The Brachiosaurus death scene from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom isn't just the film’s most heartbreaking moment — it's also the emotional core of the Jurassic World sequel. Fallen Kingdom has been criticized for its wayward plot, which features multiple underdeveloped subplots about the weaponization of dinosaurs, human cloning, and animals rights; Fallen Kingdom could’ve been as compelling as its saddest scene had the plot been centered solely on the theme of animal rights, with the protagonists trying to save all of the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar.
Set three years after the dinosaur theme park Jurassic World was demolished, Fallen Kingdom follows Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) as she attempts to save the dinosaurs from being wiped out by an imminent volcanic eruption. With the help of Sir Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) and his assistant Eli Mills (Rafe Spall), Claire, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), and a team of mercenaries travel to the island to rescue the dinosaurs and relocate them to an isolated island. Claire and Owen, however, are betrayed by the mercenaries and Mills, who intend to auction off the dinosaurs on the black market and weaponize them. While animal rights remains an underlying theme throughout, had Fallen Kingdom not abandoned its premise in favor of other subplots, the entire movie would’ve been as captivating as its most emotional scene: when the Brachiosaurus is left to die.
The Brachiosaurus is left behind, along with the rest of the population of dinosaurs, to face a volcanic eruption on Isa Nublar. The Brachiosaurus death scene elevates Fallen Kingdom to a story about animal cruelty, and how the human race brought the dinosaurs back just to abandon them in their hour of need. If the entire plot of Fallen Kingdom had followed Claire and Owen as they tried to save all of the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar instead of transitioning to the scenes at Lockwood’s mansion, Fallen Kingdom could’ve used the dinosaurs as an allegory for capitalism's reckless exploitation of natural resources, despite the potentially devastating impact on the planet. While Mills accuses Claire and Owen as being hypocrites because they too profited off of the dinosaurs as former employees at Jurassic World, the concept is only introduced in one conversation and is never developed further — a missed opportunity for the movie to make an important environmentalist statement.
If the entire film had been paced more like the Brachiosaurus death scene, not only would the message be more profound, but the film would’ve been more nostalgically aligned with the values of the first Jurassic Park movie. In Jurassic Park, dinosaurs were viewed with a sense of wonder and respect, especially during the scene when Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) first encounter a Brachiosaurus. Despite the fact that Fallen Kingdom presents the possibility of dinosaurs' once more facing extinction, there are only a few brief moments in Fallen Kingdom when a similar appreciation for dinosaurs is established, such as when Claire mentions the first time she ever saw a dinosaur and when Zia (Daniella Pineda) witnesses a Brachiosaurus firsthand.
With animal rights as the central theme of the movie, Fallen Kingdom could’ve also avoided some of the narrative problems that the film was most criticized for, such as deviating too far from Jurassic Park’s original formula. Unlike every film in the Jurassic Park franchise, Fallen Kingdom is the first Jurassic Park iteration to be set somewhere other than the islands of Isla Nebular and Isla Sorna. By making the rescue the true objective, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom could've ditched the ineffective militarized dinosaur subplot from Jurassic World while remaining true to the original Jurassic Park’s principle message: that despite being dangerous, the dinosaurs are the true victims since they were brought back into a world where they no longer belong.
