Franklin Webb is an American information technology professional, web designer, and animal rights activist. He is best known for his involvement with the Dinosaur Protection Group, where he worked as systems analyst and social media coordinator from 2017 until the incidents of June 2018. Webb was also an employee at the Jurassic World theme park prior to its closure in 2015, though he generally worked offsite rather than in the park itself. As of 2022, he was employed in the Dangerous Species Division of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Name
The given name Franklin originates from the medieval English name Frankeleyn, which itself comes from the Anglo-Franco word fraunclein. It refers to a landowner of free, but not noble, origins. His surname, Webb, also originates from English, though it also has Scottish backgrounds; it means “weaver,” though his friends have noted that it also sounds like “web,” a slang term for the internet (hence the term website). Though the surname is intended to refer to a weaver of cloth, it also fits this character’s profession as a creator of websites and internet design.
This combination of names suggests that Franklin Webb has some English ancestry. The actor who portrays him, Justice Smith, has a mixed-race background, which is therefore likely to be the case with Webb as well.
Biography
Early life
Webb’s date of birth is currently unknown, but if he completed a minimum of four years of college by 2015 (most likely beginning at eighteen years old), he was born in 1997 at the very latest. If Webb was born around that point in time, he would have been only an infant (if he was born yet at all) when Dr. Ian Malcolm claimed that International Genetic Technologies had performed de-extinction and brought dinosaurs back from the dead, and too young to remember the incident in San Diego in 1997 that proved Dr. Malcolm had been telling the truth.
Growing up in Los Angeles, California, Webb became fascinated by computers at an early age and would take apart old machines to find out how they worked. This hobby developed into a skill, leading to Webb learning how to code and eventually design websites. Other aspects of his life were rougher; he suffered from numerous anxieties and phobias (especially surrounding dangerous animals), and was socially awkward. These traits persisted as he grew older.
Webb attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, probably majoring in computer science.
IT career
As an adult, Webb was employed by Masrani Global Corporation, specifically InGen. Due to his competence with programming and web design, he was hired to monitor the private Jurassic World computer network for glitches. The park, which opened in 2005, had computer and communications technology created by some of the world’s leading developers under the Masrani Global umbrella including Mascom Network and Tatsuo Technology as well as InGen itself. Webb did not visit Isla Nublar, the site of the park, until later in his career. Even then, he did not travel there very often, mainly working at the offsite tech complex in Irvine, California.
Webb’s career at Jurassic World ended on December 22, 2015 due to a serious security incident that permanently closed the park. He was not on-site at the time of the incident. After the loss of his IT job at Jurassic World, it appears that Webb was at least mostly unemployed for a period of time.
Dinosaur Protection Group
Two years after the incident that closed Jurassic World, the Dinosaur Protection Group was founded by the park’s former Operations Manager, Claire Dearing. The existence of such a group was surrounded by controversy, as numerous groups (including the increasingly far-right U.S. government) believed that de-extinct animals had no right to live. The issue was compounded by an increase in volcanic activity on Isla Nublar, as the island’s stratovolcano Mount Sibo was reawakened by a minor earthquake and threatened to erupt within the next year.
Although Webb believed that the dinosaurs, and all animals, deserved to survive, it was due to the prompting of his father that he joined the Dinosaur Protection Group in 2017. Webb’s father believed that working for this nonprofit organization would get Webb some much-needed experience, not only for his career but in standing behind a cause. With the social anxieties that Webb suffered from, it is probable that joining the DPG was his first major political statement. Despite not having joined of his own volition, Webb was entirely behind the DPG’s goals and objectives, supporting them at every turn. It was here that he met his closest friend, the paleoveterinarian Zia Rodriguez; he also befriended Dearing.
In the DPG, his skills as a systems analyst and web designer were immeasurably useful. The group was founded in March of 2017, and Webb joined sometime after this; he was one of the earliest members along with Rodriguez and quickly became a team leader. The group established an internet presence that year and on December 21 sent out a mass email to their supporters. By February 4, 2018, the DPG’s website was functional and updated. Webb, along with Rodriguez and Dearing, wrote content for the website; he established a live feed from the Costa Rican Institute for Volcanology monitoring the harmonic tremor readings from Mount Sibo, also writing an article describing the threat of eruption. At the same time the DPG website was updated, the now-defunct Jurassic World website was hacked and repurposed as an advocacy site for the DPG, probably by Webb.
He did not write many of the articles on the DPG site, authoring only the report “Mount Sibo: Life at the Edge of Chaos” and his own introduction in the blog post “Welcome to the DPG.” While most of the articles on the site were written by his colleagues, Webb was instrumental in keeping the site functional as well as ensuring that the internal systems used by the DPG at their San Francisco headquarters continued to run smoothly. Webb was less involved with public outreach, probably due to his social awkwardness and anxiety, but can be seen in the DPG’s introductory video which was filmed with a group of elementary school children during an outreach event. In the blog post where he introduced himself, he specifically described enjoying seeing children becoming involved with the cause and understanding the importance of saving animal lives. Throughout this, Webb still coped with his animal phobias, especially his fear of dinosaurs.
The DPG’s activism continued through mid-2018, and Webb continued to update the group on the volcanic activity based on data from the CRIV. The eruption became a more serious threat as the year continued. By June, it was clear that an eruption was imminent. Debate raged in Congress; Masrani Global had long since stated in no uncertain terms that they would not provide assistance to the DPG, so it was up to the U.S. federal government to make the final decision. That call was made in the morning of June 22, when Congress announced that no action would be taken regarding Isla Nublar, and that the animals would be allowed to die out.
Webb, along with his colleagues, was saddened by the government’s decision to let the animals suffer and die. However, Dearing received a phone call immediately after Congress’s decision was televised; she was summoned to the Lockwood estate to meet with her acquaintance Benjamin Lockwood, a wealthy philanthropist who had supported Jurassic World. Webb and Rodriguez learned that Lockwood had chosen to help the DPG illegally travel to Isla Nublar and rescue as many animals as possible, including the last living Velociraptor on the island, Blue. They would be brought to Sanctuary Island, a safe and privately owned location where they could live without human interference. The operation was scheduled to leave at dawn the following morning.
2018 incident
Upon arrival at the private airstrip provided by Lockwood and his aide Eli Mills, Webb faced his fear of flying to board the airplane. He, Rodriguez, and Dearing found that Dearing’s old flame and former InGen Security animal behaviorist Owen Grady had joined the team, although he had told Dearing yesterday that he would not be coming. With Grady’s help, it would be much easier to capture and rescue Blue, since Grady had reared her from the egg and understood her behaviors better than anyone else. He was also the only human she fully trusted, and therefore the only person she was unlikely to attack on sight.
The airplane touched down on Isla Nublar near midday after circling the island. Webb struggled to acclimate to the tropical heat and humidity. He was also anxious about facing some of his fears on the island, such as dangerous animals and tropical mosquito-borne diseases. Upon arrival, the team met with Mills’s lead hunter, a mercenary named Ken Wheatley, who had set up a base camp south of Mount Sibo. The operation was surprisingly well underway despite having only been authorized by Lockwood yesterday, but as Webb was preoccupied with the challenges that the mission would present, he did not put much thought to this.
In order to locate Blue, the team’s plan was to reach Radio Bunker 02-17 and activate it using Dearing’s handprint biosignature. The bunker was dangerously near Mount Sibo, but the team would approach from the south, traveling through the valley to avoid the volcano for as long as possible. They passed through Main Street, making an observational stop; here they witnessed one of the last remaining Brachiosaurus. From here they turned north, leaving the park area and traveling into wilder territory.
The bunker was reached close to noon. This was where Webb’s expertise was put to use: he was the only one who understood the park’s systems enough to hack into the door locks, gaining them access to the radio bunker. While he worked to open the doors, he was belittled by Wheatley; when Webb succeeded in getting the doors open, he displayed uncharacteristic confidence in talking back to the mercenary. Having his friends Rodriguez and Dearing there to support him surely played a part in his sense of empowerment.
Once inside, they were able to start the systems, despite the run-down and damaged state of the equipment. Dearing used her biosignature to activate the RFID tracking system, locating remaining dinosaurs on the island by means of their implants. A surprising number were found concentrated at the park’s East Dock, which Wheatley explained were those they had already captured. Webb finally began to realize that something was odd about the situation, but again did not think much of it as there was plenty else to do. Blue was located to the southeast of the volcano, and Wheatley took most of his mercenaries and Grady to capture her; Rodriguez accompanied them, leaving Webb alone with Dearing to monitor the mission remotely with a couple mercenaries guarding the doors.
While the team led by Grady and Wheatley closed in on Blue, communications were disrupted as the ground shook beneath them. Mount Sibo’s magma chamber breached, causing a violent outgassing that ruptured the mountain from base to peak. The computers shorted out, cutting off any chance of communication with outside. Webb and Dearing tried to escape as the bunker’s doors were shut, and despite their best efforts, they could not unlock them. Webb briefly hoped that the mercenaries had locked them in for their own protection, but Dearing doubted that this was the case.
Webb and Dearing’s best route of escape would have been the maintenance tunnels running beneath the park. However, a proximity alarm was triggered by something approaching through the tunnel connecting to the bunker. Webb feared that it could be the park’s Tyrannosaurus, though Dearing assured him that it couldn’t be the tyrannosaur, since the tunnels were too small. Lava began to spread across the northern island from the volcano, heating up the bunker and melting parts of the structure; this allowed lava and melted metal to seep inside. At the same time, the animal fleeing through the maintenance tunnels toward the bunker arrived: a carnivorous Baryonyx, confused and agitated by the disaster. The frightened animal lashed out at Webb and Dearing, who now had to avoid its attack as well as the searing heat of the lava oozing into the bunker. Dearing led Webb in an escape through the emergency exit in the roof. Webb retrieved a chair to boost them up to the ladder, which was stuck, facing the Baryonyx to do so. As he escaped, his weight did cause the ladder to come free. This put him in danger again as the dinosaur spotted him escaping the bunker, and it tried to follow them; to save their own lives, Webb and Dearing were forced to seal the panicked animal inside by closing the hatch.
On top of the bunker, they were now threatened by the full brunt of the eruption. They were rejoined by Grady, who screamed for them to run; the most recent explosion had triggered a stampede of animals from the surrounding forest. Webb, Dearing, and Grady fled from the stampede as well as volcanic debris, hiding behind the abandoned Gyrosphere 08 as the animals passed by. Once it was safe, Webb and Dearing entered the gyrosphere, but before Grady could join them he stopped as they were approached by a Carnotaurus. Unlike the Baryonyx, this predator was not fleeing the eruption but was instead there to capitalize on the panic caused by the stampede. It established dominance over the humans, intimidating Webb, but was actually hunting a straggling Sinoceratops. Its quarry escaped, though, and it charged Grady and the gyrosphere; they were only saved as the carnotaur was attacked by a larger theropod, the Tyrannosaurus. Before the tyrannosaur could begin to feed, the northeast side of the volcano collapsed, releasing a shockwave and a cloud of toxic gases and ash which drove the remaining dinosaurs toward the coastal cliffs.
The gyrosphere plummeted over the edge, along with many of the dinosaurs. It began to leak and fill with seawater, which was worsened when a piece of debris struck the gyrosphere’s aluminum oxynitride hull and melted a hole in both the top and bottom, nearly landing on Webb. He took a breath as the gyrosphere completely filled with seawater, sinking beneath the waves. Grady had taken the plunge as well and came to their aid, first trying to shoot holes in the door to equalize the pressure, then prying it open with his hunting knife. Webb struggled to swim, and was helped to the surface by Grady. They moved southward, passing the East Dock and locating a sandy beach where they could safely come ashore.
Webb and Dearing learned from Grady the truth of the operation: Wheatley had never intended to help the dinosaurs reach Sanctuary, and had tried to murder Grady. Blue was in his possession, as was Rodriguez. Webb’s tablet had been damaged by seawater and could no longer be used to track Blue, but this turned out to be unnecessary, as they could follow a transport helicopter bringing the last dinosaurs to the East Dock and the S.S. Arcadia waiting there. From a vantage point above the dock, they spotted Rodriguez and Blue, who were held captive on the ship. Webb was reluctant to try and stow away, but with the eruption continuing, the island would not be safe much longer.
He, along with Dearing and Grady, reached the East Dock as the mercenaries abandoned the island. One of their vehicles had stalled and was left behind as volcanic bombs pummeled the harbor; one such bomb struck a line of fuel barrels, causing an explosion that knocked Webb to the ground. He was not seriously injured, and while Dearing started up the abandoned vehicle, Grady helped Webb back to his feet and ensured he could board the vehicle. The Arcadia left dock, but Dearing managed to get them onto the ship before it departed, saving their lives. Once on board, they used the chaos of the evacuation as cover to hide from the mercenaries, leaving Isla Nublar behind them to burn.
On board the Arcadia, Webb accompanied Dearing and Grady as they searched for Rodriguez and Blue, locating them in one of the vehicles. Blue was bleeding out from a gunshot wound, and Rodriguez was having difficulty operating as Blue resisted her help. With Grady’s presence, the dinosaur calmed down somewhat, but she had still lost a dangerous amount of blood. Webb assisted Rodriguez despite his fear of dinosaurs (and recent traumatizing experiences with theropods), helping her to perform a xenotransfusion to save Blue from death by blood loss and shock. The operation forced him to step far outside his comfort zone to save this animal’s life, testing his mettle as an activist. Despite getting blood in his mouth while putting pressure on the wound, he succeeded in helping Rodriguez through the entire operation. He learned that while most of the dinosaurs were going to be sold on the black market, Blue was destined for something else instead.
He remained on board the Arcadia for the rest of June 23 and most of June 24, awaking to the ship’s horn as they approached their destination in Northern California. All of them except Rodriguez hid to avoid detection by Wheatley, then prepared to disembark; while Dearing and Grady were able to evade the mercenaries, Webb was caught, but mistaken for a deckhand and conscripted into service. He was separated from his friends completely for the first time during the incident.
Most of Webb’s activities during the trek to the Lockwood estate, where the black-market auction was to take place, and during the auction itself are unknown. After serving as a deckhand unloading and transporting the animals, he made his way into the manor, slipping away from the security staff guarding the building. He disguised himself as a lab technician, thereby invading the heart of the operation: the laboratory in the sub-basement, where disgraced geneticist Henry Wu was operating while on the lam. Here, Blue and Rodriguez were being held captive, with Blue’s DNA being integral to one of Wu’s upcoming projects, a hybrid creature called the Indoraptor.
Webb had no opportunity to rescue Rodriguez as they were still surrounded by enemies. During the auction above them, Wu returned to the lab in a rush, clearly agitated by something and demanding that work be sped up immensely. Some of the Security staff began packing up eggs and other research material to be transported, and Wu commanded Webb to help him obtain blood samples from Blue when Rodriguez refused. While retrieving tranquilizers and a phlebotomy kit for Wu, Webb summed up the courage to rescue his friend despite the danger. He attacked Wu, stabbing him in the neck with a carfentanil syringe and knocking the man unconscious. Wu was dragged away to safety by his security guards while Webb freed the grateful Rodriguez. Another guard approached, armed with a cattle prod and threatening to attack the two of them; following Rodriguez’s lead, he helped her release Blue, ensuring to keep the cage door between themselves and the raptor. Now free, Blue attacked and mauled the guard to death as Webb and Rodriguez made their escape. A second guard ran in to aid his colleague, but was struck accidentally by Blue. His gun went off when he was hit and struck some of the equipment in the room, including tanks of liquid hydrogen; as it began to leak and vaporize, Rodriguez noted sparks coming from damaged electronics and realized that an explosion was likely. She led Webb out from the room, and Blue followed their lead. Moments later, the sparks ignited the gas, causing a large explosion that temporarily shorted out the power.
The explosion also created shrapnel that damaged a tank of hydrogen cyanide. This highly toxic substance leaked from the tank, heated by the flames enough to evaporate but cooled enough by the ambient temperature of the basement to precipitate again. Fluctuating between a gas and a liquid, it seeped down into the lowest level of the basement where the dinosaurs were held. Rodriguez urged Webb to find a solution when the leak was detected by the lab’s computer system. He was unable to get the ventilation system to respond, so he reset the power breakers to try and start it up. Even with the power reset, the ventilation still would not start. They determined that the system had been too damaged by the explosion, and was now incapable of ventilating the lab. With no other options but to release the animals from the building, Webb and Rodriguez headed upstairs to find Dearing and Grady and brief them on this moral dilemma.
When they found their friends, they also found the corpse of the Indoraptor prototype, apparently having fallen through the sun roof of the mansion’s display room and impaled itself on a fossil. Dearing, Grady, and Benjamin Lockwood’s granddaughter Maisie were on the roof. There was no time for questioning these events just yet, and they all reconvened in the basement. Saving the dinosaurs had been Dearing’s mission from the beginning, and so her friends advised her on her next moves but did not force her hand. Releasing the dinosaurs from the building was the only way to save them, and Dearing did open the cages to let them out, but if she opened the main doors there would be no way to regain control again. She chose not to save the dinosaurs, though the decision was a painful one. In spite of this decision, Maisie released the dinosaurs anyway, saving their lives and relinquishing human control over the animals.
Webb accompanied his friends outside as the last of the dinosaurs left the estate grounds, Blue being the final animal to leave. Grady attempted to get Blue to return to captivity with him, but she refused his offer. Dearing and Grady departed the manor with Maisie, who was now an orphan following Lockwood’s death; other casualties of the incident were Mills and Wheatley, meaning that those responsible for the events of the past few days were now all dead. Responsibility now fell solely on the shoulders of the survivors, Webb among them.
A changing world
The incidents of 2018 had challenged Webb to face his fears, but the aftermath had now irrevocably changed the world he lived in. No longer would staying on the mainland keep him away from de-extinct animals; they were now in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and he had been involved in illegal activity that went against the wishes of the federal government. Dearing and Grady took Maisie under their wing and fled to a remote area to avoid government investigation, parting ways for a time with Webb. He and Rodriguez returned to civilization, facing the consequences of the past few days. It was soon learned that Maisie was an illegal clone, and that her genome was considered scientifically valuable; Webb hoped that her adoptive parents would allow the U.S. government to keep her safe from exploitation, but they opted to stay in hiding instead. Webb respected their decision, even though he felt anxious about the secrecy.
Over the next four years, they continued to advocate for the de-extinct animals as their place in the modern world became increasingly complicated. Not only were the animals living in the wild, they were being captured, and not just by government-authorized organizations such as BioSyn Genetics. Poachers were catching live animals, stealing DNA samples, and breeding both preexisting and new species around the world. Webb rejoined Dearing and Rodriguez to combat animal trafficking, often driving their getaway van as they hit suspected illegal breeders. Since Dearing needed to keep clandestine, they would document animal exploitation and report it anonymously to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the Department of Prehistoric Wildlife. Although he still firmly believed in the cause, Dearing’s methods began to grow more and more extreme, and Webb suspected that she was more interested in absolving herself of guilt than anything else.
In early 2022, one such operation brought them to Nevada, where they investigated the Saw Ridge Cattle Company under cover of the night. Webb drove the getaway van while Dearing and Rodrigiuez broke into the barn where, it was suspected, young ceratopsians were being held in cages. When he went to pick them up, they were bringing a sickly juvenile male Nasutoceratops with them; Webb took a backseat with Rodriguez while Dearing took the wheel. The plan was to get the animal to a Fish and Wildlife office for treatment, though this would risk exposing Dearing. During their escape from Saw Ridge, the farm’s owners gave chase and shot at the getaway van, forcing Dearing to drive them through the pasture where the adult ceratopsians grazed and mated. The chase risked all of their lives, and Webb’s hand was injured in the process. After their escape, Rodriguez treated his wound, and they both admitted to Dearing that they could no longer come along with her on such dangerous missions.
Employment with the DSD
Webb, meanwhile, had been offered an opportunity. His history as a programmer and web engineer, not to mention his less-than-legal hacking experience, had caught the attention of the government in a good way for once. After the events of 2018, the Central Intelligence Agency had formed the Dangerous Species Division to combat the proliferation of de-extinct animals and the trafficking thereof, and it was the DSD that had offered Webb a job. He believed that taking this job would give him an effective and safe way to protect the animals. After the Saw Ridge mission, Webb left his life of direct action behind.
At the DSD, he started out mostly performing office work, but it was a comfortable job, and he made friends such as the sarcastic but amicable Jeremy Bernier. He learned more about the de-extinct animal trade, and discovered that several other former Jurassic World employees (namely Lowery Cruthers, Vivian Krill, and Barry Sembène) had also found work in intelligence. Claire Dearing and Maisie Lockwood were people of interest, so contacting them was extremely risky, and he heard little from them. He did ensure to remind them that people were looking for Maisie, and that it was probably only a matter of time before they were found out.
As he predicted, people did come for Maisie eventually. Dearing contacted him at his new job in need of help: Grady had witnessed Maisie being kidnapped by unknown assailants and driven off, along with the raptor Blue’s offspring Beta. Risking contact, Webb was able to help Grady identify the perpetrators’ leader, a poacher called Rainn Delacourt. This man was notorious on the black market, and according to undercover agent Wyatt Huntley, he was going to be in Malta the following day making a major trade. Maisie was likely to be there, and Beta as well. French Intelligence was setting up a sting, and Barry Sembène was involved; Webb directed Grady and Dearing to him, but cautioned them not to get involved. Even as he warned them, Webb knew they would do anything to get Maisie back.
They were sent off, and Webb likely heard updates on their mission from Sembène. The sting was successful, despite the unfortunate loss of a few agents to attack-trained Atrociraptors being trafficked by black market crime lord Soyona Santos. Delacourt was killed in the Amber Clave night market, but not before he yielded Maisie’s location: the headquarters of BioSyn Genetics. Grady and Dearing traveled there and, after a convoluted series of events, rescued Maisie and brought her home. She gave her genetic information willingly, leading to major progress in medical and environmental science.
Skills
Computer programming and web design
Webb first became interested in computers during his childhood in Los Angeles, when he started taking apart old computers to study their components and figure out how they worked. His interest expanded to include software fairly quickly, and he began studying coding, programming, and eventually website design. His skills with debugging were notable as they won him a position as systems analyst at Jurassic World’s IT department, where he would have worked with the most cutting-edge computer technology in the world. Webb monitored Jurassic World’s private network, a task that InGen and Masrani Global Corporation would have only entrusted to the most skilled and trustworthy of programmers and technicians. Such a job gave Webb highly valuable experience to add to his already impressive set of skills. It is unknown whether Webb designed any aspects of the Jurassic World official website, which went live in late 2014 and continued to be updated until the time of the incident.
After his time at Jurassic World ended in late 2015 due to the park closing down, his father encouraged him to join the Dinosaur Protection Group in 2017. He resumed his career as a systems analyst, and was most likely the brains behind the functionality and design of the DPG’s website. It is also highly likely that he was the lead on the hacktivist campaign on the Jurassic World website, which had been neglected after the 2015 incident. The park’s website was vandalized, promoting the DPG and warning of the danger of Mount Sibo’s eruption as well deleting the site pages on park attractions. If Webb was on the design and programming team for the park website, this would have benefited his effort at hacking and vandalizing it. Webb also set up a live feed of Mount Sibo’s harmonic tremor readings via the Costa Rican Institute of Volcanology, which as of this publication is still functioning despite the DPG website having been abandoned since the 2018 incident.
Webb’s knowledge of the Jurassic World computer systems’ software and hardware were also beneficial to the DPG during the 2018 incident on Isla Nublar. When the team arrived at Radio Bunker 02-17, Webb was able to get them inside, and using Claire Dearing’s handprint biosignature, he was able to locate the island’s dinosaurs via their RFID tracking implants. During the part of the incident taking place at the Lockwood estate, he proved his ability to hack and utilize computer systems that he is unfamiliar with, succeeding at restarting the power to the estate. Unfortunately, he could not activate the building’s ventilation system due to extensive physical damage.
His skill and reputation were enough to impress even the United States federal government. In early 2022, he was offered a job at the Central Intelligence Agency, which he accepted. As of now, he works for the Dangerous Species Division, using his skills to track down de-extinct animal poachers and illegal breeding operations.
Advocacy and outreach
Webb’s anxious and awkward personality makes him ill-suited to political activism, as he is not skilled at confrontation on his own. Despite this shortcoming, he does have some experience in advocacy and public outreach through the Dinosaur Protection Group. While a member, he participated in online activism in promoting the group via social media, as well as within the group’s own website. His boldest move as an activist, before participating in the 2018 extraction operation, was hacking the Jurassic World website to promote the DPG and de-extinct animal rights. Webb was less present at public events than his colleagues Dearing and Rodriguez, but still sometimes participated in outreach with members of the public such as schoolchildren who appeared in the DPG’s introductory video, “This Is The DPG.”
Initially, Webb joined the DPG largely at the prompting of his father, who believed that volunteering at a nonprofit would be good experience for the socially-challenged Webb. After joining, he often spoke as though he were doing it all reluctantly, but his actions tell a different story; when Webb commits to a cause, he fully commits, even engaging in controversial acts to forward movements that he believes in. Along with illegal hacktivism, Webb joined a covert operation to retrieve dinosaurs from Isla Nublar in the summer of 2018, which went directly against the wishes of the federal government. When acting in support of a cause that is important to him, Webb is at his most capable of overcoming his anxieties and phobias, such as his fear of dinosaurs.
Stealth
His submissive and unassuming nature actually grants Webb an unexpected useful skill: the ability to blend in with a crowd by taking on a disguise. His personality makes him particularly good at integrating into newly-formed organizations where not all members know one another yet. Webb is unlikely to draw attention to himself in the interest of avoiding confrontation, and so can easily take on the identity of a subordinate worker and evade the notice of the people in charge. This is especially effective when operations are slightly hectic and the target group’s leaders are preoccupied. By choosing the right disguise, Webb can infiltrate an organization or event simply by looking as though he ought to be there.
He accidentally discovered this skill during the 2018 incident, when a crew member of the S.S. Arcadia mistook him for a deckhand and put him to work. Since the crew had only recently been assembled and there was no reason to suspect stowaways, Webb’s presence did not raise any suspicions. He later used this newfound skill to infiltrate Henry Wu’s highly secretive laboratory by posing as a technician, which enabled him to rescue the captured Zia Rodriguez and thwart Wu’s operations in the Lockwood estate. He now works for the Central Intelligence Agency, where stealth skills are quite useful.
Physical ability
Webb is not athletic by any means, but is lean and agile. He struggles with swimming, but can hold his breath a respectably long time, and is a decent runner. Webb is visually impaired, requiring corrective lenses at all times, but does not appear to have any major health issues. He has difficulty adapting to extreme temperatures and humidity, probably due to his job normally placing him in air-conditioned environments where computers work optimally.
Social skills
As stated above, Webb is socially awkward and confrontation is one of his major anxieties. This means that he keeps a relatively small social circle, though he is fiercely loyal to those he cares about. He becomes mentally stronger when he has friends backing him up, enabling him to stand up for himself and face the things that stress him out.
Driving
Webb is a decently good driver and possesses a valid U.S. driver’s license. Before his employment at the CIA, he drove a van for his former DPG allies during illegal operations investigating and reporting de-extinct animal exploitation, which meant driving on dirt roads or even off-road through hazardous conditions.
Views
Political views
Webb, like many people of his generation, espouses generally liberal political views. He does not personally express his opinions in public very often, since this would lead to confrontation, which he tries his best to avoid. However, he was one of the leaders of the Dinosaur Protection Group and openly supported its environmentalist, pro-animal-rights cause. Webb’s closest friends have been more public about their views, making it clear, at least, what kind of opinions he gravitates toward. However, he does not enjoy the dangers of taking direct action for a political cause; he will do so to help his friends, but prefers engaging with politics from a safe distance when the option is available.
He supports child activism, which he briefly mentions in his introductory blog post “Welcome to the DPG,” published on March 21, 2018.
On animal rights
As would be expected for a leader of the Dinosaur Protection Group, Webb believes in animal rights, that all species deserve to live and should be treated with respect. This is in spite of his fear of dangerous animals, specifically dinosaurs. While he is afraid of being attacked by animals, he acknowledges that it is often the fault of humans for putting animals in a place where an attack is likely to occur. Webb participated in the 2018 mission to Isla Nublar to rescue de-extinct animals from a natural disaster, risking his life and facing many of his fears to do so; this speaks to the strength of his conviction.
Currently, Webb is employed at the Central Intelligence Agency Dangerous Species Division. He accepted this job offer in the hopes that he could use an influential government office to better help de-extinct animals.
Fears
Webb has a number of anxieties and phobias related to physical safety and comfort. These include dinosaurs, horses, other large and/or dangerous animals, diseases (particularly blood-borne and mosquito-borne diseases), and airplane travel. He also has social anxiety, particularly where aggressive confrontation is concerned. With support from friends, though, Webb is capable of facing his fears and pushing through them when he needs to.
Relationships
Family
Most of Webb’s family relationships are not currently known. He appears to be closest with his father and an unnamed cousin. Webb shares an aptitude for technology with his cousin, who owns a personal drone. His father, on the other hand, appears to push Webb toward life experiences that he would probably not choose on his own. Webb’s father was the reason he joined the Dinosaur Protection Group, since his father believed it would be good experience. This was after Webb’s career as a Jurassic World IT employee, so this was more likely about an experience as a part of a social group rather than work experience.
Other than this, Webb’s family appears to have supported his interest in technology. When he was a child living at home, he disassembled old computers to find out how they worked, and he likely got these old machines (and the tools to take them apart with) from friends, neighbors, and family. He mentions on the DPG website that he has never owned a cat; his unease with animals would imply that he has not owned any pets at all.
Masrani Global Corporation
Webb’s first major job was for Jurassic World, run by International Genetic Technologies, Inc. (itself a subsidiary of Masrani Global Corporation). He did not work in the park itself, but rather at the offsite tech complex in Irvine, California where he monitored the private network for glitches. Not much is known about this period of his life, or his working relationships. His coworkers probably included people from various subsidiaries of Masrani Global, not just InGen but Mascom and Tatsuo Technology.
His employment for the park ended on or shortly after December 22, 2015 when the park suddenly and unexpectedly closed for good. From then on, his relationship with Masrani Global was far rockier; after joining the DPG, he found himself opposed to his former employer, which refused to offer any help to the imperiled dinosaurs. On February 20, 2018, the DPG social media posted an image captioned “Make Masrani Extinct!”, which ended the possibility of cooperation between the two organizations.
Webb would also have an encounter with former InGen geneticist Dr. Henry Wu, who left InGen after the 2015 incident and was subsequently found guilty of bioethical misconduct and stripped of his credentials. Wu was working covertly out of the Lockwood estate when Webb infiltrated the lab disguised as a technician; Wu unknowingly instructed Webb to retrieve supplies for him. Webb was there to aid his friend Zia Rodriguez who had been captured by Wu’s employers; to free her, Webb attacked Wu with a syringe of carfentanil and rendered him unconscious. Webb and Rodriguez escaped in a sequence of events that destroyed Wu’s laboratory and eliminated three years’ worth of valuable genetic research.
Dr. Zia Rodriguez
At first, there appears to be little in common with the meek, introverted Webb and the confident, aggressive Dr. Zia Rodriguez, a paleoveterinarian and fierce leftist activist. They were among the first people to join the Dinosaur Protection Group when it was founded in early 2017, both expressing avid support for the group’s mission. This shared enthusiasm for the cause was probably the start of their friendship, which by mid-2018 had grown to be quite strong. Rodriguez often teases Webb over his submissive personality, and Webb seldom has a retort ready, but at the same time Rodriguez supports him and backs him up during confrontations. The way Rodriguez treats him suggests that she does not see him as a coward, but as someone who has not yet found his courage. This is the foundation of their friendship: Webb is drawn to Rodriguez’s confidence, since this inspires confidence in him, and Rodriguez believes in Webb having inner bravery while also appreciating his loyalty. She likely also appreciates how he makes her look stronger by comparison.
During the 2018 incident, the benefit of their friendship was proven as Webb began to act more bravely. He overcame his fear of flying to reach the island, and with her to back him up, he showed uncharacteristic confidence in the face of belittlement from the mercenary Ken Wheatley. They were separated during the incident, but together on the S.S. Arcadia, he faced more of his aversions to help her perform an emergency medical procedure on the Velociraptor Blue. Finally, at the Lockwood estate, his potential for courage shone through as he defended Rodriguez against the intimidating Henry Wu. Together they put in their best effort to save the dinosaurs of Isla Nublar, though in the end, they left the final decision up to Claire Dearing. Since these events, Webb and Rodriguez have remained friends, even though their careers have led them down differing paths.
Claire Dearing
As an IT employee at Jurassic World, Franklin Webb would have worked indirectly under Claire Dearing, the park’s Senior Asset Manager and Operations Manager. Since he spent little time on the island and Dearing worked exclusively onsite, they likely did not meet in person, although he did work in her department. However, this changed when they both lost their jobs and Dearing founded the Dinosaur Protection Group about two years later. Webb was one of the DPG’s earliest additions, and his experience not only as a systems analyst but as one who had been directly employed by the park made him invaluable.
In contrast to his friendship with Rodriguez, Webb’s relationship with Dearing was originally more of a work friendship, although he did fully support the DPG’s cause. While they get along fine, she does not challenge him as much as Rodriguez does; this makes their friendship much more mellow, but less personally beneficial. Still, while at the DPG together, Webb’s work on the DPG website and social media was greatly beneficial to Dearing and she trusted him entirely.
He, along with Rodriguez, was one of her two picks from the DPG to travel with her to Isla Nublar in 2018 thanks to his knowledge of the park’s computer systems. Despite Webb’s phobias presenting him with difficulty on the island, Dearing trusted that he would be able to get the tracking system operational. While on Isla Nublar together, Webb and Dearing found themselves fighting for their lives on several fronts. They were forced to brave a perilous volcanic eruption, panicked dinosaurs, and murderous mercenaries to get off Isla Nublar alive.
Webb was separated from Dearing on the S.S. Arcadia when they approached dock, and while she intended to rescue him, other events kept them from reuniting until well into the night. By that time, the dinosaurs in the building had come under threat of death by hydrogen cyanide poisoning, which Webb entrusted Dearing with resolving since the dinosaurs’ rescue had been her mission. He worked alongside her to advocate for the animals in the ensuing years, but her methods were too dangerous for his liking; in early 2022, he took a government job instead. With Dearing and her adopted daughter Maisie both people of interest, Webb risked his career every time he got in touch with them. However, he provided help to them however he could. Maisie was kidnapped shortly after Webb’s new job started, but he was able to use the government resources at his disposal to track the kidnappers and connect Dearing with people who were able to help rescue Maisie.
Other DPG members
The Dinosaur Protection Group‘s headquarters in San Francisco’s Mission District consisted of thirty volunteers, with Claire Dearing as the founder and leader while Zia Rodriguez and Franklin Webb acted as her right and left hands. For the most part, Webb’s relationships with his co-volunteers are not known. His management of the website and social media would have meant that he frequently worked with other members of the DPG as they made posts, wrote news articles and opinion pieces, and produced artistic renderings of Isla Nublar’s inhabitants and environment to illustrate the website. The group appears to have gone inactive following the 2018 incidents; it is unknown if Webb is still in touch with any members besides Dearing and Rodriguez.
Owen Grady
During the 2018 incidents, Webb became acquainted with former InGen Security animal behaviorist and Claire Dearing’s ex-boyfriend, Owen Grady. Their vastly different backgrounds and comfort zones gave them an undeniably rocky start; Webb described them as “not compatible.” In Grady were all the traits Webb was best known for lacking: bravery, strength, conventional handsomeness, and so on. Despite this, Grady was never disrespectful toward Webb, especially after their team’s lead hunter Ken Wheatley proved better at fulfilling the role of hypermasculine bully. Webb also seemed to become more appreciative of Grady when it became clear that Grady was not going to belittle him, and that their skills were equally useful to the team.
Due to the events of the incidents, Grady and Webb were separated after the operation to retrieve Blue took a turn for the worse. They were reunited as they escaped Isla Nublar, with Grady rescuing Webb from drowning and then from the East Dock as volcanic bombs rained down. Webb assisted with the surgical operation and xenotransfusion on Blue, which he worked with Grady on; they stayed on board the Arcadia into the following day. They were separated at that point, with Webb being conscripted into working for Mills’s team by mistake. Webb was reunited with Grady when the worst of the incident had passed; they were both together to witness Dearing tearfully declining to save the dinosaurs, Maisie overriding this decision, and the animals fleeing into the wild.
In the ensuing years, Webb hoped that Grady would understand the need to get Maisie government protection as a national manhunt for the illegal clone girl took place. Her genome was considered extremely valuable, and the U.S. government was far from the only party interested in her. Grady declined Webb’s advice, which Webb respected even though this would risk his new government job. In 2022, Maisie was kidnapped, and Webb risked his career to help Grady track her down.
United States government
Webb’s employment history, first as an IT worker for Masrani Global and then as a hacktivist for the DPG, was impressive enough to catch the attention of the federal government of the United States. Although the DPG’s mission was directly opposed by the President in 2018, Webb understood that the influence he could gain with a government job might be useful in advocating for the animals. Furthermore, he would be working in an office, placing him away from the physical danger. He accepted the job and began working in the late winter of 2022.
His job was with the Dangerous Species Division, a department within the Central Intelligence Agency created specifically in response to the events of 2018. There, his job entailed tracking not just potentially dangerous animals, but the people responsible for illegally trafficking them. Poachers and illegal breeders were becoming a serious issue for de-extinct animal safety, proliferating the species around the world and creating new ones. Webb’s position was useful to his friends Dearing and Grady, as it allowed him to help them locate a particular poacher, but since Dearing was also a person of interest to the CIA, contacting her was risky. Dearing and Grady’s unofficially-adopted daughter, Maisie, also was wanted for different reasons: she was an illegal human clone and her genome was considered scientifically valuable. Helping Dearing and Grady keep her secret, even as he disagreed with the decision, was extremely risky for Webb.
Early upon getting his job at the DSD, Webb began making friends. He seems to get along particularly well with his coworker Jeremy Bernier, whose jovial attitude toward the impending end of modern civilization offsets Webb’s anxiety.
Ken Wheatley and mercenaries
Upon arrival to Isla Nublar, Webb and the DPG team were greeted by a group of mercenary hunters led by Ken Wheatley, who had been hired by Eli Mills. Webb was the last of his colleagues to realize that something was wrong, that the mission was too underway to have just started. He was high-strung during the operation, suffering as his many anxieties flared up. Wheatley was overall a negative influence in the group, and was particularly unpleasant to Webb. Between Grady and Wheatley, Webb was far and away the least manly among them, but while Grady still respected him for the talents he brought, Wheatley did not and instead belittled him. Thanks to his friends’ support, Webb did not let this get to him, but he also failed to realize that the mercenaries were behaving suspiciously. When he and Dearing were sealed inside Radio Bunker 02-17 during the eruption of Mount Sibo, he initially assumed it was for their own protection.
After escaping the island by stowing away on the S.S. Arcadia, Webb spent about twenty-four hours hiding from the mercenaries before ultimately being caught. Fortunately for him, he was mistaken for deck crew, since the men who found him had not been a part of the capture team for Blue. He was conscripted into service for Wheatley’s mercenaries, but managed to avoid detection by staying under the radar until he reached the Lockwood estate. There, he disguised himself as a lab technician and infiltrated Henry Wu’s laboratory. He stayed undetected until he revealed himself by sedating Wu to save Rodriguez. They came under attack, but defended themselves by releasing Blue, who savaged their enemies to death. Following this skirmish, and the subsequent destruction of Wu’s laboratory, Webb and Rodriguez did not encounter any more of Mills or Wheatley’s hired guns, as events on the mansion’s upper floors had demanded all of the security personnel’s presence.
De-extinct animals
Although Webb worked for Jurassic World until its closure in 2015, he had relatively little interaction with them because he was employed at an offsite network facility. Webb found this entirely acceptable due to his overpowering fear of large animals. The loss of his job due to the 2015 incident was actually because of an escaped animal, the Indominus rex, which had caused fatalities in the park and caused the death of Masrani Global’s CEO.
Despite the end of his Jurassic World career, Webb’s experiences with dinosaurs were far from over. He joined the Dinosaur Protection Group in early 2017, not long before it was found that volcanic activity had begun on Isla Nublar that threatened the rest of the animals. Webb’s fear of dinosaurs did not mean he believed they should suffer and die, so in the ensuing animal rights controversy, he firmly took a side with the DPG.
In June 2018, he was tasked with getting the DPG team into the Jurassic World RFID tracking system to locate and retrieve dinosaurs including Blue the Velociraptor, the endling of her kind. Webb feared encountering dangerous animals such as the park’s oldest theropod, a Tyrannosaurus rex and also believed to be the endling of her own species, though he believed that this animal’s advanced age might mean she had died. He was later proven incorrect as the tyrannosaur was seen alive and well. While en route to the radio bunker, the group witnessed a living Brachiosaurus, also one of the park’s oldest creatures.
Encounters with dinosaurs took a turn for the violent as the volcano erupted. Lava surges in the maintenance tunnels drove a Baryonyx into the radio bunker where Webb and Dearing were trapped, and the panicked animal lashed out in confusion. It came close to killing Webb, though he and Dearing both managed to escape; they had to seal the animal inside for their own protection, condemning it to a fiery death. This was Webb’s first encounter with an aggressive dinosaur, one of his greatest fears, and also marked the first dinosaur he was unable to save. The eruption drove other dinosaurs toward the northeast, causing stampedes that further threatened him. He was also menaced by a Carnotaurus, which was hunting stragglers behind the first stampede and fought with a Sinoceratops alarmingly close to Webb. It was here that the Tyrannosaurus was seen, hunting and overpowering the Carnotaurus. Other species were involved in the stampedes, including Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Compsognathus, Stygimoloch, Allosaurus, Gallimimus, Apatosaurus, Pteranodon, and Ankylosaurus. These animals, along with Webb and his allies, were forced to the ocean by the eruption; many of the animals were killed by volcanic activity or drowned in the sea after leaping off cliffs.
On the S.S. Arcadia, Webb was brought to the United States along with many of these dinosaurs and other species from the island. He ultimately helped to save Blue, who had been shot in the shoulder by a mercenary hunter, by assisting Zia Rodriguez in a xenotransfusion. Webb himself ended up accidentally ingesting a small amount of Velociraptor blood during the operation when it spurted from the damaged artery onto his face. They were able to succeed in the transfusion, though, and Blue made a full recovery.
The other animals were intended to be sold on the black market to finance Henry Wu’s ongoing research project, the Indoraptor. There is currently no evidence that Webb personally encountered the prototype of this hybrid. When the auction was interrupted, this indirectly led to the battle in Wu’s lab, which caused the hydrogen cyanide leak that threatened the lives of the remaining dinosaurs. Webb attempted to save them, but the building’s ventilation was too damaged to start; he entrusted the animals’ fates to Claire Dearing. She chose not to save them, since she considered releasing them into the wild to be too risky, but Maisie Lockwood disagreed with this decision and saved the animals anyway. Webb was among the few people present to witness this event. In the ensuing years, he continued to advocate for the animals’ welfare, and was eventually offered a job at the CIA’s Dangerous Species Division in early 2022. He accepted the offer, hoping to use a government job to advocate for the animals from a safe distance.
Maisie Lockwood
During the end of the 2018 incident, Webb and Rodriguez reunited with Dearing and Grady to find that the latter two had befriended Maisie Lockwood, the orphaned granddaughter of Benjamin Lockwood. Webb had little time to get to know the girl during the incident, as they were already dealing with a hydrogen cyanide leak that imperiled the last dinosaurs. Webb was the least involved with the quandary on whether to save them; releasing the animals into the wild was the only option left, but doing so would mean abandoning control over their fates. Dearing could not bring herself to justify releasing the animals into the wider world, but to the young Maisie, the choice was obvious: the animals deserved to survive. Webb did not stop Maisie as she freed the animals, though it is unclear if he saw her moving to do so or if he had been preoccupied with the situation.
In the ensuing years, Webb tried to help Dearing and Grady protect the young Maisie as she grew up. Not only was Maisie an illegal clone of Lockwood’s daughter, she was also considered highly valuable for genetic research; the United States government attempted to locate her once her existence became known. There were also other even less trustworthy entities after Maisie. Webb had hoped that Dearing and Grady would turn Maisie over to government authorities who could protect her, but respected their decision to keep her hidden. Doing so risked his career.
Portrayal
Franklin Webb is portrayed by Justice Smith. He is not based on any particular character from Michael Crichton‘s novels, instead being an original character. It is suspected by some fans that his character was created to replaced Jake Johnson’s Lowery Cruthers, as Johnson was unable to reprise his role for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018.
Like many aspects of Fallen Kingdom, it is likely that Franklin Webb was inspired by the political movements of the time, probably being based on millennial climate activists and other political activists of similar age. Webb fits many of the stereotypes of the millennial generation in being a sarcastic tech-savvy liberal with social anxiety, as well as having environmentalist views despite understanding the danger and brutality of the natural world. He also lacks traditionally masculine behaviors or appearance, another stereotype about millennials. These traits make Webb, like all aspects of this film, highly divisive; some fans find his anxiety and personality traits relatable, while it is equally common for fans to dislike him because of his anxiety.
