“Welcome to Jurassic Park.”
In 1993, director Steven Spielberg and writer Michael Crichton opened the twin wooden doors that served as the entrance to Jurassic Park and showed moviegoers across the country and around the world what it would be like if dinosaurs walked amongst us. Some of the dinosaurs depicted were majestic and awe-inspiring while others were downright terrifying, allowing Jurassic Park the movie to capture the imagination of millions.
In 2015, the island of Isla Nublar was transformed from a “park” into a “world” and allowed moviegoers to experience what an actual theme park populated by dinosaurs would look like in real life. The ride was again exhilarating, with Gyrospheres that explored the stomping grounds of Stegosaurus and Triceratops, an outdoor Mosasaurus Feeding Show, and even a Jurassic World Aviary that was the home of Dimorphodons and Pteranodons.
Then in 2019, Feld Entertainment unleashed Jurassic World Live Tour, an addition to the Jurassic Park narrative that takes place between Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Instead of a film production, Jurassic World Live Tour is more akin to a theater performance – albeit on a grander scale – that transports attendees to the world of Jurassic Park with life size dinosaurs roaming directly in front of their eyes.
Feld Entertainment spent two years designing the spectacle, using a combination of animatronic dinosaurs for larger creatures like Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex and live “dino-teers” – actors in puppet costumes – performing as Velociraptors and a Troodon. The show first hit the road in September 2019, bringing the thrill of seeing living, breathing dinosaurs to young and old alike.
Jurassic World Live Tour is more than mere dino-spectacle as it likewise contains a storyline that fits in with the overall Jurassic World narrative. “We wanted to weave the dinosaurs into a good solid story plot, very much like the movies do,” associate producer Chris Nobels explained to SyFy. “The dinosaurs are characters in the movies just as much as the people are. The T-Rex doesn’t come out just to come out, she comes out with purpose, and same thing in our show. She comes out with purpose.”
The overarching theme of the Jurassic Park franchise is the belief that humans are incapable of either playing God or controlling nature. Warnings regarding the dangers of both are expressed by everyone from Ian Malcolm to Owen Grady and are inevitably proven correct by the end of each film in the series – dinosaurs escape, lives are lost, and disaster befalls the “villain.”
The concerns voiced by Malcolm and Grady are not directly related to the dinosaurs themselves, however, but their Homo sapien counterparts instead. There are, after all, two sides to human nature – the good and the evil, the light and the dark. While both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World ended with the abandonment of Isla Nublar, one could argue that the cause wasn’t nature but human nature and its thirst for greed, power, and military might.
Jurassic World Live Tour offers a different viewpoint. While an InGen security unit under the command of Kurt Reed only sees dinosaurs as dangerous and potential weapons, a competing faction of Jurassic World scientists – led by Dr. Kate Walker – believe there is much to be learned from dinosaurs and that the creatures should be treated with respect rather than force.
It is the conflict between these two factions that drives the narrative of Jurassic World Live Tour. Kate Walker has forged a bond with a Troodon named Jeannie and has even invented a device that monitors the brainwaves of the dinosaur. When the events of the first Jurassic World movie forces an exodus from Isla Nublar, Kurt Reed captures Jeannie before fleeing and attempts to duplicate the research of Kate Walker. While Walker’s intentions were good, however, Reed is intent on weaponizing Jeannie.
The second half of Jurassic World Live Tour is thus about Walker and her fellow scientists trying to both free Jeannie from captivity and reunite the dinosaur with her eggs on Isla Nublar. Instead of the disasters that ended both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, Jurassic World Live Tour concludes with the good guys not only prevailing but having gained the trust and assistance of both Jeannie and the Velociraptor nicknamed Blue that was trained by Owen Grady in the initial Jurassic World film.
Can humans live safely amongst dinosaurs? The efforts of Kate Walker and Owen Grady suggest the possibility, but only if dinosaurs are treated as living beings as opposed to mere tourist attractions and potential military weapons. By taking a path less traveled, both Grady and Walker gained trust that ultimately saved each of their lives within the larger Jurassic World narrative.
In the original Jurassic Park film, Ian Malcolm believed chaos theory prevented a park that was populated by dinosaurs from ever being safe for human beings. He was correct, but only because the dark side of human nature served as the source of the chaos. Tragedy befell Jurassic Park in the first film because of Dennis Nedry’s greed, while the desire to create a bigger tourist attraction – another form of greed – sealed the fate of Jurassic World.
Jurassic World Live Tour offers a more positive view and showcases its dinosaurs at their most majestic and awe-inspiring best. Although there is not an age limit for attending Jurassic World Live Tour, children are its primary target and can be seen wide-eyed and smiling anytime a Stegosaurus lumbers past. For them, fantasy becomes reality just as it did for moviegoers in 1993 with the release of the original Jurassic Park.
But Jurassic World Live Tour likewise contains a lesson that goes beyond sheer enjoyment – that respect for nature is a better path to travel, and not just when it comes to dinosaurs.
Anthony Letizia