The assistant's death in Jurassic World

[Shark]

So I know there's a lot of controversy over the death of Zara in Jurassic World. My question is why?





The issues I've seen people have with it generally range from it being an undeserved death, to she was a woman so it was too mean spirited, to it being too torturous. I am honestly wondering why people have issues with this. The first person killed in Jaws was a woman and I'd argue her death was much worse and it was longer. The second person in that movie killed was a little boy. Their deaths weren't earned and were very gruesome. 

Even just going by Jurassic Park standards. The first guy killed in the original movie was the gatekeeper and he died a horrifying death. The only person I'd say in that movie that earned his death was Nedry. The lawyer is borderline to me. Eddie's death in the Lost World is far worse than Zara's and he really didn't deserve that. Hell a little girl is attacked right when the movie starts even though she survives. I just don't get the reasons the death bothered people so much. 

[Sir Woodrow]

It's Katie McGrath, Katie McGrath doesn't deserve such treatment

[Push R Truth]

I think it hits home because it's an assistant getting shitty work dumped on her (taking care of kids) while still having to do her normal job... then she doesn't just get randomly killed like a standard background character. Oh no, they spend a real amount of movie time making sure you know she's suffering before getting the super over the top death. Every other normal death for the average person in this movie is like a second long or just implied. Her's feels like it's somebody's dark fantasy.

She got a villain's death, yet was an "everyman/everywomen" type character.


I've been expecting to find our that her death was supposed to be an inside joke about somebody's evil exwife or something.

[Cyno]

Katie McGrath is the queen, that's why.

[chrom]

Because of how stupid and nonsensical it was

[DSR]

*re-watches clip*

Okay, so there's like a million people running around, and these pterosaurs don't harm a single hair on anybody else's head, but they single out, torture, and murder this one pretty woman over the course of what feels like 5 minutes. Also her boss (Bryce Dallas Howard) doesn't stop for even a second to wonder where Zara is or if anything's happened to her.

I didn't care for this movie.

[Bang Bang Bart]

No wonder Lena Luthor became a bad guy for a bit in Season 5 of Supergirl.

[HMARK Center]

May 26, 2020 20:46:50 GMT -5 Push R Truth said:

I think it hits home because it's an assistant getting shitty work dumped on her (taking care of kids) while still having to do her normal job... then she doesn't just get randomly killed like a standard background character. Oh no, they spend a real amount of movie time making sure you know she's suffering before getting the super over the top death. Every other normal death for the average person in this movie is like a second long or just implied. Her's feels like it's somebody's dark fantasy.

She got a villain's death, yet was an "everyman/everywomen" type character.


I've been expecting to find our that her death was supposed to be an inside joke about somebody's evil exwife or something.

Yep, that's pretty much it: they spend an inordinate amount of time just focusing on this woman getting tossed around as if it's something to...I dunno, to laugh at? To stare in awe at? To go "OOOOOH!" at? It kind of turns into a Duck Amuck situation with Daffy getting everything from an anvil to the head to getting blown up in the span of a few seconds, and you're wondering why they chose to do that to the put-upon assistant character who didn't exactly have a ton of screen time or characterization beforehand, which simultaneously makes it weird since it feels like it comes out of left field, and seemingly kind of mean-spirited, so it makes the whole thing awkward, just a weird creative choice.

[genericusername]

In hindsight, it was a pointless over the top death for a minor Character, she wasn't even hateable from my memory.

[jimmyjackezekiel]

Because this is Jurassic Park, not SAW so lay off the torture porn.

[prettynami]

Aren't we supposed to feel terrible for most of the people who die in Jurassic Park movies? In that case, isn't the reaction sort of spot on? You're supposed to feel bad for her and mad at the fictional people who run this park and make killer military clonasauruses, not the film makers. You probably can't kill any of the mains, but you can kill a sort of avatar for the viewer and make them remember a big part of these movies is they are supposed to be sorta horrifying.

[BlackoutCreature]

I could swear I remember reading that they had filmed scenes of her mistreating the boys, thus why the character was singled out for such a horrible death. It was meant to be karma. Then the scenes got cut but they kept her death in despite it thematically not making sense anymore.

[Shark]

All of these are fair responses. Personally, I don't find it over the top. It's a franchise that has had death scenes that lingered. The opening kill in the first movie goes on a while as does Eddie's in the second movie. I never felt like it was meant to be a comedic scene. More to underscore that the dinosaurs don't care if you're good or bad, they'll eat you just the same.

[Deleted]

I remember thinking it was a spectacle death at the time but felt like it was how someone like the blatantly evil characters would normally go out, as if seeing that was supposed to provide a cathartic effect.

[SHAKEMASTER TV9 is Don Knotts]

There is a point to the Gatekeeper's horrifying death. There's like two dozen guards, extremely organized with everyone in position and it fails. The park is headed for failure. I had a similar problem with Eddie Carr getting torn in half in Lost World. It didn't earn being gruesome.

But Jurassic World has a couple of weird things in it. Irrfan Khan's character got this weird hero shot that was pretty comedic for how serious it took itself.

[Cela]

In retrospect, the franchise has a track record of brutally killing characters that don't deserve it, while keeping the annoying characters that should die alive. (Lex(annoying, maybe not death), Bryce Dallas Howard, Vince Vaughn, Tea Leoni)

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Because 300 years ago, in 2015, the world had a lot less....stuff going on.

[Hit Girl]

May 26, 2020 20:36:13 GMT -5 Shark said:

So I know there's a lot of controversy over the death of Zara in Jurassic World. My question is why?





The issues I've seen people have with it generally range from it being an undeserved death, to she was a woman so it was too mean spirited, to it being too torturous. I am honestly wondering why people have issues with this. The first person killed in Jaws was a woman and I'd argue her death was much worse and it was longer. The second person in that movie killed was a little boy. Their deaths weren't earned and were very gruesome. 

Even just going by Jurassic Park standards. The first guy killed in the original movie was the gatekeeper and he died a horrifying death. The only person I'd say in that movie that earned his death was Nedry. The lawyer is borderline to me. Eddie's death in the Lost World is far worse than Zara's and he really didn't deserve that. Hell a little girl is attacked right when the movie starts even though she survives. I just don't get the reasons the death bothered people so much. 

Chrissy's death introduced the threat. Alex's death was used as a means of showing the idiocy of Amity's mayor and Brody's guilt over not pressing harder to stand up to him.

The gatekeeper death showed how dangerous the island and the animals, the raptors in particular were. Eddie's death, while yes unecessarily drawn out, at least showed him being heroic. The lawyer was a coward and did at least have some comedy value. The assistant's death made no sense. It was so drawn out it seemed more appropriate for a villain getting their comeuppance, but she wasn't a villain. She had done literally nothing except chaperone some kids. It could very well be that the role was larger and showed her as a bitch, but it didn't survive editing, and if it didn't, then her death should have been cut too.

[Limity (BLM)]

To me her death is so over the top and out of nowhere that it can't help but be hilarious. Similar to in American Dad when Roger elbow dropped that bad guy, and the bad guy's head slow motion exploded like a Ralph Crumb cartoon.

That there was cut content with her character that gives the death context, which they never used but kept the death, is even funnier on top of that.

[Deleted]

All the characters in those movies were poorly written, compared to the first movie they felt like cartoons. Might as well give them cartoon deaths.