By now, everyone knows the Jurassic Park formula. Scientists clone dinosaurs, people come to the island, dinosaurs run wild. It’s generally a fun formula, but a formula nonetheless, a plot that requires the skill of a director like Steven Spielberg to elevate into something sublime.

The trailers for Jurassic World: Rebirth suggest that this seventh entry in the franchise will largely stick to the well-worn model. At the behest of a pharmaceutical company, mercenaries Zora Bennett and Duncan Kincaid (Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali) accompany scientist Dr. Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to the original movie site Isla Nublar, where a miracle cure may lurk among the dinos. When they get there, they must survive the usual threats, including the T-rex, raptors, and the returning spinosaurus. However, the trailers also show off a pulp adventure quality to the movie, which might be enough to set Jurassic Park: Rebirth apart from the others.

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Jurassic World: Rebirth Promises a Fresh Start, But Is It Enough?

Led by Gareth Edwards, Jurassic World: Rebirth aims to revamp the franchise with a new-look cast and storyline.

What is the Usual Jurassic Park Plot?

Adapted from the novel by Michael Crichton, 1993’s Jurassic Park combined thrills and wonders to create a unique blockbuster. A master of capturing emotion on the screen, Spielberg made shots of Drs. Grant and Sattler (Sam Neill and Laura Dern) react to the recreated dinosaurs just as memorable as any encounter with a velociraptor. Speilberg and his screenwriter David Koepp understood that dinosaurs were awesome, in every sense of the word. They inspire awe and they terrify.

Every entry that followed has failed to nail that balance, even when Spielberg himself returned to direct The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). Although it had remarkable set pieces, The Lost World had a mean glibness that led to a cruel scene of an innocent man getting ripped in two and another in which a preteen defeats raptors through gymnastics. Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World (2015) tried to hit the same beats as the first film, but offered nothing new, feeling like a bland imitation of a better film.

The previous two entries, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) both swerve from the model, but not necessarily for the better. For Fallen Kingdom, director J. A. Bayona created a haunted house movie with dinosaurs instead of ghosts, resulting in some fun sequences but tonal inconsistencies. Dominion brought back Grant and Sattler, along with Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, but put them in a disappointing story about giant locusts instead of dinosaurs.

The problem is pretty disheartening for Jurassic Park fans. The movies either need to try (and usually fail) to match the tone of the first movie, or attempt to change the formula without going too far.

How Does Jurassic World: Rebirth Change the Franchise?

Although the plot synopsis for Jurassic World: Rebirth promises lots of the standard franchise fare, the trailer includes some surprising moments. One shot sees Dr. Loomis holding a jar within some ruins, a beam of light falling on him like he’s Indiana Jones holding treasure. Another scene involves Loomis and Bennett rappelling off a cliff, struggling not to avoid a dinosaur but to simply make their pulley system work.

In other words, the Rebirth trailer includes quite a bit of classic adventure, the sort of stuff one would find in a pulp novel about explorers in uncharted lands. Previous movies have certainly had their adventure elements, as when Grant led the kids up and down the electric fence in the first film. In fact, the title The Lost World referred to a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel that inspired several heroic tales to follow.

But Rebirth pushes the adventure element forward further than any before. In place of scientists like Grant or experts like Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), Rebirth puts mercenaries in the lead. Bennet and Kincaid enter the fray with plenty of equipment and experience, more prepared for a fight than any character from a previous film. Furthermore, the fact that they’re played by A-listers and not character actors and stunt people suggest that they’ll live through the film, not just get killed off in interesting ways.

Between the characters’ expertise and the plot armor afforded top-level talent, Bennett and Kincaid will surely face terrible challenges. And that’s a good thing, because they allow Rebirth director Gareth Edwards and returning screenwriter David Koepp to craft set pieces that thrill and fit within the world of the franchise, without relying on the same dino-driven scares.

Bennett and Kincaid (and probably poor Loomis) can scale a mountainside or traverse a running river because that’s part of the terrain on Isla Nublar. They can embark on daring escapes and attempt last-minute rescues because they walk in the footsteps of pulp heroes of the past, the same types of heroes that regularly battled with dinosaurs.

Taking advantage of the adventure aspects of the leads can help Rebirth to put a slight twist on the familiar formula without abandoning it altogether.

Will Jurassic World: Rebirth Improve the Franchise?

All of that said, the trailer for Jurassic World: Rebirth isn’t just derring-do. The heroes also travel to the original island research lab, where they find “the worst of the worst,” mutated dinosaurs that never made it to the main attraction.

Edwards and Koepp have been talking about these mutant dinosaurs as if they’re the real attraction. They seem to think that audiences don’t care about the classic dinos, and therefore, they need to make new mixtures to scare moviegoers.

While there might be some truth to the filmmakers’ concerns, dinosaurs are the entire point of a Jurassic Park movie. To make new monsters, even monsters based on dinos, is to undermine the central appeal of these films.

Going a classic adventure route won’t undermine the dinosaurs. It won’t feel as alien to the franchise as the haunted houses and huge bugs that have been tried before. Instead, the adventures leave room for dinosaurs to roar and chomp, but will also give audiences a break from the thunder lizards while Bennett and Kincaid try to brave the elements.

The adventure focus alone isn’t enough to make Jurassic World: Rebirth an equal to the 1993 original. But it will try something that the other sequels haven’t done, making Rebirth the best chance to keep the franchise from going extinct.

Jurassic World: Rebirth roars into theaters on July 1, 2025.

Jurassic World Rebirth

Release Date

July 2, 2025

Director

Gareth Edwards

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  Scarlett Johansson

  Zora Bennett

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  Mahershala Ali

  Duncan Kincaid

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  Jonathan Bailey

  Dr. Henry Loomis

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  Rupert Friend

  Martin Krebs