with her work, and when Hoskins confronts her again about Owen, she defends him and his work, refusing to take him off the IBRIS project.]

[Bonus: after the storm passes Barry goes looking for Owen, and when he finds him, discovers Owen soaking wet from the rain and munching happily on a bagel, likely still on a high from his time with Claire.]

So? What do you think? Do you like these insights into Owen’s backstory? Remember these are from an AU so you don’t have to like them or accept them. In the meantime, I would like to start an official petition to call Owen’s dolphin team the “Pod Squad”.