Jurassic World: Dominion roars into theaters Friday. Billed as the last film in the Jurassic World saga, some familiar faces return for the outing.
Laura Dern, Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum reunite for the first time since the first Jurassic Park film almost 30 years ago. Dern tells ABC Audio it was emotional getting the gang back together.
"We have a very strong memory of Sam with his Dr. Alan Grant hat on and Jeff as Ian Malcolm with a black leather jacket and myself climbing into a jeep together," she recalled. "The first day, the three of us were back together again, and we got in the jeep and we looked out the front view, which was the crew gathered around right before we started shooting, and we saw a bunch of crew members with tears in their eyes."
Building upon the tradition started by Steven Spielberg, Dern notes that director Colin Trevorrow "made the choice of paying homage to the work of Steven in collaboration with [effects designer] Stan Winston from the first film" by using very little CGI.
"We had predominantly practical dinosaurs," the actress says, adding that the choice is one she appreciated.
"Having a giganotosaurus in front of you, its full body coming after you, is memorable on a whole other level. It's a little more powerful than staring at an X on a piece of paper," Dern states.
Speaking of dinosaurs, Dern reveals that things were a little scarier this time around.
"I run into some creatures that may be small but are definitely more disgusting and probably your worst nightmare," she shares. "I would say Bryce Dallas Howard and I will, and Sam Neill, will never recover. So there are some new dinosaurs for sure that you will never forget."