Henry Wu

NOTE: This article is about the film version of Henry Wu, not the novel version, as he is not a villain in the novels and only in the films. For the novel version of this character, click here.

Henry Wu is a recurring antagonist in the Jurassic Park film series, serving as a minor character in the 1993 original film, and later a major antagonist in the 2015 sequel Jurassic World, and its 2018 sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

He is portrayed by B.D. Wong, who also played Hugo Strange in Gotham and Whiterose in Mr. Robot. 

Personality

Dr. Henry Wu is shown to be a very devout scientist. Being an extremely intelligent scientist, surpassing most others on the planet, he was able to use the DNA of dinosaurs and combine it with the DNA of other animals. When he's first seen, he shows deep fascination and pride with the dinosaurs he's genetically engineered. He's also shown to be very doubtful in Dr. Malcolm's warnings, and scoffs that his idea that "life finds a way."

Upon being seen again in Jurassic World, his personality remains the same for the most part, and takes great pride in his creations, specifically the Indominus rex, since it's the first offcial genetic hybrid with the DNA of so many dinosaurs and other animals. However, his sentimentality of human life appears to have significantly dulled, as he only viewed the deaths of people caused by the Indominus rex as "unfortunate". He also harbors a great pride in his creations, as he states his Velociraptor as "perfectly designed" in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

Films

Jurassic Park

Henry Wu is a Chinese American from Ohio with a PhD in genetics. He is a senior member of InGen's project to recreate the dinosaurs via cloning. When the team had discovered large amounts of dinosaur DNA, Dr. Wu proposed that they could start to clone dinosaurs by filling in the missing parts of the dinosaur genome (DNA) with DNA from extant species, in which the investors preferred this approach because it was faster, easier and cheaper. Thus, the board gave Dr. Wu a promotion to be the chief geneticist.

In this approach, Wu decided to use the DNA of several species of amphibians, including the Common reed frog (Hyperolius viridiflavus), to supplement the dinosaur DNA. The first prehistoric animal was cloned in 1984. Aware with the potential dangers of the cloned dinosaurs, Wu also decided to build in a few safety measures, which later revealed only worked properly. His created dinosaur clones have their chromosomes designed such that all animals were female, so they could not reproduce. He also made the dinosaurs unable to produce Lysine, so they would die without the supplements in their food.

When the endorsement team visited the Isla Nublar Laboratory to see the Velociraptors hatch, Dr. Wu was among the scientists in the laboratory at that time. He joined the group and answered their questions. Wu probably left the island on the C-3208 boat during the storm evacuation.

Wu returned to the island in November 1994 as part of the operation to deconstruct the ruined Jurassic Park. His job was cataloging specimen numbers, and to identify exactly how the animals were breeding. Wu discovered that the amphibian DNA enabled the animals to change their sex through a chemical trigger which disintegrated the female organs to create male sex organs.

Between events of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World

Wu kept leading the research team at a financially struggling InGen. The breeding dinosaurs had shown him that not only the DNA of various species could be combined, but also their observable characteristics. In 1995, Dr. Wu wrote the book The Next Step: An Evolution of God’s Concepts. In this book, he proposed the hypothesis that he could bring brand new species into fruition by the combination of the traits of various species.

In 1997, Wu and his team actually succeeded in creating a hybrid organism. They had combined the DNA of several plant species to create a new plant, Karacosis wutansis (or Wu Flower). The creation of this hybrid plant gained worldwide media attention.

In 1998, the Masrani Global Corporation took over InGen. The CEO Simon Masrani promoted Dr. Wu within the ranks of the InGen company in December 2000. Wu supervised the creation of new dinosaurs in the Hammond Creation Lab for the new park Jurassic World which opened in 2005. He and many other InGen scientists were involved in the creation of the Indominus rex.

In November 2014, the new InGen facility named "Martel" opened in Siberia. The goal of Martel was to extract Pleistocene dated organic materials from glacial ice. He showed excitement for the project believe it will expand InGen's genome library, but he withheld from speculating about using any found materials to create Cenozoic animals for Jurassic World at the moment. In a paper for a scientific journal that was published by Wu in March 2015, he reported on the possibility of using InGen's genome library to help Medical Health in their research of diseases.

Dr. Wu also got hired by Commander Vic Hoskins to create dinosaurs for his security force.

Jurassic World

Dr. Wu first appeared explaining to investors that the Indominus rex wasn't bred but was designed and that she was already to be open as an attraction. After the Indominus rex escaped, Masrani confronted Wu about how the animal was created. Wu did not tell Masrani that part of it is Velociraptor, but he did mention that it had the genes of cuttlefish to help her withstand an accelerated growth rate, which resulting her possesses the ability to camouflage. Treefrog DNA was also used to adapt the hybrid to the island's tropical climate, but it also gave her the ability to hide her infrared signature from the thermal seeking cameras around her paddock. He also reminded Masrani that he was the one that asked for a bigger, scarier and cooler dinosaur, not thinking of the fact that genetically altering dinosaurs would naturally cause them to become less predictable and more dangerous; but Masrani accused him of creating a monster instead. Wu then states that "monster" is a relative term between a cat and a canary; they are used to being the cat. Though he seems to be somewhat unpleasantly (or possibly pleasantly) surprised at how deadly the hybrid has turned out, he does not appear to be remorseful about the deaths that it has caused, deeming them merely "unfortunate", and is unconcerned that he has committed numerous crimes against nature by creating the hybrid in the first place, believing that it was in the name of furthering the science of genetic engineering.

While everyone evacuated, Vic Hoskins, whom Wu was secretly working for behind Masrani's back, had him evacuated with a case of embryos while he and his team take the rest, possibly to create more hybrid dinosaurs for battle combat where some of the said hybrids are seen on his computer near Hoskins when confronted by Owen, Claire and her nephews before being mauled by Delta.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

He is first seen working with Eli Mills inside Lockwood's mansion to breed the ultimate predator, the Indoraptor. Later, he is seen at the auctions, attempting to prevent the wild, unpredictable Indoraptor from being sold to someone; however, chaos ensues thanks to Owen Grady's intervention.

While the Indoraptor kills people, Wu eventually tried to take DNA from Blue but was told by Zia that she saved Blue's life by a transfusion of T. rex blood much to Wu's shock. Wu gets angry because now Blue's DNA is no longer pure. Wu was then tranquilized by Franklin and dragged off by mercenaries. His current fate is unknown; he likely survived, though he is not seen again later in the movie. However, it is also possible that he was eventually killed by the dinosaurs, given the circumstances.

Gallery

Dr. Wu, when he is first encountered in the movie.

Dr. Wu stands in front of a collection of amber samples collected from various InGen operated mines located all across the world.

“She will be 50 ft. long when fully grown, bigger than the T. rex.”

Dr. Henry Wu as seen in LEGO Jurassic World.

Dr.Henry Wu using a part of the Indominus rex's skeleton to make the Indoraptor.

Add a photo to this gallery

Trivia

• Henry Wu appeared in the first Jurassic Park, but as a minor character and only had one scene which was to explain the process of bringing back the dinosaurs.
  • In the book, he had a more major role but was not a villain, instead, he was one of the supporting protagonists and was killed in the book version by the Velociraptors.
  • In Jurassic World, Wu is less empathetic, saying that the people the Indominus killed were merely unfortunate incidents, as well as chastising Masrani's ignorance and carelessness in wanting to create genetically modified dinosaurs without thinking of how unpredictable and dangerous they would become. It is possible that the death of John Hammond affected Wu deeply and that caused his change in personality.
• Wu's conversation with Masrani about using DNA from various animals to make them "cooler" and not scientifically accurate is a reference by Collin Trevorrow on why he didn't feature feathered dinosaurs in the film, as frog DNA is commonly used in the entire series to create dinosaurs that resulted in ones like the Velociraptors being more reptilian in appearance.
• As Wu was the architect behind the creation of the dinosaurs and ultimately the indirect cause to every casualty, he is considered The Heavy and overarching antagonist of the whole Jurassic Park franchise. He's also the most recurring antagonist since he's appeared more than any other villain.
  • By Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Wu became the second most destructive human villain of the franchise, outclassed by Eli Mills; due to Mills's evil actions in attempting to sell off dinosaurs, they ended up being released to mainland, to say nothing of his attempt to deliberately sell the unstable Indoraptor led to deaths of the bidders including his own. Even so, with Mills eventually killed near the climax of the film, Wu still retains his place as the Heavy in the franchise, staying an antagonist and escaping once again from death.
• It is very likely that Wu will return in the upcoming sequel and final installment Jurassic World III, either as the main antagonist or the secondary antagonist.

External Links

• Henry Wu at the Antagonists wiki.
• Henry Wu at the Hero wiki.
• Henry Wu at the Jurassic Park wiki.
  • Henry Wu at the Jurassic World The mobile game wiki.
  • Henry Wu at the Jurassic World wiki.
• Henry Wu at the LEGO wiki.

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