Jurassic fans are currently buzzing with excitement about the upcoming film, Jurassic World Rebirth (2025). Directed by Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) and starring Marvel’s Scarlett Johansson in the lead role, Rebirth is the seventh entry in the long-running series. But with 2025 going full Jurassic, it’s not all about the new sequel.
The upcoming first-person action-adventure “Jurassic Park: Survival” is a direct sequel to Jurassic Park (1993), which saw Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), Lex Murphy (Ariana Richards), and Tim Murphy (Joe Mazzello) go “ooh” and “aah” before all the dinosaurs escaped and caused lots of running and screaming.
But as the game takes place just 24 hours after the film, it’s unlikely any of these characters will return as they’ve already escaped by the time it begins. Instead, “Jurassic Park: Survival” focuses on a new character: Dr. Maya Joshi, an InGen scientist who has missed the last boat from the docks despite Ray Arnold’s stern warning over the intercom in the 1993 film.
The first official trailer for the game premiered back in December 2023, but with the upcoming Jurassic World Rebirth having hogged the spotlight for the past few months, it might be worth refreshing your memory:
While the trailer is mostly cinematic, with nothing but a few snippets of gameplay footage at the end, it seems nothing was spared any expense during the making of this new game. Which is more than we can say about the employees working at Jurassic Park.
From the moment the company cloned its first dinosaur, InGen was staring down the barrel of a gun. But it’s the moment CEO John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) cut corners with the staff on Isla Nublar that Jurassic Park’s fate was sealed.
Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel “Jurassic Park” (1990) goes into a lot more detail about Dennis Nedry’s pay dispute with Hammond and the wider issue with staffing, but the film paints a good enough picture of its modest workforce (or soon-to-be-literal skeleton crew).
There’s chief security programmer Ray Arnold (Samuel L Jackson), park warden Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck), computer engineer Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), and a few random employees dotted about the park (Ed Regis and Gerry Harding, to be specific). But that’s it.
Of course, there’s a bunch of InGen scientists, too, including Dr. Henry Wu (BD Wong). But InGen’s manifest of employees is so short that, presumably, they’re all able to fit on one boat back to the mainland before a hurricane makes landfall on Isla Nublar.
Well, except for Dr. Maya Joshi, apparently.
Let’s break down the trailer for “Jurassic Park: Survival” scene by scene and see if we missed anything when it first escaped containment. Hold onto your butts…
“Jurassic Park: Survival” Trailer Breakdown
“Welcome to Jurassic Park”
Before the trailer really gets into it, we get a voiceover from John Hammond (dialogue lifted from Richard Attenborough himself in the 1993 film) as we revisit several familiar locations in the aftermath of the park’s collapse.
The first scene is Isla Nublar’s striking coastline (which was filmed along the beautiful Na Pali Coast on Kauai, Hawaii for the film). We then see that the iconic waterfalls have also been re-created for the new game.
Known here in the real world as Manawaiopuna Falls, also located on Kauai in Hawaii where it’s colloquially known as “Jurassic Falls,” this majestic cascade of water stands at 400 feet, and we get a glimpse of it in the trailer, along with the abandoned gas jeep Hammond used to take Alan, Ellie, Ian, Lex, and Tim to the chopper at the end of the film.
The base of these falls is home to the helicopter landing pad (now nothing more than a pile of rubble in real life), which will likely become your ultimate destination in “Survival.” Well, either that or the docks, but Dr. Maya Joshi obviously has a poor record with getting to boats on time.
Things then take a dark and stormy turn as we see the upturned jungle explorer at the base of the fig tree from which Alan rescued Tim, and then a shot of Alan’s hat on the road next to the Tyrannosaurus Rex paddock (after it was swiftly blown off his head by a snort from the dinosaur), which gets stomped on by a herd of Gallimimus.
Then, we see the Visitor Center battered by howling winds and torrential rain before we venture inside its dark atrium.
Related: 7 Major Bloopers Fans Never Noticed in ‘Jurassic Park’
“When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth”
The Visitor Center is Jurassic Park’s state-of-the-art hub, where guests can go “behind the scenes” to see dinosaurs have been genetically engineered in InGen’s labs (although the truth is that the majority of the park’s livestock is bred and raised on Isla Sorna/Site B).
This is where we get our first proper look at Dr. Maya Joshi, with a shot of her trembling hand landing on the crumpled-up banner that reads “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” (which falls down at the end of the film during the T-Rex’s iconic roar) while she tries to radio for help with the other.
Lighting herself up like a beacon with her flashlight (turn the light off, turn the light off!), Joshi crosses the atrium and ventures into the dark, cold kitchen, where she hides from a predator in pursuit.
Related: 7 Major Bloopers Fans Never Noticed in ‘Jurassic Park’
Dilophosaurus in the Kitchen
In a scene that pays homage to the film more than any other in the trailer, Joshi finds herself in the same position Lex and Tim were in just hours before, crouching behind and leaning against a stainless steel counter while a dinosaur enters through the door to her rear.
But it’s no Velociraptor — this time, it’s a Dilophosaurus, also known by InGen employees (who learned the hard way) as a “Spitter,” something we’re reminded of in moments to come. After retracing Lex and Tim’s crawl along the kitchen floor, Joshi makes a quick exit back into the atrium.
Related:‘Jurassic Park’ Sequel May Bring One of These Characters Back From the Dead
Keep Your Eyes Closed
Joshi launches herself out of the Visitor Center and into the rain-battered jungle, where the venom-spewing dinosaur finds her, first giving warning with its seemingly innocent, owl-like hoots, echoing the moments that led to Dennis Nedry’s brutal fate just 24 hours before.
But the Dilophosaurus wastes no time in erecting its frills in a threatening manner, before spitting venom at Joshi and proceeding to chase her through the dark, wet rainforest.
Related:All 7 ‘Jurassic Park’ Movies Including the Latest Film Ranked Worst To Best
No, It’s Definitely Not King Kong…
In an attempt to outrun the Dilophosaurus, Dr. Maya Joshi wanders through the large Jurassic Park gates where, exhausted, she collapses into a puddle.
But the puddle is in the footprint of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and soon, an “impact tremor” heralds the arrival of its maker — a reference to the scene in which Ian Malcolm is sat helplessly in a gas jeep while Ellie and Muldoon search for Alan and the kids.
As the mighty T-Rex appears, Joshi lights a flare — an oftentimes useful piece of equipment in the Jurassic films and which we’ll no doubt be using throughout the game — and freezes as the enormous dinosaur lets out a thunderous roar.
Related: ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Brings Back “Talking Raptor” From ‘Jurassic Park III’
“Jurassic Park: Survival” Gameplay
After the cinematic footage ends, we’re treated to some snippets of gameplay, which looks pretty impressive even when compared to the high-budget movie quality nature of the trailer.
Through first-person, we see the shadow of a Dilophosaurus in a maintenance tunnel, a Velociraptor attacking Joshi on the docks, and the Rex trying to reach her through a barrier.
Related: ‘Jurassic World’ TV Series Set Before ‘Rebirth’ Gets Release Window
Something Has Survived…
If it wasn’t already obvious from the brief gameplay footage that precedes it, which shows a certain dinosaur as free as a bird, we cut to a shot of the cold storage room door in the kitchen, which is being pushed open by something from the other side.
This is, of course, the Velociraptor that Lex and Tim lock inside during the film’s unforgettable, nail-biting kitchen scene sequence.
How Did Maya Joshi Get Left Behind?
The trailer offers no explanation as to why Dr. Maya Joshi has been left behind, or where she is during the events of the film — it simply finds her in the thick of it from the get-go. But, evidently, the trailer is nothing more than a “whistle-stop” tour of the film’s iconic moments.
Everything from the film’s epic waterfalls to the luxurious Visitor Center, and the massive Jurassic Park welcome gates to the winding roads that lead the jungle explorers through the park itself, is iconic. Even the Visitor Center’s stainless steel kitchen is iconic. A kitchen.
Then there are the lower-level details. The jungle safari theme that adorns the entire park. Dennis Nedry’s bright yellow raincoat. Dennis Nedry’s Hawaiian shirt, for that matter. A can of Barbasol shaving cream. A can of shaving cream. And those night-vision goggles Tim Murphy (Joe Mazzello) puts on outside the T-Rex paddock. Literal nostalgia goggles.
“Return to Isla Nublar the day after the events of the beloved 1993 Jurassic Park film in an original adventure 65 million years in the making,” the official synopsis for the game reads.
“Survive thrilling first-person action as InGen scientist Dr. Maya Joshi, who was unable to evacuate Isla Nublar, in this single-player action-adventure game and discover a never-before-told story. Throughthrilling encounters,experience the wonder and danger of dinosaurs, each with their own distinct and adaptive behaviors brought to life by John Hammond’s vision.”
“Jurassic Park: Survival” will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. There’s no release date for the game.
Are you excited about “Jurassic Park: Survival”? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!
