‘Jurassic World 2’ Director Reveals ‘E.T.’ Inspiration For Brachiosaurs Death Scene

Fans who saw Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom still haven’t recovered from that tragic moment when Jurassic Park‘s iconic Brachiosaurus died a horrible, fiery, death, as Isla Nublar was consumed by volcanic lava. Well, Jurassic World 2 director J.A. Bayona may have twisted that particular knife in fans’ hearts, by revealing how another iconic Steven Spielberg film (E.T.) inspired Fallen Kingdom‘s darkest moment:

As you can see in the video above, E.T.’s light-up chest cavity was indeed the visual inspiration for the scene of the Brachiosaurus meeting its end – which is a pretty messed up association for Bayona to make, when you think about it.

E.T.‘s heart scene was a powerful moment for an entire generation of viewers – a moment that reinforced the universal language of love and friendship. It was a sweet iconic moment, which makes it a bit twisted that Bayona would want to spin that visual iconography into something as painful and upsetting as seeing one of the most iconic dinosaurs from Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park meet its end in such a terrible way. It’s almost as if Bayona wanted to murder a piece of viewers beloved childhood – and by using E.T. as a reference, he actually just killed two beloved childhood movie memories in one scene.

Now that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has earned over a billion dollars at the box office, and revealed some major game-changing revelations for the franchise, eyes are turning toward the already-scheduled Jurassic World 3. The plotlines for the film are wide open with potential, and as far as the filmmakers are willing to reveal, Jurassic World 3 will be unlike any other installment before it. That should have fans (somewhat) excited – but don’t expect the Brachiosaurus to make a return. That dino is dead.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will be on Digital HD Platforms starting on September 4th; it will be released on Blu-ray on September 18th.