Does Duncan die in Jurassic World Rebirth? Details explored

The sci-fi action film Jurassic World Rebirth hit theaters in the United States and Canada on July 2, 2025. Written by David Koepp, the film is directed by Gareth Edwards and is a standalone sequel to 2022's Jurassic World Dominion. Moreover, it is the seventh installment in the Jurassic Park film series that began in 1993 and is the fourth Jurassic World film since 2015.

Jurassic World Rebirth is produced by Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley and executive produced by Jim Spencer, Denis L. Stewart, and Steven Spielberg. Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey lead the film, while Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Rupert Friend, Luna Blaise, and Mahershala Ali appear in supporting roles.

Ali's character, Duncan Kincaid, leads his team on a dangerous mission to collect samples from mutant dinosaurs on the island of Ile Saint-Hubert. He survives at the end of the film and leaves the island with the rest of the survivors.

The film's official synopsis, as per Rotten Tomatoes, reads:

"Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet's ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived."

"The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind," the synopsis further reads.

How does Duncan Kincaid survive in Jurassic World Rebirth?

Duncan Kincaid, played by Mahershala Ali, is the leader of the team formed by the pharmaceutical representative Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend). His team members include the former military operative Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) and paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey).

Other members include boat driver Leclerc (Bechir Sylvain), mercenary Nina (Philippine Velge), and the chief of security Bobby Atwater (Ed Skrein).

Duncan oversees the secret mission of collecting DNA samples from mutated dinosaurs on the island of Ile Saint-Hubert in the Atlantic Ocean. These samples are essential in developing a medical drug that can cure heart disease.

At great risk to their lives, Duncan and his team collect three samples from a Mosasaurus, a Titanosaurus, and an egg of a Quetzalcoatlus. However, they lose several members of their team in the process.

In the climax of Jurassic World Rebirth, a pack of mutated dinosaur hybrids attack the group. The Distortus rex goes after Martin and devours him, while Duncan distracts the mutant dinosaur to allow Zora, Henry, and the Delgado family to escape the island on a boat.

For a while, it looks like Duncan has sacrificed himself in the process, but he sends a red flare in the sky moments later and catches up with the rest of his team.

The film's director told Gizmodo's io9 on July 2, 2025, that the original script called for Duncan's character to be killed by the D. rex in the climax. But after the two-time Oscar winner, Mahershala Ali, was cast in the role, the distributor Universal Pictures decided to keep his character alive, against the wishes of Edwards and Ali.

Edwards initially filmed the sequence of Duncan's death, but was asked by studio executives to shoot an additional scene where he survives, which made it to the final cut of Jurassic World Rebirth. Speaking of his decision to include the scene, Edwards said in the same interview that he loved how the scene turned out. He elaborated by saying:

"If I shoot something, it’s going to end up in the movie. And so then I was like, 'I've got to think of the really good version of him living and how that would work.' And I tried to picture something, and then I started to fall in love with it and go, 'Actually, I quite like that.' And then we shot it, and I really liked everyone's performance in it."

Edwards went on to share how fans were happy to see Duncan alive at the end and realized that the new ending worked better for Jurassic World Rebirth.

"The first time I watched it with an American audience.... my favorite reaction in the whole film was when that flare went up behind Scarlett. It was this big cheer and clap. And they already knew what was about to happen... I kind of nearly teared up... I’m happy to be wrong there. I’m glad the studio told us to shoot that little extra piece," he said.

Also read: Jurassic World Rebirth soundtrack: A definitive guide to all the songs in the film

Jurassic World Rebirth actor Mahershala Ali is a two-time Oscar winner

Mahershala Ali made his feature film debut in 2008 in David Fincher's Oscar-winning film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

Nearly a decade later, he earned the Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category for his performance as the charismatic drug dealer, Juan, in Moonlight in 2017. He won his second Oscar two years later in 2019 in the same category for playing Donald Shirley, opposite Viggo Mortensen, in Green Book.

The 51-year-old star is the first black actor to win two Oscars in the same category, and only the second black actor to win multiple acting Oscars after Denzel Washington.

On television, Ali played the role of police officer Wayne Hays in season 3 of HBO's anthology crime series True Detective. He also played Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes in season 1 of the crime drama series Luke Cage on Netflix, and Remy Danton in Netflix's political thriller House of Cards.

He is also known for playing Colonel Boggs in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2. In 2018, he voiced the character of Aaron Davis / Prowler in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and reprised his voice role in its sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in 2023.

Lastly, Ali was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2019.

Also read: Is there a post-credit scene in Jurassic World Rebirth? Details explored

Jurassic World Rebirth is currently playing in theaters across the United States and Canada.

About the author

Deepti is an entertainment writer at Sportskeeda. She comes with more than 6 years of experience in the creative writing field and has written extensively for the entertainment and travel domains.

She holds a degree in Chemistry, but her true interest always lay in the creative field. A passion for reading from a young age fueled her desire to make a career change later in life and take up writing as her profession.

Apart from reading, her hobbies include watching movies, listening to music, and going to the beach. In her free time, she can be found looking up reviews of new and old films to add to her watchlist. She also enjoys watching foreign language films that help expand her knowledge base regarding different cultures around the world.

Asked to describe herself, she would promptly mention that she is a die-hard Swiftie and enjoys nothing more than listening to Taylor Swift songs on loop while writing.

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Edited by Arunava Dutta