Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's Big Twist Has Nothing to Do With Dinosaurs

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, in theaters now.

As the promotional material rolled out for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, many fans speculated one how different this installment would be from the previous films, not to mention just how far director J.A. Bayona could stretch this new chapter as a dinosaur-rescue mission. With the release of the seconds trailer, the sinister sub-plot of the dinosaurs being auctioned and quite possibly, weaponized seemed to answer that question.

It turns out this is indeed the case, thanks to Dr. Henry Wu (the former head geneticist at Isla Nublar, played by B.D. Wong) and Eli Mills (the man who swindled his way into taking ownership of the park, played by Rafe Spall). But it's only one of the sequel's many dark turns, because as we later find out, genetic tampering has been taken to even further extremes.

In fact, the most shocking twist doesn't even involve dinosaurs. That's because this story, written by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, involves manipulating human DNA for cloning purposes.

Genetic experimentation has always been the cornerstone of the Jurassic Park franchise, having been used to resurrect the dinosaurs that ruled the prehistoric era, such as the T-Rex, Brontosaurus, Velociraptors, etc. There's also been splicing as well, as seen in the Indominus Rex from the last film, a modified hybrid created from the T-Rex. And as we've seen in various trailers and commercials, in Fallen Kingdom we get another in the Indoraptor, which combines the Indominus Rex with the Velociraptor for a more efficient and controllable killer.

But that's all information we already knew -- we're here too dig into the new human cloning twist, and what it means for the franchise moving forward.

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It's revealed early on in Fallen Kingdom that while all this was being conceived, the deceased John Hammond (the mastermind behind InGen and the entire park) had a partner in this vision to make dinosaurs walk the Earth again, a wealthy benefactor called Sir Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell). When Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) meet Lockwood for the first time, he's all too willing to fund the rescue of the dinosaurs and to save them from Isla Nublar's volcano. He ends up being a man of his word, even winning our hearts over thanks to his affection for his granddaughter Maisie (Isabella Sermon), whom he adopted after her parents died in a car crash.

Still, there are lingering suspicions, stemming from the mention of Lockwood and Hammond having some mysterious fallout, which is why audiences never heard of him before. The reason isn't unveiled until much later on, and when it does, it flips Fallen Kingdom on its head.

In the finale, Owen and Claire wage a war on Lockwood's estate, now hijacked by Eli. There, Eli and Wu are auctioning off the dinos, until the protagonists start sabotaging proceedings. Eventually, they end up protecting Maisie, who witnessed Eli killing her grandfather. In the midst of the chaos, Eli tries to get the young girl to come with him, as she's now the legal owner of the estate. As this tug-of-war ensues, the villain then spills the dark secret about Maisie -- she's not really Lockwood's granddaughter, but instead, a clone of his real daughter from the aforementioned accident over a decade ago.

Hammond took issue with this as he viewed human cloning as an abomination, thus severing his partnership, but still leaving Lockwood with the clone to raise as closure. This revelation, while it seems like a small one for shock value, actually goes on to drastically change the entire complexion of the franchise.

After the heroes stop Eli, the entire estate is going up in flames and the dinos he took from Isla Nublar are on the verge of dying. Owen and Claire decide it's in nature's best interests to let them die, as the only other option would be letting them escape into the world. However, with the duo distracted, Maisie ends up freeing them from their cells, as she believes creatures who never asked to come into this world, whether it's human clones or dinos, deserve to live.

With the creatures now roaming the world, the ripple effect of human cloning in the Jurassic Park universe has been felt in a big, albeit indirect manner.

Of course, this revelation does bring to light a number of other pertinent questions. How far did Lockwood take the cloning? Are there any side effects Maisie should know about? Who else has access to the human cloning technology? Has anyone experimented with a human-dinosaur hybrid yet? Well, for now, let's hope the latter hasn't happened, because Owen and Claire already have their plate full.

Directed by J.A. Bayona from a script by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and B.D. Wong, joined by Toby Jones, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, Ted Levine, Geraldine Chaplin, James Cromwell, and Jeff Goldblum.