Jurassic World Dominion Plot Synopsis
Jurassic World Dominion is the latest in the Jurassic Series, starting from the memorable, first of its kind, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993), where the world for the first time saw the majesty of the dinosaurs brought back from extinction. The havoc and chaos created by these colossal beasts swept through the original Jurassic Park series, and with the Jurassic franchise firmly entrenched in the hearts and minds of cinephiles, the natural progression paved the way for the Jurassic World series, where Jurassic World Dominion is the latest spectacle, presenting the ultra massive creatures in full glory. Jurassic World Dominion pays homage to the first Jurassic Park trilogy by combining the main leads of the two sagas. Jurassic Park protagonists like Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are brought back in to unite with the Jurassic World characters, namely Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) to battle ecological disasters and corporate conspiracies.
What is Biosyn?
Biosynis is a powerful corporation that harvests dino genome for its profit-making operations, which is the pathway to ecological doom. Notice the wordplay on the company name – it sounds like ‘bio sin’. To combat the growing threat of illegal dino poaching, the US Congress awarded sole collection rights to the global giant, Biosyn Genetics. As per CEO Dodgson, the company endeavours to use dinosaur DNA for medical research. A huge dinosaur sanctuary has been set up by Biosyn deep in the Dolomite Mountains of Italy for research purposes. But then something else started happening — huge hordes of giant, prehistoric locusts appear without warning and start destroying crops all over. Paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler is called in to figure out the issue. She discovers that these locusts were devouring all crops, except certain GM-modified crops. No marks for guessing where these locust-safe GM crops and giant locusts originated from. This was, in fact, the brainchild of Dr. Dodgson, designed to create global demand for Biosyn crops. So here was a corporation ready to risk the ecosystem of the entire planet and set into motion, global famine and a cataclysm of unprecedented scale, for the sake of a few extra dollars.
How do the characters of Jurassic Park figure into the movie?
While Biosyn pretended to be working on dino DNA for medical purposes, in reality, it was creating prehistoric dino locusts which were genetically programmed to avoid only Biosyn-manufactured crops, so that the corporation would have a monopoly over the world’s food resources. And they hired top scientists and geneticists for that purpose. Well, one of them happens to be our Dr. Ian Malcolm who uncovers Biosyn’s evil plan. He seeks the help of old friends, Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant to help him expose the evil corporation and take Biosyn down. They make use of the standing invitation extended by CEO Dodgson to pay a visit to their research facility. Unbeknownst to the CEO, Dr. Malcolm manages to surreptitiously slip his access key to his partners-in-crime. Sattler and Grant manage to find their way into the forbidden area of the Biosyn Lab and finally get hold of the DNA evidence and proof of Biosyn’s real plans. Now all they had to do was to slip past the security as well as the fearsome dinosaurs and get out of Biosyn.
How do Claire and Owen find Maisie?
Claire’s ex-associate in the Dinosaur Protection Group, Franklin, now part of the CIA’s dangerous-species division, informs Claire and Owen that their adopted daughter Maisie (who we first see in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) has been kidnapped and taken to Malta. Claire and Owen rush to Malta, where Owen seeks the help of a former colleague, Barry Sembène (Omar Sy) who used to work with him in Jurassic World and is now part of the French intelligence, and who is coincidentally working on a case in Malta. They infiltrate a dinosaur black market, followed by a series of near-fatal hits and misses, and an amazing action chase sequence with Owen on a bike being pursued all over town by militarized velociraptors. Our protagonists manage to hitch a ride in a cargo aircraft, piloted by a sympathetic Kayla Watts, who used to smuggle in stuff for Biosyn, and who had witnessed Maisie being transported from there to the Biosyn facility. The aircraft is brought down midway by a giant flying Quetzalcoatlus. But the good guys manage to make a safe landing and reach the facility unscathed. Meanwhile, the Jurassic Park characters manage to slip out of the HQ with Maisie, whom they had rescued en route and end up meeting Owen and Claire. And amidst the battle of the titans who are let loose in the chaos, all of the protagonists escape to safety.
Why was Maisie hidden away?
Maisie Lockwood, from her earliest days, was led to believe, that she was not a human being but a clone of Benjamin Lockwood’s daughter. The thought that she was artificially created had left a scar deep in her psyche. And no amount of love and validation from her foster parents Claire and Owen could heal that scar. This was exacerbated by her isolation deep in the wilderness of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the fact that she was prohibited from mingling with regular folks. Maisie was a prime target for bounty hunters due to her uniqueness. Although she knew that her foster parents were keeping her isolated for her own safety, her level of frustration had grown so intense, that at one point, she throws caution to the winds, goes into a rebellious mood and cycles beyond the forbidden zone only to be kidnapped by mercenaries. It was later when she met the Biosyn scientist, Dr. Henry Wu she learns that she is not a clone of Dr. Charlotte Lockwood (Benjamin Lockwood’s deceased daughter) but actually Charlotte’s daughter. Dr Wu reveals to Maisie that Charlotte suffered from a fatal genetic defect, which means that she knew she had a limited life span, talk of real angst! She used her own DNA to replicate and give birth to the genetically identical Maisie, but she tweaked little Maisie’s DNA to rid her of the genetic defect that she herself was born with. So, Maisie is technically not a clone as she was gifted superior DNA by her biological mother, and she finally found peace when she discovers that she is human after all.
Is Dr. Wu a bad guy?
Dr. Henry Wu was indeed the bad guy in the previous Jurassic movies. He was the one responsible for creating hybrid dinosaurs like Indominus Rex. But he was not a typical villain. He was simply a brilliant scientist, who was lost in crossing boundaries, seeking breakthroughs by manipulating DNAs to create new creatures. In short, playing god that he didn’t pause to think of the ramifications of his scientific achievements. But in Jurassic World Dominion, Dr. Wu is an older, wiser man and he is actually distraught when he realizes that he is being used to create monsters that will cause global famine. He sincerely believes that genome research should be a boon for humankind and not the opposite. He is not too unhappy when Maisie Lockwood and a baby raptor are brought into his research facility. In fact, Beta the raptor is the child of the Velociraptor, Blue (raised and trained by Owen in the first Jurassic World), born asexually. Wu believes that researching Maisie’s and Beta’s DNA could provide a path to solving the locust problem. Dr. Wu was a colleague of the deceased Dr. Charlotte and he admired her for her brilliance. He soothes Maisie’s anger by telling her about her biological mother and how his esteem for her grew when he learnt about the asexual reproduction and how Charlotte had corrected Maisie’s DNA of any defects. By studying Maisie’s genome, he could figure out a way to mess up the locusts’ DNA and create a pathogen to destroy the hordes. So in the end, Dr. Henry Wu actually saved the world from global famine.
How does it end for Biosyn?
When Biosyn CEO Lewis Dodgson learns that Sattler and Grant have managed to enter the high-security lab and get hold of the proof that could bring Biosyn down, he goes into panic mode. He tries to wipe out the evidence by setting fire to the genetically modified locusts. A fleeing frenzy erupts, in which a number of burning locusts manage to escape through an air vent, sparking a wildfire that envelopes the entire park and everything devolves into chaos. And of course, it ends in the classic divine justice tradition, where our dear Dr. Lewis Dodgson is chomped down by the dinosaurs, as he tries to escape with dinosaur embryos. Read More: Jurassic World: Dominion Movie Review
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