The Jurassic Park franchise popularized the idea that all its dinosaurs were genetically engineered to be female to prevent uncontrolled breeding. However, the films reveal that this isn’t always the case. Not all dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park franchise are genetically engineered to be female. This conclusion is supported by evidence from Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and at least season one and three of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.
In Jurassic Park (1993), Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist who John Hammond invited to his dinosaur park, goes through a little ride on the island, explaining how the scientists involved in the park created dinosaurs. Eventually, they go on a ride to see all the different dinosaurs around the park. Disaster occurs as a storm approaches the island. The storm was used as a distraction for Dennis Nedry who made systems for the park go offline which backfired and ended up making everything needing a reset. Alan Grant starts making his way back to the visitors center after the T-rex escaped from its paddock with John Hammonds’s grandkids, Lex and Tim. They find dinosaur eggs in which Grant recalls the ride explaining how dinosaurs were made and that they were genetically engineered to be female. Grant states, “They mutated the dinosaur’s genetic code and blended it with that of frogs. Now, some West African frogs have been known to spontaneously change sex from male to female, in a single-sex environment.” At that point in the movie, Grant has picked up a velociraptor egg in the forest.
If you go back in the movie to the birth of the baby velociraptor, Henry Wu tells the group that all the dinosaurs are female simply because they are denied the development stage to create a male. The velociraptors had eggs outside of the incubator, meaning that at least one of the raptors was possibly a male. Dinosaurs are breeding with each other outside of the lab, which is creating problems for the park. As Ian Malcolm says, “ Life will always find a way.”
The second movie in the Jurassic Park Franchise, Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997), introduces a new island, Isla Sorna, also known as Site B. The movie is about researchers who arrive to observe the dinosaurs in their natural habitat, but hot on their heels is a band of mercenaries intent on capturing the dinosaurs and transporting them back to San Diego Zoo.
During the movie, Peter Ludlow, John Hammond’s nephew, drinks after a long day at work. He hears an animal in the bushes which causes him to trip and fall on a baby T-rex, breaking its leg. Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, and Nick Van Owen find the infant Rex. They bring the T-rex into the trailer so they can set the broken leg to heal. Eddie yells on the O.P. system, “WHATEVER YOU BROUGHT INTO THE TRAILER, GET IT OUT NOW!” The ground shakes as Ian runs into the trailer and tries to take the baby outside. At this point, Buck and Doe are introduced into the franchise. Buck and Doe reproduced with each other which proves that dinosaurs are breeding.
The third movie in the franchise, Jurassic Park Ⅲ (2001), takes place on the same island, Isla Sorna. This movie doesn’t provide any evidence that dinosaurs aren’t all genetically engineered to be female, but it introduces a research facility on the island. The facility is where all the dinosaurs were created and evaluated. Once they were deemed fit to go to the park, they were transported to Isla Nublar.
In Jurassic World (2015) we learn Henry Wu created a hybrid he wanted to introduce to the park, a creature called the Indominus Rex. The Indominus Rex is a genetically made hybrid made by Henry Wu. Claire Dearing, the park operations manager said, “The base genome is a T.rex. the rest is… classified.” She doesn’t even know what kind of dinosaur was made. Like the first movie, the hybrid escapes from its paddock, creating chaos everywhere it ventures. It goes all over the island, you even get a small glimpse of the original park’s Visitor’s Center. Vic Hoskins is the leader of InGen’s security force for Jurassic World, who wants to take advantage of dinosaurs, specifically the Velociraptors, to use them to hunt the Indominus and use them as weapons of war. A decision was made to evacuate the island. The lab is packed away and Hoskins finds Wu. He then convinces Henry Wu to leave the park with the assets, thus taking control of the lab. Wu explains, “The embryos are safe here. They can live up to eight weeks on the generators.” When this movie was released, this scene was kind of weird. It makes you question why the generators matter. They had already packed up the lab. What else could be on the island they needed or what did he need to go back for?
In comes Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (2020). This show overlaps with the events in both Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Camp Cretaceous is about teens attending an adventure camp on the opposite side of Isla Nublar who must band together to survive when dinosaurs wreak havoc on the island. The Indominus is shown when it is escaping in Jurassic World while in Camp Cretaceous it shows where it went after escaping.
The camp was intended to be a seasonal camp where children and teenagers would stay while learning about the park and its dinosaurs. Six kids are chosen: Darius Bowman, Ben Pincus, Kenji Kon, Brooklynn (last name not mentioned), Sammy Gutierrez, and Yasmina Fadoula.
I am going to focus mainly on two of them: Brooklyn and Sammy. Brooklyn is a social media user so she was the only person allowed to keep her phone. She wanted to “unbox Jurassic World.” Sammy was invited to the island to spy for a company called Mantah Corp. The group minus Darius and Kenji went to a genetics lab. Brooklyn went off on her own to find information because she thought the genetics lab was boring. She sees Henry Wu open a door labeled restricted but he gets called away before entering so Brooklynn slips in before the door closes. She looks at the computer on the desk and says, “E750 Clinical Trial Results.”
Season Three reveals why Sammy became a spy for Mantah Corp. Her family is being blackmailed so Sammy accepts to spy for Mantah Corp to save her family’s ranch. Sammy asks Brooklynn for help finding information about her family. At the start of season three, you get a glimpse of a dinosaur killing other dinosaurs and dragging them away. The two campers investigate a map they found in Kenji’s condo which reveals a secret genetics lab. As they walk around the lab they find a door labeled E750. They open the laptop and look through the videos. The videos are recorded logs of experiments by Henry Wu, he states, “I have created the world’s first hybrid dinosaur, the Scorpius Rex.” Throughout the videos, you find out that Masrani ordered Wu to destroy the specimen instead Wu put the Scorpius in cryostasis. During one of his recordings, the Scorpius escapes and attacks Wu with poisonous quills. So when Wu talks about the generators I believe he is talking about how long they have until the Scorpius would no longer be in stasis. The Scorpius escaped from the lab and you see it killing dinosaurs. Eventually, the Scorpius reproduces on her own, and the two Scorpiuses try to kill each other. Both of the hybrids end up dying in the original Jurassic Park Vistors Center building because it collapses in on itself.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) starts with Marine One entering the Jurassic World Lagoon to retrieve a bone from the Indominus Rex. This scene overlaps with Camp Cretaceous. They want the Indominus Rex bone to create another hybrid. Isla Nublar has an active volcano, so a decision is being made to save the dinosaurs or let the volcano take them out. Ian Malcolm states, “I think we should allow our, uh, magnificent and glorious dinosaurs… to be taken out by the volcano.”
Later in the film, you are introduced to Benjamin Lockwood, who wants to get the dinosaurs off the island before the volcano erupts and kills them all. Eli Mills, who is the head of the operation, is revealed later wanting to sell the dinosaurs to the highest bidder. All the dinosaurs are rescued from the island except for one. This is an homage to the first movie, as the dinosaur is a Brachiosaur, which was confirmed to be the original Brachiosaur that greets you at the Park.
The dinosaurs are brought to Lockwood Mansion and sold in the basement. Dr. Henry Wu is seen again as he is introduced because he created another hybrid dinosaur. This hybrid dinosaur is genetically made up of the Indominus Rex and a Velociraptor. The hybrid is introduced as, “A creature of the future, made with pieces of the past. Ladies and gentlemen, please be warned! This is the perfect blend of the two most dangerous creatures, that ever walked the Earth! We call it … the Indoraptor!”
The Indoraptor is a military dinosaur designed to track and kill prey in complex environments. It was trained to respond to a pulse-coded laser targeting system. The Indoraptor escapes its cage and kills multiple people.
Due to this information, I would say Henry Wu genetically made the Indoraptor male so he couldn’t reproduce by himself. He didn’t want the Indoraptor to end up like E750. The Indoraptor was a prototype so he didn’t have the characteristics Wu wanted. Wu wanted to have Blue be a parent to the Indoraptor so the Indoraptor would be more receptive to human commands. The Indoraptor is the only genetically made male dinosaur in the Jurassic Park franchise.
