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Film / The Jurassic Games

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The Jurassic Games is a 2018 Science Fiction Action film directed by Ryan Bellgardt.

In a dystopian near future, a violent virtual reality television show has taken the world by storm. It sees ten Death Row inmates being sent to a CGI world to battle dinosaurs and other prehistoric hazards (as well as each other). The last one alive wins and is given a full pardon for their crimes. Even though it's virtual reality, injuries cause real pain and dying during the game results in a real life lethal injection. However, one of the participants in this year's event, Tucker (Adam Hampton), is actually innocent. The producers must also contend with a protest group called the Cavemen, who have threatened to hijack the show and finally bring it to an end.


Tropes appearing in this film:

  • All for Nothing: Despite the efforts of the Cavemen, including killing most of the show's production team, The Jurassic Games still airs the following year.
  • Apathetic Citizens: The in-universe audiences that watch The Jurassic Games television don’t have any qualms or concerns about the convicts (or a potentially innocent man) being tortured and slaughtered on television.
  • Artistic License – History: In-universe, when the host cites public exectutions and gladiator games as precedents for their show, ignoring the many differences between the cases and also mistaking how gladiatorial games actually worked. Perfectly justified, since the host is just trying to defend his job to the audience, and is never indicated to possess more than common knowledge, or to be particularly reliable.
  • Artistic License – Paleontology: Most of the dinosaurs are based more on popular culture depictions rather than the real deal. Justified, as they only exist in a virtual reality rather than being living creatures.
  • Asshole Victim: Every contestant, and also the Host.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Laura (the Cavemen's spy) does this a lot at the end.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Averted here, even though they're in a virtual reality game. Tucker's gun runs out of ammo quite quickly and they have to acquire more.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: In a world full of lethal prehistoric animals and violent criminals, almost everybody gets one.
  • Death Row: Every contestant is a death row inmate awaiting execution.
  • "Die Hard" on an X: This movie is essentially The Hunger Games (or Battle Royale) meets dinosaurs.
  • Explosive Leash, Your Head A-Splode: All the contestants are fitted with a collar which will explode if they fail certain tasks.
  • Face Death with Dignity: The Host is placed in the arena with a T-Rex right beside him. After a second’s worth of being shocked at that, he stands straight and tells the Rex “let’s give the audience a good show!” as he’s Swallowed Whole.
  • Gone Horribly Right: The program's designers were told to make the dinosaurs as realistic as possible. So when several T-rexes are unleashed together at the end, the territorial carnivores ignore the remaining contestants and fight each other instead. Also counts as Hoist by His Own Petard, since the developers only planned to have one of them in action at any given moment, and it was working as intended, but then the host forcefully added two more to increase the pression on the last two contestants, giving them room to breathe instead.
  • Hate Sink: Joy manages to stand out among the various criminals and murderers by being a sadistic serial killer, she also targets Tucker and reveals that she was the one who murdered his wife.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: Albert the cannibal, who chomps on a few of his fellow contestants.
  • I Lied: The Wasp delivers one of these to the Mason brothers. Given that he had just been mortally wounded, it also works as a Thanatos Gambit to ensure a quick death.
  • The Infiltration: A member of the production staff is actually a spy for The Cavemen, a group who want the show banned.
  • Jerkass: The Host. He manipulates the event for his own ends, unleashing vicious dinosaurs on the contestants at opportune moments and presenting them with sadistic choices. He also knows Tucker is innocent, but deliberately withholds that information because he thinks The Reveal would make for great television drama.
  • Laser-Guided Karma /Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Surprisingly, the finale has an intentional example - Joy manages to free herself first in the final challenge and almost makes it to the safe zone. Que The Host, who does not want an anticlimactic ending, ordering a tyrannosaur to field to mix things up. And when the rex seems more interested in Tucker, The Host sends in two more rexes who, having been designed to be as life-like as possible, start attacking each other. Not only does this allow Tucker extra time to free himself, but Joy ends up wasting time trying to break her chain when it gets pinned under a rex's corpse, leaving her exhausted enough for Tucker to outpace her and win the game.
  • No Name Given: We never find out the Host's name.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: Savannah reveals that this is one of her motivations for making the show, because the participants are all violent killers who deserve to suffer.
  • Prehistoric Monster: The CGI world is full of them.
  • Reality Show: The Jurassic Games.
  • The Reveal: Joy reveals that she killed Tucker's wife.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Special Effects Failure: Some of the CGI dinosaurs are a bit ropey. Then again, in-universe they are supposed to be CGI dinosaurs rather than real creatures.
  • Waving Signs Around: The Cavemen protesters mostly just do this, until the end, when they successfully hijack the event, kill Savannah and send the Host into the game to be eaten by a T-rex live on television.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though she is the producer of a cruel and bloody game show, Savannah believes that the contestants, all violent murderers who have hurt scores of innocent people, deserve to suffer for their crimes. Her only regret is that one of them will get out alive. However, it's unclear if she too, like the host, knows that Tucker really is innocent while making him take part in the games.

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