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Fictional Women Around the World: Dr. Ellie Sattler · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie, and welcome to stuff one never
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: told you protection of iHeartRadio. And yes, unfortunately I am
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: still by myself. But I think that's okay. I mean,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I'm sad I miss Samantha, but I think it's okay
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: for this one because we have talked about Jurassic Park
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: before on here, She's talked about it on the dailies
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: like guyst So I think she'll be fine with not
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: being present for this one. As much as we'll miss her.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: She will be back. Do not worry. I yeah, it's
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: just a scheduling thing and an illness thing, but she
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: will be back. So today, yes we are talking about
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: jesssic Park. We are talking about doctor Ellie Sadler, who
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I wasn't going to necessarily do, but it just felt
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: so fitting because it is the thirtieth anniversary of Jurassic
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Park and we have been talking a lot about disaster
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: movies lately. I think some of that is coming out
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: after this, some of that before, but like a lot
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of content around it, and I was like, you know what,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: just want to mark it off my list. Also, I
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: have a really fun update about my cards that I mentioned.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: My Jurassic Park collectible cards that I had as a kid. Well,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: what's fun? You want to stick around for the update? Okay,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: so I would say, see our recent women in Creature
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: features deserves to die. That whole idea women in Archaeology
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: and paleontology. I feel like there's something I'm forgetting. I
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: talk about her a lot. She was an impactful character.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I told the story in our Archaeology Paleontology episode. I
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: watched this movie when I was not supposed to as
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: a kid. I loved her. I just as her at
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Dragon Con the first time I went, she was one
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  Speaker 1: of my costumes, and a lot of people were addressing
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: her this year because it is the thirtieth anniversary, and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: she came up. We had a pretty rousing me and
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  Speaker 1: my friend's conversation about Jurassic Park and the newer Jurassic
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Parks and Michael Crichton and I learned a lot. I
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: learned a lot. But all right, that being said, let's
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: get into it, doctor Ellie Sadler, based on Michael Crichton's books.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: The character in the books who I learned in this
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: conversation is pretty problematic. It was first introduced to a
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  Speaker 1: lot of us in the nineteen ninety three blockbolster hit
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  Speaker 1: Jurassic Park. She's played by Laura Dern. She has a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: paleobotanist invited to Jurassic Park along with her coworker, Alan
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  Speaker 1: Grant by John Hammond, who is looking to get some
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: experts to sign off on the safety of having basically
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: a theme park which neetically engineered dinosaurs. This is one
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of those things where I'm not sure how which I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: need to explain, but basically, this rich guy, doctor Jonahmmon,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: has made this theme park with genetically engineered dinosaurs and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: he wants experts in the field to sign off on
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: it so he can get the lawyers to back off. Okay, So,
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  Speaker 1: at first Ellie is in awe of the extinct plants
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: she's seeing of the dinosaurs, but it quickly turns to concern,
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  Speaker 1: and she voices her opinion that she believes that the
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  Speaker 1: whole thing is dangerous and that when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: the plants in particular, which is her area of expertise,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: they were chosen because they looked good even though they
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: were deadly. When they go on their tour of the park,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: she tries to get Alan to ride with kids Tim
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and Lex who are him AND's grandkids. I had such
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: a crush on Tim when I was a kid. But
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Alan is able to escape them. And if you haven't
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: seen the movie or you don't remember, Ellie and Allen
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: get into a disagreement when the movie starts about kids,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: because she really wants them, he doesn't. It's never outright
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: clear that they're in a relationship, even though Alan at
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: one part says, ee it they are, but it could
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: be he's just trying to scare off doctor Ian Malcolm
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: played by Jeff Goldbloom, who was flirting with her. Uh
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  Speaker 1: for sure. So as this tour goes on, they simple
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: upon us sick Tricera toops and Ellie cries happy tears
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and becomes determined to figure out why it's sick, going
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  Speaker 1: arm deep into a huge pile of dinos to analyze
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  Speaker 1: it without qualms. Tenacious Ian says, and a lot of
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: people point to the scene is like, oh, she's that,
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  Speaker 1: because it wasn't. It wasn't played as like, oh, this
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: woman is doing this, how silly or how gross or
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: how improper. It was more like she was just doing
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  Speaker 1: her job, and no one really thought that much of
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: it other than tenacious, very willing to get her hands dirty,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: might say. She elects to stay with the triceratops, meaning
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: she is not attacked by the t rex. The people
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: who continue on the tour are. When she learns the
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: others maybe in danger. After the dinosaurs escape, she volunteers
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to go with hunter Robert Muldoon to retrieve them, which
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: ultimately results in them rescuing Ian and escaping at rampaging
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  Speaker 1: t Rex. Once they escape, Ellie helps heal Ian and
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  Speaker 1: tries to convince Hammond that what matters is saving the
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  Speaker 1: ones they love, not the park. She once again volunteers
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  Speaker 1: to tread dangerous territory with Muldoon to turn the power on,
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  Speaker 1: arguing with Hammond about sexism and survival situations when he
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: says he's really the one that should be going. With
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: the help of Muldoon and later Ian, she is able
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  Speaker 1: to sprint through a jungle while being hunted by raptors,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: turn on the power, and then escape said raptors when
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: it turns out they are in the power station. One
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  Speaker 1: in particular, a lot of you make mention of the
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: fact she loses her pink over shirt during the scene.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I never really thought anything of that, but huh. Interesting
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  Speaker 1: she reunites with Alan, and together they are all able
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: to escape the park. In the first movie, I'm going
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: to briefly go over her appearances and the other ones.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: I'm not nearly as familiar with that, but I have
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: seen all of them. Ellie briefly reappears in Jurassic Park three,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: when it's revealed she married a man from the State
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Department and they have two kids together. A part of
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the reason she and Alan didn't work out is implied
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: to be their disagreement about having kids and that he
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: loves dinosaurs. First, she had become a children's writer. I
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: really don't remember that, but that's what I read. She
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: and Alan were still friends, however, and he's stopped by
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Ellie's house regularly and knew her husband and kids. They
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: knew him. She helped save Alan during the events of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Jurassic Park three, basically calls her and is like send everyone.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: She next appeared cinematically, at least in Jurassic World Dominion,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: where we see her doing research on swarms of giant
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: genetically engineered locust eating crops. She discovers the Big bad
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Evil Company is responsible and sets out to prove what
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: they're doing, joining up with Alan and Ian and later
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: all the new crew. They're able to escape and they
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: go to DC to testify about what they've learned. Ellie
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: befriends both Mazie and Claire, and I didn't mention this
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: in our recent Disaster Women in Disaster Movies episode where
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I did talk about Claire's character for a bit. There's
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: the whole heel gate where she wore heels while she
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: was in the jungle and running from t REX. I
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: feel like you all know about that, and I didn't
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: really need to talk about it. Plus's kind of complicated
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: because Bryce Dallis Howard said she wanted to hold onto
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: that piece of femininity of Claire, and who am I
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to say? But there was kind of a smaller similar
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: issue with this with Ellie where Laura Dern said she
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: made the choice to not wear makeup in this movie
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: as sort of a feminist choice. I think those are
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: both sort of murky murky issues that we've talked about
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: in other episodes, But I did want to mention that. Okay,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: so I want to break down some stuff with this character.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: I do think the timing of this movie is interesting
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  Speaker 1: of a lot of the movies we've been talking about
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  Speaker 1: it's sort of the nineties during third wave feminism, and
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: she was. While there was a lot of flirting with
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  Speaker 1: her with doctor Ian Malcolm, a little bit with Alan
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: in the first movie specifically, she's never quite the love interest.
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  Speaker 1: She does her share of the rescuing, like she rescues Ian,
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  Speaker 1: she helps rescue Alan, and she has a few pretty
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: choice lines like dinosaur eats man, woman inherits the Earth.
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: And then, as I said, we can discuss sexism in
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  Speaker 1: survival situations later. As I mentioned in that disaster women
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: in Disaster Film's episode, they are scientists, not action heroes.
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  Speaker 1: I remember being so impressed with her whole scene turning
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  Speaker 1: on the power when she's like running from the raptor
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: in the jungle, she gets in and she cries, but
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: it doesn't feel weak. It feels like which is how
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: it's often portrayed. I don't think crying is weak, but
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's often portrayed as like, all, this
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: woman is crying. But it felt very much more like
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  Speaker 1: this release of she jumped, done this dangerous, amazing thing
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  Speaker 1: and survived and then escaping the raptor. After that, and
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: speaking to that point, she does have moments of vulnerability
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  Speaker 1: and emotion, but it's not, in my opinion, portrayed this week,
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  Speaker 1: and in fact, it's kind of portrayed is powerful at
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  Speaker 1: the point where she she breaks down Hammond's kind of
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: flimsy defense, where he's talking about why he wanted to
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: make this park, why he wanted it to be real,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and she's like, no, it was all an illusion. You
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: bought into it, so did I, and now people are
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: in danger because of it, and that ultimately is what
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: convinses him to change his mind. So I always liked
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: that about her. She doesn't lose that piece of what's
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: traditionally coded as feminine, but it feels powerful that she
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: has those moments and that they feel genuine. Another thing
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: is this whole conversation the choice of having kids, because
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: she does ultimately decide to be sort of a stay
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: at home mom, and her and Alan don't pursue a
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: relationship because he doesn't want kids, but neither of them
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: are demonized for her choices, and this was something that
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: they had been open with since the first film, And
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: I think that is key going back to how what
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: we talked about with Claire and the new Jurassic World
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and how she's sort of demonized for not wanting kids.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Alan's not demonized for not wanting kids. She's not demonized
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: for wanting kids. We could argue, like if the physicians
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: had been swapped, who's to say, But it doesn't feel
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: like she like was lesser in any way or he
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: was lesser in any way, and they were they were
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: pretty equal partners in this. That being said, she does
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: end up with Alan later and it's sort of it
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: brought up a lot of conversations about the age gap
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: between Sam Neil Laura Dern, who is twenty years and
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I think Laura Dern was twenty five for the first one,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: so it feels not great that they're kind of ending
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: up together. And yeah, there's been a lot of discussion
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: about that and how a lot of what the new
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: ones have done kind of feels like it's going back
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: records in terms of that. But that is a conversation
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: people are having. I also wanted to do a brief
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: mention of lex who is the young teenage girl, the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: vegetarian hacker in this who does save the day. Ultimately,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: she uses her acting skills to get them all out
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: of there. She has a very brave moment where she
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: saves her brother in that kitchen. That's the scariest scene
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: to me. I would say she's kind of portrayed as
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: a bit of a joke, but she Between her and Tim,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I feel like they're evenly balanced and who gets to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: do the saving, who gets to do the like thing,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: And ultimately, yeah, she does save the day. So I
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: always liked that as a kid, going back to the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: all the dinosaurs are women thing, so they can't breed
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: in the wild. I did find a whole article about
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: the clever Girl trope of when Muldoon is tracking these
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: raptors and he's like this seasoned hunter and they trick
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: him and get him and kill him. That's also a
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: disturbing scene, and he says the last thing he says,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: it's clever girl. But they were talking about the power
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: of women coming together, working together and getting stuff done. Also,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: I do want to say, you know, I don't know
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: how realistic A lot it's not really very realistic, but
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: it was an example of women in stem with Lex
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: and Ellie, and a pretty powerful one, a pretty solid one.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I feel like, going back to what I said about
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Ellie when she digs into that mountain of it's just
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: she just does it. She just does it because it's
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: part of her job and no one questions it. And
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I'd never really noticed this before, but I do love
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: that someone was like Ian is the damsel in distress
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: in this one in his famous pose where he's like
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: kind of sexually laid out with his shirt open. She's
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: the one that saved him. While at the same time, Alan,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: who's the other main male character in this equation, is
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: the one who's protecting the kids. So I thought that
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: was interesting. But all of that being said, that brings
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: us to the teaser. I promised about the cards. So
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: I collected these cards when I was a kid, and
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: on the front I did a very artistic glow in
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: the dark crown illustration about how much I loved dressing park.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: This is all true, but I found it and then
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I didn't really look into it. But my friend when
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: she visited, was like, let's read the back of these cards,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: and boy, am I glad she recommended that, So we're
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: going to read it now. So here is the back
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: of Ellie's card. Doctor Ellie's Satler is a paleobotanist late
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: twenties athletic, looking, ambitious and impatient. Doctor Satler also has
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: her domestic side. Obviously in love with Grant, she wants
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: to marry him and I'm sorry, oh my gosh, oh okay, Well,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: let us compare that with what it says in the
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: back of Malcolm's card. Doctor I. M. Malcolm is a mathematician, chaotician,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: and hipster dresser all black clothes, sunglasses, snakeskin boots. Malcolm
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: believes that the interaction of systems on Jurassic Park and
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: the unknowns of bioengineering are too complex and therefore bound
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to fail. So much less settled. And then here is
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Alan Grant, palaeontologists thirty ish, intensely focused on his work,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: less so on his appearance. This is doctor Alan Grant.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: He's ragged looking and used to roughing it after long
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: stretches in the desert digging up dinosaur bones. Grant doesn't
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: like kids, which is a problem for his girlfriend slash partner,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: doctor Ellie's Satler. I could go on and on. There
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: are some real gems in here, but I did think
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: that was sort of It didn't surprise me, but it
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: was sort of annoying because here I am singing the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: praises of this character, and in the merchandise, she's still
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: reduced too. She wants to have kids and get married
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: with this guy, and he is described as someone who's
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: really into his work and it doesn't matter how he looks.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know about that. I don't know about that,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: but yes, but is what I have to say about
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: this for now. I'm sure I will come back and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: read some more of these cards, because they really there's
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: some good ones in here. But all right, in the meantime,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: please let us know if you have any suggestions. Like
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I said, I know that you all have sent some in.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: There is a list. I'm just because I'm by myself.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I'm doing some of the ones that will be more
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: contained and that I know a lot about. But there.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I love these suggestions, so please keep those coming. You
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: can email us stuff at them mom, stuff at iHeartMedia
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at my
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Stuff podcast, or on Instagram or TikTok at stuff. One
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: never told you. We have a tea public store and
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: a book that you can order it Stuff You should
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: read books dot com. Thanks, It's always to our super
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: producer Christina, our executive producer Maya and our contributor Joey,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: And thanks to you for listening. Stuff I Never Told
• 17:47
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