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| I was having a pterosaur-rific time at Jurassic World...until they all broke loose. |
PS. This article contains many references to my previous interviews with Simon Masrani, Claire Dearing and Dr. Henry Wu, and Vic Hoskins. So if you haven't already, I encourage you to read those articles for a better understanding of what takes place in this article. And yes, there are numerous SPOILERS here! So if you haven't seen Jurassic World in theaters yet, read with caution.
Well...remind me to thank John Hammond for a lovely weekend! As you might recall, a few weeks ago, my trusty, junior photographer, Daniel P. Smithwater, Lizzy the Lizard, Jack the Jackrabbit (Smiley's News' intern) and I went to Jurassic World – John Hammond's dream brought to life. We were supposed to have the time of our lives, and for a short period of time we did. But little did we know just how the park would turn from wonderful to chaotic in a single day!
We arrived on Isla Nublar – the island on which Jurassic World sits – on June 12, 2015, ready to have a fun time. As a news reporter, I was obligated to write an overview of the park's many attractions. The park was definitely bustling when we arrived on Main Street – which serves as the park's hub. It was filled with many of the brand name shops and restaurants (from Starbucks to Ben and Jerry's). Of course, I was most interested in seeing the park's dinosaurs. My friends and I had a blast watching the Mosasaurus Feeding Show, going to Tyrannosaurus Rex Kingdom, petting baby Triceratops, Apatosaurus and Gallimimus at the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo, seeing how these beasts were created in the Creation Lab and riding the gyrospheres in Gyrosphere Valley among adult Apatosaurus, Triceratops, hadrosaurs and Stegosaurus. As I didn't have the chance to visit the first Jurassic Park, this was an exciting vacation for me. This place was definitely the dream of John Hammond come true. With everything running so smoothly, one might wonder how things could all go so wrong so quickly.
Things changed for an instant for tourists at Jurassic World that day. While we all were enjoying ice cream at Ben and Jerry's (upon Jack's urging), it was suddenly announced over the park's speakers that they had a security breach and that we were not to panic. But that's what everyone did! What must have been hundreds of people, all crowding Main Street, ducked for cover as an enormous flock of pterosaurs, or flying reptiles swooped down for an aerial attack! The flock was mixed with two species that were just freed from the park's Aviary: Pteranodon and Dimorphodon. Now Pteranodon sport a 20-foot wingspan and were quite capable of plucking humans from the ground. The much smaller Dimorphodon on the other hand preferred to attack people with their sharp teeth.
They attacked in great numbers. Many were injured, but only one “fatal incident” occurred. One Pteranodon is reported to have picked up a person and accidentally dropped her into the Isla Nublar Lagoon. As the pterosaurs tried to get her out of the water, the park's 60-foot, shark-eating, Mosasaurus (a giant marine lizard) literally leaped from the water and eat them both. Lizzy was almost a meal for a hungry Dimorphodon, but I managed to throw my ice cream at the creature, distracting it long enough for us to escape. Of course, the Pteranodons were difficult to escape, as they constantly swooped upon us, trying to pick us up into the air. But we managed to escape by hiding under a souvenir cart.
Thankfully, help soon arrived as Jurassic World's ACU (Asset Containment Unit) soldiers rushed onto the scene to begin bringing many of the pterosaurs down and causing several of them to flee Main Street. The tourists all were moved into the Hilton Hotel, where we waited until the next ferry came to pick us up and take us all home. What happened to this once happy, bustling park? A lot more than most tourists knew, as it happened behind the scenes!
After we were all safe from danger, I was able to get an exclusive interview with park asset manager Claire Dearing (as you'll recall, this was my second interview with her) to find out exactly why the park went haywire. Claire was glad to see me again and was happy to explain everything. She's quoted for saying, “It's far more complicated than most people are aware. As you know, we had a new attraction that was set to be revealed to the public in three weeks. This attraction was a new species of dinosaurs called Indominus rex.” For those of you who didn't read about my previous chat with Ms. Dearing, Indominus rex was Jurassic World's first genetically-modified hybrid that was claimed to be made up of five different species of dinosaurs: Carnotaurus, Majungasaurus, Rugops and the menacing Giganotosaurus. The base genome was (supposedly) a T. rex. “This asset however was far powerful and intelligent than we realized at the time,” Claire said. “I. rex was able to escape containment and she caused havoc around the island, thankfully away from most of our visitors. She single-handedly killed five Apatosaurus and injured another, killed a heavily-armored Ankylosaurus (something even T. rex won't attempt to do) and completely wrecked one of our bullet and Dilophosaurus venom-proof gyrospheres.”
Next, I asked her why the late Simon Masrani – ex-owner of Jurassic World and Masrani Global Corporation would have Dr. Henry Wu create such a monster. “That was never the plan,” Claire answered me. “Dr. Wu was supposed to create a new dinosaur suitable for a theme park. But he didn't. We didn't know this at the time, but Dr. Wu was also associated with Vic Hoskins, our ex-head of InGen security. Hoskins secretly employed Dr. Wu to create an experimental biological weapon that could be used in the military. This is why Dr. Wu added the genes of several other species of animals to create the ultimate living weapon: he added the DNA of the cuttlefish (a species of squid-like animal) to allow Indominus rex to blend into its environment (even more so than a chameleon!), an as-of-yet unidentified species of snake capable of detecting the heat signature of other organisms, the tree frog which gave it the ability to block out its own heat exchange (meaning it could hide from our thermal cameras) and the DNA of Velociraptor, presumably for enhanced intelligence, which Indominus rex certainly had.” Claire also said that Henry could have secretly included the DNA of several other animals as well. When asked why they couldn't ask Dr. Wu for more information on what DNA was used to create Indominus rex, she replied, “He actually slipped out sometime during the incident and we haven't seen or heard anything from him sense. It's all very mysterious.”
I then asked Claire what became of the Indominus rex. She replied, “Thankfully, that monster is now dead. She was beaten up pretty badly in a vicious fight between her, our park's pack of four Velociraptors and our Tyrannosaurus rex. But she was eventually killed by the Mosasaurus which leaped out of the water, snagged the hybrid and pulled her into the lagoon; it sort of reminded me of how a killer whale might attack a seal.”
Well, Jurassic World has been brought down to its knees and the park is closed. Is there any hope of it reopening? What is to become of the island? I put these questions to Claire. “As of now, Jurassic World is indefinitely closed,” she said. “The Board of Directors of Masrani Global Corporation are still deciding what should be done about the island. It's all TBD [to be determined] at the moment, but I'm pretty sure a clean-up operation is in order to make sure the extinct creatures – specifically the pterosaurs – stay on the island like they're supposed to. Some have theorized Isla Nublar could become a nature reserve, like Isla Sorna.”
I was hoping that Jurassic World would turn out differently than its predecessor, Jurassic Park, did. Nevertheless, the park's closing opens a new window of opportunity for another great adventure...what that adventure is, no one knows for sure.
But before concluding my interview with Claire Dearing, I had to find out for sure whether or not the rumor about her wearing her high-heels during the entire Isla Nublar Incident (2015) were true. With a laugh, she responded, “Yes! I never took them off. It was beyond difficult trying to run in those things, but I wasn't about to walk through those dense jungles barefoot! No way!”
Written by: Mr. Smiley
Photographer: Daniel P. Smithwater
Edited by: Christian Ryan
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