CARNOSAUR 3: PRIMALSPECIES (1996)
Notes: NewHorizons. 1 hour 25 minutes. “Terror will never be extinct.”
Colonel Rance Higgins: Scott Valentine (doofusboyfriend on Family Ties)
Dr. Hodges: Janet Gunn
Polchek: Rick Dean
General Mercer: Anthony Peck
Sanders: Rodger Halston
Proudfoot: Justina Vail
Rossi: Morgan Englund
B.T. Coolidge: Terri J. Vaughn
Furguson: Billy Burnette
Produced: Roger Corman
Directed: Jonathan Winfrey
Story: Rob Kerchner
Special Effects: Magical Media Industries,Inc.
Visual Effects: Anthony Doublin
Music: Kevin Kiner.
Summary: An army convoy is attacked by terrorists with Irish accents whodiscover they have stolen a truck of seemingly frozen “fuckin’reptiles” instead of uranium. The dinosaurs attack them. One terrorist gets away; police capture him and gag this “Eurotrash”for “mumbling something about monsters.” They thenenter the dockside warehouse to find what they expect are drugsmugglers. After blood discoveries and racist comments, the policeget eaten.
An anti-terrorist special force led by ColonelRance Higgins is called in by General Mercer and they too findpieces of bodies and a refrigeration truck rather than uranium. They maneuver through warehouse boxes until two get slashed todeath by “lizards on steroids.”
The survivors learn from Dr. Hodges that theseare the last three “carnosaurs” in existence: two malevelociraptors and one female T-Rex left from the genetic reconstructionsof the prior Carnosaur movies. Higgins is peeved thatthey’re “risking our asses for a research project?” For some spurious reason, the dinosaurs need to be caught alive–ithas something to do with the potential for curing major diseases. The soldiers bitch about this assignment, but Rance says tellingly,”Quiet, this is not a democracy; we have orders.”
A massive meat shipment resides at the dock,so the three hunt in that area, meeting up with a unit of Marineswho have come as backup. Army soldier Polchek (“Monk”in Carnosaur 2) mocks Hodges and arm wrestles female MarineProudfoot who, after barely losing to Polchek, turns out to beleft-handed. Polchek is given drugs to shoot into the dinos,”enough to stop a white rhino.” They set up a lureand net trap with “the only piece of meat left inside theperimeter.” “Except us.” One of the dinos reasonsthrough the situation and almost succeeds in dragging off Polchek,but is shot down. “You sayin’ they’re getting smarter?” Hodges theorizes that the T-Rex is breeding since Polchek wasbeing dragged off, perhaps to hatchlings. The presumed-dead dinosaurgets up and rips off a head, which we see mostly through a subjectiveshot in black-and-white.
The next plan is to set off whatever structurethey’re on into the Pacific and freeze the dinosaurs somehow. When time comes to explore the lower decks of the ship, Polchekis happy to “go down into Barney Central and play in thatsandbox.” But the dinos knock out the lights and kill acouple more soldiers. The rest get to an elevator, but a dinosaurchews the cable through and they crash on the bottom level, discoveringthe nest of eggs which they begin to shoot. The T-Rex is madand rips out Polchek’s arm. Rance and Proudfoot rejoin Dr. Hodgesand Marine Rossi, split up again and rig dynamite. Rossi is eatenby the Rex; Proudfoot’s head is ripped off; and the remainingtwo shoot two of the dinosaurs. Hodges senses the T-Rex is close. She and Rance hide behind lockers which the dino head-butts. Rance throws an explosive in the mouth of the dinsosaur and itshead blows off. The two race against time to jump in the oceanbefore the ship explodes. Hydro-smarm.
Back in the police car at the Port of L.A.,the terrorist is still gagged in the back seat. A dinosaur appearsand he gag-screams.
Commentary: Like Carnosaur 2, this film is also a sort of D&D vision, but here the dungeons aren’t very intricate. The sciencemakes no sense; since the value of the dinosaurs involves theirDNA, dead dinos would actually be preferable, for obvious reasons. I have a military plan! Let’s not keep sending people down wheredinosaurs live; it just feeds them.
Male-female dynamics make no sense here, andwe get just a vague but choking cloud of misogyny. The Polchek/Proudfootarm wrestling is intercut with scenes of Rance vs. Hodges debatingthe operation. Hodges’ “women’s intuition” is partlycredited for her sensing the mother T-Rex is close by. And whywe’re supposed to think that Rance and Hodges will now emergefrom the Pacific and have a deep relationship just because noone else survived is peculiar.
The nauseating horror of the first Carnosaurfilm has been excised so that now the scientific characters merelydiscuss the DNA reconstruction of the dinosaurs. That this filmfreely uses the term “velociraptors” also suggests aJurassic Park influence.