With all due respect to my head-butting friend Stiggy, the best scene in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is the volcano explosion. It didn’t matter that much of the sequence appeared in the promotional trailers: it was still an incredible set piece, with a poignant final shot that made Jurassic Park fans wistful.
“That scene represents the ending of a dream that started 25 years ago,” director J.A. Bayona said about the Brachiosaurus (the first dinosaur audiences saw in 1993’s Jurassic Park) awaiting its inevitable death on the dock. “You are telling the ending of that island and the ending of that dream… I played a very sweet and a little sad version of the Jurassic Park melody. So that was very effective for the actors, especially for Bryce [Dallas Howard]. Being there, telling that story, listening to music from John Williams, they were all very emotional.”
But not only was the scene a callback to Jurassic Park — it was also inspired by another of Steven Spielberg’s cinematic classics (he has many). “Fun fact: the reference for the look of this shot was the heart of E.T.,” Bayona tweeted, referring to the titular alien’s heart light in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. (The ever-prolific Spielberg is listed as a producer on Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.)
Fun fact: the reference for the look of this shot was the heart of E.T.#JurassicWorldFallenKingdompic.twitter.com/XUABtwsF1r
— JA Bayona (@FilmBayona) August 9, 2018
In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the light is used to signify Elliot’s relationship with E.T. In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, it’s to kill a gigantic dinosaur. One is a bit more heartwarming (sorry) than the other.
(Via JA Bayona on Twitter)