Movies

Jurassic World Rebirth Slipped a Crichton Easter Egg Into the Background

Jurassic World Rebirth Slipped a Crichton Easter Egg Into the Background
Image credit: Legion-Media

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.

Jurassic World Rebirth Slipped a Crichton Easter Egg Into the Background - image 1

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.