"Jurassic World: Dominion" is the thrilling conclusion to the second "Jurassic" trilogy,
but it doesn't wrap everything up into a neat bow. What's the villain's ultimate
plan? What's next for Dr. Wu? Keep watching for the biggest unanswered questions in "Dominion."
By the end of "Jurassic World Dominion," the governments of the world have decided that
the remaining dinosaurs under BioSyn's care will continue living in the valley
in Italy's Dolomite Mountains, which will become a natural preserve for the animals.
This comes, of course, after BioSyn's fall from grace, leaving the land free and available.
What the film doesn't address, however, is exactly how that preserve will be maintained
in the context of all the other dinosaurs out in the world. BioSyn was keeping their own stock
of creatures on hand, sure, and the surviving dinos will be free to stay there, but what does
that mean for the wild dinosaurs who've adapted to whatever climate they've settled in at this point?
Will world governments designate special teams to round up those dinosaurs and
resettle them in the preserve? Will some dinosaurs simply be allowed to roam the
wild forever as part of a larger mission of coexistence? Whether fans get a sequel or not,
the implications of this preserve in the larger franchise story are fascinating.
Midway through "Dominion," it is revealed that Maisie Lockwood is not just a clone of the late
Charlotte Lockwood, but actually her daughter, born through a means of asexual reproduction,
with her genetic code corrected from Charlotte's to eliminate a congenital defect. Maisie is,
therefore, the key to a puzzle involving BioSyn's swarms of genetically engineered super locusts,
because her DNA could help create a pathogen that kills them.
Maisie's importance throughout "Dominion" is well established, but what viewers still don't
know is what other applications her unique genetic makeup might offer. Her brilliant mother was able
to create her through genetic manipulation alone, which could open up new reproductive avenues for
infertile women; her unique DNA could also give scientists clues to curing any number of diseases.
So, is Maisie the Rosetta Stone for all manner of cures? Could the wonder of her
existence be replicated? Is she destined to be studied for the rest of her life,
all in the name of saving more people? It's up in the air, but by the time the film ends,
Maisie is in the unique position of being the most valuable human being on the planet.
"You shouldn't use my name."
"Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here!"
"Jurassic World Dominion" recasts and reintroduces the villainous Lewis Dodgson,
played by Campbell Scott this time around. Dodgson is a longtime rival of John Hammond who
has now made his company, BioSyn, the biggest corporate presence in the dinosaur realm.
With the help of Dr. Henry Wu, Dodgson has set up a state-of-the-art facility devoted
to studying dinosaurs and their DNA. He's also, in secret, developing super locusts to devour crops
around the world, with the goal of selling his own company's seeds as a locust-proof alternative.
This plan backfires, of course, and by the end of the film Dodgson is dead and his
company has been exposed as corrupt. Viewers know that various major players in the film,
including Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler are set to tell both Congress and the
press about BioSyn's issues, but the question remains: What else was Dodgson working on?
He was ambitious (and ruthless) enough to mess with food supplies, after all,
so what about water supplies? What about invasive plant species to alter
other ecosystems to suit his needs? The film digs deep into the problems of BioSyn,
but it's also clear by the end that we've only scratched the surface of Dodgson's schemes.
At one point late in the film, Dr. Henry Wu approaches the heroes and asks them for help,
only to have Dr. Ian Malcom point out that, historically,
Wu has been at least one of the sources of every problem in the franchise.
"All of this exists because of me."
The legendary geneticist has had his hand in engineering just about every
dangerous dino species walking the Earth at this point, so why should they trust him? Well,
it turns out that Wu might be the only guy who can stop the locust plague,
so they give him a hand; he stops the locust plague, and it all works out.
But ...Wu still deserves some sort of consequences for his role, doesn't he?
This is a guy who spent years designing dinosaurs by fusing their DNA with various reptiles and who
has now spent at least the last little while designing custom killer locusts for BioSyn.
At best, he's a dangerous man who needs to be disbarred, restricted, ostracized
and/or stopped from further experimentation. At worst, he's a criminal who should be locked away.
Regardless of whether he's learned his lesson, and despite how charming and quirky BD Wong
makes the character, Wu has to own up to some of those sins. The question is: How?
By the time of "Dominion," dinosaurs have spread out around the globe,
inhabiting just about every continent in some form or another and becoming either
a nuisance or an outright hindrance to human life.
Some see this as an opportunity and they are manipulating things for their own gain.
BioSyn is front and center, of course, but there
are hints other people are custom-breeding dinosaurs to make them into killing machines,
with poachers picking up dinosaurs for breeding purposes to sell as pets, or worse.
By the end of the film, there's a concerted effort to create a new sanctuary for the creatures, but
that doesn't mean the poachers and the breeders are just going to go away. The question is,
how many of them are still out there, and how far will they go in order to protect their hustle?
Speaking of those breeders, it's clear in "Dominion" that certain aspects of
dinosaur-adjusted life from "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" have only grown
in the intervening years. Early in the film, we meet Santos, played by Dichen Lachman.
Santos is a bounty hunter of sorts who's been tasked with getting her hands on Maisie for
Dodgson and BioSyn. In the course of her mission, Santos introduces us to a group of specially
bred raptors, trained to target anything identified by a laser pointer and hunt it.
These raptors have a relatively small role to play in the overall film, but
their presence reminds us that various interests around the world are still
devoted to making sure dinosaurs can be deployed as powerful weapons,
something those rich, powerful people in "Fallen Kingdom" were keenly interested in.
"What are you doing? This animal is not for sale."
"If you want to create an addict, you have to give them a taste."
The question now, under the new status quo at the end of the film, is how far that effort will
go. Will we eventually see mercenaries and even standing armies fighting alongside dinosaurs?
Will larger carnivores be drafted into hunting duty? Will herbivores become beasts of burden?
The longer dinosaurs exist in our world, the more likely such possibilities seem.
Though they've continued to work with dinosaurs on their own in the years since
"Fallen Kingdom," Claire and Owen begin "Dominion" living in relative seclusion,
doing their best to help out while devoting a lot of energy to taking care of Maisie and keeping
her existence a secret. The film's early scenes
show us that they're struggling as her adoptive parents, not just because she's rebellious, but
because they've been thrown into the roles and are still doing their best to adjust.
By the end of the film, both Claire and Owen have grown into their parental roles with Maisie.
They've embraced their need to protect her in a more emotional way, and pushed themselves to
new heights in their journey to get her back no matter what. They've also spent even more
time around dinosaurs and proven instrumental to dismantling BioSyn. So, what do they do now?
Will they keep working with dinosaurs in a more direct way, training some of them while
advocating for the safety and care of others? Will Claire's administrative gifts come back
into play now that there's a sanctuary devoted entirely to dinosaurs? Will they finally get
to take a break when it's clear that Maisie is no longer in danger? Whatever their future may hold,
it's clear that life in hiding isn't necessarily something they have to deal with any longer.
The most anticipated "Dominion" element, perhaps, was a reunion of
the original "Jurassic Park" stars, marking the first time in three decades that Grant,
Sattler, and Malcom were all sharing the screen together. It's a big deal, and that proved
especially true when it came to the development of Alan and Ellie's long-dormant relationship.
By the end of "Dominion," Alan and Ellie have once again been on a massive,
dinosaur-filled adventure together, and their respective single statuses
mean there's nothing in the way of a romantic reconciliation. At last,
Alan Grant seems willing to settle down with the woman he loves, and Ellie is open to the kind of
wandering life Alan's embraced for so long. It makes them a seemingly perfect pairing.
So, what happens now? Obviously they're both going to do some work with Congress
to make sure another BioSyn can't emerge from the ashes of the film,
but what's after that? Will they go back to full-on paleontology,
digging up dead dinosaurs rather than studying live ones? Will they keep traveling the world,
or settle in one place for quieter study? Wherever they go, it's clear they'll be together.
"You coming, or what?"
A lot has changed in the time since the original "Jurassic Park" film,
but one thing that has not is the philosophical outlook of Dr. Ian Malcom.
A naysayer who was convinced the dinosaur DNA project was a bad idea from the very beginning,
Malcolm has spent the last three decades being proven right time and again.
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could,
they didn't stop and think if they should."
Now, in "Dominion," he's taken a job as a corporate philosopher at BioSyn just for the
hefty paycheck it provides, and is more than happy to lecture everyone about the oncoming collapse of
human civilization. In Ian's eyes, our species has brought about the mechanism of its own extinction,
so there's really nothing left to do but rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic.
By the end of "Dominion," however, there seems to be at least the appearance of
hope in the world. Dr. Wu has used his genetic prowess for good, the dinosaurs are protected,
and the chance of peaceful coexistence seems imminent.
With all that in mind, it's worth asking: Has Dr. Malcom's view of the world
changed? Did his speech about the power of genetic manipulation and wielding it wisely make him think
that perhaps the right people are finally in charge? Or is he still convinced we're doomed?
Over the course of the film, Maisie Lockwood goes on a journey of self discovery in which she learns
that she's far more than just a copy of another person. She's not a clone (at least,
not exactly), but rather a daughter with a real mother who not only gave birth to her,
but advanced her genetic code to give her a better chance at a full life.
The more Maisie learns who her mother was and what she was able to do,
the more she feels like she knows herself, and the more she feels like she has a life worth living.
The question now is, what does Maisie do next? She's still interested in working with Dr. Wu,
at least to the extent that she helped solve the locust problem — so,
will she want to keep doing that work in the future? Will she follow in her birth mother's
footsteps and become a brilliant scientist with an eye toward solving the problems of the future?
Will she pursue a different field entirely? The possibilities seem endless,
but it's clear that Maisie has a much deeper sense of self than she did as the film began.
Here's one for the longtime "Jurassic Park" fans.
Near the end of "Dominion," as Lewis Dodgson realizes his plans are crumbling,
he packs up his data and beats a path out of town on a hyperloop train. At one point, he reaches for
a battered, dirty old Barbasol shaving cream can and puts it with the rest of his things.
Fans will recognize this as a nod to his appearance in the original "Jurassic Park" film,
as played by Cameron Thor, when the character gave Nedry a Barbasol can
hollowed out to hold vials for dinosaur embryos as part of his plan to steal Hammond's cloning tech.
"Seven-fifty. On delivery, 50 thousand more for each viable
embryo. That's 1.5 million if you get all 15 species off the island."
It's a nice nod to the original film, but how did Dodgson get the can back in the first place?
In "Jurassic Park," it's seemingly lost when Nedry is attacked by a dino and left to die.
Was there some sort of tracking device in it that meant Dodgson could eventually find
it? Did someone just happen across it and figure out it was his? However he
came to possess it once again, it's clear that little can has been through a lot.
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