Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The End of Oak Street.The End of Oak Street is now playing in theaters, and the final moments of the movie perfectly set up a new Jurassic Park of sorts. There is no denying that when one thinks of a dinosaur movie franchise, the first one that comes to mind is Jurassic Park. After all, Steven Spielberg managed to redefine cinema with the original film.
Using an innovative blend of CGI and animatronics, Spielberg made generations fall in love with, and maybe fear, dinosaurs. Since the 1993 release, several Jurassic Park movies have been released. The franchise has even switched names, with its modern chapter being called Jurassic World. That said, the dinosaur franchise’s popularity remains high, as it dominates this specific sci-fi movie subgenre with ease.
That is where The End of Oak Street comes in. Starring Star Wars’ Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway, who has been piling up box office hits in 2026 through The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey, the new live-action dinosaur movie feels like a lost Spielberg release in the best ways. Director David Robert Mitchell did a phenomenal job with the film.
From Amber to Apex Predator · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Jurassic Park? “Hold onto your butts.”
🦟Frozen AmberWhere it all started
🧬Mr. DNABingo — dino DNA
🦖Paddock 9She’s looking at the goat
⚡10,000 VoltsUntil Nedry kills the grid
🌴Isla Nublar120 miles west of Costa Rica
01
Jurassic Park (June 1993) was directed by a filmmaker who, during the dinosaur film’s post-production, was simultaneously shooting a starkly different black-and-white drama in Poland. He famously had to remotely supervise the ILM and Stan Winston effects work via satellite link from Krakow. Name him.
✓ Correct! Steven Spielberg. He shot Jurassic Park first, then took the unprecedented step of cutting it remotely from the Schindler’s List set in Poland — producer Kathleen Kennedy and editor Michael Kahn FedExed VHS dailies between Krakow and Universal. Jurassic Park went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held until Spielberg’s friend James Cameron broke it with Titanic in 1997.
✗ Wrong director. The answer is Steven Spielberg. The film he was simultaneously shooting in Poland was Schindler’s List — the two films were released six months apart in 1993 and Spielberg won his first Best Director Oscar for Schindler’s, not Jurassic Park. He famously refused to let himself watch Jurassic Park dailies until he’d finished a Schindler’s day’s shooting, fearing tonal contamination.
02
Universal secured the film rights in May 1990, several months before the source novel was even on shelves, paying $1.5M plus $500,000 for the author to write his own screenplay draft. The novelist had already written The Andromeda Strain (1969) and written and directed the original Westworld (1973). Name him.
✓ Correct! Michael Crichton. The Harvard Med School grad turned techno-thriller novelist later created ER (1994) and wrote Sphere, Disclosure, Timeline and Prey. His Crichton screenplay was eventually rewritten by David Koepp, who is the credited co-screenwriter alongside Crichton on the finished film. Crichton also wrote the 1995 sequel novel The Lost World — which exists, in part, because Spielberg literally asked him for one.
✗ Wrong novelist. The answer is Michael Crichton. Tom Clancy was the Hunt for Red October / Jack Ryan techno-thriller giant of the same era. Stephen King wrote the unrelated Pet Sematary / Misery. Robin Cook wrote medical thrillers like Coma. Crichton owned the dinosaur-cloning techno-thriller niche and would later write the 1995 sequel novel The Lost World, which Spielberg adapted in 1997.
03
InGen’s billionaire founder John Hammond — the avuncular, ice-cream-eating, fly-swatter-with-amber-mosquito-cane patriarch who insists he “spared no expense” building the park — was played by an English actor and director who came out of a fifteen-year acting retirement at Spielberg’s personal request. He’d just won two Oscars for directing Gandhi (1982). Name him.
✓ Correct! Sir Richard Attenborough. He hadn’t acted on screen since 1979’s The Human Factor — he’d been busy directing Gandhi (8 Oscars), Cry Freedom and Chaplin. Spielberg flew to London to convince him; Attenborough returned for The Lost World in 1997. (Yes, he is also brother to David Attenborough, the natural-history broadcaster — a coincidence the Jurassic Park casting did not invent.) The amber-tipped cane is a reference to Hammond’s own dinosaur-DNA enterprise.
✗ Wrong knight. The answer is Sir Richard Attenborough. Anthony Hopkins won his Best Actor Oscar in 1992 (Silence of the Lambs) but isn’t in any Jurassic film. Sir John Mills and Sir Ben Kingsley are also separate British acting knights of the era. Attenborough is the Gandhi director who came out of acting retirement — and also, yes, brother of David, the natural-history broadcaster.
04
The film’s leather-clad, motorcycle-riding, “life, uh, finds a way”-muttering mathematician — played by Jeff Goldblum and credited in the film as a “chaotician” — specialises in a specific branch of nonlinear dynamics that the script repeatedly demonstrates with butterflies and water droplets on Ellie Sattler’s hand. Name the field.
✓ Correct! Chaos theory. Crichton modelled Malcolm partly on the real mathematician James Gleick, whose 1987 book Chaos: Making a New Science had popularised the field. Goldblum’s casting was so signature he reprised Malcolm in The Lost World (1997), Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Dominion (2022). The water-droplet scene with Laura Dern is deliberately structured to seduce the audience into Malcolm’s worldview before the park starts collapsing.
✗ Wrong branch. The answer is chaos theory — the “sensitive dependence on initial conditions” field that says you can’t predict where the water droplet will roll. Game theory (von Neumann), topology (the rubber-sheet geometry one), and combinatorics are all real branches but not Malcolm’s. He famously calls himself “a chaotician” on screen, which is the same field.
05
The animated “Mr. DNA” explainer in the visitor centre says InGen’s geneticists filled the gaps in their reconstructed dinosaur genomes using genetic material from a particular kind of modern animal — the same species whose ability to switch sex in single-gender environments lets the all-female park population secretly start breeding. Name the donor animal.
✓ Correct! Frog. Specifically, in Crichton’s novel, the West African tree frog — certain species of which can switch from female to male in a single-gender environment. The film simplifies it to “some West African frogs” in the Mr. DNA cartoon and lets Dr. Grant work out the implication for himself when he finds the broken eggshells in the jungle. Real-world: actual frog DNA, while flexible, can’t fix dinosaur DNA gaps that have decayed past about 6.8 million years.
✗ Wrong donor. The answer is frog — specifically, in Crichton’s novel, the West African tree frog. Komodo dragons can do parthenogenesis (virgin birth) in captivity but aren’t the film’s answer. Newts can regenerate but don’t switch sex this way. Crocodiles famously have temperature-determined sex but aren’t the gap-filler. The frog DNA explanation is what lets the all-female park population start breeding — “life finds a way.”
06
The film’s two-theme score — including the soaring, French-horn-led main melody first heard as the helicopter banks toward Isla Nublar and the cathedral-organ-like “Welcome to Jurassic Park” cue at the gates — was composed by the same five-time-Oscar winner who scored Jaws, E.T., Schindler’s List, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Name him.
✓ Correct! John Williams. He scored every film Spielberg directed from Sugarland Express (1974) onward, with the lone exception of The Color Purple. The Jurassic main theme is one of two written for the film — the other, more action-oriented “Journey to the Island,” is the helicopter cue. Williams handed the franchise to Michael Giacchino for the Jurassic World films starting in 2015, but returned briefly to score the trailers for Dominion (2022).
✗ Wrong composer. The answer is John Williams. Hans Zimmer (The Lion King, Inception) is the other titan of the era but isn’t a Spielberg regular. Danny Elfman is Tim Burton’s go-to. James Horner scored Titanic and Avatar but not Jurassic Park. Williams is Spielberg’s near-continuous composer of choice and the man behind the cathedral-organ “Welcome” cue.
07
Dennis Nedry — the disgruntled, embezzling InGen programmer played by Wayne Knight (Seinfeld’s Newman) who’s smuggling frozen embryos off the island in a Barbasol shaving-cream can — gets stuck in his Jeep in the storm and is killed by a smaller dinosaur with a frilled neck and a black, blinding venom-spit. Name the species.
✓ Correct! Dilophosaurus. Crichton invented both the retractable neck-frill and the venom-spit — the real Dilophosaurus is closer to 20ft long with neither feature. Spielberg shrunk the on-screen version to about 4ft so Nedry would underestimate it, then dialled up the Frilled-Lizard cosplay to make the kill scene work in PG-13. The Barbasol can — reused as an Easter egg in Jurassic World — is one of cinema’s all-time great MacGuffins.
✗ Wrong dino. The answer is Dilophosaurus — the small frilled venom-spitter. Velociraptors get Muldoon (“Clever girl”) and corner Lex and Tim in the kitchen later. Compsognathus (the small “compies”) appear in The Lost World, not Jurassic Park. Gallimimus is the ostrich-like flock that stampedes past Grant and the kids: “they’re flocking this way!” Dilophosaurus is the one that kills Nedry.
08
InGen’s chain-smoking chief engineer — the one trying to reboot Nedry’s locked-down park systems from the control room, who delivers the immortal “hold onto your butts” line before flipping the breaker, and whose severed arm later falls onto Ellie Sattler in the maintenance bunker — is played by a pre-Pulp Fiction Samuel L. Jackson. Name the character.
✓ Correct! Ray Arnold. Jackson shot Jurassic Park between Patriot Games and Pulp Fiction. The famous “hold onto your butts” line was an ad-lib that became one of his signature deliveries. Hawaii’s hurricane-curtailed shooting schedule meant Jackson never got to film Arnold’s actual death scene — he was supposed to be shown being attacked by the raptors. The severed-arm gag is, to this day, one of the few jump-scares Spielberg has ever publicly admitted to enjoying putting in a film.
✗ Wrong InGen employee. The answer is Ray Arnold. Donald Gennaro is the lawyer (Martin Ferrero) eaten on the toilet by the T-rex. Robert Muldoon is the Australian game warden (Bob Peck) killed by the velociraptor with the “Clever girl” line. Henry Wu is the chief geneticist (BD Wong), the only original-cast scientist who returns for the Jurassic World films. Samuel L. Jackson plays Arnold — control-room engineer and one-line wonder.
The Verdict · Welcome to Jurassic Park Your InGen Standing
🦖
/ 8
InGen consultant — or fed to the raptors?
The dinosaurs look realistic, the suspense is built up nicely, the main characters are layered, and the sci-fi twist as to how the dinosaurs come into the story feels incredibly fresh. The End of Oak Street‘s ending even sets up what could be this franchise’s version of Jurassic Park, and I am not complaining.
The End Of Oak Street Sets Up A Jurassic Park-Like Sequel
Most of the action in The End of Oak Street takes place in the prehistoric age where dinosaurs ruled the world. That happens due to a sci-fi phenomenon that transfers the Platt family’s entire neighborhood to that time through a massive portal. However, just as this normal suburban neighborhood was taken to a different time, a huge chunk of the dinosaurs’ habitat was brought into the 1980s as a replacement. Of course, along with it came several dinosaurs. However, as Hathaway’s Denise had time to warn authorities due to the film’s time travel finale, where they came back before the transference, the dinosaurs were contained.
This is revealed through a news program, which claims that, two years after the Platts came back, the United States’ army had succeeded in capturing and containing the dinosaurs, though an answer to the portals had yet to be found. That said, the dinosaurs and the chunk of prehistoric land that came to the 1980s are still there. So, there is a chance that a sequel could come up with a similar zoo or theme park concept for the dinosaurs who were not killed by the army, thus giving The End of Oak Street its own version of Jurassic Park.
Will The End Of Oak Street Get A Sequel?
The Allosaurus in The End of Oak Street looking at Ewan McGregor
Speaking to Comicbook.com, Mitchell and producer J. J. Abrams talked about whether a sequel to The End of Oak Street could happen. While they confirm that they have discussed some ideas about where the dinosaur franchise could go next, Abrams claims that setting up sequels was not the focus of the film. According to the Star Wars franchise director, “The truth is, all we cared about was making a movie that deserved an audience, that was worth their time…and that’s all I really care about right now.” Still, The End of Oak Street could end up birthing a sequel.
It might not need one, but with the transference event still a mystery, meaning it could happen again, and dinosaurs already living in a contained area in the 1980s, the Platt family or new characters might find their way to scary situations. I guess it will all be dictated by the live-action dinosaur movie’s box office. The End of Oak Street has a reported budget of $80 million, which means it needs to land between $160 million and $200 million to break even. With a projected $18.7 million domestic opening weekend (via Variety), The End of Oak Street will need solid legs to warrant a sequel.
Release Date
August 14, 2026
Runtime
100 minutes
Director
David Robert Mitchell
Writers
David Robert Mitchell
Producers
Chris Bender, J.J. Abrams, Tommy Harper, David Robert Mitchell, Jake Weiner, Matt Jackson, Joanne Lee
