Rexy

"'Ooh, ah,' that's how it always starts. But then later there's running and screaming."   This page contains spoilers from an upcoming, or newly released installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. If you don't want spoilers, leave the page!

T. rex (Isla Nublar)
Appearances	Jurassic Park Jurassic World Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Species	Tyrannosaurus rex
Role	Park Attraction (formerly)
Status	Alive
Born	1988

"We have a T. rex."

—John Hammond^(src)

The Tyrannosaurus rex of the film version of Jurassic Park is nicknamed Roberta in Phil Tippett's storyboards for the first film , but most fans call her by her novel and Jurassic Park: The Game nickname Rexy/Rexie. She is a female Tyrannosaurus that appears in Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. She is known for participating in several incidents on Isla Nublar and for saving the major human participants involved in these incidents from other dangerous creatures, although inadvertently. This makes her role something of an anti-hero in the films.

Behavioral characteristics

This T. rex is the largest carnivore living on Isla Nublar and, as such, grew into a fearless, bold, and domineering beast who walks the line between heroine and villainess, largely motivated by two goals: keep intruders off her territory, and eat any prey she finds there. Even in old age, she was still relentless, launching herself at the Indominus rex the moment she had seen it. In many circumstances, her own hunger and hostility was indirectly helpful to others, such as her feeding on raptors chasing Alan, Ellie, Lex and Tim and indirectly saving them. Additonally, her brawn and ferocity was partnered with a good dose of intelligence as she checked her fence to see if it was working. She also knew not to attack Blue during the battle with the Indominus, and afterwards, spared her because she was too tired to fight as well as acknowledging the smaller theropod's help.

Creation

The T. rex was born in 1988  inside the InGen Compound of Isla Sorna where she spent the first year of her life inside the lab being taken care of by its workers before being transported to Isla Nublar to live in the Tyrannosaur Paddock as an attraction for InGen's Jurassic Park. JurassicWorld.com's map of Isla Nublar states that her paddock was designed to house a juvenile of her species to live with her, but no juvenile was ever transported to the paddock.

Isla Nublar Incident (1993)

"Boy, do I hate being right all the time."

—Ian Malcolm after the T. rex escapes^(src)

When the inspection team constituting of vertebrate paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, chaotician Dr. Ian Malcolm, lawyer Donald Gennaro, and John Hammond’s grandchildren Lex and Tim Murphy took a tour of the Park, the Tyrannosaurus was initially a no-show. Although computer technician Ray Arnold attempted to lure her to her paddock fence by tantalizing her with a goat, however, the T. rex still refused to answer the call. Dr. Alan Grant, observing this, surmised that it was because she wanted to hunt her prey rather than have it offered to her.

The T. rex roars as she becomes free from her paddock.

Later that night, a tropical storm forced the tour to be turned around sometime after the group visited the Triceratops Paddock. Unfortunately, due to Dennis Nedry’s programming, the tour vehicles that the tour group was shut down in front of the paddock with its electrified fencing in the same state as well. At this point, the T. rex revealed herself to the visitors by eating the goat left by the fence as bait, her hunger probably having eclipsed her pride. Gennaro, in a fit of panic, left his tour car and ran to the nearby restroom hut on a toilet to hide. By that point, the Tyrannosaurus rex moved to the disabled fencing and ripped the fencing apart with her teeth; she proceeded to step through her mangled handiwork and roar triumphantly. After a minute or two of exploring and investigating the Explorers, her attention was aroused by the light that was emitted from a flashlight Lex had activated in the front Explorer. Unaware that the source of the light was inside the car, she walked right to the front door and peered out into the jungle in front of the SUV. It was not until Tim slammed the open door next to the rex that she had discovered the source of the light. Now confident that the light was coming from inside the Explorer and that there were interesting objects inside, she set to attacking the mysterious vehicle in front of her, searching for a way to get at Lex and Tim to eat them. After failing to get at them through the vehicle's skylight, the T. rex flipped the car over and proceeded to savage the undercarriage and right rear tire whilst crushing it under her massive foot. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm, the T. rex was briefly distracted. The T. rex followed Dr. Malcolm as he fled toward the Tyrannosaur Paddock Bathroom, where she injured him by flinging the mathematician into the air just as her head came crashing through the door, causing Malcolm to be buried in the wreckage. The destruction of the building revealed the cowering Gennaro, who she proceeded to devour while Dr. Grant rescued the kids inside the car. Before long, however, the T. rex returned and pushed the vehicle over the cliff while Tim was still inside and pushing Lex and Dr. Grant off the edge with the car, though the three survived and slept in a tree for the night after they got out of the car.

As park game warden Robert Muldoon and Dr. Sattler were in the Tyrannosaur Paddock investigating the whereabouts of the survivors and had found Dr. Malcolm, she attacked the search party. Muldoon and Sattler had heard the T. rex roar several times before during the search and just before her ambush Malcolm heard The T. rex's footsteps. The T. rex attacked suddenly, without warning, crashing through a line of trees where she began chasing them through a tree lined corridor. After a very close chase, she was unsuccessful in catching them, and so she finally gave up, letting the trio escape to the visitor center.

The T. rex killing a Gallimus as Dr. Grant and the Murphys watch.

The next day, during Grant’s, Tim’s, and Lex’s continued trek to the Visitors' Center, they found themselves in the Gallimimus Enclosure, and witnessed a stampeding herd of Gallimimus. They ran alongside the dinosaurs momentarily before hiding behind a fallen log. As they watched the herd, it was suddenly ambushed by the T. rex who came roaring out of the bushes in their path, stumbling a Gallimimus. This Gallimimus tried to run away, but was too slow to react, and the Tyrannosaur lunged at it, catching the dinosaur in her jaws before proceeding to shake the Gallimimus to death. Dr. Grant, Lex and Tim watched in amazement as the T. rex started to feast on the carcass. Lex begged Dr. Grant for them to go, to which Grant obliged. However, Tim continued to stare in fascination and so had to be forcibly taken away by Dr. Grant. She never fully consumed this Gallimimus and its remains were still present in the location where it had died by October 6, 2002, over a decade later.

The T. rex roaring after killing the raptors inside the Visitor Center.

The T. rex later made her way to the Visitor Centre, entering the lobby through the uncompleted side and grabbed a Raptor from mid-air just as it was to pounce on the humans and crushed it in her jaws. Using the distraction that she provided, the humans fled. Meanwhile, another raptor that pursued the group through the Visitors Center pounced on the larger theropod. She snapped at her but could not reach her as the raptor continued to rip and tear madly. Rolling her head, the Raptor fell into the T. rex's mouth where she was killed and then thrown against the Tyrannosaurus skeleton, bringing it down with a crash. Having conquered her prey, the T. rex let out a mighty bellow in triumph as the "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" sign fell to the ground.

In the aftermath of the incident, the T. rex went wild and lived on Isla Nublar for about a decade, surviving off of Gallimimus, Parasaurolophus, abandoned goat herds, and carrion (notably the corpse of a Triceratops that had died earlier), as well as having attempted to hunt the Brachiosaurus. During this time, she had also developed a particularity severe case of ragged tooth.

Jurassic World

The T. rex living in the T. rex Kingdom.

According to the Masrani backdoor, during the construction of Jurassic World, Vic Hoskins and his team of InGen Security Division troopers encountered the T. rex on April 19, 2002.

Sometime later or in the encounter with InGen Security, the T. rex was captured and put back into captivity where she lived in the T. rex Kingdom attraction of the dinosaur park.

She was still fed goats like before, but to bring her out, a flare would be thrown to get her attention. She served as one of the most popular attractions, particularly at feeding time.

Isla Nublar Incident (2015)

"We need more teeth!"

—Gray Mitchell to Claire Dearing as the Indominus rex overpowers the Velociraptor pack, prompting her to release the T. rex.^(src)

The T. rex faces off with an Indominus rex in Main Street.

She mainly stayed in her paddock for most of the incident, until she became involved when Claire Dearing told Lowery Cruthers to open her enclosure's door after Claire's nephew Gray Mitchell told her that there needed to be another dinosaur to help kill Indominus rex during the final battle of the incident. Using flares, Claire guided the T. rex to the Indominus rex where she threw the flare at the hybrid. Crashing through Main Street's mounted Spinosaurus skeleton, the Tyrannosaur challenged the I. rex with an almighty bellow, not knowing exactly what this new creature was but identifying it as a threat. When the hybrid did not back down, the T. rex attacked her viciously.

Blue and the T. rex cornering an I. rex before she is killed by the Jurassic World's Mosasaurus.

Initially the elderly Tyrannosaur had the advantage, landing several bites to the I. rex's neck, but after being able to claw her viciously with its huge arms, the tables were quickly turned, with the T. rex thrown down against the Jurassic Traders Outpost, destroying it in the process and almost killing Owen Grady and Gray and Zach Mitchell.

The T. rex roaring after the 2015 Isla Nublar Incident

However, before the Indominus could kill her, Blue, the surviving Velociraptor of the battle, intervened by lunging onto the I. rex, giving the T. rex time to get up off the ground. With Blue latched onto the hybrid, the old T. rex grabbed the Indominus dragging her and slamming her body into the nearby buildings of Main Street. At one point, Blue rode on the T. rex's back while she smashed the I. rex into one of the buildings. She finally flung the hybrid near the edge of the Jurassic World Lagoon where the Mosasaurus that resided there leaped out of the water to snatch the I. rex and drag it underwater, drowning the hybrid. After the fight, the T. rex and Blue looked at each other for a moment. Despite previous animosity with Raptors, the T. rex decided to spare Blue because both were too tired to fight, thanking the smaller predator with a brief nod before limping away to recover.

In the aftermath of the incident, the T. rex stomped onto the Control Center helipad and took in the ruined park that had become void of any people, warming her wounds in the rising sun before letting out her signature roar, claiming the island as hers once again.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

The T. rex stepping on a Carnotaurus

Three years after the incident at Jurassic World, the T. rex continues to run wild on the island with other surviving dinosaurs. One stormy night, a group of mercenaries were on Isla Nublar to retrieve a bone sample from the I. rex's remains at the bottom of the park's lagoon, which also still houses its surviving Mosasaurus. As they prepare to pick up one of their men, the T. rex enters their campsite located in the ruins of Main Street and proceed to chase him, stepping on the tablet that controls the gate which connects the lagoon to the ocean in the process. The T. rex chases the man towards the edge of the lagoon, but he got away by climbing onto the helicopter's ladder. Yet despite grabbing the ladder with her jaws and using her strength to pull her potential prey to her, the mercenaries got away, and the T. rex is left roaring into the night.

During the destruction of the island by the eruption of Mount Sibo, Owen and his group encounters her again, who had just inadvertently saved them from a Carnotaurus as they were about to escape in a gyrosphere, killing the Carnotaurus in the process. She later left the dead Carnotaurus behind as the volcano erupts, with the shock wave from the eruption prompting her to flee the scene, followed by the other dinosaurs that caused a stampede. She and the other dinosaurs were later captured by another team of mercenaries led by Ken Wheatley, who loaded them on to their cargo ship Arcadia, and took them to Lockwood Manor as Isla Nublar burns.

Sometime later on, Owen and Claire find her sedated in a truck, where they need to get some of her blood for transfusion for Blue, who had been shot awhile back by one of Ken's mercenaries. As they get some of her blood, Claire rides on the theropod’s back while trying to hand the bag to Owen. After being locked in by one of the mercenaries, Owen looks into the T. rex's eye as she awakens from her tranquilized slumber. Finding herself in an enclosed space with people around her, the mighty theropod starts to freak out and breaks free of her restraints, with Owen being forced to jump through her snapping jaws to get out of the truck.

Later, the T. rex is lured to her cell located beneath the Lockwood estate with a goat in order have her prepared to be sold off to wealthy buyers in an auction set up by Eli Mills and Gunnar Eversol. However, some poisonous gas was released into the holding cell during Blue's brawl with some mercenaries, threatening to kill the dinosaurs yet again. The T. rex was eventually freed along with the other dinosaurs through Claire opening all the cell doors and Maisie, who had just lost her grandfather and learned of her true origin, opening the gate that set them all free and escape the manor. Before she left the premises, however, the T. rex killed and ate Mills while a Carnotaurus tears Mill's legs, with the T. rex then knocking over the Carnotaurus with her head and the Carnotaurus gets up and runs off. Finishing off what little remains of Mills, the T. rex then brings one of her massive feet down on the I. rex's only surviving bone fragment and DNA sample as she stomps off into the woods, crushing it to smithereens and with it any chance of her hated enemy and other hybrids returning. After she escaped, the T. rex breaks into a nearby zoo and roars at an African lion, who stands his ground by angrily roaring back at her.

Gallery

T. rex smashing Indominus rex into the Margaritaville

T. rex animatronic from the upcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

T. rex in one of the teasers for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Owen tending to T. rex as she is slowly waking up

Close-up of her eye

The T. rex roaring at the helicopter

Owen and Claire inspecting a tranquilized T. rex

T. rex roaring at lion

Lion roaring back at her

Behind the scenes

see Jurassic Park Tyrannosaurus rex Animatronics

Like its novel counterpart, the T. rex was supposed to die in the Jurassic Park film, but this was changed.

The T. rex's animatronic in Jurassic Park would occasionally malfunction in the rain.

The original ending to Jurassic Park did not feature the T. rex's involvement at all. The Velociraptor pack would have been killed by the two mounted skeletons inside the Visitor Center, one being impaled by a rib of one of the skeleton as it collapsed and the other by Dr. Grant taking control of a crane where he moved the second raptor into the jaws of the T. rex skeleton where it would become crushed by its jaws. Another scrapped ending was that only one of the raptors was to be killed by one of the skeletons falling on it while the remaining raptor was shot by John Hammond. Director Steven Spielberg scrapped these endings because he realized that Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the stars of the film only rivaled by Velociraptor. This ending was further prompted by the success Industrial Light and Magic had from the CGI model of the T. rex.

T. rex crashing through the Spinosaurus skeleton.

A Jurassic World sight gag is shown where the T. rex destroyed the Main Street's Spinosaurus skeleton to kill the Indominus, referencing the fight in Jurassic Park III where a Spinosaurus killed a T. rex and the scene's backlash.

In Jurassic World, the T. rex sounds like the Tyrannosaur Buck from The Lost World: Jurassic Park instead of her sounds from Jurassic Park. It's possible that the filmmakers wanted it to sound older, as she lived from the 1993 Isla Nublar Incident, which was 22 years before. However, her original roar from Jurassic Park did not go unused. She issued her original call twice during her battle with the Indominus.^{[citation needed]} However, in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, a deeper pitched variant of her original roar from Jurassic Park is used, likely for the same reason as in Jurassic World.

During the opening scene in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, a flash of lightning illuminated the head of the T. rex as she is stalking the mercenaries' campsite. This is influenced by the Jurassic Park chapter "The Main Road", where the T. rex makes her appearance to the visitors in a similar manner following the power outage, which the first film would later adapt.

The T. rex also appears as a cameo in another Spielberg movie, Ready Player One. She acts as a challenge on the racetrack near the beginning of the movie, attacking drivers alongside various obstacles and King Kong.