Getty Jurassic World's Trump swipes are getting some attention.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom was chugging along like any other big Hollywood blockbuster, filling the screen with special effects – in this case, stampeding and occasionally empathetic and predatory dinos – and the humans who want to save them, namely a do-gooder activist and her raptor whisperer hunk of a sidekick.
Then, the movie seems to – without warning – insert not-so-subtle jabs at President Donald Trump. What did Jurassic World do? Did the movie really mock Trump? The movie never specifically mentions Donald Trump by name. However, there are several references that might be referring to Trump in the film, and they could be annoying to Trump supporters who thought they were just going to see a movie about dinosaurs. Stop reading if you don’t want to run across some plot spoilers.
Here’s what you need to know:
A Villainous Character in Jurassic World Refers to a ‘Nasty Woman’
In the most glaringly obvious swipe, Jurassic World’s script has a villainous character – a military-type merecenary who’s colluding with a nefarious plot to sell dinosaurs to rich guys from around the world – utter a controversial line that Trump made famous.
The character makes the reference in a back-and-forth argument with a heroic female doctor character who is valiantly trying to save a wounded raptor, Blue, who was injured by gunfire from one of the bad guy’s gun-toting goons.
Ken Wheatley (Ted Levine), the one-note bad guy, makes the comment to animal doctor Zia Rodriguez (Daniella Pineda), one of the movie’s one-note heroines. “What a nasty woman,” he snarls, and the audience is clearly set up to root for Rodriguez who, after all, is trying to rescue the most empathetic dinosaur in the lot.
During one of the 2016 presidential debates, Trump famously called Hillary Clinton “such a nasty woman” as she spoke about raising taxes on the rich. Since that time, some of Clinton’s supporters have taken over the phrase to criticize Trump. It was such a signature phrase – and an unusual one – that it’s hard to see how the Jurassic World 2 reference did not refer to Trump. In so doing, it positioned him on the side of a snarling mercenary who doesn’t care about wrecking a species or harming the people trying to save it, even leaving them for dead if necessary.
There May Be a Swipe at Trump’s Criticism of the News Media in the Movie
GettyDonald Trump
Part of the plot of Jurassic World 2 is to showcase the government (Congress) as inert, ineffectual, and inhumane. The world knows that a volcano is soon to erupt and destroy the dino habitat, but the government, after holding hearings, decides not to do anything about it and let the second extinction take its natural course. Thus, the Republican-controlled Congress might be getting a jab in the movie too, although the film never explicitly states the ruling party in the fictional world.
Some news headlines pop up on the screen at one point in the movie.
“US President questions ‘the existence of dinosaurs in the first place,'” reads one, which could be a critique of the president’s news media attacks or, as some critics believe, “alternative facts.” It also might be a critique on Trump’s stand on the environment.
There is also a reference at one point in the movie to megalomaniac politicians, although, again, it’s not overtly clear to whom it refers.
The Movie Might Have Poked Fun at Trump’s Hair
GettyPresident Donald Trump at the White House, on January 11, 2018.
This one is open to interpretation, but Screen Rant thinks the movie might have also poked fun at Trump’s infamous combover, as a villainous auctioneer “is revealed to sport a combover hairstyle similar to Trump” as he squares off against, and eventually gets eaten by, a dinosaur.