Primitive War Movie Ending Explained And Full Story: Is Baker Dead Or Alive?

Primitive War, an Australian science-fiction horror based on a novel (of the same name), takes its title very seriously. So much so that by primitive, they actually mean dinosaurs. And who better than the American military to represent the ‘war’ part? That’s basically what the movie is—soldiers vs. dinosaurs. Of course, there are other things—like political conspiracies, scientific experiments, and even personal struggles—that are going on, but those things hardly matter. While there’s no denying Primitive War is a really enjoyable dino movie, more so than the entire Jurassic World franchise, it is not without its issues. The two things that bothered me a bit too much here were the editing and the exposition. No way this plot warrants a 135-minute-long movie. That only happened because the editor has done a shoddy job here, no offense—and as a result of that, the end product, despite being really fun, is quite bloated. The ending of Primitive War does leave space for a sequel as well, and we’re going to address that by the end of this article.

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the movie?

Like I’ve said already, there’s too much exposition in Primitive War. No way we needed a long-drawn action sequence that introduces the Vultures—aka our heroes. The opening scene, despite being generic, makes sense though—in Vietnam, 1968, a group of Green Berets is attacked by what looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex (the name is eventually dropped). We don’t get to see much of what happened to those unfortunate soldiers, but it’s not hard to figure out. With the platoon gone missing, the commander, one Colonel Jericho—your typical idiotic leader who bosses around and is mean to everyone for no reason—brings in the Vultures, who have the task of venturing deep into the jungle and finding the missing men. The Vultures are a ragtag team who either have bad reputations or are struggling with PTSD (yeah, I’m referring to the character of Logan here). But they’re also quite the experts when it comes to handling unique, classified missions. Led by Sergeant Ryan Baker (played by True Blood alum Ryan Kwanten), they’re your typical band of bad boys with good hearts, in army uniform. Jericho doesn’t tell them what they should expect, and the movie never clarifies whether the commander actually knew about the whole “dino problem” or not.

How does the mission go? 

Before getting into that, let us just do a roundup of the Vultures. We’ve got Xavier, Eli, Charlie (who goes by his surname, Miller), Gerald (who also goes by his surname, Keyes), Logan, new recruit Leon, and of course, Baker. Leon has volunteered to be part of the group—he later regrets the decision for a brief moment, understandably. Now, on to the mission, the Vultures get to work by trying to find footprints (of the missing soldiers), and all they find are giant animal tracks. Soon, something unknown attacks them and almost takes Baker away, but he does manage to drive it away. Realizing whatever attacked them is not something they’ve experienced before, the group tries to find refuge by getting inside a tunnel. That proves to be a terrible decision, as the tunnel appears to host a herd of Deinonychus (I’m a dinosaur enthusiast, but the specific species names are not exactly important in the context of the narrative). The Vultures barely survive, but Baker and Leon get separated from the others. The Sarge and the new recruit soon face a female Tyrannosaurus and her (not so little) babies, who chase them and ultimately force them to dive into a lake nearby. It is when a Russian paleontologist comes for their help and recuse them from the monster. Sofia takes the surviving Vultures to her hideout—an abandoned research station. Sofia is an addict, but she’s also the “helpful scientist” character. From her, we get to know exactly how these dinosaurs have come alive; remember, this world has nothing to do with John Hammond or Jurassic Park!

Who is Borodin, and what does he want? 

Borodin is a Russian general and our main villain. He is the man who’s responsible for bringing the dinosaurs (back) into our world (from the past). Not that he did it on his own, but he commissioned a scientific experiment in order to take over the world and destroy America, and forced a bunch of scientists—including Sofia’s husband—into building a particle collider. The purpose of that was accessing a wormhole, but the first experiment went horribly wrong, and dinosaurs were the outcome of that. Sofia’s husband and a bunch of others died, while she survived by running away. But Borodin still remains crazy enough to continue the experiment, and the only way to stop him is by disabling the collider by (literally) pulling the plug.

Meanwhile, the remaining Vultures are attacked by the Russian Dogs of War (Borodin’s men), but the fight is halted thanks to the arrival of a flock of Quetzalcoatlus. The Vultures run for their lives, while one of the Dogs, Tolstoy, turns out not so lucky as the menacing, flying dinosaurs happily make a feast out of him. The squad reunites with Baker and Leon (and meets Sofia for the first time), but they immediately have to deal with a Deinonychus herd—not sure if this is the same gang from the tunnel though. The Vultures do a better job fighting the beasts this time, now that they’ve gotten used to it, but the dinos get ahold of Keyes and drag him away. Keyes does manage to free himself by shooting them away, but then gets pretty much massacred by a Raptor—he does manage to injure the monster by stabbing it in its eye. Despite Sofia warning them about the Raptors returning for Keyes—to finish him off and have him for dinner—Baker and the squad take him to the research station. Just like Sofia predicted, the Raptor returns, and not alone at that. Realizing he’s a liability, Keyes decides to sacrifice himself like a hero so that the others can get away. As Keyes goes out with a bang—by literally blowing the research station up with a grenade (and possibly killing the raptors)—the rest of the Vulture squad and Sofia reach a boat that she mentioned earlier.

Does Baker survive in the end?

From the moment the Vultures are airdropped into this hellhole, you know for a fact that the only way they can actually survive is if they’re extracted the same way. When Baker tries that, upon reaching the research center the first time around, Jericho asks him to find the rest of his squad and then share the coordinates. The Colonel does promise to help, but he doesn’t seem to believe anything about the dinosaurs (or is he pretending to not know?). 

At the boat, Baker breaks it down to the remainder of his squad. They need to go to the Russian compound—where Borodin is running the show—and disable the collider. Otherwise, Borodin is going to keep running these horrid experiments, meaning the world might get filled with these dinosaurs, and mankind will eventually go extinct. Even though taking care of such “end of the world” problems is way above their pay grade, the Vultures are humanity’s last hope. The boat journey doesn’t bring much respite for our heroes, as they’ve to battle swimming dinosaurs, Baker has to save Logan from blowing his head off because it has become too much for the guy, and Sofia has to deal with an instant withdrawal courtesy of Baker and co. throwing her morphine stash into the water in order to save her. The only lighter moment is, perhaps, the squad discussing if their Sarge has the hots for Sofia; that’s as much romance as the story gets into, for the better.

When Baker gives Jericho the location—as the Colonel ordered—Jericho orders them to not do anything to the collider until he arrives. Obviously that’s impossible, considering the situation on the ground. Infiltrating the Russian base doesn’t prove too difficult for the badass Vultures, and soon, they spot Borodin. What they didn’t expect is the madman making it further worse by killing a baby T-Rex, leading the dino parents to opt for an all-out attack. Not to mention, several other dinosaurs also gather, suggesting impending doom for everyone unless Sofia disables the collider. And of course, that doesn’t prove to be easy, because how could it? So Sofia and the Vultures have no choice but to do it the hard way—planting explosives and destroying the collider. That also means all of them have to die, but fortunately Sofia knows a way out. As the Vultures and Sofia go about their business, Borodin gets what he deserves—getting chomped by a T-Rex. After having firsthand experience of dinosaurs, all thanks to their supremo, the (remaining) Dogs also join hands with the Vultures to prevent the crisis. Sadly, Logan and Eli fail to survive the chaos. Baker, being a true leader, makes sure that Leon, Xavier, Sofia, and even one of the dogs—Sergei—survive before sacrificing himself. That does make him a hero in my book, if you ask me. Like the greatest dinosaur movie, which ended with the survivors escaping on a helicopter, this one ends the same way—not sure if that’s an international tribute. Jericho does arrive and witnesses the madness with his own eyes. But he still dodges the matter of having any idea about all of it when Leon angrily asks him the question inside the chopper. 

Primitive War’s ending clearly suggests the dinosaur crisis hasn’t ended, as we see a group of harmless Brontosaurus walking past an American military base. That’s something Sofia did predict earlier, and considering the novel has a bunch of sequels, I’m pretty certain we will see more of Primitive War in the future. Too bad Baker is not going to be on those!

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