‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Features Palisadian Ties

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Billed as “the epic conclusion of the Jurassic era,” “Jurassic World Dominion” is slated to release on Friday, June 10—and features two starring roles with ties to Pacific Palisades.

Current Palisadian Chris Pratt leads the film as Owen Grady, an ethologist and former Jurassic World employee who had been tasked with training velociraptors. Former Palisadian Laura Dern also has a starring role as Dr. Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist who is one of the consultants that had traveled to the original Jurassic Park.

For those unfamiliar with how “Jurassic Park” and, later, “Jurassic World” came to be, the films are based on a science fiction novel by Michael Crichton. An eccentric and wealthy entrepreneur, John Hammond, originally founded a high-tech amusement park on a fictional island of Isla Nublar—filled with dinosaurs cloned from harvested DNA.

The film, directed by Colin Trevorrow, serves as the sequel to 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” marking the sixth installment of the “Jurassic Park” franchise and third and final film of the “Jurassic World” trilogy. The “Jurassic Park” trilogy dates back to the original film in 1993, wrapping with the third installment in 2001.

“‘Dominion’ takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed,” according to a synopsis by Universal Pictures. “Dinosaurs now live—and hunt—alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.”

Dern’s character returns from the original trilogy, where she appeared in “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic Park III.” Pratt as Owen Grady has had starring roles in all three films of the “Jurassic World” series.

Other stars of the film include Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, DeWanda Wise, Mamoudou Athie, BD Wong, Omar Sy, Isabella Sermon, Campbell Scott, Justice Smith, Scott Haze, Dichen Lachman and Daniella Pineda—some of which are reprising past roles, others are new characters.

Palisadian Steven Spielberg directed the first two films in the “Jurassic Park” series, but declined to return to direct the third, which was directed by Joe Johnston. Spielberg served as executive producer of “Jurassic World Dominion,” according to IMDb, as well as the other two films in the trilogy, and the third “Jurassic Park” film.

The film has a rating of PG-13 and runtime of two hours and 26 minutes.