Fourteen years after viewers last journeyed to a Jurassic Park movie, Steven Spielberg’s de-extinct dinosaurs are back on the big screen in Jurassic World. However, unlike the rescue mission adventures depicted in Jurassic Park‘s original two sequels, the latest entry in the franchise presents a world that moved past InGen’s prior failures – and, under the guiding hand of Masrani Global, has realized John Hammond’s original vision: a fully-functional and innovative dinosaur park.

Yet, while Jurassic World continues to profit, a cloned T-rex simply isn’t as impressive to a generation of kids that have never known a world without dinosaurs – and, in order to keep park attendees coming back, Jurassic World introduces a new, high-profile, attraction every few years. The parallels between Jurassic World, the fictional park, and Jurassic World, a fresh entry in a dormant Hollywood franchise, are hard to ignore. Enticing visitors back (to Isla Nublar and the box office) meant creating something entirely original, rather than digging into the historic record for a dino-star. The answer? A hybrid creature: Indominus rex (Fierce/Untamable King).

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Trailers for Jurassic World have made it clear that, like the T-rex, Velociraptors, and Spinosaurus before, InGen’s scientists overreached when they cooked-up Indominus rex – and the same lack of humility that demolished the original Jurassic Park threatens to destroy its successor. Yet, even after seeing Jurassic World, viewers might still be a little confused about how the hybrid dinosaur fits into the expanding mythology of Jurassic Park – as well as curious about the various animals that gave Indominus rex its deadly range of abilities. For that reason, we’re here to help breakdown the origins of Indominus rex – as well as the real reason for its creation.

Our discussion is going to be full of SPOILERS for Jurassic World, so READ NO FURTHER unless you’re all caught up. You have been warned.

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MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW

CLICK on any topic to jump directly to it:

  • Why did Masrani Global want to create Indominus rex? (This Page)
  • Which animal DNA samples were included in Indominus rex and what are the hybrid dinosaur’s abilities?
  • What was In-Gen’s true reason for creating Indominus rex?

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Why did Masrani Global create Indominus rex?

As mentioned, while cloned dinosaurs might have impressed children of the 1990s, in the Jurassic World universe, many kids have grown up with the ability to see their favorite dinosaurs in the flesh, at Masrani’s Isla Nublar dinosaur zoo/theme park. As a result, de-extinction itself isn’t enough to entice return visitors back to Jurassic World on a regular basis. For many attendees, the initial magic has worn off.

To keep park attendance (and revenue) up, Masrani invested millions in the creation of new “attractions” – including the Jurassic Lagoon (and Mosasaurus aquarium show) as well as Jurassic World Aviary (with Dimorphodon and Pteranodon inhabitants), in addition to retooled exhibits for returning dinosaur residents (such as an improved immersion-style paddock for Jurassic Park‘s original T-rex). For their newest attraction, Masrani commissioned Jurassic World’s geneticists, led by Jurassic Park scientist, Henry Wu (B.D. Wong) to develop a hybrid creature – one that would be give both children and adult attendees nightmares.

Specifically, a bigger, scarier dinosaur with more teeth.

After experimentation with gene-splicing from a variety of animal sources (past and present), Jurassic World scientists cooked up a pair of mutant “dinosaurs” and named the newly created species Indominus rex. Shortly after, the older Indominus killed its younger sibling – and the hybrid dino was quarantined to a high-security paddock four miles from the main Jurassic World compound.

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Nevertheless, as Masrani Global prepared to introduce the Indominus rex exhibit to parkgoers, even securing sponsorship from Verizon Wireless, the man-made dinosaur is revealed to possess dangerous abilities (inherited from its hybrid DNA sources) that undermine Jurassic World security measures. Jurassic World showcases several of Indominus rex’s inherited traits but stops short of disclosing everything the mutant dinosaur could do – as well as which animals contributed to the creature’s DNA. Nevertheless, thanks to pre-release details, interviews, and merchandise, we’ve been able to piece together most of the Indominus rex genome.

NEXT PAGE: What Are the Hybrid Dinosaur’s Abilities?


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About The Author


Ben Kendrick
(1439 Articles Published)

Ben Kendrick is the former Content Director (and current film critic) of Screen Rant, CBR, and Collider as well as host of the Screen Rant Underground and Total Geekall podcast. He is a member of the Denver Film Critics Society as well as the Online Film Critics Society – with work referenced, cited, or syndicated on CNN, Wikipedia, Huffington Post, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, Yahoo, and Business Insider, among others. A graduate of the New School’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, Ben has been passionate about movies ever since standing in line for a midnight showing of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when he was eight years-old. Thanks to a background in fiction writing, Ben is drawn to films that make story and character a priority; however, that doesn’t stop him from enjoying a range of Hollywood offerings – from blockbuster action flicks to campy so-bad-they’re-good B-movies.

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Visit Ben Kendrick’s website for info on his fiction work, follow him on Twitter @benkendrick, or check out what he’s doing now over at Rise at Seven.

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