In the last review, Ellie and Alan arrive in Biosyn and reunite with Ian, while Claire and Owen endure an absurd raptor chase. During the chaos, Owen and Claire learn that Maisie has been taken to Biosyn, Fortunately, a smuggler with a heart of gold, Kayla, has offered to fly them to Biosyn so they can sneak into the company’s complex and free their daughter.

As they enter the valley where the Biosyn compound is located, they are informed that they’re flying into restricted airspace. If they do not turn around, then the Aerial Deterrent System will be turned off, and they will be vulnerable to the various breeds of flying reptiles. Kayla tries to stall the tower, but they turn off the Aerial Deterrent System. How this system works is in no way explained. These giant flying reptiles just stay where they are, and we’re expected to accept that. It’s mentioned earlier in the film that they’ve implanted chips inside the dinosaurs’ brains which sends signals to the animals that make the beasts go where they wish, but ignoring the question of what kinds of signals could produce such a result, what prevents the pterodactyls from flying off the moment this system goes down. Does this signal have a range? And what prevents the dinosaurs from attacking the aircraft once the planes descend below the protected altitude? The aircraft have to land at some point. And if they have a signal that can prevent the flying reptiles from attacking an aircraft, why don’t they use this same signal to prevent the other dinosaurs from eating people if someone gets stranded in the valley? The answer to this last question is because then we’d have a very short movie.

Anyway, with the system down, it’s only a matter of seconds before some random airborne species attacks the craft, and the plane begins to crash. And here is one of the dumbest lines in the film. When Owen asks if there are any parachutes, Kayla says, “I wasn’t expecting company.”

Alright, let’s think about this. If she didn’t bring parachutes because she wasn’t expecting company, then that means she has company on occasion. If that’s the case, the only possible explanation for why she doesn’t have any parachutes is because she removes them from the plane. Why? And what about her cargo? She was the smuggler who flew the baby raptor to Biosyn earlier in the film, so shouldn’t she have some parachutes that could fit on the crates carrying the cargo? It’s one thing to lose a plane, it’s another thing to lose a piece of cargo potentially worth millions of dollars. And here is where the movie gets even more ridiculous. The reason she doesn’t bring a parachute when she flies alone is because she has an ejector seat behind her, which is insane. Why not make the ejector seat for the pilot? The Critical Drinker broke down all the redundant steps this smuggler would have to endure. She’d have to unbuckle her seatbelt, move back, then sit down in the ejector seat, and buckle the new seat belt all while the plane is going down. Who designed this thing?

The only purpose for this is the writers want Claire alone in the valley so she can be hunted by dinosaurs. So, of course, there is a superficial goodbye between Owen and Claire—because even the writers know you’re not buying this—then Claire ejects from the plane. The plane crashes, but of course, Owen and Kayla survive because they’re our heroes, and the makeup team didn’t even bother giving them a couple scratches after the plane smashed into a frozen lake. As for Claire, her parachute is snagged in the tree branches just as a giant dinosaur walks by, but wouldn’t you know it, the dinosaur is blind. Lucky.

Meanwhile, Ellie and Allen go down to the secret lab and retrieve the DNA from the giant locusts. At the same time, Maisie, after listening to Henry Wu explain why she and the baby raptor were kidnapped—basically saying he needed them to save the world—she immediately lets the baby raptor loose and runs away. Now, I know she’s a teenager, and I know she’s been kidnapped, but we’re talking about Armageddon here. These locusts are about to eat everything! Millions, if not billions, of people are going to starve to death if Henry Wu can’t find a way to kill all the locusts. Ellie and Alan only want to prove Biosyn were behind the plot. They don’t know how to fix the problem, and Maisie isn’t even aware of them. So, shouldn’t there be some hint of an internal debate? Shouldn’t she hesitate to run away, at least, a little? It would be easy enough to say she didn’t believe Henry, but that would require her to have a change of heart. Something would need to happen so she could alter her perspective. Apparently, the writers simply didn’t want to write such an irrelevant scene. So, she frees the raptor, potentially killing some of the people in the complex, as well as billions across the planet, essentially out of spite. I’m really warming up to Maisie. She seems like a stand-up gal.

Anyway, Maisie runs out of the room and hears screaming. She follows the screams and comes across Ellie and Allan lying on the ground outside the area where the locusts were contained, because as the baby raptor was jumping around, looking for someone to eat, it set off an alarm which caused the locusts to swarm, forcing Alan and Ellie to make a quick escape. Way to go Maisie.

Another goofy part of the movie is that the writers try far too hard to make is seem like Alan and Ellie were in danger when the locusts swarm, but throughout the film, they don’t even bite anybody. They’re just an annoyance more than anything, so the time devoted to making it seem like our heroes are in danger is wasted.

As Ellie and Alan stand up, Maisie recognizes them and realizes they don’t work for Biosyn. The three of them make a quick escape and meet up with one of the staff members who is working with Ian to expose Biosyn. He puts them on an underground train which will lead them to an airport, and it looks like our heroes are free and clear. We’ll discuss what happens after that in the next review.