Plot
During the Vietnam War in 1968, a Green Beret platoon in a remote jungle valley are attacked and killed by unknown predators. In response to the unit’s disappearance, their commander, Colonel Jericho, calls in a recon unit known as Vulture Squad, which consists of Sergeant First Class Ryan Baker, second-in-command Sergeant Xavier Wise, rookie demolitions expert Leon Verne, marines Eli Taylor and Charlie Miller, and snipers Gerald Keyes and Logan Stovall. Jericho orders the squad to track down the missing Green Berets, who were on a classified mission.
After Vulture are airdropped into the valley, they begin searching for the Green Berets, finding birdlike tracks and huge feathers belonging to an unknown animal. Baker is attacked by an unseen creature, but manages to drive it away. While traveling through a cave, the squad are ambushed by a pack of Deinonychus ; they all manage to escape, but Baker and Verne are separated from the others. Meanwhile, the other members of the squad are being tracked by a Soviet squad known as the Dogs of War, consisting of Tolstoy, Nikita, Sergei, Aleksandr, and Con Nhen, a Vietnamese guerrilla fighter. As the Soviets follow the Americans' gunfire, Aleksandr is ambushed and killed by the same creature that attacked Baker.
After encountering and fleeing from a family of Tyrannosaurus , Baker and Verne are rescued by Sofia Wagner, a Soviet paleontologist, who takes them to her hideout at an abandoned research station. She explains that a variety of dinosaur species were accidentally brought into the valley by a science experiment overseen by USSR General Grigory Borodin, who had her husband and the rest of their coworkers murdered for questioning his orders. As the trio go in search of the remaining men, Sofia also identifies Baker's attacker as a larger, more dangerous species of raptor. Elsewhere, the rest of Vulture Squad are attacked by the Dogs of War, but the resulting firefight is interrupted by a flock of Quetzalcoatlus , which kill Tolstoy. Both squads flee, and the Vultures meet up with Baker, Verne, and Sofia before being attacked by more Deinonychus, which drag the injured Keyes away. He fights them off, but is attacked and badly wounded by a larger raptor, before the other Vultures arrive to save him. The raptors pursue the squad back to Sofia's research station, but they manage to escape by boat, although a dying Keyes stays behind and uses his grenades in a last stand against the raptors.
Sofia informs Vulture that Borodin's project is a particle collider, which can create wormholes through space and time, and that a malfunction during the collider's first test opened a wormhole that transported all of the valley's dinosaurs to the present. Claiming that further tests of the collider could destroy the entire planet, she convinces them to help her disable it. They travel to the north end of the valley and are attacked by another pack of Deinonychus, but Stovall sacrifices himself to draw them away from the others, and shoots himself before being eaten. As the squad arrive at the Soviet base, Borodin's soldiers encounter and kill one of the infant Tyrannosaurus, which provokes both parents into attacking the base.
As the tyrannosaurs massacre the Soviet soldiers, Vulture Squad plants explosive charges around the collider, while Baker and Sofia recruit a disillusioned Nikita and Sergei to help them. Miller is attacked by Con Nhen, but kills her along with himself by detonating his own explosives. The tyrannosaurs leave with their remaining chicks, while Sofia deactivates the collider. Jericho arrives with American reinforcements, just as the base is attacked by a large pack of raptors. The raptors kill Borodin, Nikita, and Taylor, before Baker sacrifices himself to hold them off. Sofia, Verne, Xavier and Sergei meet up with Jericho's forces and fight off the remaining raptors, before escaping as Vulture Squad's explosives destroy the collider. However, Sofia warns Jericho that the damage may already be done, as large numbers of dinosaurs have begun to migrate out of the valley.
Production
In February 2022, it was announced that Sparke Films had secured the rights to a film adaptation of the 2017 novel Primitive War: Opiate Undertow by Ethan Pettus, who helped co-write the film's script. [2] [3] Luke Sparke was announced to be directing the film. [3]
In April 2024, Ryan Kwanten, Tricia Helfer, Nick Wechsler, and Jeremy Piven were cast as the film's leads. [4] [5] Filming took place on the Gold Coast, Queensland. [6]
First look images and a poster of the film were released by Collider in August 2024. [7] Speaking on why he chose to adapt the Primitive War novel into a film, Sparke stated, "I was captivated by the imagery surrounding Ethan’s book and the story it told. I’ve worked hard on capturing that essence but also the grittiness, horror aspects and military edge. My vision is to feel like the characters have walked out of the film Platoon and into the jaws of the greatest predators the planet has ever known." [8]
