Jurassic World Velociraptor Pack

"'Ooh, ah,' that's how it always starts. But then later there's running and screaming."   This page contains spoilers from an upcoming, or newly released installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. If you don't want spoilers, leave the page!

The pack. From left to right: Charlie, Delta, Blue, and Echo.

The Jurassic World Velociraptor Pack, popularly known by their fanon name the Raptor Squad, also known as Blue's pack, was a pack of four Velociraptors that lived in the Jurassic World theme park. The members consisted of Blue, Delta, Echo and Charlie.

Story

Background

When the Velociraptor species was first cloned by InGen for Jurassic Park, much was revealed about the animal that wasn't apparent from just bones. This included their aggressive predatory nature and high intellignece which ranged from problem solving to complex communication. Alan Grant's theories on the Velociraptor were confirmed true during the Jurassic Park Incident and later on expedition to Isla Sorna leading raptors to be well known for this.

Simon Masrani would later acquire InGen in 1998 and begin construction on a new park, Jurassic World. He however did not have velociraptors as a main attraction due to their nature. Masrani however did attempt bringing a captured female Velociraptor from Isla Sorna in 2004, one year before the park opened. The animal however escaped confinement and killed intern Justin Hendricks and was then put down by Claire Dearing (at the time an intern as well). Raptors were thus no longer considered for public viewing in a main exhibit.

However their potential as weapons was considered by members of InGen. InGen Security leader Vic Hoskins wished to apply the Velociraptor's intelligence and problem solving minds for warfare and use as "attack dogs" under command of human beings. To that end, Hoskins and InGen Security hired US Navyman and Animal Behaviorist Owen Grady to help raise and train potential Velociraptors for warfare. Despite not agreeing with Hoskins' goals, Owen accepted the job and worked on site at Jurassic World's Restricted Area. A large "arena" was designed to house the Velociraptors here as well. Owen also brought on his longtime friend Barry Sembène to assist in raising the raptors.

Secretly, Dr. Henry Wu also had his own ambitions for the raptors trained by Grady. The study was to determine what traits could be designed in the lab or inherited. This would then be used to design a new hybrid animal that Wu and Hoskins hoped could obey human commands and be the ultimate living weapon.

Creation

The Jurassic World Velociraptor Pack, was created by InGen for the IBRIS Project, sometime before or during 2015, with Blue, and three other unknown raptors being the first to be created. Sadly, the three died, and Blue was the only surviver. After this, Delta, Echo, and Charlie were cloned and introduced to Blue. Each raptor had the DNA of other animals in their genes with Blue having Black-throated monitor lizard, Charlie having Green Iguana, and Delta having the DNA of birds. When they were born, Owen Grady imprinted on them, which allowed him to train them. They lived in the Raptor Research Arena where they were trained by Owen Grady and were taken care of by Barry. Owen taught them over 40 commands. Always on the hunt, they were not yet trained for public display, only being 73% trained.

Much of Owen's research in raptor behavior was recorded in a series of video logs with much of it taken during the infancy of the raptors. In one recording, Owen tested Delta for signs of empathy when he faked being sad and lowered his guard. Delta attacked Owen thus showing him she wasn't an empathetic raptor that could obey human commands. Owen would later test Blue who was designed differently from her siblings and Blue much to Owen's surprise, showed signs of empathy when nuzzling her head on Owen.

Another instance recorded was when Owen was trying to get all four baby raptors in line and only Blue was standing at attention while Charlie, Delta, and Echo ran around wildly. Blue, sensing that her sisters needed to obey, called out to them (as adult raptors talk to other raptors) which led the three raptors to suddenly obey Owen's command. Owen was surprised at this and saw a breakthrough in the research via Blue's unique empathy and leadership.

Sometime during their youth, Blue and Echo fought for dominance over the pack with Blue being the victor. The result of this fight not only gave Echo a permanent scar across her face but dislocated her jaw. Due to her permanent sneer, some of the Jurassic World dinosaur handlers nicknamed her "Elvis".

Jurassic World

In 2015, Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo were fully grown adult Velociraptors. The four had at this point greatly bonded with Owen Grady but were still dangerous animals with instincts to kill and be wild. Despite obeying Owen almost perfectly (as observed by outsiders), Owen stressed that he could not put his guard down due to the danger they posed.

Owen trains the Raptor pack and after successfully getting the group to hold position and not kill a pig they were chasing, Barry congradulates Owen. Vic Hoskins arrives to also congradulate Owen but is also there to request a test of the raptors abilities in the field. Owen doesn't agree as they're still dangerous but Vic argues that Owen has established a firm bond with the animals. Barry scoffs at Vic wanting to have raptors be used by militaries as Vic thinks humans can totally control the animals. Owen agrees with Barry and finds Vic's talk to be crazy. 

Seconds after finishing his conversation with Hoskins, new employee Leon, falls into raptor paddock (after trying to catch a loose pig that gets eaten by the raptors). Despite Barry's warnings, Owen goes into the paddock and saves Leon by commanding the raptors face to face. He then has Barry close the gate and Owen backs away before turning back and rolling under it as the raptors strike and hit the cage bars. Hoskins later visits the raptors while they are examined by Barry and he even is able to pet Delta while she's secured. Delta specifically begins to harbor a dislike towards Hoskins but is calm alongside Barry.

The raptors remain in their paddock for much of the events during the Jurassic World incident but are later secured by Hoskins and InGen Security in order to use them to hunt down the escaped dinosaur Indominus rex.

Owen arrives soon after to take charge and leads the raptors on motorcycle into the jungle to hunt down the I. rex. In spite of his warnings, the raptors run alongside him and follow his lead.

The raptors manage to find the Indominus in the jungles of Nublar and are followed by Owen, Barry, and InGen Security's mercenaries. However the Indominus begins communicating to the four raptors and Owen realizes to his horror that the I. rex also has Velociraptor DNA in it. The raptors then turn on the humans leading the mercs to shoot at the dinosaurs, with the Indominus taking command as the alpha of the raptors.

The raptors hunt down the humans in the jungle and kill most of them. Owen runs into Charlie who briefly acknowledges and does not attack Owen but is then killed by a stray shot from a bazooka. Barry is cornered by Blue in a log but he is saved by Owen who leads her, Delta, and Charlie away on an four wheel drive.

The raptors follow one InGen soldier to the Raptor paddock and attack the medical van driven by Claire Dearing . Echo jumps into the drivers seat but is too big and falls out of the vehicle. Delta tries getting ino the back of the van where Zach and Gray Mitchell are. The two boys however use a fire extinguisher to knock out the raptor sending it into the road. The family manages to reunite with Owen at the Innovation Center but are found by Delta who turns on Hoskins (whom the group ran into in Wu's secret lab) and kills him. She gives chase to the four humans but Gray manages to distract her with the hologram of a Dilophosaurus.

Owen, Claire, Zach, and Gray are then immediately cornered in the middle of Main Street by Blue, Delta, and Echo. Owen (after witnessing Charlie seemingly acknowledge him earlier) tries to re-affirm his bond with Blue. Blue allows Owen to touch her and remove her camera strap from her head right as the Indominus arrives. The Indominus orders Blue and her sisters to kill the humans but Blue, realizing where her priorities lie, turns on the Indominus. The hybrid then strikes Blue knocking her out cold before engaging in a fight against Delta, Echo, and Owen who shoots at the Indominus. The hybrid however kills both raptors easily before pursuing Owen and Zach and Gray in a small gift shop kiosk.

After Claire brings the Isla Nublar Tyrannosaurus rex to help fight the Indominus, Blue reawakens and joins the fight by charging at a surprised Indominus. As the hybrid is distracted she is bitten and tackled by the rex into a nearby building. Both raptor and T. rex fought together to push the Indominus closer towards the water. The Indominus, now greatly injured by the two, let out one last roar until the Mosasaurus leaped from the water and bit down on the hybrid's neck. The marine reptile then pulled the hybrid into the sea finally ending her terror.

Immediately after this, the T. rex spares Blue and the humans and walks off, now free. Blue briefly acknowledges Owen who dissaproves of her recent actions. But Blue goes off into the ruins of Jurassic World and calls out to other raptors. 

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Blue was revealed to be the last living raptor in 2018. The last of the raptor pack, she managed to survive on her own for three years in the now wild Isla Nublar. She was the key target of Eli Mills, the head of the Lockwood Estate, and Henry Wu who sought to use her as the template for a new dinosaur hybrid: The Indoraptor. They hired Claire Dearing, Owen Grady, and Ken Wheatley to help capture Blue, with Wheatley betraying Owen and the Dinosaur Protection Group and leaving Owen, Claire, and Franklin Webb to die on Nublar and kidnapping paleo-veterinarian Zia Rodriguez.

Blue's life was saved by Zia, Claire, Owen, and Franklin while aboard the S.S. Arcadia who pefroemed a blood transfusion (with said blood acquired from the Nublar Tyrannosaurus). Later on, Blue was taken - along with the rest of the captured Nublar Dinosaurs to Lockwood Manor, the home of Sir Benjamin Lockwood. Blue kept in her own cage alongside a handcuffed Zia in Dr. Wu's lab. As Wu had the lab evacuated (due to Owen and an escaped Stygimoloch sabotaging the auctioning of the dinosaurs) he ordered Zia to get him Blue's blood samples which led Zia to revealing the "genetic purity" he wanted from Blue was now impure due to the blood transfusion. Blue was then freed by Zia who was freed by Franklin (disguised as a lab assistant) and Blue saved Zia and Franklin from two mercenaries. However the fight resulted in the rupturing of a tank of toxic gas.

Blue would later manage to find Owen in the room of Maisie Lockwood where he and the young girl were being threatened by the Indoraptor. The two dinosaurs immediately fought each other and Owen and Zia escaped. Blue managed to hold off the hybrid but was beaten back and the Indoraptor pursued the humans to the rooftops. Owen and Claire attempted to trick the Indoraptor into falling through the glass roof top to kill the animal, but the Indoraptor managed to hold on. As it stood up however, Blue returned and jumped at the Indoraptor leading the two to fall below into Lockwood's Museum Parlor. The Indoraptor was impaled by the skull of a ceratopsian and was killed while Blue was spared and ran off after roaring in victory.

After Maisie Lockwood released the remaining captured dinosaurs into the wilderness, Blue reunited with the humans in front of Lockwood's Mansion. Blue did not attack them and she and Owen briefly re-connected as Owen accepted caring for and responsibility for Blue. However as Owen promised to keep Blue safe, Blue realized he meant putting her back in captivity and she took off once again to the wild, now free in North America. In search of more of her kind, Blue ran away from the California redwoods and made it to a rocky desert area just outside of a suburban neighborhood. She let out more cries as the sun rose up on a new world.

Members

• Blue (beta)

Former

• Charlie (deceased)
• Delta (second-in-command, deceased)
• Echo (deceased)
• Indominus rex (former alpha; deceased)
• Owen Grady (former alpha)

Gallery

Blue roars at the I. rex.

The pack as infants.

Behind the scenes

The Raptor Squad first appeared in 2015's Jurassic World. The concept of velociraptor's being trained is not entirely brand new to the Jurassic Franchise as its earliest depictions can be seen in works such as Topps Jurassic Park Comics. However, the Raptor Squad is the first instance of canonical trained velociraptor's in the film series.

The idea was partly an invention of Steven Spielberg who marked the idea as one of the key elements that needed to be in Jurassic World. In prior scripts of what was "Jurassic Park IV", earlier forms of a squad of velociraptors appear. In one early draft, the raptors are given names inspired by ancient Greek characters and are used in military situations such as combating terrorists. In another concept, trained raptors were achieved via a hybrid creature that was part raptor, part dog, and part human. A famous concept art also depicted a "raptor-man" which had a cybernetic gun for an arm.

On screen, the raptors were portrayed majorly via CGI. On set, scenes were shot with performance capture actors who dressed in gray performance capture suits and fake raptor heads. They mimicked and performed the basic movements of the raptors for actors to interact with and look at. The raptors were then rendered and added into scenes which made it seem like actors were actually interacting with real animals.

In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Blue was portrayed by CGI but was also portrayed by a lifesize animatronic puppet for the middle of the film. Puppeteers performed Blue's movements for her head, arms, and legs and tail while actors interacted with the animatronic. This was one of the key pieces of special effects praised by audiences and critics all around.

In an early storyboard, the raptors were sometimes seen being used to pull modernized chariots. In one such instance, a raptor chariot was used inside the Gyrosphere Valley where it became turned over and the raptors were freed. During the Indominus hunt in the night, no raptors were killed like in the final film and all of the members of the pack, including the Indominus, participated in chasing Claire and her nephews. It is also possible the Velociraptors lived in the cut Raptor Den in an earlier draft of Jurassic World.

Trivia

• In early trailer releases for Jurassic World, the pack lacked headsets during their hunt of the escaped I. rex.
• While not officially liscenced as such, the name "Raptor Squad" has remained popular in use by fans and promotional materials such as Jurassic World's social media. 
• As the character of Owen Grady is stated to be a former Navyman, the velociraptor pack was given names that are actually part of the NATO phonetic alphabet. Blue, Charlie, Delta, and Echo are B, C, D, and E respectively while Owen acts as the "Alpha" which is A. Blue however has a unique name as the NATO phonetic of B is "Bravo". This reflects her unique nature and role as a key character.