10 Best BD Wong Jurassic Park Moments
Jurassic Park (1993) created a world where dinosaurs and man co-exist, where chaos and control are in constant battle. A world where velociraptors and deinonychus are interchangeable. A world where every dinosaur is impossibly smart, and the human geniuses are dumber than donkeys.
Dr Henry Wu (BD Wong) only appeared in Jurassic Park briefly, but the ripples his character created were just as significant as those on the dashboard. As Dr Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) succinctly puts it, ‘Not him. Not him. It’s always him.’
Wu is the dumbest genius of them all, a geneticist with unlimited ambition and knowledge (you’ll have to forgive him the inability to learn from past mistakes and his major blind spots around filling in genetic code – it can’t be that important that frogs can change sex and some lizards dabble in parthenogenesis – he can’t be expected to know everything can he?). Henry is one of the most important background characters in movie history. There is no Jurassic Park without Dr Wu.
Much more is made of his character in the Jurassic World reboot trilogy (Jurassic World, 2015; Fallen Kingdom, 2018; Dominion, 2022) and his character arc is much more complex than many of the other characters who remain static and unwavering in their positions as either moral rocks or evil billionaires. Only John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) walks this tightrope alongside him.
In Jurassic Park, Henry is a young and ambitious scientist, naïve to nature’s inability to be controlled. In the reboot he is rebranded as a villain, potentially out of his depth and not necessarily full of malice, but so easily swayed and convinced to keep building abominable creature after abominable creature. He avoids comeuppance and consequence, remains arrogant, and is seemingly unaffected by the countless lives lost. Interestingly, he and Hammond are also the only characters who are allowed redemption. The rest either don’t need it or they’ve been eaten on the toilet.
So, grab your lab coat and petri dishes as we dig into this, The Film Magazine’s 10 Best BD Wong Jurassic Park Moments.
10. Attempting to Keep Up
Jurassic World Dominion Review
For four films, Henry Wu has been locked away in labs, avoiding all the scrapes and scuffles. To escape in Jurassic World Dominion he has to join the action heroes. He is ashamed, he is sorry. He has his cardigan on, so you know how sincere he is. He has one job to do: run to the helicopter. He immediately stumbles and falls.
This is significant as he is literally knocked back by what he has created. He is finally expected to face up to his actions.
It’s also quite funny.
Recommended for you: Jurassic Park / World Movies Ranked
9. Redemption
What a ride. From budding young scientist, to evil genius, to sorry sap.
Henry’s face is one of pure bliss as he releases a locust with altered DNA into the troublesome swarm. He feels he is redeemed, even if the audience isn’t quite there yet.
It is a slightly cringey moment, but given that Dr Wu represents human endeavour it is important that the notion of redemption is introduced.
The ecological crisis of locusts is a thinly veiled metaphor for climate change so there has to be a notion of hope, doesn’t there?
