Movie history has time and again provided the world with crucial moments that seem ripe for rethinking. What if Batman saved Rachel Dawes instead of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight? How different would things have been if J.J. Abrams directed the entire Star Wars sequel trilogy? It’s stuff like this, on either side of the screen, that make people really think, and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Jurassic Park has its own “what if” scenario to be discussed: what if Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) had escaped the dinosaur park with those stolen embryos?
A lot of stuff could have happened differently, even though this plotline seems to be an open and shut case in the world of Jurassic Park’s movie franchise. Had things gone the other way, it quite possibly would have altered the world in new and terrifying ways, with some of those same events from Jurassic World’s series of events happening much sooner.
Life is about to find a way to make things even crazier in the Jurassic Park timeline, as we’re looking at what could have happened if Dennis Nedry had succeeded in his grand act of thievery. But first, let's go over how history shook out in its current context.
What Happened To Nedry And The Embryos In Jurassic Park
As the story of Jurassic Park currently goes, disgruntled park employee/I.T. traitor Nedry stole some corporate goodies in the form of one embryo for every dinosaur intended to be on Isla Nublar. Per an agreement with corporate spy Lewis Dodgson, an employee for rival company BioSyn, Dennis shut down the park security fail safes so he could escape without consequence and make himself a much richer man.
It might have worked, if it wasn’t for the fact that a gigantic hurricane hit Jurassic Park at that very moment. Dennis Nedry almost made it out scot free too, as all he had to do was winch his Jeep out of an unfortunate predicament in order to make his way to the docks. Of course, nature intervened in the form of an errant Dilophosaurus, which blinded and eventually ate Nedry in said Jeep. Those embryos would be lost to the muds of time, never to be recovered… unless you count Telltale Games’ Jurassic Park: The Game as canon, and even then the results vary.
What If Nedry Escaped Jurassic Park With The Embryos
Here’s where things get interesting for our purposes. Let’s say that Dennis Nedry bested the Dilophosaurus and got off the island. The immediate consequence would be that Nedry would receive the rest of his $1.5 million payout from the generous auspices of Lewis Dodgson and BioSyn. Dennis Nedry’s greed would be satisfied, and Jurassic Park would have proceeded the same way it always has.
However, thanks to the Isla Nublar incident leading to horrific lawsuits and payouts that pushed InGen to the brink of bankruptcy, its competition catching up on a decade’s worth of research would be even more of a crushing blow to the company’s fortunes. Nedry would be rich enough to help BioSyn buy out InGen for a song, which would prevent some of the further events in the Jurassic Park franchise from even happening.
Peter Ludlow’s Recovery Efforts In The Lost World Never Take Place
In Steven Spielberg’s sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, John Hammond’s nephew/baddie of the hour, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), had a huge plan to stave off bankruptcy woes: opening a new park in San Diego. That plan relied on a huge team of hunters and mercenaries traveling to Isla Sorna in order to capture free roaming dinosaurs that were bred on the island’s production site.
However, with BioSyn firmly owning InGen after Nedry’s successful theft of those dinosaur embryos in Jurassic Park, Ludlow’s recovery efforts on Site B would never happen. With the entire Las Cinco Muertes island chain now in BioSyn’s possession, the idea of a new park probably wouldn’t fly. The company would want to do something new, though they’d probably keep Peter Ludlow on board to help weather the storm and rally the troops under new management. Which means he’d probably do two big things to make a name for himself in the shadow of his uncle’s failure.
Jurassic World Doesn't Exist
While The Lost World: Jurassic Park has a seemingly questionable place in the Jurassic World canon, Dennis Nedry’s actions are still valid, as Jurassic Park is the only film in the original trilogy we know for a fact is still canonically relevant. So if Nedry escapes with those embryos, and BioSyn buys out InGen lock, stock and barrel, there’s a good chance that Jurassic World never even happens.
As the weakened InGen was never purchased by Simon Masrani and his Masrani Global empire, with John Hammond guiding Simon’s intentions for opening the brand new park, Jurassic World wouldn’t be willed into existence. Theme parks probably aren’t in BioSyn’s immediate plans for the fallen Hammond empire. If you take away John Hammond’s entertainment-minded approach and replace them with Peter Ludlow’s dollar sign-clouded eyes, there’s a massive alternative that comes into play a lot sooner.
Dinosaurs Are Rushed Into Military Applications
Admit it: the other major application of dinosaurs that the Jurassic saga has always played around with is the idea of using prehistoric beings of great strength and power as military pawns. Peter Ludlow, who would still be alive and well since the T-Rex incident in San Diego never happened, would probably help BioSyn make the best of its investment into InGen’s once promising future.
So instead of having to wait until 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to see dinosaurs auctioned off to the governments with the most money, we’d see a much quicker rush into dinosaurs as weaponry. Which, in turn, leads to more proliferation of genetically engineered living weapons throughout the world, and ultimately one gigantic consequence worthy of Michael Crichton’s worst nightmares.
The World Is Overrun By Dinosaurs A Lot Earlier
When the dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom were unleashed, it may have felt like an inevitability, but at least those creatures had limited numbers. In this timeline where Dennis Nedry’s success drastically rewrite’s franchise history, we now have mass-produced dinosaurs that are in battlefields all over the world.
These creatures won’t stay under humanity's control for long, as life almost always finds a way to subvert our best intentions with such powerful tools. The events at the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom seem as if they were fated to happen, and now dinosaurs roam the Earth sooner than ever, and in greater numbers, in the current timeline. This raises the odds of Dennis Nedry probably getting eaten anyway, as dino carnage is indiscriminate in this new world of rampaging beasts.
As the entire series of Jurassic Park/Jurassic World adventures have seen corporate interests lather, rinse and repeat when it comes to creating and unleashing dinosaurs upon the world, it was always at a gradual pace because InGen was the major game in town. Should Dennis Nedry have subverted the company a lot sooner, it would have hastened dinogeddon to the point where you could have shaved a decade or more off the process.
But thankfully that brave Dilophosaurus bought humanity some time by taking out the traitorous Nedry. The Jurassic World, in its own weird balance, continues to turn the way it was meant to, and Jurassic World: Dominion will be our next look into what things look like when dinosaurs roam the earth.
Jurassic World: Dominion is currently slated for a June 11, 2021 debut. That said, should there be any sort of delay in the works, we’ll report such seismic news here at CinemaBlend.
