Why Maisie Is Important In Jurassic World Dominion (Fully Explained)

Why Maisie Is Important In Jurassic World Dominion (Fully Explained)

After her debut in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Maisie Lockwood became much more important in Jurassic World Dominion. Maisie, played by Isabella Sermon, was introduced as the granddaughter of John Hammond’s old business partner and co-founder of Jurassic Park, Sir Benjamin Lockwood, shown to be living a solitary life within the walls of Lockwood Manor. Over the course of the film, however, it’s revealed that Maisie is in fact a clone of her mother, created using the same technology that has been bringing extinct creatures back to life since 1993’s Jurassic Park.

Maisie’s mysterious origins were only touched on during Fallen Kingdom, but received a hefty dose of development during Dominion, as Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Claire Dearing, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, infiltrate the headquarters of BioSyn Genetics (a successor to InGen) and discover more about their adoptive daughter. Aside from Jurassic World’s necessary dinosaur action, which is more explosive than ever, Maisie’s storyline in Jurassic World Dominion is one of the main focus points of the film. Her story told in Dominion is yet another layer of humanity’s manipulation of genetics, starting with simply bringing dinosaurs back to life in Jurassic Park, to splicing different species together in Jurassic World, and eventually to cloning humans in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

While Maisie’s development in Jurassic World Dominion is certainly an interesting story to follow, her backstory is revealed to be more important to the events of the film than anyone could have predicted. One of the key aspects of any film set in the Jurassic Park/World franchise is the battle between the heroes and the greedy corporations who create both the problems and eventually the solutions, which is no different to the story told in Dominion. This idea forms the reason for Maisie’s importance in the third film in the Jurassic World trilogy.

Maisie’s Mother & Clone DNA Explained

Why Maisie Is Important In Jurassic World Dominion (Fully Explained)

Despite Maisie being raised as Sir Benjamin Lockwood’s granddaughter, it’s revealed in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom that she is actually a clone of Sir Benjamin’s daughter, Charlotte. This revelation, while coming as a shock to both the characters in the film and the audiences watching, seemed like the logical next step for the films after having tackled cloning of dinosaur DNA. At the end of Fallen Kingdom, Maisie’s true origins were still left unanswered, leaving the opportunity for her backstory to be developed properly during the events of Jurassic World Dominion, which really kicks off after she is kidnaped by BioSyn.

Charlotte Lockwood was a renowned genetic scientist who used her own DNA to asexually reproduce the genetically-identical Maisie. In doing so, Charlotte altered Maisie’s DNA to eliminate the presence of a fatal genetic disease which, though unfortunately ending up killing her, was successfully removed from her daughter, saving Maisie’s life before she was even born. This was a huge breakthrough in genetic science in the Jurassic World universe, not only providing proof that beings can reproduce asexually, whether that be through science or naturally as seen in the case of velociraptor Blue with her new baby, Beta, but also that genetic diseases can be eliminated thanks to genetic manipulation, spelling good news for the future of modern medicine.

Why BioSyn Was After Maisie In Jurassic World Dominion

Jurassic World Dominion Lewis Dodgson Biosyn

The fact that Maisie’s DNA holds the key to manipulating the genome and eliminating genetic disease meant that acquiring her became a priority for BioSyn. Jurassic World Dominion shows Campbell Scott’s menacing Dr. Lewis Dodgson (previously portrayed by Cameron Thor in Jurassic Park) kidnap Maisie and Beta due to the importance of their unique genetic makeups. There is one obvious reason why BioSyn CEO Dodgson wanted to capture Maisie and take her out of the general population, and this comes down to their public reputation as an organization that uses dinosaur genetics and genetic modification for pharmacological purposes, trying to find cures to human diseases – Maisie’s DNA holds the key to this.

However, there is another reason that BioSyn would want to capture Maisie. Between the events of Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, BioSyn had been genetically modifying locusts in order to make them bigger and scarier, programming them to avoid eating BioSyn crops before releasing them into the wild, all so that Dodgson can control the world’s food supply. For this plan to truly succeed, Maisie would need to be removed completely from the public in order to avoid the risk of her genetic makeup being used to disrupt the locust plan. Dr. Wu, after denouncing the plan to produce crop-hungry locusts, realizes that studying Maisie and Beta’s DNA is the best shot at neutralizing the threat posed by the locusts.

How Dr. Wu Uses Maisie To Defeat The Locusts

Jurassic World Dominion Dr Henry Wu Redemption

Last seen in Jurassic Park 3, Laura Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler returned in Jurassic World Dominion to introduce the locust threat, realizing that their avoidance of BioSyn crops means that they must have been engineered by the organization. The fact that Dr. Henry Wu had a hand in mutating the genetics of the locusts means that he is best equipped to eliminate the threat, which he does using DNA from both Maisie and the young velociraptor, Beta. Since Maisie was built from her mother’s modified DNA, eradicating their genetic disease, and Beta had been asexually reproduced by Blue thanks to her spliced dinosaur and monitor lizard DNA, Dr. Wu realizes that the pair could provide the answers to creating a pathogen for the locust outbreak.

The real science behind Dr. Wu’s plan isn’t fully revealed in Jurassic World Dominion to save space for the entertainment value and dinosaur action of the film, but it’s relieving to see Jurassic Park’s original scientist finally receive redemption after some questionable choices over the years, most notably creating the Indominus Rex in Jurassic World. By the end of Dominion, Wu’s safe study of Maisie and Beta’s genetic makeup has allowed him to design and produce a pathogen that wipes out the locust threat and allows dinosaurs and humanity to finally live peacefully alongside each other. That is, at least, until the next possible installment in the franchise.

The True Meaning Of Maisie In Jurassic Park/World’s Franchise

Alan, Maisie, and Owen in Jurassic World Dominion

Maisie has a huge amount of significance in the Jurassic Park/World film series, playing the role of the first human character who is actually a clone. While this provides the films with yet another deep ethical dilemma, Maisie acts as the human representation of the dinosaurs themselves, especially since she starts out in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom not being aware that she is a clone, just as the de-extinct creatures aren’t aware of their own revival. It’s poignant that Maisie released the dinosaurs at the end of Fallen Kingdom, effectively freeing herself from the confines of Lockwood Manor too. She gives the audience a conduit to better empathize with the dinosaurs, as the emotion that she feels as a clone is likely what the dinosaurs feel too.

Despite Colin Trevorrow’s absence as director of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, this second trilogy in the Jurassic Park/World film series was his brainchild and was perfectly tied up with Jurassic World Dominion. For those viewers who’ve been following the franchise since the beginning, it was thrilling to see old heroes Sattler, Sam Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant, and Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm back on the big screen interacting with the new roster of characters. While no Jurassic World 4 plans have been confirmed for a continuation of the franchise, Maisie Lockwood’s development throughout Jurassic World Dominion has created some great opportunities for fresh stories to be told in the future.