The following contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Dominion.When it comes to the Jurassic World trilogy, there is a large interest in the nostalgia paired with the new. The nostalgia of the original Jurassic Park trilogy draws fans in just as much as the new technology and new dinosaur storylines do. While much of the talk centers on the trio of stars (Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum) that appeared in the original movie, another character from the very first movie also appears: Lewis Dodgson.
Lewis Dodgson (Campbell Scott) is the villain of Jurassic World: Dominion. He’s built up his own company that is disguised as a humanitarian effort, providing sanctuary to displaced dinosaurs and researching medical applications of dinosaur DNA. In reality, the company allows Dodgson to find ways to genetically modify species and potentially give himself control over the world’s food sources. Dodgson’s sneaky play for power is foretold from his first appearance in Jurassic Park. It also truly brings the franchise full circle.
Lewis Dodgson Causes The Jurassic Park Chaos
Lewis Dodgson is introduced in Jurassic Park taking a meeting with Dennis Nedry right before Nedry makes the trip to Jurassic Park. It’s Dodgson who presents Nedry with the Barbasol shaving cream can with hidden compartments, just enough to get DNA samples of the dinosaurs on InGen’s list of modified species.
Dodgson essentially leaves the caper in Nedry’s hands, knowing that a hurricane is headed right for the island, and completely unworried about who might get hurt in the chaos caused by Nedry turning off the security system in order to make the theft happen. Dodgson has no regard for the lives of the people on the island or the welfare of the actual animals. He just wants to get his hands on the intellectual property. Nedry just wants the money.
The original Jurassic Park game even sees Dodgson send employees into the park after the evacuation to find the property while the dinosaurs are roaming the island, and the events of the game see the employees lose their lives and the canister all over again.
Lewis Dodgson Follows The Path Laid By John Hammond
Jurassic World: Dominion brings Dodgson back, not just to remind the audience that he’s a villain, but to demonstrate that his path to power is, quite literally, one that he walks in John Hammond’s footsteps. Hammond, as the original movie states, starts his work for Jurassic Park by finding DNA in mosquitoes encased in amber. Dodgson’s facility in Dominion is built on top of amber mines that BioSyn, his company, bought up. The electrical implants in the dinosaurs in his facility are meant to send impulses to the brains of the creatures. It’s a miniature version of the electrified fences in Jurassic Park.
Dr. Henry Wu is the lead scientist in Jurassic Park. He’s the one cultivating the samples from the DNA and figuring out which genes to splice to “fill in the gaps.” After he tries to continue his work at Jurassic World, his services are poached by
Lewis Dodgson. Dodgson uses Wu to build his own empire. It’s even Wu who engineers a locust that doesn’t eat grain created by BioSyn.
Though Dodgson doesn’t want to build a dinosaur theme park to make people happy, he takes every breadcrumb left by John Hammond and follows them.
Lewis Dodgson Gets A Karmic End
Dodgon’s final moments in Jurassic World: Dominion see him planning his own escape amongst a company in chaos, not unlike Nedry attempting to flee in the original movie. Dodgson even grabs the Barbasol can he kept as a memento to take with him. It’s not just that shaving cream can that brings Dodgson’s end in the story right back to the beginning though.
Dodgson gets something of a karmic ending to his place in the franchise. While trying to escape, he ends up trapped in the vehicle meant to get him away with a couple of dilophosaurus. The dilophosaurus prevent his escape, just as one did Nedry at Jurassic Park. It uses its poison saliva against Dodgson and attacks him, stopping Dodgson in his tracks and preventing him from leaving. Dodgson meets his end the same way Nedry did - by chasing John Hammond’s trail and his own greed.
Jurassic World: Dominion released in theaters on June 10, 2022.