The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

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sangheiliosthel
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The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by sangheiliosthel »

Something that has become of interest to me recently is the various different 'canonical' maps of Isla Nublar given in various JP/W media across the years and how they all fit together (or rather, how they all don't).

Jurassic Park itself was rather liberal with how it portrayed its topography. The brochure and satellite maps varying greatly for no obvious reason. Fair enough given JP was more interested in telling a story than mapping out a fictional island accurately, resulting in two distinct but potentially valid possible canonical layouts for the island. An issue that was only exacerbated by JP:TG using the brochure map for its locations.

Jurassic World seemed to try to solve this problem by going 'screw it' and designing its own topography for the most part from scratch, only keeping the vague shape of Isla Nublar and changing pretty much everything other than that. Indeed going by JW (and JWFK) exclusively, the majority of locations from the original Jurassic Park are in the northern restricted sector including the T-Rex Pen (Blue's Den in JWFK) and the Visitors Centre (As per Zac and Grey's visit in JW). Whilst the shooting of the movie itself doesn't entirely follow this topography, it's clear from the fact they distributed proper topographical maps and the like that JW was intending to retcon Isla Nublar's layout entirely.

Then JWFK mucks it up again. Supposedly by accident. The Mosasaur Lagoon is inexplicably moved to the coast. Jurassic-pedia claims
This moves the lagoon closer to the ocean rather than being in-land. Per conversations on Twitter with Colin Trevorrow when people asked about this, it was always meant to be this way.
Though it seems this is a misinterpretation as Trevorrow's actual quote is.
The lagoon is in the center of the island, connected to the ocean by a canal system. The digital maps in the film are incorrect, not a retcon. My fault for missing it, I had no idea the change was made until it was too late. Hope you guys can forgive it.
Which, along with Camp Cretaceous maintaining the JW placement of the Lagoon seems to imply the JWFK placement was an accident and JWs placement was the intended one.

Just kinda curious, given the various different depictions of Nublar. What other people consider to be the 'canonical' one for them since it's clear there is no one true answer for the shape of Nublar due to the various inconsistencies.


Also as a followup, as I was bored, I modified the Jurassicpedia JP Legacy/JPTG and JW maps to create these four for my headcanon.

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JP Map, combined from the JP and JP:TG Legacy Maps on Jurassicpedia with the addition of a few locations implied to exist on JW maps in the legacy park.

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JW Park on the JP topography of Isla Nublar. Modified from the JW map on Jurassicpedia with updated locations based on the JWFK Nublar map by ANICETUS1 on the JP Wikia, plus a few I just put in without a real justification like the Tarbosaurus pen implied to exist due to JW:CC.

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JP Map on the JW topography of Isla Nublar. Combined from the JP Legacy and JP:TG maps and JW map on Jurassicpedia.

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JW map updated from the JW Jurassicpedia map using the JWFK Nublar map by ANICETUS1 on the JP Wikia, plus a few I just put in without a real justification like the Tarbosaurus pen implied to exist due to JW:CC.


None of these are 100% correct and were more just done for fun/fanfic purposes since Nublar doesn't have a consistent map and I wanted to just create a headcanon one.
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Dinos4Ever
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by Dinos4Ever »

The maps of Isla Nublar tend to be murkier than even the maps of Isla Sorna, and with far more inconsistencies even within their individual movies. I respect fans who take the time to try to reconcile these maps, because they are honestly a headache to deal with.

Personally, I try to take the maps more at face value, with the JP computer maps seen in the Control Room being the first and foremost canonical map for JP, and the ACU prop map we see throughout the film to be the one true JW Nublar map.
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sangheiliosthel
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by sangheiliosthel »

Yeah Sorna's not too bad all things considered. Just a victim of them changing maps late into development of TLW and JPIII doing whatever the hell it wanted without considering the map.

Honestly I've been having fun with the Nublar maps but yeah they are a huge mess.
Blue my beloved.
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by TyrannosaurTJ »

One of the points I've wondered about from the viral media is whether or not the implication that Nublar was terraformed by one of Masrani's subsidiaries implied indirectly during the construction/development phase of Isla Nublar for Jurassic World. I know leading up to JW on the viral site it was stated how Masrani Global acquired Timack Construction and I have personally always wondered if the indication to this is they did a bit of terraforming to Nublar over the course of the construction from 2002 onwards to 2005 as well as a more updated approach to building security/construction too for the guest/staff facilities. Then again I'm assuming this because both the island layout changes in a time span of two decades, the fact that Timack was even noteworthy enough, to begin with, and just good ol' natural erosion processes, plate tectonics, etc.

As for the shifting space of the lagoon, it hurts a bit, but I go with the JWFK layout of the island as the definitive in this case considering mostly since Trevorrow has come forward to indicate that this is "the correct layout" supposedly.

Sorna is a bit of a headache from the shift between TLW and JP3, but we have the same thing in a lot of respects happening to Nublar now from JP, JW, and JWFK.
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sangheiliosthel
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by sangheiliosthel »

I'm pretty sure Trevorrow's quote was intending to imply the JW layout was canon rather than the JWFK one. Given he says
The lagoon is in the center of the island (The location in JW), connected to the ocean by a canal system (it was connected directly in JWFK). The digital maps in the film (Was asked specifically about JWFK so this presumably refers to JWFK not JW) are incorrect, not a retcon. My fault for missing it, I had no idea the change was made until it was too late. Hope you guys can forgive it.
It is also worth nothing there that JWD doesn't commit to either lagoon location, with its stock footage of Jurassic World in the opening of the movie conspicuously avoiding the area in which the two differ. And also the fact Camp Cretaceous seems to use the original JW placement of the lagoon even during the segments set during the specimen retrieval mission in JWFK.

The terraforming is actually an interesting point and would explain the drastic shape change in the satellite layout between JP and JW. And we know at the very least the lagoon is new, so changing the island for Jurassic World wasn't off the table for Masrani Global.
Blue my beloved.
The Indominus and Indoraptor were victims and deserved better.
JPIII is overhated.

But now, there is a someone in the world who isn't him.
- Courageous and Gentle
sangheiliosthel
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by sangheiliosthel »

Just as an irrelevant update. I made more headcanon maps, the JP Brochure and JWFK Maps for both JP and JW.

Brochure JP
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Brochure JW
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JWFK JP
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JWFK JW
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For JWFK I assumed the Lagoon was a natural feature adapted into the Mosasaur Lagoon.
Blue my beloved.
The Indominus and Indoraptor were victims and deserved better.
JPIII is overhated.

But now, there is a someone in the world who isn't him.
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Dinos4Ever
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by Dinos4Ever »

sangheiliosthel wrote:
Mon Apr 03, 2023 8:59 pm
Just as an irrelevant update. I made more headcanon maps, the JP Brochure and JWFK Maps for both JP and JW.
Oh these are neat!
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by Nedryland »

I’ve always loved the map shots from the movie -

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Something I have always found interesting is just after Arnold says “hold onto your butts” as he starts the tour, the big 3D map appears to pan into a 3D image of the VC, but it’s located in, what appears to be, in a different location than where the cars light up on Arnold’s screen.

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Image
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It’s located at about 34 seconds on this link.
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by TyrannosaurTJ »

These threads always make me question my sanity, which as you know, is in a fragile and dire straight 90% of the time. :P
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sangheiliosthel
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Re: The Changing Shape of Isla Nublar

Post by sangheiliosthel »

Dinos4Ever wrote:
Tue Jul 11, 2023 3:10 pm

Oh these are neat!
Thanks. I actually went quite a bit further with the maps since then on Deviantart. I have a ton of JP/JW related maps both based off the original Jurassicpedia ones, some fan ones, and just some fun concept maps.
https://www.deviantart.com/sangheiliosthel
Blue my beloved.
The Indominus and Indoraptor were victims and deserved better.
JPIII is overhated.

But now, there is a someone in the world who isn't him.
- Courageous and Gentle
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