Author: Marcus McCowin

The Dinosaurs of Jurassic World Are Both Male and Female, and They’re Breeding

Posted on by Marcus McCowin

When John Hammond dreamed up the idea of Jurassic Park in the later years of the 20th century, he thought he had control of the future. “We control their chromosomes, it’s really not that difficult,” Dr. Henry Wu (Hammond’s ‘Chief Geneticist’), proudly proclaimed, going on to mock Dr. Malcolm “You’re implying that a group comprised entirely of females will…breed?” Little did he or John Hammond know what lack of control they truly had on this expansive and ultimately impossible idea. Sure, Jurassic World boasted roughly 10 years of control over these animals – but – “You never had control. That’s the illusion.”

In the beginning of the franchise, we’re told that all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park are female. This is because, as Wu says, “all vertebrate embryos are inherently female, anyway. They just require an extra hormone given at the right developmental stage to make them male. We simply deny them that.”, ultimately displaying the ignorance and arrogance Jurassic Park is showcasing. Hammond and his team of scientists were trying to force nature into what would end up being a very unnatural state. “Life finds a way,” as Dr. Malcolm puts it, nature fights back, and he is proven correct.

As you know, later in the film, Dr. Grant and the kids come across velociraptor eggs. Eggs mean reproduction. In vertebrate species, reproduction typically means males and females (though in certain scenarios with some vertebrates asexual reproduction is possible). However, as we discovered that from the very start, there always have been both males and females in Jurassic Park, though they’re not always distinguishable via sexual dimorphism. The Lost World confirms the dinosaurs are reproducing sexually, distinguishing the sexes of the animals with the Tyrannosaurs and Velociraptors. We’re introduced to the fact that male Tyrannosaurs are green, while the females are brown – further, male Velociraptors are brighter orange with distinct tiger-like stripes. Later, in Jurassic Park III we’re introduced to new raptors, where the males have a stripe running down the sides of their back (a feature later reflected in Velociraptor Blue) and feather-like quills. The females are more white in appearance. (This makes sense because – no offense ladies – in nature, males are usually more vibrant, like cardinals for example. This is because the females are usually the ones doing the hunting and protection of their young, and so for these reasons, they need to be more dull in color and blend in better to their surroundings.)

So what’s the deal with the dinos in Jurassic World? While Jurassic World established that the Raptors, Mosasaur and Indominus are female, we do know that there were also males, and controlled breeding, like in today’s zoos. This tweet from writer/director Colin Trevorrow himself spells it out:

This information from Colin Trevorrow confirms that between Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the animals were breeding on Isla Nublar. In Fallen Kingdom, there’s an Allosaurus that is literally called a “juvenile” Allosaurus, and you can also see various baby Triceratops several times. If you’re reading this and thinking you were the only one who thought that the animals were all female, don’t worry, you are not alone. Strangely, numerous instances of licensed material for the franchise have stated that all Jurassic World dinosaurs are female. Mattel has referred to the male “buck” rex as female, for instance, while ‘Jurassic World: The Evolution of Claire’ has also claimed all animals to be female. (Side bar: I’d love to see male and female distinction in the games, and even a “controlled breeding” element. This could be risky territory – I just want to see baby dinos, can you blame me!?)

This makes the ending of Fallen Kingdom all the more significant: now that the animals are on the mainland, they will continue to breed. There obviously aren’t multiple rexes or raptors released from Lockwoods estate, so their reproductive options are limited. However, there were multiple ankylosaurs, ceratopsians, theropods, sauropods, and others released into North America that will certainly have the chance to reproduce naturally.

I am interested to see how the animals will repopulate in the Americas as invasive species, if that is something that Colin Trevorrow decides to explore. The key for combatting this invasive species threat will be response time to their capture. Compies would likely be impossible to locate and capture – there could be thousands running around after a few years. Conversely, some of the larger animals will be easier to isolate and capture with the help of the technological forces of the 21st century. With the amount of animals that were released from Lockwood’s estate, there certainly had to be a few males and females of most of the species and they will have the ability, if given the opportunity, to breed. After all, they’ve always been male and female, and breeding – ever since 1993.

If you ever forget that, just remember the words from Owen. “They’re thinkin’ I gotta eat…I gotta hunt…I gotta…”

The Fallen Kingdom Tyrannosaurus Rex Animatronic Has NOT Been Replaced by CGI

Posted on by Marcus McCowin

Update – Colin Trevorrow has confirmed that the animatronic remains in the film!

Editors Note:

Shortly after the article was posted, the heavy influx of traffic caused Jurassic Outpost to go down.

As such, the discussion thereafter primarily stemmed from the articles title, and not the content within. I had the intention shortly after the article was published to make some small alterations to more clearly articulate why these controversial shots may exist, and that they may not represent the shots in the feature (something Marcus’ article already did).

Due the website going down, the revisions were not made possible until now, after Colin Trevorrow confirmed the animatronic shots remain in the film.

I’ve said this on my personal accounts many times, but my main concern with the apparent change wasn’t that it’s CG, but the fact that the new CG looks so bad and is an evolution from a shot that previously looked so good.

Obviously I’m a fan of animatronics, and when they’re used right, they look amazing and timeless. Sometimes they don’t look great though (Spinosaurus in JP3 looks quite robotic and fake for instance).

I’ve had no complaints about the Indoraptor animatronic being replaced by CG, because the CG looks incredible – something the article already pointed out.

Circling back to the Rex, if the previous shot was CG, and it looked great, I’d assume an old shot was mistakenly used. But you just don’t mistakenly render CG for a shot that was an animatronic prior, so this footage certainly is ‘new’ to an extent. However, it is possible the CGI variation was not made for the film.

As the new Rex CG is inconsistent with the quality displayed elsewhere, I theorized that this shot was not from the film, & is a weird promo remix where the Rex transitions into a shot not from the film but rather from a commercial, and it was mistakenly used here.

The CG overlay would make sense for ad consistency, so the Rex remained the same in all shots of the ad. As of now, it remains unclear if this a closer explanation for the footage, or if however unlikely, the animatronic nearly was replaced.

Due to the fact the website was down forcing the conversation around the articles first title only, and comments were spiraling out of control, I removed the original social media postings to better relay the facts, or lack thereof.

The point of a fan site is to facilitate discussion and highlight news that revolves around subjects fans are passionate about. While this typically is good news, it sometimes means subjects such as the original article will be featured. As the news became so sensationalized shortly after, I felt it was important to highlight these elements to better generate positive, healthy discussion inside these comments and elsewhere.

– Chris

Original Article:

We’re a month and a half away from the release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. That means that the movie is either a wrap, or darn close. With this movie we are told to have dinos and animatronics aplenty. There has been one slight change, however. It appears as of the most recent Fallen Kingdom tv spot, Rexy has…changed?

Early trailers featured a beautiful up close and personal look at the Tyrannosaurus Rex animatronic, where shots were mostly practical with occasional CG touch ups. However, the most recent tv spot boasts an entirely CGI-ed Rexy, and it… does not look so great.

Check out the TV spot below:

Did you catch the changes? The trailer moves pretty fast, so we’ve grabbed them and made some handy gifs for comparison:

Every trailer and tv spot we’ve been shown, in my opinion, has shown off some fantastic animatronics and CG (with the exception of that shot of a snarling Blue). The Carnotaurus, stampede, and the Mosasaur look incredible. The CGI overhaul of the Rexy animatronic on the other hand, leaves me confused and disappointed.

This move leaves me wondering why an animatronic for Rexy was built in the first place. I am assuming that this may be the only shot in the film where it was to be used. So, if they are just going to essentially paint over it on a computer, why even make it? For Jurassic World, with some shots similar to this one, they had puppets made as a stand in, and then CG-ed over those. If the intent was always to replace the pratical effect with CGI, a more basic approach like that would have been taken.

What’s particularly frustrating is the new CGI doesn’t look good, at all – and sadly studios are known for sometimes replacing beautiful practical effects with rushed digital counterparts (See the Thing Thing 2011 and ADI’s involvement). The complaint isn’t that CG is being used, but rather the downgrade in terms of quality. In contrast, when they replaced the Indoraptor animatronic, the new CG was strikingly realistic:

Don’t get me wrong, I have faith that the movie is going to be jaw-dropping. Colin Trevorrow, JA Bayona and their team have shown us its potential. But I have to admit, this has me a little nervous. If we would have been shown this in December, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. Today is May 6th. Here’s to hoping that this is just a stand in shot not meant for trailers, and the original animatronic shot still remains!

Sound off in the comments below, and let us know what you think of this apparent change.

OPINION: Robert Muldoon’s Undeserved Death

Posted on by Marcus McCowin

The socks. The hat. The accent. What did Robert Muldoon have in Jurassic Park that you don’t recall immediately? The game warden from Kenya was a man of high intellect. He had seen raptors at their most curious stages (for example, testing the electric fences for weaknesses), and I’m sure at their most admirable stages as well. He was taken out of the franchise too soon, and although I’m honestly not sure where else he would have fit in down the road, I think the possibility to see him again could have been there.

What Steven Spielberg did with Bob Peck’s outstanding character is genius. Sadly, on April 4th this year, it will have been 19 years since Bob Peck passed away from cancer. To honor his memory, let’s briefly discuss the stellar job he did with this character and why Robert Muldoon is a JP legend.

A common theme throughout most of the JP franchise is that good guys live and bad ones meet their ultimate demise. In fact, sometimes you don’t have to be a “bad guy” to seal your fate in this series — all you need is a lack of respect for the power of dinosaurs. If you see them as assets or look at them with dollar signs (I’m thinking of you, toilet boy), then you’re most likely as good as dead. Nedry, Genaro, Ludlow, Hoskins, Dieter Stark (with a particularly brutal and prolonged death); all met ends that seemed to make sense. They all had agendas that looked past the fact that these were big, powerful and living animals that deserved to be treated with more respect. One of them in particular, Dieter Stark, had a well-deserved death — death by what seemed to be a thousand compys eating him alive for zapping one of their own with a taser for no reason.

Other deaths came as a slight surprise. The character wasn’t money hungry, he or she didn’t not respect the animals. They were simply expendable, I guess. Think of Eddie Carr, Udesky and Zara. Eddie went out a hero, trying to save his new friends. I find his death to be one of the more depressing endings of a character in the JP universe. Udesky was just trying to help find a child. The worst thing Zara did was not pay better attention to her boss’ nephews. There are more of these types of deaths out there, but those are the ones that come to my mind first.

One of the reasons that Jurassic Park got this franchise started on such a powerful note is because some things happened that you never saw coming, including the death of Muldoon. You may have guessed that Genaro would die — but by being plucked off the toilet? Not many could have guessed that, I’m sure. When Nedry met his end (which I still find to be a particularly disturbing scene, bravo Mr. Spielberg), I knew it had to be done. He had caused so much destruction and loss of life due to his greed. But when he got back in his Jeep, I thought he had bought himself just a little more time. I was wrong. And who could have predicted Ray Arnold’s arm giving Ellie the surprise of her life?

And then there’s Muldoon. Muldoon had so much respect for these animals. It gives me shivers when he is crouching past the raptor enclosure with Ellie and he sees that they’ve escaped. The terror in his eyes and voice is unforgettable. Never once did we ever get the slightest hint that he cared about money. He didn’t want to see harm inflicted on a single person. He was genuinely angry that locking mechanisms had not yet been put on the vehicle doors, as an example of that. In the end, he gave his life to save Ellie’s and ultimately, the rest of the survivors. I still even find myself wondering if he was serious or sarcastic when he told the main group, “they should all be destroyed,” referring to the raptors. He watched Jophery die. He knew what these creatures were capable of and didn’t deserve what he was given.

With Muldoon, Spielberg had to make his audience understand that in this universe no one was truly safe. Respectful or not, these animals were vicious, cutthroat and your attitude towards them meant nothing in the end. The way he died was perfectly executed; he went out in a legendary way. The comfort that JP fans can take in his death is that he looked his predator in the eyes. He even got to acknowledge her intelligence and her hunting ability. In essence, when he gave us his last line, “clever girl,” he was basically saying, “Well done girl, you got me. Respect.” After that point, it’s best to not listen, because the JP legend goes down in a horrifying and undeserved way.

Jurassic Park is a fierce franchise with even more to come. Henry Wu is going to have a grisly end, you can bet on that. The theme of the first movie carries over through every installment of the series. That theme is that just because you made them, doesn’t mean these living creatures are mindless assets. Mills, Wheaton and others in Fallen Kingdom, like Hoskins, don’t get that. It’s probably a safe bet that they won’t make it out either. As Owen once said, “They’re alive. They’re thinkin’.. I gotta eat. I gotta hunt,” and, well, you know the rest.

What do you think? Do you think of Muldoon as a legendary JP character? Let us know your thoughts below!

If you’d like to discuss any and all thing JP with me, follow me on Twitter!

Opinion: Jurassic Park 3’s Importance to the Franchise

Posted on by Marcus McCowin

I was eight years old when Jurassic Park III was released.

I can vividly remember jumping in the car with my mom and dad and heading to the theater. It was hard to believe they had made a 3rd movie. Dinosaurs and the Jurassic franchise were my thing. My sister had Disney princesses, my brother had NASCAR —I had dinosaurs. I loved JP 3. I still do. For a long time after the movie’s release, it was by far my favorite of the three in the franchise. I can remember opening a huge (but very light) box on Christmas morning in 2001 to find that silver VHS. I couldn’t have been happier.

Over the years I began to love each of the three films equally, because I love the individual personalities that they bring to the screen. Jurassic Park brings wonder and awe of these amazing animals. The Lost World brings a feeling of wilderness and safari while exploring the dinosaur universe. Then Jurassic Park III came along and delivered a type of big-action, jungle vibe that was altogether different from the first two. I’m not saying that any of these three films are perfect. There are flaws in them as there are in every movie. However, they are darn good and entertaining. The question still stands — was Jurassic Park III a good stand-alone movie and solid addition to this franchise at the time? Maybe not. What is awesome, however, is that with the addition of a new trilogy and backstory, fans may want to take another look at it and its newfound place in the Jurassic universe.

Once I became more in touch with the internet as I got older, I realized something that both surprised and bothered me. There was some serious hate (and still is) being thrown JP 3’s way. I couldn’t believe it and had no idea why. Once I dug further, I realized it came from two main sources — Spinosaurs killing a T-rex (not even our beloved Rexy,) and the Kirbys.

The fight between the Spinosaurus and T-rex is something that will live in Jurassic infamy for fans. At that point in paleontology, Spino was considered the biggest and most ferocious animal to walk the Earth. I don’t think everyone properly understood at the time, but the T-rex in JP 3 is young. This information comes from the Wiki information of the Jurassic franchise, as well as the dinosaur size charts for the films. This rex was more than likely an inexperienced fighter as well. This fight could have absolutely been handled better by the screenwriters. But to hate the movie over a fight? That doesn’t make sense to me.

Dr. Grant said that Spinosaurus “wasn’t on InGen’s list,” and it made him wonder what else they were up to. Flash forward 14 years to Jurassic World — we can now venture a guess as to what InGen may have been dabbling in at that time. When Grant said that in JP 3, no one had any idea that the franchise was going to carry on, and the movie ended with hardly any other mention of InGen. We now know the origin of Spinosaurus, thanks to the Dinosaur Protection Group (DPG). Spino was one of several secret experiments by InGen, which began after Masrani acquired them in the late 90’s. DPG gave extra meaning to JP 3 by explaining where its main antagonist came from. No longer do we need to be confused as to why this beast seemingly fell from the sky.

Dr. Grant also gives a chilling warning in JP3 that now seems to foreshadow Jurassic World. He tells Billy “some of the worst things imaginable have been done with the best intentions.” In Jurassic World, Vic Hoskins makes me believe that he has good intentions, even though his end game is more than likely making big money from his Indoraptor idea. In the end he loses his life, but before that, a large part of his concern is saving the lives of soldiers via militarized raptors. Grant’s words can really resonate with you when you see clips of the Indominus and Indoraptor wreaking havoc. In fact, I would get chills if they inserted his quote into the Fallen Kingdom trailer.

If the new Jurassic World trilogy did not exist now, would you care whatsoever about what InGen was up to back in the early 2000’s? Or care to wonder where Spinosaurus came from? Most likely not. If you look back at the movie now and listen to the confusion in Grant’s voice, it’s interesting to think (and now know) what Masrani’s acquired InGen team was working on somewhere in the world.

Jurassic fans should be happy with how much raptor intelligence was explored in the third film. We learned about their communication, their ability to set traps and their fierce loyalty to keeping their young in their possession. Jurassic Park let us know the preliminary information on these animals, but JP 3 really dove in. For this reason, it allowed me to be able to buy into the fact that they can be trained. Raptors are supposed to be brilliantly smart creatures. If dolphins, gorillas and whales can be trained, why couldn’t raptors? This is especially true when they come in contact with their alpha from birth, just like Owen. I totally bought into the idea that raptors could be trained, and a large part of that reason was because of how smart they were portrayed to be in JP 3.

In the movie, the Kirbys may have been slightly annoying, but at the end of the day they’re supposed to be parents scared to death that their son is dead. Amanda also did something that had a roundabout effect on what is going on in the Jurassic universe today. When escaping from the Pteranodon enclosure, she doesn’t take the time to fully shut the door. This allows the Pteranodons to escape their cage and flee from the island. It is now a known fact that those Pteranodons ended up in Canada. Who was tasked with the job of corralling them up? Vic Hoskins. And because of the excellent job and manner in which he presented his team in Canada, he was hired by Simon Masrani. A few years later, with his job at InGen, Hoskins would be plotting with Henry Wu to make an ultimate weapon of war — the Indoraptor.

It’s my theory that Hoskins and Wu worked to come up with something like the Indominus. They made it. They wanted it to escape. And when it did, Hoskins knew that he could exploit Owen’s raptors’ intelligence and tracking ability to hunt it. Then after their success, he could really push the idea of a shrunken Indominus without the T-rex DNA to use for war.

So now go back to Amanda running from the Pteranodon enclosure. If she stops to shut that door properly, does any of this ever take place? I think that’s a fair question. Would there be hybrid dinosaurs? Probably. In the late 1990’s, Wu was successfully creating hybrid plants. I think it would have only been a matter of time before he went to hybrid dinosaurs. However, would he have been corrupted in the way he was after Hoskins got to him? Hard to say for certain.

Is Jurassic Park III perfect? No. But, I find it highly entertaining, with great-looking dinos and fantastic graphics. Standing as a third and potentially final installment of the franchise, I would say this movie is lackluster. However, being the middle piece of the puzzle that fills in some gaps gives it meaning and value. When you watch this movie today, you can relate it to the future of the Jurassic franchise much better than you could have for the last 17 years. Today, its dialogue and premise makes sense and should be appreciated more for what it is.

What are your thoughts on what Jurassic Park 3 adds to the franchise? Sound off in the comments below!