How does the impressive Jurassic World: Exodus fan film connect to the main movie series? Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is one of the most perfect blockbusters ever made and found the director at the peak of his powers. The same, sadly, can’t be said for Spielberg’s sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which features some great setpieces but lacks the imagination and energy of its predecessor. Spielberg himself has since admitted to being “bored” filming The Lost World and thus handed over helming duties to Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger) for Jurassic Park III.

The series then went dormant for many years, as producers struggled to find a direction that worked. 2015’s Jurassic World – whose dinosaurs aren’t scientifically accurate – finally revived the series, with the legacy sequel working from the simple but genius premise of finding the park up and running successfully – until it inevitably fails again. The movie was an enormous success despite mixed reviews, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom followed in 2018. Director Colin Trevorrow will round out the current trilogy with 2022’s Jurassic World: Domination, which will reunite Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum for the first time since the original.

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Of course, the Jurassic Park series has a passionate fanbase and plenty of fans have made short films set in its universe. 2018’s Jurassic World: Exodus set itself apart with some high production values and impressive camerawork, and the story follows a Special Forces rescue team who arrive on Isla Nublar to rescue a soldier and the scientist he was protecting. In keeping with the formula of Jurassic World– which could use an R-rated spinoff – once they arrive they are quickly under siege by the island’s dinosaurs, while a saboteur lurks within the team. While not an official work, does Jurassic World: Exodus have links to the main movies?

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Jurassic World: Exodus takes place between Jurassic World and Fallen Kingdom, and dishes out many references to the franchise. There are notable easter eggs, including a ring tone similiar to the sat phone from Jurassic Park III and a can of Barbasol shaving cream – which Nedry used to smuggle embryos out of the park in the original – is shared between team members. The famous jeeps from Jurassic Park also make a return.

More overtly, Jurassic World: Exodus reveals the data file the team is risking their lives over is for the Indoraptor hybrid dinosaur introduced in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. There’s also reference to the increased volcanic activity on Isla Nublar, which eventually destroyed it in the latter entry. In the finale when team member Christine (Shannon Corbeil) is cornered by a raptor, she uses a clicker device to get out of trouble, just like the one Owen (Chris Pratt) used when he was training the animals in Jurassic World. Viewers should also stay tuned after the credits for a major character shoutout – even if it doesn’t quite make sense.

Jurassic World: Exodus was put together with help from real military vets, so much of the gear, weapons and tactics loan it a sense of authenticity. The production shot on location in Hawaii too, which again gives it a broader scope than most fan shorts, although the sparsely used CGI effects look pretty bad when lingered on. It was clearly made by people who love the series too, as seen with the connections it makes.

Key Release Dates
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  • Jurassic World: Dominion (2022)Release date: Jun 10, 2022
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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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