With the latest Jurassic World Rebirth just hitting theaters, there’s no better time to revisit the entire Jurassic Park saga. Here’s the best Jurassic Park watch order to get the most out of the films.
What’s the best order to watch the Jurassic Park movies in?
As is often our preference, the best order to watch Jurassic Park is in release order. But if you’re planning to watch all the canonical Jurassic Park films and series in chronological order, the timeline shifts a bit. It would go: Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Jurassic Park III, Jurassic World, Camp Cretaceous (an animated series that runs parallel in time to the Jurassic World), Fallen Kingdom, Battle at Big Rock (a short film), Dominion, Chaos Theory (another animated series), and finally Jurassic World: Rebirth.
For the sake of brevity, we’ve left the TV series out of the watch order and stuck with the Jurassic Park movies. Still, if you’re really into dinosaurs, go for it.
Jurassic Park (1993)
There are blockbusters, there are classics, and then there are classic blockbusters that define an era of movie magic. Maybe one of the most iconic movies of the ’90s, Jurassic Park was directed by Steven Spielberg, who — fun fact — got into a bidding war with Aliens director James Cameron for the rights to adapt it. Spielberg won, and the rest is cinematic history. The script was written by sci-fi author Michael Crichton (based on his own novel) along with legendary screenwriter David Koepp.
Set on an island near Costa Rica, the story follows wealthy entrepreneur John Hammond, who has built a theme park featuring real, genetically engineered dinosaurs. Of course, things don’t stay under control for long, thanks to a little industrial sabotage from a disgruntled computer programmer, played by Wayne Knight. The dinosaurs break loose, and a group of visitors has to survive a prehistoric nightmare. Fortunately, they have the help of a savvy paleontologist to help them stay alive.
The movie was a huge success, thanks in large part to Spielberg’s direction and the CGI that brought the dinosaurs to life in a way never seen before. The cast was also stacked, with Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello, and BD Wong rounding out the ensemble. Okay, fine, we’ll rewatch Jurassic Park with you.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
“Mom, Dad – there’s a dinosaur in our backyard.” I might be paraphrasing a bit, but that moment is still seared into my brain from 1997. And it’s just one of many unforgettable moments from this sequel. This is, of course, an objective statement, but The Lost World was a good movie. Maybe even the second-best Jurassic Park movie. I’ll stand by that, even if the ratings aren’t glowing.
Fortunately, this sequel didn’t fall into the copy-and-paste-of-the-original-with-a-new-setting-or-time-period trap. It brings in fresh ideas and takes on a much darker tone than the first film. The Lost World gives us more than a few moments of high tension, similar to the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park. It also brings raptors. A lot of raptors. In addition to Spielberg’s direction, The Lost World features a great ensemble cast, including Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn, the late great Pete Postlethwaite, and returning favorites Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough.
Jurassic Park 3 (2001)
Sam Neill and Laura Dern are back in Jurassic Park 3, this time with Joe Johnston in the director’s chair. After the traumatic events of the first film, Dr. Alan Grant gets roped into an aerial tour of Isla Sorna (Site B) by Paul and Amanda Kirby (William H. Macy and Téa Leoni), a divorced couple who pretend they want to fund his research. In reality, they’re searching for their son, who went missing on the island.
Grant agrees to the trip, not realizing the Kirbys are planning to search the island for their son. Against his advice (and definitely against his will), they land the plane, but due to some very unfortunate circumstances, they can’t quite get it back off the ground. As a result, the group ends up stranded on a dinosaur-infested island, just trying to survive.
While this one feels like a faster-paced, “everyone get off the island alive” kind of sequel, it gives us new dinosaurs and very entertaining survival moments. We even get a Spinosaurus vs. T. Rex showdown.
Jurassic World (2015)
Set twenty years after the events of Jurassic Park, Isla Nublar has evolved into a luxury resort and dinosaur theme park called Jurassic World. But, like all theme parks, you’ve got to keep finding ways to bring the crowds back. So, of course, the answer is introducing a genetically modified dinosaur that’s bigger, faster, smarter, and scarier: the Indominus rex. When the exceptionally smart dinosaur — that’s an understatement and part of the “stop messing with nature” theme — escapes her enclosure, park operations manager Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) ultimately teams up with velociraptor trainer Owen (Chris Pratt) to stop the Indominus before it destroys everything.
Though this one has received some mixed reviews, mainly because the dinosaurs are portrayed more as monsters hunting for sport than wild animals. Specifically, when compared to Jurassic Park, where even at their worst, the dinosaurs just felt like wild animals. Albeit hungry animals, with humans unfortunately on the menu. But certainly not sci-fi monsters. Jurassic World addresses themes of human arrogance and the consequences of profiting from animals. It’s still a fun watch and delivers a nice homage to the original while introducing Jurassic Park to a new generation.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
After Jurassic World was destroyed, the dormant volcano on the island began to show signs that it might erupt. Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt return as their respective characters, with Claire convincing former dinosaur trainer Owen and wealthy dino enthusiast Eli (Rafe Spall) to rescue them. They soon discover that the dinosaurs aren’t just at risk of extinction, but they may also be sold on the black market in an auction attended by the top 0.1% of the population: billionaires, arms dealers, and Texas oil magnates. It’s shocking how low the price tag for these dinosaurs would be. Ten million for a dinosaur is laughable, considering a racehorse sold for 70 million. Small details in this movie repeatedly make you go “hmmm.” Anyway, I digress.
The movie can feel too long, with a plot that drags on and on, and some questionable scientific accuracy regarding certain dinosaurs. Still, the opening sequence is exceptionally memorable and one of the best moments to watch in the entire Jurassic Park saga — peak dinosaur horror.
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
We finally get the lead casts from each Jurassic Park era teaming up. Four years after Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs once again freely roamed the Earth. I don’t know how these overgrown bird lizards feel about snow, but they seem to be managing. As anyone would expect from creatures that were meant to exist millions of years apart, this uneasy coexistence eventually disintegrates. At the same time, Claire and Owen are living off the grid, protecting Maisie Lockwood, a human clone, while a shady biotech company, BioSyn, causes a global crisis with genetically engineered locusts. The original Jurassic Park trio — Ellie, Grant, and Malcolm —reunite to expose BioSyn, and they cross paths with Claire, Owen, and the raptors.
Despite the movie’s mixed reviews, Jurassic World: Dominion successfully wraps up thirty years of filmmaking and unites both the original trilogy and the Jurassic World eras in one epic finale. And, of course, it still raked in over $1 billion worldwide, which is more than enough for Universal to greenlight at least one more installment with Jurassic World: Rebirth.
Do I need to watch the Netflix Jurassic Park series?
If you’re trying to complete the whole Jurassic Park experience, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous is worth a watch. Although not necessary to understand what’s going on in the order of events, it does add a great deal of depth to the Jurassic World storyline. The series follows a group of teens stranded on Isla Nublar during the events of the first Jurassic World movie,
This animated series is kid-friendly but gets darker as it goes on. If you’re a saga completionist or maybe someone who can’t help but love dinosaurs, it’s definitely worth watching.
