Ian Malcolm Against Saving Dinosaurs

In the new movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Jeff Goldblum will reprise his role as Ian Malcolm, who believes that humanity should abandon the dinosaurs that they created to once again become extinct.

Goldblum’s Malcolm has always had opinions on the implications of cloning dinosaurs. In Jurassic Park, he said that “nature selected these creature for extinction,” but that the failsafes to keep them from becoming too dangerous would not work, because “life would find a way” to survive.

Some fans would note that these two points kind of contradict each other (life obviously didn’t find a way 65 million years ago). Either way, the second point was right―the dinosaurs mutated around the scientists’ “no boys allowed” rule, allowing them to breed.

Malcolm ebcame the protagonist of Jurassic Park: The Lost World, a divisive sequel where protecting the dinosaurs was treated as an environmental concern―one which he eventually gets on board with. Again, one could see this as contradictory: the dinosaurs aren’t “natural,” because humans bred them long after they went extinct. (Also, the “heroes” do some pretty questionable things in this movie. Just saying.)

Now the issue of environmentalism comes up again in the new film, where the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar are apparently threatened by a volcano. In this case, humans must decide whether or not to save them. According to Goldblum, Malcolm is called before Congress to give his opinion.

He says that Malcolm wants to protect the dinosaurs, like protagonists Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), but ultimately takes the opposite side.

“You’ve heard me on the subject of the misguided reanimation,” he explained. “As long as a volcano, my best advice as difficult as it is, is that we should let evolution course correct. We have the power to destroy our selves and we need to wise up.”

He added that it was “delightful” to go back to his old role. He will apparently have a small part in this film, but has hinted that his part in a prospective third movie will be bigger.

If the movie is done well, this could be a thought-provoking exploration of the degree to which mankind actually can, or should, seek to preserve the environment, even from itself. Hopefully this time the “good guys” won’t wind up causing every death in the movie.