10 Abandoned Scripts Better Than The Finished Movie
5. Jurassic World Was Way Cooler When Raptors Had Machine Guns
There were many theories about the future of the Jurassic Park franchise after the third film performed to an underwhelmed audience and critical appraisal. But the effects were good enough to convince Steven Speilberg, who walked away from the franchise after The Lost World, to start scouting a fourth film.
Spielberg again turned to John Sayles and future Departed scribe William Monaghan. And though some of their ideas sort of appear in Jurassic World, Colin Trevorrow's tonal disaster of a sequel sounds like a weak compromise compared to what Sayles intended.
And what had he intended? Well, human-velociraptor hybrids with guns, that's what. Have I got your attention?
Though Jurassic World does float the idea of training dinosaurs to be military weapons, it's not the main thrust of the film, which would have taken place on the mainland. Sayles' entire script focuses on the elusive shaving cream bottle of dino DNA that Denis Nedry tried to get off Isla Nublar in the first film and weaponizing dinosaurs. A new character, an ex-Navy SEAL named Nick Harris would eventually develop into Chris Pratt's raptor-wrangler.
But that's as close as the finished film gets to Sayles' knowingly silly B-Movie level fun. The franchise had already jumped the shark after the T-Rex arrived in San Diego in the last act of The Lost World, and rather than pull back, Sayles dove headfirst into camp.
The series seems to have course-corrected, with the next sequel featuring a planet overrun by loose dinosaurs, but they won't be packing heat.