One
of Fallen Kingdom’s biggest flaws to me is some of the dinosaurs’
behavior during the volcanic eruption. Why are they bothering to attack
the humans or each other when there’s a basically-apocalypse to run
from? I think the Carnotaurus and Sinoceratops probably don’t have much
of an excuse other than to get a cool shot of Rexy roaring (an aim not
devoid of merit, admittedly, it was a cool shot), but I’ve heard some
kind-of plausible ones for the Baryonyx.
One is that life had not
been easy for it out of containment and it was starving, and Claire and
Franklin were the first snack it had come across in a long time. Fair
enough, the Baryonyx doesn’t look like it’s in very good health and does
look pretty skinny. Still, you’d think its survival instinct would be
more focused on the lava and finding a way out. If that’s its order of
priorities it should probably have died already a long time ago. Another
is that, well, it’s attacking senselessly, behaving like a rabid
animal, right? Maybe it actually does have rabies. I feel like that
should have been in some way established better, though, if that’s what
the filmmakers were going for. A mention earlier of a rabies epidemic on
the island they should watch out for, or just one of Claire and
Franklin saying so during the scene itself, maybe.
As exciting an
action scene as it makes, I think a better direction to go in would have
been to have the Baryonyx not be hostile towards the humans at all, and
barely even pay attention to them, as all three focus on trying to get
out of the bunker alive before it’s buried in lava (which you’d think
would be an effective enough threat on its own). It’s just an animal,
after all, not a monster, right? That would have been an excellent way
of conveying that message.
I guess if I’m going to try to explain
what did happen in the movie, though, maybe attacking the humans, in the
Baryonyx’s understanding of the situation, did equal trying to get out
of the bunker? Baryonyx were created already for the first park, though
not brought to Isla Nublar before humans left both islands. The movies
don’t confirm whether the original part-frog population or its
descendants could be among the Baryonyx of Jurassic World, but going by
the Blue VR game featuring a Baryonyx nest with eggs, I’d say it’s
likely. So potentially this Baryonyx could have lived through growing up
in captivity on Sorna (or not, if it’s from a later generation, but I
guess its unhealthy appearance could also just be caused by old age),
the conditions on Sorna getting less and less survivable, humans
suddenly showing up soon after and recapturing it, living in captivity
in JW, and now its environment getting difficult to live in again, and
wouldn’t you know, humans show up. Maybe it’s just used to a lot about
the world around it being controlled by humans, so lava pouring into the
tunnel it’s in? Might as well be humans’ doing. Maybe if it kills the
humans all that will stop.
..
I just rewatched the scene, and actually I don’t think the Baryonyx
starts behaving in a way that’s unquestionably hostile until after it’s
hit with lava to the face (which should have killed it, but I’ll let
that slide, because that’s just how lava works in this movie and most
works of fiction anyway). It’s stressed and kind of aggressive, but it’s
trying to escape a fiery death, so that’s not unexpected. It gets the
lava on it by trying to walk to Claire and Franklin’s side of the room,
which understandably has the humans scared, because it’s a big,
potentially dangerous animal, but the opening of its mouth as it takes
the step could be a bite attempt or it could be just to vocalize.
Going
by its apparent poor health, and especially if assuming it’s a result
of, or at least not helped by, being old enough to have been created
already for the first park, I don’t think there’s anything in the scene
indicating the Baryonyx couldn’t perhaps be mostly blind. In
which case, it knows it’s in danger, but can’t see well what’s happening
around it, and then something hits it and that hurts, while it can
smell there’s humans around. For all it knows, the humans attacked it.
I doubt that’s what the filmmakers’ intention was, or if so it should have been made clearer, but sure, that could work.
In
any case, the only exit from the room is where the humans are going,
even though the bite attempts make clear the Baryonyx isn’t following
Claire and Franklin just because of that. It would have been really cool
if it had been the Baryonyx that actually found the way out, though,
wouldn’t it? The humans expect it’s trying to get to their side of the
lava flow because it wants to kill them, because of course, but no, it
just smells fresh air coming from the vent and is trying to get out. We
can still have suspenseful close encounter with dino jaws, though,
because the Baryonyx can’t open the hatch at the top, and can’t be
explained to that it needs to back off before one of the humans climbs
up to open it. So it’s climb over a dinosaur up a narrow vent to wrestle
open a hatch while right next to its snapping mouth (and then quickly
climb out before it runs you over), or stay with the lava.
