Jurᴀssic World Rebirth incorporated a plot device from The Lost World that Steven Spielberg didn’t use in his 1997 sequel. The latest installment in the Jurᴀssic franchise takes the story in a new direction while still treading familiar ground. It features new characters who journey to a mysterious island where genetically enhanced dinosaurs try to eat them.
It simplifies the story and takes audiences to familiar territory. Part of that is because the film is written by David Koepp, the same writer for Spielberg’s Jurᴀssic Park and The Lost World. Throughout the film, Koepp sneaks in some references to the original film, such as connecting Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) to Dr. Alan Grant.
He also found a way to work in some moments from Michael Crichton’s novels that never made it into Spielberg’s films. For example, Rebirth‘s T. rex raft scene is from the novel, but was absent from the 1993 film. Additionally, there is another small moment in the Lost World novel that never made it into the film adaptation, but played a significant role in Rebirth‘s story.
The Snickers Candy Wrapper’s Importance In Rebirth Mirrors A Lost World Book Moment
Rebirth opens with an introduction to Île Saint Hubert, an island used for genetic experiments and creating mutant dinosaurs and hybrid species. The laboratory is home to many dangerous dinosaurs, including the D-Rex, a frightening, mutated beast that looks more like a Rancor than a dinosaur. During a routine inspection, one of the scientists, Williams, eats a Snickers bar and carelessly drops it on the floor.
The Snickers bar gets sucked into the airlock for the D-Rex’s pen, causing a system failure. The doors start to close and Williams finds himself trapped in the pen with the D-Rex, creating a horrible full-circle moment where he has now become the Snickers bar. It’s a tragic moment of chaos theory that does have a surprising connection to Crichton’s 1995 novel.
In The Lost World, the expedition to Isla Sorna is led by Richard Levine, a wealthy paleontologist. He brings several chocolate bars with him, carelessly leaving wrappers around while eating them in the “High Hide,” a hidden blind above the ground. After velociraptors kill another chocolate bar-eating character, they pick up on the scent of chocolate and use it to locate and attack the High Hide.
The Snickers scene in Rebirth is a ridiculously convenient way to ignite one of the main conflicts. The lab remained abandoned after the incident, allowing the D-Rex to escape and chase down the main characters during the film’s ending. However, it does make more sense if Koepp wanted to pay tribute to Crichton’s novel by working in a crucial plot device.
Characters being careless is a common trope in Jurᴀssic movies, and that extends to the novels as well. It can be so unrealistic that it’s funny, but life finds a way, and man’s own carelessness can often be their undoing. Jurᴀssic World Rebirth follows this trope with a blatant form of product placement that still has a connection to the franchise’s legacy.