Benjamin Lockwood (S/F)

Sir Benjamin Lockwood (2018)

Sir Benjamin “Ben” Lockwood was a British entrepreneur and, later, de-extinct animal rights activist. He is best known for being one of the founding fathers of International Genetic Technologies, Inc. and for his involvement in the 2018 Isla Nublar incident. He was a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

He was reported to have died peacefully in his sleep during the night of June 24, 2018. However, the circumstances of his death were actually covered up; he was murdered by his estate manager, but as there were no witnesses and the murderer died shortly thereafter, his true cause of death was never discovered.

Name

The given name Benjamin is of Hebrew origin, deriving from the names Binyāmīn (“son of my right hand”) and Binyaamem (“son of my days”). It is a common name among people belonging to the Abrahamic faiths. He is infrequently referred to using the nickname Ben, mostly by his younger associates. His surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin and refers to the village of Lockwood, which is now a suburb of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. The Lockwood name dates back to the seventh century CE, and all people who bear it are descendants of the inhabitants of Lockwood.

Biography
Early life

Little is currently known about Benjamin Lockwood’s earlier life, other than that he grew up in Britain and likely came from old money. The Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Survival Guide, which was non-canonically published in mid-2018, describes him as “in his eighties.” This means that he was born between the years of 1929 (assuming he was 89 years old) and 1938 (assuming he was 80 years old). While his early youth was likely impacted by World War II, even his earliest possible birth date would have made him too young to serve in the war by the time it ended.

General details of his life appear to be closely guarded secrets. At some point before 1975, he moved to the United States, coming to inhabit the stately Lockwood Manor near Orick, California; it is unknown if he had the mansion built for himself or if it was a family property already.

Lockwood married sometime prior to the early 1980s. Details about his wife’s identity are unknown at this time. He also was awarded a knighthood at some point in his life, indicated by his longtime housekeeper and confidant Iris Carroll using the title Sir before his first name. Knighthoods are awarded to English citizens by the Queen as an honor for contributing to a societal cause on the national or international level in a major way over a long period of time. This made him a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. As of such, his wife would have been referred to as the Lady Lockwood.

Founding of International Genetic Technologies

Sometime before the mid-1970s, Lockwood became acquainted with the Scottish entrepreneur John Parker Hammond, a visionary with a dream for bringing the greatest wonders of nature into the public eye. The two men became friends, and in 1975, they founded International Genetic Technologies out of San Diego, California. By this time, Lockwood would have been in his thirties or forties; his immense wealth would have made him InGen’s primary financial benefactor and a major component of its early success. Around this time he and his wife had a daughter, naming her Charlotte.

InGen was, from its beginning, destined for groundbreaking research and development. Hammond’s dream was the de-extinction of incredibly ancient forms of life, a feat long thought impossible that he intended to accomplish via the cloning of ancient DNA. Though sources of DNA as old as the dinosaurs were thought to be nonexistent, Hammond believed that it could be obtained from the stomachs of hematophagous creatures such as mosquitoes that were preserved in amber. Lockwood supported him in this lofty ambition. Using the Lockwood estate’s mansion as a base of operations, they worked to perfect the technology that would bring dinosaurs to life. A laboratory was established in the sub-basement, and at the same time, Hammond drafted up plans for an attraction called Jurassic Park where their creations would be put on display. The Park was planned to be built in San Diego on property already owned by InGen.

Construction of Jurassic Park

After spending InGen’s early years drafting up plans, Jurassic Park came underway. In 1982, InGen acquired a 99-year lease on the remote Muertes Archipelago from the Costa Rican government; the plan was to utilize its largest island, Isla Sorna, as a research base away from prying eyes. This research station was dubbed Site B. The following year, construction began on Jurassic Park: San Diego.

In 1984, the geneticists working at the Lockwood estate’s laboratory successfully test-fertilized the first artificial ovum used by InGen. Though they planned to use unfertilized ostrich or emu eggs to incubate animals, this would not be possible until the species were identified as being compatible with these eggs, so artificial ova were a crucial technology for Jurassic Park. The year after this, in 1985, InGen’s top paleogeneticist Dr. Laura Sorkin demonstrated that ancient DNA could be successfully extracted from amber inclusions, making Jurassic Park a possibility rather than simply a dream.

Progress proceeded rapidly from this point onward. By the end of 1985, Hammond had decided to relocate Jurassic Park from San Diego to the more exotic Isla Nublar, located in the Pacific Ocean west of Costa Rica. This necessitated negotiations with the Costa Rican government, which owned the island just like with the Muertes Archipelago. InGen negotiated for the addition of Isla Nublar to the preexisting lease on the other islands, and the Costa Rican government brought one of the island’s inhabitants to talk up the island’s natural wonders in order for the government to ask a higher price of InGen. With the Lockwood fortune to support the company, no price was too high for InGen, and Isla Nublar was leased to them as well. They were tasked with relocating and providing for the Tun-Si tribe, a member of the Bribri people and natives of Isla Nublar; while InGen promised to help the people they were displacing, they are largely considered to have failed at this. Lockwood’s role in this scandal is not known, and Hammond has been assigned most of the blame.

Not long after the first ancient DNA was extracted, work began on putting it to use. The first animal to be brought back from extinction, a Triceratops horridus, was cloned on Isla Sorna and hatched in 1986. Hammond hired the promising MIT graduate, Dr. Henry Wu, that same year. Wu became a key player in the history of InGen, demonstrating that he could assemble a viable dinosaurian genome in a fraction of the time Dr. Sorkin took by substituting ancient DNA with compatible genes from modern organisms. This meant that the days of cross-referencing hundreds of amber samples for all of an animal’s genes were over, saving InGen time and money. In addition to this, Dr. Wu suggested that the animals be made dependent on dietary lysine supplements for their survival, eliminating the possibility that they could survive outside of the Park. This quelled InGen’s fears that rival companies such as BioSyn could get their hands on living dinosaurs, and that if an animal escaped, it would not be able to survive in the wild. These accomplishments led to Wu being favored over Sorkin, becoming InGen’s chief geneticist.

By this time, Charlotte was entering adolescence. Lockwood wanted to bring her to see his work, and Hammond agreed to let her onto Isla Sorna. She was enamored by the dinosaurs, much to her father’s delight. In fact, fourteen-year-old Charlotte ended up remaining on Site B among the scientists and dinosaurs, eschewing a normal education in favor of the tutelage of InGen’s cutting-edge science. She did not just find the research fascinating; she had great empathy and compassion for the animals, valuing the creatures’ intrinsic worth. This was all the better for Lockwood, who (unlike Hammond) could see his child every day while still focusing intently on InGen’s work.

The last of Isla Nublar’s indigenous people were relocated in 1987, and in 1988 construction officially began on Jurassic Park: Isla Nublar. By the end of the year, the first animals from Site B (including only herbivores, such as Triceratops and Brachiosaurus) were shipped to Isla Nublar and their new homes in the Park. In 1989, the Park got its first carnivore in the form of a one-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. Charlotte, too, traveled to Isla Nublar to see the under-construction Park. By this time, she was old enough that she could work in the labs along with InGen’s top minds, and was shaping up to be a brilliant scientist herself.

Jurassic Park was not without its difficulties. Recreating species that had been extinct for tens of millions of years was no easy task, even with advanced genetic engineering techniques to help make it less laborious. One of the biggest challenges was animal behavior: though they could study fossils found by paleontologists and research modern-day birds and crocodilians, the behaviors of ancient animals could never be fully predicted, especially with their genetic modifications. The Velociraptor was cloned in the early 1990s, with a study in early 1992 finding that they had surprisingly high levels of intelligence and group coordination. This, and other new animals, made the completion of Jurassic Park a harder dream to achieve due to their unexpected behaviors and needs.

As the Park proved a challenge to complete in terms of biology and technology alike, it also provided unforeseen moral quandaries. Lockwood believed that InGen’s cloning techniques, which were assuredly the best in the world at that time, had medical applications. The human cloning debate was still relatively new and a hotly contended topic. Lockwood believed that InGen should push for the advancement of human cloning (which is chiefly used in fields such as stem cell therapy), while Hammond was fundamentally morally opposed to the idea. In fact, Hammond has been quoted referring to human cloning as “unholy.” This bioethical debate created a rift between Lockwood and Hammond, and sometime before the summer of 1993, Lockwood bitterly departed the Jurassic Park project and left it entirely in Hammond’s hands. Charlotte remained on Isla Sorna.

Distance from InGen

Most of Lockwood’s life after 1993 is quietly undisclosed, though he probably kept tabs on what was happening with InGen in private. The Park continued without him, but ultimately a safety issue in early June involving three abnormally aggressive Velociraptors halted most major construction. InGen’s Board of Directors demanded a safety inspection and review by outside experts to endorse the Park before development could continue. This took place on June 11, 1993, but failed due to sabotage by a disgruntled employee. Details about the incident were swept under the rug by InGen and it is unlikely that Lockwood was privy to them immediately. Instead, he probably learned from Charlotte, who returned to the mainland in 1995 when Hurricane Clarissa forced the closure of Site B. This followed two years of Hammond severely ramping down activity on Isla Sorna.

In 1995, a television interview with mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm brought Jurassic Park to the public’s attention. Malcolm claimed to be a survivor of the 1993 incident, describing to a disbelieving public that InGen had performed de-extinction on Isla Nublar and that dinosaurs had escaped and caused deaths on the island. Naturally, he was dismissed as a fraud; Lockwood knew the truth, but did not reach out to Malcolm or provide any support to him.

Hammond suffered after the incident of 1993, and by early 1997 was driven out of InGen by the Board at the orders of his own nephew, Peter Ludlow, who became CEO in his stead. Ludlow does not appear to have had any major interaction with Lockwood at that point in time, instead busying himself with completing Jurassic Park: San Diego. It is unlikely that Lockwood was aware of this plan. Hammond’s health, meanwhile, was on the decline, restricting him to his home in New York City with Lockwood living on the opposite side of the United States in Orick, California.

Jurassic Park and the existence of de-extinction finally made it into the public eye in 1997. Ludlow brought a bull tyrannosaur to San Diego to show at a press conference, intended for Jurassic Park. The animal was accidentally freed during transport after being administered an excessive dose of naltrexone, causing it to enter an agitated state and cause damage to person and property within the city. Eventually the animal was recaptured and transported back to Isla Sorna, but the truth about de-extinction was now out, and could never be hidden again. On television, Hammond urged the public to protect Isla Sorna from human intervention and for the animals to be treated with respect, helping the U.S. government write the Ethical Negligence in Paleo-Genetic Resurrection bill (or Gene Guard Act). Hammond would pass away shortly after this, at the end of 1997. At the time of Hammond’s death, Lockwood would have been in his sixties or seventies.

Lockwood’s memory of Hammond appears to have been softened by his friend’s final acts of protection toward the life they had created.

Jurassic World and Maisie

When Hammond passed away, Ludlow had already died during the effort to save InGen, leaving the company in turmoil. It was ultimately purchased in 1998 by Masrani Global Corporation, an Indian megacorporation headed by Simon Masrani. Hammond had been close friends with Sanjay Masrani, the father of Simon, and had a father-like relationship with Simon after Sanjay’s death in 1992.

The next few years saw major changes come to the islands InGen had once used. The United Nations, which had taken up protection of the Muertes Archipelago and Isla Nublar, allowed Masrani Global limited access to the islands beginning in the late nineties. Their freedoms were expanded in 2003 due to the deregulation of genetic research by the government, and in 2004 it was announced that Jurassic Park (now called Jurassic World) would resume construction on Isla Nublar. That same year, an alarmingly precipitous decline in dinosaur populations on Isla Sorna was recorded, and Masrani Global began relocating the animals to Isla Nublar for their safety.

Jurassic World opened its gates at the end of May 2005, quickly becoming one of the world’s most successful tourist attractions; of the Park’s original founding visionaries, only Lockwood was left alive to see their dream become a reality. His wife appears to have passed away at some point before late 2006; the exact date is unknown.

Meanwhile, Charlotte had pursued research into human cloning, the same topic that had created an irreparable schism between Lockwood and Hammond. Like her father, she believed that it had great potential to revolutionize medicine and improve the quality of life for people the world over. Charlotte had always wanted a child, and also researched reproductive cloning, a much more controversial area of study. In time, she produced a clone of herself, which she named Maisie. This was the first-ever human clone created for such a purpose; she was born in August 2007, when human cloning research was still in its very early stages elsewhere, and was kept completely secret from the world. The illegality of human cloning in the state of California meant that Charlotte’s accomplishments could not be revealed, at least not yet. Unfortunately, she would never get the chance. She learned after Maisie’s birth that she suffered from a fatal genetic disorder. Knowing that Maisie would have inherited it, she devoted her life to curing the condition. In 2009, Charlotte created a viral vector vaccine that would genetically modify every cell in the subject’s body to eradicate the genetic disorder, but only had the time and resources to produce one dose. She gave it to Maisie on February 2; by that time she was showing symptoms. Tragically, she passed away not long after determining that Maisie was cured.

Maisie was raised as through she were Lockwood’s natural granddaughter, but the illegal nature of her existence meant that her life would be complicated. She could not be seen by outsiders, and was not shown pictures of her mother as to avoid revealing her origin before she was ready. The world was told that Charlotte had died in a car crash in 2008, with all manner of false information created to corroborate the story. To anyone who learned of Maisie’s status as a clone, the tale went that Lockwood had been so grieved by his daughter’s death that he turned to InGen technology to recreate her. This preserved Charlotte’s reputation as a scientist, and protected Maisie from both the government and any biomedical companies that might exploit her for her modified genome. Maisie herself was simply taught that she had been born to a mother and father, both of whom died in a car crash; most outsiders were unaware of Maisie at all, but those who learned about her were also told this same story. Lockwood paid top dollar for tutors to keep his family’s secrets while educating Maisie. Carroll was Maisie’s primary caretaker as Lockwood’s health slowly declined.

As Lockwood grew older, he became concerned about the future, not just for himself but for his estate, Maisie, and the animals he had once helped create. He became increasingly philanthropic, creating the Lockwood Foundation to use his money to help others rather than keep it all for himself. To manage his estate and his finances, he hired an aide named Eli Mills, who he selected for his youthful idealism. Mills was tasked with growing the Lockwood fortune in order to better provide for the causes Lockwood supported. At some point, Mills discovered Maisie’s origins, but appears to have kept Lockwood’s secret and kept his trust.

Lockwood acquired a private island, Sanctuary Island, at some time in his life. Its location is undisclosed but believed to be in the East Pacific Ocean. According to Lockwood, there is no human interference on the island, suggesting that he purchased it for conservation purposes. He also purchased the transport freighter S.S. Arcadia; since he was no longer performing business at this age, it is more likely that this ship was a relic of his earlier years.

In the early 2010s, Lockwood became involved with Jurassic World, inspired by Hammond’s dying wishes to help provide for the animals. Through Mills, he negotiated partnerships between the Lockwood Foundation and Jurassic World, befriending the park’s Operations Manager, Claire Dearing, in the process.

Lockwood’s money also funded Wu’s continued research into genetic hybridization, leading to the creation of an artificial theropod species called the Indominus rex; it is unknown how much Lockwood was aware of this, since it was mostly facilitated by Mills without public knowledge. The lone surviving Indominus escaped captivity on December 22, 2015, causing a major security incident that permanently closed Jurassic World. Henry Wu vanished, avoiding the consequences of the 2015 incident and the legal inquiry into his work that followed. Beginning shortly after the incident, people working for Mills began to frequent the estate, but Lockwood appears to have not considered this unusual. These new employees did not frequently appear in the areas of the mansion that Lockwood himself still utilized; his mobility had decreased with time and he spent most of his days either in bed or in a wheelchair on the mansion’s main levels. Carroll cared for both Lockwood and Maisie during this time, while the younger Mills was planned to be Maisie’s primary guardian upon Lockwood’s death.

Saving the dinosaurs

Although the public had been enthralled by de-extinction when it was first unveiled and flocked to Jurassic World in droves, the novelty wore off over the years and by 2015 had mostly reduced dinosaurs to another type of exotic animal. The incident that closed Jurassic World, and the controversies surrounding genetic manipulation, soured the public’s view of the animals. This was compounded by major political changes in the United States following the 2016 election, after which the U.S. government began adopting increasingly anti-science and anti-environmental policies that would place the dinosaurs at the bottom of their priorities.

In 2017, the survival of Isla Nublar’s dinosaurs became more controversial. Claire Dearing founded the Dinosaur Protection Group, a de-extinct animal rights nonprofit, that year; not long afterward, it was discovered that Isla Nublar’s long-dormant stratovolcano Mount Sibo had been reawakened by tectonic activity beneath the island. Lockwood followed this controversy intently as it developed throughout late 2017 and became ever more intense in 2018. Maisie, who turned nine years old in 2018, had by then become interested in the dinosaurs and Jurassic World’s history herself; Lockwood was able to reminisce on his younger years at InGen by recounting tales of Isla Nublar to his granddaughter.

With the threat of an explosive eruption on Isla Nublar becoming greater, Lockwood came to realize that the U.S. government, United Nations, and Masrani Global Corporation were unlikely to provide help to the animals. He had Mills begin arranging an operation to illegally save the dinosaurs, should the powers in charge fail to do so. If the government declared they would take no action, Lockwood would have the animals relocated safely to Sanctuary Island using the S.S. Arcadia, where they would be under his protection and safe from human interference. Ideally, since Isla Nublar was no longer being monitored, the animals could be saved without the government’s knowledge. Unbeknownst to Lockwood, Mills arranged the expedition quicker than planned and sent them to the island some time before the government’s final decision was made.

On June 22, 2018, Congress announced that no action would be taken regarding Isla Nublar, using the island’s private ownership under Masrani Global Corporation as a justification. Simon Masrani had died during the incident in 2015, and the new leadership did not share his fond memories of Hammond or his environmentalism. This left Lockwood as the sole protector of Hammond’s dream of a dinosaur sanctuary, and he immediately contacted Dearing with the DPG to inform her of his planned rescue mission. She was summoned to his estate, where she, Mills, and Lockwood discussed the operation; Mills filled her in on the later details as Lockwood needed to retire to his room for routine medical reasons. Travel had been arranged by airplane from a private airstrip located nearby, with a departure scheduled for the following morning at sunrise.

During the evening of June 22, Lockwood informed the delighted Maisie about the rescue mission.

2018 incident, death, and legacy

According to Mills, who oversaw the operation on Isla Nublar, everything was going according to plan and the dinosaurs would be safely rescued. Midway through June 23, while he was sleeping after looking through a photo album of his daughter, he was awakened by Maisie. She relayed confusing information to Lockwood: she claimed that Mills was not planning on rescuing the dinosaurs at all, but was bringing them to the manor to sell, and he had been discussing it with a stranger he took into the basement. Lockwood dismissed Maisie’s concerns by saying she must have misunderstood something she heard Mills saying. Still, this tale troubled him, and he became wary.

On June 24, Lockwood had seen evidence that Maisie was telling the truth. He had not seen Maisie herself that day, as she was off in the manor, but he most likely had Carroll investigate Maisie’s claims and find proof that Mills had betrayed his trust. He had Carroll seek out Mills and order him to Lockwood’s bedroom, but Mills did not come immediately. However, Carroll probably relayed to Lockwood that Mills had ordered her to keep Maisie locked in her room for the day, which would have further confirmed her story about Mills having devious plans. If Carroll was able to investigate the sub-basement, she would have discovered and warned Lockwood about the laboratory being retrofitted with new equipment and staffed with geneticists including Henry Wu himself.

Mills finally went to see Lockwood during the night, when a cavalcade of cars had begun to arrive at the mansion. Lockwood was furious with Mills’s acts of treachery, though Mills attempted to defend his actions by describing how the sale of the dinosaurs would bolster the Lockwood fortune and fund the creation of more creatures that they could then sell as well. Lockwood did not accept his justification and ordered Mills to turn himself in. As he made to do so, Mills hesitated, turning on his employer and claiming that Hammond’s views on human cloning had been right all along. Mills used a decorative pillow to smother Lockwood to death; in his fragile state, Lockwood could not fend off the attack and died due to asphyxiation. Once his airflow was obstructed, it probably took him about seven minutes to die. There were no witnesses.

After his death, the first person to discover Lockwood was Maisie, who had escaped her room to warn him again about the auction taking place downstairs. Due to the method Mills used to kill him, it appeared that Lockwood had died in his sleep. Lockwood’s body was then “discovered” by Mills, who summoned Carroll to dismiss her from the estate’s services so that he could assume duties of Maisie’s sole caretaker. This would place the Lockwood fortune, and all of Lockwood’s properties, in his hands. However, Maisie was befriended by Claire Dearing and her romantic partner Owen Grady during the incident that transpired at the mansion, and Mills was among the incident’s victims. Maisie was subsequently unofficially adopted by Dearing and Grady, who left the estate shortly after the incident.

Carroll was most likely the one to report Lockwood’s death. His body was probably removed from the estate on June 25, by which time the incident was more or less over. Because there were no witnesses to his murder, and the guilty party never confessed to his crime and then died shortly after, Lockwood’s death is publicly believed to be due to natural causes.

This means that Lockwood is survived solely by Maisie, who has since been taken in by new parental figures. However, since Maisie has no legal forms documenting her existence, she cannot inherit her grandfather’s properties; Mills was probably named in Lockwood’s will, but since Mills died and neither Mills nor Lockwood had other children, Lockwood’s properties were probably divided up between his living relatives on his mother’s and father’s sides of the family. This will most likely remain the case unless Maisie is proven to be his rightful surviving heir.

He is also, in a way, survived by the animals he intended to rescue, even though they were brought to the American mainland rather than Sanctuary as he had hoped. Despite the duplicity involved in the mission, the animals were ultimately saved from Mount Sibo because of Lockwood.

Skills
Business

Lockwood’s role in the founding and operation of InGen is mostly unknown, but likely involved the use of his family fortune as a source of financial security for the company. However, he was not simply the company’s primary benefactor; he was a close business partner of John Hammond’s and was deeply involved in laying the groundwork for Jurassic Park. If Hammond trusted Lockwood with this degree of involvement in a high-risk, high-reward project like the Park, then Lockwood’s own business skills must have been sufficient to impress Hammond.

In terms of personal financial management, Lockwood’s wealth allowed him to hire an estate manager to better handle his investments and expenses.

Activism

Between 2017 and mid-2018, Lockwood began following the Mount Sibo controversy and the proposals brought forth by the Dinosaur Protection Group. He appears to have been new to activism in this late stage of his life, but nonetheless did want to help rescue the dinosaurs in order to amend the harm his neglect had caused before. Lockwood did not get involved with the DPG or the government debates about the issue until the last minute; he had plans to illegally rescue the dinosaurs if the government failed to do so, but did not contact Claire Dearing of the DPG about these plans until after the government announced its non-action policy.

Lockwood had good intentions, but was unsuccessful as an activist in several ways. First, he did not put his enormous wealth into action until the last minute, when his support could have made the DPG far more effective from the beginning. Second, he did not make his plan known to the DPG until after the non-action policy was announced by Congress, despite Lockwood having anticipated this and planned on allying with the DPG. Finally, he delegated most of the responsibilities of the operation to his estate manager, rather than overseeing it himself; though he was not healthy enough to join in directly, his lack of involvement and reliance on Eli Mills led to the mission being used as an illegal business venture rather than environmentalist action.

Laboratory procedure

Lockwood’s home included a private laboratory which was utilized by his company, InGen, during the early 1980s for de-extinction and cloning research. It is unknown whether Lockwood himself participated in the processes directly, or if he was merely the provider of resources. He claimed to have cloned his daughter, but this was actually a cover-up for his daughter’s illegal human cloning studies, so it is unclear if Lockwood had any skill with genetics himself.

Physical ability

In his later years, Lockwood’s health declined. As of 2018, he used a wheelchair for mobility; he owned an amber-capped walking cane similar to John Hammond’s, suggesting that he was mobility-impaired since at least the 1990s. He used a number of medicines in his old age and had his heart rate and other vitals regularly monitored while he slept or rested, and used an endotracheal tube to help him breathe. The exact illnesses or other health conditions that affected him are undisclosed, but it is known that as of June 2018 he was considered terminal.

Views
On business

While Lockwood’s preferred business model and methods have not been discussed in detail, he was known to prefer an opportunistic approach to entrepreneurship, taking advantage of any chance to expand his business. This is best illustrated through his interest in human cloning; InGen had developed the most advanced cloning methodology and technology in the world, and Lockwood believed they could benefit from expanding into fields beyond de-extinction. Lockwood was willing to pursue controversial goals in order to grow his business, even if doing so cost him partnerships or friendships.

Although Lockwood’s “business first” approach seems to have defined his earlier years, by the time he was dying his only interest was creating a better world for future generations. He was still willing to use controversial methods to do so, but his intentions were entirely philanthropic, with any capitalist goals having fallen by the wayside as he faced his impending mortality.

On nature

Much like his business partner John Hammond, Lockwood’s view of nature was initially a naive capitalist one: that nature in all its wonder was an infinitely giving resource that could be exploited to the benefit of humanity.

Lockwood’s views, also like Hammond’s, shifted to a more environmentalist outlook in his later life; he became concerned about the kind of world that his generation would be leaving for the children, such as his granddaughter Maisie, and adopted a preservationist approach to nature. He believed in the years preceding his death that nature should be protected, preserved, and left to take its course with minimal intervention. However, he did not necessarily believe that nature should necessarily be separate from humanity; he wanted to keep nature as a source of inspiration and as a message to the young generation that the world is worth protecting. Lockwood at some point became owner of an uninhabited island, named Sanctuary Island, which he appears to have intended to use as a private nature preserve that his family’s wealth would protect. This is in line with the modern environmentalist belief that areas of Earth should be set aside for nature to flourish uninhibited, maintaining a peace between civilization and nature by giving each their own spaces.

On genetic engineering

Having been a partner of John Hammond’s in the early days of InGen, Lockwood believed in the benefits that genetic engineering could bring. His stance on bioethics is mostly unknown, but as he was a proponent of human cloning, it stands to reason that other controversial topics within genetic science were open for discussion. His money was used in the early 2010s to finance the breeding of the Indominus rex, though it is not known how much of this was facilitated by Eli Mills without his knowledge; the creation of the Indoraptor was also carried out using Lockwood’s money but this was entirely done without his consent.

On human cloning

Lockwood was always a firm supporter of human cloning, believing that the benefits it could provide outweigh the ethical dilemmas it presents. His specific rebuttals to ethical questions surrounding human cloning have not been discussed. It is most likely that his interest in human cloning were predominantly for medical and therapeutic purposes, since these are the primary uses for human cloning. Lockwood’s daughter Charlotte shared his views, and he was probably one of a very few people to know that she was the first scientist ever to perform human reproductive cloning. In 2007, Lockwood’s granddaughter was born, a clone of his original daughter. Although he and Iris Carroll did genuinely care about Maisie, their attitudes showed signs that they expected her to grow up to be like Charlotte. These kinds of expectations are one of the major arguments that opponents of reproductive cloning present in debates.

On de-extinct animal rights

Lockwood’s stance on the rights of de-extinct animals appears to have been essentially similar to John Hammond’s, viewing the animals as a source of awe and wonder but also a source of profit that could be controlled. Hammond’s own views shifted after the 1993 incident, and Lockwood’s appear to have changed over time to align with his former friend’s more environmentalist outlook. By 2018, Lockwood believed that the dinosaurs and other de-extinct animals should be given the chance to live away from human influence, essentially mirroring Hammond’s vision for the animals living in sanctuary described in his 1997 television interview.

Although Lockwood wanted de-extinct animals to be able to live in a naturalistic environment and be free from human intervention, he did support intervention to save them from danger. At the last minute he chose to support the Dinosaur Protection Group and arrange a mission to illegally move the animals from Isla Nublar to Sanctuary Island, keeping them from suffering and dying due to a volcanic eruption. He also believed that the animals being kept alive would send a positive environmentalist message to future generations of humanity, essentially seeing the creatures created by InGen as a microcosm for the whole of the natural world.

Religious views

While Lockwood is not known to have participated in an organized religion, he held the celebration of life for his daughter at St. Anne’s Church (presumably the one in Sacramento, California, as this is the closest one to the Lockwood estate). This is a Catholic church; however, Lockwood endorsed human cloning since at least the 1990s, an issue which many Catholics are opposed to due to ethical issues surrounding the destruction of embryos and use of clones for organ transplantation.

Relationships
Family

The Lockwood family is an ancient lineage with historical records dating back to seventh-century England, and Sir Benjamin appears to belong to an old-money branch of the family. The names of his parents are not known, but his mother was still alive and close with him when he married and had his only child, a daughter named Charlotte, in 1983.

Although he was often away on InGen business, Lockwood was a doting father who adored his daughter’s sense of humor and love of animals. He brought her to Isla Nublar sometime before 1993, showing her the de-extinct creatures of Jurassic Park; few people were allowed to visit the island at that time, since the project was highly secretive, making Charlotte one of an extremely select few to be given that privilege.

Lockwood’s relationship with his wife, the Lady Lockwood, is mostly unknown. She appears to have passed away at some point, most likely before 2007. Since their daughter Charlotte was afflicted by (and eventually died from) a fatal heritable genetic disorder, it may be that this same condition caused the death of the Lady Lockwood.

In August 2007, Charlotte produced a grandchild for Sir Benjamin, but not through any conventional means. She had succeeded at cloning herself, which was illegal in the state, so it was kept secret. Lockwood’s granddaughter, Maisie, was cured of the genetic disorder that ultimately claimed Charlotte’s life; the treatment had come from Charlotte herself, who gave Maisie the only dose she had time to create. Lockwood mourned the death of his only child, but he also had Maisie to consider, and created a multi-layered cover story to explain them both. She was hidden from most outsiders, but to those who learned about her existence, she was said to have been born to Charlotte and her husband before both were killed in a car crash in 2008, leaving Maisie an orphan. If anyone figured out that Maisie was actually a clone, Lockwood had another tale to tell: he claimed that where most people would go through the stages of grief and finally come to peace with their loss, he had found a way to succeed in bargaining with fate. The story was that he used InGen’s technology to clone his daughter. The reality, that Maisie had been cloned by Charlotte herself and that Charlotte had died of a genetic disorder a year after she supposedly died in a car crash, was known only to Lockwood and Carroll. Maisie was led to believe she was a natural-born but orphaned child, and would only be taught the truth when she was old enough. She does not appear to have been known to the rest of the Lockwood family.

Lockwood treated Maisie as her own person, but still held expectations that she would become just like her mother. When she acted in a way that reminded Lockwood of Charlotte, he rewarded her with compliments, thereby encouraging her to grow into a kind of replacement for the child he had lost. Maisie enjoyed the loving comparisons, unaware of just how much like her mother she was intended to be. She was raised surrounded by books, fossils, and models of dinosaurs, and so came to love dinosaurs just like her mother did; Lockwood assuredly encouraged this as well, especially during the Mount Sibo controversy. He often told Maisie about how they were going to protect the dinosaurs by bringing them to safety. In fact, Maisie was a major component of Lockwood’s growing stance on animal rights and environmentalism, since she gave him a reason to want a better future for the children. Maisie appeared to be Lockwood’s only surviving close family as of 2018.

When the operation to relocate the dinosaurs was underway, Maisie discovered a plot to sell the animals on the black market and warned Lockwood about this scheme. Lockwood dismissed her as having misunderstood something, but was still troubled by her claims and investigated them without her knowing as not to alarm her further. Ultimately he discovered that she was correct, but he was murdered before he could take action. Maisie was the first person to discover his body.

Iris Carroll

Lockwood’s housekeeper Iris Carroll was not just his employee, but his most loyal and trusted confidant and keeper of his family’s secrets. She raised his daughter Charlotte, who was born in the early 1970s, and it is highly likely she worked for the Lockwood family before this. Carroll was also essential in helping Lockwood himself as he grew older and his health failed him, making sure that he took his medicines on time and was monitored for any issues that could be a concern.

Carroll was privy to the Lockwood family’s greatest and most scandalous secret: in August 2007, Charlotte had quietly given birth, but there was no father. She had cloned herself, which is illegal in California. When Charlotte passed away from a genetic disorder in early 2009, Carroll became Maisie’s caretaker the way she had once raised Charlotte many years ago. Carroll was one of only two people to know the truth of Maisie’s origin, and helped Lockwood to maintain the lies and secrecy that were necessary to protect her.

Over the next nine years, Carroll helped Lockwood raise the young Maisie as though she were his granddaughter, and like him, she encouraged Maisie to behave like her mother. Lockwood himself grew frail in his old age, making Carroll an essential aid in raising the spirited young girl.

In 2018, Carroll was also aware of Lockwood’s plan to illegally rescue the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar due to the eruption of Mount Sibo. She kept this secret as well, helping him to arrange his meeting with Claire Dearing of the DPG to discuss the mission. Carroll almost certainly acted as Lockwood’s eyes and ears within the mansion when Maisie alerted Lockwood that there was a plot to sell the dinosaurs; despite not being able to investigate himself, Lockwood had found evidence that the conspiracy was real. Carroll was sent to confront Lockwood’s aide Eli Mills, who was responsible for the conspiracy to sell the dinosaurs, and instruct him to see Lockwood about his treachery. Sadly, Carroll was unable to stop the auction, since Mills had brought a powerful security force into the manor; Carroll was outnumbered, and was then forcibly dismissed from service after Lockwood was found dead in his room during the night of June 24, 2018.

Dr. John Parker Alfred Hammond

Since at least 1975, Lockwood was not only business partners but close friends with Scottish entrepreneur Dr. John Hammond. Together they founded International Genetic Technologies, with the Lockwood fortune surely bolstering the early company’s financial security. Lockwood was intimately involved with the Jurassic Park project, Hammond’s dream for many years and something he trusted only the best to work on. Their shared work in Jurassic Park became a cornerstone of their friendship; Hammond and Lockwood even fashioned matching amber-capped walking canes to symbolize this.

Hammond’s trust in Lockwood appeared complete; he even allowed Lockwood to bring his young daughter to Isla Sorna and ended up letting her stay there in the long term. Unfortunately, their friendship was not destined to last. Lockwood believed that InGen should use its technology to further the study of human cloning, a practice that is typically used in medical fields such as stem cell research and organ transplantation. Hammond, on the other hand, considered human cloning to be appalling and forbade Lockwood from using InGen technology for this purpose. This issue became a bitter point of contention between the two men; eventually, Lockwood left the Jurassic Park project completely. Their friendship ended, and contact between them appears to have been minimal all the way until Hammond’s death in late 1997.

After Hammond died, Lockwood’s memory of his former friend softened. By the time he himself was an old man, he had come to agree with Hammond’s plan to create a dinosaur sanctuary where the animals could live freely and away from human interference. Hammond had wanted to use Isla Sorna for this purpose, but since that island was owned by Masrani Global, Lockwood instead planned to use his own privately-owned Sanctuary Island. Lockwood even kept a portrait of Hammond in his home, displayed prominently in the foyer.

InGen and Masrani Global

Sir Benjamin Lockwood was one of the founding fathers of International Genetic Technologies, along with Dr. John Hammond, in 1975. His enormous family wealth was certainly a benefit to the company from its beginnings, helping it get off the ground and grow into a thriving business. For the most part, Lockwood’s involvement in the company is unknown, since he departed on bad terms sometime before 1993.

Lockwood was involved with the Jurassic Park project and was probably known to the higher-ups in the company: Park warden Robert Muldoon, chief engineer Ray Arnold, chief programmer Dennis Nedry, chief geneticist Dr. Henry Wu, and head veterinarian Dr. Gerry Harding. Before Henry Wu was chief geneticist, that position was held by Dr. Laura Sorkin, who performed some of her research at the laboratory in Lockwood’s own home. He likely worked closely with members of the Board of Directors. It is not known what position Lockwood held in the company; since Hammond was both President and CEO, it is possible that Lockwood may have been Chief Financial Officer, Chairman of the Board, or some other high-ranking position.

After his departure from the company, InGen would have suffered since his wealth was no longer supporting them. Lockwood was not involved with the company again for many years; in 1998, shortly after Hammond’s death in late 1997, InGen was bought out by Masrani Global Corporation. This corporation’s CEO was Simon Masrani, the son of Hammond’s close friend Sanjay Masrani. It is likely that Sanjay Masrani and Benjamin Lockwood knew one another through Hammond, but details of their relationship are not known. In 2004, Masrani announced that InGen would be opening a reinvented form of Jurassic Park, now called Jurassic World.

Lockwood became involved with InGen again in the early 2010s, using the Lockwood Foundation to support Jurassic World’s endeavors. He facilitated many parts of this relationship through his estate manager Eli Mills, who negotiated partnerships with Jurassic World’s top brass including its Operations Manager Claire Dearing. Money from the Lockwood Foundation was used to fund the creation of the Indominus rex, which hatched in 2012. This appears to have been arranged secretly, as Dearing was unaware of how the hybrid project had gotten its funding; Lockwood also seems to have been unaware of this, so it was probably arrange wholly by Mills. Nonetheless, the Lockwood-funded Indominus was ultimately involved in a serious breach of security in late 2015, causing a public scandal that led to Jurassic World’s indefinite closure. Henry Wu, who had continued to work at Jurassic World like he had done in Jurassic Park, was found guilty of bioethical misconduct and hid from the authorities at Lockwood’s home with the help of Mills. As with the Indominus, Lockwood did not have any idea that Wu was living in his home, or that he was continuing his research there.

The incident in 2015 caused the death of Simon Masrani, and his company chose to distance itself from Jurassic World and de-extinction. Despite public pressure for them to provide for the dinosaurs’ welfare after the park was abandoned, Masrani Global officials claimed that they lacked the resources to do so and that the animals would have to fend for themselves. Even with the threat of a volcanic eruption being discovered, the company made no effort to help the animals it had created. Lockwood would not stand to see this happen, and when the U.S. government formally announced that it also would take no action, Lockwood went against the wishes of Masrani Global and the American federal authorities to rescue the dinosaurs.

Claire Dearing

When Lockwood became involved with InGen again, one of the company’s heads that he most often made negotiations with was Claire Dearing, Jurassic World’s Senior Assets Manager and Operations Manager. Most of their interactions were facilitated by Eli Mills, manager of the Lockwood Foundation, but Lockwood did appear to know Dearing personally as well.

After the 2015 incident closed Jurassic World, Dearing founded the Dinosaur Protection Group, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the health and welfare of de-extinct animals. Lockwood followed her progress, though he did not appear to provide it with financial support or get involved with it. When it became apparent that the U.S. government would not support the DPG’s cause, he arranged a mission to Isla Nublar himself, intending for Dearing to lead it. He contacted her the day before the mission’s departure, informing her with Mills’s help about their plan. Lockwood did not see Dearing again after she left his home; she departed on a flight to Isla Nublar the following morning, remaining out of contact during the events that transpired at the manor over that day and the next. Lockwood was murdered on June 24, before he could help Dearing or prove that he was innocent.

Eli Mills

As Lockwood grew into an old man, he became concerned about the future of his wealth, his granddaughter, and the world he was leaving behind. To help guide his money into the future, he hired a young and idealistic financier to be his estate manager. This man, Eli Mills, became a trusted member of not only the Lockwood Foundation, but the Lockwood household.

Mills was hired sometime in the early 2010s, and some of his first assignments involved negotiating partnerships between the Lockwood Foundation and Jurassic World. However, Mills began seeking ways to invest and grow Lockwood’s fortune without his employer’s full knowledge. One such way was investing in the InGen Security military bioengineering project, with the Indominus rex as its first product; this species was hatched in 2012. Lockwood seems to have been unaware that his money was used to fund this project. Mills also sheltered Dr. Henry Wu in Lockwood’s home after the 2015 incident led to Wu’s branding as a criminal, also without Lockwood’s knowledge, and refurbished the sub-basement laboratory to suit Wu’s research.

At some point, Mills became one of the privileged few to know that Maisie was a clone, though he was told the cover story about Lockwood cloning Charlotte out of grief. Mills disagreed with Lockwood’s alleged motive in cloning his daughter, but did not openly voice this to his employer. He seems to have had some role in raising Maisie, though not as much as Iris Carroll; as Lockwood’s health declined, Mills probably attained more responsibility in this respect. Carroll was aging as well, making Mills the most obvious choice for taking on the role of father figure should Lockwood pass away. Maisie was the rightful heir to the Lockwood fortune, but since she most likely lacks legal documentation on account of being an illegal human clone, the only way to ensure she inherited Lockwood’s money and properties would be to will them to Mills. As of such, Lockwood entrusted Mills not only with his foundation and finances, but with Maisie’s future.

After the Jurassic World incident in 2015, Mills took over the military bioengineering project from InGen Security to continue using it to grow the Lockwood fortune. This led him down a path that increasingly opposed him to Lockwood’s goals, but he maintained a friendly face and hid his operations from Lockwood and Carroll. This came to a head during the 2018 incident: Mills aided Lockwood in arranging the rescue mission to Isla Nublar, but rather than relocate the endangered dinosaurs to Sanctuary Island, he chose to bring them to the Lockwood estate and sell them on the black market. Mills’s contacts seem to have believed that Lockwood approved this. The plot was exposed by Maisie, but Lockwood’s effort to stop it was thwarted. He still trusted that Mills would obey him when commanded to turn himself in to the police, but Mills instead defended his black-market auction by murdering Lockwood. In his frail state, Lockwood could not defend himself as Mills smothered him with a pillow. Moments before he began the process of killing Lockwood, Mills finally told him his true feelings about Lockwood’s cloning of Maisie.

Other personal staff

Lockwood certainly would have employed other staff at his estate over time, as the enormous building would require lots of upkeep. Staff would have had to be hired to clean the rooms, maintain the electricity and plumbing, install new systems (such as the elevators, which Lockwood would need for accessibility purposes), maintain the lawn, and prepare food. He also employed at least one chauffeur, as he could no longer drive. Other than Iris Carroll and Eli Mills, however, none of his staff appeared to live in the manor itself. This was probably the case in particular after 2006, when Charlotte Lockwood cloned herself in secret. After Maisie was born in mid-2007, tutors took care of her education, selected personally by Lockwood to ensure they would help maintain Maisie’s safety and never tell the outside world about her.

The sub-basement laboratory beneath the home was another matter. During the 1980s, research was performed here, but these would have been InGen staff rather than Lockwood’s personal employees. Coordinating between the Lockwood Manor employees and InGen employees to maintain secrecy regarding the de-extinction research must have been an ordeal, but appears to have been a success. The laboratory was once again brought to life in 2015, when Henry Wu and numerous scientists from around the world were staffed by Mills to perform hybridization research in the newly-refurbished lab; Lockwood was the one kept in the dark this time around, as he was unaware of these staff members working (and, in the case of Wu, living) in his home.

U.S. government

Like Hammond, Lockwood moved to the United States of America for business purposes at some point prior to 1975, and likely would have dealt with the U.S. government in some capacity in order to do so. His family’s enormous wealth was certainly an advantage that would have made them favored by the government, making it easier to become a permanent resident in the United States. It is not known if he obtained dual citizenship between the United States and Great Britain or if he simply resided permanently in a foreign country.

Lockwood appears to have had a mostly quiet and secluded life, but his activities (both with InGen and later) would have been of interest to the government. Charlotte’s act of cloning herself goes against state regulations imposed by the government of California, though human cloning is not explicitly banned by the federal government. Lockwood would have had to ensure that the last ten years of his life were more secretive than ever to avoid being found out. His money was also used to finance a military bioengineering project without his knowledge, which the U.S. government was likely interested in; during Lockwood’s final days, he intentionally used his money to go against the federal government’s wishes regarding Isla Nublar. As he aged, Lockwood became more liberal with regards to environmentalism and animal rights, contrary to the U.S. government’s far-right trends at that point in time.

British royalty

Because he has been knighted (indicated by his proper form of address being “Sir Benjamin Lockwood” or simply “Sir Benjamin”), he is known to the British royalty, though it is not known which monarch gave him his knighthood. In order to attain this honor, Lockwood must have performed a notable contribution to society which led to the Queen of England bestowing his knighthood upon him.

De-extinct animals

The first ancient DNA extracted from prehistoric amber was recovered at Lockwood’s estate in the laboratory of the sub-basement, almost certainly performed with equipment and samples that were acquired using Lockwood money. His influence shaped InGen’s early days and probably helped them obtain the facilities that were eventually used for de-extinction, such as Isla Sorna, where the first dinosaur (a Triceratops horridus) was cloned in 1986.

For the most part, Lockwood’s relationship to the animals InGen created is not well known, but he was likely involved just as much as his partner John Hammond. His involvement in the project ended sometime before 1993, and he appears to have largely avoided InGen and de-extinction for many years afterward.

In the early 2010s, when Jurassic World was operational and Hammond had long since passed away, Lockwood became involved with InGen again by means of the Lockwood Foundation. He forged a partnership with Jurassic World, using his money to fund research and development in the park. Most of this was arranged by his aide Eli Mills, who sometimes made investment decisions without consulting Lockwood; for example, he funded the creation of the Indominus rex, a hybrid theropod intended as a proof of concept for military bioengineering. Two of these animals were hatched in 2012; the survivor later caused a major security incident that resulted in Jurassic World closing its gates indefinitely.

The incident of 2015 temporarily ended Lockwood’s involvement with the dinosaurs. He would not come to influence them again until much later, when the Dinosaur Protection Group advocated for relocating the dinosaurs to a safe place. As volcanic activity began to occur on Isla Nublar, this need for a relocation became more dire. Lockwood did not financially support the DPG or use his wealth to persuade the government or Masrani Global, but did follow the crisis and debate. He anticipated that the government would choose to do nothing and arranged an illegal rescue mission with the help of Mills, hoping to use his own assets (namely the cargo ship S.S. Arcadia and the uninhabited Sanctuary Island) to help the animals. When the government announced its non-action policy as he had anticipated, Lockwood enlisted the DPG’s founder Claire Dearing to lead his rescue mission with the intent to save as many dinosaurs as possible.

However, the animals never reached Sanctuary. Mills instead intended to sell them to finance Henry Wu’s research, such as the Indoraptor, a continuation of the Indominus project that began in 2016. A prototype of the Indoraptor was actually being kept in Lockwood’s basement without his knowledge, and numerous dinosaur eggs were incubating in the laboratory. Mills succeeded in bringing the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar to the estate, and sold several on the black market during the night of June 24. Lockwood was murdered by Mills to avoid the authorities discovering his plot, but the dinosaurs that Lockwood had tried to save were ultimately rescued by his granddaughter Maisie and freed. Along with Maisie, the surviving dinosaurs are Lockwood’s legacy.

Portrayal

Benjamin Lockwood is portrayed by James Cromwell. He is not based on any specific character from Michael Crichton‘s novels, instead being an original character created for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Some fans have drawn parallels between Lockwood and the novels’ Norman Atherton, but aside from the two characters’ partnership with John Hammond, they have little in common.

Like many characters and other aspects of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Lockwood was created as a political statement, appearing to take some inspiration from older environmental activists. He is regretful about the damage his past actions have caused and seeks to atone for his sins, and is willing to circumvent the government’s will to do so. Because of his age and gender as well as his smaller role and connection to the original films, he is less of a divisive character than others, having been received mostly positively by fans.