Upcoming Vietnam War-meets-Jurᴀssic Park thriller Primitive War just celebrated its approaching release at San Diego Comic-Con, where it unveiled the latest trailer. Based on the eponymous 2017 novel by Ethan Pettus, the Australian-produced movie follows a Vulture Squad who are dispatched to the jungle after an elite platoon of Green Berets goes missing. The movie is directed, produced, and co-written by Luke Sparke, who makes the most of the unexpected twist on a war story.
The twist, of course, is that prehistoric creatures inhabit the jungle, including a Tyrannosaurus Rex and velociraptors. Now, the fearless search and rescue squad must survive dinosaurs in addition to the war itself. Primitive War stars Nick Wechsler, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Kwanten, Lincoln Lewis, Jake Ryan, and Tricia Helfer (a fan-favorite from Battlestar Galactica) — many of whom attended SDCC 2025 to promote the exciting new release.
ScreenRant is proud to present the first look at the newest Primitive War trailer outside the Comic-Con panel. Check out the footage above, and read on for more details.
What Primitive War’s New Trailer Tells Us About The Story
“I Wanted Audiences To Feel The Heat, Smell The Gunpowder…”
The tagline of “this ain’t no walk in the park” is perfectly suited to the horrors depicted in the trailers and teasers thus far, but the latest preview of Primitive War offers a more in-depth look at the characters whose lives are in peril before offering Jurᴀssic Park-style sneak peeks of the creatures. Jericho’s (Piven) desperation at the loss of his Green Berets is matched by the perseverance of Eli (Weschler), Sophia (Helfer), and Baker (Kwanten) in their rescue mission. The guts that it takes to be part of the Vulture Squad are on full display as they come face-to-face with monsters they believed to be extinct.
The director shared his vision for the realistic fantasy of the movie in a statement:
I’ve always loved grounded storytelling where the spectacle comes from real danger. To bring it to Comic Con feels unreal. My goal was to bring that gritty, visceral feel into a film people haven’t really seen before. I wanted audiences to feel the heat, smell the gunpowder, and believe that if dinosaurs were on the battlefield… this is what it would feel like. SH๏τ in Australia with no studio or government backing, it’s the kind of creature feature I grew up watching and wanted to see on the big screen, but with a scale that punches far above its weight.
Primitive War arrives in theaters across the USA and Australia on August 21.