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| “ | You shouldn't be leaving important devices like these lying around. They could fall into the… wrong… | „ |
| ~ Daniel's first words upon seeing that the Camp Fam, including his son, is on his island. |
| “ | With Mantah Corp's new tech, you won't just watch the show; you are the show! | „ |
| ~ Daniel Kon introducing his technology to his investors. |
| “ | Daniel: Go! Kenji: No, I- Daniel: Kenji! run. |
„ |
| ~ Daniel's last words before sacrificing himself to be eaten by the Atrociraptor pack. |
Daniel Kon is the main antagonist of the 2020-2022 Netflix animated science fiction action-adventure series Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous and a minor character in its 2024 sequel Jurassic World: Chaos Theory.
He is the President of Mantah Corp, the estranged father of Kenji Kon and the husband of his late wife who spent at least a decade getting profit off creating dinosaurs, capturing them from both Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar to his company's private island, and forcing them to fight against each other for illegal investors to watch, and has kept this in the dark so that no one knows about his plans. He is also the arch-nemesis of the "Camp Fam"/Nublar Six campers, especially Darius, Sammy and his own son Kenji and in the process, he is responsible for destroying Kenji's friendship with his friends in Season 5 until the latter's redemption later on.
He is voiced by Andrew Kishino, who also played Shang Tsung and Sektor in Mortal Kombat 9, Genra in Dead or Alive: Dimensions, VECTOR in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Saw Gerrera in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Fong in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Mitsuru Shinehara in Regular Show, Janja and Ora in Disney's The Lion Guard series, Joe in Batman: The Killing Joke, and the Shredder in Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Biography
Overseeing His Company
Much of Daniel Kon's background is unclear, except that at some point, he became the leader of InGen and Biosyn's rival company Mantah Corp. Since then, he set up a business on a secretive island where he had dinosaurs shipped from Isla Sorna, where his spectators would pay him money to see dinosaurs being forced to fight each other. He has done this since 2005 without InGen nor Masrani's knowledge.
During his career, Daniel fathered a son named Kenji, who he doesn't spend very much time with, and has another relative called Candy. He also hired a man named Kash D. Langford, who eventually blackmailed the Gutierrez family into giving up their daughter Sammy or they would be forced to lose their ranch and property. Eventually, Daniel bought a fancy apartment on Isla Nublar that has a special fossil there, and at some point in time, he met the President of the USA and even played golf with him.
After Kenji arrives at Camp Cretaceous via a helicopter and slowly becomes friends with Darius during the rampage of the Indominus rex, he mentions Daniel several times. He says that his father doesn't hang out with him and leaves saddened because of it, instead being with Candy a lot more often. He also mentions him being locked out of his apartment by his father once.
Six months after the campers, now known as the Camp Fam, are stranded on Isla Nublar, two photographs of Daniel are seen when they venture into his penthouse. One of them shows him in front of the White House from the time he met the US President, and the other one shows him in front of a large company building. Additionally, Yasmina and Sammy find the picture that Kenji drew of him with his father. It is revealed that Daniel has a special trinket in his penthouse as well, which Kenji uses to knock down a Monolophosaurus and thus destroys it, deciding that protecting his friends is more important than impressing his father.
Facing the Camp Fam
Right after the campers and Mae survive an attack from a Dilophosaurus pack, Daniel reveals himself to be the secret head of Mantah Corp. Kenji is shocked to learn this, which likely means that he was unaware of his father's double life. Likewise, Daniel is shocked to see his son on the island, meaning he never noticed he was gone or that he thought he was still stranded on Isla Nublar. The other campers are also shocked to learn that Kenji's dad is the leader of the ruthless Mantah Corp.
Manipulating Kenji
On Isla Nublar
Return
Daniel tries to justify his brainwashing of Bumpy to his son. Fortunately, even Kenji is not that foolish and pretends to understand but is secretly plotting against his dad and now intends to help his friends again.
Hunt For the Kids
Daniel has a fairly subdued reaction to his son’s betrayal; he orders his minions to leave Kenji, because he thinks he'll "come to his senses" and take Daniel's side again.
Defeat
Seeing Hawkes getting killed by Little Eatie makes Daniel realize that he has lost the advantage as he has no more available dinosaurs to control and is all alone. He is forced to seek cover while the two T. rexes defeat and chase away the Spinosaurus, much to Darius and Kenji's happiness. However, an alarm goes off and it seems as though poisonous gas is rising from the ground. Daniel flees, believing that the entire island will be in danger soon, with Kenji following. Daniel asks Kenji to board the plane with him but only is concerned about what will happen if anyone found out that he was responsible for the incident.
Kenji is disgusted, pointing out his friends are still back there, but Daniel only cares about protecting their name. Kenji realizes everything is about business for his dad and that he doesn't care about people as he is willing to let the other campers die in order to protect his reputation. He asks if his dad ever bothered to even look for him after Jurassic World fell and if he even mattered. Rather than answering, Daniel orders his son to board the plane. Kenji instead decides to stay behind with the other five campers, his "real family." Although briefly appearing hurt, Daniel flees, not knowing it's a trick by the campers and the island isn't about to explode; the gas was simply knock out gas and it was all part of their plan. The dinosaurs are now safe and Daniel won't be able to brainwash them for Biosyn.
Arresting
His crimes are later revealed by Mae and Daniel is arrested by the police and sent to prison for animal abuse, animal smuggling, rush affairs, and attempted child murder while Kenji is adopted into Darius's family. Following his imprisonment, Kenji inherited his fortune, using it for good use, and now lives with Darius and his family.
Death
In Chaos Theory, he doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but does make an appearance in episode 5, Halfway Home. After spending 5 years in prison, he has been living in a halfway house for the past year, and has taken an interest in gardening. It turns out Brooklynn paid him a visit, where he showed contempt to her for "being the reason [he] got arrested". Brooklynn points out it's Daniel's fault for getting arrested because he tried to kill the kids, including Kenji, something which visibly affects Daniel. He admits that he wishes Kenji would visit him, because he's all Daniel has left in the world. Brooklynn responds Kenji isn’t interested in visiting Daniel, which visibly saddens him. However, Brooklynn tells him she might be able to change that if he helps her and tells Daniel about dinosaurs being sold, but Daniel tells her that his criminal days are behind him. Brooklynn manages to convince Daniel to be her partner, as he later sends her a bag full of money, and later texts her to thank her about the visit.
Fortunately for Daniel, he eventually gets a visit from Kenji and Darius, who are here to ask about Brooklynn's supposed death. He does seem to still be interested in the legacy of his name and unsuccessfully tries to make amends with Kenji and appoint him the new CEO and face of his new company. But when Kenji plans to disown his father for good, Daniel quickly agrees to tell them the information they need, begging his son not to leave.
He reveals how Brooklynn came to him about India’s being sold illegally but assures he had no part in it. When Darius asks what Daniel said to her, he explains it’s more about what Broooklynn said to him, mentioning how she told him "I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty". When Kenji claims Brooklynn would never say that, Daniel insists that when she came something about her was different, almost dangerous but he never imagined she would get herself killed. When a pack of Atrociraptors kill the guard at the halfway house and corner Daniel, the Atrociraptor Handler arrived with a whistle and orders them to go after Darius and Kenji. Despite being spared, Daniel notices Kenji is about to be killed and redeems himself by sacrificing himself so that Kenji and Darius can escape from the Atrociraptors, telling his son to run with a smile on his face before being killed with a claw to the head.
Personality
According to Darius Bowman, Daniel could be worse than Kash at one point, considering his plan to have Pierce eaten by the Dilophosaurus pack. While this is not true, Daniel is still shown to be a monstrous human being. At first, Daniel seems to be a real gentleman, but it is later revealed that he is a ruthless, greedy, and cruel individual willing to do anything to please his clients, reach his goals, and protect his business and his reputation even if he must hurt or kill innocent people in order to succeed. For example, he tried to have Darius killed despite Kenji giving him the new password in exchange to save Darius, as he will not take any risks of Darius revealing his actions, which could have resulted in Darius's death if Big Eatie had not come to the rescue.
Upon seeing his son as part of the Camp Fam, he has a shocked look on his face, whereas it is unknown if he cares about his son in some capacity or is simply surprised that he survived Isla Nublar. It is possible Daniel even knew the teenagers were stranded on the island, as Brooklynn later discovers that Daniel received the distress beacon the campers send from Nublar at the beginning of the second season, and still did nothing to help them. Daniel is also mentioned to have a relative named Candy, but it is unclear whether or not he cares about her or if she is even alive.
Unlike Kash and Hawkes, Daniel has more restraint with his actions. He is enraged learning about Kash's attempt to murder Mae and prefers to simply imprison the kids rather than kill them, and intends to take them home when he is done. He also spares Kash despite having no more use for him, and never tried to kill Mae despite her helping the kids and messing up his plans.
Daniel is also known for his manipulation skills, as he told the kids he only took over after Jurassic World fell (so he couldn’t be blamed for Kash blackmailing Sammy’s family) and simply was “cleaning up Kash’s mess” when he bought the debt Sammy’s family owed to the “bank”, and probably knowing that his son is not the smartest person, he tricks Kenji into thinking he is not a bad guy by using his position as Kenji's father and turning him against his friends. He does show affection and love to Kenji but usually it’s to keep Kenji by his side so Kenji can help keep the reputation of the Kons' names alive. Although there a few occasions he does show genuine love and protectiveness towards his son, such as hugging him upon reuniting, ordering the investors and mercenaries not to harm him and trying to save him from the rock slide. Furthermore, he did attempt to get Kenji to leave Mantah Corp island with him despite everything. When Kenji stays with his friends instead of fleeing with Daniel, he states that his friends are his true family, not Daniel. Daniel ultimately leaves without his son but briefly is shown to be genuinely hurt by Kenji’s words to him.
In Chaos Theory, although he initially takes no responsibility for his actions, he's shown to be affected when Brooklynn calls him out for trying to kill the campers, including Kenji and shows that he wishes Kenji would visit him because his son is the only thing he has left in the world and being saddened when Brooklynn states Kenji has no intention to visit him. Upon Kenji and Darius visiting, he does seem to still be interested in the legacy of his name and unsuccessfully tries to make amends with Kenji and make him the new face of his company. But when Kenji refuses and decides he's done with his father, Daniel agrees to tell him about Brooklynn without any deal being necessary and begs his son to stay a little longer, showing he does love his son despite everything that he had done. He eventually redeems himself by sacrificing his own life to the Atrociraptors in order to let Kenji and Darius escape, much to the sadness of Kenji. Even Darius sympathizes with Kenji over Daniel's death, understanding how much both Daniel and Kenji cared for each other despite their past histories.
Quotes
| “ | Kash: —it's injured, and it broke off a tail spike, so it's not even that cool anymore. Mr. Kon: Always so short-sighted, Kash, it's no wonder you were outsmarted by a child. The assets in the new biome were devouring their food supply at an unprecedented rate. Let's see if two tons of Kentrosaurus will satiate them. Kash: You released those things already? I—I—uh—I haven't figured out a way to contain them! The drones don't work because— Mr. Kon: Doesn't matter because we won't be there. The BRADs will take care of the Kentrosaurus while we prep the forest biome for the presentation. Kash: You got it, Danny Boy! Sorry. Daniel. |
„ |
| ~ Daniel talking with Kash. |
| “ | Daniel: I took over at Mantah Corp after Jurassic World went down. Darius: So you’re in charge of this island? Brooklynn: You’re behind the Dino fights? Yasmina: You let him keep Darius prisoner? Ben: You made these death robots? Mae: And were you aware he tried to kill me?! Daniel: You did WHAT?! Kash: I did what had to be done. Daniel: You were supposed to be keeping things up and running. Not commit murder. Apparently, I gave you too much freedom. |
„ |
| ~ Daniel learning about Kash’s actions. |
| “ | Sorry. I don't like loose ends. | „ |
| ~ Daniel revealing that he's killing Darius regardless if he gave him the password. |
Gallery
Trivia
- It’s speculated his wife’s death had something to do with his fall into villainy.
- Daniel is very similar to Irene Corts, as both are malicious masterminds that tortured living creatures, attempted to kill children, and hijacked the brains of Dinosaurs. However, Daniel redeemed himself while Corts stayed evil until the end.
- He was one of the two human villains in the Jurassic Park cinematic franchise to be arrested, alongside Soyona Santos. But after his death, Santos is the only human villain known still alive.
- He's the second villain in the franchise who's confirmed to be cruel to his own family, predated by the IDW version of Peter Ludlow.
- Since the fifth season of Camp Cretaceous has never been adapted into a young adult novelization, the role of Daniel Kon remains ambiguous, it is not known if, after finding Kenji and his friends, he will let them return home or if he intends to imprison them, as he did in the TV series.
- He's the third villain in the franchise to be redeemed, preceeded by his son and followed by Henry Wu. He is also the only of three to die.
- His redemption in Chaos Theory directly contrasts his ending in Camp Cretaceous; rather than abandon his son to save himself, Daniel instead does the opposite this time and sacrifices his life to protect Kenji.
- The reason for Daniel to redeem was parhaps caused by that after he had lost everything he finally was able to realize how important Kenji truly was to him, which season 2 seems to confirm.
External Links
- Daniel Kon on the Jurassic Park Wiki
 Villains
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InGen Biosyn Dinosaurs Mantah Corp Lockwood Manor Auction The Broker's Smuggling Ring Amber Clave Night Market Others | ||