Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom director J.A. Bayona has confirmed the dinosaur seen in the movie’s most emotional scene comes from the first movie. Bayona took over the director’s chair on Fallen Kingdom from Colin Trevorrow, and the story finds the heroes of the previous adventure trying to rescue the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar from an imminent volcano eruption. After they barely escape the island, they come to realize the motives behind the people financing the dinosaur rescue are less than honorable.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is very much a story of two halves, with the first part dealing with the rescue operation. This section ends with an eruption that winds up killing the remaining dinosaurs trapped on the island, concluding with a shot of a lone brachiosaurus walking onto the dock as the last ship leaves. The main characters then watch as the helpless animal is engulfed in a volcanic cloud, which is a sequence that really pulled on the heartstrings of audiences.
Related: Jurassic World 2: Brachiosaurus’ Death Is The Best Scene In The Movie
Many fans felt the doomed animal was clearly supposed to the same brachiosaurus Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) first sees in Jurassic Park. Now in a new interview with Empire, J.A. Bayona confirmed the tear-jerking connection.
That’s the same brachiosaurus we saw the first time. That’s the brachiosaurus Alan Grant saw for the first time in Jurassic Park... and we’re bringing back even the same animation. If you take a look at the animation of the brachiosaurus, it's exactly the same one that you had in the wide shot of that scene.
While Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is mostly focused on action and set pieces over emotion and characters, the death of the brachiosaurus is definitely one that hits viewers right in their feelings. The connection to the original - making the brachiosaurus the first and last dinosaur audiences see on Isla Nublar - only strengthens the scene's impact. Bayona also feels the scene has echoes at the end of the film when it's left up to Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) to make a choice about the fates of the remaining dinosaurs.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s ending teases big things to come for the series, and Trevorrow - who produced and co-wrote the latest movie - will be back in the director’s seat for Jurassic World 3. While plot details are still under wraps, Trevorrow has teased the movie will be a "science thriller" like the original movie, and that dinosaur hybrids will no longer be part of the story. There’s also the possibility of fan-favorite characters from the original trilogy making a return, too.
More: Jurassic World 3 Director On A Sam Neill & Laura Dern Return
Source: Empire
