Part Three: The "Long Neck" Dinosaurs: A Complete Cinematic History

Dinosaurs in Film: The Long Neck

 

The Return of Brontosaurus (2000’s-present)

 

It comes full circle! One of the best nonfiction books I’ve read in the past few years was My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs by Brian Switek. He goes into detail about the whole Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus confusion, and towards the end, discusses how the name Brontosaurus might not be a dead name after all. Sure, the dinosaur might still be dead, but in 2015 paleontologists reclassified the remains that had reverted to Apatosaurus and determined it was distinct enough from Apatosaurus to be its own species. And so it came to be that Brontosaurus was brought back into the fold. The skull of the original was still wrong, but the name was back in action, still referring to a large long-necked sauropod—so, yeah, now it’s even more confusing. Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus are different dinosaurs, but both are long necks, and neither have rounded heads. They held their necks more or less horizontal (they aren’t all bendy like early depictions made it seem), their tails were held off the ground, and they walked the prehistoric landscape without the need to float around in swamps or lakes. Armed with new knowledge, filmmakers began changing the public’s perception of these giants, and would continue to do so.

The 21^st century was a new age for sauropods on the big screen, and the made-for-TV remake of The Lost World (2001) included a Diplodocus this time instead of Brontosaurus—although, really, you could call this sauropod any one of the three names. The cgi model was based on the Diplodocus design from the BBC miniseries Walking With Dinosaurs, so I guess we’ll go with that one. Brachiosaurus came back in a different TV movie, Dinotopia (2002), and worked as a bus in the prehistoric utopia—not as a bus driver, as the actual vehicle. The old Brontosaurus wasn’t done yet, though: it appeared in Anonymous Rex (2004) and again in Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005), the latter being the one worth noting. This species, which is technically a fictional one (Brontosaurus baxteri), was specifically designed to be evocative of the now-outdated designs from The Age of Brontosaurus, and the original Kong’s Bronto in particular, of course. They feature in a sequence that’s very different from the 1933 film: a whole herd are chased by the fictional Venatosaurus (raptor-like predators) and they really go through hell, crashing into valley walls, tumbling over cliffs (likely a reference to the 1925 Lost World), and, finally, tripping and falling into a massive pile at the bottom of a hill.  

I have a few questions. First, how can such a giant creature run so fast and so easily? This has to be the fastest live-action long neck ever. Second, Skull Island isn’t that big, so I can’t imagine there are many other herds of Brontosaurus left alive other than the one the rescue party stumbles upon. Does that mean the species is effectively extinct after this stampede? Because I don’t think the number that survive both the crumbling cliff and the dog pile at the end would be enough for a breeding population. And finally, how did any of the rescuers survive this? There are literally millions of tons of flesh running and falling among them, and only a few guys get squished! Truly a miracle. This whole sequence is totally over-the-top, but still very entertaining.

The legend of Mokele-mbembe was the subject of another dinosaur adventure film, The Dinosaur Project (2012), but this time around the cryptid is thought to be a plesiosaur (long-necked marine reptile) rather than a brontosaur. We do get a glimpse of a generic sauropod, though. Maybe it’s a Brontosaurus, who knows anymore? Jurassic World (2015) neglected to bring back Brachiosaurus again but did include Apatosaurus. The full-body creature was created using cgi and an animatronic neck and head played into one of the film’s more emotional scenes, where the main characters comfort the animal before it dies, having been fatally wounded by the Indominus Rex. It’s interesting an Apatosaurus was chosen over the Brach for this scene, since audiences would’ve already been familiar with it from the original movie and likely found it more emotional (plus make the Indominus even more detestable) but I guess they were saving the Brach for an even more emotionally devastating scene in the sequel.

Before we get to that Brach scene, there’s another long neck from Disney Pixar that took the leading role in The Good Dinosaur (2015). The story was a little different than previous films to mix cavemen and dinos; in this alternate history, the asteroid impact didn’t occur 65 million years ago, so no mass extinction meant continued evolution. The youthful Apatosaurus named Arlo was designed to look distinct, and he is—he doesn’t look or act like Little Foot or Paula or Dino, but he also feels like an outdated depiction, and not in the same appealing way Peter Jackson’s long necks were in his Kong remake. The filmmakers tried to make Arlo tug at the heartstrings of viewers young and old, but it wasn’t a huge success.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) brought back a whole bunch of dinosaurs, plus introduced a few new ones, most of them shown as the island explodes into an angry volcano and the resurrected creatures flee for their lives. Before that scene, we get to see Brachiosaurus again, and even though the cgi somehow doesn’t seem as good as it did in 1993, it’s still a joy to see the old girl again. As the characters take off with their ship full of surviving creatures, the remains of Jurassic World burn up in a cloud of volcanic dust—along with the poor Brachiosaurus! They milk it for all its worth. The Brach cries out and disappears in a smoky silhouette, symbolizing the true death of the original Jurassic Park. It’s even been confirmed that this particular individual is supposed to be the same Brachiosaurus from the original film. What a tragic, heartbreaking end for the first dinosaur ever seen in the franchise.

Palm Springs (2020) stars Brachiosaurus too, for some reason. That’s all I’ve got.

So what’s next for the long neck dinosaurs? Is it time for the beginning of a new age? With Brontosaurus back from the dead, Brachiosaurus back to being dead in the Jurassic Park franchise, and Apatosaurus returning for Jurassic World: Dominion (2022), who knows what Hollywood will have up their sleeve. As evidenced by the variety of stories and roles they have appeared in so far, we could see new species make cinema debuts, like the sail-back Amargasaurus, the armored Saltasaurus, or Argentinosaurus: one of the largest animals to ever walk the earth, estimated to measure over one hundred feet long. Whenever we do see another long neck live again on the big screen, hopefully it makes for an awe-inspiring experience.