Jurassic World Rebirth Slipped a Crichton Easter Egg Into the Background
Jurassic World Rebirth has arrived, and as expected, it's another loud, CG-loaded blockbuster in a franchise that long ago evolved past the DNA of Michael Crichton's original vision.
But somewhere amid the chaos, someone in the art department threw the late author a bone — literally one school bus' worth.
The "tribute" to Crichton comes early in the film, during a traffic jam near Brooklyn Bridge Park. As big pharma exec Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend) begins a meeting with Scarlett Johansson's character, a school bus sits in the background. Its name? Crichton Middle School.
That's it. That's the tribute. A blink-and-you-miss-it nod, buried in background gridlock, named after the guy who created the entire intellectual property this movie is cashing in on.
To be fair, it's not the only nostalgic reference wedged into Rebirth:
- That same scene has a callback to the original T-rex chase gag, with the old "Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear" line.
- Rupert Friend's character later shows up wearing a white shirt and straw hat combo — a clear echo of John Hammond's wardrobe from Jurassic Park, minus the charm.
- There's a jeep escape, a severed arm, and a river raft chase — all recreations or deep cuts from previous films or Crichton's book, though none are as effective as the originals.
More interesting is the brief appearance of Crichton's scrapped river sequence — a chase that was cut from the 1993 film adaptation but finally makes it to the big screen here. It's a nice touch, even if the rest of the movie forgets what made Crichton's work actually matter.
The original Jurassic Park wasn't just dinosaurs and screams — it tackled ideas. Scientific hubris, ethics in biotech, capitalism gone wild. Rebirth gestures at those themes in passing, usually through Jonathan Bailey's character, Dr. Henry Loomis. At one point he delivers a monologue about how "99.9% of all species that have ever lived on Earth are extinct," and later suggests keeping a miracle drug derived from dino blood open-source instead of patenting it.
But mostly, Rebirth isn't interested in ideas — just callbacks, branding, and new hybrid dinosaur models to sell at Target. Even the mutant dinosaur storyline that kicks everything off doesn't go anywhere meaningful. It's all trailer bait.