SPOILER ALERT: Warning, this article contains spoilers from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Proceed at your own risk.
There’s a new dinosaur in town. A terrifying combination of size, strength, speed, and smarts, that’s “a creature of the future, made from pieces of the past.” The villains of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom have gathered together the world’s finest geneticists to weaponise the prehistoric creatures. Because, as Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) puts it, “Man is inevitably drawn to war. And willing to use any means necessary to win.”
Making the Indoraptor
Believing a trained predator will make him millions, Mills therefore has his people splice the DNA of a Velociraptor together with that of the ultimate genetically engineered dinosaur: the Indominus rex.
“Our geneticists have created a direct descendant of Henry Wu’s masterpiece. The animal that took down Jurassic World,” Mills tells Gunnar Eversol (Toby Jones). “Her DNA, retrieved from the island before its destruction, forms the architecture of a completely new creature. Every bone and muscle designed for hunting and killing. And thanks to Owen Grady’s research, it follows human command. We call it, the Indoraptor.”
And it’s an impressive creature, with a hyper sense of smell, tactical responses more acute than any human soldier, and intelligence comparable to the Velociraptor. The Indoraptor is also trained to respond using a pulse-coded laser targeting system that enables it to isolate and track prey in complex combat environments.
The Problem with the Prototype
But there’s a problem. The Indoraptor featured in the movie isn’t the finished article. Just an early version that’s being modified, and in need of Velociraptor Blue. As Dr. Wu explains.
“To get the next iteration under control it needs to form a familial bond with a closely related genetic link,” he tells Mills. “It needs a mother. Blue’s DNA will be part of the next Indoraptor’s make-up. So will be genetically coded to recognise her authority and assume her traits. Empathy. Obedience. Everything the prototype you have now is missing.”
Without those traits, the super-dinosaur gets free, and goes on something of a killing spree. It dies at the end of the movie, impaled on the horns of a Triceratops. But with Dr. Henry Wu still very much alive, we reckon that isn’t the last audiences will see of the Indoraptor.