'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' director reveals his favorite Easter eggs (SPOILERS)
Warning: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom spoilers ahead.
Part of Jurassic World ‘s great success was due to its cavalcade of references to 1993’s Jurassic Park. While the sequel might have switched directors, from Colin Trevorrow to J.A. Bayona, the callbacks still come flying in as fast and furious as a pteranodon. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom not only has specific homages to Jurassic Park, but also contains a few shout-outs to director Steven Spielberg. Bayona sat down with Yahoo Entertainment and revealed his favorite Spielbergian Easter eggs.
That rain gear wasn’t a coincidence
One of the most memorable sequences in Jurassic Park is when Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) attempts to escape from the park but is thwarted by a tropical storm, and, well, a dilophosaurus spitting in his face. Rainwear fashionistas will recall the alluring yellow slicker sported by Nedry. The opening of Fallen Kingdom features a team on the island operating in a rain storm — and wearing the familiar-looking threads.
“Every time you reference a line or character or location, it creates an impact in the audience,” Bayona says. “There are several ideas in the film to create the connection. You start with the prologue and you have the rain, the nighttime, the yellow rain coats. That connects the whole thing.”
Another moment directly inspired by the 1993 classic is the final shot, where Owen (Chris Pratt), Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), and Maisie (Isabella Sermon) drive away from Lockwood Estate.
“You see Owen and Claire looking through the window of their car and they see some pteranodons flying over the sea,” Bayona explains. “It’s basically the same ending that we saw in Jurassic Park. In that movie, it was Sam Neill and Laura Dern looking outside of the helicopter and seeing birds flying over the sea, but this time it was not birds, it was pteranodons.”
E.T. phones in
Having grown up a big Spielberg fan, Bayona included several references to his hero, who also served as an executive producer on the new sequel. Throughout the movie we see young Maisie wearing a red hooded sweatshirt, similar to the one worn by Elliot in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. “That’s very Amblin, very Spielbergian,” said Bayona.
“In the dinosaur fight in Maisie’s room, there’s a lot of toys,” Bayona continued. “And if you take a look at the toys, you will see there’s an E.T. character there. You try to have fun, but at the same time you try to integrate that nostalgia into the story you’re telling.”
Meanwhile, the last glimpse we have of Owen’s beloved velociraptor Blue is another nod to Spielberg’s ’82 film. “You see Blue, and Blue is on top of this hill. And what you see is the same neighborhood where they shot E.T.
“I think it’s great when you can make a connection with the other films because we have very emotional relations with these movies,” Bayona said as to why he wanted to include these references. “We saw them when we were very young or when we were kids.”
Watch: J.A. Bayona explains where all the Trump jokes in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom came from:
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