Why Jurassic Park is a Surprisingly Feminist film

Originally posted on my Patreon 14th January 2023.

I recently re-watched Jurassic Park. The original. The good one (don't @ me).

We'd put it on because who doesn't want to spent a couple of hours revelling in delicious nostalgia that also includes dinosaur animatronics that have aged a thousand times better than any CGI? But as I watched the T-Rex chomp on that poor lawyer's innards, I was struck by a surprising thought:

Jurassic Park is actually a pretty feminist film.

Now, it might not seem like it at first glance, but hear me out. I have receipts.

Ellie Sattler is an expert in her field and this is respected by the other characters

One of the first things that I noticed is the way Dr Ellie Sattler is treated by the other, mostly male, characters.

Ellie is a palaeobotanist who starts the film working on a velociraptor dig with Alan Grant et al. When John Hammond turns up he treats her completely as an equal to Alan. Her expertise is just as valuable as his, she too has been suggested as a useful person to sign off on the park and she is treated as an expert in her own right. Which she is.

And this continues when she gets to Jurassic Park and actually sees the dinosaurs. In the scene with the sick Triceratops, no one doubts her expertise. Neither do they suggest it's too dangerous to stay with the Triceratops instead of going with the group. Ellie is assumed to be competent and capable and it's a pretty great thing to see.

And as the film progresses she also gets to be competent in other ways, that aren't related to her specialist knowledge. Which means she's being treated as competent outside of the reason she's in the film, which is a refreshing thing in a big Hollywood blockbuster.

The only minor gripe I have with the way Ellie is treated is the moment when Alan Grant literally grabs her face to stop her looking at the Leaf That Should Not Exist and get her to notice the Actual Living Dinosaurs That Should Definitely Not Exist. And to be fair that is a totally legit reaction to seeing Actual Fucking Dinosaurs, so I tend to let that slide.

The role of caring for the children is given to a male character

When the shit hits the fan and we first start to realise exactly why having a zoo full of carnivorous dinosaurs is actually a bad idea, the role of caring for the children isn't given to Ellie, it's given to Alan.

He's the one who, not only has to protect them from the very real physical dangers of the park, but also reassures them and nurtures them in a way that is normally assigned to women.

Yeah he literally pulls Tim from the car and ends up doing CPR on him later, but he also makes sure the kids get a good night's sleep, somewhere they'll be safe. And they spend the night tucked up against his body. He makes sure their needs are met and even takes the time to teach them a few things about dinosaurs even though they are literally at risk of being killed by them.

And even better is the fact that the caring role doesn't get shunted to Ellie when they meet up with the rest of the group again. It kind of gets shared between Hammond, who is their grandfather, and Alan, who they seem to have bonded with.

And yeah, Grant gets the caring role mostly because he starts the film not really liking children, but it doesn't result in him loudly demanding that he and Ellie have children now, which leads me nicely to my next point.

The low-key romance between Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant is a great example of a healthy relationship

The fact that Drs Sattler and Grant are in a romantic relationship is one of those blink and you'll miss it parts of the film. And that's because their relationship is pretty much just a thing that's in the background of the movie. It's not particularly relevant to the plot and it's not shoved in our faces.

It's also one of the healthiest heterosexual romantic relationships I've ever seen in a movie.

To start with we see multiple instances of Alan treating Ellie completely as his equal and you get the impression that he sees her as an expert in her own right, as do most of the other characters in the film. And there's never any obvious misogyny to his interactions with Ellie.

Despite the danger all of the characters are in during the film, there is no scene where Alan rescues Ellie in a brazen display of masculinity. Neither do we see him doing anything to assert that She Belongs To Him in any way shape or form.

Even the fact that Jeff Goldblum (because let's real, he's playing himself again) is interested in Ellie is dealt with really well. There's no love triangle (or Jealousy Angle as my partner calls them) and it doesn't result in a horribly toxic, uber-masculine pissing contest between Jeff and Alan like we might get in any other film. Jeff just casually enquires whether Alan and Ellie are a thing and totally backs off after that.

In fact, that conversation between Jeff and Alan is the only concrete confirmation we get that they actually are dating.

And even though there is a suggestion that Ellie wouldn't mind having kids while Alan is opposed, she's not depicted as a shrieking harridan constantly harping on about that fact. Even her subtly nudging him towards interacting with Tim and Lex feels more like it's to change his mind about kids in general, rather than specifically because she wants them.

And there is no suggestion on screen that Alan ever does change his mind about having kids, nor that Ellie resents him for this.

Their relationship is just so good and pure. It makes me feel warm inside.

Men (and capitalism) are the cause of literally all the problems in the film

Oh boy, was I not surprised when I realised that men are literally to blame for like 99% of the problems our characters face in the film. Let's look at them shall we?

One: men are responsible for the park's creation.

The film shows the dino-DNA-containing amber being dug up, primarily by men. The site is visited by the lawyer character, who is also a (white) man. It's being bankrolled by Hammond, a rich white dude, and employs almost 100% men.

The fact that this incredibly exciting bad idea exists at all is entirely due to men. And I'd be willing to bet that it was also a man who decided to produce highly intelligent carnivores as part of the attraction instead of going "fuck no, that sounds like a terrible idea."

Two: a man causes everything to go wrong

It's Denis Nedry's greed and corporate espionage that turns Jurassic Park from a disaster waiting to happen into a disaster that is actually happening. In shutting down every single one of the safety measures (and making it nearly impossible to get them back online again) he's the one who is ultimately responsible for the deaths of everyone else. And he does it all for money, which is why it's also capitalism's fault.

And sure there's a hurricane happening that makes everything worse, but I'm pretty sure the dinos would still have escaped their cages without it.

Three: the lawyer.

The lawyer is the dude representing the investors, who are pushing for profit and trying to get the safety precautions minimised to make that happen. Because capitalism. So he's the one I'm blaming for most of this, along with Nedry.

He's also a general all round asshole in the grand tradition of movie lawyers and I get angry whenever his face is on screen. I'm kinda glad he gets eaten by the T-Rex.

Pretty much all the film's problems are then fixed by the female characters

So, after men have ruined everything and turned the park into a bloodbath, it's down to the women to fix everything.

In order for anyone to be able escape the island they need to get the park's power back online and undo whatever Nedry did to FUBAR the computer systems. The word mainframe is thrown around a lot.

When Arnold, the only black person in the movie pretty much, fails to reset the power grid, it's down to Ellie to save the day. Fighting off casual misogyny and racing through the raptor infested park, she finally manages to get the power restored, discovering Samuel L Jackson's severed arm in the process.

With the only computer savvy good guy now raptor food, they're screwed, right?

Wrong.

Because as it turns out, Lex, who is all of twelve years old, is secretly a computer genius and self-identifies as a hacker. She manages to undo whatever it was Nedry did to the computers which allows them to call for help. All that's left is for them to do is have one final, frantic dash through the park to get to the helicopter and they're saved.

Dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the earth

Jeff Goldblum is the film's sexy lamp

The one male character I haven't either praised or blamed so far is Jeff Goldbum's Ian Malcolm, and there's a reason for that.

He's the films' sexy lamp.

Or more accurately, a sexy lamp with a post-it note on it.

He gets a good dose of the foreshadowing dialogue early on in the film and flirts with Ellie Sattler, but that's about the sum of his contribution to the story. Meaning, he could have been replaced by a sexy lamp with a post it note full of dire warnings and (inaccurate?) references to chaos theory and the story would be pretty much the same.

Malcolm is injured early on in the action and spends most of the rest of the film filling in the damsel in distress role. Ultimately he survives the film, but only through the actions of other people.

And if anyone is doubting the "sexy" part of the sexy lamp, I point you in the direction of that scene where he's basically shirtless.

Case closed: Jeff Goldblum is a sexy lamp

In short: the film finds a way... to be surprisingly feminist

Is Jurassic Park a perfect, outstandingly feminist movie?

Short answer: no.

Longer answer: it does better than a lot of films, even now, but it has its problems as well. So: still no.

Despite being given a huge amount of agency in the film, there are still only two named female characters in the entire thing. And they're both white.

The film's inclusion of people of colour is also really problematic. There are really only two named characters of colour and one of them is only in one scene. The other ends up dead. So yeah, not great on that front.

And the portrayal of Dennis Nedry is also hugely problematic. Aside from the fact that the only fat person in the entire movie is the villain, he's also depicted as a greedy, messy slob who is ultimately incompetent. Which again, isn't great.

But even taking those things into account, Jurassic Park surprised me with how well it aligned with progressive, feminist ideals. Especially for a mainstream blockbuster that's over 25 years old.

But it made a really nice change to have a film surprise me with its politics in a good way. And I think it's a good thing to focus on the things a film does right as well as the things it misses the mark on.

And it makes me want to go back and see what other films might be surprisingly feminist. And who knows, I might write about those too.