Almost three decades ago, before he even knew he wanted to be an actor, Chris Pratt saw Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park in 1993. “I remember watching dinosaurs on screen and Sam Neil, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum just be stars and play these characters that were very impactful on me as a youngster. And then cut to today, and I am now one of the faces of this franchise!” says Pratt, who still seems to find the whole thing incredulous, even after starring in three films of the Jurassic World franchise.

The first installment, Jurassic World, came out in 2015 – when Pratt was fresh off the success of Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Lego Movie, having barely begun his innings as a Hollywood leading man – and was instrumental in catapulting him to global stardom.

Now, Jurassic World: Dominion will mark the end of this series, and this chapter of his life – a fact that he’s visibly sentimental about as he tries to sum up his feelings over a Zoom call. “I am not sure I’m able to digest what this franchise has really meant to me, and it will probably take the rest of my life for me to be able to comprehend just what an impact it has had on my life, personally and professionally,” he says.

Ahead of the film’s release, the actor talks to us about his final tryst with the dinosaurs, why big theatrical films continue to be an escape in ‘a dangerous and scary world’, and his experience of working with the late Irrfan, whom he considers to be a ‘rare combination of strength in softness’.

I think, at the time (with Jurassic World), there was a lot of pressure to get it right, to make sure that we were telling a story that deserves to be told – that it was not just a gratuitous or cynical trip back to the well... and to find a reason to tell a story in a compelling way that feels fresh. And Colin (Trevorrow, director) absolutely had that with Jurassic World. It made perfect sense. Then the second film (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) had a little bit of trouble, since it was important that we use that as a hinge to get to this point where we can actually tell this story about not a fake Jurassic World, but a real Jurassic World. In the third film, we are dealing with the proliferation of the dinosaurs around the world, and dinosaurs not just as a creature or a monster that’s dangerous, but also the genetic technology and what that could mean for a money-hungry global corporation. It’s not just about bringing back the animals – that if they get out of their cage, could eat one or two people – it’s something completely different, more diabolical. Its threat is existential. So now, we’ve really earned this story.

They essentially symbolize an existential threat... in the hands of the wrong people. I mean, these days, god, dare I say it? It resembles any sort of threat. Is it nuclear arms or the extinction of wonderful species through loss of habitat? Is it global warming? Or, sadly, is it COVID? Is it war? These days, it feels like there’s any number of existential threats that parallel this film. And all we can hope is that sometimes we can learn our lesson, and expect that in order to do so, there’ll be some suffering. And that’s part of the reason that these films really resonate, not only because of the lessons they teach, but also because the world in itself is dangerous and always has been. And amidst that it’s beautiful to take two hours and go park your a** in a theatre somewhere, in a room full of strangers that if you knew who they were, you might not even like them. But it’s one of the last, shared community experiences we all have. You’re in the dark, you’re not on your phone, you don’t know who the person next to you is. You don’t know what their politics are, what their philosophies are about life, you don’t need to know. All you know is that you’re next to each other and you’re both jumping at the same moments, you’re both laughing at the same moments, crying at the same moments – it’s a big epic film. And so, in a world that’s dangerous and scary, there’s this escape – and it’s through entertainment, art, popcorn. We could all use those two hours off our phone.

Yes, Irrfan, as Simon Masrani, the billionaire owner of the amusement park

He was just such an elegant man... like, down to his fingernails. There was just an elegance about him. He was also so powerful. It’s really a rare combination for there to be such strength in softness. And that’s what I would call elegant – he could do very little, and still he would be doing so much. Just by his sheer presence, and his sheer charisma, that he would bring to a role. One tiny flick of an eyebrow, or one tiny little move, was so powerful (sighs).

It was surreal. You know, it’s no secret, I was a big fan of Jurassic Park growing up. And Sam Neil, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum have come back! Not only is it a grand endorsement of what we have done in the previous films, but also it’s an opportunity for me to work with some of my idols. The film is epic in size, scope and scale. It has the feeling of Avengers: Infinity War or the most recent Spider-Man. We’re bringing characters back and watching them interact with one another on screen, it’s like visiting a family you haven’t seen in – you know – 30 years, and what are they up to now. At the same time, through the course of shooting the film amid really strict COVID restrictions, we all became very close, and got to know a lot about each other, developed intimate relationships with one another, the ‘real us’ – the real Chris, the real Sam, Laura, Jeff, Bryce (Dallas Howard) and all of our new wonderful cast members – we just got very close. So it’s hard to describe it all in one word – I would say, surreal, but ultimately it also comes down to ‘sentimental’. I am feeling emotional right now... as it’s coming to an end. I’m trying to savour every second.

I wouldn’t mess with any of them! (laughs) My favourites – gosh! – you know, I’m a sucker for the Velociraptor. There’s this new version of the Velociraptor called the Atrociraptor – which is just a diabolical, killing weapon. There’s a couple of really funny ones – that are kind of cute! (laughs) There’s one called a Pyroraptor – which has bright red feathers, and so it’s unlike any other dinosaur I’d seen before, and also answers this criticism that seemed to be a groundswell from certain dinosaur experts who were really hung up on the idea that none of the dinosaurs had feathers, ‘because (real) dinosaurs would have had feathers’. So they get paid off in that, like, ‘okay, there is one’ – and it’s pretty creepy looking. And then there’s the Gigantosaurus, which is the biggest land carnivore to have ever existed. It’s a lot of dinosaurs! We battle on sea, we battle on ground and we battle in air!