‘Jurassic World’ Finally Lives Up to Its Title in Thrilling Short Film

The Jurassic World series stumbled into a major problem with 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. I’m not talking about the film’s box office performance, which was solid despite the sequel not capturing the planet’s attention in the same way Jurassic World did. I’m talking about the franchise’s new title: Jurassic World.

The moniker made sense for the 2015 revival film, as it was set at a theme park named Jurassic World. The title fell apart in the follow-up though, as that film barely spent any time at the now inactive dino-land. Instead, the vast majority of Fallen Kingdom took place in one house. It was a haunted house movie with dinosaurs caged up in the basement, or Home Alone with a couple Velociprators instead of Harry and Marv. There was nothing worldly about it–until the very end, that is, when all the chained up dinos busted free and began to roam Northern California. Not exactly a Jurassic world, but at least a Jurassic zip code.

Finally, a new Jurassic World short film titled Battle at Big Rock lives up to the promise of that title. This may just be a digital short, but the scope is bigger than a theme park and certainly bigger than one mansion. The film, which comes from Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, finally takes the franchise to a place it’s somehow never ventured in over 25 years: a true Jurassic world.

The short stars André Holland (Moonlight, Castle Rock) and Natalie Martinez (The I-Land, which also dropped over the weekend) as a couple camping with their three kids. Their getaway is crashed by a grazing Triceratops and her child. And then the dino family outing is crashed by an Allosaurus, a hungry, sharp-toothed carnivore. Things go exactly how you expect them to for a Jurassic World short!

But while the short isn’t exactly surprising (we’ve seen a dino vs. vehicle brawl many, many times), it is refreshing. This is the first time our protagonists aren’t going to the dinosaurs, and it’s the first time we’re seeing what the world looks like after these time-displaced creatures have been reintroduced. The family initially treats the Triceratops the same way you’d treat a bear… but just, uh, a really big bear. This is the world that was established at the end of Fallen Kingdom (rather than at the beginning of Fallen Kingdom, which would’ve made that movie way more interesting).

You get to see more of this new Jurassic world during the short film’s credits, which include phone footage of dinosaurs wrecking humans’ days from presumably around the world. With Battle at Big Rock coming from the team behind 2021’s Jurassic World 3 (director Trevorrow and co-writer Emily Carmichael are onboard for the feature), it seems pretty clear that this is the backdrop for the next JW film. If that’s the case, then Jurassic World 3 could be the course correction the franchise needs.

Where to watch Jurassic World

Where to watch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom