65 Thoughts About 65, Adam Driver’s Sci-fi Dinosaur Film

1. Let’s get this out of the way: 65 isn’t really a dinosaur film. Starring Adam Driver and released in 2023, 65 is an apocalyptic survival story where the occasional reptilian monster shows up to ruin Adam Driver and his adoptive daughters’ day. There are dinosaurs, but they aren’t the stars of the film.
2. This may have contributed to why I wasn’t clamouring to see this film. The other reason was the appearance of the dinosaurs in the trailer; they aren’t perfect representations of extinct species (I know; I’m a stickler).
3. The movie never makes it clear if the dinosaurs we are looking at are supposed to be taken seriously or not. Are they supposed to imitate real dinosaurs? Or are they mutants, like the dinosaurs of King Kong?
4. The lack of a clear answer to the above question made it hard to review this movie. If the directors were going for realistic dinosaurs, I could rip it to shreds. If not, it defeats the purpose. I think I’ll straddle the line here.
5. Another reason for not being enthused: the title. It’s common knowledge that dinosaurs died 66 million years ago, not 65. Was there a scientific advisor on staff?
6. Plus, 65 is a generic title. 65 million years ago ­– which is on the bloody title card during the movie – is much more intriguing.
7. I feel like this movie had a poor promotional effort. All advertisements and promotional materials didn’t push the Kylo Ren vs Dinosaurs card, instead making it out to be a generic action movie.

8. It didn’t help that the paleo community had a very lukewarm response. Even films like Jurassic World: Dominion had support from the paleo community. It seemed like most people didn’t care for 65.
9. On to the movie! 65 revolves around an alien pilot (whose name I forget – just gonna call him Adam Driver) going on an expedition into space and crash landing on Earth mere days before the asteroid strikes to end the Cretaceous. Not a bad start!
10. The name of Adam Driver’s alien planet is Somaris, which I don’t believe has any meaning. There’s no connection to prehistory, paleontology, or dinosaurs; the closest I can find is the Italian word Somari which means donkey/jackass. Nice!
11. The geology of Somaris is fascinating, at least. Oliver pointed out that the shape of the giant mountains means the planet has lava flows, which means it has igneous and metamorphic rocks too. Basic sedimentary principles are apparently universal!
12. Has Adam Driver entered his DILF phase?
13. Adam Driver teaches his daughter how to make a bird call with her hands, but what birds is he basing the call on?
14. Five minutes in, we have our first illusion of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. I honestly was expecting it to come sooner…
15. Pretty tame spaceship design. I wanted to cut it some slack for being aerodynamic, but why would a spaceship need to be aerodynamic?

16. The fact that Adam Driver passed out mid-flight and led his spaceship straight into an asteroid field tells me he might not be a good pilot.
17. Once again, the design for Adam Driver’s spacesuit is way too bland!
18. The blood pooling through the crack in the spaceship is cool but was immediately ruined when Adam Driver opens the door, and nothing is behind it. Did the blood mysteriously spawn in for dramatic effect?
19. While it isn’t clear where Adam Driver is supposed to have landed, my assumption would be that it’s the infamous Hell Creek Formation of Montana, home to Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, and of course, T. rex.
20. If this is true, 65 did a solid job portraying Hell Creek’s environment. Paleontologists know the area was littered with swamps and forests, the same terrain Adam Driver meanders through upon his initial landing.

21. Even if the atmosphere of Earth is breathable to Adam Driver, wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep his suit on for protection? He doesn’t know what’s waiting for him out there!
22. The first sign of dinosaurs is a clutch of hatched eggs Adam Driver nearly steps on. While this is supposed to build fear and tension, the reality is that chick-sized dinosaur hatchlings wouldn’t have been too much of a threat to a typical human, let alone Adam Driver with alien rifles.
23. Ooh, a T. rex footprint! How scary. One thing to note is that the footprint is inaccurate, as the 2^nd and 4^th digits of the foot (the outside toes) appear to be longer than the 3^rd (middle) digit, which isn’t something observed in Tyrannosaurids. Maybe I’m just nitpicking for the sake of filling out 65 thoughts…
24. Why would Adam Driver have a panic attack at the sight of a single footprint? For all he knows, a friendly vegetarian made that footprint on its way to chow down on some swamp veggies.
25. THE TITLE CARD SHOWS UP 20+ MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE???
26. Why would they include the “visitor crash-landed on Earth” line in the title card as if we hadn’t seen the first twenty minutes??
27. I hate that multiple tornadoes are overhead as if we are watching a Roland Emmerich disaster movie. Dinosaurs did not have to deal with considerably (if any) more tornadoes than we do!
28. Adam Driver left one daughter on his home planet and adopted a new daughter on Earth. What, was Pedro Pascal seriously too busy for this movie??

29. While exploring the strange terrain (mountains and swamps next to each other?), Adam Driver picks up a large theropod claw. It’s probably just a T. rex, given its proximity to a Tyrannosaurus skeleton. However, I think the creators wanted it to look like a raptor claw. If so, no raptors approached that size!
30. On that topic, the film uses a realistic T. rex skull to stand in for the carcass. This just adds confusion to the story, given the bizarre appearance of the T. rex later in the film. I guess this movie doesn’t know if it wants to be realistic or not…
31. Apparently, the skeleton connected to the T. rex skull is a Woolly Mammoth?? Talk about opening a whole other bag of confusing worms…

32. The first glimpse of real dinosaurs is a herd of unidentifiable dinosaurs running away from a T. rex hidden by a forest. It’s incredible how the film managed to tease the appearance of T. rex three times in less than 10 minutes!
33. Look out! As Adam Driver marvels at the dinosaurs above, a small raptor attempts to eat him. I honestly cannot identify a species given its basic appearance, but it’s probably just a juvenile Velociraptor – you know, the famous Mongolian raptors, just chilling in Montana. This may not be a horror movie, but these jump-scares got me a few times!
34. I get that Hollywood doesn’t understand dinosaurs had feathers (just like they don’t understand how to pay their writers), but they could at least make the reptilian-looking raptors look pleasant.
35. Almost a third of the movie has gone by, and T. rex has been teased four times now, but still hasn’t appeared. Bit of a letdown!
36. Is Adam Driver drawing their escape plan in tomato sauce? Somehow, this wouldn’t be the most confusing part of this movie.

37. A flock of Dsungaripterus – pterosaurs from China and long extinct by 65 MYA – fly overhead when one is suddenly plucked out of the air. By what? No idea, though you’d have to imagine it was an Azhdarchid, a family of pterosaurs that famously hunted prey on the ground instead of in the air. At least the Dsungaripterus crests look accurate enough!
38. 65 makes a big deal about the immense journey Adam Driver and his adopted daughter will have to go on to reach their escape craft, which is a mere 15 kilometres away. I know they have to scale a mountain, but 15 kilometres is a 3-hour walk on even terrain. This really shouldn’t be that difficult!
39. Of all the mediocre dinosaur designs featured in this movie, the depiction of the ankylosaur Jakapil might be the worst. Its massive head and tail club make it look like a juvenile Ankylosaurus, though apparently it is instead supposed to be the Mid-Cretaceous, South American Jakapil. On top of this, it doesn’t look like a baby Ankylosaurus; instead, it just looks like some bizarre theropod with armoured plating.

40. After freeing the baby Jakapil, we see a pack of small theropods immediately devour it. These are not the Velociraptor from earlier, but rather Pectinodon, a troodontid from Hell Creek. Shocking, I know! This doesn’t mean these small predators look good. Maybe it’s just because the docuseries Prehistoric Planet recently featured Pectinodon in a depiction far more accurate and visually appealing…
41. The idea of an alien coming to Earth and fighting dinosaurs is a good concept, but it’s executed poorly. It wouldn’t make sense if Adam Driver knew that he was fighting an animal named T. rex, but the lack of clear designs makes it impossible to identify what dinosaurs are supposed to be on screen.
42. I didn’t notice this right away, but the eyes of Dsungaripterus appear to be in the wrong place…big yikes!
43. The quadrupedal reptiles hunting after Driver & adopted daughter are supposed to be Nothosaurus, though these reptiles were mostly aquatic and had gone extinct over 150 million years before the setting of 65.
44. The bugs featured in 65 are gross! Between the isopod in the daughter’s mouth and the giant beetle Adam Driver crushes, the insects in this movie are genuinely creepy.

45. We finally get our first T. rex sighting, though it looks far more like a carcharodontosaurid. Not exactly a good thing for your signature dinosaur to look like another large theropod…
46. I’m not sure why Adam Driver thinks the best option is to dig out a tunnel in a cave system instead of just waiting out the Tyrannosaurus, but kudos to him for trying!
47. While on his spelunking expedition, Adam Driver is attacked by an Oviraptor. The Oviraptor is one of the few dinosaurs I could immediately identify, so congratulations 65!
48. Having said this, why on earth would an Oviraptor be in a cave? These animals were omnivorous and would have been ill-equipped to live in confined spaces like the caves we see in 65. Plus, Oviraptor was feathered. Just saying a little bit of plumage never hurt anybody…

49. Here comes the asteroid! Time to get out of there, Adam Driver!
50. The visual of the asteroid approaching Earth from space is intriguing but not realistic, as the asteroid’s rapid speed meant that dinosaurs could have only seen it moments before impact.
51. While I get the daughter is scared and being chased by a Velociraptor, the fact that she used at least 6 bombs to defeat a 20-pound dinosaur is a cardinal survival sin…
52. On his way to save his daughter, Adam Driver falls into what is supposed to be quicksand, though it looks far more like dinosaur… excrement than anything else.
53. Ok, what are the odds that their spaceship got hit by TWO asteroids?
54. I may not be an expert on animal behaviour, but I feel like the Tyrannosaurus’ reaction to Adam Driver’s escape ship – to attack it head-on – is unnatural. If an animal saw a spaceship with flashing lights and strange sounds, I think its first instinct would be to run away, right?
55. T. rex did have a bit that could crush metal, so I won’t give the movie too much crap for the rex being able to tear off pieces of their spaceship.

56. Between the T. rex featured here and the Giganotosaurus in Jurassic World: Dominion, it needs to be said that most large predatory dinosaurs did not have body armour.
57. After defeating two T. rexes, Adam Driver faces off against the massive predator Fasolasuchus. First, Fasolasuchus was not close to the size of T. rex. Second, Fasolasuchus had been extinct for over 130 million years by the time of this movie. Third, its back is broken. Fourth, I sincerely hope that the filmmakers didn’t think Fasolasuchus was a dinosaur, as it belonged to an ancient lineage of crocodiles known as the Rauisuchians.
58. The other big issue with Fasolasuchus is that, during my first viewing of this movie, I thought it was another T. rex! A weird, quadrupedal T. rex, but still a T. rex! You know the movie’s designs are bad when you can’t tell a T. rex apart from a giant crocodile!
59. I’m not surprised that Adam Driver experiences horror-movie-victim syndrome and twists his ankle while running away from the Fasolasuchus. Nice takedown using the geyser, though!

60. In Riley Black’s fantastic book The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, she states that the asteroid was heading towards Earth at speeds of 44,738 miles per hour[i]. In other words, the asteroid would not have floated down to earth as it does in 65, smashing into the planet with unparalleled velocity.
61. Wait a second, are you telling me that 65’s asteroid crashed in Hell Creek when it famously touched down in the Yucatán Peninsula? For real?
62. Adam Driver and his new daughter manage to escape the cataclysm, to the surprise of nobody.
63. Sam Raimi produced this?? That explains the jump scares. I mean, Steven Spielberg produced the Michael Bay Transformers movies, so I don’t know why this surprises me…
64. I will admit that the end-title sequence, which features a T. rex skeleton slowly being buried throughout the millennia, is a nice ending to leave on.
65. Ultimately, 65 is…fine. I have seen worse dinosaur movies and documentaries than 65, but there isn’t anything truly memorable about this movie. The dinosaurs are inaccurate and have poor designs. The other science exhibited in this movie is also inaccurate and makes you question if they had a scientific advisor. The story of a gruff, middle-aged man adopting a teenage daughter is something I have seen done better before (Logan, The Last of Us). Would I watch it again? Perhaps, although the cookie-cutter 65 won’t be hailed as a time-honoured dinosaur classic anytime soon.
66. Seriously, how hard would it have been to call this film 66 instead???

Thank you for reading today’s article! If you want to read more about dinosaur documentaries and movies, I suggest you check out the “Dino Docs!” tab here at Max’s Blogosaurus!

I do not take credit for any images found in this article. All images are property of Sony and Columbia Pictures.

Works Cited:

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[i] Black, Riley. Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World. GRIFFIN, 2023.