SMNTY Classics: Dr. Ellie Sattler

Jurassic Park's Dr. Ellie Sattler will dig through dino droppings and inherit the Earth. We talk about her legacy and why she was important. And Anney provides an update on her very important Jurassic Park cards in this classic.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Welcome to stuff I
never told you protection of by Heart Radio, and welcome
to another classic. I am bringing back an episode I
did a minus, Samantha because you had COVID at the time.

(00:28):
I really did do a lot of episodes that they
were rude to do without you. This one, I don't
think as much. It was about a doctor, Ellie Sadler
from Jurassic Park. Oh, okay, okay, yes, which I love.
I love Jurassic Park. I talk about it in this episode.
But I've got like the collectible cards, and I read

(00:49):
what's on her card and here. I also am someone
who has a lot of critiques about the newer movies.
And one of the reasons I'm bringing this pack because
I just watched the newest movie it's available on streaming
and it's not no sponsors. Oh it's Scarlett Johansson. Yes,
man's sexiest, sexiest man alive. John Bailey yea, yeah, I

(01:11):
couldn't believe. Go ahead, Jonathan, No, yeah, I have no judgment.
But it's just funny because I hadn't seen him in
anything else that I could immediately think of. But bridgeton, baby,
I haven't he was he was the maid. I haven't
seen Bridrickton, so that that's what made him big. Okay, okay,
all right, well I just saw him where he's a

(01:33):
nerd in this movie. Okay, Well, you know, nerves are
sexy now, nerds are been sexy for a while. They
have they have to be real. Honest, he's the first gay,
uh sexiest man alive, I believe. Oh out, Oh interesting,
I didn't know that. Okay, well maybe I'll aready watch

(01:54):
it and things for you. Maybe I don't know. I did.
I have to say I enjoyed it a lot better,
a lot more than the Chris prowt ones. Okay, yeah,
and you can hear me talking about that and my
issues with that and our again Stmantha was not their
disaster horror movie episode where I have a whole thing

(02:16):
about Jurassic World and why I was so mad about
it and how I thought it was incredibly sexist. Okay, yes, yes,
oh gosh, now I want to go into all my thoughts.
We can't. This is the classic. Please enjoy this classic episode. Hey,

(02:40):
this is Annie and welcome to stuff one never told
you production of iHeartRadio. And yes, unfortunately I am still
by myself. But I think that's okay. I mean, I'm
sad I miss Samantha, but I think it's okay for
this one because we have talked about Jurassic Park before

(03:02):
on here, She's talked about it on the dailies like guys,
So I think she she'll be fine with not being
present for this one. As much as we'll miss her.
She will be back. Do not worry. I yeah, it's
just a scheduling thing and an illness thing, but she
will be back. So today, yes we are talking about

(03:25):
Jassic Park. We are talking about doctor Ellie Sadler, who
I wasn't going to necessarily do, but it just felt
so fitting because it is the thirtieth anniversary of Jurassic Park,
and we have been talking a lot about disaster movies lately.
I think some of that is coming out after this,

(03:45):
some about before, but like a lot of content around it,
and I was like, you know what, just want to
mark it off my list. Also, I have a really
fun update about my cards that I mentioned, my Jurassic
Park collectible cards that I had as a kid. Well,
what's fun? You want to stick around for the update? Okay?
So I would say, see our recent women in creature

(04:08):
features deserves to die. That whole idea women in archaeology
and paleontology. I feel like there's something I'm forgetting. I
talk about her a lot. She was an impactful character.
I told the story in our Archaeology Paleontology episodes. I

(04:28):
watched this movie when I was not supposed to as
a kid. I loved her. I dressed as her at
Dragon Con the first time I went. She was one
of my costumes, and a lot of people were dressing
her this year because it is the thirtieth anniversary, and

(04:48):
she came up. We had it pretty rousing, me and
my friend's conversation about Jurassic Park and the newer Jurassic
Parks and Michael Crichton and I learned a lot. I
learned a lot. But all right, that being said, let's
get into it. Doctor Ellie Sadler, based on Michael Crichton's books.
The character in the books who I learned in this

(05:10):
conversation is pretty problematic. It was first introduced to a
lot of us in the nineteen ninety three Blockbolster hit
Jurassic Park. She's played by Laura Dern. She has a
paleobotanist invited to Jurassic Park along with her coworker Alan
Grant by John Hammond, who is looking to get some
experts to sign off on the safety of having basically

(05:30):
a theme park which genetically engineered dinosaurs. This is one
of those things where I'm not sure how much I
need to explain, but basically, this rich guy, doctor Jon Hammond,
has made this theme park with genetically engineered dinosaurs and
he wants experts in the field to sign off on
it so he can get the lawyers to back off. Okay, So,
at first Ellie is in all of the extinct plant

(05:54):
she's seeing of the dinosaurs, but it quickly turns to
concern and her opinion that she believes that the whole
thing is dangerous and that when it comes to the
plants in particular, which is her area of expertise, they
were chosen because they looked good even though they were deadly.
When they go on their tour of the park, she

(06:16):
tries to get Alan to ride with kids Tim and
Lex who are him AND's grandkids. I had such a
crush on Tim when I was a kid, but Alan
is able to escape them, and if you haven't seen
the movie or you don't remember. Ellie and Allen get
into a disagreement when the movie starts about kids, because
she really wants them, he really doesn't. It's never outright

(06:38):
clear that they're in a relationship, even though Alan at
one part says he they are, but it could be
he's just trying to scare off doctor Ian Malcolm played
by Jeff Goldbloom, who was flirting with her. Uh for sure.
So as this tour goes on, they simple upon us
sick try Sarah tops and Ellie cries happy tears. It comes,

(07:00):
is determined to figure out why it's sick, going arm
deep into a huge pile of dinos to analyze it
without qualms. Tenacious Ian says, and a lot of people
point to the scene is like, oh, she's that, because
it wasn't. It wasn't played as like, oh, this woman
is doing this, how silly or how gross or how improper.

(07:24):
It was more like she was just doing her job,
and no one really thought that much of it other
than Tenacious very willing to get her hands dirty, as
you might say, She elects to stay with the triceratops,
meaning she is not attacked by the t Rex the
people who continue on the tour are. When she learns

(07:46):
the others maybe in danger. After the dinosaurs escape, she
volunteers to go with hunter Robert Muldoon to retrieve them,
which ultimately results in them rescuing Ian and escaping at
rampaging t Rex say escape, Ellie helps heal Ian and
tries to convince Hammond that what matters is saving the
ones they love, not the park. She once again volunteers

(08:09):
to tread dangerous territory with Muldoon to turn the power on,
arguing with Hammond about sexism and survival situations when he
says he's really the one that should be going. With
the help of Muldoon and later Ian, she is able
to sprint through a jungle while being hunted by raptors,
turn on the power, and then escape said raptors when
it turns out they are in the power station. One

(08:31):
in particular, A lot of people make mention of the
fact she loses her pink over shirt during the scene.
I never really thought anything of that, but huh. Interesting.
She reunites with Alan and together they are all able
to escape the park. Into first movie, I'm going to

(08:59):
briefly over her appearances and the other ones. I'm not
nearly as familiar with that, but I have seen all
of them. Ellie briefly reappears in Jurassic Park three, when
it's revealed she married a man from the State Department
and they have two kids together. A part of the
reason she and Alan didn't work out is implied to
be their disagreement about having kids and that he loves dinosaurs. First,

(09:23):
she had become a children's writer. I really don't remember that,
but that's what I read. She and Alan were still friends, however,
and he's stopped by Ellie's house regularly and knew her
husband and kids. They knew him. She helped save Alan
during the events of Jurassic Park three. Basically he calls
her and is like, send everyone. She next appeared cinematically,

(09:47):
at least in Jurassic World Dominion, where we see her
doing research on swarms of giant genetically engineered locust eating crops.
She discovers the big bad Evil Company is responsible, sets
out to prove what they're doing, joining up with Alan
and Ian and later all the new crew. They're able
to escape and they go to DC to testify about

(10:09):
what they've learned Ellie befriends both Maizie and Claire, and
I didn't mention this in our recent Disaster Women in
Disaster Movies episode, where I did talk about Claire's character
for a bit. There's the whole heel gate where she
wore heels while she was in the jungle and running
from t rex. I feel like you all know about that,
and I didn't really need to talk about it. Plus,

(10:31):
it's kind of complicated because Bryce Dallis Howard said she
wanted to hold onto that piece of femininity of Claire,
and who am I to say? But there was kind
of a smaller similar issue with this with Ellie where
Laura Dern said she made the choice to not wear
makeup in this movie as sort of a feminist choice.

(10:55):
I think those are both sort of a murky murky
shoes that we've talked about in other episodes. But I
did want to mention that. Okay, so I want to
break down some stuff with this character. I do think
the timing of this movie is interesting of a lot
of the movies we've been talking about. It's sort of

(11:16):
the nineties during third wave feminism, and she was while
there was a lot of flirting with her with doctor
Ian Malcolm a little bit with Alan in the first
movie specifically, she's never quite the love interest. She does
her share of the rescuing, like she rescues Ian, she

(11:38):
helps rescue Alan, and she has a few pretty choice
lines like dinosaur eats man, woman inherits the Earth. And then,
as I said, we can discuss sexism in survival situations later,
as I mentioned in that disaster women in Disaster Film's episode,

(11:58):
they are scientists, not action heroes. I remember being so
impressed with her whole scene turning on the power when
she's like running from the raptor in the jungle. She
gets in and she cries, but it doesn't feel weak.
It feels like which is how it's often portrayed. I
don't think crying is weak, but I feel like it's

(12:19):
offen portrayed as like all this woman is crying. But
it felt very much more like this release of she jumped,
done this dangerous, amazing thing and survive and then escaping
the raptor after that, and speaking to that point, she
does have moments of vulnerability and emotion, but it's not,
in my opinion, portrayed this week, and in fact, it's

(12:41):
kind of portrayed is powerful at the point where she
breaks down Hammond's kind of flimsy defense where he's talking
about why he wanted to make this park, why he
wanted it to be real, and she's like, no, it
was all an illusion. You bought into it, so did I,
and now people are in danger because of it, and

(13:02):
that ultimately is what convinses him to change his mind.
So I always liked that about her. She doesn't lose
that piece of what's traditionally coded as feminine, but it
feels powerful that she has those moments and that they
feel genuine. Another thing is this whole conversation the choice

(13:23):
of having kids, because she does ultimately decide to be
sort of a stay at home mom, and her and
Alan don't pursue a relationship because he doesn't want kids,
but neither of them are demonized for her choices. And
this was something that they had been open with since
the first film. And I think that is key, going
back to how what we talked about with Claire in

(13:44):
the New Jurassic World and how she's sort of demonized
for not wanting kids. Alan's not demonized for not wanting kids.
She's not demonized for wanting kids. We could argue, like
if the positions had been swapped, who's to say, But
it doesn't feel like she like was lesser in any

(14:06):
way or he was lesser in any way, and they
were they were pretty equal partners in this. That being said,
she does end up with Alan later and it's sort
of It brought up a lot of conversations about the
age gap between Sam Neil and Laura Dern, who is

(14:26):
twenty years and I think Laura Dern was twenty five
for the first one, So it feels not great that
they're kind of ending up together. And yeah, there's been
a lot of discussion about that and how a lot
of what the new ones have done kind of feels
like it's going backwards in terms of that. But that

(14:49):
is a conversation people were having. I also wanted to
do a brief mention of lex who is the young

(15:10):
teenage girl, the vegetarian hacker in this who does save
the day. Ultimately, she uses her reacting skills to get
them all out of there. She has a very brave
moment where she saves her brother in that kitchen. That's
the scariest scene to me. I would say she's kind
of portrayed as a bit of a joke, but between

(15:38):
her and Tim, I feel like they're evenly balanced and
who gets to do the saving, who gets to do
the like knowledgeable thing, and ultimately, yeah, she does save
the day. So I always liked that as a kid,
going back to the all the dinosaurs or women thing,
so they can't breed in the wild. I did find

(16:01):
a whole article about the clever Girl trope of when
Muldoon is tracking these raptors and he's like this seasoned
hunter and they trick him and get him and kill him.
That's also a disturbing scene, and he says the last thing.
He says it's clever girl. But they were talking about
the power of women coming together, working together and getting

(16:23):
stuff done. Also, I do want to say, you know,
I don't know how realistic. A lot it's not really
very realistic, but it was an example of women in
stem with Lex and Ellie, and a pretty pretty powerful one,
a pretty solid one. I feel like, going back to
what I said about Ellie, when she digs into that

(16:44):
mountain of sh it's just she just does it. She
just does it because it's part of her job and
no one questions it, and I'd never really noticed this before,
but I do love that someone was like Ian is
the damsel in distressing this one in his famous pose
where he's like kind of sexually laid out with his
shirt open. She's the one that saved him. While at

(17:05):
the same time, Alan, who's the other main male character
in this equation, is the one who's protecting the kids.
So I thought that was interesting. But all of that
being said, that brings us to the teaser I promised
about the cards. So I collected these cards when I
was a kid, and on the front I did a

(17:28):
very artistic glow in the dark crown illustration about how
much I loved dressing park. This is all true, but
I found it and then I didn't really look into it.
But my friend when she visited, was like, let's read
the back of these cards, and boy am I glad
she recommended that, So we're going to read it now.

(17:48):
So here is the back of Ellie's card. Doctor Ellie's
Sadler is a paleobotanist, late twenties, athletic looking, ambitious and impatient.
Doctor Satler also has her domestic side, obviously in love
with Grant. She wants to marry him, and I'm sorry,

(18:12):
oh my gosh, oh okay, Well, let us compare that
with what it says in the back of Malcolm's card.
Doctor Iam Malcolm is a mathematician, chaotician, and hipster dresser
all black clothes, sunglasses, snake skin boots. Malcolm believes that

(18:34):
the interaction of systems on Jurassic Park and the unknowns
of bioengineering are too complex and therefore bound to fail.
So much less settled down, get married. And then here
is Alan Grant, palaeontologists thirty ish, intensely focused on his work,

(18:55):
less so on his appearance. This is doctor Alan Grant.
He's I could looking and used to roughing it after
long stretches in the desert digging up dinosaur bones. Grant
doesn't like kids, which is a problem for his girlfriend
slash partner, doctor Ellie's Satler. I could go on and on.

(19:15):
There are some real gems in here, but I did
think that was sort of It didn't surprise me, but
it was sort of annoying because here I am singing
the praises of this character, and in the merchandise, she's
still reduced too. She wants to have kids and get
married with this guy. And he is described as someone

(19:36):
who's really into his work and it doesn't matter how
he looks. I don't know about that. I don't know
about that, but yes, that is what I have to
say about this for now. I'm sure I will come
back and read some more of these cards, because they
really there's some good ones in here. But all right,
in the meantime, please let us know if you have

(19:57):
any suggestions. Like I said, I know that you all
have sent some in. There is a list. I'm just
because I'm by myself. I'm doing some of the ones
that will be more contained and that I know a
lot about. But there. I love these suggestions, so please
keep those coming. You can email us this stuffan the
mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us
on Twitter at moms Stuff podcast, or on Instagram or TikTok.

(20:20):
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