November 28, 2025
Michael and I love the movies. We actually go to movie theaters! Recently, we had a half dozen grandchildren at the house so we all went to see…Jurassic World Rebirth! Attendance was voluntary in case you’re wondering if we’re torturing the kids. They were all in. Grim little offsprings, for sure.
I don’t know if this is reprehensible or weird, but there is some kind of grandpa admiration for grandkids who are happily chomping candy and snacks while the dinosaur on the screen is doing the same thing…
The story follows an expedition team to isolated equatorial regions to extract DNA from three massive prehistoric creatures for a medical breakthrough…a vaccine that will cure heart disease.
OK, so we’re all pretty used to the Hollywood left bias and I have become especially sensitive to be preached at from a big screen at which I’ve spent $284 on popcorn to watch. Not to mention the $325 in drinks, about half of which wind up spilled in various configurations by the kids. NEVER buy a six-year old a Big Gulp. Nothing like watching $20 worth of some hideous sugar drink arc through the air in a spectacular gravity defined journey, glistening as it turns and spreads until it meets…
“Terribly sorry! Oh gosh. I really, really am. Here is my card, please send me the dry-cleaning bill and also buy a new shirt and I’ll pay for that too. Wow. A gallon of Frosty Slurpee. Woo boy!”
Now I will also confess the guilty pleasure of watching dinosaurs skip the ketchup and the hot sauce and get right down to treating slow-running people dressed in khaki like Chicken McNuggets. I don’t have to amplify that for you. You don’t go to a dinosaur movie in which humans come in close proximity with 25-ton nightmares from the Jurassic Era, because you’re wondering if dinosaur spit will permanently stain explorer fashion. Just to set expectations.
OK so it delivers on that, but here is where I went sideways with it:
After spending enough investor money to buy a small country, after risking life and limb to get the goods, after watching colleagues meet what I’ll call interesting up-close moments with a T-Rex, what do the survivors do? They decide to give away the medicine for free, for the good of humanity. Screw over ParkerGenix, the company risking its future on the Hail Mary pass of vaccine developed by sticking your hand down the throat of a slathering beast the size of an 18-wheeler with a brain the size of a walnut.
“Help Wanted. Adventuresome spirits seeking close encounters with prehistoric carnivores. No guns allowed. Waiver attached, 146 signatures, Docusign.”
You know, on occasion, back in the day, I would be hired by people who had the kind of money needed to fling on long shot, quadruple digit return potential risks. I didn’t sell that kind of service, but I dream:
Me: So, I’ve got a world class speculation for you.
He: Tell me more!
Me: A cure for heart disease that will revolutionize medicine.
He: Wow! What’s the down stroke?
Me: Ten (as in millions) with a potential call of ten more to start.
He: That it?
Me: Well, it could be another hundred from you depending.
He: That’s serious, but I’m definitely interested!
Me: Uhhh, one small teeny detail…
He: (his coffee cup suddenly stops mid-air) And what might that be?
Me: If we’re successful…(gulp) we’re going to give it away for free.
He: First, you’re fired. Second, you’re fired. And third, you’re fired.
Now it’s very nice, you know, give it away for free. But I ask, how much money will eventually be raised for things that pretty much guarantee you lose all your money and if successful, your return will be zero if you give away the return? I leave it to my readers to punish their four function calculators on that one, come up with your own estimates.
The hypocrisy on the part of the movie producers is epic…”We’re asking you to put up $200 million to fund a dinosaur movie but we’re going to take the ticket receipts and give them away. You in?”
Well, it’s the script, right? Corporations are evil; they profit from people’s misery; they deserve whatever punishment they get. Including stealing their products.
You know me. I feel that people are free to form corporations, they are free to risk their money on endless long shots and they are free to profit if they win and they are free to get wiped out if it doesn’t work out. And we are all free to buy or not to buy their products. I think that’s a fair deal, all around.
Now, we are also free to buy the stock and if we lose our investment, everyone else is free to observe and be glad it wasn’t them.
“We hope you invest in our company, ticker symbol DRUG, but just know we give away all our revenue.”
Well, this movie to me is low-level propaganda screen-wise. And it’s everywhere but we always don’t notice because we just kind of get carried along in movies or TV shows or musicals or whatever. I thought they ruined the movie with the propaganda gotcha at the end.
In a subsequent piece, I’m going to discuss Wicked and the Wizard of Oz. I think you’ll be quite amazed at the political messages behind the original Frank Baum novels about Oz (there were perhaps 10 or 12). And I will contrast and compare Baum’s political message with the politics in Wicked and the sequel.
But for now, I’m just saying that we watch movies to be entertained, not preached to. We watch them to revel in the technique of our favorite actors and actresses, snappy dialogue, memorable moments. It’s supposed to entertain us, not fork over turgid half-baked and tired political themes.
As a public service, here below is a chronicle of pharma companies that have gone bankrupt just in 2025. The odds are long on drug development. When you see the gore in these numbers, it’s good to remember the next time someone wants it all for free. Full disclosure, this is AI generated, but is not opinion but rather, the facts.
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/ec9dbfb5-faa7-4eb7-8a39-dc13e85fa4f3
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
