When JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION opens in June, we'll finally learn whether or not humans and dinosaurs can live together in peace. The answer is probably obvious, but the journey to get there will be interesting and terrifying.
This story, of course, began with novelist Michael Crichton and filmmaker Steven Spielberg. The latter directed JURASSIC PARK, released back in 1993, and he has remained with the series as a producer. The four movies released since the original — two more JURASSIC PARK movies and two JURASSIC WORLD movies — have taken the tale in new and surprising directions. Now, JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION is set to be the final chapter of an epic story that began in JURASSIC PARK. Here's the full Jurassic story so far.
The Jurassic Story
Let's go all the way back to the beginning of the series. In JURASSIC PARK, John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), has found a way to recover genetic material from dinosaurs. He creates new dinos to populate a giant theme park on Isla Nubar, off the coast of Costa Rica.
Just prior to the park's opening, archaeologists Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and mathematician Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are brought in to evaluate the park's safety. They're not convinced that it is safe — and soon the dinosaurs prove them right. Thanks to a combination of dino ingenuity and human error, the park is compromised.
THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK begins four years later. Hammond no longer controls InGen, the company which genetically engineered the dinosaurs. He does have a secret second island, Isla Sorna, where dinosaurs have been running wild following a hurricane that caused the island to be abandoned. Ian Malcolm returns to document what's going on down on the island as InGen tries to capture some of Hammond's dinosaurs — and to find his girlfriend, Dr. Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), who is stuck on Isla Sorna.
InGen ultimately secures a T-Rex which it hopes to place as an attraction in a Jurassic Park built in San Diego. The dino ultimately runs rampant in the city before being captured. Isla Sorna is declared to be a nature preserve.
Some time later, JURASSIC PARK III begins. A 12-year old boy, Eric, goes missing on Isla Sorna. His separated parents, Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Téa Leoni) approach Alan Grant, who is struggling to fund his own research. They offer to fund his work if he will take them on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna — but they do not reveal the true reason for the trip. A desperate Grant agrees, and then things go south when they land on the island.
As they all struggle to survive, and Grant deals with the duplicitous actions of his assistant, Billy (Alessandro Nivola), they are ultimately able to contact Ellie Sattler and escape the island.
Welcome to Jurassic World
Twenty-two years after the events of JURASSIC PARK, a new dinosaur theme park is about to open on the original location on Isla Nubar. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is the operations manager, while Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), a Navy vet, studies and tries to train some of the dinosaurs. Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong), who was part of Hammond's team decades earlier, has bred new dinosaurs, including the massive Indominus Rex.
In quick succession, the Indominus escapes, many people are killed, and Dearing joins Grady as he tracks the giant beast. Dearing is hoping to find her visiting nephews, who have gone missing while exploring the park unsupervised. Geary ultimately rallies three semi-trained velociraptors to battle Indominus, and the new dinosaur is finally bested by the aging T-Rex which rampaged on the original park. Meanwhile, Henry Wu escapes with many dinosaur embryos as Isla Nubar is abandoned again.
Three years later, a volcanic eruption threatens the dinosaurs which have made the island their home. Ian Malcolm advises allowing the dinosaurs to perish, correcting the path of nature which was interrupted by John Hammond and Dr. Wu. Claire Dearing, meanwhile, advises saving them. One of Hammond's former partners, Sir Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) asks Dearing to assist in relocating the dinosaurs to a new island, where they'll be safe. She brings in Owen Grady.
In truth, Lockwood plans to bring the dinosaurs back to the US, where they'll be auctioned off. He has also funded Wu's research, and plans to create weaponizable new breeds are already in motion. Dearing and Grady try to stop the plan but they fail, and dinosaurs are ultimately allowed to escape Lockwood's estate. While being questioned by the US Senate, Ian Malcolm declares the beginning of a new Jurassic Age, in which humans and dinosaurs must learn to live together.
How Many Jurassic World Movies Are There?
Three! JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION is the third. That makes six JURASSIC movies total, with the PARK and WORLD trilogies combined.
What Order Does the Jurassic Park Series Go In?
This one is easy! There are no timeline curveballs with the JURASSIC PARK and WORLD movies. Watch them in the order in which they were released and you'll have the whole tale in order.
So that's JURASSIC PARK (1993), THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997), JURASSIC PARK III (2001), JURASSIC WORLD (2015), JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM (2018), and then JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION (2022).
There are also a couple of other minor chapters that add detail to the world but don't impact the core story. These are the animated series, "Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous," which takes place at the same time as JURASSIC WORLD, and the short, BATTLE AT BIG ROCK, which takes place following the events of FALLEN KINGDOM. You don't have to watch those extras to know the entire story, but now you know where they fit in!
Is Jurassic World 3 the End of the Story?
Good question! We expect that JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINIOJN will be the end of the story for the major characters introduced in the previous five movies. It's too early to tell whether or not a new chapter might begin following the release of DOMINION. But knowing how popular the JURASSIC movies are, we wouldn't be surprised! And with the reappearance of characters from the JURASSIC PARK movies as a guide, there's always a chance that some of your favorite characters might show up again.
JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION opens on June 10.
All images courtesy of Universal Pictures.