“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” has been released in the UK ahead of this weekend’s US release, which is strange, because it’s a very America-centric Film. It was produced in America and it stars a cast of US actors and it’s set around their continent – and it has a lot of hidden references to their controversial leader, President Donald Trump. The jokes come as a surprise, since this is a family-friendly adventure movie and not “The Daily Show.”
Early in the film, a BBC News report announces the situation with Isla Nublar and the legal issues involved with the dinosaurs that are stuck there with an active volcano.
Beady-eyed viewers will have noticed a politically-charged comment that appears in the ribbon at the bottom of the screen with various headlines streaming across from right to left, just like a normal TV news report. There are references to the company InGen and how the international political leaders are handling the cloning issues raised by the scientists at Jurassic Park (or, now, Jurassic World).
And then comes an interesting one: “US President questions ‘the existence of dinosaurs in the first place.’” It’s a sly little nod, since it doesn’t name him specifically, but it does allude to his penchant for calling out “fake news” as he sees it. Frankly, that quote wouldn’t be too surprising if it was real.
That’s the first and most blatant of several Trump references in “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.”
One villainous character uses the term ‘nasty woman’
At one point, the villainous Wheatley character refers to the strong female role of Zia as “a nasty woman,” which is a wink to the divisive comment made by Trump during one of his final debates with Hillary Clinton, a term which became a feminist movement in its own right in the weeks that followed.
Also, the “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” villain played by Toby Jones has an amusing hairpiece reminiscent of the sitting POTUS.
First, late-night talk shows and sketch comedy series became overrun with references to President Trump and jokes about his policies and his tweets and his public appearances. And then films such as “Bad Neighbours 2” started slipping them in whenever the actors would improvise one or if the production was fast-tracked and would be out in time for that to still be topical, as was the case with the Seth Rogen-starring sequel. And now, Trump jokes are even in the summer tentpole dinosaur blockbusters.
